Dragon Challenge at Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Secrets of the queue

Dragon Challenge is permanently closed at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. You can still learn more about this former roller coaster and its queue secrets below.

Dragon Challenge was a roller coaster that used to be inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter—Hogsmeade. While this attraction had been in place since Islands of Adventure opened—it was formerly called Dueling Dragons in The Lost Continent’s now-defunct Merlinwood section—the ride still packs plenty of thrills.

Although the ride has been shuttered to make way for a brand-new Potter family-friendly coaster, we’ve preserved Dragon Challenge’s many secrets in our Prop Graveyard. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and up the attraction’s queue to rediscover them…

Inside the Dragon Challenge Queue

The first secret occurred just a few steps up the outdoor queue. Unknown to many guests, midway up the pathway, there was an opening that offered an excellent view of the area where the Frog Choir and Triwizard Spirit Rally performed, along with a perfect view of Hogwarts Castle.

Since Dragon Challenge scared off many adults and younger children, and most of the people walking up the queue just wanted to get to the ride, the viewing area was usually empty. That meant when the crowd was six or seven deep for the live shows, guests could come up here and easily get an excellent view of the performances.

When the show was over, it was also a fantastic spot for pictures in front of Hogwarts. This may very well have been the single best place in the park for Hogwarts photos. However, this location eventually fell past the ride’s (newly added) metal detectors. On slow days, guests might have been able to ask a team member to take a picture in this spot, but on moderate to busy days, cameras were no longer allowed here.

And there was one more surprise waiting. Just before crossing the bridge and entering the castle, guests could check out Ron’s wrecked car — one of the actual vehicles used in the movie production. This is one of the actual vehicles used in the movie production:

At any time, you could leave the outdoor queue using this staircase up by the castle – it was a shortcut to the back of Hogsmeade Village:

Similarly, guests used the same shortcut for re-riding purposes — so they didn’t have to exit into Hogsmeade and walk all the way back up the outdoor queue just to try out the other dragon. They simply looked for this on their way out of the castle:

Once guests entered the castle, many were surprised by just how far they had to walk to reach the loading area. The area was kept very dark, so it was best to take time walking through to catch all the details and artifacts.

When they reached the loading area, it was important to carefully read the directional signs; if there were lines, it often looked like the front-row line was actually the regular line. Guests didn’t want to enter the front-row line unless they specifically wanted to ride in the front row, because the wait there was much longer than waiting to ride in any of the other rows.

Additionally, there generally were no team members in the loading area queue space — they were stationed only up by the coasters’ vehicles. Guests were not directed through the queue and up to the coasters; instead, they simply navigated through the lines themselves, moved up to the front, and got ready to ride.

Dragon Challenge – Dueling vs. Chasing

Please note that Dragon Challenge is dueling in the sense that the tracks wrap around each other. However, the actual coaster vehicles no longer duel or launch at the same time. Instead, they chase each other:

Which Dragon Challenge coaster was the best?

You will have to answer this question for yourself, because there is no consensus about which of the two coasters is more fun. The important thing to know is that the two tracks are different, so to fully experience this attraction, you need to ride both.

Dragon Challenge Video

Please note that this video shows the coasters dueling. As noted above, they no longer duel.

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