Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Brian G.]

Fun Data

• The busiest HHN night in Orlando was the 16th of September, and the slowest was the November Friday.
• Busiest overall weekend was 9/21-9/24 for the last week of Rush of Fear access, no weekend came close to that after
• The week before Halloween (typically 2nd busiest weekend after "hell week") was slow... might indicate HHN has hit a price ceiling on 1-night tickets?

View attachment 20435

A noticeable difference when ROF ends.

 

[SeventyOne]

HHN has started on Labor Day weekend the past 2 years...

I also don't see them extending the event past October 31st. No need to extend far into November, maybe they add Nov 1/2 since it's a Friday-Saturday, but last year's November nights were dead quiet. Saturday was busy, but mostly due to all the FF pass members being there.

Fun Data

• The busiest HHN night in Orlando was the 16th of September, and the slowest was the November Friday.
• Busiest overall weekend was 9/21-9/24 for the last week of Rush of Fear access, no weekend came close to that after
• The week before Halloween (typically 2nd busiest weekend after "hell week") was slow... might indicate HHN has hit a price ceiling on 1-night tickets?

View attachment 20435

Much as I'm sure HHN will start Labor Day weekend, I think end date is up in the air. Corporate culture would be to run it thru Saturday, and that will be hard to change. But I think it comes down to whatever the new ticket structure is (and there has to be something new). Tho it was never going to be packed, closing weekend being so slow in 2023 probably has a lot to do with halting the sale of FF in September and not opening the nights up to existing FF holders (just FF+) despite tradition.

• The week before Halloween (typically 2nd busiest weekend after "hell week") was slow... might indicate HHN has hit a price ceiling on 1-night tickets?

Can we bookmark this for July? For when people complain about the overhaul of ticketing and pricing? HHN32 had TWO "killer apps:" ripped from the pop culture zeitgeist, yet underperformed Halloween week. 1-night tickets might be too expensive, but multinight tickets (especially RoF) are clearly too cheap.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

*in before they release multi-night tickets with no changes* lol

If anything, I see them opening August 30th just so they can do the "MOST NIGHTS EVER" marketing phrase

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Much as I'm sure HHN will start Labor Day weekend, I think end date is up in the air. Corporate culture would be to run it thru Saturday, and that will be hard to change. But I think it comes down to whatever the new ticket structure is (and there has to be something new). Tho it was never going to be packed, closing weekend being so slow in 2023 probably has a lot to do with halting the sale of FF in September and not opening the nights up to existing FF holders (just FF+) despite tradition.

• The week before Halloween (typically 2nd busiest weekend after "hell week") was slow... might indicate HHN has hit a price ceiling on 1-night tickets?

Can we bookmark this for July? For when people complain about the overhaul of ticketing and pricing? HHN32 had TWO "killer apps:" ripped from the pop culture zeitgeist, yet underperformed Halloween week. 1-night tickets might be too expensive, but multinight tickets (especially RoF) are clearly too cheap.

HHN has been severely underpriced for FF passes for a long time, even with all the recent success. Always found it odd that those passes would only jump $10-20ish dollars a year (without Express) while normal tickets would jump similar levels. Worked out for them, as they managed to somehow spread attendance throughout the event.

The question is, what do you do in September? Increase pricing significantly or follow Disney's route of reservations/artificially impacting attendance?

Excluding pricing, HHN still has options that don't involve price actions to improve the guest experience through upping entertainment and dining capacity.

 

[Brian G.]

HHN has been severely underpriced for FF passes for a long time, even with all the recent success. Always found it odd that those passes would only jump $10-20ish dollars a year (without Express) while normal tickets would jump similar levels. Worked out for them, as they managed to somehow spread attendance throughout the event.

The question is, what do you do in September? Increase pricing significantly or follow Disney's route of reservations/artificially impacting attendance?

Excluding pricing, HHN still has options that don't involve price actions to improve the guest experience through upping entertainment and dining capacity.

Kill RoF.

One of the common things people used to do before last year was "stagger" their pass. They'd buy RoF, then wait to upgrade FFP. Last year, Universal said no more and made a hard cut-off date to upgrade - and the crowds saw a downward trend.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

HHN has been severely underpriced for FF passes for a long time, even with all the recent success. Always found it odd that those passes would only jump $10-20ish dollars a year (without Express) while normal tickets would jump similar levels. Worked out for them, as they managed to somehow spread attendance throughout the event.

The question is, what do you do in September? Increase pricing significantly or follow Disney's route of reservations/artificially impacting attendance?

Excluding pricing, HHN still has options that don't involve price actions to improve the guest experience through upping entertainment and dining capacity.

I've mentioned it before, but if I were in charge of overhauling the ticketing system it would just be done as simply as "Choose how many nights you want to attend"

1/2/3/4/5 day tickets with or without Express - anything beyond that requires Frequent Fear (which would see a pretty decent price bump)

 

[SeventyOne]

Kill RoF.

One of the common things people used to do before last year was "stagger" their pass. They'd buy RoF, then wait to upgrade FFP. Last year, Universal said no more and made a hard cut-off date to upgrade - and the crowds saw a downward trend.

Idk, this punishes high-spending out-of-town superfans, keeps the feast/famine crowd levels, just shifting the busier nights later in the year. Does little to address the apparent perception that with the current perceived crowds, single-night tickets are no longer worth it. I think they need either a complete overhaul of how we think of ticketing, or keep the current ticket options but jack up multinight prices.

I've mentioned it before, but if I were in charge of overhauling the ticketing system it would just be done as simply as "Choose how many nights you want to attend"

1/2/3/4/5 day tickets with or without Express - anything beyond that requires Frequent Fear (which would see a pretty decent price bump)

Current break-even point for FF is 3 nights, so this plan would require quite a hefty price increase. Also don't see it working unless the 3 - 5 nights have to be used within, say, 7 or 10 days. Otherwise Opening Night, Hell Week and October 31 go to capacity with little warning, the Wednesdays in September remain empty. (Barring a reservation system, which complicates things so much just start from scratch.)

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Pricing is their best option. Reservations do nothing but complicate the experience.

I think they could easily simplify the ticket structure and increase pricing.

• Kill Rush of Fear (replace with 2-3 night ticket packages, priced differently between a weekend/weekday structure)
• Kill any Express option with Frequent Fear passes
• I'd argue only offer UFF, with a price increase obviously, and another new FF option that runs through the event, but excludes all Saturdays, but can include a few Fridays/Saturdays.

Outside of the 3 major IPs last year... waits (actuals not posted) were not unbearable. Crowding was an issue in some locations (Fallon area with 3 houses/tribute store/food) and the MIB plaza, but those are issues that could be easily remedied by spreading out house entrances/dining venues/etc.).

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Current break-even point for FF is 3 nights, so this plan would require quite a hefty price increase. Also don't see it working unless the 3 - 5 nights have to be used within, say, 7 or 10 days. Otherwise Opening Night, Hell Week and October 31 go to capacity with little warning, the Wednesdays in September remain empty. (Barring a reservation system, which complicates things so much just start from scratch.)

This is what my thought was - basically operate it as a park ticket. For example, you have 3 nights of HHN that need to be used within a week or two.

 

[Acandrews12]

With Mardi Gras concerts being announced today, I guess we can rule out a HHN announcement today.

 

[saint.piss]

With Mardi Gras concerts being announced today, I guess we can rule out a HHN announcement today.

 

[Crypt Keeper]

Removing RoF would just push me to buy FF+ or UFF. If people follow suit, and I’m sure they will, October would become unbearable again.

Killing off a ticket option and/or introducing a reservation system won’t help nearly as much as many think. While I’m not a fan of price increases, it would sure be more helpful.

Also, page 33

 

[Jake S]

While I’m not a fan of price increases, it would sure be more helpful.

But if you're willing to spend the extra money to upgrade to FF+ or UFF, wouldn't you also spend the extra money if they raised the price of RoF? Eliminating RoF is effectively a price increase, but with the added benefit of allowing previous RoF purchasers to visit (virtually) any time during the event.

At least, that's how I understand the logic behind it.

 

[Crypt Keeper]

But if you're willing to spend the extra money to upgrade to FF+ or UFF, wouldn't you also spend the extra money if they raised the price of RoF? Eliminating RoF is effectively a price increase, but with the added benefit of allowing previous RoF purchasers to visit (virtually) any time during the event.

At least, that's how I understand the logic behind it.

Eliminating RoF is a drastic price increase and I doubt a price increase this year will be anywhere near that.

 

[Jake S]

Eliminating RoF is a drastic price increase and I doubt a price increase this year will be anywhere near that.

That's my point. Eliminating RoF (so, a drastic price increase) will have more impact on attendance than prices being raised across the board.

 

[Casper Gutman]

They could always make some attempt… any attempt… to increase capacity.

 

[Brian G.]

Here we go again...

 

[DannyPowers]

IDK. I just feel like this is going to be another year where we all say, "This has to be the year that they make some major changes to ticketing." and Uni is just like, "It's going to be busy fam. Buy your express."

We've been talking about major ticketing overhaul for like 3-4 years now and it never ends up coming.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

IDK. I just feel like this is going to be another year where we all say, "This has to be the year that they make some major changes to ticketing." and Uni is just like, "It's going to be busy fam. Buy your express."

We've been talking about major ticketing overhaul for like 3-4 years now and it never ends up coming.

Yeah, I made a similar comment to this earlier lol.

July is gonna roll around and all the usual ticket options will drop with moderate price increases, and the event will still be nuts.

 

[SeventyOne]

Pricing is their best option. Reservations do nothing but complicate the experience.

I think they could easily simplify the ticket structure and increase pricing.

• Kill Rush of Fear (replace with 2-3 night ticket packages, priced differently between a weekend/weekday structure)
• Kill any Express option with Frequent Fear passes
• I'd argue only offer UFF, with a price increase obviously, and another new FF option that runs through the event, but excludes all Saturdays, but can include a few Fridays/Saturdays.

Outside of the 3 major IPs last year... waits (actuals not posted) were not unbearable. Crowding was an issue in some locations (Fallon area with 3 houses/tribute store/food) and the MIB plaza, but those are issues that could be easily remedied by spreading out house entrances/dining venues/etc.).

• I like this, assuming tickets are dated
• Any Express is the enemy of reasonable lines, so I support killing it anywhere we can. But not sure this is that big a game-changer in practice. Come October, Express was rarely long anywhere but TLoU. Abuse of GAC probably a bigger issue.
• I'm pretty sure one of your "Saturday"s was supposed to be "Sunday," but I could see this working either way.

IDK. I just feel like this is going to be another year where we all say, "This has to be the year that they make some major changes to ticketing." and Uni is just like, "It's going to be busy fam. Buy your express."

We've been talking about major ticketing overhaul for like 3-4 years now and it never ends up coming.

Disney did the same for years. Until Galaxy's Edge opened and no massive crowds appeared. What followed was a quiet but concerted effort to downplay lifestylers/APs as Disney park guests.

Again, HHN23 should have been slammed in October, two of the biggest IP gets ever. The normies just never showed up in the numbers they should have, and there weren't as many FF guests to hide that fact. The weekend before Halloween you want it to be slammed, that's the money-making weekend; being slower than September shows they're selling more RoF than single-night tickets. If you visit other unscrupulous sites that republish confidential surveys, it becomes clear this is a concern for Universal.