So, through a combination of patience, planning, and luck,
@Zachary and I rode Hagrid’s Motorbike this week. It was a fun family coaster.
My overall opinion is that it is a better dark ride, but less forceful coaster than Verbolten. So, depending on what you want, it is either better worse. I think I enjoy Bolt more physically.
We were eating at Mythos, when everything shut down, because of thunderstorms in the area. I think we saw one or two drops of rain, but the threat of lightning kept everything closed for about an hour. Regardless, it seemed like the perfect time to queue for Hagrid, so we headed over to Hogsmeade. What we experienced was barely controlled mayhem.
When we got there, the area from the front of the lockers to the back of the owlrey was roped off. That meant that people who arrived after the ride closed due to weather could not access the test seats nor stow their stuff. The people who were in line before, were hanging out inside the roped-off area. As an aside: we discovered that the bike and sidecar are different enough that you should try to find out which is the most comfortable before you get in the queue, as you can’t easily switch, once you load.
As one would predict, a large crowd formed outside this (impromptu?) holding area. We were told that when the ride re-opened, the one section of the chain would be dropped, but no one knew which. I thought about sucking up the inevitable cost and finding a different locker for my bag, but was worried that they would start the queue, while I was gone. When the ride did reopen (a while after everything else in the park), the chaos really began.
With no warning, they told people to enter through the two locker areas. The inevitable pushing and shoving was exacerbated by the very narrow openings. Once we were clear of the locker area, we entered a second scrum of people funneling into the actual line. Apparently, the park didn’t think to monitor the outside queue, so a ton of people ran up the single rider lane and cut in front of everyone else. The guy behind us was especially pissed. He told a ride op that he had been given an 8:20 come-back time and didn’t understand why he was forced to wait in line behind people who had arrived in the interim. She seemed unable to offer a coherent explanation, leaving him even more disgruntled.
It was pleasant and breezy outside, so for me it still wasn’t awful. Then we entered the ruin.
Forbidden Journey has one of the best queues I’ve ever experienced, and Gringotts’ is great as well. Unfortunately, Hagrid’s doesn’t live up to that tradition. With a few exceptions, we spent the majority of our hour and a half inside the building in endless, narrow, faux stone hallways. It was very reminiscent of BfE, but much, much longer.
On the one hand the pre-show was a relief from the monotony of the hallways to nowhere. On the other hand, unlike Forbidden Journey, people were not kept in a queue. Predictably, this led to a third round of Haunted Mansion-style jockeying for position and more pushing and shoving. Of course, once we were all back in the hallway in a completely different order (so people could get to the ride two minutes faster), groups once again cut the line, because the had inevitably gotten separated in the mayhem. Do you know what is worse that interminable hallways? Sharing them with a ton of very angry guests, who just got pushed out of the way by other selfish people.
After several more hallways and cutbacks, we came to yet another open area. There was no obvious reason for the break in the queue. Perhaps they planned to station a grouper in the middle of the line to slow it down further. Or maybe Uni just likes creating scrums. Anyway, everyone once again mobbed the area like the transition from the outside to inside queue at Tower of Terror. In yet a completely new order (maybe Uni wanted to give us all a chance to meet as many other tired and irritated guests as possible by moving us around in line?), we entered the first in a series of rooms with actual decorations. It was nice to have something to look at.
After a few more hallways, we finally made it to the station. The loading system is like Hollywood Raging Red Racketeer’s. You step onto a moving walkway and mount the bike. They reasonably insist that each group know which side they want, before getting to the station.
As a said up front, the ride, itself, was a lot of fun and most of the effects were working for us. The dark ride aspects were excellent, but Bolt’s drop-track element seems longer and more effective.
Overall, I really enjoyed Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, but Uni really needs to do rethink their queue management.
