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General Discussion - Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure

EDIT 2: Oof.


I like this guy. Handled it like a mature adult instead of an entitled a-hole like most of Twitter seems to be.

Intamin will never install a ride control system in Orlando again.

I’ll take that bet

Oh please. You know exactly what you're getting into when you buy a multi launch roller coaster with backwards sections, track switches, drop tracks, and a moving platform load system.

It just seemed to be the perfect storm of issues, with the recent hiccup, to more demand than anticipated, recent weather, etc. The best they could've done was to offer more communication. However, it seems everyone who was in attendance has a different story of how the opening week has been handled. Some were happy with the communication, some were not. I'd argue it's not really an Ops issue, either - but a #Intamin one. Universal employees, especially the Hagrid TM's are doing the best they can with what they were given. Either way, it seems Universal has figured the best way to handle it going forward. Hopefully that helps any issues get sorted.

I'm with Skip and P@n here, not with Joe or Brian.

Anyone who knows a thing about theme parks knows about Intamin's reliability. Every single one of us knew it, and we're not nearly as knowledgable as those who are actually building the ride.
This is on Universal; 100%. They knew what they were getting and they signed up for it. Then they chose release the date and stuck to it. Again, it's on Universal. No one else. Everyone and their dog knew this thing was going to have issues the first several weeks and needed Tech rehearsals.

It's like signing Randy Gregory to your football team and then being surprised he smoked weed and got caught.

As much as I like to tease some of the members on here about bias, holy crap are those Disney folks lunatics.

Theme park wars are dumb! There is no reason to "defend" either. Let both parks be judged equally for their mistakes and achievements!!
It's ridiculous, right? "My media conglomerate's park is cooler than your media conglomerate's park". It isn't your girlfriend whose honor you're defending. It's an F'in park.
The people who rush to defend or attack either Universal or Disney are pretty sad individuals (or just really, really nerdy).

The real question is why wouldn't they just announce that the ride will be closing early each day (like 3pm) instead of opening late? Wouldn't that be the better option? On-site hotel guests wouldn't feel duped, crowd control could remain the same as it has, they'd have even MORE time to work on the ride, they would avoid afternoon storms, and it would give people who really want to ride a feeling of control knowing if they line up in the morning, they can ride without wasting their entire day.

Sitting here still wondering why they don't do this route.

Except before they announced the opening date, everyone was complaining there was no opening date.
A bunch of weird fanboys on the internet complaining about not getting our dates is trivial. It wasn't bad PR for them, it was just annoying to a few of us. This actually impacts paying customers currently in their parks.
They shouldn't have announced without knowing when they were going to have firm technical rehearsals and then give them a good 4-6 weeks after that date. As you said in your other post, maybe they don't give us those dates anymore.
That's assuming they learned anything; which as we know, they're slow learners.
 
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I'm with Skip and P@n here, not with Joe or Brian.

Anyone who knows a thing about theme parks knows about Intamin's reliability. Every single one of us knew it, and we're not nearly as knowledgable as those who are actually building the ride.
This is on Universal; 100%. They knew what they were getting and they signed up for it. Then they chose release the date and stuck to it. Again, it's on Universal. No one else. Everyone and their dog knew this thing was going to have issues the first several weeks and needed Tech rehearsals.

OK? My point was about Ops and the TMs doing what they can with what they were given.... They weren't the ones that chose Intamin.
 
I’ve done it 3 times these past few days!! It gets better every single ride! Definitely one of, if not the best attractions Universal has ever made!
Happy to hear it - I’m going Monday, so I’m excited! How have your average wait times been, and at what point in the day?
 
Happy to hear it - I’m going Monday, so I’m excited! How have your average wait times been, and at what point in the day?
Well, I haven’t waited in line..... Haha. My friend has a disability and we’ve gotten a pass, and we’re allowed to get a re-ride right after our first!
 
OK? My point was about Ops and the TMs doing what they can with what they were given.... They weren't the ones that chose Intamin.

Right, but that's not all you said. Regarding TMs, I agree with you. You also said "I'd argue it's not really an Ops issue, either - but a #Intamin one" and I disagree with you on that 2nd point.
I don't think it's Ops or Intamin, but UOR upper management or whoever decided to release and stick to that opening date knowing they were dancing with the devil, so to speak

It's great to hear that people are still enjoying this ride. The negativity in this thread is a bit much! When it comes down to it, in a month or so this ride will be a great addition to the park! The characters on the queue were a nice touch from Universal!!

What "negativity" are you reading?

All I've read is that anyone who rides it absolutely adores it and says it's worth the hours-long wait.
 
Right, but that's not all you said. Regarding TMs, I agree with you. You also said "I'd argue it's not really an Ops issue, either - but a #Intamin one" and I disagree with you on that 2nd point.
I don't think it's Ops or Intamin, but UOR upper management or whoever decided to release and stick to that opening date knowing they were dancing with the devil, so to speak

You do realize you're taking bits of different points from different conversations to compare to your diverging point? In the context of the discussion in which my reply was used, I was speaking in regards to the handling of the downtime. Ops is not the reason the ride keeps going down, it's the fact that another Intamin ride is having issues, let alone the rain delays not helping matters.
 
You do realize you're taking bits of different points from different conversations to compare to your diverging point? In the context of the discussion in which my reply was used, I was speaking in regards to the handling of the downtime. Ops is not the reason the ride keeps going down, it's the fact that another Intamin ride is having issues, let alone the rain delays not helping matters.

I mean, all I've heard everyone say is how great Intamin is and how glad that boring, forceless B&M :whistle: is gone.

This is what Intamins tend to do upon opening. And when you have a still extremely popular IP like Potter attached, operations ain't gonna go smoothly early on.
 
You do realize you're taking bits of different points from different conversations to compare to your diverging point? In the context of the discussion in which my reply was used, I was speaking in regards to the handling of the downtime. Ops is not the reason the ride keeps going down, it's the fact that another Intamin ride is having issues, let alone the rain delays not helping matters.

Apologies- I was out of the country and had about 30 pages of catchup. My eyes likely glossed over plenty there.

I mean, all I've heard everyone say is how great Intamin is and how glad that boring, forceless B&M :whistle: is gone.

This is what Intamins tend to do upon opening. And when you have a still extremely popular IP like Potter attached, operations ain't gonna go smoothly early on.

I'm definitely glad it's Intamin vs something else. We even had that proposition here months ago- would you rather have Intamin with all it's initial downtime issues or something safer but tamer and not as "boundaries pushing". This is the trade off. My main issue is that everyone here knew that's what you get with Intamin; an amazing coaster with startup problems. UOR seemed to have forgotten. Or more likely, didn't care.
 
I mean, all I've heard everyone say is how great Intamin is and how glad that boring, forceless B&M :whistle: is gone.

This is what Intamins tend to do upon opening. And when you have a still extremely popular IP like Potter attached, operations ain't gonna go smoothly early on.

Thus the issue. Intamin is easy to work with as far as getting a ride custom-built to specifications. Mack is an option, too - but they aren't as flexible as Intamin. B&M coasters are world-class, but they don't stray too far from their designs. So when you want to push the envelope of ride systems, especially with complex custom layouts, there's a reason Intamin keeps being used.

I'm definitely glad it's Intamin vs something else. We even had that proposition here months ago- would you rather have Intamin with all it's initial downtime issues or something safer but tamer and not as "boundaries pushing". This is the trade off. My main issue is that everyone here knew that's what you get with Intamin; an amazing coaster with startup problems. UOR seemed to have forgotten. Or more likely, didn't care.

Well, they were doing well. It all just started snowballing 3 weeks ago. They almost made it out unscathed.
 
Well, they were doing well. It all just started snowballing 3 weeks ago. They almost made it out unscathed.

Someone actually thought they were going this escape this project unscathed, of all projects? Lol.

I would've taken that bet with 1:50 odds.
 
Seems like the only recent new ride for Universal & Disney that has opened nearly flawless, has been Fast & Furious, and we all know what a disaster that ride is. So, in reality, smooth initial running doesn't have a whole lot to do with an attraction's quality. If you're planning on riding a new attraction during it's opening weeks, especially an outdoor attraction in Florida's summer, you're really rolling the dice.

Did Fallon not have a relatively smooth opening?
 
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