Return of the Rescuer – Day 5 –To wait or not to wait that is the question - 7.7.19

[Rescuer]

Return of the Rescuer – Day 5 –To wait or not to wait that is the question - 7.7.19

Index is here

We were up and wide awake at 6.30am, excited at the thought of possibly getting to ride Hagrids. We finished the majority of the packing just leaving out a change of clothes for later and we were off to IOA. We decided not to take the mug or any bags as we were not 100% of the set up to get on the ride.

We got to the gates about 8.30 and they were already letting people in. There was a sign and they were telling everyone who came in that Hagrids was on a delayed opening. This had been the standard for the last week or so but they had assured us last night that the ride would be opening at 9am this morning. We got in as far as the bridge at Suess Landings where we were held with everyone else who obviously wanted to ride Hagrids.

They dropped the rope and it was fairly civil, we didn’t bother following the line through the back of the mystic fountain and instead headed straight for the line but it was clear they were not opened yet.

We got a drink and went over to speak to one of the team members, here is where I obviously picked the wrong one to talk to. We asked how the passes worked and were told that we needed to go to the back of the hugely long line that we had walked past if we wanted to ride the ride had not opened yet. I asked how the passes would work once the ride was open and she just repeated exactly the same sentence to me. I was feeling rather exasperated now as 1, we could have been in that line and 2 that’s not what they had told us the night before…It was not looking hopeful. I’m thinking I might sound a bit entitled here but given the history of the ride line and the fact we didn’t know what time it was going to open we were concerned about our check out time.

The decision to leave it was reached just to leave it for just now and head over to Forbidden Journey which was…also down . We got chatting to an absolutely lovely tm over who inquired about dh’s annual passholder shirt. He was so nice and was asking us about our plans for the day and we said we were leaving universal today and all about the Hagrids passes. He told us to leave it until the ride was open and go back to the front with our passes. He apologised about Forbidden Journey, hardly his fault and told us to have a great day.

Ds and Dh decided to ride Hipogriff which was of course busy because it was the only thing working. I’m not a massive fan but the 2 of them enjoyed it well enough.

A butter beer was in order after this but even after that there was no sign at all of either of the rides starting up.

We made the decision at this point to move on, it was 9.40 and try some other rides so we headed round to do Dr Doom. Love this, can’t believe I hated it for years and refused to do it.

As we got off and checked the app, Hagrids was showing as working, yay! We thought we would take another shot at it. So up we went to one of the tms (a different one ) and asked about the passes. It all felt very cloak and dagger, he was very noncommittal until we showed him the passes. It felt like we were waiting till nobody was watching and they opened the chain and directed us into the locker line but told us to look for a certain team member once we reached the entrance. Minutes later we found him, showed the passes again and we were in what I imagine will eventually turn into the express pass line. We took a couple of photos from the outside line. I have to admit we felt a little uncomfortable walking past the other line. A couple of people did ask us what our line was for and we just said we’d been evacuated from the line the night before when the closed it and that’s why they had put us in that line. We bypassed a fair amount of people before we got to the caves and the tm checking the passes was the one who we’d spoken to earlier that morning.

I was apprehensive every time the line stalled and was relieved when we got further than we had the night before. You need to decide if you want to be in the sidecar or on the motorbike and line up on the correct sides, we had a single rider with us and she didn’t mind so I went on the motorbike side as did ds. The line stalled again and at this point I was pretty worried it was broken but no and about 5 minutes later we were getting on the ride.

What can I say, it lived up to all the hype. I’d deliberately avoided finding out too much about it but it was absolutely amazing. I would never have joined the 4 hour lines and I appreciated we were lucky. Ds thought it was the best ride ever, even better than Flight of Passage!

We were on a high now, that was it our holiday couldn’t get any better! :s pin:

Headed over to Forbidden Journey

and bumped into the lovely tm we had been chatting with earlier, he was asking us how we had enjoyed the ride and if we were going to do Forbidden Journey now. We said yes and asked where the express pass line was starting today. He told us to follow him and he took in a secret door and deposited us in the line just as you get on the ride, so lovely! We had gone from our day not looking like it would go to plan to it being fantastic

We were done in IOA at this point and decided to get the Hogwarts Express back to the Universal park.

A quick go on MIB because it would be rude not to while walking past and we nipped into the passholder lounge to pick up a passholder shirt for me.

We were back at Hard Rock in enough time to get changed, organised and checked out before 1pm.

Our friends had checked in last night and we’d arranged to meet them for brunch at the Kitchen at 1.15pm.

Menu ( not my photo)

You get bottomless mimosas which were indeed very nice.

There is loads of buffet options - more than in my pictures.

Buffet plates

and a griddle station that will also make you food to order.

Great value as we didn’t really eat again all day, looking at all the photos I can see why!
Bill for 6, with both ds and friend charged a child price (unlike Disney)

The music was really good as well.

They do start packing up shortly after 2 so if anyone does go don’t go too late.

Afterwards it was raining again and tbh we were all shattered and couldn’t be bothered doing much so we went to the pool bar. Ds and our friend’s daughter were chomping at the bit to be in the parks so after a wee while they asked if they could head into Universal for a little bit. I’m normally a little reluctant to let ds do anything but M is older so I agreed.

The two of them had a great time away doing rides and checking in to let us know where they were, I think Ds’ highlight was Hulk in the front row.

The adults just sat around chatting with a drink, tbh I think we were all too full to drink anything really but there was more rain so it seemed a good idea to stay put.

Once they returned we said goodbye to our friends, who were also checking into POFQ in a few days, and headed to the lobby to renew our annual passes. If you renew you get 20% off the price. It meant that the 3 annual passes actually worked out less than 3 14 day tickets for next summer. Hopefully it was a good investment and we’ll get our money’s worth again.

We had arranged for the same guy to pick us up that had collected us from the airport so we gave him a message and luckily, he was around so came and picked us up a little early and we were off to Disney.

Once we arrived Bell services collected our luggage and held it while we checked in. The girl on the desk was nice and I was relieved to see that our fancy magic band order had gone through and they were all there waiting on us. It didn’t take long to get checked in and bell services asked if we wanted to take our own luggage or did we want them to do it. We asked them to do it and we all went together which worked out really well as we had no clue where we were going so for our tip we got a wee tour included which helped us figure out the set up of the resort and how to get to our room. We were in building 5 which turned out to be a brilliant location, not that there seems to be a bad one in this resort. We were also overlooking the place where they have the fire pit so I’m thinking since we paid for a standard room that we got a wee upgrade to a garden view.

The room was nice but we had been a little spoiled with Hard Rock. I’d meant to take a hanging storage thing and extra folding boxes but I’d forgotten. We had a fair amount of stuff as I am firmly in the no laundry on holiday camp and we were okay for room. It’s good that the cases fit under the beds now.

The 3 of us were still full up and absolutely exhausted, I felt like I’d just got there from the plane rather than coming from Universal. Ds lay on the bed and refused to move…so Dh and I went to the food court to pick up the mugs, I love that they finally have new designs and get some food for now and for the morning. We wandered past the pool and even though it was dark now it looked great.

So we had 45 quick service credits, 45 table service credits and 90 snack credits to work our way through over the next 15 nights.

We got a meat lovers flatbread and a raspberry beer for a qs credit.

Alcohol choices if anyone is interested.

We also got a raisin and oatmeal cookie for our first snack credit to share in the morning before heading out early.

We picked out 2 Mickey birthday design mugs, a red one and a black one and a green pixar design. I forgot to take photos so these are pictures from when we spied them at Easter when we were not on ddp so not buying them no matter how lovely they looked. (laugh)

I love that POFQ had the freestyle machines. We’d also taken 3 stainless steel straws to use in the resort which was great.

We shared the flat bread and had a drink and it was just right and not long after it was lights out ready for our first Disney parks day – HS!

Ps the beds here were super comfy as well!

Day 6

[Mel49]

Have enjoyed reading along so far and so glad that you managed to eventually experience Hagrid's Ride with a bit of "minion dust" thrown in for good measure for Forbidden Journey.

[Cenerentola]

You guys were so lucky to ride Hagrids, it was either not working or 6+ hour queue the rest of our time there.
That brunch was terrific and very reasonable. Our waiter gave us extra mimosas even after 2pm 😉!
We had an “accessible “ room at POFQ (it was available when we arrived). It has a wardrobe instead of the hanging rail in the bathroom, it takes up more space in the room itself, but makes the bathroom bigger for wheelchair users. I think the beds must be slightly lower too as we couldn’t get the cases under the beds . X

[GezzasGem]

Fabulous day! 😀 what a great experience at Universal, have no idea if we will manage to ride Hagrid's - time will tell I guess. Your food looks yummy and sounds like a great day all round! 👌

[collybird]

What a tale your Hagrid’s experience is, I’d have felt so smug when I came face-to-face with the non-helpful CM again.

Brunch looks fantastic, I think that Universal seems quite short on breakfast options so I am surprised you don’t hear about this one more often.

What a bargain the Universal Aps are, if only Disney followed suit.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Mel49

Have enjoyed reading along so far and so glad that you managed to eventually experience Hagrid's Ride with a bit of "minion dust" thrown in for good measure for Forbidden Journey.

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Thanks, it certainly turned out to be a day to remember.

Originally Posted by Cenerentola

You guys were so lucky to ride Hagrids, it was either not working or 6+ hour queue the rest of our time there.
That brunch was terrific and very reasonable. Our waiter gave us extra mimosas even after 2pm 😉!
We had an “accessible “ room at POFQ (it was available when we arrived). It has a wardrobe instead of the hanging rail in the bathroom, it takes up more space in the room itself, but makes the bathroom bigger for wheelchair users. I think the beds must be slightly lower too as we couldn’t get the cases under the beds . X

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I think it was just luck with Hagrids. It was tempremental for most of our visit as well.

Wasn't brunch good - we should definitely do a Universal Brunch together again next year but maybe an earlier booking, I don't think they would be chasing you out.

Originally Posted by GezzasGem

Fabulous day! 😀 what a great experience at Universal, have no idea if we will manage to ride Hagrid's - time will tell I guess. Your food looks yummy and sounds like a great day all round! 👌

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4 days How exciting!

In terms of Hagrids I think I'd just play it by ear, we didn't really have much intention of riding until we found ourselves in the right place at the right time. I've read if you manage not to get disrupted by weather that 2pm is a good time to get in line and waits have been for many half of what has been posted.

Originally Posted by collybird

What a tale your Hagrid’s experience is, I’d have felt so smug when I came face-to-face with the non-helpful CM again.

Brunch looks fantastic, I think that Universal seems quite short on breakfast options so I am surprised you don’t hear about this one more often.

What a bargain the Universal Aps are, if only Disney followed suit.

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I really did feel smug. Ds was giggling away to himself as well, she never acknowledged anything. To be fair she was probably just giving out the party line.

Brunch was really good and the price was good, yes it wasn't as good as Cali Grill but it was less than half the price for us adults and the 2 kids were charged a much more reasonable amount than $90. I don't always get disneys pricing structure for youngsters they class as adults, no matter how much those two ate, and they did eat loads, M I'm looking at you and your chocolate strawberry habit, they are not going to be drinking anything other than juice.

I think I read you can add the bottomless Mimosas to the Kitchen breakfast on a Friday and Saturday so if you don't drink or don't want to have any alcohol that would be a good deal too.

There is a massive price difference between Universal and Disney Annual passes. Eye watering!

[Goldia]

I wasn't sure if you'd make it onto the ride or not. It seemed like a covert spy operation just to get to use your ruby tickets! We never made it onto Hagrids I'm glad to hear it's such a good ride though, rivalling FOP, now that is high praise.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I wasn't sure if you'd make it onto the ride or not. It seemed like a covert spy operation just to get to use your ruby tickets! We never made it onto Hagrids I'm glad to hear it's such a good ride though, rivalling FOP, now that is high praise.

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That’s exactly how I felt.

You’ll get on Hagrids next time! I wonder if it will have express pass by then.
There’s not been much chat about the new Jurassic ride, I wonder if that will be open and be the new Hagrids with the crazy line next summer?

[Fuellady]

What a fab morning that turned out to be. My heart sank for you when you decided to leave the line for Hagrids, I'm so glad that some amazing team members helped it all come together for you.

Lovely to meet up with your friends for a while and enjoy a nice meal together. The pancakes and waffles look delicious.

[jothp]

I'm glad you got to ride Hagrid in the end, even if the first CM was less than helpful. The brunch looks lovely and it must have been nice for your DS to be able to be independent and go into the parks without you too.