Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (Islands of Adventure)

About two weeks after opening, we finally got to time Hagrid just right at Islands... time what? We'll get to that in a bit. HMCMBA opened to much anticipation. After all, Intamin's creation had big shoes to fill with the demolition of B&M's much-loved Dueling Dragons. Sure it was only much-loved by coaster enthusiasts, and it hadn't actually dueled in years, but that's besides the point. Dragons was part of the IOA landscape since the beginning and would be a tough act to follow.

Opening Day was June 13th. Nobody could have predicted the insanity... people arrived to the parking gates as early as 4am and started queuing up outside the park at 6am. Thousands came out, extending the line out to the Hulk area (Wizarding World is the complete opposite side of Islands if you don't know) and waited up to 17 hours... yes, 17 HOURS! Here's where the timing part comes into play. This 17 hours occurred due to a multitude of reasons. Besides the insane crowd, HMCMBA is designed with the most launches of any coaster anywhere. Not only that, but a lot of the animatronics are open to the elements. Naturally, this resulted (and still does to this day) in multiple delays throughout the day.

The night we went, the ride was sitting in an extended delay. After 20 minutes or so of waiting outside the queue, the ride reopened and we walked in. The queue followed the same path as Dragons up until the castle area. After entering the doors, we were ushered into a pre-show room... a pre-show? In the beginning of the queue? Not sure how I feel about it considering the queue up to this point is in the hot Florida sun. The pre-show has Hagrid and Arthur Weasley talking about the motorbike with projections and some special effects. Hagrid talks about your journey through the Forbidden Forest using a duplicated Sirius Black bike.

From there, the queue was oddly unspectacular. You go through what feels like an abandoned castle and down into some narrow caves. You reach a room with that shows what types of creatures you'll be encountering on the journey. After a couple minor stretches of caves, you're in the pre-loading room. Here, you'll see outlines of motorbikes flying above you on a wood-paneled ceiling. After a couple of quick back-and-forths, you're on the loading platform.

Like Rip Ride and Rockit, HMCMBA uses a moving platform to expedite loading. You let the attendant know which seat you want (bike or sidecar)... this tells me that single rider will be relegated to sidecar all the time. After talking to a few attendants, they also mentioned that the single rider is incredibly slow compared to other rides in the park. Something to think about... anyway, we're off!

We hit a minor launch out the station and zig-zag downward. A bigger launch with a hard bank to the left takes us into a hut where Hagrid shows off his blast-ended skrewt. Though some have mentioned the impressiveness, Hagrid was hardly moving on our ride. Onto the next... our next big launch takes us up and through some castle remnants into a solid dive. Hard banks close to the lake are pretty sweet. Another launch as we approach and slow down next to Fluffy the three-headed dog. Think the coaster moves too quickly through here. Not enough time spent on Fluffy to be an imposing figure. A launch down into a cave and up a spike... uh oh, we 'lost power' on our bikes. We're going backwards... that must be a hell of a track switch to get it done that quickly. Hagrid slows us down as we enter a cave with centaurs and the Devil's Snare. We're caught up in the snare as Hagrid instructs us to use magic to escape... drop track! Only 15 feet or so, but still fun. In a dragon's lair, Hagrid tells us to hold on as we hit the final and biggest launch. We max out at our 50mph and slow down just in time to catch a glimpse of a unicorn as we return to the station. Great ride!

HMCMBA is a fitting replacement to Dragons. Re-ridability score is unsurpassed as it is smooth and not too aggressive where one gets tired easily. There's plenty to look at every time you ride. The queue is OK. I would definitely put it below Journey, Gringotts, Kong, The Mummy and even ET. I would point blame at the pre-show being in the beginning of the queue. The biggest issue this ride will have is maintenance. Most of the electronics are open to the elements of Florida. Not a great decision... and it's been showing as the ride has seen massive delays, whether opening late, closing early or being down for hours at a time throughout the day. But hey, if you have a day to potentially waste, give it a try now. If not, would wait until the winter when the kinks are worked out. For now, I'm putting it on the verge of B/B+ for the unreliability reason.