HHN - What to expect?

[manaris]

Hi,

Myself and my wife will be in Orlando in October, and will be going to HHN. I think that all of the houses and scarezones etc. look amazing, but as I have never been to an event anything like this before, I was hoping you could all answer some questions for me!

Firstly, what exactly is a haunted house?! This may sound like a silly question, but we honestly have no idea what to expect. We are assuming that it involves walking through a themed building with various people/props designed to scare us! Is it a case of having to shuffle along a set (enclosed) path as part of a large crowd, or is it more open than that? My wife is worried about the prospect of getting trampled/squashed if we are in the middle of a crowd and a whole bunch of people move in the "wrong" direction...

Are all of the houses in complete darkness, or not entirely? My wife is ok with scary stuff (to a degree!), but she does not do so well in periods of complete darkness (especially when it goes hand in hand with large crowds!)

From what I can gather, there is alcohol freely available at HHN.. This is great news, and I will enjoy a few drinks myself, but does it cause the crowd to get boisterous/leery/etc. as the night progresses? I suppose this ties in with my question above about crowds.. Obviously the effects of that would be made a lot worse if people tend to get very drunk/loud.

Are there areas of the park that are free of scary stuff? i.e. can you just wander around and soak up the atmosphere without having people jump out at you every step of the way? Are the shops/restaurants etc open during the event? There is a good chance that my wife may not want/like to do some of the houses, but I will want to do them all if possible. I just need to make sure that there is something/somewhere for her to go/do while I get my horror fix!

Sorry about all the questions, but I like to be prepared

Thanks.

 

[Metro West]

Hi,

Myself and my wife will be in Orlando in October, and will be going to HHN. I think that all of the houses and scarezones etc. look amazing, but as I have never been to an event anything like this before, I was hoping you could all answer some questions for me!

Firstly, what exactly is a haunted house?! This may sound like a silly question, but we honestly have no idea what to expect. We are assuming that it involves walking through a themed building with various people/props designed to scare us! Is it a case of having to shuffle along a set (enclosed) path as part of a large crowd, or is it more open than that? My wife is worried about the prospect of getting trampled/squashed if we are in the middle of a crowd and a whole bunch of people move in the "wrong" direction...

Are all of the houses in complete darkness, or not entirely? My wife is ok with scary stuff (to a degree!), but she does not do so well in periods of complete darkness (especially when it goes hand in hand with large crowds!)

From what I can gather, there is alcohol freely available at HHN.. This is great news, and I will enjoy a few drinks myself, but does it cause the crowd to get boisterous/leery/etc. as the night progresses? I suppose this ties in with my question above about crowds.. Obviously the effects of that would be made a lot worse if people tend to get very drunk/loud.

Are there areas of the park that are free of scary stuff? i.e. can you just wander around and soak up the atmosphere without having people jump out at you every step of the way? Are the shops/restaurants etc open during the event? There is a good chance that my wife may not want/like to do some of the houses, but I will want to do them all if possible. I just need to make sure that there is something/somewhere for her to go/do while I get my horror fix!

Sorry about all the questions, but I like to be prepared

Thanks.

I hope you enjoy HHN this year and please...post your dates on the Uni board to see who else will be there. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1846729

1.) The haunted houses are themed experiences and like you said...there are people throughout each house to scare you. The houses that are in the sound stages are always the biggest and most elaborately themed. They jump out at you or get in your face but are NOT allowed to touch any guest and guests are NOT allowed to touch them. The houses are designed to the line is like a congo line...everyone goes in the same direction. If she really gets scared and can not continue, they have security people throughout the house that can take her outside.

2.) For the most part the houses adequate light in them so you can see where you're going. Some past houses have been in total darkness and there might be one this year. No one knows yet. In the majority of houses, you can see where you're going.

3.) Yes...alcohol flows pretty freely at HHN and can make some guests obnoxious but security is around and if it gets out of hand, they will make sure the person or persons are dealth with accordingly.

4.) It doesn't sound like there is going to be a lot of quiet areas this year but there will be areas where you can just sit and relax a bit. I like to do that and watch people get scared...it's better than a movie sometimes. Just about everything will be open during HHN except for an attraction or two who's queue is being used as a house. All of the stores will be open.

Don't forget to post your dates. There are a lot of us going this year and would love to meet other DISers.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Firstly, what exactly is a haunted house?! This may sound like a silly question, but we honestly have no idea what to expect. We are assuming that it involves walking through a themed building with various people/props designed to scare us! Is it a case of having to shuffle along a set (enclosed) path as part of a large crowd, or is it more open than that? My wife is worried about the prospect of getting trampled/squashed if we are in the middle of a crowd and a whole bunch of people move in the "wrong" direction...

The houses are designed that you follow the person in front of you through a set path in the house. The "scareactors" are positioned throughout the house and do jump out at you, or come up behind you. As Metro said, the scareactors cannot touch you.

Are all of the houses in complete darkness, or not entirely? My wife is ok with scary stuff (to a degree!), but she does not do so well in periods of complete darkness (especially when it goes hand in hand with large crowds!)

Some of the houses can be quite dark and some may flash bright lights in your eyes or use mirrors to disorient you. It all depends on the theme of the house. Generally you can see where you are going.

From what I can gather, there is alcohol freely available at HHN.. This is great news, and I will enjoy a few drinks myself, but does it cause the crowd to get boisterous/leery/etc. as the night progresses? I suppose this ties in with my question above about crowds.. Obviously the effects of that would be made a lot worse if people tend to get very drunk/loud.

Yes, there are stands that sell alcohol throughout the park and even in line while waiting to enter a house. For the most part, people are well behaved, but you can get some that get a bit boisterous and disorderly, however Security is very visible and will deal with those people quickly.

Are there areas of the park that are free of scary stuff? i.e. can you just wander around and soak up the atmosphere without having people jump out at you every step of the way? Are the shops/restaurants etc open during the event? There is a good chance that my wife may not want/like to do some of the houses, but I will want to do them all if possible. I just need to make sure that there is something/somewhere for her to go/do while I get my horror fix!

In previous years, yes there have been "safe" areas, however this year we don't know what to expect yet. Most of the shops and restaurants are open, so yes, your wife will have something to do while you are visiting the houses.

Take a look at our pictures from last year - they will give you an idea of what the houses are like.
- HHN 17 Pictures
- HHN 17 Behind the Scenes Pictures

Bonny

 

[SLK1]

HHN is a lot of fun, but that's BECAUSE it scares the living daylights out of you. If you don't like the average scary movie or local haunted house on Halloween, then you're going to hate this.

If you do end up going, beware: each house and some scarezones/shows show GRAPHIC images and some even have gratuitous violence happen right in front of you! It's intense to be there when a girl gets stabbed ten times by a serial killer

You can see where you're going in the houses, and the line of people is continuously moving with no breaks in the pace, so there will always be someone right in front of you.

The ScareActors cannot touch you, but they can follow you and creep you out. If you start to make fun of them or play around with them, they'll stop bugging you though. A good way to know if something's going to jump out is to look at the security guards standing throughout each house. When they see a wuss, they'll tap the wall they're standing in front of, signaling the ScareActor behind the wall to jump out at you. If you see that tap, you can prepare for it.

The park's atmosphere is nightmare-like, even outside of the haunted houses, and scarezones ARE scary--they'll have monsters jump out of trashcans and what-not and make you pee yourself, so be careful when walking around. You can, however, get some comic relief with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, a great pop-culture parody, and the tribute to A Rocky Horror Picture Show, which will, well...

It's safe, I've never seen anybody get rowdy, and you'll have a blast while you're screaming your head off.

 

[Planogirl]

Do the guests enter the houses in a continuous flow or do they hold back people so that there's space between groups? The good houses in our area make sure that people go in in little groups but I imagine that the Universal houses get too crowded for that.

 

[Metro West]

Do the guests enter the houses in a continuous flow or do they hold back people so that there's space between groups? The good houses in our area make sure that people go in in little groups but I imagine that the Universal houses get too crowded for that.

If the line is stalling, they will hold people back and let the line move some. Otherwise...it's a constant flow. I don't I have ever been crushed in any of the houses though.

 

[manaris]

Thanks for all your relies guys, I think not knowing what to expect is probably the scariest thing of all tbh We are coming over from Ireland, and we don't have anything here that even vaguely resembles HHN, so nothing to compare to so to speak. Neither of us mind being scared, but we do mind not knowing what to expect!

Thanks for all your answers, please feel free to add more if you like!

I will add our dates to the other thread asap.

Thanks again.

 

[donaldduck352]

Thanks for all your relies guys, I think not knowing what to expect is probably the scariest thing of all tbh We are coming over from Ireland, and we don't have anything here that even vaguely resembles HHN, so nothing to compare to so to speak. Neither of us mind being scared, but we do mind not knowing what to expect!

Thanks for all your answers, please feel free to add more if you like!

I will add our dates to the other thread asap.

Thanks again.

Not knowing makes it even better!!You will be talking about this for months afterwords

 

[schumigirl]

Not knowing makes it even better!!You will be talking about this for months afterwords

I so agree We were newbies last year, our first visit to Florida so had never ever heard of HHN. We went along and loved loved loved it. Probably our best night there.
We had never laughed so much, didn`t do a lot of houses but it was a fantastic atmosphere and the shows were fab, especially Bill and Ted..... so funny.
Being scared was brilliant, those scare actors really know their stuff but it feel so safe at the same time, if you know what I mean.
We can`t wait to go back this year, and our 14 year old son is really looking forward to it, maybe something to do with how nice those girls selling the jello shots were to him They really made a fuss of him which was nice, think DH wished it had been him
But you`ll have a blast it really is a fun filled night

 

[cyctorres]

 

[donaldduck352]

Donn't worry about security.I think 1/2 of the Orange County Sherriff's department was there last year!!!!!!!!!!!

We felt safe,and the ones that were over indulging were behaving!!!!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I so agree We were newbies last year, our first visit to Florida so had never ever heard of HHN. We went along and loved loved loved it. Probably our best night there.
We had never laughed so much, didn`t do a lot of houses but it was a fantastic atmosphere and the shows were fab, especially Bill and Ted..... so funny.
Being scared was brilliant, those scare actors really know their stuff but it feel so safe at the same time, if you know what I mean.
We can`t wait to go back this year, and our 14 year old son is really looking forward to it, maybe something to do with how nice those girls selling the jello shots were to him They really made a fuss of him which was nice, think DH wished it had been him
But you`ll have a blast it really is a fun filled night

Glad you enjoyed it ... it really is a great time

PS - nice avatar

 

[Metro West]

Glad you enjoyed it ... it really is a great time

PS - nice avatar

I'm waiting for the HHN website to fully update with the desktop icons and wallpapers. I need to add them to my collection.

 

[raph_b]

Thanks for all your relies guys, I think not knowing what to expect is probably the scariest thing of all tbh We are coming over from Ireland, and we don't have anything here that even vaguely resembles HHN, so nothing to compare to so to speak. Neither of us mind being scared, but we do mind not knowing what to expect!

Thanks for all your answers, please feel free to add more if you like!

I will add our dates to the other thread asap.

Thanks again.

This is going to be my first year too and I cannot wait!

 

[macraven]

This is going to be my first year too and I cannot wait!

and, birthdays for some homies..............

 

[WDWFreak200]

Make sure you keep in mind that almost all of the attractions (with the exception of a select few) will not be operating this year during Halloween Horror Nights, so you may want to make a special trip to the parks during the daytime hours to get your rides in on those attractions. Also, they are promising 7 scare zones with 2 additional "roaming" scare zones, so pretty much the only "safe havens" will be restaurants and shops.

 

[hack2112]

Make sure you keep in mind that almost all of the attractions (with the exception of a select few) will not be operating this year during Halloween Horror Nights, so you may want to make a special trip to the parks during the daytime hours to get your rides in on those attractions. Also, they are promising 7 scare zones with 2 additional "roaming" scare zones, so pretty much the only "safe havens" will be restaurants and shops.

Actually, the back end of the park has only the 2 roaming scarezones, so that should be fairly empty, and the 400 jack-o-lanterns will be located in the Central Park area. Also, Amity is always scare-less because it is such a bottleneck for people because of the house location, the show location, and the ride location.

Here is a fan-made map to help with locations:

*Credit for the info and map goes to HHNVault Forums. (The map was made by FearTonight)*

 

[raph_b]

Actually, the back end of the park has only the 2 roaming scarezones, so that should be fairly empty, and the 400 jack-o-lanterns will be located in the Central Park area. Also, Amity is always scare-less because it is such a bottleneck for people because of the house location, the show location, and the ride location.

Here is a fan-made map to help with locations:

*Credit for the info and map goes to HHNVault Forums. (The map was made by FearTonight)*

Could someone please point out where these are in relation to rides?

Am I right in thinking that Reflections of Fear is in the Jaws queue?

PS Thanks to Hack2112 for posting this map

 

[hack2112]

Could someone please point out where these are in relation to rides?

Am I right in thinking that Reflections of Fear is in the Jaws queue?

PS Thanks to Hack2112 for posting this map

You are. I put up some of the attractions on the map. Also, I apologize in advance for the font. It's what I was using last and I was too lazy to change it.

 

[ToGreen78]

and, birthdays for some homies..............

and we can't forget wedding anniversaries