Halloween Horror Nights 35 (UO) - Speculation & Rumors

[Tbad556]

So should they get rid of the Free Hotel Express "Cheat" too? 1 night stay, 2 days of express for 5 people.

If it led to the types of crowds/express ratios that HHN was facing on a nightly basis, I'd argue for it. That's not the case currently though. They have made daytime pivots, however, that I think were needed for regular guests (see: Hagrids recently).

Special event capacity/crowd control is also different than day-to-day operations.

 

[Kichkinet85]

So should they get rid of the Free Hotel Express "Cheat" too? 1 night stay, 2 days of express for 5 people.

That's an unfair comparison to make and there is a contract there

 

[rhino4evr]

The idea of annual passes is that you come back more often and buy food / merch / hotels / etc to make up any lost revenue. Hell some people may pay that multi day pass and not even use it to its full extent.

I think Universal is banking on multi-day hardcore fans paying the extra money either way. They don’t need to offer it because you’ll pay for the privilege either way .

That’s just my guess…

Will be a really interesting season for sure

 

[Staggz]

So should they get rid of the Free Hotel Express "Cheat" too? 1 night stay, 2 days of express for 5 people.

I think they do want to but contractually with Lowes they can’t or something, I could be wrong.

It’s also important to note, I don’t believe that universal is doing this because they think people are having too good of a time and they just want more money from people who are miserable. When it’s put into the terms of calling it a cheat code, it kind of devalues what the actual meaning of it is. The actual meaning is that it just doesn’t fit with the state of the way that horror nights currently is. When you look at the event compared to years ago, it’s just simply gotten too crowded to be able to have those passes available like that, and still move lines along properly like they should. Those passes were made at a time when it wasn’t affecting express and standby to a point of where they were not needed. I’m pretty sure they didn’t even sell out until 2024. But is the event gets bigger and bigger, it makes it a lot harder to have those passes available because of what they do for the guest experience. You can limit them like they did last year and a year before that, but again that’s even worse on guest experience and still doesn’t fully solve the express issue.

Now, if they add more single night express to make up for the amount that was lost with the frequent fear passes? That would definitely be a choice lol. But right now I don’t see that happening. You’d have way too many people upset about that, and I don’t see universal doing much but listening to fan feedback. Look at how epic universe is going. Fans are asking for epic universe to be added to an annual passes and they explained why they can’t add those right now with how high the crowds would be and then tried to come up with other ways to make the people asking for it happy and had people take a survey on it as well. Even though those changes haven’t been implemented yet, they are still trying to figure things out that will make the experience good while also making people happy.

 

[rhino4evr]

I only lurk here but figured I would throw my hat in the ring on this FFP + Express conversation.

I've personally been attending this event since 2002. My partner and I have been attending the event together for the last decade. We used to be locals but have moved out of state and we now make two separate trips per year for HHN. Once for opening weekend and once for the final week. Usually totaling around 10 nights. We have always purchased the FFP + Express because it makes the most sense for us and the event is truly less enjoyable waiting in standby lines. We're getting older and just can't do those lines anymore.

This change basically makes it so that our costs have more than tripled if we went to make the same trips we do every year. Realistically we are going to scale down our two trips, with 10 nights spread across both, to one trip for three nights total. This is such a massive bummer that I cannot put into words. We budget and plan for these trips literally all year. Our whole year revolves around planning for this event. For Universal to announce this change this late in the game is honestly a huge slap in the face to loyal customers like us. Individual night express passes have already increased significantly since they went on sale this year.

So now this ends with us going 7 nights less than we planned for. Universal is losing out on 7 hotel room nights from us, with 7 days of food and drinks at the resort, including at the day parks. Probably two lost tickets to Epic Universe now as well.

This leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth as someone who has loved this event for years. And on an anniversary year no less. They should have made this announcement months ago. This shows a complete lack of regard or respect for their longtime customers. This truly may be our last year attending.

All you can do is vote with your wallet. If more people feel like you do and greatly reduce their stays.. they could reverse their decision. If not this year, maybe the next one.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

At the end of the day, I'm sorry, but it's more important that a regular guest can see all 10 houses during their visit than a FFP user gets to express their way through their 10th run of the year. It's gotten harder and harder to suggest to people that they can fit every house in in one night over the past several years due to express bloat. I'm sorry that the cool perk doesn't exist anymore and I truly do miss the good ol' days of HHN pricing way back when, but it was the logical choice at this stage of HHN crowds/fandom and I applaud Universal for seemingly (unless they really pivot hard on single day express) doing right by the average guest (even though that is not me).

This is a great point as well - I get that locals are important, but catering to the regular guest that will only be there for 1 or 2 nights should ultimately be a goal as well.

And I'm going to say something controversial that might get me flamed - if you're going to cancel an entire trip because you can't have Express every night.. did you really want to go THAT badly in the first place?

 

[Bigskinny0310]

If means I don’t have to wait in a hellish Jason line, I’m here for it.

 

[Clive]

So should they get rid of the Free Hotel Express "Cheat" too? 1 night stay, 2 days of express for 5 people.

I'm sure they'd love to, but they can't. It's written into their agreement with Loews, in perpetuity, but it doesn't cover the newer parks (Volcano and Epic) or even the new deluxe resorts (Helios).

 

[tyro]

I was going to get ROF or FFP with Express this year, but honestly with this change I’m fine just grabbing a night or two of Express after 11 for my Labor Day trip. If I end up taking a second trip later in the season, the savings would help pay for that.

FWIW, pretty sure I paid around 180 for an after 11 express last year, so really it diddnt save me that much compared to buying it today.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

FWIW, pretty sure I paid around 180 for an after 11 express last year, so really it diddnt save me that much compared to buying it today.

The real question is how much was it that day? $360?

 

[Jerroddragon]

The idea of annual passes is that you come back more often and buy food / merch / hotels / etc to make up any lost revenue. Hell some people may pay that multi day pass and not even use it to its full extent.

I think Universal is banking on multi-day hardcore fans paying the extra money either way. They don’t need to offer it because you’ll pay for the privilege either way .

That’s just my guess…

Will be a really interesting season for sure

I hope people do but at least at USH, we lost every battle

1) EA for the part used to just be included with APs, now you pay extra to get in early for SNW
2) APs once again got into HHN early and now it cost if you want EA to the houses
3) This year they are locking the fast and furious coaster behind Express tickets if you want to ride that at HHN

So I wish Orlando the best but sadly most fans aren't online and just pay whatever they are asked to for things like this but would love it if the fans could voice their options with their wallets

 

[zombiekimmie]

To put into perspective the issue raised by @Parkscope Joe and pair it with value proposition mentioned by @Captain Spaulding for a multi-night Express option, this should show how severely underpriced (IMO) the passes w/Express still were even last year.

For RoF w/Express last year getting you 18 nights and the idea of multi-night Express being let’s say $80/night, we’ll go with a nightly cost of $90. That means a RoF with a still heavily discounted Express value “should be” $1,620 vs the $690 it was. Getting something for 1/10 of its list price is absolutely insane. Even if you want to go with only about double the cost of the nightly Express value, it “should be” $1,080. That’s keeping the approx. $10/night base admission cost and a $50/night Express price. Scale that up across each of the pass tiers and yeah, the prices “should have” been far higher while still providing an insane value considering the list price of Express.

I do think a multi-night pass and/or standalone Express option in the same kind of structure as a normal vacation package is a good idea for non-local (former) FFP buyers, and maybe this change in multi-night passes eventually leads to that.

I agree with all of this and knew it was just a matter of time before they pulled the plug. I am one of the out-of-towners and have been flying in for HhN once or twice a season since 2018. I’ve also been one of the lucky few who managed to snag a FFP w/Exp the past 2 years.

This year I am doing a solo trip for opening weekend and then coming back in October for 2 nights with my husband and daughter, staying on property both trips. I’ve already bought them single-night admission and single-night express passes for those 2 nights. I will still buy the FFP for myself but now will have to decide which nights I will buy single-night express for myself. In anticipation of the decision, I priced out how much more $ it would be if I buy myself single-night Express on top of my FFP pass and asked myself if Universal had decided to jack the Fear pass w/Exp prices up by a few hundred instead of not offering them, would I still buy one? Probably, bc the value is worth more to me than waiting in lines all night.

All this to say, I’m fully aware that this was a luxury that was destined to go away soon. I’m not surprised or devastated by Universal’s decision, just annoyed that they waited to announce it until after they’ve started jacking up the single-night Express prices, especially after I’ve already spent close to a grand just to attend with my family for a couple nights.

 

[MAC]

I agree with all of this and knew it was just a matter of time before they pulled the plug. I am one of the out-of-towners and have been flying in for HhN once or twice a season since 2018. I’ve also been one of the lucky few who managed to snag a FFP w/Exp the past 2 years.

This year I am doing a solo trip for opening weekend and then coming back in October for 2 nights with my husband and daughter, staying on property both trips. I’ve already bought them single-night admission and single-night express passes for those 2 nights. I will still buy the FFP for myself but now will have to decide which nights I will buy single-night express for myself. In anticipation of the decision, I priced out how much more $ it would be if I buy myself single-night Express on top of my FFP pass and asked myself if Universal had decided to jack the Fear pass w/Exp prices up by a few hundred instead of not offering them, would I still buy one? Probably, bc the value is worth more to me than waiting in lines all night.

All this to say, I’m fully aware that this was a luxury that was destined to go away soon. I’m not surprised or devastated by Universal’s decision, just annoyed that they waited to announce it until after they’ve started jacking up the single-night Express prices, especially after I’ve already spent close to a grand just to attend with my family for a couple nights.

I added emphasis here.

This is the point that annoys me the most about this. I'm not going to UO this year for HHN as I've decided to go to USH since I can drive in. However, UO has done a poor job communicating this as they've had these passes for quite some time and are now saying no more to them. Except, they could've said so early enough so people could plan accordingly and purchase what they needed. The fact that single-night Express prices are increasing and they're just now making the announcement is not cool in the least bit. They should have made the announcement sooner.

 

[Tbad556]

All this to say, I’m fully aware that this was a luxury that was destined to go away soon. I’m not surprised or devastated by Universal’s decision, just annoyed that they waited to announce it until after they’ve started jacking up the single-night Express prices, especially after I’ve already spent close to a grand just to attend with my family for a couple nights.

I added emphasis here.

This is the point that annoys me the most about this. I'm not going to UO this year for HHN as I've decided to go to USH since I can drive in. However, UO has done a poor job communicating this as they've had these passes for quite some time and are now saying no more to them. Except, they could've said so early enough so people could plan accordingly and purchase what they needed. The fact that single-night Express prices are increasing and they're just now making the announcement is not cool in the least bit. They should have made the announcement sooner.

As someone who is "pro" this decision, I just want to emphasize that I think this is an incredibly fair take. Communication has always been a huge weakness for Universal.

 

[tdmarshmallow]

I came for the scare zone posts, I stayed for the drama....

 

[Grabnar]

When the dust settles, this will be a win for standby queues (single night ticket holders) and for single night express pass holders.

Shapeland truther over here

 

[StaticShock]

Shapeland truther over here

Can’t tell if you agree with the video or disagree with me...

 

[Brian G.]

There’s a YouTube video that explains how Disney’s Fastpass ruined wait times for standby queues. I highly encourage you to watch it if you genuinely want to understand how this is positive move for the average single-night standby/express ticket holder.

The difference is that Express isn't actually going away. This isn't like Hagrid's, where nobody gets Express. We have no idea what kind of cap, if any, Universal will put on single-night Express sales, or how former FFP+Express guests will change their behavior. Will they buy multiple single-night Expresses? Upgrade to RIP Tours? Wait for the 1/2 off discount? There are a lot of unknowns.

If Universal simply replaces season-long Express users with more single-night Express sales, the impact could be minimal.

I just wonder if they overcorrected a bit by eliminating the product entirely instead of tweaking it. While I get the business side of it, I think the customer service side is taking a BIG hit right now. Yes, there are definitely those who, for lack of a better term, used it as a cheat, there were a good number of people, specifically non-locals, who used it to maximize their vacation.

 

[Tbad556]

I just wonder if they overcorrected a bit by eliminating the product entirely instead of tweaking it. While I get the business side of it, I think the customer service side is taking a BIG hit right now. Yes, there are definitely those who, for lack of a better term, used it as a cheat, there were a good number of people, specifically non-locals, who used it to maximize their vacation.

Couldn’t you argue last year was the attempt at a tweak before taking the full swing?