HHN rush of fear vs rush of fear with express

[aac2407]

Hi,

So my husband and I are going to our first HHN in 10 days. We are going from Sept 18-22 all 4 nights. We have daytime tickets as well. Currently we have ROF tickets without express and express passes for just Thursday night.

My question is should we upgrade our ROF to ROF plus express for those dates? It would be a difference for 2 people of about 300 total. I have seen tons of people saying they are going for our dates so I assume it will be busy, but 300 is a lot of drinks lol!! We could do stay and scream, but from what I have read you have to be at the holding areas around 2-3pm to make it worth it to get to the houses quickly so that’s still waiting 3 hours. I am not a huge fan of waiting hours for things. Also, this is our anniversary trip so I would like to take some midday breaks and I don’t know
If we could do that and do stay and scream.

Is express worth 300 more dollars?

Any opinions from past experience would be greatly appreciated since we haven’t ever been to the event to experience it.

 

[macraven]

If you are going for 4 nights at HHN, you will see it all eventually.

There are line waits in the regular line so skip the houses and return to them when line estimated waits are lower.
Usually the first few nights of hhn is quite busy.
The weekdays will not be as crowded for hhn in your time period.

If you find it is too hectic your first night there, upgrade your pass to include the rof at guest services.

 

[Monykalyn]

From my stay n scream last year :
Stranger Things-Loved this house, incredible detail. Felt like really stepping into this world. Couple decent scares, and ranks about 5 in our favorite-more for the detail and immersion than scares. Did Stay n Scream at Finnegans. Got to Finnegans around 3:30, sat to eat around 4, and done and in back of first corral around 5:10ish. Released at 5:38 and done through house at 6:35 ish. Worth the wait that early. This was only time we got to do this house.

So you can see idea of timing - we did stay n scream Friday and Sunday. I think this was Friday. We did four days last year as well, with express only on Sunday. You can do 5 houses a night easily with strategic planning and stay n scream. Looks like ghostbusters and stranger things are the big houses this year, so stay and scream on 2 different nights will get you through easily. I also think we only came close to staying to close once, so stay n scream to closing would probably get through 8-10 houses without EP (but it’s a TON of walking)

Doing five days this year all with express, because well- once you’ve experienced the EP it’s hard to do without lol!

 

[tony67]

I always get ROF and always refused to pay for express pass.
Last year I spent the money and it really is such a better time.
The stay and scream is nice but with express pass I can have a few drinks and then head over to HHN - especially now that stay and screen is so packed and you really cant enjoy Finigan's anymore IMO
I go for 7 nights of HHN and will have express for all of those nights - so well worth it - but I'd do the same for 4 weekend nights as well.
$300 does buy a lot of drinks I'll give you that. But really dont want to spend 2 hours in line when I could spend 5 and spend the extra time taking pictures in the scare zones.

Do you have day tickets or an AP?
Depending it might be worth upgrading to an AP and getting the AP version of ROF with express.

Personally I would never buy ROF without express if I can afford it.

 

[imprint]

If it was me going for an anniversary vacation, and we dislike standing in line too, then I'd would get the Express Passes and have a more relaxed experience. I would recommend the EPs anyway, but I really think it will help make your HHN time better. Of course, if you're like me, I would justify the EPs and say I'd limit the alcohol and food. Then as soon as I'm "in the fog" all that goes away lol.

Let's look at the math though: $300 total = $150 per person = $50 per person per night (this assumes the $300 increase includes the refund of the single-night EPs). If you plan to visit more than half of the houses each night, then I think that's a bargain.