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HHN 33: Tips, Tricks & Planning Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian G.
  • Start date Start date Aug 9, 2024
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Allison

Allison

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  • Oct 9, 2024
  • #141
skullkisser said:
yeah definitely don't use the HHN forums to ask questions about HHN
Click to expand...

Having some perspective and tact shouldn’t be an unreasonable request, but, seeing what I’m having to respond to right now clearly that’s a more difficult thing for some to do than I’d imagined.
 
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TheCodeMan95

TheCodeMan95

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  • Oct 9, 2024
  • #142
(house being sucked into the air by a tornado)
"You guys think the tents will open on Friday due to flooding!!?"
 
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viking_wizard_eyes

viking_wizard_eyes

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  • Oct 11, 2024
  • #143
viking_wizard_eyes said:
So I'll be at the event Friday October 11th.
Click to expand...
Man, how things can change lol. In case anyone is curious how this ended, our Wednesday flight was cancelled and obviously there was no chance of us flying in on Thursday, either. We luckily got credit back for the cancelled flight and looked into booking something that woulda left early this morning, but ultimately nobody wanted to jam a long early-morning flight and HHN into a single day. No refund or rescheduling option on the event ticket, and had to eat the cancellation fee for the hotel, as well (which thankfully was just a single-night charge, not bad all things considered).

Want to reiterate that while we're all definitely bummed, none of us are bitter or angry. Just glad to see that most folks were able to get by unscathed. Scary situation all around. And who knows, the wife and I might get a bug up our butt and try to come later this month, since we do have the flight credit and didn't feel too burned by the hotel deal. So we shall see!
 
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Clive

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  • Oct 11, 2024
  • #144
viking_wizard_eyes said:
Man, how things can change lol. In case anyone is curious how this ended, our Wednesday flight was cancelled and obviously there was no chance of us flying in on Thursday, either. We luckily got credit back for the cancelled flight and looked into booking something that woulda left early this morning, but ultimately nobody wanted to jam a long early-morning flight and HHN into a single day. No refund or rescheduling option on the event ticket, and had to eat the cancellation fee for the hotel, as well (which thankfully was just a single-night charge, not bad all things considered).

Want to reiterate that while we're all definitely bummed, none of us are bitter or angry. Just glad to see that most folks were able to get by unscathed. Scary situation all around. And who knows, the wife and I might get a bug up our butt and try to come later this month, since we do have the flight credit and didn't feel too burned by the hotel deal. So we shall see!
Click to expand...

Have you talked to Universal re: rescheduling your event ticket? I'm really surprised they wouldn't be more accommodating given your situation.
 
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Brian G.

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  • Oct 11, 2024
  • #145
viking_wizard_eyes said:
Man, how things can change lol. In case anyone is curious how this ended, our Wednesday flight was cancelled and obviously there was no chance of us flying in on Thursday, either. We luckily got credit back for the cancelled flight and looked into booking something that woulda left early this morning, but ultimately nobody wanted to jam a long early-morning flight and HHN into a single day. No refund or rescheduling option on the event ticket, and had to eat the cancellation fee for the hotel, as well (which thankfully was just a single-night charge, not bad all things considered).

Want to reiterate that while we're all definitely bummed, none of us are bitter or angry. Just glad to see that most folks were able to get by unscathed. Scary situation all around. And who knows, the wife and I might get a bug up our butt and try to come later this month, since we do have the flight credit and didn't feel too burned by the hotel deal. So we shall see!
Click to expand...

I would double check about that fee and night rescheudling. There shouldn’t be a penalty if you’re canceling due to a hurricane.
 
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viking_wizard_eyes

viking_wizard_eyes

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  • Oct 11, 2024
  • #146
Clive said:
Have you talked to Universal re: rescheduling your event ticket? I'm really surprised they wouldn't be more accommodating given your situation.
Click to expand...
Well, I admittedly didn’t press the rescheduling thing too hard — we most likely won’t be able to fly out before the end of the season, I was being kinda jokey/optimistic when I said that lol. The person I spoke to didn’t really offer, either. I explained our situation and they basically said that since Friday’s event wasn’t being cancelled, a refund wasn’t possible, and I just kinda left it at that.
Brian G. said:
I would double check about that fee and night rescheudling. There shouldn’t be a penalty if you’re canceling due to a hurricane.
Click to expand...
That might end up being the case, actually! All they told me was “the amount” would be added back to my card, but I just assumed it would be the amount minus the one night fee, per the website policy. Won’t find out for a weeks either way. Maybe I could call back and check.
 
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ThemeParks4Life

ThemeParks4Life

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  • Oct 16, 2024
  • #147
After expecting to miss this year due to work, I actually have a window to attend HHN and got a FFP+ for the final four nights! That being said, I'm not likely to utilize Stay and Scream aside from Saturday or Sunday depending on my other plans (I get into Orlando at 7:30PM on Halloween and will be working remotely on Friday). Generally speaking, what lines usually start quieting down around 10-11PM if I want to maximize houses on my shorter nights?
 
Crypt Keeper

Crypt Keeper

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  • Oct 17, 2024
  • #148
ThemeParks4Life said:
After expecting to miss this year due to work, I actually have a window to attend HHN and got a FFP+ for the final four nights! That being said, I'm not likely to utilize Stay and Scream aside from Saturday or Sunday depending on my other plans (I get into Orlando at 7:30PM on Halloween and will be working remotely on Friday). Generally speaking, what lines usually start quieting down around 10-11PM if I want to maximize houses on my shorter nights?
Click to expand...
I've noticed that Major Sweets, Monstruos, Goblin's Feast, The Museum, and Eternal Bloodlines start to quiet down around that time. Most notably Goblin's Feast and Bloodlines (probably due to the walking distance lol). Sometimes around midnight, they're practically walk-ons.

Triplets of Terror will randomly drop and then shoot back up (Insidious people probably jump right in line).

Ghostbusters starts to fizzle out around 12-1 am.

Slaughter Sinema, Insidious, and AQP stay consistently busy until closing. Especially Insidious.

Of course, this has just been my experience.
 
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PenguinCowboy

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  • Oct 17, 2024
  • #149
Because I am a crazy person, I made a single night trip down to HHN to try and see it all last night, in a single night, no express, and have to say, even with unprecedented Wednesday crowds, it was still doable.

Got to the park gates around 5:20ish (poked our heads into Dead Coconut Club first, just took a look around, but saw what there was to see), and waited. We ended up forgoing our spot closer to the center where we could see the opening scaremony in favor of a more clearly defined line around the edges. Got in around 6:05-10ish after all was said and done and headed right to the back of the park.

Order that worked for us:
-Head through Hollywood/Swamp/Springfield and do Museum first, then jump right into line for Sinema.
-Next Goblins and Bloodlines. Whatever order makes sense based on crowds.
-Optional, but we then got some quick food on the MIB bridge and caught the 9:30 Nightmare Fuel.
-By this point the crowds were obnoxious, so kind of just pay attention to the app and go from there, but Sweets was on our path so headed there right out of Nightmare Fuel.
-Headed through NY to Triplets, which was the next lowest time. Observed the lines for GB and Insidious from the Triplets line.
-Opted to head back to the front to do Monstrous, as it had the next lowest, and by this point it was rounding out to be 12 ish.
-Got out of Monstrous around 12:30, headed to Insidious and bit the bullet waiting a bit. By the time we left Insidious it was 1:10ish.
-Risky move, but we opted to go for Ghostbusters as we could see the line was down to a down, back, and down running along the soundstage, and just a little of the overflow from there, and it took us probably about 25 ish minutes to do, so definitely if you catch the lines that low, go for it.
-Finally, got in line for AQP right around 1:45, and closed out the night.

Overall thoughts/tips (nothing groundbreaking, but echoing what folks have already said):
As usual, start in the back, work to the front. Pay attention to the app wait times for general trends, but don't take them as word of law; always trust what you can see from the other queues. IP waits will NOT go down through the night until the very last minute, so I would say hold off on them until the ending of the event night (if you can stomach the uncertainty, I know some people these are the priority, so if you must, reverse course and hit these right away in the night).

Food was very manageable line-wise too, so don't be afraid to jump in and grab sometime to eat while you walk to fill time, especially if waits are all crazy. (We got the Goblin Turkey Wing, Sinema Rocks from Hell, Ghost Trap Blondie, and a LactoCooler; all delicious, and no more than a 3-4 minute detour each time). It's like the house waits, it's all about luck of the draw and capitalizing on opportunity.

Standard Disclaimer: This worked for us, won't guarantee it will work for you. Had 4 total people, one of whom was slightly injured, so we were taking our reasonable time, but by no means lollygagging either. Finally, we sacrificed time in SZs for houses and the show, but if the other way around is your priority, I'd say show is skippable, and use that high wait time period to meander in the zones.
 
Last edited: Oct 17, 2024
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IHateJumpScares

IHateJumpScares

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  • Oct 18, 2024
  • #150
Milton pushed our annual trip to December, so for the first time in 6 years we were forced to miss HHN. Every year my daughter takes a photo in front of Mel’s die in, so missing out on the shirt was our biggest regret of many from skipping.

Found this on Reddit and my wife successfully got the Mel’s shirt for my daughter for Christmas. We received email confirmation and everything, so this works if you are stuck out of town and want something that isn’t in the online shop:

“normally you can purchase in-park items via below:

Merchandise Services 888-762-0820 or 1-407-224-5800 between 8:30AM and 6:30PM

There is a shipping charge, and sadly, discounts don't apply.”


EDIT: the shirt arrived on Monday or Tuesday, so it was just a couple days for delivery. Very speedy.
 
Last edited: Oct 24, 2024
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Rikku

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  • Oct 23, 2024
  • #151
Is the NY stay & scream still reaching capacity before 5?
 
HalfGlass

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  • Nov 1, 2024
  • #152
Planning on going one last time tomorrow - but I’ve never gone after Halloween. Should I expect large crowds still since it’s a Saturday?
 
Brian G.

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  • Nov 1, 2024
  • #153
HalfGlass said:
Planning on going one last time tomorrow - but I’ve never gone after Halloween. Should I expect large crowds still since it’s a Saturday?
Click to expand...

I think people are over Halloween, so it should be good. Sunday might be busier for the "last crowds".
 
Last edited: Nov 2, 2024
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HalfGlass

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  • Nov 1, 2024
  • #154
Brian G. said:
I think people are over Halloween, so it should be good. Sunday might be easier for the "last crowds".
Click to expand...
Thanks Brian - gotta go tomorrow unfortunately, but hoping for the best!
 
Brian G.

Brian G.

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  • Nov 2, 2024
  • #155
HalfGlass said:
Thanks Brian - gotta go tomorrow unfortunately, but hoping for the best!
Click to expand...
Sorry. Meant Busier! Not easier.
 
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HalfGlass

HalfGlass

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  • Nov 3, 2024
  • #156
HalfGlass said:
Planning on going one last time tomorrow - but I’ve never gone after Halloween. Should I expect large crowds still since it’s a Saturday?
Click to expand...
Update: Busiest night I’ve gone all season. Yikes….never would have thought. 60+ min waits for almost everything come 8pm. 120 min waits for Insidious and Ghostbusters at 10:00pm. Pretty awful and not fun.
 
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saint.piss

saint.piss

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  • Nov 3, 2024
  • #157
HalfGlass said:
Update: Busiest night I’ve gone all season. Yikes….never would have thought. 60+ min waits for almost everything come 8pm. 120 min waits for Insidious and Ghostbusters at 10:00pm. Pretty awful and not fun.
Click to expand...
God I hope it's not this busy on Sunday.... So unprecedented for November
 
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