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One thing to keep in mind about the cave is while the tour itself takes an hour, you generally want to get in line 15 minutes earlier than the posted tour time, and probably more like 30 if the park is busy, because they have a group size limit, I want to say its in the mid 20s. It can be a pain to schlep back to the front of the park just to find the tour's already full for that time. You could spring extra for the last tour of the day, which is an upcharge but you go through with handheld lanterns instead of the built-in lighting and you go into areas of the cave beyond the normal tour route. Doing so reserves your spot in that tour. HIGHLY recommended if your schedule allows for it.

Yeah Im with ya, it adds ride length, and its not boring like a slow helix or just kinda meandering around, not sure what's not to like. (Though I think they made a similar comment about Pantheon so guess back and forth launching just aint their thing). Oof yeah...comfort collars, and for Ice Breaker, but not Pantheon...it's a choice XD That said still looking forward to this ride, prob more than I should and will be gravely disappointed, but flights and tix booked...I'll be here in late Feb! Kind of excited, last went here when Kraken was the only ride. Excited to see if Mako and Manta live up to the hype

Sometimes rides are good because they're just fun, not because they're loaded with the most insane forces ever? I stan for Verbolten hard, love the themeing, the trains, the indoor/drop track, the overabundance of auf wiedersehen. Hagrids is everything I love about Verbolten but cranked up to 13 because its an Intamin built with Universal money. Lots and lots and lots of Universal money.

Bill is right. I say this as someone who has visited SWO 5+ times over the last 4 years and just finally visited Universal - both parks - just last month. Plan to spend time at Universal. You don't need to dedicate a day to SWO. Its a great park, I am a huge fan, but we always kind of run out of stuff to do there because while the B&Ms & Journey and Infinity Falls are great, that's really kind of it. If you want to hit coasters and don't care so much about animals, you can probably do SWO in like 2-3 hours if you get there at park opening. Do yourself a favor and plan to spend more time at Universal, particularly IOA. It might be my favorite park ever, and I did not expect to have that opinion ahead of visiting in December, after years of just not really caring about Universal at all (no notable coasters that piqued my interest and whole lot of bitching from people about screen-based rides, etc). After spending one day 9am-7pm at both Uni parks, I only wish we had booked 2-3 days there. Seriously. While I'm kinda of ho-hum on the Studios park (I personally hated Rip Ride Rocket), Gringotts is amazing. So is Mummy but that's closed now. So if you want to ride Gringotts and try RRR for yourself then do the park hopper. But the real stars of the show are VelociCoaster and Hagrids. I was blown away by both. VelociCoaster is the greatest coaster on earth. Granted I'm a full blown Intamin fanboi and hadn't ridden any new ones in a few years so maybe it was just getting to ride those two back to back that made me blow my top, but I'm obsessed. And beyond that Universal -particularly IOA - is just awesome. Incredibly themed, clean, great ops, great staff, all the Potter rides are awesome (don't skip Forbidden Journey - amazing). We really loved everything about IOA. I cannot wait to go back and while we had an amazing trip all around (that also included SWO, Discovery Cove, Animal Kingdom and Funspot Orlando) my big regret was not booking 2+ days at Universal. Did I mention VC is the best ever? Plan to spend as much time as you can there. And for the love of god don't skip Hagrids. I know some people will think I'm insane but its a top 10'er for me. I said what i said.

^^I mean, if that’s true then they do a horrible job communicating that… Edit: Beat me to it. Also, I’m not saying Bert is wrong, he’s very likely right and this chain is just a mess but I can’t tell from this, and I’m not even convinced that the parks know.

When we visited in October we did the lantern tour and it's absolutely worth it, although, it ran long and ate into night time rides. Maybe it was because it was an incredibly busy day, but the staff was taking reservations for regular cave tours if there was an opening, I believe they just charged an extra buck or two. So you could stop by first thing in the morning and ask. Not sure how often they do reservations outside of the lantern tour.

I want SFoG to give our hyper back, and issue a public apology.

It came from the Batman stunt show in New Jersey

IOA/Studios are some of our favorite parks in the world. And for my not so enthusiast husband, who is always rather ho hum about parks, the first time he got off of Gringotts he thought it was the best ride he had ever been on, and he likes FJ as well (yes he is very GP much to the consternation of my son) And my 76 year old mom clapped and giggled like a schoolgirl the whole time on Gringotts, we made her read all the books before she came. But seriously, everyone is giving you good advice on VC, Hagrids and all the HP rides. As far as the screen based stuff, Spiderman still holds up and do NOT miss the new Bourne stuntacular show. Yes, it's a show, not a ride but well worth your time. We went to it twice in a 24 hour period. Don't be a coaster snob and disregard the non coaster stuff at Universal, they have some great attractions.

Think of Hagrid’s as Verbolten on a Universal budget more than something like Motocoaster or Pony Express.

I'll third coasterbill and boldikus and say you NEED to ride Velocicoaster. Hitting the brakes the first time you'll be like "WTF just happened?" Its definitely a top 2 or 3 coaster. Hagrid's is worth the ride as well, and dont miss Spiderman and Hulk.

It's a bummer because between the opening hiccups and the fact that its classified as a family coaster, I feel like it doesn't get the respect its due. After riding it @coasterbill asked me "what did you think?" and the first thing I could muster was "it's a f*cking Intamin!" It's not the most intense coaster by any means but its got some whip and bite for a family coaster. I think its absolutely phenomenal.

Thanks for the advice, guys. Looks like I will at minimum spend a day at IOA with these kind of VelociCoaster reviews. And try the other suggestions out as well. If I find it really enjoyable, I can always plan a return trip with the offspring and spend more time. So you're saying it's better than Motocoaster at SFDL, or Pony Express at Knott's? lol

They result in more ride time so I'm all for the back and forth. The miscalculation is the stupid comfort collars.

Thank god you're running after thunderstorms and not running a massive tourist destination. You're now equating schools with entertainment options. C'mon, man. And finally now you're insulting everyone on this board with your stupid little sign-off quotes. Get bent. You might have some idea of what weather can do since you claim to be a storm chaser, but there are also legitimate meteorologists on this board who would also tell you to take a hike. Climb down off of your high horse and let people make their own decisions. You're not their dad. Edit - Furthermore, as an actual father myself, if my son told me they wanted to go ride coasters with the chance of a storm rolling through I'd tell them to keep an eye on things but to have a blast. Do you have the slightest clue how small of a chance there is of a tornado sucking you into the sky? I would hope you do, seeing as you're a storm chaser, right? Holy crap.