The NEW Problem That's Suddenly Plaguing Universal Orlando Fans

Universal Orlando has found a whole new way to keep us on our toes.

Islands of Adventure Main Entrance

You can plan for rope drop, chart out your most efficient walking route, and feel like you have cracked the vacation code, but the parks always have a surprise waiting for you. Some changes seem tiny at first and then end up shaking your entire morning strategy. For example, if there’s a certain Magical Motorbike ride you want to hit first, you might want to hear this before you set that alarm.

The truth is that Hagrid’s has never been an easy ride to rope drop. It loads slowly, it gets popular fast, and the early morning crowd tends to swarm it.

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

The problem is that ever since Universal added Hagrid’s to Universal Express Pass back on May 30th, 2025, the morning situation around this ride has shifted in a pretty big way. What we’re now dealing with is a standby line that crawls, even when the sun is barely up.

Hagrid’s Line

For “science”, we went to test it ourselves because we kept hearing the same complaint from many of you. Once we tried to rope drop it, we immediately understood why so many people are talking about this. Early Entry used to feel like a safety net. Now it feels like a gamble. So here’s what happened: We reached the Islands of Adventure turnstiles at about 7:40 for an 8 AM Early Entry opening. The crowd had already formed and was only getting bigger by the second.

Hagrid

The lines moved more slowly than we expected, which set the tone for the whole morning. Even with our early arrival, the clock hit 8 AM right as we scanned in, and that delay definitely mattered. We walked straight to Hagrid’s and saw a posted 20-minute wait, which felt like a win. We put our stuff in the locker for a minute and stepped back out to see the wait jump to 45 minutes. The change was instant.

Hagrid’s Loading Area

Once we walked into the queue, it was clear the line was not moving the way it used to. We got almost to the room with the dragon eggs before running into the slow crawl that lasted the rest of the way. Even during Early Entry, the whole process took about an hour. That lines up perfectly with what many of you have been saying since Hagrid’s became available on Express Pass.

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

More guests are using Express right at park opening because it now includes such a high-demand ride. If you have relied on that early morning hustle for Hagrid’s, this change can catch you off guard. The old rule was simple. Arrive early, tap in quickly, head straight to the ride, and enjoy a shorter wait before the crowd builds. Now, even small delays at the gate can add a surprising amount of time to your morning because Express guests start stacking up right away.

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

You still have options, though. One of the best tips is to arrive (much) earlier than you think you need to. If you usually show up twenty minutes before Early Entry, bump that up by a good chunk. The tapstile crowd can tend to build fast, and being at the very front matters more than ever. Make sure your tickets are ready so you can scan in without losing seconds.

Line for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

You might also want to rethink your entire morning. Rope drop something else, and keep an eye on the app for a drop later. Sometimes evenings have better wait times for Hagrid’s than the mornings now. The trick is staying flexible and staying aware of real-time changes.

Hagrid’s moving onto Express Pass has introduced a brand new challenge for Universal fans, but with a little extra planning, you can still work around it.