So I went Friday, got into E.T. about 6:40 and entered the park around 7:10. Had a good time! Express is worth every single penny. Wait times, outside of express, were never ridiculous. I think at opening FNAF was 120 mins general, but never got past 80 after about 10 PM.
Some criticisms…
- Crows and Hellbullyz…. Duds in my book. There was almost no energy in these zones or ways to tell that they were scare zones at all.
- Maybe I’m getting old, maybe my memory is bad… but why is everything closing EARLY?! Jurassic World had its line cut off at 11:45 even though it closed at 12, Forbidden Journey closed at who knows when, and it lead to a congregate of everyone who wanted a thrill to line up for Mummy. SNW also closed at 10, which was a bummer since I didn’t get to the LL at about that time. Universal really needs more options for the crowd to disperse later into the night.
- Every restaurant I went to was severely badly stocked on utensils. Could not find napkins ANYWHERE.
Besides that, I actually really had fun, but I don’t think this is a particularly “strong” year. I must say the roaming Art(s) around the park added a huge charm that guests loved which felt fresh to HHN in general. My rankings of the houses…
- Terrifier: A+. A great house with almost, if not, no black walls! I thought the energy was great and everyone was having more fun rather than being scared.
- FNAF: A-. A very detailed and fun house which I would have liked to have seen Stranger Things take the route of. I thought the puppets were impressive, but I would have liked to see more actual well timed scares.
- Monstrous: S. Had an excellent run through of this house, and I had every scare land. It was an amazing timed run through that I wish I could experience again.
- Jason Universe: B-. Was very, very much looking forward to this house and my expectations were not met :/. A lot of the cast was missing, the house felt SHORT, I was disappointed to say the least. That said, seeing Jason at the event after a long absence was comforting. Points on that alone.
- WWE: S. I had no idea what was going on in this house, or even felt like this belonged at the event, but it kind of blew me away? The layout and the scenes in particular had my jaw drop a few times (particularly before entering the barn). There was a lot of love in this house and I was shocked how consistently low the wait times were for it all night. I think if this were an original, it would have really sold me.
- Scarecrow: D. The cast wasn’t in it at all this year, but I did think the Slash soundtrack was good. It was meh to walk through again and I wish it built upon its first iteration rather than try to recreate it.
- Poltergeist. F. So, so bad! I felt the black walls were worse this time around if that was even possible haha.
- Fallout: C+. Definitely this year’s “walk through attraction”. Was fun to look at, and impressed by the things I saw, but it feels like this was destined for FFN for sure.
Outside of Fallout, I was actually very happy that none of the houses played into the “babyfication” gimmick I’ve complained about, so kudos to Murdy for keeping his word on that. The other scarezones I didn’t complain about were also very well staffed and had great energy. I would recommend this year, and give it and over score of B.
Also, anyone notice that half the houses had the “IP icon playing on a small TV” gimmick? lol.