Halloween Horror Nights 26 Discussion

[Lucky Planet]

2007 when they had freddy and jason it was one of the most popular years up to that point. I remember they had some nights that sold out. it was crazy popular. i dont remember 08 or 09 being that crowded back then.

then uni brings them back once more and they had some of the longest waits. and like i said the scarezone with jason was sometimes a nightmare because people wouldnt stop gathering around them both. people love them. people will always love them. Jason might be the most iconic slasher.

original houses tend to get the lowest waits so universal would be wise to erase original houses. Tomb of the ancients was a mistake, it gets low waits while everything else is so long lol. :bolt:

 

[shiekra38]

2007 when they had freddy and jason it was one of the most popular years up to that point. I remember they had some nights that sold out. it was crazy popular. i dont remember 08 or 09 being that crowded back then.

then uni brings them back once more and they had some of the longest waits. and like i said the scarezone with jason was sometimes a nightmare because people wouldnt stop gathering around them both. people love them. people will always love them. Jason might be the most iconic slasher.

original houses tend to get the lowest waits so universal would be wise to erase original houses. Tomb of the ancients was a mistake, it gets low waits while everything else is so long lol. :bolt:

I think they continue to do original stuff because they appreciate their fan base (I really think they do)..I also believe that they enjoy creating their own stories as well as keeping the roots of HHN alive...If you think about it, IPs have been around since the very beginning..The first Fright Nights featured the Universal monsters, and the Crypt Keeper was used for another year (I forget which one)...I do feel as if people are starting to expect a different experience from HHN now though..For instance, when they walk into an original house like Tomb or Ghost Town and say "Oh yeah, I've seen this movie" it tells you what the guests are really there for..I'm with you

 

[UNIrd]

The death of original ideas at HHN would be the most horrifying thing they could do.

 

[SeventyOne]

I've been meaning to ask them what the capacity per night of a hhn house is but keep forgetting.

I've been pondering this lately. House capacity seems to run around 160 for the smaller tents to around 260 for the bigger soundstages. Assuming Universal plays by the fire marshal's rules, for ease let's say an average 6-minute run. That, very roughly, means hourly capacity probably somewhere in the 1500 -2500 area. Assumes no protein spills, no one having a melt down and holding up the line, instantaneous shift changes--in other words, this is probably generous. But that basically means roughly 10k people can see the smaller houses from 6:30 - 1:00.

Does anyone truly believe Universal caps ticket sales in the low teens?

This, along with scare-zones becoming photo ops, are the two reasons HHN is fundamentally broken. Only way to fix it is to drastically increase prices--I don't see added nights or a second park making a real dent. Maybe even phase out multi-day tickets (spoken as an 11-year FFP holder).

 

[Lucky Planet]

Maybe even phase out multi-day tickets (spoken as an 11-year FFP holder).

yet not only did they added Friday to the FFP before but now they even added Saturday... lol

I've always thought that the original FFP was good enough, you get the weekdays and Sunday. that was more than enough to be able to revisit everything. Friday and Saturdays are the days that single ticket people end up going the most and Friday and Saturday are the days that end up being the busiest (and the days when the discount was the lowest)
Im not sure why they decided to add Friday or Saturday as an option to FFP passes.

But I dont think they should take out FFP. there is way too much that needs repeat viewings. plus all the money they make on alcohol food and merch sells from people going multiple nights. maybe they could even take out Sunday from the FFP. that could work. leave the entire weekend for single day guests. leave Thursday and Wednesdays as the FFP.

 

[Frank Drackman]

yet not only did they added Friday to the FFP before but now they even added Saturday... lol

I've always thought that the original FFP was good enough, you get the weekdays and Sunday. that was more than enough to be able to revisit everything. Friday and Saturdays are the days that single ticket people end up going the most and Friday and Saturday are the days that end up being the busiest (and the days when the discount was the lowest)
Im not sure why they decided to add Friday or Saturday as an option to FFP passes.

But I dont think they should take out FFP. there is way too much that needs repeat viewings. plus all the money they make on alcohol food and merch sells from people going multiple nights. maybe they could even take out Sunday from the FFP. that could work. leave the entire weekend for single day guests. leave Thursday and Wednesdays as the FFP.

This is just coming from someone that is not really local. Sure, I only have around a three hour drive, I get FL resident and/or passholder rates, but I feel like I am a vacationing visitor when I go to the parks. I will stay multiple nights either on site or nearby.

The best option for me is typically the second week. We tend to get four nights and RoF works out well. I assume it is slower than OCT, anyway, for whatever reason, I tend to find that SAT is the slowest night of the second week. I have no facts or anything, but that is just the feel I get from the last few years.

This year we splurged, got RoF w/ Express and we are going a lot of nights, but yet, last night was the first night that we (almost) went to every house (skipped walking dead).

Not sure where I am going with this, but it just feels like every year I read a post that suggest it is somehow bad for UNI to offer a ticket that allows four consecutive days for someone who is willing to pay to stay at one of their hotels for four nights to catch a week of HHN at a time that isn't the busiest of the event.

I just don't get it. But I did want to mention that I know I am not alone in staying overnight and attending for consecutive days

 

[bob albert]

Seriously Universal just has to make HHN every night once ut starts, but they don't want to mess with that rediculous notion that one would "have" to buy express to see everything on a "slow" night.

 

[sjago13]

Again I not sure if I just continue to be lucky or what not but last night my friend and I roll in at 10:20, Krampus is a posted 45 and we wait 8 mins. Proceeded to do 7 houses in 2.5 hours and only halloween was the wait longer than posted (posted 15, waited 25). Most of the lines you can see from out front so you can gauge it really easily and skip long ones and come back later. Also asked the guy out front of halloween and he said that they want him to do 50 express then 20 regular when it's busier but he said if there is a gap he just switches back to regular. Another note is that the express lines seem way shorter which has seems to give a good flow to the regular lines. From reading some of the stuff on here and twitter I would think I'm at a different event. I'll be at fins for stay and scream watching the gator game so yehaw and go gators.

 

[s8film40]

This, along with scare-zones becoming photo ops, are the two reasons HHN is fundamentally broken. Only way to fix it is to drastically increase prices--I don't see added nights or a second park making a real dent. Maybe even phase out multi-day tickets (spoken as an 11-year FFP holder).

You just called the worlds most successful Halloween event broken?

Also it's funny how every year around this time the discussion of FFP always comes up. It's clear that Universal is doing everything possible to push as many people as they can to multi-day tickets. I think the Ultimate pass was priced a little high. This was probably smart to start high to get a feel for how it impacts Saturday's, but I expect it to have a slightly less sharp increase next year than the other tickets to bring it down in price relatively.

 

[Frank Drackman]

Again I not sure if I just continue to be lucky or what not but last night my friend and I roll in at 10:20, Krampus is a posted 45 and we wait 8 mins. Proceeded to do 7 houses in 2.5 hours and only halloween was the wait longer than posted (posted 15, waited 25). Most of the lines you can see from out front so you can gauge it really easily and skip long ones and come back later. Also asked the guy out front of halloween and he said that they want him to do 50 express then 20 regular when it's busier but he said if there is a gap he just switches back to regular. Another note is that the express lines seem way shorter which has seems to give a good flow to the regular lines. From reading some of the stuff on here and twitter I would think I'm at a different event. I'll be at fins for stay and scream watching the gator game so yehaw and go gators.

Some of it is luck

Really, it was only opening night that felt too busy to me. My family really does not commando tour or anything and we just take the event in at a slow pace.

I think last night, we had the best timing and I think AHS and TWD where probably the only two houses that had long lines (anything posted over 50 minutes) when we were in the area.

We started the night with Scareactor dining, we didn't partake in a walk to a house a la S&S but we did go over to Exorcists before gates opened. We then went into the regular line for Ghost Town at 6:15 (house opened at 6:30).

We then waited for it to be darker out before doing houses again...but when we got over to H2 and Tomb, they were both posted as under 15 minutes, so not a bad night at all in my opinion.

 

[Brownie54]

I had a great experience at the Chance House last Sunday night! Okay, I know most of you are rolling your eyes now, but let me explain. We did the holding area at Diagon Alley at my wife's request. A great place because it is easy to find a cool place to sit and wait for the event to open. Not a great place in terms of where to go when your released. In fact, you either go to Chance or your going to be walking a ways. So we headed towards Chance and the wait sign said five minutes. While I did notice a few people exiting the house there was no one in line ahead of us. When we got to the entrance to the house I looked back and there was no one except the workers. I told my wife we had the house to ourselves. While I know this is regarded as a weak house it was completely different to be able to stop in each room and even converse with Chance. A couple of times I got disorientated and wasn't sure which way to go as there wasn't anyone to follow. A unique experience that will never happen again!

 

[SeventyOne]

You just called the worlds most successful Halloween event broken?

Yes, not sustainable in its current form. Remember, within a decade after Lion King (#1 animated film of all time), Disney was forced to pay big bucks to buy its #1 competitor.

The lines are too long and growing. The scare-zones no longer work to deliver scares. It's not sustainable. Keep in mind, as crowded as it's been, that's just HHN fanatics. Halloween not even on gen pop's radar until next weekend.

 

[s8film40]

Does anyone really believe this?

 

[s8film40]

Yes, not sustainable in its current form. Remember, within a decade after Lion King (#1 animated film of all time), Disney was forced to pay big bucks to buy its #1 competitor.

The lines are too long and growing. The scare-zones no longer work to deliver scares. It's not sustainable. Keep in mind, as crowded as it's been, that's just HHN fanatics. Halloween not even on gen pop's radar until next weekend.

Last Sunday I walked in to most of the houses with little to no wait at all. There were several postings on the UOAP FB group last night showing a similar crowd, on a SATURDAY. Like any event it has its peak times and it's slow times. People are often quick to share the extremes especially with social media and it's easy to lose perspective. I've certainly seen some very crowded (succe$$ful) nights and I'm not saying crowds aren't an issue, I'm sure that's an issue that universal is happy to have though. There are of course a few nights that are really a reminder to how delicate of a balance the event is and how easily it can shift to a not so profitable event.

I agree about the scare zones, but people don't want scare zones they want selfie zones. I can't fault Universal it's just what the people want.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Does anyone really believe this?

no

 

[Frank Drackman]

Last Sunday I walked in to most of the houses with little to no wait at all. There were several postings on the UOAP FB group last night showing a similar crowd, on a SATURDAY. Like any event it has its peak times and it's slow times. People are often quick to share the extremes especially with social media and it's easy to lose perspective. I've certainly seen some very crowded (succe$$ful) nights and I'm not saying crowds aren't an issue, I'm sure that's an issue that universal is happy to have though. There are of course a few nights that are really a reminder to how delicate of a balance the event is and how easily it can shift to a not so profitable event.

I agree about the scare zones, but people don't want scare zones they want selfie zones. I can't fault Universal it's just what the people want.

I am convinced that if I could only go one night and if I were to go w/o Express, I would go the 2nd Saturday of the event. I think this is my 5th year of visiting during the 2nd week and I am certain the SAT night has the lowest house lines during this week.

 

[Cameron]

Does anyone know if there are any other guest activated triggers located in any other houses? With the exception of ToTA.

 

[Brian G.]

Does anyone know if there are any other guest activated triggers located in any other houses? With the exception of ToTA.

Only house that we know of.

 

[kingcooger]

How were crowds last night? From what the app is showing, wait times seem fairly reasonable for everything. For those actually at the event, have you been using the app and is it at all accurate?

 

[Joel]

no

What do you mean, is the article false?

Does anyone know if there are any other guest activated triggers located in any other houses? With the exception of ToTA.

Ooo! What is this trigger? I'm going for the first time this weekend and would love to try it out.