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Early Entry only at Diagon Alley?
- Thread starter 007mickey
- Start date
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
That is correct, you also have Despicable me if you want to catch that first.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
We did early entry for Diagon Alley twice in October, and both times waited in line for Gringotts over an hour (an hour and a half on the first day) due to the ride immediately breaking down when the park opened.
The Hogwarts Express will not run until both parks are open.
The Hogwarts Express will not run until both parks are open.
Thanks for the update. I've been seeing a number of reports of frequent break downs. Wonder why they are having so many issues? Getting there early only to wait that long is a bit of a bummer.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Just a guess on my part, but the attraction has many, many sections where the track breaks circuit or something covers the vehicle path. I would imagine that sensors at each of these points are tightly calibrated and if any one of them detects an obstruction, the ride will not move.
I don't know if I can agree with this advice. Gringotts is so unreliable that if you pass up an opportunity to get in the queue while it's running, you might not get to ride it at all. Like I said, we waited a long time to ride it both days, and wanted to ride a third time the evening of the second day because the preshow had only worked once. When we got to the ride at 6:00 it was down, had been down for several minutes, and would remain 101 until park closing.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
I have ridden over 50 times and have left the queue 3 when they announced a 60 minute reboot for the ride. If I were going to experience Diagon Alley I would not spend it waiting in line hoping it comes back up. It will be there when I return and there are too many amazing things to see in DA and the UNI parks to spend it waiting in line.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Fifty rides? How many visits to the park did that take?
Most people spend only two days at Universal and Islands, so their opportunity to actually ride the new star ride is limited.
A lot of people only have one.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
That is my point, if you are only there the one time you can ride all the stars align for you but if they don't why spend your limited time waiting in line when there are so many other things to be doing?
I haven't kept track of my park days but most visits I get 3 - 5 rides right off then go and do other things. I was there on 7/8/14 and rode it once that day but I stood in line 6.5 hours to do it. No reason to go through that again.
We will see how many rides I can get in tomorrow morning with EPA
I haven't kept track of my park days but most visits I get 3 - 5 rides right off then go and do other things. I was there on 7/8/14 and rode it once that day but I stood in line 6.5 hours to do it. No reason to go through that again.
We will see how many rides I can get in tomorrow morning with EPA
JediMasterMatt
Well-Known Member
It is indeed. I was at Uni from 11/12 - 11/17 and EFG was only down for an extended period one morning for a about 2 hours. After it came back up, they were down 3 RVs. The rest of the time it was running with close to all the RVs in play as immediately after load, both sides would stack a train on the switch track while an RV was in show scene one. According a couple of cast members I spoke with, the real challenge now with reliability is trying to keep capacity high. They know they can run it at reduced capacity reliably; but, they are still trying to get the show scenes to reset fast enough to keep up with the RVs. The downtimes they have been having recently have been more associated with their unwillingness to drop into low capacity mode as they want to get as much of the timing bugs worked out before the holiday crush hits them hard.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Went this morning for EPA, was in the park at 6:40 and on EFG for the first ride, went blank part way through so rerode and did the same thing in another scene. Had fun looking at all the behind the ride elements and got a return ticket. Came back and did single rider and it went down again so they cleaned out the line with another return ticket.
Went to breakfast and came back to use the returns, first ride was almost flawless, just missing fog, heat and water effects the second ride was perfect except for heat in first dragon scene, fog worked but the waterfall was off in both rides.
All in all it was great, I was done by 10 and had several experiences on EFG without waiting more than 10 minutes each time. The rerides get the office show and elevator so not bad overall.
Yes they have some work to do but I would do it again in a heartbeat, as long as there is not a 60 or more minute wait I will go for it, if there is I will do other things. EPA is really nice when you can go through the shops without the crowds.
Caught Celestina and went over to Mythos on the HE for lunch. Out by 12:30 and back to work at home.
Even when this ride breaks it is right. Had fun and saw new things. I will be back in a week.
Seems the problems this morning was getting the track to lock back in place after the tip. You could see it was about 2 inches up. Once we tilted back it worked fine. Maybe if they don't seat the fat guys in front??????
Went to breakfast and came back to use the returns, first ride was almost flawless, just missing fog, heat and water effects the second ride was perfect except for heat in first dragon scene, fog worked but the waterfall was off in both rides.
All in all it was great, I was done by 10 and had several experiences on EFG without waiting more than 10 minutes each time. The rerides get the office show and elevator so not bad overall.
Yes they have some work to do but I would do it again in a heartbeat, as long as there is not a 60 or more minute wait I will go for it, if there is I will do other things. EPA is really nice when you can go through the shops without the crowds.
Caught Celestina and went over to Mythos on the HE for lunch. Out by 12:30 and back to work at home.
Even when this ride breaks it is right. Had fun and saw new things. I will be back in a week.
Seems the problems this morning was getting the track to lock back in place after the tip. You could see it was about 2 inches up. Once we tilted back it worked fine. Maybe if they don't seat the fat guys in front??????
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Back from our trip last week. Hit early entry first day and waited 10 min, no issues. Over the next two days we rode another 3 times during regular hours and only twice had delays about 15 min due to problems. Very good experience, waits seemed to get very reasonable later in the evening (30 min). Really enjoyed DA, the way they "close you in" to make your feel separated from the park is remarkable.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
They are extending EPA on weekdays to IOA as well as Diagon Alley for onsite guests and AP holders for the next two weeks. The catch is that you have to enter USO and ride the HE over to Hogsmeade to get there. You cannot enter directly from the IOA gates. Should be a walkon for FJ and the other rides for that time and may take some of the early pressure off EFG.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Sounds like a good idea.
A great horde of regular park guests immediately charge over to the Alley when the park opens, so it's good that they're going to be letting the early park guests use the train to get themselves out of there.