Honestly, the streets outside of Vamp mainly due to its theme/idea, aren't congested too much with people just there milling around. The zone ops this year have been very active in telling people to keep moving and to not stop in the dead center of the zones.
I just think the event artificially congests itself by doing things that take away guest space (like the Exorcist queue at the music plaza, that's valuable space that can be used for seating/bar tables for the adjacent food booths), tries to cram way too much into the same area (placing 3 houses, tribute store, and a zone) all in the same corner of the park, or creates unnecessary bottlenecks by placing scare zone props in the dead center of zones (that random crate with Tinkerbell in Shipyard - poor stiltwalkers just stand to the side).
HHN is definitely undervalued in pricing, but they need to change a few things before they start actively trying to dissuade people from attending ala Disney... which figured out it was the wrong approach.
Streets for me are never crowded or full except for the potter area. And the fast and furious shipyard zone. Everything else isn't very crowded.
Oddfellow maybe, but not really.
Why? Is the event not tremendously profitable as it is? Is it losing money?
I don’t have any idea who is attending repeatedly “to be seen” - I highly suspect that number is insignificant to the overall crowd. I steadfastly reject the idea that it’s a good idea for theme parks to attempt to dictate how guests experience them. HHN in particular is an event that absolutely thrives on atmosphere - forcing guests to power through 10 houses robs it of much of its charm and will alienate a significant portion of the audience.
Before Universal begins excluding large portions of their audience, it would be great if they tried SOMETHING to expand the capacity of the event. It’s structure has been largely stagnant for years and this year (though I thought it was a great year overall), it ran with fewer shows and smaller scarezones then previous events. Perhaps the tremendously lucrative event could experiment and innovate a bit before slamming the gates on eager guests.
Some of The people I do see trying to be "seen" is a lot of girls in costumes. A bunch of them. Even much more this year, I noticed a lot.
Ive seen.... "sexy nurses, sexy nun, sexy bride, sexy Harley Quinn, Edward scissorhands, Lydia from bettlejuice, sexy Chucky, sexy Beetlejuice, sexy Freddy Kruger. Sexy demons, sexy ghostbuster", sexy pirate, etc etc.
Ive noticed the same girls on different nights, just walking around the park and not going into houses or rides, but instead making vids or taking pics around the park
(Im not criticizing or trying to knock anyone down, it's kinda cool. Feels like a Halloween party.)
I'm just saying that I definitely notice them going to hhn to walk around.
They are also some of the guests that see nightmare fuel every time I go to see it.
I recognize the same girls from previous times. (Even yesterday I saw some of them dressed like fairies or something. Full on fairy costume.)
The event is bringing a lot of Instagram style influencers and they dressed up in costumes. It's easy to notice. I'm not hating, but I see the change.
( HHN Hollywood is even allowing costumes now? I saw a headline about that)
I agreed with a post that laid out a wide and fairly imaginative range of ways to increase the event capacity, including (off the top of my head) utilizing the area in front of Blue Man, relocating the San Fran and Central Park scarezones, adding what amounts to a festival center, reconfiguring lines… a lot of great suggestions. I ignored the ROF suggestion because the overwhelming majority of the post was exactly the sort of capacity increasing ideas the event needs - and quite frankly I was happy to find common ground with you.
I think I’ve been very consistent about loathing the idea of theme parks discouraging spontaneity and attempting to dictate guests behavior - it’s why I shifted from vacationing at Disney to vacationing at Universal.
I honestly don’t know what you’re insinuating, but if you want to accuse me of something, feel free to do so.
Something very easy, very simple and quick that universal can do is live music performances
Not a big famous band.
But a local band dressed like zombies or skeletons that would play music. Either a cover band or play famous songs in a metal remix or creepy remix version.
Have them play on a stage with some dancers dressed like ghouls or demons. Have 2 dancers on each corner, ( 4 dancers)
Like death drums but on a stage. Have them play 4 times a night.
Easy.
-Have a stage with music instruments.
Have places for dancers. Have the band dressed like monsters. Play music. No fireworks or anything. No stunts,
Just a regular monster band. Playing the monster mash and stuff. Easy. Simple. Entertaining
I'd have to imagine that out of the 1.5K guests a show, a good chunk is there just cause its the only option.
