Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Clive]

No one is saying you can't do as many runs of the houses as you can feasibly manage, with or without express. The underlying point being made is Universal is not designing the event's infrastructure (including its ticketing options/availability) to cater to a desire to marathon them.

 

[Brian G.]

I do want to stress FFP tickets are also still available. I definitely understand frustrations of Express but it’s not like the event is closed off, either.

 

[Tobias]

Pittsburgh is great! RT to MCO is usually around $270-320.

Having enjoyed yet another trip there last weekend (IYKYK), I can fully agree! Pittsburgh is honestly one of my favorite cities, it's got a lot of charm to it, downtown is easily walkable and there's a bunch of damn good food, too.

 

[Midnight Detective]

In theory, limited express means faster lines all around. Remember last year when express was longer than regular lines on multiple nights (and the people in express continued to go to express)?

 

[Acandrews12]

Alcohol still probably my biggest expense

Pizza fries are probably my biggest expense. We are not the same.

I’m a fan and steadfastly believe going through a house more than twice is too much.

Especially those that are now being designed with multiple endings (like Monsters).

I would agree here. This will be my 11th HHN and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve noticed something major or changed my mind about liking a house. The only ones I go through a second time are my favorites or ones where I feel like I got a bad run (cast change, etc.)

Me watchingView attachment 22527 everyone on the internet panic and argue about express when I have been going without express since 2018

the no express clan for life

17 years without express and counting

indeed, but I don’t mind waiting in line.

As I mentioned, I’ve gone to 11 HHNs. I’ve only had express one year just to try it. Sure, it was nice having a much shorter wait, but I’ve grown accustomed to waiting in line. Getting to people watch, watch drunk people try to play the Heads Up game, and then just talking with my brother about a range of topics. Two single nights allows me to go through every house once and hit about 3 or so a second time.

 

[johnathanm]

In theory, limited express means faster lines all around. Remember last year when express was longer than regular lines on multiple nights (and the people in express continued to go to express)?

lol never seen this happen, that’s wild. Really hope I’m proven wrong, but I can’t imagine these house waits changing a noticeable amount. I will go in expecting 60-90 minute waits, and be pleasantly surprised if I overshot. I’ve got no real intuition around how this could impact the math on house throughput, so totally possible.

 

[Kichkinet85]

In theory, limited express means faster lines all around. Remember last year when express was longer than regular lines on multiple nights (and the people in express continued to go to express)?

I feel like express being longer is only party true. I'm sure it was at times but not as much as some think. We got to remember the express queue is almost a straight path while the normal queue is a bunch of switch backs. So, this sometimes make express seem just as long or longer but in reality, it's not.

 

[GA-MBIT]

Personally, I love to repeat houses. There are absolutely diminishing returns when it comes to scares after the first few runs, but there is so much more to a Universal Haunt than the scares. I could play a $5 horror game on Steam if all I wanted to do was get jumpscared repeatedly. I'd save a lot of money doing that too haha. It's about the details you couldn't possibly notice the first few times through. The thematic elements, props, posters, costumes, that have all had countless hours spent in the design and construction phases that just get lost when your brain is in fight-or-flight mode. I love appreciating the work that goes into every bit of the event.

There was an incredibly small detail on the Subway car of "Decendants of Destruction" that sticks with me to this day; it was an ad on the roof of the car advertising some kind of Green Energy company with a tagline like "Plants can power the world" or something, which is such a darkly comedic joke given that this is the same universe and apocalypse as "Seeds of Extinction". There's no way I ever would've noticed it had I only gone in once or twice, but someone on the team thought of it, went through the effort of pitching it, designing, printing, and installing it knowing that only an incredibly small percent of the people walking through would ever notice or care. I'm in that small percent! I think those details are so fun and cool!

This isn't even to mention that this is all live theatre. So sometimes you'll get an especially incredible performance from an actor on one specific run of many that sticks with you, or sometimes you'll catch a cast on a night where something just clicks with everyone and they go absolutely feral towards the conga! It's interesting to see the differences between A and B casts, and when there are big shifts in the status quo. To see quirks of the event like last year when the latex masks were cleaned improperly and most of the zones suddenly had a ton more face characters. Those two days were honestly incredible to go through, because all of the zones had such a huge surge in personality and energy that had begun to dip after the opening weeks. My ranking of houses changes a ton between opening and closing, because honestly, most houses don't close the same way they open at all. Energy levels from the cast, new scareacting positions being added or removed, effects breaking down or being installed; there are so many factors to it all and I love feeling that constant change and flux. The ebb and flow as countless hundreds of team members work together to try and keep this leviathan event afloat all at once and consistently succeed wildly, night after night.

I appreciate that these attractions are limited-time offerings, but in that same vein, I really want to appreciate them for all that they're worth too. A lot of care, work, effort is placed into the attractions from all different levels only for it all to get thrown in the dumpster come November. I personally find it incredibly enjoyable to feel the passion that the designers and casts have for their houses, zones, roles, shows, and to find all of that passion strewn through easter eggs in zone props, the different music choices that are used in certain scenes, the way that that specific actor consistently creates a memorable experience, etc. That's personally how I enjoy the event, and I really do enjoy it.

 

[Midnight Detective]

lol never seen this happen, that’s wild. Really hope I’m proven wrong, but I can’t imagine these house waits changing a noticeable amount. I will go in expecting 60-90 minute waits, and be pleasantly surprised if I overshot. I’ve got no real intuition around how this could impact the math on house throughput, so totally possible.

Last year was the first time it happened to my knowledge, but it happened multiple evenings. The past few years express has absolutely clogged normal lines.

I feel like express being longer is only party true. I'm sure it was at times but not as much as some think. We got to remember the express queue is almost a straight path while the normal queue is a bunch of switch backs. So, this sometimes make express seem just as long or longer but in reality, it's not.

Express has gotten so bloated in the last few years its, in my opinion, become the line for people who have zero desire to take crowd flow into consideration.


Sidebar for those of you who missed express: Every year I typically guide multiple groups of people from out of town who come on one night tickets.
It's incredibly easy to see every single house if you use some basic park/event knowledge at a minimal wait time (walk on to 30 minutes)

Basic psychology has people shooting straight up and moving through the event clockwise - go counter clockwise.

If you watch times (I don't use apps, just the boards - personal preference) between open to around 10pm, just hit what's shortest.

Typically the very first house at the entrance is a 5-15 minute wait after a certain point later in the evening.

Towards the end of the night, depending on what you've seen, hit houses grouped up at either New York or by MIB.

8 - 10pm is prime time to take people that haven't been or want to see Diagon Alley before because it's when lines are longest. Non-drinkers can enjoy Butter Beer and Ice Cream. Not a bad time to hit the tribute store either.

I typically do this ~3-4 times a year - you can hit all houses multiple times with the exception of the A-List IP (Stranger Things and the sort)

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Having enjoyed yet another trip there last weekend (IYKYK), I can fully agree! Pittsburgh is honestly one of my favorite cities, it's got a lot of charm to it, downtown is easily walkable and there's a bunch of damn good food, too.

Hope you didn't get bed bugs. Also thanks for the $100k in donations!

 

[Lucky Planet]

Ticketing infrastructure probably can’t handle the load


Universal doesn’t want people coming 30 days and using all 10 express passes every night

I get why people wanted a heads-up (and don't disagree that there should have been one), but I honestly don't think it would magically fix things either. There are always going to be people who walk away empty-handed. Look at every Ticketmaster sale ever. The event is given an on-sale time, the sites get overloaded (and often crash), only a few people get tickets, and most people walk away furious at the site & situation because they failed to secure tickets before they sold out.

Most complaints I've seen could be summarized as "the worst people you know throwing a tantrum over not getting preferential treatment and threatening never to spend their -insert high amount of money- at this business ever again with a dash of self-reporting about berating innocent customer support agents". These people would throw a fit no matter what if they failed to snag their tickets whether they had a heads up or not.

I've seen numerous tweets saying FFP holders deserve express more than single-day visitors. I've seen countless people saying Universal owes them because they've been consistent FFP holders for several years. And so on. I simply don't feel bad that some people can't shell out exuberant amounts of money to be better than every else for the entirety of the event. The model was unsustainable and something had to give. For 99% of guests, this is a massive win. Let the 1% whine. Nobody needs 50 days of express access to enjoy an event.

doing all 30 days in a row with express Is definitely extreme. and to be fair I don't even do all 30 days of FFP. I skip a bunch. every year I skip some Sundays. I skip Tuesdays.

I'm basically a gremlin, I visit at midnight. I spend only 2 hours per day. I'll get a churro or pizza.

but my comment was more specifically about the teens and the influencers, the people hanging out in the zones and the teens causing a ruckus,
because who else has the free time to visit horror nights every day to hang out? like I said, I did it as a teen years ago.
the question then becomes, who exactly is hanging out at horror nights clogging the streets ? it's most likely teens and influencers.

if the event is not suited for people hanging around, then universal needed to erase frequent fear pass a long time ago. have two sets of rush of fear. cut frequent fear pass in half.

sell one ticket for the first ffp 15 days, sell a second time for the last ffp 15 days. and the same person can't buy both.

 

[HandsomePete]

Replying to your and @MrRoamer's tweets earlier, I do think the lack of "notice" is the biggest issue here. Leaving a bad taste in the mouth of long-time fans all over social media and IRL.

I think a lot of that will be forgiven IF the Defunctland thesis plays out and we see standby lines generally top out at, say, 40 minutes or less. (Snark aside, a big part of that will be reigning in GAC like they did a few years ago). Things had gotten to the "if everyone has Express no one does" level and this should alleviate a lot of the standby backups that caused. I think fans will view that positively, especially if the houses deliver.

But if that was the plan -- why not just announce that? Admit they're trying to address the biggest complaint year after year? Better yet, in addition limit all multi-night Express sales to UFF--keep as many of their biggest whales as possible happy while promising other long-time fans a fair trade-off for the lack of semi-affordable (for lack of a better term) Express. Snatched a PR blunder from the jaws of a potential PR win,

My guess is you'll end up seeing is standby lines that are roughly the same or slightly longer (since presumably more people will be on the standby side since they didn’t get a FFP with Express) in the 7-11pm window while the Express people clear the entire system (aka, doing all 10 houses) faster than they would in prior years. The late night arrival crowd doing standby may benefit.

There is no impact to standby wait times whether there are perpetually 75 or 200 people in the Express queue if the merge point ratios are the same. The question is how long does it take to burn through all of the aggregate Express entitlements on a given evening (or the majority of them) until the park gets to what would essentially be standby-only operation.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I do want to stress FFP tickets are also still available. I definitely understand frustrations of Express but it’s not like the event is closed off, either.

This is the big thing. People are acting like the entire event sold out in a few hours lol

In theory, limited express means faster lines all around. Remember last year when express was longer than regular lines on multiple nights (and the people in express continued to go to express)?

I think that's likely the goal. With shorter express lines, the standby line should theoretically go quicker too.

If they limited it enough, it may even get to the point where they just dump the Express line and then let standby go uninterrupted for a while.

Express was fine for us last year for the most part, but we had issues with Oddfellow and TLOU.

 

[SeventyOne]

Not saying it’s the right or wrong way - but having everyone queue up for a set drop time probably would’ve incited another set of complaints.

I'm not saying any plan would completely alleviate complaining -- I can't work miracles! -- but this was a de facto lottery. I think more guests would be more accepting if that was acknowledged as such, like a Taylor Swift concert. Those who miss out would still be disappointed but wouldn't feel blindsided.

lol never seen this happen, that’s wild. Really hope I’m proven wrong, but I can’t imagine these house waits changing a noticeable amount. I will go in expecting 60-90 minute waits, and be pleasantly surprised if I overshot. I’ve got no real intuition around how this could impact the math on house throughput, so totally possible.

If this is the case, then Universal just blew millions in revenue and a boatload of good will for no reason.

 

[jarmor]

I do want to stress FFP tickets are also still available. I definitely understand frustrations of Express but it’s not like the event is closed off, either.

People are literally canceling plans all over express lol. Have these people never went before the multi-day passes with express existed? Spoiler alert. . . you're not going to die without it (express).

 

[Kichkinet85]

If this is the case, then Universal just blew millions in revenue and a boatload of good will for no reason.

There’s a huge difference between express being long and express being longer than standby. Which I also don’t recall. I recall the express being long. Not saying it didn’t happen, just that I don’t recall seen it.

 

[ColbyTurkey]

I keep reading that shorter express lines means the other line will be shorter as well. Can somebody please explain this logic to me? Wouldn't each person that opted out of express this year stand in the other line, making the regular line longer than usual? Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but the more I read on here, the more I think people should let Universal handle the logistics, lol.

 

[Legacy]

There’s a huge difference between express being long and express being longer than standby. Which I also don’t recall. I recall the express being long. Not saying it didn’t happen, just that I don’t recall seen it.

There were literally pictures of Express being a couple hundred people deep and Standby being, like, 20. And people kept filing into Express.

Here are the tweets (and our discussions) about it last year.

Post in thread 'Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - News & Info'
https://forums.insideuniversal.net/...or-nights-32-uor-news-info.15703/post-1011609

THIS is the problem Universal is fixing.

 

[Robert Bliss]

Wow, I guess I got lucky last year. I went for five days during the second or third week and never ran into a situation in which the standby line was shorter than express. Also, how are we to plan for that if we can only see the full line in, what, one queue line? I can only go by what the boards tell me and take a chance. Is there a way to assess line length before burning express? I'm guessing no. I mean, other than making friends with a helicopter person.

 

[Kichkinet85]

There were literally pictures of Express being a couple hundred people deep and Standby being, like, 20. And people kept filing into Express.

Here are the tweets (and our discussions) about it last year.

Post in thread 'Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - News & Info'
https://forums.insideuniversal.net/...or-nights-32-uor-news-info.15703/post-1011609

THIS is the problem Universal is fixing.

Thanks. I never saw these. It’s insane that that’s what happened. And here I was last year with the UFF and upgrading to the UFF with express lol