Halloween Horror Nights 30 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors (2021)

[Brian G.]

Next person who brings up anything political is gone from the boards.

Please move on from the DeSantis executive order discussion as well.

 

[reeseyNG]

I am very excited for Universal Studio's Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 30, the nation's premiere Halloween Event

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I am very excited for Universal Studio's Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 30, the nation's premiere Halloween Event

Never Go Alone

I'm still very interested to see how zones are handled this year. Even if we have a relatively normal event, I'm not sure actors will feel comfortable mingling around the crowds already.

 

[Shinigami]

I recently had a talk with my prof for my Eventmanagement/Marketing classes about HHN and we talked about how HHNs way of announcement is influenced by certain things like other events, tours they do during HHN etc. so my/ my professors best guess is that if they will announce sth in the near future it will be 2 announcements in a relatively quickly order (within 1 or 2 weeks of each other) and the second will probably also include tickets based on how HHN ties everything together. What do you guys/girls* think?

 

[PlatinumFate]

I recently had a talk with my prof for my Eventmanagement/Marketing classes about HHN and we talked about how HHNs way of announcement is influenced by certain things like other events, tours they do during HHN etc. so my/ my professors best guess is that if they will announce sth in the near future it will be 2 announcements in a relatively quickly order (within 1 or 2 weeks of each other) and the second will probably also include tickets based on how HHN ties everything together. What do you guys/girls* think?

My best guess is that they'll want to announce something to rebuild hype before tickets or they'll just go straight for announcing tickets. I don't know though, I definitely don't know as much about marketing as your professor lol. Idk what HHN is going to want to do but my best guess was that they were waiting for Mardi Gras to finish or something.

 

[Legacy]

Historically, HHN has started selling tickets even before they announce anything. The tickets sales start strictly with the website update/aesthetics reveal or with the announcement of a biggest IP.

VelociCoaster is the primary focus. They want people planning summer trips to ride their new jewel. Announcing anything big (and especially selling tickets) prior to the summer window “closing” runs counter to that strategy, as it incentivizes guests to wait until the fall to come.

We will likely see tickets go on sale the end of June, with the announcement that Bride and Tooth are returning plus a second IP (likely Hill House, but maybe TCM). From there, they’ll maintain the push for packages through August (8 weeks), with likely weekly to bi-weekly announcements.

 

[dxwwf3]

Historically, HHN has started selling tickets even before they announce anything. The tickets sales start strictly with the website update/aesthetics reveal or with the announcement of a biggest IP.

VelociCoaster is the primary focus. They want people planning summer trips to ride their new jewel. Announcing anything big (and especially selling tickets) prior to the summer window “closing” runs counter to that strategy, as it incentivizes guests to wait until the fall to come.

We will likely see tickets go on sale the end of June, with the announcement that Bride and Tooth are returning plus a second IP (likely Hill House, but maybe TCM). From there, they’ll maintain the push for packages through August (8 weeks), with likely weekly to bi-weekly announcements.

That makes a lot of sense. The added dynamic of capacity makes ticket sales interesting too. If you wait too long to release tickets, you could lose momentum. But you also still don't know what things will look like in September and October yet.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Historically, HHN has started selling tickets even before they announce anything. The tickets sales start strictly with the website update/aesthetics reveal or with the announcement of a biggest IP.

VelociCoaster is the primary focus. They want people planning summer trips to ride their new jewel. Announcing anything big (and especially selling tickets) prior to the summer window “closing” runs counter to that strategy, as it incentivizes guests to wait until the fall to come.

We will likely see tickets go on sale the end of June, with the announcement that Bride and Tooth are returning plus a second IP (likely Hill House, but maybe TCM). From there, they’ll maintain the push for packages through August (8 weeks), with likely weekly to bi-weekly announcements.

This is what I think we'll see too.

FWIW, I think if you like steady announcements the next two or three years will be good for them as Universal likely won't have major attractions opening to worry about.

 

[Legacy]

That makes a lot of sense. The added dynamic of capacity makes ticket sales interesting too. If you wait too long to release tickets, you could lose momentum. But you also still don't know what things will look like in September and October yet.

Typically (and broadly), most people plan vacations about two months in advance. Disney and HHN are outliers because of the “premiere” nature of their existence. However, this year the premiere element is a bit of a non-factor. We’re still *in* a pandemic, so it’s a more traditional advertising cycle

So, what we’re seeing is a heavy, national campaign for VelociCoaster 2 months prior to its opening (the vacation planning window). Those vacations will take place June/July with some into August.

The big advertising push for HHN will start in July. While those people are already vacationing, talking about how much they want to come back to ride VelociCoaster again, Universal will be saying, “Here’s another reason to come back.” Those June/July/August vacationers are now making plans for September/October visits.

Once HHN is “set” (end of September), we should start seeing the flood of holiday announcements. The September/October visitors are now being told they should come back November/December. Again, the two-month window.

Holidays lean into Mardi Gras (February/March), and in April of next year we should be back to a more standard HHN “premiere marketing” schedule.

 

[DannyPowers]

This is what I think we'll see too.

FWIW, I think if you like steady announcements the next two or three years will be good for them as Universal likely won't have major attractions opening to worry about.

I could see them dropping one more little announcement (zones maybe?) in the gutter between the Voloci soft launch and the official opening date. So, possibly later May or very early June.

I don't foresee it being any of the major houses though. Although, we also have a pesky holiday in there too. Marketing professionals tend to avoid releasing anything around those.

 

[Legacy]

I could see them dropping one more little announcement (zones maybe?) in the gutter between the Voloci soft launch and the official opening date. So, possibly later May or very early June.

I don't foresee it being any of the major houses though. Although, we also have a pesky holiday in there too. Marketing professionals tend to avoid releasing anything around those.

They wouldn’t announce zones this early. A half decent “carrot” announcement would be the Tooth/Bride return. It would serve to maintain awareness without building a lot of hype. If they do that, then Icons Captured is likely included in the ticket announcement to entice die-hards alongside an IP for the general public.

That said, if that sort of “maintenance” announcement happens (and I don’t think it will), it would be next week or the week after. It would have to be far enough ahead of Memorial day to get full impact.

 

[DannyPowers]

They wouldn’t announce zones this early. A half decent “carrot” announcement would be the Tooth/Bride return. It would serve to maintain awareness without building a lot of hype. If they do that, then Icons Captured is likely included in the ticket announcement to entice die-hards alongside an IP for the general public.

That said, if that sort of “maintenance” announcement happens (and I don’t think it will), it would be next week or the week after. It would have to be far enough ahead of Memorial day to get full impact.

Bride/Tooth would make total sense. Although, an early zone announcement wouldn't be out of the ordinary. We had all of the original zones announced for HHN28 on June 7th.

 

[Legacy]

Bride/Tooth would make total sense. Although, an early zone announcement wouldn't be out of the ordinary. We had all of the original zones announced for HHN28 on June 7th.

Except it’s May, and they had already announced 3 or so houses by that point.

EDIT - I also want to address any “They already announced Beetlejuice” discussion. Beetlejuice opened last year because of a contract stipulation regarding the selling of the BJ merch. Rumors suggest the “merch preview” was similarly related to contract stipulations. All of that implies the BJ announcement may have been more related to the contract (written based on the “premiere” marketing strategy) than the current 2-month strategy.

Basically, if they had to sell the merch, they had to announce the house in order to sell the merch.

 

[reeseyNG]

I'm still very interested to see how zones are handled this year. Even if we have a relatively normal event, I'm not sure actors will feel comfortable mingling around the crowds already.

If Mardi Gras was any telling, I'm gonna expect actors on stages/stilts masked doing vaguely spooky gestures at us. I'm hopeful that we get a bit more focus onto the scenework since I'm assuming we'll have little to no in-your-face scares on the streets. I'd love to see larger set pieces again, though that does lead to a lot of congestion in a time where being close is gonna still cause a lot of anxiety for people, myself included.

 

[Brian G.]

EDIT - I also want to address any “They already announced Beetlejuice” discussion. Beetlejuice opened last year because of a contract stipulation regarding the selling of the BJ merch. Rumors suggest the “merch preview” was similarly related to contract stipulations. All of that implies the BJ announcement may have been more related to the contract (written based on the “premiere” marketing strategy) than the current 2-month strategy.

Basically, if they had to sell the merch, they had to announce the house in order to sell the merch.

That, and I think they wanted to announce that HHN was happening without giving away any of "the goods" just in case they had to pivot, adjust, etc if any pandemic issues caused another delay.

If Mardi Gras was any telling, I'm gonna expect actors on stages/stilts masked doing vaguely spooky gestures at us. I'm hopeful that we get a bit more focus onto the scenework since I'm assuming we'll have little to no in-your-face scares on the streets. I'd love to see larger set pieces again, though that does lead to a lot of congestion in a time where being close is gonna still cause a lot of anxiety for people, myself included.

I honestly don't think we're going to see anything other than recommended (not required) mask usage.

 

[reeseyNG]

I honestly don't think we're going to see anything other than recommended (not required) mask usage.

Wow, actually? That's genuinely shocking for me. Do you mean recommended for actors or guests? (Or both, I guess) I'm not gonna lie, I was prepping for a fully masked event.

 

[Brian G.]

Wow, actually? That's genuinely shocking for me. Do you mean recommended for actors or guests? (Or both, I guess) I'm not gonna lie, I was prepping for a fully masked event.

Both, just by reading the tea leaves..

They're already adjusting policies at the Resort as we speak; and with recent announcements that Broadway is looking to open 100% capacity by Sept and Biden saying we would be going back to a pre-pandemic lifestyle by July 4th, I see no reason to believe it'll be a required need (barring a setback).

 

[Tbad556]

Both, just by reading the tea leaves..

They're already adjusting policies at the Resort as we speak; and with recent announcements that Broadway is looking to open 100% capacity by Sept and Biden saying we would be going back to a pre-pandemic lifestyle by July 4th, I see no reason to believe it'll be a required need (barring a setback).

Yep. I've been preaching this for like a month now. Like you said, the writing is on the walls. Other states are pushing towards full reopenings, vaccine data looks good for a few months from now, and we're even seeing those first events starting back up within the state (UFC event, Machine Gun Kelly full capacity concert, AEW just announced a full capacity PPV event at the end of the month, etc.). The theme parks don't want the optics of being "first" to make the leap, but at this point, they won't be with everyone else making their big announcements like broadway and concerts/tours/festivals rolling out again.

Even with the Orange County phases that were in place, we're on pace to hit Phase 2 very shortly which removes distancing measures completely and Phase 3 wouldn't have been too far behind. It helps the optics too knowing that vaccines are incredibly accessible now with almost every big chain store (Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, etc) offering them with no appointments needed.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Both, just by reading the tea leaves..

They're already adjusting policies at the Resort as we speak; and with recent announcements that Broadway is looking to open 100% capacity by Sept and Biden saying we would be going back to a pre-pandemic lifestyle by July 4th, I see no reason to believe it'll be a required need (barring a setback).

What do you mean by "adjusting policies"? Maybe I missed something.

 

[Tbad556]

What do you mean by "adjusting policies"? Maybe I missed something.

Distancing has dropped from 6 feet to 3 feet & isn't being enforced nearly as hard (basically nonexistent at security). Additionally, temperature check is supposedly going away tomorrow from what I (along with others) have been told.