Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure Touring Tips

Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure remains the hottest ticket at Universal Orlando four years after opening. This hit attraction still brings long wait times which begs the question, “When is the best time to ride Hagrid?” Here at Touring Plans HQ I enlisted our crack pivot table expert Becky to pull our aggregated Touring Plans user-reported wait time data to determine the best time to ride Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure.

Here is what we found.

When Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure opened in the summer of 2019, it was best known for being an incredible ride, breaking down a lot, and having long lines. Reliability has dramatically improved since opening, with an offline average percentage of 9.4% for a full day. That means for an average theme park operating day of 10 hours the attraction will be down for 54 minutes a day.

Hagrid is among the attractions offered during Islands of Adventure Early Park Admission, so we asked ourselves if Early Park Admission is the best time to ride. Our first step was to pull the offline average percentage at park opening to determine how often the ride is delayed during Early Park Admission. Our data found Hagrid’s offline average is 10.7% before 10:00 am or 12.8 minutes of downtime on average. Compare that to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (1.7% downtime during the first two hours) and Jurassic World VelociCoaster (8.6% downtime during the first two hours) during Early Park Admission.

Team Members allow guests to enter the queue before the attraction has opened to guests, or is experiencing technical issues, in a process called pre-filling. Pre-filling the queue soaks up the influx of guests during park opening, keeps guests organized if the ride is down, and increases capacity efficiency. It also means you might be wasting your time while other attractions are open.

We do not recommend riding Hagrid during Early Park Admission – you waste too much precious park touring time during light crowds.

So Early Park Admission is not the best time to ride Hagrid, so when should you experience this incredible attraction? Based on the wait time data submitted by our amazing Lines users we determined the three best times to ride Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure:

• 11:30 a.m. – At the beginning of the lunch rush we see a noticeable drop in actual wait times
• 1:00 p.m. – We see another actual wait time drop now as most guests are either eating or back at the hotel.
• Last hour the park is open – Universal will artificially inflate the posted wait times at night to discourage guests from jumping in the queue.

We advise guests to use our customized Touring Plans software to determine the best time to ride Hagrid for the day they are visiting. But our general rule of thumb is to enter the queue for Hagrid around 1:00 p.m., most guests are either eating, at the hotel, or on the other side of the park.

There are some exceptions to this rule. Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure shuts down in inclement weather, heavy rain, or if lightning strikes are in the area. Review the weather report the day before to see if rain is called for and adjust your touring plan, you might find the only time it is not raining is during Early Park Admission.

Touring Tips

• Skip Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure during Early Park Admission. The ride is not reliable enough in the morning.
• Experience Hagrid after 1:00 p.m. instead, wait times are roughly 20% lower per our data.
• Review the weather forecast prior to your visit and adjust your touring plan as required.
• At the time of writing Hagrid does not accept Express Pass.