Hhn 17-lame!!!

[Strawman]

Just got home. I am shocked by how weak HHN is this year. This is my seventh straight (9th overall) HHN, I'm a big fan, but this was just weak. ONE SCARE ZONE, and it was weak. The houses were good and there were eight of them (as we knew), but otherwise they dropped the ball. Bill and Ted was horrendous. Lame. I'm sure that will be the overwhelming opinion of B&T this year. But my feeling tonight was there was no feel to the park, there was just no excitement. No grand entrance. Again, one small scare zone, a couple of chainsaws by Earthquake. Hardly any characters in the park anywhere. I'm too tired now to get into great detail, but I went five times last year, this year I have NO desire to go again. Can you say Howl-O-Scream?

 

[yaytezIOA]

I say you're insane. We had such a good time, and you can read my full spoiler free review in the other thread.

 

[Metro West]

Just got home. I am shocked by how weak HHN is this year. This is my seventh straight (9th overall) HHN, I'm a big fan, but this was just weak. ONE SCARE ZONE, and it was weak. The houses were good and there were eight of them (as we knew), but otherwise they dropped the ball. Bill and Ted was horrendous. Lame. I'm sure that will be the overwhelming opinion of B&T this year. But my feeling tonight was there was no feel to the park, there was just no excitement. No grand entrance. Again, one small scare zone, a couple of chainsaws by Earthquake. Hardly any characters in the park anywhere. I'm too tired now to get into great detail, but I went five times last year, this year I have NO desire to go again. Can you say Howl-O-Scream?

I disagree...most people seem to forget when you go opening night, everyone is still learning their roles and working out the small stuff so everything is not going to be perfectly done. I'm going 10/24 and will be interested in seeing any changes that were made.

 

[Luv2Roam]

This year will be interesting for me as I have never watched any of the horror shows they are featuring. (Never realized until this year how few of these types of movies I have.)
The lack of scare zones will be a disappointment. The theming is always so good in those. Although I think the best one I saw was from maybe 2004 with the corn/farm type theme between IoA and USO.
I think it will still be a great time. We have FF passes so have the advantage of not having to do everything in one night.

 

[phamton]

.most people seem to forget when you go opening night, everyone is still learning their roles and working out the small stuff so everything is not going to be perfectly done.

This bears repeating.

 

[Strawman]

This is my third consecutive opening night. It was not nearly up to par.

 

[disneyfreakk]

This year will be interesting for me as I have never watched any of the horror shows they are featuring. (Never realized until this year how few of these types of movies I have.)
The lack of scare zones will be a disappointment. The theming is always so good in those. Although I think the best one I saw was from maybe 2004 with the corn/farm type theme between IoA and USO.
I think it will still be a great time. We have FF passes so have the advantage of not having to do everything in one night.

you must head STRAIGHT to your local video store. Run, do not walk and do not pass go.

OP, sorry you didnt have a good time. But I really think fun is what you make it. My friends and I could go to a sock convention and have a blast! Hopefully you have a fantastic time at HOS!

 

[F-L-A]

This is my third consecutive opening night. It was not nearly up to par.

Up to par with what? Opening night always sucks.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I would not seeing Dead Silence. But the other characters just did not do anything for me.

Oops. Meant to type would not mind seeing Dead Silence. I will just turn away at the bloody parts. Is that most of the movie?

 

[Metro West]

I would not seeing Dead Silence. But the other characters just did not do anything for me.

That's the best movie of the bunch!

 

[Strawman]

Up to par with what? Opening night always sucks.

I don't think opening night always sucks, it didn't the past two years. What sucks is the lack of effort and/or resources Universal put into this year's show. What about the lack of scare zones? Last year, ON OPENING NIGHT, there were scare actors up and down the strret in front of Terminator. Great costumes, smoke, chainsaws, this year, it was a ghost town (figuratively). What about the scare zone last year by the Mummy? "Deadtropolis". It was great, helicopter sounds, zombies everywhere, this year, nada. The zombie brides by Shrek, "Blood Masqerade". This year? More bare asphault. Last year was "Harvest of the Souls", this year's scare zone was so lame they didn't even give it a name. And this year's Bill and Ted's is indefensible, it was so bad. Giving Universal some credit, they DID add an eighth house, and the houses were good. But it would seem to me that this must be a BIG moneymaker for US, why not go bigger and better every year?

 

[wdwtrizz]

That's the best movie of the bunch!

Are you serious? I LOVED the dead silence house at HHN but that has to be one of the worst movies ever made (coming in right under "Good Burger").

 

[Luv2Roam]

There was good and bad, but still overall very good. And the scaractors always do a great job!
I did hear the heliocopter sounds. But I only noticed that as we were waiting to go into Vampyr. I was wondering at that time what do heliocopters and a vampire rave club have to do with each other?
Glad they did not try to make a show out of the globes in the lagoon. Now that was so not worth it last year. Now they are continually showing something on the globes, which is what they should have done. However whenever I happened to look at the globes I really did not see anything worth looking at. They are still under utilizing those globes. But it was not like I watched them for any length of time.
I would have liked to see the streets more decked out too.
And I did not care for Jack's show. Several times in the past years we have enjoyed watching the stage show at different times/nights just to see the crowd reaction and participation. This year, seen it once. That was plenty. Same skit repeated and no crowd interaction or mingling. (And a lot of Disney slamming. Doesn't bother me. But the person with us commented that Disney doesn't slam Universal.) Just makes them look bitter.
There were some areas for improvement. But overall still gets a thumbs up for a night of fun. We will still get our $ worth from our FFP.

 

[Redwing1340]

Did anyone else go to the Annual Passholder "party"? What a complete mess that was....

And I agree, after going for the last 6 years, it seems the budget was blown on the advertising and not the event itself...

 

[Luv2Roam]

We sometimes do partake in passholder events. Luckily we passed on this one, by pure fluke. Even if they blew it and offered perks to make up for it, that does not take away what should have happened and the frustration created that night.

Adding that in the past the special passholder corraling was nothing worth mentioning or enjoyable. So I would be leery anyway.

 

[PoohnPglet]

I don't think opening night always sucks, it didn't the past two years. What sucks is the lack of effort and/or resources Universal put into this year's show. What about the lack of scare zones? Last year, ON OPENING NIGHT, there were scare actors up and down the strret in front of Terminator. Great costumes, smoke, chainsaws, this year, it was a ghost town (figuratively). What about the scare zone last year by the Mummy? "Deadtropolis". It was great, helicopter sounds, zombies everywhere, this year, nada. The zombie brides by Shrek, "Blood Masqerade". This year? More bare asphault. Last year was "Harvest of the Souls", this year's scare zone was so lame they didn't even give it a name. And this year's Bill and Ted's is indefensible, it was so bad. Giving Universal some credit, they DID add an eighth house, and the houses were good. But it would seem to me that this must be a BIG moneymaker for US, why not go bigger and better every year?

I have to agree with this post. Well - except the Bill & Ted. It was better than last year's. But not by much. And that is not saying much because I thought last year's was the worst ever.

Having said that though - I will also admit that we will go almost every night that our FF passes allow. In the group of people that I go with - we make our own fun when we go. Yes - I know this is probably what Universal counts on and will do nothing to help improve future HHN's, but I can't help myself.

 

[PAcpl]

I have to agree with this post. Well - except the Bill & Ted. It was better than last year's. But not by much. And that is not saying much because I thought last year's was the worst ever.

Having said that though - I will also admit that we will go almost every night that our FF passes allow. In the group of people that I go with - we make our own fun when we go. Yes - I know this is probably what Universal counts on and will do nothing to help improve future HHN's, but I can't help myself.

This was our first experience with HHN so I dont have a lot to compare it to. I personally thought the Bill and Tedd show was the one of the highlights of the night. My wife is a tabloid junkie so it was right up her alley. We did watch last years show on YouTube and it was horrible compared to this years. All in all we had a blast for being a couple of noobies!

Brian

 

[Prince Eric1]

I don't think opening night always sucks, it didn't the past two years. What sucks is the lack of effort and/or resources Universal put into this year's show. What about the lack of scare zones? Last year, ON OPENING NIGHT, there were scare actors up and down the strret in front of Terminator. Great costumes, smoke, chainsaws, this year, it was a ghost town (figuratively). What about the scare zone last year by the Mummy? "Deadtropolis". It was great, helicopter sounds, zombies everywhere, this year, nada. The zombie brides by Shrek, "Blood Masqerade". This year? More bare asphault. Last year was "Harvest of the Souls", this year's scare zone was so lame they didn't even give it a name. And this year's Bill and Ted's is indefensible, it was so bad. Giving Universal some credit, they DID add an eighth house, and the houses were good. But it would seem to me that this must be a BIG moneymaker for US, why not go bigger and better every year?

My observations as well. I was only there once four years ago but it was great at IOA. There were more houses this year, but less effort put into everything else, especially the street performers (or lack thereof)

 

[Jason71]

Went Friday, made it to about half the houses, and most of the shows.

Houses were superb--even Jack's 3-D house, which by all rights should have been lame. Just a different league from Bush Garden's 3-D house (where I went Saturday).

Disappointed in the lack of scarezones, but I guess Uni saw a choice between an extra house to pull people off the streets or "roadblocks" in the streets slowing the flow of traffic and went with the former.

I thought B&T was quite funny this year. Maybe not quite up to last year's (their best , IMO, and I've been going since 2001), but give them a week to tweak some jokes and it could get there.

"The Enigma" put on an awesome show. Different than what I expected--more stand-up comic than evil incarnate--but with fire-eating, sword-swallowing, and other stunts, he really held everyone's attention. Incredibly friendly after the show, too, shaking hands and posing for pictures. A great addition to HHN.

Wish I could say the same for the Rocky Horror Show, but that was just a bad call. I've seen the movie at least half a dozen times in a theater, so I'm not a total newbie. Still, by cutting the plot to 30 minutes, it's impossible for anyone but a hard-core fan to follow what's going on. They also cut Meat Loaf's song, easily the best in the movie. And, to be honest, the talent was a mixed bag--some good voices, some not that great. I was dragged to the first show (no pun intended), the crowd was about 15% theater club geeks yelling out the call-backs and 85% people with bewildered looks on their faces. I have never seen so many people walk out on a live show, entire rows just shaking their heads and leaving.

Still too crowded, the drinks are still too watered down, and it will never be quite as good as it used to be (whenever you first started going)--but still the best thing Uni does every year.

 

[fairfax]

I have to disagree. I've been going for many years, this is the 13th year. Some years are better than others, yes, but I still had a fantastic time. The Bill and Ted show was not as funny as in the past, but it wasn't bad. I did not see any of the other shows, but did do all the houses. I just love this event so much that I've never had a bad time there.