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Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure vs Radiator Springs Racers
- Thread starter DisneyAndUniversalFan
- Start date
EPCOTCenterLover
Well-Known Member
Hagrids is fantastic. RSR has more dark ride elements and feels like more than a coaster, though.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
Hagrid’s is currently my favorite ride on Earth, and gets my vote.
RSR has the fantastic rockwork and is gentler, making it accessible to more people. One of the best rides on Earth, it’s held back by the huge indoor warehouse environment and the fact that riding in a literal car doesn’t make for the best views.
Hagrid’s is 100% wild, chaotic fun and thrills from the instant you leave the station all the way to the end. It’s not just a great, long, coaster full of surprises, but it perfectly captures the spirit and humor of the character. It genuinely feels like an adventure with Hagrid in charge, with all the mishaps and narrow escapes that would entail. It’s a perfect balance of ride and story with just enough dialogue and dramatic moments to make it a full experience, but always letting the coaster thrills take center stage, so that it can be ridden over and over without the story ever becoming tiresome.
Hagrid’s is a fantastic example of how to adapt an IP to an appropriate ride system, and how to set up a compelling, fun adventure with minimal exposition.
RSR has the fantastic rockwork and is gentler, making it accessible to more people. One of the best rides on Earth, it’s held back by the huge indoor warehouse environment and the fact that riding in a literal car doesn’t make for the best views.
Hagrid’s is 100% wild, chaotic fun and thrills from the instant you leave the station all the way to the end. It’s not just a great, long, coaster full of surprises, but it perfectly captures the spirit and humor of the character. It genuinely feels like an adventure with Hagrid in charge, with all the mishaps and narrow escapes that would entail. It’s a perfect balance of ride and story with just enough dialogue and dramatic moments to make it a full experience, but always letting the coaster thrills take center stage, so that it can be ridden over and over without the story ever becoming tiresome.
Hagrid’s is a fantastic example of how to adapt an IP to an appropriate ride system, and how to set up a compelling, fun adventure with minimal exposition.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
I strongly suspect that Hagrids will become my favorite ride from the videos I have seen. Well maybe second after Pirates out of respect. Agree with everything you said and also love the English countryside aesthetics I get with all the green, trees and cobblestone. Disney really needed to do the same thing with the Endor coaster. This really needs to happen as part of DL Forward.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
If Universal had hidden the tracks a little better and provided more forest to ride through, Hagrid's would beat it. But RSR is more immersive.
The Mummy and Gringotts are still better for me, as they accomplish the theme whereas Hagrid's feels like a highly themed roller coaster.
The Mummy and Gringotts are still better for me, as they accomplish the theme whereas Hagrid's feels like a highly themed roller coaster.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
I really have to admire your staunch commitment to immersion….and thematic cohesion(USH/ DCA thread). I mean I get it, most of us are here because we feel similarly but I’d say most people leave a little room to bake things like “fun factor” and “aesthetics” into their opinion.
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Rich T
Well-Known Member
The forest around Hagrid’s will keep improving with time. Since the motorcycles are supposed to be flying above the ground most of the time, I don’t think much more could be done to hide the tracks. As it is, the layout does such a great job of emulating the way a motorcycle swerves into turns at high speeds that I can forgive the very coaster-ish look.
For me, RSR and Hagrid’s are just about equal, each with their own strengths. RSR has the world’s best exterior fantasy landscape and great AAs (when they’re all working), but the first exterior portion is kinda “meh”, ride-wise, the race is a bit too short and the dark ride section—especially the first half—feels just a little too much like isolated stage-lit sets in a dark warehouse.
Hagrid’s might feel more like a highly-themed coaster, but oh my gosh… it absolutely *owns* that category while also delivering on charm and humor. Add in the well-timed effects and fantastic on-board audio, and I’ve got all the immersion I need.
Two great rides. For me, it comes down to the non-stop 3 and a half minutes of thrills and fun Hagrid’s delivers. Guests love Velocicoaster, but they *adore* Hagrid’s, and I think that says a lot about how well the designers succeeded in capturing the personality and fun of its namesake character.
(The queues balance out, too. The Hagrid’s queue is far more interesting, but RSR makes better use of the Single Rider option.)
Re: Mummy: For me the immersion stops at the top of the launch when it turns into Rock n’ Roller Coaster: Alice Cooper Edition.
Gringott’s is great with the start-to-finish placemaking, but I prefer the open-air rush of Hagrid’s. I think sometimes a specific, orchestrated series of movements can form its own type of immersion when the theme is a vehicle such as a flying motorcycle.
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DavidDL
Well-Known Member
I finally got to experience Hagrid's for the first time our most recent Orlando trip (on previous trips the line was too long and we couldn't make the time for it). Needless to say as a big Dueling Dragon's fan and after watching on-ride videos and so much hype being drummed up online for the replacement attraction, Hagrid's had a lot to live up to for me.
Not only did it live up to everything I'd seen and heard but it exceeded everything I had hoped it would be. -and I even rode in the (I assume) "less fun" side car (of course I was going to give my wife the bike for her first time!).
Radiator Springs Racers is.. fine, I guess. I don't want to sound jaded. I won't argue that it isn't impressive, especially the exterior mountain range. But while I'm not exactly the biggest Potter fan around, I earnestly dislike Cars as a franchise so, that is definitely going to hurt Racers in my mind. The AA's and show scenes are good (when they work, which isn't often these days) and as impressive as the exterior of the attraction is, I would never, ever willingly wait in the standby queue for it (it's Fastpass or Single Rider only for me). There's only so much country music and sunlight/heat I can endure before my eardrum's burst and I burn away to ash, in that order.
Not only did it live up to everything I'd seen and heard but it exceeded everything I had hoped it would be. -and I even rode in the (I assume) "less fun" side car (of course I was going to give my wife the bike for her first time!).
Radiator Springs Racers is.. fine, I guess. I don't want to sound jaded. I won't argue that it isn't impressive, especially the exterior mountain range. But while I'm not exactly the biggest Potter fan around, I earnestly dislike Cars as a franchise so, that is definitely going to hurt Racers in my mind. The AA's and show scenes are good (when they work, which isn't often these days) and as impressive as the exterior of the attraction is, I would never, ever willingly wait in the standby queue for it (it's Fastpass or Single Rider only for me). There's only so much country music and sunlight/heat I can endure before my eardrum's burst and I burn away to ash, in that order.
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PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I've only done Hagrid's once, so I don't feel like I can really, definitively vote in this poll of two dissimilar attractions. But I am impressed that, on this side of the boards, where presumably fewer people have made it over to IOA to experience it, that Hagrid's is currently winning. I thought it was a triumph of an attraction that is, if not objectively better than Dragons, at least more appropriate for the land (and audience) than its beloved predecessor.
That said, if Hagrid's didn't exist, I could still have a solid time at IOA doing the other attractions. If RSR was closed all day for whatever reason, I don't know that I would bother with DCA.
That said, if Hagrid's didn't exist, I could still have a solid time at IOA doing the other attractions. If RSR was closed all day for whatever reason, I don't know that I would bother with DCA.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
A hanging coaster similar to Ninja, painting the track a color that blends into the scenery rather than brown in a green environment, not having stretches of flat barren stonework next to the launch.
Its a great ride, I just wish we got something closer to FJ or Gringotts in terms of storytelling and effort.
But I also feel the same way about Velocicoater. They cut the show scene at the end, so its just a coaster that travels around scenery that looks like JW with frozen raptors.
Big Thunder is the perfect combination of coaster and theme. Matterhorn is rough, but a great ride. Expedition Everest looks great, even if the actual ride is choppy and a little underwhelming.
Hagrid's is a great A+ ride, but the storytelling is a solid B. RSR is an A- ride with an A+ in terms of themeing and storytelling.
CinematicFusion
Well-Known Member
Hagrids is quite possibly the best coaster on the planet. Radiator is awesome but it doesn’t match the re-ride ability or the adrenaline rush Hagrids gives.
Two different rides though.
Hagrids is a coaster and should be compared to coasters.
Two different rides though.
Hagrids is a coaster and should be compared to coasters.
EPCOTCenterLover
Well-Known Member
Agreed! That's exactly how I feel about the two.
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SuddenStorm
Well-Known Member
There is no comparison. Space Mountain wins hands down.