Hagrid’s rope drop with Hogwarts Express

[disneylover102]

I’m now going to Universal January 2nd, 4th, and 5th. Park hours haven’t been released for the 4th and 5th yet, but I’m guessing they’ll be about what the less crowded days typically seem to be: USF 9 AM-5 PM and IOA 10 AM-6 PM. Obviously that hour at USF is precious park time, but Hagrid’s is definitely the preferable ride for rope drop. How exactly does rope drop for Hagrid’s work (specifically when there’s early entry, which I don’t have access to)? Can you get some advantage by using the Hogwarts Express to get over there?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

No advantage to using the train, which won't start until 10am when IoA "opens."

If you enter IoA you will be able to get into Seuss Landing during early entry hours - anyone can enter the park, they check your EE status on the way into Hogsmeade Harry Potter area (actually, the separation starts much sooner, but there are adjacent paths through Seuss area, and non-EE is blocked from going past Seuss).

You could explore Seuss scenery for a bit and hang out near the barricade as 10am approaches. The Hagrids line does drop a bit as EE hour continues, but then balloons back up as soon as regular hours start again. So you could aim to be at the Seuss barricade as early as you'd like to be at the start of the second "rope drop" of actual opening at 10am.

That being said, if the parks are not that busy then you can get on Hagrids with reasonable waits through much of the afternoon (30-50min). Mornings are busiest, except EE rope drop. I'd say that weekday afternoons were consistently shorter waits during my trip than the morning, except when weather or technical issues caused significant delays during the morning. We rode for the first time on a Tues afternoon and got in line around 4:30 with about a 45min total wait.

When you get past the locker clusterf, the wait is about 40min if the whole queue is in use. So if the line to the lockers has a visible end from the train station, it should be 45min or so.

 

[disneylover102]

No advantage to using the train, which won't start until 10am when IoA "opens."

If you enter IoA you will be able to get into Seuss Landing during early entry hours - anyone can enter the park, they check your EE status on the way into Hogsmeade Harry Potter area (actually, the separation starts much sooner, but there are adjacent paths through Seuss area, and non-EE is blocked from going past Seuss).

You could explore Seuss scenery for a bit and hang out near the barricade as 10am approaches. The Hagrids line does drop a bit as EE hour continues, but then balloons back up as soon as regular hours start again. So you could aim to be at the Seuss barricade as early as you'd like to be at the start of the second "rope drop" of actual opening at 10am.

That being said, if the parks are not that busy then you can get on Hagrids with reasonable waits through much of the afternoon (30-50min). Mornings are busiest, except EE rope drop. I'd say that weekday afternoons were consistently shorter waits during my trip than the morning, except when weather or technical issues caused significant delays during the morning. We rode for the first time on a Tues afternoon and got in line around 4:30 with about a 45min total wait.

When you get past the locker clusterf, the wait is about 40min if the whole queue is in use. So if the line to the lockers has a visible end from the train station, it should be 45min or so.

Thanks. How much of a disadvantage would it be to rope drop Gringotts at 9 and then head over to IOA?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

If you're not getting to it first thing, if it were me I'd wait til the afternoon for Hagrids.

Don't believe the times on the App, just wander past the line and see how far past the lockers it is. You can also see whether the line is flowing freely from the lockers into the actual queue, versus being held and slowly trickling in past that archway (which would mean the whole queue beyond is full).

We were there 11/3-11/10 and rode daily. Afternoon waits were short every weekday, except Mon when it rained off and on all day and the ride kept having delays. Our longest afternoon wait was probably 45-50min when the ride broke down for 10min while we were waiting. It was otherwise consistently 30-40min. Sat it went to VQ sometime in the AM and stayed that way all day - we got an evening return time.

You can also get in line right before park close. It is really cool in the dark & you can see the headlights on the bikes better.

 

[Loudbmw]

Monday after Thanksgiving, posted time was 45 minutes in the morning. In the afternoon it dropped to 30 minutes so we walked over.

Our actual wait time was only 20 minutes from the lockers and the line rarely paused the entire time. It takes almost 15 minutes to walk the queue anyway.