Halloween Horror Nights 2023 (USH) - News & Info

[Freak]

Well, on the first Wednesday of the event, Stranger Things is posting a 180 minute, Holidayz at 20, Exorcist: Believer at capacity as of 5:47pm.

(These early entry tickets are kind of a ripoff, methinks.)

At this point they should just hire the entire city of LA for the event and just open every night 7 nights a week.

 

[saint.piss]

Lol

 

[Michael S]

I think they’ve really dug their own grave this year. And I hate saying that. There is something fundamentally wrong with operations.

 

[Clive]

I think they’ve really dug their own grave this year. And I hate saying that. There is something fundamentally wrong with operations.

I do think a lot of it less operations and more them being given an impossible hand. There are simply too many tickets being sold (with the convoluted early entry process not helping anything).

 

[Michael S]

I do think a lot of it less operations and more them being given an impossible hand. There are simply too many tickets being sold (with the convoluted early entry process not helping anything).

Totally should’ve clarified that. Operations are a mess because of some fumbling in upper management. From everything I hear Ops are doing their utmost to make this mess work but there’s only so much you can do with a losing hand.

And honestly… they’re not getting paid enough to deal with this and if they are part of the regular USH union they are also working under an expired contract. Hats off to all of them.

 

[DTH]

I literally don't get how this can happen on a Wednesday in September. Meanwhile, KSF is empty on opening weekend. Did the chaperone policy really empty them out and funnel them to HHN? I didn't notice that many teens, but I could be wrong.

 

[Michael S]

I literally don't get how this can happen on a Wednesday in September. Meanwhile, KSF is empty on opening weekend. Did the chaperone policy really empty them out and funnel them to HHN? I didn't notice that many teens, but I could be wrong.

There’s a decent amount of teens from all accounts I’ve heard. Not sure how much impact that has on attendance levels. Knott’s is also doing really terrible outreach with marketing. I’m in North Hollywood and haven’t seen an ad or anything for KSF this year, it wasn’t always like that.

I think they oversold just about everything this year and the new Early Entry policy has soured some things.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

Totally should’ve clarified that. Operations are a mess because of some fumbling in upper management. From everything I hear Ops are doing their utmost to make this mess work but there’s only so much you can do with a losing hand.

And honestly… they’re not getting paid enough to deal with this and if they are part of the regular USH union they are also working under an expired contract. Hats off to all of them.

Well said and great point. The people on the ground night in and night out didn’t decide to oversell this event. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to deal with half as many people each night.

The company is grabbing at cash, and while I think it’s kinda craven, it’s also hard to blame them. They’re raising prices; charging extra for things that used to be free; and they’re letting more people through the doors, and it’s still selling out like crazy. They’re just seeing dollar signs and nothing else.

 

[Michael S]

Looks like things finally leveled out now, crowds are still high for a Wednesday, however.

You know, I don’t mean to sound like a grouch or anything, but the way they solve this is to have every house open for early entry and have the cast call times be on point to make that happen. They’re gonna have to pay more for overtime or extra cast but they are charging people money to get in early so…

 

[saint.piss]

I don't know when it starts to become available but I do know access is now granted. I know they were trying to maintain capacity inside SNW but it seems it's a ghost town during the event, so they're slowly adding access to more.

Any updates on this? I haven't heard anything yet

 

[Stryker]

Lol

I was actually in line with them for Monstruos around 7:40ish? tonight. They said they only got in two mazes during EE. What a joke for the first Wednesday in September. It's not even October yet. If you follow their account, they'll be in Dubai and some other nearby country I can't remember at the moment after Halloween so look out for that. Should be a fun journey!

Not like they need me promoting them, but they have some exclusive content they only post on their IG vs. Twitter (X) so look for it there. They'll be covering Fright Fest and Shaqtoberfest this weekend and possibly something else I forgot.

Now on to my opinions from tonight where I didn't have EE. I can't believe how crowded it was for the first Wednesday of the season. Seamed worse than a few weeks ago. I went solo and chatted it up with other strangers and all were upset how long lines were for everything whether it was for mazes or food or whatever the hell else. Week 2, I was able to knock out both CG mazes in 30 mins. Tonight, it took me an hour even being at the front of the pack at Wizarding World while I rope-dropped it to knock out the CG mazes. Absolutely ridiculous. Took over 30 min to get an alcoholic drink at the Plaza.

This was my third HHN visit this year so I broke even on my FFP. I might go one or two more times if I hear ops have improved. Otherwise, I'll spend the rest of my free time at KSF this season.

 

[highdefrex]

Phew. Today was my birthday, and I spent all day waffling back and forth on if we should use our FFP to go tonight and get our third visit over and done with, thinking, “Hey, it’s a Wednesday. Can’t be that bad.”

Thank god I decided for us to do something else (partially because I’m going to Scary Farm this weekend, too, and would rather not kill my feet ahead of it), because it’s insane what a joke this whole thing has become.

 

[Freak]

I plan on going back Sunday just to try to get my moneys worth out of the FFP but I’m baffled how crowded it is in a freaking WEDNESDAY.

 

[Stryker]

Phew. Today was my birthday, and I spent all day waffling back and forth on if we should use our FFP to go tonight and get our third visit over and done with, thinking, “Hey, it’s a Wednesday. Can’t be that bad.”

Thank god I decided for us to do something else (partially because I’m going to Scary Farm this weekend, too, and would rather not kill my feet ahead of it), because it’s insane what a joke this whole thing has become.

Happy Birthday! Avoid HHN if you don’t like lines. Scary Farm is a far better experience this year IMO for lines and maze quality but I’m sure I’ll get flack for it judging from some of the HHN vs. KSF posts recently.

 

[Freak]

Happy Birthday! Avoid HHN if you don’t like lines. Scary Farm is a far better experience this year IMO for lines and maze quality but I’m sure I’ll get flack for it judging from some of the HHN vs. KSF posts recently.

I have to agree that I also had a better experience with KSF than HHN this year. A big part of it was the tolerable crowd levels, but I also got a really good run through of most of the houses there!

 

[Jerroddragon]

I do want to point out, Disneyland is more crowded now on weekdays then Weekends. So I guess it's not as surprising that weekdays are doing well at this event

I know many are pushing for people to go to Knotts but.....I feel like the General Public just doesn't care. As much as people say they hate sequels and reboots....the biggest mazes are Last of Us, Stranger things, Chucky and Exorcist all either sequel, reboots or a franchise IP

Also while we seem to dislike the event, it keeps just selling out and being busy as heck, I guess the general public doesn't mind 3 hour waits.....for a 5 min house.

 

[Freak]

Y’all think the reason why the event is selling out so much is because there’s more out-of-towners coming to the event? Probably a lot of them wanted to come Wednesday because they thought it would be “less crowded”.

 

[zto8411]

Something is fundamentally wrong with how this event is run. If the rumors are true, that the event is oversold so it can be barely profitable then there needs to be a top-down assessment on everything. I haven't really heard any positives from the GP on HHN. If I do it's few and far between. Most of it is focused on overcrowding and lines. Even people I was supposed to attend the event with this year have soured and changed their minds. I know that's anecdotal, but if you look at the comments of anything relating to HHN they're not alone. I honestly can't tell if it's just greed or if the event really is that expensive to run. I know IP's and constructing a majority of new mazes every year eat the budget, but aren't there other ways to save cost?

 

[SailwiththeTide]

Last night they were only letting the 2pm combo tickets into SMW. Whoever said more people can go are misinformed. They said there is no policy change and you must have that ticket.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Something is fundamentally wrong with how this event is run. If the rumors are true, that the event is oversold so it can be barely profitable then there needs to be a top-down assessment on everything. I haven't really heard any positives from the GP on HHN. If I do it's few and far between. Most of it is focused on overcrowding and lines. Even people I was supposed to attend the event with this year have soured and changed their minds. I know that's anecdotal, but if you look at the comments of anything relating to HHN they're not alone. I honestly can't tell if it's just greed or if the event really is that expensive to run. I know IP's and constructing a majority of new mazes every year eat the budget, but aren't there other ways to save cost?

That would be insane with all the merch, drinks, tickets, express pass and food being sold. Along with the parks selling out many days still.