I love that they're still finding new ways to add capacity at their resorts even if it means doing something bonkers. And what's crazy is normal guests won't even realize all the effort put in to making their morning better.
Right? Something Disney is lacking right now overall is prioritizing money over customer satisfaction. Cutting costs and implementing cheap new alternatives, so it’s refreshing seeing universal investing money into better customer experiences that will, imo, benefit them more greatly monetarily in the long run.
Man, Universal is just absolutely killing it at the moment. Comcast is so proud of the parks and they just love investing in them. We are truly in the Universal renaissance.
As a technician at universal studios it's wild how much construction they have going on all together with expansions to current parks and then epic universe.... Universal studios is making moves
My wife and I always ride Hagrids several times per visit to Universal. It’s truly one of if not the best theme park rides ever made. The combination of roller coaster, theming and story makes it a full experience like no other.
@@metallicnole4514 We don’t bother making the trip for less than three days, so that’s at least three rides since we’re doing it at least once each day. We also prefer slightly less busy times of year so we have done it twice in a day without spending all day in line, usually a second night ride at the end of the day. As long as you enter the queue before closing they will finish riding the whole line, so you can actually extend your visit past closing and guarantee an after dark ride if you time it right.
@@metallicnole4514 I go after 2-3pm and the line is cut in half and the wait time is typically much shorter than advertised. I got on 4x in a row and waited maybe an hour and a half to ride it that many times. This was last October
As someone that just got back from Orlando, Universal is miles ahead of Disney with attractions and customer service. They actually care about the visitors to the park. My family enjoyed the universal parks a lot more. The queue lines are mostly in AC which also helps. We had transformers stop for maybe 20 seconds and to make up for it, when we got off they gave us a pass to skip the line on another ride. We were barely even inconvenienced. Meanwhile we paid more than a regular ticket at Disney to do an after hours event which ended up having most of the rides broken and all Disney says is “we don’t guarantee attractions”
hagrid's is the most popular ride at UIA. the waits are oftentimes well over an hour. i've been there, several times, when i got through velocicoaster in 30 min or less, but hagrid's was at 2 hours.
We just spent 2 days at Universal Studios/IoA and a day at Volcano Bay, and it was probably the best 3 days of theme park/waterpark I've ever experienced.
Hagrid’s Motorbikes is literally one of the best rides I’ve ever been on. So I’m happy to hear that they’re giving it a lot of love!! Some nitpicks that I have that would be good for future updates: move the lockers into the ride queue (similar to Velocicoaster’s system) There are always people trying to go on the ride with full blown backpacks (we saw those people every single time we were in line and every single time it would hold up the line with the workers trying to figure out where to put their stuff. And secondly, to give the ride some genuine merch to go with it. I want a t shirt man!! Not just a fantastic beasts t shirt but an actual Hagrid’s Motorbike themed t shirt with the ride vehicle going through the forest or something. Or could you imagine a themed biker’s jacket?!?! That would be amazing!! And you could put the new merch store in where the lockers used to be. It would be great!
Wow! I’ve never heard of a park doing this before. But I’m pumped! I also love looking at rides through an operator and technological perspective so I can really appreciate this!
2 weeks ago I went to universal for the first time, and wow. The park is INCREDIBLE. Hagrid's is such an amazing experience too. This should make it even better!
We stayed on property specifically to get early entry and ride Hagrid's before it broke down for the day. We were there at rope drop, hoofed it to the back of the park, and we still ended up waiting 2 hours to ride it. I think it was worth it though!
That's approx 13,700 riders every day on average. Somedays more, some days a little less but overall thats what 5 million readers annually equates to. I think during peak season (like Christmas) they can do 16-20,000 riders per day. All depends on park attendance, downtime, and weather.
good it needs it! we went there directly at EPA Rope Drop 8am, waited 2 hours because of a Delay...then they closed the ride handed out one time use express pass to use for it later. We ended up riding it twice during our trip! Worth the wait(s) This makes sense now, as to why it wasn't up and running in the AM. Wish they would explain that to guests; the functions on the ride and how complicated they are to run. Everything else, was pretty much "walk on" the park was busy, but the lines and wait times low! BEST PARK & Vacation EVER! We have been to Universal Hollywood, Disney, Six Flags....this is the best!
Universal is on a roll! It’s incredible that a modern theme park chain is willing to invest so heavily in improvements like this. Even Disney won’t spend a dime on something with no guaranteed ROI if there’s any way at all to avoid it.
like splash mountain truly needed new boats even track they did neither since reopening its been ecvuated over 50 times for previews alreday something is wrong there
@@NickyD Just goes to show that the retheme was completely performative. They didn't replace Splash Mountain because of maintenance issues but in spite of them and now they're paying the price.
Yes it's great. This is in addition to the I'd say between $50-100 million in park improvements over the past 2yrs at Universal Orlando. They've complete redone pathways, repainted buildings back to their original colors so they aren't faded, redone entire facades on buildings, renovated many restaurants with new menus, tore down and rebuild and entire new entry pavilion with new facial recognition technology for faster entry, refurbished rides. They've also replaced KidZone with DreamWorks Land, tore out the old water lagoon show equipment, cleaned the bottom of the lagoon, and built a brand new nighttime show (which is awesome BTW), and they have a brand new daytime parade coming. They've poured TONS of money into UO, all in preparation for Epic Universe to open in 2025. While USF and IOA won't look like Epic Universe in terms of it being a brand new park with all new technology (and just overall looking new), they can at least bring it up to snuff a little with the items above. They've also done some BOH improvements for team members as well are still working on those.
@@rickeysmith765 oh I’m sure. I did a bit of research on the high school and apparently you can actually hear coaster screams in your classroom if the window is open. Universal simply doesn’t have the luxury of miles upon miles of empty land between your parks and the real world like Disney does. Clearly every bit of property surrounding them has been totally developed. I’m positive Epic Universe will be a massive hit and bring in a lot of money to Universal, so who knows, maybe one day they will be able to buy some of the land surrounding the two current parks to expand a bit. I actually don’t know how far away EU is going to be from the other two parks, but I do know it is definitely not close together like all of Universal currently is (that isn’t really a major issue, especially considering the space between the four WDW parks). I predict EU will have higher attendance numbers than at least one of the Disney parks when it opens, so it will definitely be interesting to watch Universal kick Disney into gear again.
@@STSGuitar16I'm pretty sure universal studios offered to buy the high school multiple times but the county/school refuse.... I drive passed it and for the rich area it's in, looks pretty run down. Would have been amazing if Epic universe was going to be there and the highschool could have been relocated where epic will be but it is what it is
@@kramerrichardson6008 from the google images I have seen of the school, if that’s considered “pretty run down,” I went to high school in a dang barn lmaooo That’s wild, though. I’m sure Universal could offer quite a sum for that land so the community must really be against it. In regards to EU’s location, off the top of my head the only downside of its location away from the other two adjacent parks is that it won’t be walkable between all three parks. For me, that’s not a huge deal since I can easily imagine spending a whole day at EU, whereas I typically split time between the other two parks in the same day. But yeah, things would be more ideal if they could’ve somehow acquired that land for EU. Btw, how much land does the school sit on? Would it even be possible to fit a full theme park and all the infrastructure involved in that plot of land?
@@STSGuitar16 it definitely wouldn't fit what epic universe is now but I think when they originally made the bid the plan was for volcano Bay to be there. I mean I just feel it looks like a prison when I drive by it and for the area which is pretty high priced I figured it would be better. Not to mention how many kids probably cut class to go to the parks. I think the distance between the parks is manageable if at some point they work in a monorail to get transportation to the others and citywalk or it defeats their purpose of a on location resort feel.
Universal Studios definitely NEEDS to find a way to make space to bring a version of this magical attraction to the Hollywood Studios Park in CA! It would be a HUGE game changer for Hollywood Studios!
I love that universal is actively investing in making a better guest experience for everyone, rather than just pricing people out and making them work way too hard to get on rides that should be enjoyable. Disney should be taking notes.
I can’t get over how fast and how important that switch track has to work at “oh no. Looks like we’ve lost power” all day, every day, for each train to complete its run.
Man, this is excellent news. I've always wondered why the line for Hagrid's always got so long first thing in the morning and never seemed to go down. This will streamline capacity a lot more.
Thanks for this great video! I just rode hagrids last week for the first time! What a beautiful experience!!! Glad more people will be able to experience this ride!
I like this ride and I am glad to have rode it; however, I am sick of it constantly being closed and/or on delay starts. You just never know if you will be able to ride it! Great to see US is doing something about it.
Trust me, Most of the kids that go to Dr Phillips high School can definitely afford to go 😂 .. That's an expensive city to live in. Also if you look at it from the street you can barely notice there's a theme park there, Universal does a good job at keeping up a good appearance on the city side of their walls.
You can’t see the coasters from Turkey Lake Road. A 70-100ft corrugated steel wall blocks the view and noise. It was required once Dueling Dragons was built and the noise from the coaster was too loud for the school & neighborhood.
I demand that animatronics never be reskinned. The mechanical parts should be kept in working order, but the skins should slowly degrade over the years slowly turning a family ride into a horror show. It adds to the old school ambiance. ;)
I'm glad they're making this upgrade, but this seems like the kind of thing that planners should have thought about going into construction of the ride when it was first built and could have taken steps then to build it properly the first time around.
I was at Universal from May 12th to May 18th and Hagrid's was extremely awesome and impressive, the theming is absolutely incredible especially for a family coaster
Also props to Universal for fixing the ride's long downtime, the fact that they're willing to go the extra mile to improve guest experience just shows how much they care about their parks and attractions
I’ve been many times. The funny thing is that even with all trains going, the line is still going to be pretty long. It’s that popular. If you’ve never been before, they also close the ride for weather. Rain, thunderstorms or high winds. Keep that in mind if you go during a weather alert day.
This is wonderful news, since I've never visited Florida yet, which means when I finally visit Florida: Florida will be ready for me. Thanks for posting this wonderful news, ElToroRyan!
Don’t be surprised if construction opens up a sinkhole and causes an extended closure. There’s been two sinkholes back of house at Universal related to construction in the past year.
After something like 30 years, Disneyland got new track for Space Mountain. Mouse does not lke to upgrade except Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Peter Pan. mostly.
What Disney has done to Pirates will never be considered an upgrade. I love Jack Sparrow but he added nothing. The replacement of “the redhead” scene and the accompanying changes diminished the raucous appeal of the original attraction. Disney trying to appease a small demographic is leading to their demise.
Instead of renovating these famous parks, Universal should update their forgotted outdated park in Singapore. Theres too little rides and most of the major attractions are just copied from Hollywood and Orlando.
I've always liked roller coasters and i started watching your videos after a trip to Universal Orlando. You are AMAZING! I never knew how fascinating these rides are. My wife rode Rip Ride Rocket and i opted to not ride it hearing you can get hurt. Sure enough she got hurt. Not enough to effect the trip but it was not a fun ride for her.
I was one of those people from your first video, asking about the maintenance bay. Great little video. I knew it was off of the station but couldn't figure out how they got twelve trains in there, and now I know how, they don't.
Always wondered how they could fit all the trains in that building. They inspect the trains every night? Then you got sea world running one train during the summer months. I just don’t get it anymore…
Every coaster (and every ride in general) has daily inspections in conjunction with weekly, monthly, annual inspections. When parks doesn't have trains available for the summer months, that's normally due to poor planning and not having the trains undergo annual rebuilds at their opportune times, which would allow them to run both trains. Unsure if SeaWorld just planned poorly or if there was a hangup on another rebuild or something else
I heard when it first opened that it is designed to run 12 trains - the issue is they can only run 12 if the load and unload is done at optimum speed. any slight delay causes a backup that takes hours to resolve.
It's truly wonderful to know that Universal cares enough about their visitors to take this on. It's even more crazy to think they're doing this while they're spending tons of money at Epic Universe. I personally thank Disney for financing these upgrades through their purchase of Hulu 😂
Dear Bruh, Love your videos! Would love to see a vlog from you about the future of max capacity rides. Hagrids, cosmic rewind… can thrill rides ever compete with people mover, small world, pirates, etc? Or did Disney master high capacity rides like that in the 70s and 80s? I feel like disneys loose article policy on cosmic rewind and space mountain is an accident waiting to happen? Maybe thrill level is capped to allow greater capacity via loose article tolerance 🤷♂️🤷♂️ EltoroRyan is the man to run with that idea tho
This is the quality that Walt Disney of all people would have expected. Now it takes them 5 years to build tron while Universal is opening a new park. Both Disney and Universal have the money to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at new attractions and lands and it’s a real blessing to be the best of the best.
No way they spent 300 million on hagrids. No shot. The coaster itself can’t be more than 30 million for the ride itself and that’s around the cost of top thrill dragster 20 years ago. Generously estimating that means they spent $260 million on scenery, rock work, station, cues, etc… that would also mean it’s one of the most expensive rides ever built and nobody has brought that up before. That’s the offical ESTIMATED number, which I think (and a lot of other people, google it) is grossly exaggerated. Yes excavation, building of buildings, labor, miles of wiring, 7 LSM launches, etc… but falcons flight doesn’t even cost that much. Plus universal gets bulk deals/better prices than anyone else on all that construction work.
Well, Hagrid's is the most expensive roller coaster to ever been built and it was due to a ton of factors: The drop track, the extensive excavation, set pieces, animatronics, salaries, etc. As the cost of building Hogsmead alone was 200M.
So, expanding a building to be able to work on 4 cars is mindblowing? They stopped way short on this idea, by not having at least 10 additional cars on "stand-by". Use those 10 cars a day while the other 10 cars are revamped at night. Or even have 20 cars on "stand-by".
I understand that need to add more capacity but I don’t understand what the problem is? They can’t move the trains where they need them to whenever they want, when the ride is under maintenance mode at night?
That’s what I discuss in the video, due to the amount of maintenance required at night for the actual ride, it’s not possible to swap the trains that have undergone their maintenance with the trains still remaining on the track until the morning not too long before the ride opens for the day
They're not just inspecting the trains, they're inspecting the ENTIRE ride. Tracks, animatronics, computers, structure, etc. It's a HUGE ride that covers a lot of area. It tales a lot of time.
Hagrid's needs better ride ops. The single rider line is not utilized well and every time I go in the single rider line, it's often longer than the regular line for some reason and trains still depart with empty seats. I often get put by myself as a single rider. They need to back up the merge point and assign seats before loading the train. This way there is time to ensure maximum capacity. The current way they do it is just try and match pairs to a constantly moving train and sometimes people change their minds or go to the wrong car. It's a rushed mess and there is no reason for it.
It is also investing in their employees to do this because they can start and finish the task without worrying about missing anything with the back and forth they experience currently
I think it's great that they are working to improve the maintenance problems with this ride. BUT - I have been to Universal Florida 3 summers now (Harry Potter obsessed kids). Always with Early Access and Express Pass. We were told to do Hagrid's first during Early Access hours, since it is the only ride not on Express Pass and the line is long. ALL three times, both days, the ride was broken in the morning, and did not open until well after regular hours at the park began. The people around us at opening mentioned that the ride had been broken every time they had come, both this trip and others, as well. It really seemed, with Hagrids and Velocicoaster, like Universal was taking the feedback that their screen-based rides were not as popular (not to mention nausea inducing). and have been trying to get back to more physical rides and thrills. But I wish they had done more work on the front end to ensure a quality product, instead of being praised for investing millions in fixing something that was poorly designed from the start.
I'm sure it would also help in the case of Hagrid's running later into the night because of a private event. That must really put pressure on the overnight crew to get Hagrid's ready for park opening in the morning. Most guests don't understand the complexity of this coaster so in their eyes they just see it as UO being incompetent not realizing how much work it is to maintain this coaster daily and get it turned around for use the next day.
My family and I spent 5 days going to different Disney parks and universal studios and we all agreed our favorite ride the entire trip was this one. And that’s before the “upgrades”
when i went in late april if you peeked thru the fence at flight of hippogrph you could see construction going on, looked like they already demo'd the building and were prepping foundation for something new, guess i just found out what they were doing
Yes, since the remaining trains are in the maintenance bay away from the live track. The ride circuit and online trains have finished and passed their dailies, and when the remaining trains finish theirs, they'll be cycled on
This isn’t going to solve the capacity issue. The ride just doesn’t function well with 10 vehicles because a lot of technical issues mainly with the launches but also the Florida climate and weather but one of the main issues for low capacity is the drops their is two and they cause most of the technical issues and downtimes
getting this video recommended made me flash back to the og problematic hagrid’s video cause that was the video that started molding my brain into that of a crazy coaster person
I’m curious what the original plan was and why they are needing to expand the maintenance bay. Did they think the maintenance could be all done at night? Is maintenance needed more often than they thought? Did something not work?
Wow you would think there could be a movable track attached to a vehicle that would allow a single train so they connect the track at night, roll a train onto it and then drive the train to a covered area if it was an issue but having a bigger bay is nice and simple.
I just can't fathom how much money Universal has been spending the last few years. Building an entire new theme park from the ground up, Nintendo land, Velocicoaster, Fast and Furious rollercoaster in Hollywood, Hargrids upgrade, Rip rocket possible replacement....etc. They have been spending money. I feel like it's paying off for them though.
He might have mentioned it in the video but I missed it.. is the ride gonna be down for an extended period? I'm going in October for my first visit and hope if won't be closed 😬
could you do a video on the Cheetah from Wild Adventures? it’s a long shot but that one was special to me before it was removed. Or maybe just a video on Custom Coasters International? I’m new to learning about coasters and I found out the cheetah was custom designed by them. But now both the coasters and the company are gone, and that leaves me wanting to learn more. I loved your other long videos going in depth about coasters and it would be really cool to hear your thoughts on this one.
@@kentslocum Both happened in 2016. I don’t know if modern day Disney would do the same, but projects like this, for both Disney and Universal, are all about return on investment. If it makes financial sense to add capacity to a ride, they could do it. If it makes more sense to just rip it out and build something new, they both do that too. Universal have undoubtedly been making better decisions lately c
I love that they're still finding new ways to add capacity at their resorts even if it means doing something bonkers. And what's crazy is normal guests won't even realize all the effort put in to making their morning better.
Their green dollars are all the thanks Universal needs.
@@MichaelRei99 Harry Potter prints money. So I can see what they spend it on that
Right? Something Disney is lacking right now overall is prioritizing money over customer satisfaction. Cutting costs and implementing cheap new alternatives, so it’s refreshing seeing universal investing money into better customer experiences that will, imo, benefit them more greatly monetarily in the long run.
Man, Universal is just absolutely killing it at the moment. Comcast is so proud of the parks and they just love investing in them. We are truly in the Universal renaissance.
100%. This will force Disneys hand…. finally.
@@smith9808 will it though? Not to be rude to Disney but the talent all works for Universal now.
@@Heifer2997when they can’t fund Disney + and the failing movie studio with park funds they will have no choice.
@@MichaelRei99inside out 2 is raking in dollars though
It is cool that there doing this but I feel like islands has way more problems to worry about
As a technician at universal studios it's wild how much construction they have going on all together with expansions to current parks and then epic universe.... Universal studios is making moves
My wife and I always ride Hagrids several times per visit to Universal. It’s truly one of if not the best theme park rides ever made. The combination of roller coaster, theming and story makes it a full experience like no other.
I agree I absolutely love this ride
Several times per visit? That’s a lot of waiting
@@metallicnole4514 We don’t bother making the trip for less than three days, so that’s at least three rides since we’re doing it at least once each day. We also prefer slightly less busy times of year so we have done it twice in a day without spending all day in line, usually a second night ride at the end of the day. As long as you enter the queue before closing they will finish riding the whole line, so you can actually extend your visit past closing and guarantee an after dark ride if you time it right.
@@metallicnole4514 I go after 2-3pm and the line is cut in half and the wait time is typically much shorter than advertised. I got on 4x in a row and waited maybe an hour and a half to ride it that many times. This was last October
You're lucky I guess because I live near uni and have rode it maybe 6 times since it opened.
Universal is not afraid to spend money and I absolutely love it.
CATCH IT @Disney
Will Zamperla be hired to expand the service bay? 😏
😂😂😂
Fellow horror and coaster stan, do you know hhn? If so, are you familiar with the lore?
Nah they will come up short just like they did with TTD.
if they did that it'd probably be down for months like tt2
@@beanrougehe totally isn’t familiar with that… tooootally.
As someone that just got back from Orlando, Universal is miles ahead of Disney with attractions and customer service. They actually care about the visitors to the park. My family enjoyed the universal parks a lot more. The queue lines are mostly in AC which also helps. We had transformers stop for maybe 20 seconds and to make up for it, when we got off they gave us a pass to skip the line on another ride. We were barely even inconvenienced. Meanwhile we paid more than a regular ticket at Disney to do an after hours event which ended up having most of the rides broken and all Disney says is “we don’t guarantee attractions”
Whoa, that's crazy! I can't believe they're willing to spend this much on a small-ish upgrade like this!
hagrid's is the most popular ride at UIA. the waits are oftentimes well over an hour. i've been there, several times, when i got through velocicoaster in 30 min or less, but hagrid's was at 2 hours.
@@MissMyMusicAddiction Yup, I completely agree! I'm so glad that they're helping fix the problem of multi hour lines at the beginning of the day
@@MissMyMusicAddictionglad velocicoaster is low. Ppl are scared lol
We just spent 2 days at Universal Studios/IoA and a day at Volcano Bay, and it was probably the best 3 days of theme park/waterpark I've ever experienced.
Same here, it was just amazing.
Hagrid's is my favorite ride ever at IOA. I really can't wait for a nice update for it to run more smoothly.
Thank you Universal and a big thank you to the Techs.
Universal Islands of Adventure is not just a top 10 most attended park in the world, it's top 5.
Hagrid’s Motorbikes is literally one of the best rides I’ve ever been on. So I’m happy to hear that they’re giving it a lot of love!!
Some nitpicks that I have that would be good for future updates: move the lockers into the ride queue (similar to Velocicoaster’s system) There are always people trying to go on the ride with full blown backpacks (we saw those people every single time we were in line and every single time it would hold up the line with the workers trying to figure out where to put their stuff. And secondly, to give the ride some genuine merch to go with it. I want a t shirt man!! Not just a fantastic beasts t shirt but an actual Hagrid’s Motorbike themed t shirt with the ride vehicle going through the forest or something. Or could you imagine a themed biker’s jacket?!?! That would be amazing!! And you could put the new merch store in where the lockers used to be. It would be great!
Props to Ryan for keeping us updated with rollercoaster news. One more thing Ryan, when are you going to release the Velocicoaster review video?
Wow! I’ve never heard of a park doing this before. But I’m pumped! I also love looking at rides through an operator and technological perspective so I can really appreciate this!
2 weeks ago I went to universal for the first time, and wow. The park is INCREDIBLE. Hagrid's is such an amazing experience too. This should make it even better!
Between the maintenance bay and FJ, they actually removed the tracks for the robotic arms. Construction has been pretty active back there.
Went to Universal earlier this year and Hagrid’s took over as my favorite ride. Riding it at night in the dark was AMAZING
We stayed on property specifically to get early entry and ride Hagrid's before it broke down for the day. We were there at rope drop, hoofed it to the back of the park, and we still ended up waiting 2 hours to ride it. I think it was worth it though!
What does "We stayed on property" mean? Is that a phrase meaning "We camped in the line"?
@@donperegrine922it means they stayed at a universal hotel that gives them an hour early access to theme parks before regular day guests.
@@couuurtneeey oh wow that is cool. Thanks for telling me
Crazy to put in MORE work into an already almost perfect ride, I am here for it!
Great ride!!! Universal has made me a fan and our family into repeat visitors. Excellence all around.
2:00 THAT'S ME OMG
I guess loving your capacity and loving your zone blocks go hand in hand!
5 million riders annually? That's insane!
That's approx 13,700 riders every day on average. Somedays more, some days a little less but overall thats what 5 million readers annually equates to. I think during peak season (like Christmas) they can do 16-20,000 riders per day. All depends on park attendance, downtime, and weather.
I went last week and thankfully only waited 30 minutes at most twice because I got early entrance 🙏 Such a unique and thrilling ride!
This is great news! I hope it means more people get to experience this incredible ride.
Universal with their whole foot on Disney's neck 😂😂
Only reason Disney winning is bc of loyalty
good it needs it! we went there directly at EPA Rope Drop 8am, waited 2 hours because of a Delay...then they closed the ride handed out one time use express pass to use for it later. We ended up riding it twice during our trip! Worth the wait(s) This makes sense now, as to why it wasn't up and running in the AM. Wish they would explain that to guests; the functions on the ride and how complicated they are to run. Everything else, was pretty much "walk on" the park was busy, but the lines and wait times low! BEST PARK & Vacation EVER! We have been to Universal Hollywood, Disney, Six Flags....this is the best!
They spent tons on rip ride so im not surprised theyre spending more on hagrids (an actually good and popular ride)
Universal is on a roll! It’s incredible that a modern theme park chain is willing to invest so heavily in improvements like this. Even Disney won’t spend a dime on something with no guaranteed ROI if there’s any way at all to avoid it.
like splash mountain truly needed new boats even track they did neither since reopening its been ecvuated over 50 times for previews alreday something is wrong there
@@NickyD Just goes to show that the retheme was completely performative. They didn't replace Splash Mountain because of maintenance issues but in spite of them and now they're paying the price.
@@Blah3210yup
Yes it's great. This is in addition to the I'd say between $50-100 million in park improvements over the past 2yrs at Universal Orlando. They've complete redone pathways, repainted buildings back to their original colors so they aren't faded, redone entire facades on buildings, renovated many restaurants with new menus, tore down and rebuild and entire new entry pavilion with new facial recognition technology for faster entry, refurbished rides. They've also replaced KidZone with DreamWorks Land, tore out the old water lagoon show equipment, cleaned the bottom of the lagoon, and built a brand new nighttime show (which is awesome BTW), and they have a brand new daytime parade coming.
They've poured TONS of money into UO, all in preparation for Epic Universe to open in 2025. While USF and IOA won't look like Epic Universe in terms of it being a brand new park with all new technology (and just overall looking new), they can at least bring it up to snuff a little with the items above. They've also done some BOH improvements for team members as well are still working on those.
2:53 that’s so wild that there is a high school right beside Universal lol imagine being able to see Hogwarts Castle from you high school classroom
I'm sure the kids love it, but apparently the residents hated it? That's why Dueling Dragons had to be filled with sand.
@@rickeysmith765 oh I’m sure. I did a bit of research on the high school and apparently you can actually hear coaster screams in your classroom if the window is open. Universal simply doesn’t have the luxury of miles upon miles of empty land between your parks and the real world like Disney does. Clearly every bit of property surrounding them has been totally developed.
I’m positive Epic Universe will be a massive hit and bring in a lot of money to Universal, so who knows, maybe one day they will be able to buy some of the land surrounding the two current parks to expand a bit. I actually don’t know how far away EU is going to be from the other two parks, but I do know it is definitely not close together like all of Universal currently is (that isn’t really a major issue, especially considering the space between the four WDW parks). I predict EU will have higher attendance numbers than at least one of the Disney parks when it opens, so it will definitely be interesting to watch Universal kick Disney into gear again.
@@STSGuitar16I'm pretty sure universal studios offered to buy the high school multiple times but the county/school refuse.... I drive passed it and for the rich area it's in, looks pretty run down. Would have been amazing if Epic universe was going to be there and the highschool could have been relocated where epic will be but it is what it is
@@kramerrichardson6008 from the google images I have seen of the school, if that’s considered “pretty run down,” I went to high school in a dang barn lmaooo
That’s wild, though. I’m sure Universal could offer quite a sum for that land so the community must really be against it.
In regards to EU’s location, off the top of my head the only downside of its location away from the other two adjacent parks is that it won’t be walkable between all three parks. For me, that’s not a huge deal since I can easily imagine spending a whole day at EU, whereas I typically split time between the other two parks in the same day. But yeah, things would be more ideal if they could’ve somehow acquired that land for EU.
Btw, how much land does the school sit on? Would it even be possible to fit a full theme park and all the infrastructure involved in that plot of land?
@@STSGuitar16 it definitely wouldn't fit what epic universe is now but I think when they originally made the bid the plan was for volcano Bay to be there. I mean I just feel it looks like a prison when I drive by it and for the area which is pretty high priced I figured it would be better. Not to mention how many kids probably cut class to go to the parks.
I think the distance between the parks is manageable if at some point they work in a monorail to get transportation to the others and citywalk or it defeats their purpose of a on location resort feel.
Universal Studios definitely NEEDS to find a way to make space to bring a version of this magical attraction to the Hollywood Studios Park in CA!
It would be a HUGE game changer for Hollywood Studios!
I love that universal is actively investing in making a better guest experience for everyone, rather than just pricing people out and making them work way too hard to get on rides that should be enjoyable. Disney should be taking notes.
I can’t get over how fast and how important that switch track has to work at “oh no. Looks like we’ve lost power” all day, every day, for each train to complete its run.
With ten trains, that's a lot of block zones!
Man, this is excellent news. I've always wondered why the line for Hagrid's always got so long first thing in the morning and never seemed to go down. This will streamline capacity a lot more.
Thanks for this great video! I just rode hagrids last week for the first time! What a beautiful experience!!! Glad more people will be able to experience this ride!
I like this ride and I am glad to have rode it; however, I am sick of it constantly being closed and/or on delay starts. You just never know if you will be able to ride it! Great to see US is doing something about it.
Translation universal isn’t cedar fair and six flags and they have the money and recourses to keep their rides open more consistently.
Cf easily could they dont try hard enough
They actually care
Imaging walking out of ur school and seeing hogwarts 💀
Yeah, but it would be especially bad if you could never afford to go...
Trust me, Most of the kids that go to Dr Phillips high School can definitely afford to go 😂 .. That's an expensive city to live in.
Also if you look at it from the street you can barely notice there's a theme park there, Universal does a good job at keeping up a good appearance on the city side of their walls.
You can’t see the coasters from Turkey Lake Road. A 70-100ft corrugated steel wall blocks the view and noise. It was required once Dueling Dragons was built and the noise from the coaster was too loud for the school & neighborhood.
@@RandomPerson-nd2ey Dr. Phillips is an upper middle class residential area of Orlando. I'm sure students there can afford to go there lol.
No....
I'm really hoping they take this time to also fix up the fluffy animatronic, cause he has seen better days.
I demand that animatronics never be reskinned. The mechanical parts should be kept in working order, but the skins should slowly degrade over the years slowly turning a family ride into a horror show. It adds to the old school ambiance. ;)
I keep wishing they would clad the drop track building in rocks or anything other than the lame paint job.
@@2pairOfAces 😮😅
@@2pairOfAcesthey wouldn’t even have to build a fnaf ride 💀
hagrids tm here! can't wait to make those lines move faster! LOL
Never been there but our honeymoon will be. Can't wait!!
I'm glad they're making this upgrade, but this seems like the kind of thing that planners should have thought about going into construction of the ride when it was first built and could have taken steps then to build it properly the first time around.
I was at Universal from May 12th to May 18th and Hagrid's was extremely awesome and impressive, the theming is absolutely incredible especially for a family coaster
Also props to Universal for fixing the ride's long downtime, the fact that they're willing to go the extra mile to improve guest experience just shows how much they care about their parks and attractions
I’ve been many times. The funny thing is that even with all trains going, the line is still going to be pretty long. It’s that popular. If you’ve never been before, they also close the ride for weather. Rain, thunderstorms or high winds. Keep that in mind if you go during a weather alert day.
I literally just got off this amazing ride
What's the update and what is the outcome to this any thing new
@@ddrusa nothing new if you watch his video they are attempting to increase capacity. That is what is new.
Universal doing universal things. Love it!! I'm sure they will also finally add the express lanes
This is wonderful news, since I've never visited Florida yet, which means when I finally visit Florida: Florida will be ready for me. Thanks for posting this wonderful news, ElToroRyan!
Don’t be surprised if construction opens up a sinkhole and causes an extended closure. There’s been two sinkholes back of house at Universal related to construction in the past year.
Sou do Brasil e estive em Orlando no mês de maio. Foi simplesmente sensacional!❤
After something like 30 years, Disneyland got new track for Space Mountain. Mouse does not lke to upgrade except Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Peter Pan. mostly.
What Disney has done to Pirates will never be considered an upgrade. I love Jack Sparrow but he added nothing. The replacement of “the redhead” scene and the accompanying changes diminished the raucous appeal of the original attraction. Disney trying to appease a small demographic is leading to their demise.
Instead of renovating these famous parks, Universal should update their forgotted outdated park in Singapore. Theres too little rides and most of the major attractions are just copied from Hollywood and Orlando.
I've always liked roller coasters and i started watching your videos after a trip to Universal Orlando. You are AMAZING! I never knew how fascinating these rides are. My wife rode Rip Ride Rocket and i opted to not ride it hearing you can get hurt. Sure enough she got hurt. Not enough to effect the trip but it was not a fun ride for her.
I find that so strange. I've ridden rrr so many times and I'm never in pain afterwards but the hulk kills my neck and gives me a really bad headache.
That's awesome! Makes me feel really good about getting those annual passes❤
I find it hilarious Universal's Hogwarts is so close to an actual school.
I was one of those people from your first video, asking about the maintenance bay. Great little video. I knew it was off of the station but couldn't figure out how they got twelve trains in there, and now I know how, they don't.
Universal needs to do buses from MCO. I had Mears pick us up a couple years ago but a bus to the resort would be huge.
Always wondered how they could fit all the trains in that building. They inspect the trains every night? Then you got sea world running one train during the summer months. I just don’t get it anymore…
Every coaster (and every ride in general) has daily inspections in conjunction with weekly, monthly, annual inspections. When parks doesn't have trains available for the summer months, that's normally due to poor planning and not having the trains undergo annual rebuilds at their opportune times, which would allow them to run both trains. Unsure if SeaWorld just planned poorly or if there was a hangup on another rebuild or something else
Wow two uploads in one day! Love it Ryan! Great vid and have a good one!
I heard when it first opened that it is designed to run 12 trains - the issue is they can only run 12 if the load and unload is done at optimum speed. any slight delay causes a backup that takes hours to resolve.
It's truly wonderful to know that Universal cares enough about their visitors to take this on.
It's even more crazy to think they're doing this while they're spending tons of money at Epic Universe.
I personally thank Disney for financing these upgrades through their purchase of Hulu 😂
Dear Bruh,
Love your videos! Would love to see a vlog from you about the future of max capacity rides. Hagrids, cosmic rewind… can thrill rides ever compete with people mover, small world, pirates, etc? Or did Disney master high capacity rides like that in the 70s and 80s? I feel like disneys loose article policy on cosmic rewind and space mountain is an accident waiting to happen? Maybe thrill level is capped to allow greater capacity via loose article tolerance 🤷♂️🤷♂️ EltoroRyan is the man to run with that idea tho
This is the quality that Walt Disney of all people would have expected. Now it takes them 5 years to build tron while Universal is opening a new park.
Both Disney and Universal have the money to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at new attractions and lands and it’s a real blessing to be the best of the best.
Ive booked rooms at Terra Luna for mid Oct 2025. I hope this upgrade of Hagrid's will be done by then so the lines will be moving faster.
No way they spent 300 million on hagrids. No shot. The coaster itself can’t be more than 30 million for the ride itself and that’s around the cost of top thrill dragster 20 years ago. Generously estimating that means they spent $260 million on scenery, rock work, station, cues, etc… that would also mean it’s one of the most expensive rides ever built and nobody has brought that up before. That’s the offical ESTIMATED number, which I think (and a lot of other people, google it) is grossly exaggerated. Yes excavation, building of buildings, labor, miles of wiring, 7 LSM launches, etc… but falcons flight doesn’t even cost that much. Plus universal gets bulk deals/better prices than anyone else on all that construction work.
Well, Hagrid's is the most expensive roller coaster to ever been built and it was due to a ton of factors: The drop track, the extensive excavation, set pieces, animatronics, salaries, etc. As the cost of building Hogsmead alone was 200M.
New block zones?!?
What's a block zone ?
Can’t wait for this!
I was at Universal and got to ride this twice, very cool ride. I think I put this, Velocicoaster and Revenge of the mummy as my top 3 rides
So, expanding a building to be able to work on 4 cars is mindblowing? They stopped way short on this idea, by not having at least 10 additional cars on "stand-by". Use those 10 cars a day while the other 10 cars are revamped at night. Or even have 20 cars on "stand-by".
I understand that need to add more capacity but I don’t understand what the problem is? They can’t move the trains where they need them to whenever they want, when the ride is under maintenance mode at night?
That’s what I discuss in the video, due to the amount of maintenance required at night for the actual ride, it’s not possible to swap the trains that have undergone their maintenance with the trains still remaining on the track until the morning not too long before the ride opens for the day
They're not just inspecting the trains, they're inspecting the ENTIRE ride. Tracks, animatronics, computers, structure, etc. It's a HUGE ride that covers a lot of area. It tales a lot of time.
It's a lock-out tag-out if you've ever worked at a factory very common around any machinery. It's OSHA safety standard.
Hagrid's needs better ride ops. The single rider line is not utilized well and every time I go in the single rider line, it's often longer than the regular line for some reason and trains still depart with empty seats. I often get put by myself as a single rider. They need to back up the merge point and assign seats before loading the train. This way there is time to ensure maximum capacity. The current way they do it is just try and match pairs to a constantly moving train and sometimes people change their minds or go to the wrong car. It's a rushed mess and there is no reason for it.
Or they could just do away with the single rider line and make it an Express line instead like other attractions.
ride sims shows a great view of the ride layout and switch track
And from what I understand this will be a great upgrade.
It is also investing in their employees to do this because they can start and finish the task without worrying about missing anything with the back and forth they experience currently
I think you should say Hagrid's a few more times in your voiceover....
I think it's great that they are working to improve the maintenance problems with this ride. BUT - I have been to Universal Florida 3 summers now (Harry Potter obsessed kids). Always with Early Access and Express Pass. We were told to do Hagrid's first during Early Access hours, since it is the only ride not on Express Pass and the line is long. ALL three times, both days, the ride was broken in the morning, and did not open until well after regular hours at the park began. The people around us at opening mentioned that the ride had been broken every time they had come, both this trip and others, as well. It really seemed, with Hagrids and Velocicoaster, like Universal was taking the feedback that their screen-based rides were not as popular (not to mention nausea inducing). and have been trying to get back to more physical rides and thrills. But I wish they had done more work on the front end to ensure a quality product, instead of being praised for investing millions in fixing something that was poorly designed from the start.
I'm sure it would also help in the case of Hagrid's running later into the night because of a private event. That must really put pressure on the overnight crew to get Hagrid's ready for park opening in the morning. Most guests don't understand the complexity of this coaster so in their eyes they just see it as UO being incompetent not realizing how much work it is to maintain this coaster daily and get it turned around for use the next day.
My family and I spent 5 days going to different Disney parks and universal studios and we all agreed our favorite ride the entire trip was this one. And that’s before the “upgrades”
Where did the relocate the maintenance building for FJ though?
I sincerely hope they pull it off!
when i went in late april if you peeked thru the fence at flight of hippogrph you could see construction going on, looked like they already demo'd the building and were prepping foundation for something new, guess i just found out what they were doing
So are they keeping it open whilst completing the work?
Yes, since the remaining trains are in the maintenance bay away from the live track. The ride circuit and online trains have finished and passed their dailies, and when the remaining trains finish theirs, they'll be cycled on
@@WraptorRangler thank you man 🙏🏼
This isn’t going to solve the capacity issue. The ride just doesn’t function well with 10 vehicles because a lot of technical issues mainly with the launches but also the Florida climate and weather but one of the main issues for low capacity is the drops their is two and they cause most of the technical issues and downtimes
The BEES!!!!!!!!
getting this video recommended made me flash back to the og problematic hagrid’s video cause that was the video that started molding my brain into that of a crazy coaster person
I’m curious what the original plan was and why they are needing to expand the maintenance bay. Did they think the maintenance could be all done at night? Is maintenance needed more often than they thought? Did something not work?
Wow you would think there could be a movable track attached to a vehicle that would allow a single train so they connect the track at night, roll a train onto it and then drive the train to a covered area if it was an issue but having a bigger bay is nice and simple.
2 uploads from you in one day is insane
A bigger maintenance shed… just think of all the new block zones this will add!
I'm glad to see paks investing in their rides to keep them going. How about the steel curtain closurw
I just can't fathom how much money Universal has been spending the last few years. Building an entire new theme park from the ground up, Nintendo land, Velocicoaster, Fast and Furious rollercoaster in Hollywood, Hargrids upgrade, Rip rocket possible replacement....etc. They have been spending money. I feel like it's paying off for them though.
Where did you get your sources for this information?
He might have mentioned it in the video but I missed it.. is the ride gonna be down for an extended period? I'm going in October for my first visit and hope if won't be closed 😬
could you do a video on the Cheetah from Wild Adventures? it’s a long shot but that one was special to me before it was removed. Or maybe just a video on Custom Coasters International? I’m new to learning about coasters and I found out the cheetah was custom designed by them. But now both the coasters and the company are gone, and that leaves me wanting to learn more.
I loved your other long videos going in depth about coasters and it would be really cool to hear your thoughts on this one.
Funny I cant see Disney doing this. This is definitely a W for Universal!
Disney would never do something like this. 😢
They built an extra ride track for Toy Story Mania and a 3rd screen on Soarin to add capacity.
@@Shundi879 When did that happen?
@@kentslocum Both happened in 2016. I don’t know if modern day Disney would do the same, but projects like this, for both Disney and Universal, are all about return on investment. If it makes financial sense to add capacity to a ride, they could do it. If it makes more sense to just rip it out and build something new, they both do that too.
Universal have undoubtedly been making better decisions lately c
Is your opening shot a insta360 hyper lapse ?
Does this mean the ride has to shut? I'm visiting from the UK next month!!
This line moves quick with 10 trains on the track. Same with Veloci with 3-4.