Halloween Horror Nights 34 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Brian G.]

But wouldn't those "people who would have been express" now just be in the regular standby line? I get that it takes 20sec every now and then to move the blocking rope thing-a-ma-jig, but wouldn't it stand to reason if you have 1000 people in 1 line and 300 in another, if you consolidated the lines you'd then have 1300 in a single line?

They wouldn't have to prioritize and jump to Express as much.

 

[Kichkinet85]

But wouldn't those "people who would have been express" now just be in the regular standby line? I get that it takes 20sec every now and then to move the blocking rope thing-a-ma-jig, but wouldn't it stand to reason if you have 1000 people in 1 line and 300 in another, if you consolidated the lines you'd then have 1300 in a single line?

Yes and no. The locals who would get multi night with express and go just for a few hours won't. Also, some people will not go period. And as @Brian G. said. ETC.

 

[Clive]

Were the standby lines any better last year? I didn’t get express on time last year so I was in standby and they surely did not feel any better to me… I understand the concept, but if this only reduces the express attendance each night 15 or so percent (I don’t have these numbers so I could be way off) then your line is only gonna be 7-10 minutes shorter. Sure that is nice, but I feel like some people are acting like this change will magically halve all of the wait times (which maybe it will - I don’t have these numbers numbers, and maybe I am projecting lol)

I can only speak to my experience, but last year was my first event in ages where I did not purchase express. We occasionally hit a longer queue or two during the heat of the night, but lines were largely reasonable and moved fairly quickly. The few occasions where they didn't were the result of... backed up express queues.

 

[Neo]

I swear I'm not trying to be a !@#$, just trying to understand what's being said because I don't get it and I'm curious by nature.

My experience, as an express snob, is that minus the parade building cluster*** of a merge, the express line scans their pass pretty close to the merge point and the merge usually happens when there's a backup. So I don't see the ops scanning expresses really impacting the regular line as they seem to "fill the gap" in intervals alternating between express and standby.

But, havening said that, I ALWAYS feel like whatever grocery store checkout line, traffic lane at a bottleneck, etc I choose is the slowest so I understand the feeling that the "other" line is screwing you over.

And I should note I'm an out-of-stater who comes for one week so I have very limited experience, mostly the last week of RoF so maybe the dynamics change at other points of the event.

 

[Clive]

I swear I'm not trying to be a !@#$, just trying to understand what's being said because I don't get it and I'm curious by nature.

My experience, as an express snob, is that minus the parade building cluster*** of a merge, the express line scans their pass pretty close to the merge point and the merge usually happens when there's a backup. So I don't see the ops scanning expresses really impacting the regular line as they seem to "fill the gap" in intervals alternating between express and standby.

But, havening said that, I ALWAYS feel like whatever grocery store checkout line, traffic lane at a bottleneck, etc I choose is the slowest so I understand the feeling that the "other" line is screwing you over.

And I should note I'm an out-of-stater who comes for one week so I have very limited experience, mostly the last week of RoF so maybe the dynamics change at other points of the event.

To illustrate my point, here's a common experience:

A significant number of guests in the Express line arrive to the merge point. The TM stationed at the merge stops the advance of the standby line and lets the Express guests through the merge until the Express queue is cleared. The Express queue hasn't backed up yet, so this only takes a minute or two. No big deal, right?

Well, now the line past the merge has backed up to the merge point, meaning the TM at the merge can't send anyone forward. Again, annoying, but not a huge deal - the line will shuffle forward, space will become available, and then it'll be the standby line's turn to move. Right?

Not so fast. In the time it took for the queue space ahead of the merge to clear some, another significant number of guests in the Express line have arrived to the merge point. Once space ahead becomes available, the TM at the merge once again directs guests from the Express line forward.

This process repeats itself over fifteen minutes, during which the standby line does not move at all. Consequently, the standby line continues to grow.

Again, this is a scenario where the Express queue is not backed up yet. Now imagine what happens when it does back up during peak event hours.

 

[Brian G.]

I swear I'm not trying to be a !@#$, just trying to understand what's being said because I don't get it and I'm curious by nature.

My experience, as an express snob, is that minus the parade building cluster*** of a merge, the express line scans their pass pretty close to the merge point and the merge usually happens when there's a backup. So I don't see the ops scanning expresses really impacting the regular line as they seem to "fill the gap" in intervals alternating between express and standby.

But, havening said that, I ALWAYS feel like whatever grocery store checkout line, traffic lane at a bottleneck, etc I choose is the slowest so I understand the feeling that the "other" line is screwing you over.

And I should note I'm an out-of-stater who comes for one week so I have very limited experience, mostly the last week of RoF so maybe the dynamics change at other points of the event.

Honestly, this is the best video to watch about it.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Until they find a way to make animatronic silver balls flying through the air and not hitting guests, I think we will still be waiting

For a while there it seemed like they were making a point to include a more obscure or less obvious choice from the 80s (AWIL, Shining, Poltergeist, Creepshow, KKFOS, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice), but maybe the well has dried up on that one.

Would love to see a Re-Animator house come to pass, but I have no idea where the rights are. I also think to some extent the 80s obsession of the 2010’s has subsided—maybe they can start mining some more obscure 90’s properties?

The Thing wouldn't be a huge headline type attraction but it would fit very, very nicely as a third or fourth tier (as in super popular IPs first and second) house for truer horror heads.



You turn down another corner to yet another pristine white marbled corridor in the endless mausoleum to see the man himself, The Tall Man that is, at the very end of the hallway, one arm raised as a trio of deadly, silver spheres come whizzing towards you. However, just before they can slice and dice through you, a sound cue diverts them to your right. You follow the sound to the right to find a mausoleum patron on the wrong end of the pitch, one ball lodged into his left knee, one ball digging through his stomach and the third drilling into his temple. Blood (SEE: red water) comes spritzing out the top most ball in misty streams as you hurry past him.

Easy peasy.

Me still waiting on an original Phantasm houses.. as long as we are all wishing..

one easy and cool way to handle these lesser known properties would be to do a other Silver Screams type house, bring back the movie theater house and the Usher, and do 2 rooms per movie. ( as long as the rights were obtained)

could be Phantasm and Re Animator and maybe Critters and the 4th one could be pumpkinhead.

it would work well because universal could measure which rooms did the best with fans to do possible future houses, and it would open up all these less popular movies to fans if the event, bring attention to these other properties.

they could have the Usher in a video for the queue, talking about these movies, and how great they were, could be a retro movie house. paying homage to these movies.

 

[Neo]

Honestly, this is the best video to watch about it.

1hr 43min?!?!? I'll just take your word for it

 

[Tereglith]

I swear I'm not trying to be a !@#$, just trying to understand what's being said because I don't get it and I'm curious by nature.

To use your example of 1000 people in standby, 300 in express, vs 1300 in one big standby line: If you play that scenario out, with a 50:50 merge ratio, what happens is that people keep getting in the Express line. So by the time the 1000th person in standby gets to the house, they have been waiting for 2000 people to go through it before them even though only 1300 people were in both queues at the time they entered the line. In other words, in a long enough standby line you spend most of your time being functionally "behind" people who haven't even gotten in the express line yet!

That's before you get into other factors like balk point (some of the 300 guests who would wait in a 300 person express line will choose not to wait in a 1300 person standby line) as discussed in the Shapeland video. Obviously they're not eliminating Express entirely so it won't all be clear sailing for standby guests, but the fewer people in express is better for people in standby in pretty much all circumstances.

 

[Clive]

1hr 43min?!?!? I'll just take your word for it

In fairness, I assure you it is both entertaining and gripping. A stunning achievement.

 

[Blysthon]

Jason when his time is over by the end of the year, We know that red headed doll is coming back in 2026 ( 35th anniversary btw) lol

 

[saint.piss]

 

[Blysthon]

Uhm………
Please don’t let the Jason house be bad

 

[saint.piss]

It's all coming together lmaoooo

 

[Automaticsack]

Obviously they're not eliminating Express entirely so it won't all be clear sailing for standby guests, but the fewer people in express is better for people in standby in pretty much all circumstances.

I do want to harp on this point because a.) I am an express supporter haha I have bias and b.) I think it’s worth dampening some expectations- multi night express is only a fraction of express sales.

In this scenario where they remove express entirely, you will still only have a 35% reduction in wait. (Goin from 2000 people to 1300 people- or a 90 minute wait to a 60 minute, or a 45 to 30)

That is a pretty good reduction, but you have to consider that while multi night express may seem incredibly popular inside of the HHN circle, that is probably because we are the only ones silly enough to drop four figures on a Halloween event. I cannot see them taking up any more than 25% of the express line. So now your 300 person express line is now 225 people. Assuming they adjust the ratio accordingly to a 62.5 : 37.5 - you are still waiting for 1675 people to go through - a reduction of 16.25% in wait. (90 min to 75, 60 min to 50).

A reduction is a reduction, so take this as you will and form your own opinion on it, but it will likely not be a massive event changing difference.

 

[Tobias]

Honestly, this is the best video to watch about it.

1hr 43min?!?!? I'll just take your word for it

In fairness, I assure you it is both entertaining and gripping. A stunning achievement.

Firmly agreed, there's a multitude of reasons why this video has become the de-facto video about Fastpass/skip the line offerings. It goes into the history, the psychology, the data, pretty much the ins and outs of it all. And the video strikes the right balance of being informative and entertaining, so the feature length isn't as intimidating as one might seem, in fact it goes by quick!

 

[chisoxcollector]

1hr 43min?!?!? I'll just take your word for it

My wife, who has the attention span of a gnat, watched this video with me and quite enjoyed it.

 

[fryoj]

My experience with express on my 1 HHN trip was, we went to every house because we had express. If we didn't have express, we absolutely would have skipped houses.

Lack of express will lead to less people getting in the lines at all. That, more than any merge math, will lead to shorter lines IMO.

 

[Kichkinet85]

Like I said Jason: Campground kills.

 

[Blysthon]

Tubi presents
Jason universe lol