If this theming is disappointing then I must be missing something????
It is 100% disappointing theming wise. That was my biggest issue with it. Did you read my review? The animatronic figures are so brief that you see them about as long as you see Everest's Yeti. And other than drop track part of the ride, which I also thought lacked a "wow" moment in theming, you're mostly just meandering the outside portion through some trees. Like, honestly the theming isn't that much more than when Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain had lots of trees around it!
I'd say it's a *little* more themed than Verbolten and a lot less themed than Taron. Which, IMO, is "disappointing" considering the property it is based on.
They kept calling this a "story coaster" but I'm kind of at a loss for where the "story" is other than the pre-show and the audio that was difficult to hear while on the ride.
Hearing that it cost $300 million changes everything.... Wow!! Definitely should be more than just trees for that much. Also, I’m from Southern California where outside of Disneyland our best themed coaster is probably Manta at SWSD, so obviously I don’t have much to go off of.
To be honest, I was expecting Hagrid's to be a bit more like Big Grizzly Mountain (which fixes a lot of the issues that Everest had.) Here, click this link and watch our Grizzly video starting from this point:
On that ride, each of the "story elements" you can clearly see and understand while on the ride. You don't fly by it so fast that you don't know what is going on. And the area has some REALLY unique theming and rock work. To someone who asked "is it kinda hard to really theme an outside coaster of this proportion?" my answer is "not at all." I mean, just look at Big Grizzly or Radiator Springs Racers.
Those are the examples that Hagrid's should have been looking at for the bar they needed to reach. What they produced doesn't even COME CLOSE to those attractions. And also having been on Tron... OMG when that ride opens at Magic Kingdom, it is going to BLOW HAGRID'S AWAY! It might be a shorter ride, but HOLY CRAP, the theming inside that Tron building is CRAZY!
Seriously, Universal knew Tron was coming. Why did they fall so short on the theming of Hagrid's? Like, did they not go to Shanghai and ride that coaster? Or even watch a video of it???
I have been an avid reader of this site for years and I don’t understand why you are so jaded toward Universal even when they do well. You have complained at lengths about the screens at Universal and they went the complete opposite direction with this attraction. You go out of the way to paint a picture of no theming meanwhile the ruins, the large number of animatronics, the sounds of the motorcycle, etc. The ride is not perfect, it seems to go to fast around the sets, and off course dueling dragons was in a league of its own but then stopped running in its true form. This is coming from someone who spends vacations in Orlando 7 days at Disney, 2 at Universal I note.
I have seen only positive to very positive reviews from both potter and non potter fans, only negative review came from this site. You gotta give credit where it’s due some time, and give a fair shake even though you might not connect to it as much as potter fans.
