Going to experience an attraction on opening day is always a bit of a gamble. Though Disneyland's recent opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge went really smoothly, most times there is a fair amount of confusion and a LOT of waiting. However, as someone who attends day one attraction openings pretty regularly, I know to bring a book and a fully charged cellphone, because waiting is definitely the name of the game when it's opening day. 

However, that being said I can't say I have EVER experienced something quite like the opening day of Hagrid's Magical Motorbike Adventure. Note, if you want to know our feelings on the actual ride, you can click here. Right now we're ONLY discussing what it was like waiting in line for 14 hours straight. 

A morning arrival

Although we were advised that Universal would be opening its parking garage at 4:30AM, due to personal reasons we weren't able to actually get to the park until 8:30AM. However, once we got there we instantly found an extended queue winding all the way from the attraction through Hogsmeade, The Lost Continent, and Seuss Landing down to the waterfront edge at the tail end of the Port of Entry. Right away, a Team Member told us that the wait time was 600 minutes, and reminded us that we would have to stand up the whole time. This Team Member was clearly trying to dissuade us from jumping in the line but ooking at the time (it was right before 9:00 AM) we worked out that it would be around 7:00 PM when we reached our destination if the 10 hour estimate was accurate, worst case scenario. But the good news was the line started moving pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we were in Seuss Landing. 

Running ahead of schedule

We then moved through Seuss Landing at a pretty fast clip, with some very nice Team Members letting us know about how much time was left in front of us. In only two hours we had made up 4 hours of wait time space, and we were feeling very good about how the day was going. However, storm clouds were gathering in the distance...

Heading backstage

Though things were starting to get a little dark, around noon, we arrived in The Lost Continent area of the park, and then made a sharp turn into the Poseidon's Furty queue. And though we were delayed in this area for around 30 minutes, after that we headed into a backstage area, which was pretty cool. After a long walk, we ended up next to the theater that used to house The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show on the other side of The Lost Continent. The time was around 1:00 PM, and a Team Member told us we were 75% of the way there. Based on our rough calculations, we figured that meant we'd be riding between 3-4:00 PM, which sounded like great news. However, those projections turned out to be inaccurate. VERY inaccurate. 

The weather turns foul

Right after we turned the corner around where the Sinbad theater is, the weather suddenly turned very bad (as it is wont to do in Florida), with heavy rain, thunder and lightning happening for the better part of two hours. Unfortunately, while lightning was in the area, the attraction couldn't run, and between 2:00 - 4:00 PM, we simply stood in the rain, getting soaked to the bone, but hoping it would clear up soon.