Ok, this is my brief review/thoughts of my first trip to HHN since 2004...
First off, for those that convinced me to get the Express pass THANK YOU...seriously worth every penny. We were able to do all the houses and most of the rides, and have lots of fun on the streets without running around like idiots. The longest wait we had was 15 mins for Walking Dead (which was a 150 min wait for the regualr folks). Going to list everything I did in order.
Got at the park at 6:45..headed for
Rip Ride Rocket...20 min wait..and it worked out as the sun was just about set and the full moon was out when we rode.
REALLY surprised with all the negative comments on this ride, we found it to be lots of fun, and not rough at ALL. I wanted to litearlly line up again, but we had other houses to do.
- Gothic - was a bit disappointed with this house given all the hype and positive reviews. Set pieces were really nice, but I just didn't find this ALL too scary, maybe I just had bad timing?
- Dead End - This house was our favorite by FAR. Scared the crap of us so much that we liteally wanted it to end. Atmosphere, ScareActors, and Set pieces were just straight up amazing. If only all the other houses were this good.
- Revenge of Mummy - Lots of fun as always.
- Dinner at Finnegans - I mention this because this was also a part of the experience. As the Street scare actors came into the restaurant several times while we were eating and got us pretty good once or twice.
- Walking Dead - way better then what people have been saying on this board, maybe my expectations were lowered, but I generally really enjoyed this house. I have a bias towards the show and zombies in general though.
- MIB - this was one of the WORST theme park rides I've ever been on, seriously, it was straight up stupid. My wife literally just put the gun down in the middle of the ride in boredom. I managed 200,000, but still felt like I was just shooting nothing. Definitely the only low point of the night.
- Penn and Tellar - we LOVED this house, we were litearlly laughing are asses off throughout. I thought the ideas here were jsut brilliant, not all that scary but a lot of fun. The 3D effect was also a lot more impressive then what I read here.
- Alice Cooper - Gotta say this was another fun house, but kinda of silly. We had a few good scares (like the gym teacher yelling at us),
- House of Horrors - Biggest disappointment of the night for us, as I was really looking forward to it. The only great part was the ending, the rest felt very cheap and just average compared to the rest of the houses.
- Silent Hill. - Enjoyed this one too, as I am a fan of the series. Wish there was more Pyramid Head, as we only caught a glimpse of him, but overall I felt it was still a fun house. Ash effect was working by the way.
Finally, I want to talk about this Scare Zones/ non Scare Zones. Not sure if we just got lucky with the weather, but the street actors were EVERYWHERE. Not only in the streets, but in our restaurant, at the lockers, even in the bathroom! I thought this was WAY better then having designated/over crowded scare zones, and I hope they keep this format.
We left the park at 1:30 am...
Overall we loved it, and would go back again very soon...would never go without Express pass from now on.