Halloween Horror Nights 23 Speculation

[Nick]

Yeah, I don't think it'll be that bad. With Transformers open, that's another attraction to eat guests (and the paths are open now so guest flow will be better) and with an 8th house, that's one more house to eat people, so less will be on the street. I'm not too worried.

 

[Splatter]

The streets, dining options and areas are all wider up in the front of the park anyway. If anything you want the majority of people distributed throughout there.

 

[Nitro_230]

How about soundstage construction?

And are the sprung tent houses always the first to be built?

The sprung tent houses aren't always completly torn out at the end of the season like the sound stage, parade building and disaster houses are. Main reason being unlike those they tend to use the exact same layout every year, and they don't have a whole lot of use the rest of the year. The one thing they do use them for is storage. So they have to be cleaned up, and that happens before construction starts (construction starts at the same time for all).

The HHN website has already confirmed that this year's event is only being held in one park (Universal Studios).

Not really. That's people reading into the statement on the site

On select nights from September 20 to November 2, your worst nightmare will take shape when Universal Studios Florida® theme park is transformed into the award-winning Halloween Horror Nights®.

Try to survive terrifying haunted houses, shocking scare zones and outrageous live shows all while being stalked at every turn by savage creatures. Test your courage even further on Orlando's most cutting-edge rides including Revenge of the Mummy®, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit® and more.

There's no better way to "end" your day at Universal Orlando.​

But what those people aren't factoring in is that this is the generic line that goes up at the beginning of every year and the only thing updated is the dates. For example when it lists out the rides it doesn't include Transformers. So the thought process that this statement confirms things could also go as follows.... Transformers is the hot new thing, it's not listed here but the hot new thing should be therefore Transformers won't be open for HHN. And that is just as much confirmed by this as USF only.

That being said, yes I think it will be one park.

So what are the locations we're looking at if its 8 houses this year? Besides the 7 spots from this past year, what would be the 8th? SS33 would be difficult with HE construction going on...Nazrmans would be the only possibility if there is still space in there too....anywhere else I'm missing?

Nazrmans space is mostly in use. The house would be way to small at this point.

 

[Clive]

To be fair, only the Sprung Tent that housed Clown-O-Vision, Dead Exposure, Spawning, Havoc, etc. has retained a near-identical layout through the years. (And to their credit, they changed it up a bit with Poe). The other Sprung tent varies it up each year.

 

[Nitro_230]

But much of the framework can be reused. The flow can vary but the structural layout stays mostly the same. The only really big change is when they introduced that walkway in between the tents so they could enter and exit on opposite sides.

 

[Clive]

But much of the framework can be reused. The flow can vary but the structural layout stays mostly the same. The only really big change is when they introduced that walkway in between the tents so they could enter and exit on opposite sides.

True, like all live theater (and HHN houses really are a form of live theater when you think about it) structural stuff is constantly repurposed. It's just not always super noticeable to the guest (and when it isn't, that means they succeeded).

 

[Tbad556]

Not really. That's people reading into the statement on the site

On select nights from September 20 to November 2, your worst nightmare will take shape when Universal Studios Florida® theme park is transformed into the award-winning Halloween Horror Nights®.

Try to survive terrifying haunted houses, shocking scare zones and outrageous live shows all while being stalked at every turn by savage creatures. Test your courage even further on Orlando's most cutting-edge rides including Revenge of the Mummy®, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit® and more.

There's no better way to "end" your day at Universal Orlando.​

But what those people aren't factoring in is that this is the generic line that goes up at the beginning of every year and the only thing updated is the dates. For example when it lists out the rides it doesn't include Transformers. So the thought process that this statement confirms things could also go as follows.... Transformers is the hot new thing, it's not listed here but the hot new thing should be therefore Transformers won't be open for HHN. And that is just as much confirmed by this as USF only.

That being said, yes I think it will be one park.

It's been confirmed by several other sources as well. If they were to do two parks, they'd change the generic page to mention the park just like they change it for the dates.

 

[Vyrus]

Me theory is the 8th house could be held in this building..I believe there is PLENTY of space inside based on these pictures to hold a respectively sized house.

This is where the Tweet Up was held a couple of years ago.

 

[Octobers Fade]

Me theory is the 8th house could be held in this building..I believe there is PLENTY of space inside based on these pictures to hold a respectively sized house.

This is where the Tweet Up was held a couple of years ago.

Isn't that for special events and VIP parties?

 

[Nick]

Isn't that for special events and VIP parties?

Normally, yes and it is normally set up for those kind of events inside. If they did want to put the house there, it could work. I don't know that I see them putting one there though.

 

[Vyrus]

And the full queue for that house could be staged right in front of the NYC library facade, while the soundstage houses continue to use a pathway past this queue to the back area, and Twister.

Basically the 4 front of the park houses would have queues in front of the stage, Twister and behind, under Rockit and backstage, and NYC streets facade.

 

[SkipperGarrett]

Looking at the HHN 14/15 maps I think they could do something like this one year:

Enter/Exit through Port of Entry + Scarezone
USF is Exit only
Bill and Ted in Toon Lagoon Amphitheater
Scarezone in Marvel (if allowed)
House in Marvel
Scarezone behind Hard Rock Cafe/Seuss leading to soundstages / Production Central
2 SS houses accessed by that scarezone
House in Poseidon's Fury
Scarezone behind Lost Continent connecting to NY (ala Fright Yard)
2 SS Houses accessed back in this scarezone
Scarezone in NY / San Fran
1 House in Disaster Queue
(If need be for 8th house, we could use Popeyes queue again like in 02)
Bring back the thematic show at the end of the Port of Entry scarezone

So..
7/8 Houses
5 Scarezones
2 Shows

Attractions:
Despicable Me
Rip, Ride, Rockit
Transformers
Mummy
Hulk
Doom
Spiderman

It's doable..I think.

 

[Nitro_230]

Me theory is the 8th house could be held in this building..I believe there is PLENTY of space inside based on these pictures to hold a respectively sized house.

This is where the Tweet Up was held a couple of years ago.

That is an event building, used pretty consistently for private events. I highly doubt they would want to take it out of the event loop from July - mid November. Plus the mentioned queue issues.

It's been confirmed by several other sources as well. If they were to do two parks, they'd change the generic page to mention the park just like they change it for the dates.

I've heard it from sources (Many of whom when you talk to point toward the website), but I wouldn't really call it a conformation. It's obviously not truly confirmed, universal hasn't said anything. And none of the people who I've seen confirm it are on/know the HHN team.

I'd also like to point out that there is a plan in place every year to open IOA on peak nights if the park becomes to crowded. There are large signs stored over in IOA on wheels ready to roll out. They are generic so they don't have to be updated to that years theme. So IOA is always an option.

As far as changing the site, again it lists popular rides and Transformers isn't listed. You would also think they would add that, or do I take that as confirmation Transformers won't be open?

 

[Capacity]

I've always imagined a house in the extended Mummy queue.

 

[Nitro_230]

I've always imagined a house in the extended Mummy queue.

It would be nice, lots of space. There are lots of operational issues they would run into unfortunately. (Most importantly the line is to long in July/August to shut it down)

 

[Tbad556]

I've heard it from sources (Many of whom when you talk to point toward the website), but I wouldn't really call it a conformation. It's obviously not truly confirmed, universal hasn't said anything. And none of the people who I've seen confirm it are on/know the HHN team.

I'd also like to point out that there is a plan in place every year to open IOA on peak nights if the park becomes to crowded. There are large signs stored over in IOA on wheels ready to roll out. They are generic so they don't have to be updated to that years theme. So IOA is always an option.

As far as changing the site, again it lists popular rides and Transformers isn't listed. You would also think they would add that, or do I take that as confirmation Transformers won't be open?

At the time of the update, Transformer's opening date had not been set, so it's possible that they were holding off for an official announcement. However, with the changes to the official website and the Universal website, along with Universal's UK website already selling tickets for an event placed in USF, I'd say that it's not just a copy/paste job by them. Not to mention, the generic text has been slightly changed up from last year's. Why change some text, but not the park if it's known that that information is incorrect? The attractions are still accurate, even if they're not listing all of the ones that will be open.

 

[Capacity]

It would be nice, lots of space. There are lots of operational issues they would run into unfortunately. (Most importantly the line is to long in July/August to shut it down)

They could do it Disney style and set up the outdoor queue out by the lockers.

 

[Nitro_230]

At the time of the update, Transformer's opening date had not been set, so it's possible that they were holding off for an official announcement. However, with the changes to the official website and the Universal website, along with Universal's UK website already selling tickets for an event placed in USF, I'd say that it's not just a copy/paste job by them. Not to mention, the generic text has been slightly changed up from last year's. Why change some text, but not the park if it's known that that information is incorrect? The attractions are still accurate, even if they're not listing all of the ones that will be open.

I'm not disagreeing that it will probably be in USF. I'm just saying they don't put as much time into this first round as you would think. Like last year how the very first version of it referenced scare zones, not roaming hoards.

- - - Updated - - -

They could do it Disney style and set up the outdoor queue out by the lockers.

They've done that before, in fact they just destroyed that queue setup when they re-worked the new entrance.

 

[Tbad556]

I'm not disagreeing that it will probably be in USF. I'm just saying they don't put as much time into this first round as you would think. Like last year how the very first version of it referenced scare zones, not roaming hoards.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. No disagreement here, just trying to explain why I feel pretty comfortable with what the site is saying park-wise. :thumbs:

 

[Nitro_230]

Fair point. They used to be a lot more willing to throw sections of IOA open on HHN nights to help with crowed issues (The past few years not so much). I wish they would get back into that. If people are dumb enough to pay for HHN and walk all the way over to Marvel for Hulk and Spider-Man I say go for it.