Hi all! In y'all's experience, how much of a difference does having express make? Like how much faster do you get through the lines with vs without?
Hey there! In my personal experience (2018, 2019 & 2021), Express is a very nice luxury to have. And for me a great benefit of Express is the ability to enjoy the event at your own leisure. With it, I'm able to hang around in the scare zones and enjoy the atmosphere, I'm able to take as many breaks as I want to try out the many food options that are in the park, I can take in a show or two, and still go through all the houses at least once. Also, because I can enjoy HHN at my leisure, I don't need to rely on Stay and Scream to catch everything. I can start my evening at one of the hotel bars or restaurants in Citywalk.
Now yes, it's perfectly possible to hit up all ten houses in one night without express. You pretty much need to take advantage of Stay and Scream and have a proper gameplan, and that gameplan can get a lot more stricter depending on what night you go. (An there's some nights later in the season where it's just better getting Express to see all the houses.) I know folks who're totally fine with a plan like that, though some prefer to take it easy and Express makes it very possible to do so.
Now for how much faster you can through than standby, it can depend on the ops. Generally, it's always felt like a significantly shorter wait than standby, though if the merge point isn't well handled, you end up with accounts from folks like
@amar831 who waited as long as the standby if not longer. (Now that I think about it, BJ's merge wasn't always the best for me either.)
Overall, I'd recommend Express. I've gotten way more advantages with it over disadvantages.