HHN & Universal Questions

[silver12]

Hi,
This will be my first time to Orlando and I have a few questions because I am sooo confused! I am only there for 3 days (Thurs 10/26 to Sun 10/29) but would like to go to both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I am planning on purchasing the 2 day unlimited ticket but would also like to go to HHN on Thursday night (figuring it won't be as crowded???). I saw a discount ticket (Stay and Scream) for $25 but was told that I have to be in either park for a minimum of 4 hours. Does anyone know if this is true? The check-in time at the hotel isn't until 4pm on Thursday (I probably won't arrive at the airport until about 3pm anyways), so that doesn't leave me 4 hours. I read the ticket info from the HHN site but it says nothing about having to be there for a certain amount of time beforehand. I read another post that says you can take advantage of the Stay and Scream as long as you get to the park at by 4:45pm. I don't want to buy the ticket for Thursday only to have it go to waste. I'm so confused as to what to do!

Also, I'm staying at the Homewood Suites/Convention Center. If the 2nd is true and I can be at the park at 4:45pm (not even sure which park to go to!), would it be possible to get there by then?

Any advice is greatly appreicated since I have no clue what I'm doing! Thanks!!!

 

[thrillriderbb]

Hi,
This will be my first time to Orlando and I have a few questions because I am sooo confused! I am only there for 3 days (Thurs 10/26 to Sun 10/29) but would like to go to both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I am planning on purchasing the 2 day unlimited ticket but would also like to go to HHN on Thursday night (figuring it won't be as crowded???). I saw a discount ticket (Stay and Scream) for $25 but was told that I have to be in either park for a minimum of 4 hours. Does anyone know if this is true? The check-in time at the hotel isn't until 4pm on Thursday (I probably won't arrive at the airport until about 3pm anyways), so that doesn't leave me 4 hours. I read the ticket info from the HHN site but it says nothing about having to be there for a certain amount of time beforehand. I read another post that says you can take advantage of the Stay and Scream as long as you get to the park at by 4:45pm. I don't want to buy the ticket for Thursday only to have it go to waste. I'm so confused as to what to do!

Also, I'm staying at the Homewood Suites/Convention Center. If the 2nd is true and I can be at the park at 4:45pm (not even sure which park to go to!), would it be possible to get there by then?

Any advice is greatly appreicated since I have no clue what I'm doing! Thanks!!!

From what I've heard the 2nd advice is what I'd go by. I've never heard of someone having to be in the parks for a min of 4 hours to get Stay and Scream before. I think as long as you are in the parks by the time it states you will be okay. I would double check with UO on this though as well.

 

[silver12]

Thank you so much! I'll give them a call tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[silver12]

Ok so I called UO and she said that the Stay and Scream is a separate ticket and that I don't even have to go to the park during the day to take advantage of the discount since it's on a different ticket. I kind of got the feeling she wasn't sure so if anyone knows of anything please let me know!

Oh, and do you think I should by the Express tickets if I plan to go to HHN on Thursday night..or do you think the wait time won't be that bad?

And also for Universal and IOF during the day on Friday and Saturday...does anyone think it will be really busy during the day since HHN is that night?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[DocBosch]

Stay and Scream means you bought a ticket into the park and are upgrading to HHN for $25. I don't think you can buy this option outside of the park (maybe if your are buying a park ticket and HHN ticket at the same time). In your situation, you would have to use a days admission to get into the park for an hour, and still pay the upgrade cost, which isn't much of a savings (about $90 cost total).

You'll have to buy the HHN ticket separately. Check out HalloweenHorrorNights.com for some possible discounts, but i'm not sure there are any for non-Florida residents.

Or, you could pull off something if...and this is a big IF...if Universal is still running that "3rd Day Free" promo. They had/have a thing where you can upgrade a 2day to a 3day (the catch: the three days have to be consecutive). Call them and find out. If so, do it, then get the Stay and Scream, and use the extra "3rd day" that you weren't going to use anyway, to get into the park on Thursday.

Your advantage in that case is that you'll get a heads start on the haunted houses, and wont have to wait in that huge line outside. Another option is to just do HHN on Friday, and do Stay and Scream. It maybe more crowded, but from experience, non-crowded HHNs can be not as much fun.

Hope this helped, and I didn't confuse you.

 

[silver12]

Hi, thanks for your post. You did confuse me a bit..haha! But I think I understand what you're saying. I did buy tickets. There was a special for a 2 park unlimited admission (for 7 days) for $85 and with that I could get the HHN ticket for $25 (for Thursday). This should work the same as the 3rd day free promo you mentioned, right? You also said that you've been to HHN on non-crowded nights? Or did I misunderstand? The only reason I'd rather go on a Thursday is because by me, there's a Fright Fest at Great Adventure..and the one time I went (on a Saturday), lines were ridiculous...over 3 hours long!

 

[phamton]

The fact that you bought day tickets qualifies you to purchase Stay and Scream. You don't have to be there that day at the park and can, in fact, just arrive at the opening time for HHN and use those Stay and Scream tickets. Many people visit the parks and then go to Citywalk to eat and then enter with Stay and Scream at HHN later in the evening.

So technically, you don't have to have day tickets on the night you are going to HHN. The advantage to Stay and scream is that you can be there early and hit some houses but to do that, you would need to have day tickets that day. If you don't have tickets for that day, you'll just have to enter at 6:30 PM with the rest of the HHN crowd.

The 3rd day free tickets have been discontinued at Universal.

 

[silver12]

I'm finally not confused anymore! Thank you so much!! Since I do have the 2 park unlimitied access ticket, I would love to get there before the park closes at 5pm but my flight doesn't get in until 3:15 that day so I'll be cutting it close. Since the chances of me getting into the park by 5pm are slim, do you think that the crowds will be that bad on a Thursday night? Do you suggest getting the express ticket?

 

[Slacking]

After going tonight, I've decided that the crowds are bad every night.

 

[phamton]

Orlando school are out on Thursday so expect some large crowds.

 

[silver12]

Oh no! Schools are out on Thursday the 26th?!?

 

[phamton]

Oh no! Schools are out on Thursday the 26th?!?

No--- check the date of my post. They were out on the 12th and 13th.

 

[silver12]

I didn't realize you were replying to Slacking's comment haha..sorry.