Halloween Horror Nights 28 General Discussion

[JoeCamel]

Chilling in Simpson and they said they will release into Slaughter Sinema and Seeds of Extinction with Trick R treat opening at 6 and Dead Exposire at 6.30

Thank you!

 

[rinacee]

I feel like, generally, if you can get through a house or two, you understand what the gist is and the houses get less scary

I agree with this. I am a total scaredy cat but I've been going for the last six years. I never stop getting anxious before the event, but after a house or two (and maybe a drink...) it gets easier. It's a bit of an adrenaline rush after the first one.

 

[SeventyOne]

I remember last year’s opening night had a less-than expected crowd which is probably the reason that they made their projections the way they did this year.

Word from a solid source is Saturday had even more guests than Friday. The "Orlando Effect" explanation--all the bloggers wanted to be there opening night--seems to be out the window. This is likely the new normal. And OPs is not ready for that.

Serious Suggestions to Improve Starting Wednesday:
* Re-0pen Diagon for Stay & Scream--no other self-contained venue large enough to contain the crowd. Then keep Leaky open for the entire event, you need the dining capacity. Might even need to bring in a couple food trucks for the weekends.
* No free TM admission. Far from a majority, but not an insignificant minority. With the sheer numbers, can't allow this anymore. Follow the WDW model, charge them half-price thru September.
* Retrain OPs re: Express. Be flexible, if an Express guest is fumbling, send a small stand-by party through.
* Hire real bartenders for Monsters Cafe, make it a semi-full bar like the old days. Maybe MiB bar as well. Need at least two more locations.

 

[Teebin]

Does anyone know what the execution (pardon the pun) budget for HHN is? $10M, $20M???

 

[Legacy]

Does anyone know what the execution (pardon the pun) budget for HHN is? $10M, $20M???

Just house construction is about $1 million a house. Performer wage through the season is between $1.5-$2 million. That doesn't account for the contracted designers, management, and additional support. Plus licensing fees, ops, marketing...

Execution is probably between $18-$25 million. Total costs is probably around $30.

 

[JoeCamel]

Informational signs along roadways stating parking is $22 til 10
They are adjusting to feedback

 

[Lucky Planet]

Hi!

I have not attended any HHNs in the past. Though this year looks super fun. I am thinking about going this year with my sister (who has taunted me about going) The only problem is that I am easily scared. I also don't like being scared. I hate any kind of jumpscare basically. Can someone tell me how intense this is compared to a local event or compared to the Kong booholes? Thank you.

It kinda is the same as the kong boo holes but without the light in the kong line,
Imagine if the kong line was much darker and if the actors in the kong boo hole had super loud speakers with buttons they can press to scare u with sounds.

Sometimes what scares you is not even the actors themselves but the loud sudden sounds.

Technically yeah, the boo holes are the same as kong, but the houses are more disorienting and the pathways can be more narrow
And much darker.

Also some actors blend very well to the walls and sets and u get scared from them sirprising u.

That’s kinda the whole point of it. Uni. dosent want people coming to the event to get a lot done with free parking. If you get free parking you should have a less amount of time and it was advertised at the parking toll which is where it should be.

I disagree about it being advertised on the parking toll.

I totally understand the need to raise the time from 8 pm to 10 pm,
Sure,they want people to pay parking, and free parking is a privilege after all ( they could easily not offer free parking at all.)

But i really think it should be advertised outside of just reaching the parking.
It sucks to arrive at the park not knowing.

Word from a solid source is Saturday had even more guests than Friday. The "Orlando Effect" explanation--all the bloggers wanted to be there opening night--seems to be out the window. This is likely the new normal. And OPs is not ready for that.

Serious Suggestions to Improve Starting Wednesday:
* Re-0pen Diagon for Stay & Scream--no other self-contained venue large enough to contain the crowd. Then keep Leaky open for the entire event, you need the dining capacity. Might even need to bring in a couple food trucks for the weekends.
* No free TM admission. Far from a majority, but not an insignificant minority. With the sheer numbers, can't allow this anymore. Follow the WDW model, charge them half-price thru September.
* Retrain OPs re: Express. Be flexible, if an Express guest is fumbling, send a small stand-by party through.
* Hire real bartenders for Monsters Cafe, make it a semi-full bar like the old days. Maybe MiB bar as well. Need at least two more locations.

What about frequent fear?

Should opening weekend be excluded from now on?
Would that help

 

[SeventyOne]

I totally understand the need to raise the time from 8 pm to 10 pm,
Sure,they want people to pay parking, and free parking is a privilege after all ( they could easily not offer free parking at all.)

But i really think it should be advertised outside of just reaching the parking.
It sucks to arrive at the park not knowing.

I totally agree. When you change up a policy guests have relied on for two decades, that requires some notice. See also: no long selling multi-night tickets to APs at the gate. (Which still stymies me, what is the thinking there???)

What about frequent fear?

Should opening weekend be excluded from now on?
Would that help

I'd increase prices first--at least doubling, to be honest. Again, unlike yesterday, I'm not convinced these crowds are going to dissipate completely come Wednesday.

 

[JoeCamel]

.
I disagree about it being advertised on the parking toll.

I totally understand the need to raise the time from 8 pm to 10 pm,
Sure,they want people to pay parking, and free parking is a privilege after all ( they could easily not offer free parking at all.)

But i really think it should be advertised outside of just reaching the parking.
It sucks to arrive at the park not knowing.



What about frequent fear?

Should opening weekend be excluded from now on?
Would that help

The parking is now on roadside signs leading to the garage

 

[JoeCamel]

I totally agree. When you change up a policy guests have relied on for two decades, that requires some notice. See also: no long selling multi-night tickets to APs at the gate. (Which still stymies me, what is the thinking there???)





I'd increase prices first--at least doubling, to be honest. Again, unlike yesterday, I'm not convinced these crowds are going to dissipate completely come Wednesday.

I don't think the crowds will be down but it is being run much better tonight. It may be less people but it is running much better with the exception of Stanger Things. That is still a cluster

 

[bob albert]

I'm not sure the parking change wont make things worse to start crowd wise as people will just say screw it and go for opening that used to wait until 8 to save money, esp season pass/ frequent fear guests.

I said that stranger things is going to have lines and attendance like you have never seen before and it looks like I will be right about that. People seriously underestimate the driving factor of social media to entertainment now for destinations like universal. I have seen numerous popular sites and vloggers talk about stranger things specifically at universal. I'm not ever sure universal has been able to account for the rise in popularity so quickly. I know they added a few more days this year but they really need to make the even every day solid for the entirety of the event at this point.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Well... a lady was carrying a 10 month old baby into trick r treat just now so....
I wonder if they are gonna let her in the house

Also the park is less crowded today. Shorter lines. Clear skies, Nice warm night.

 

[JunoSynth]

Well... a lady was carrying a 10 month old baby into trick r treat just now so....
I wonder if they are gonna let her in the house

Also the park is less crowded today. Shorter lines. Clear skies, Nice warm night.

Wow. Just wow. Every once in a while I'll see a dumb parent force their kids on rides/haunted houses when they are crying out of their mind. That stuff pisses me off.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I'm not sure the parking change wont make things worse to start crowd wise as people will just say screw it and go for opening that used to wait until 8 to save money, esp season pass/ frequent fear guests.

I said that stranger things is going to have lines and attendance like you have never seen before and it looks like I will be right about that. People seriously underestimate the driving factor of social media to entertainment now for destinations like universal. I have seen numerous popular sites and vloggers talk about stranger things specifically at universal. I'm not ever sure universal has been able to account for the rise in popularity so quickly. I know they added a few more days this year but they really need to make the even every day solid for the entirety of the event at this point.

People on fb are already trying to figure out places outside of uni to park, like u said, people that were fine with 8 pm parking are trying to figure out how to just park somewhere else at 6 pm and walk.

Also other people have thought about parking away from international and pay uber to take them to universal. ( will rather pay 5 bucks in 5 bucks out than pay the 22

 

[Lucky Planet]

Wow. Just wow. Every once in a while I'll see a dumb parent force their kids on rides/haunted houses whey they are crying out of their mind. That stuff pisses me off.

I was leaving, but i think someone in her group was against it because she said " what are they gonna do? Not let us in???"
The baby was asleep. It made me wonder if this was their first house ir not

 

[Avvie Cunnington]

My first year this year at HHN, went on opening night and was surprised to see a woman with a stroller, a man with a baby strapped to his chest, and 3 dogs (including a puppy) in the line for StrThgs. Was shocked but didn't know if this was the norm!

Also several younger kids (i know it just suggests 13 and above) but one looked about 8 that Chucky made a point of asking him how old he was and why his mother had allowed him to come (or something along those lines)

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

I leave the thread for 5 days and it all goes to HoB. (heehee)



Had so much fun this weekend, attended both 10:30-closing on Friday and the full Saturday w/o express, and managed to not only hit every house on that fateful Saturday, but even had time to do a Carnival repeat.

I'd say 8 out of 10 houses are stellar this year(!), but the zones are about as good as last year, maybe just a bit better. Opening weekend review should be up this week.


A few thoughts on the event as a whole:

- I didn't notice a decrease of intensity in the actors at all, hell, an actress in CG accidentally (I hope) shoulder bashed my bud so hard that he thought he was going to tumble into the car prop, and a vine thoroughly pecked him on the side of his head in SoX.

- I have to give it to StrTh and TrT, I had low expectations for both but they are phenomenal.

- They didn’t neuter DE like many (including me) assumed they would, it’s extremely intense! Interestingly, SoX seems like it might have been a bit neutered, but I’ll discuss these houses further in their threads.

- Didn't see that "emergency zone" in San Fran on Saturday.

- Many houses had longer posted times, but the longest actual wait we waited in (keep in mind w/o Express) was 50 minutes, excluding the 80+ beating the StrTh wait was at the end of the night.

- Wh-ARE THOSE VHS TAPES STILL NOT ON THE SITE?? :fist:


Also, seems this post got lost in the waves of debate over whether our actors are spoiled or not, but I'm very interested:

The carnival house had a prop that broke or something like that and the line is stuck for a long time....

Security said a prop (or part of the house) fell and they had to clean up...

I'ts a very beautifully detailed house, so I'd hate for any piece of the experience to be lost in the memories of those first few night-ers. Anyone know what the incident was?


See y'all on the threads! It's good to be back.

Oh! and to that lurker I met while waiting for the Cabana Bay bus, hi! :wave:

 

[jrn14]

I see on the app Stranger Things is posting a 60 minute wait. That I will be able to handle.

 

[Lucky Planet]

The guest survey at the exit of the event is different this time.

They ask for your ticket and then scan it before you do the survey now.

Also at the end, they dont ask for ur email or dont ask for suggestions or comments anymore.
Just comments on the houses

 

[MattA]

Tonight was easily the best night I’ve ever had at HHN! Empty crowds! Amazingly high energy from all casts! What an event A&D has created this year! 10/10!!