I really kind of want to pat his head or something, as he's just not getting it? He seems a bit confused over either terminology or what an open ride is compared to a ride in rehearsals. The ride is experiencing technical difficulties at times. This is
not unheard of when it comes to rides, most especially with coasters featuring a lot of elements or, especially, elements that have never been done before. There are some really well-known coasters that have a number of on-going maintenance issues, as well as popular coasters that go down or are closed frequently due to weather (or high winds: Gatekeeper, the wing coaster up at CP, just valleyed on Wednesday ago due to high winds). Launch coasters (of any type) in particular seem to suffer tech issues throughout their first season (or two). Steel Curtain and MaxxForce will no doubt have issues well beyond opening day, no matter how highly anticipated they are or how many tests and softs they run, and lets not talk about the issues other big rides like Steel Vengeance have, and that coaster is what people are racing through CP to ride first right now. Regardless of personal "opening day" (which I consider to extend to the first month or so of a coaster's opening, with hiccups throughout the first season being expected) frustrations, Hagrid seems to be doing well, all things considered, and improving every single day. The idea that this coaster wouldn't have issues--even if it had an extended softs--is crazy and unrealistic. People seem to be judging its tech issues harshly
because it's at Universal, when this happens to coasters all the damn time at theme parks all across the world. It's almost as if they think Universal has total control on insuring 100% reliability, 30-second wait times, flawless loading/unloading and no hiccups whatsoever from the very first ride simply because it's Universal, when
no park or ride manufacturer in the world--theme, resort or otherwise--can or ever will deliver that, no matter how popular the coaster--or IP, in this case--is.
:shrug:
Edited to add that I also don't get the insistence that UOR is not communicating to the public that Hagrid may have difficulties throughout the day. From all the reports I've seen, the TMs are being upfront with riders, UOR has been all over their social media with updates and such, and they're all doing their best to do right by their guests under the less-than-ideal circumstances. Universal has no control over the weather, but I'm not surprised that people are getting all ranty at anyone who will listen because of weather closures. My husband works at a really popular resort in our area and anytime it rains they'll get guests storming up the desks demanding refunds or freebies because the rain ruined their day and/or they got wet while out on the golf course.