As of this Friday, I will have been going to HHN for ten years. I may have to update this by this weekend, but looking back over the time line, I figured it would be fun for us to reflect what we liked or didn't like. I'll do the best and worst in my top 4:
Best years:
#4: '09 - My first year. Everything was new and was got me hooked onto haunts. Not much else to be said here.
#3: 2011 - This was my absolute favorite year for a while. My first year at HHN was '09, so I was so used to just seeing slashers. This is the first time I got to see them tackle a variety of different themes (aliens, Mexican urban legends, etc.), feature original content (La Llorona, Alice Cooper), and feature the new creature effects, which I thought were cool. While not perfect (repeat scarezones, repeat of HoTC, and Terror Tram were "eh"), it was great and different after going in '09 and '10. Looking back, it's probably lost its awesomeness slightly as better mazes have come along, but it's still a year very dear to my heart for taking a big step forward in changes. Also, Bill & Ted was awesome that year.
#2: 2014 - I know some people didn't like it because of crowd issues or because of Clowns and Dracula but.....I really liked this year. It's currently my second favorite year. Just like 2011 there was great variety with the themes and the content was pretty solid. Yeah, Clowns was a turd and half of TWD felt like a repeat, but AVP alone made this a descent year. I even enjoyed Dracula (GASP) AWiL was pretty good even though it didn't compare with Orlando's awesomeness. Scarezones were pretty good.
#1: 2016 - Shouldn't surprise anybody. Still the best year ever. Even though I got a weak runthrough on AHS at first, I liked it better as time went on. Everything. Was. Amazing. Even the Terror Tram wasn't bad! Really, REALLY solid year.
Worst Years
#4: 2015 - This was an okay year. I was really let down by all of the repeated themes (AVP repeat, TWD fatigue, Insidious and Halloween returning). But Halloween and Insidious turned out to be really good! Crimson Peak is in my list of top 10 houses. TiTE though.....yikes. That alone made it on the worst 4.
#3: 2010 - Yeah, I was disappointed with this year. Repeat of Saw, repeat of F13 and NoES, crappy tram, crappy HoH......at least F13 turned out to be good. HoTC is, to this day, is still my favorite 3D house despite it being slightly tainted by the repeat.
#2: 2013 - Ohhhh this year reeked. I remember being SO excited seeing the metro backlot opened and us getting a sound stage house for the first time. There were even a lot of promising properties (Insidious, ED, TWD). But oh man....the execution for all of the mazes except TWD and El Cucuy were sub-par.....VERY sub-par. BS was total BS, ED's creature effects were lame, Insidious was choppy with too many mannequins.....yeah. I did enjoy El Cucuy and TWD but it was also the year Bill & Ted got canceled. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Not to mention I felt like there were advertisements EVERYWHERE. They were advertising Black Sabbath's album on the Starway, advertising TWD on the Terror Tram monitors, signs advertising Chucky's new movie in his scarezone....ugh. Awful year.
#1: 2017 - Amazing how we went from the best year ever to the worst year ever. Almost everything was a MASSIVE disappointment. Black walls everywhere, crap scarezones, crap execution, just everything was bad. I pray we never experience something like this again, because it was AWFUL.
Best years:
#4: '09 - My first year. Everything was new and was got me hooked onto haunts. Not much else to be said here.
#3: 2011 - This was my absolute favorite year for a while. My first year at HHN was '09, so I was so used to just seeing slashers. This is the first time I got to see them tackle a variety of different themes (aliens, Mexican urban legends, etc.), feature original content (La Llorona, Alice Cooper), and feature the new creature effects, which I thought were cool. While not perfect (repeat scarezones, repeat of HoTC, and Terror Tram were "eh"), it was great and different after going in '09 and '10. Looking back, it's probably lost its awesomeness slightly as better mazes have come along, but it's still a year very dear to my heart for taking a big step forward in changes. Also, Bill & Ted was awesome that year.
#2: 2014 - I know some people didn't like it because of crowd issues or because of Clowns and Dracula but.....I really liked this year. It's currently my second favorite year. Just like 2011 there was great variety with the themes and the content was pretty solid. Yeah, Clowns was a turd and half of TWD felt like a repeat, but AVP alone made this a descent year. I even enjoyed Dracula (GASP) AWiL was pretty good even though it didn't compare with Orlando's awesomeness. Scarezones were pretty good.
#1: 2016 - Shouldn't surprise anybody. Still the best year ever. Even though I got a weak runthrough on AHS at first, I liked it better as time went on. Everything. Was. Amazing. Even the Terror Tram wasn't bad! Really, REALLY solid year.
Worst Years
#4: 2015 - This was an okay year. I was really let down by all of the repeated themes (AVP repeat, TWD fatigue, Insidious and Halloween returning). But Halloween and Insidious turned out to be really good! Crimson Peak is in my list of top 10 houses. TiTE though.....yikes. That alone made it on the worst 4.
#3: 2010 - Yeah, I was disappointed with this year. Repeat of Saw, repeat of F13 and NoES, crappy tram, crappy HoH......at least F13 turned out to be good. HoTC is, to this day, is still my favorite 3D house despite it being slightly tainted by the repeat.
#2: 2013 - Ohhhh this year reeked. I remember being SO excited seeing the metro backlot opened and us getting a sound stage house for the first time. There were even a lot of promising properties (Insidious, ED, TWD). But oh man....the execution for all of the mazes except TWD and El Cucuy were sub-par.....VERY sub-par. BS was total BS, ED's creature effects were lame, Insidious was choppy with too many mannequins.....yeah. I did enjoy El Cucuy and TWD but it was also the year Bill & Ted got canceled. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Not to mention I felt like there were advertisements EVERYWHERE. They were advertising Black Sabbath's album on the Starway, advertising TWD on the Terror Tram monitors, signs advertising Chucky's new movie in his scarezone....ugh. Awful year.
#1: 2017 - Amazing how we went from the best year ever to the worst year ever. Almost everything was a MASSIVE disappointment. Black walls everywhere, crap scarezones, crap execution, just everything was bad. I pray we never experience something like this again, because it was AWFUL.