Might Be Retiring From HHN

[TheRealDrDisney]

So I've been going for a while, not from the beginning, but since the Director or maybe the year before. First t-shirt I bought was for 13, so maybe that was it...

Anyway, I think I might be over it. I'll tell you why and would be interested to hear other opinions (agree or disagree, I don't mind

- Crowds, even on non-peak nights. It takes an hour just to get in the gate sometimes. Yes, I know there are ways to beat that (e.g. Stay and Scream) but I'm tired of being nickel-and-dimed to death. And sometimes you can't even walk through an area because it's so crowded.

- Express passes have gotten prohibitively expensive. I understand the old supply and demand argument and I support it. But paying upwards of a hundred bucks extra in order to be able to see all the houses is getting steep. And no discount for an AP holder especially hurts.

- Speaking of the express pass, even then the lines can be 20-30 minutes long. I've stood for 10-15 minutes watching the TM allow the standby line in. I understand the need for balance, but this seems excessive to me. Yes, I timed it, and yes, it happened on 4 different houses this year alone so it felt like a new policy.

- Running through the houses. I know we can't stroll, can't linger, can't pay too close of attention to the details, but still - I want to see what's happening. Every 10 feet (or so it seems) there's a TM standing there twirling their finger at the patrons in a hurry-up motion. No one's dawdling, but it never seems to be fast enough for them. Sorry, but the customer's goal is to enjoy the house - not to increase your numbers for the night. It's like a server dropping off the check with the appetizers.

Maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy old man, I don't know. But I have gone every year (just once) and always bought the express pass. I buy drinks and food while I'm there. If they are cool I even buy the t-shirt. So I'm not trying to be cheap, it just feels like the entire experience has gone downhill.

Anyways - just putting that out there. I was just there recently so who knows, maybe I'll be raring to go when it comes around again next year - lol.

 

[wilkeliza]

I didn't make a mad dash to go this year because I found that my first year it was super fun then I took a year off and then the next year one house was great and the other was lack luster. The rocky horror stage show was a bummer. I wish I would have made it into more house but with out the safe zones the fiance couldn't get away to cool down after a scare. He was use to the old school HHN that had safe cool down zones where scareactors were not allowed. He was totally unprepared for what he experienced haha. Now that Diagon Alley is open and free of scares we may give it a shot next year.

 

[damo]

We went last year and got the express pass. We made sure that we were in the park early and did the stay and scream. We finished all of the houses really early and didn't experience any of the issues you are talking about, in fact we were really surprised at how quickly we completed everything. We went in September so maybe the crowds are considerably different then.

 

[keishashadow]

Weekends are crowded, as are the weeks around Holiday weekends. Disney moved their race from 1st weekend in October, I believe having less 'bodies' in Orlando the Thursday afterwards enabled us short waites w/o EP.

It's well worth being inside the park vs the gate line. Nice to have the option, hope they never change it.

There is a rather automatic twirling of the light batons in the houses, but I tend to not even notice being too intent on the content of the houses, never felt overly rushed. It's a fast pace, who wouldn't want to linger, but doesn't seem to have changed over the years. Not a issue for us since we tend to visit two or 3 nights & typically get to see all the scares. Our splurge is sharing cost of a private tour with others that we purchase in lieu of EP's cost. The numbers actually tend to work out in same ballpark.

 

[DOOM1001]

My first HHN was in 1992,the second year of the event,I missed the first year and about 3 other years in the 1990's so I've been to like 21 of the 25 years and have never bought express passes(I'm cheap!!) and I pretty much only do 1 visit a year since I'm in Florida but not a local,out of all those visits I wasn't able to do 1 house,I think it was around 2005,that's not too bad.I have an AP so I'm always in the Stay and Scream area and I rarely go on a peak night,even though I did do a peak night about 2 years ago and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.This year with the 9 houses was a bigger challenge than I expected,I went on Oct.4th,a Sunday that was only supposed to open until 1am but they extended it to 2am,I will say if they didn't do that I would have missed one of the houses,luckily I got all 9 in and I have still yet to spend one penny on express,in my opinion it's kind of crazy to spend $44 for the tickets and then have to spend $89(on my night) or more for express,I'd rather just do another trip if I have to and go again and still save like $40+.Nobody likes waiting in lines but it's HHN and you know you're going to have to do it.The day I went the lines were long but tolerable,I was only able to do 2 houses with minimal or no wait,one with a 20 minute wait,5 with 30-45 minute waits that had posted wait times of around 60 minutes and the longest one had a posted wait of 80 but only ended up being 50-55 minutes so they pretty much all had lower than posted wait times.I stopped buying the t shirts like 10 years ago,living in Florida I've removed black cotton shirts from my wardrobe,if they start producing dri fit ones maybe I'll start buying them again.

 

[schumigirl]

We did 5? nights this year, in the first three weeks so maybe that affects my opinion.

Crowds weren't too bad, but we only did one Saturday the 26th.......it was busy! I would have hated not to have had EP that night. Bottom line I wouldn`t do that event without EP. But we prefer to do several houses a night over several nights......the idea of doing all houses in one night till 2am is not our way at all.........again, each to their own.

Longest express queue we stood was 15 minutes for Insidious.......we did feel she let too many regular queue through that time, or we would have been quicker, but at 15 minutes when regular queue was around 90 minutes it`s not too bad.

We always buy Rush Of Fear tickets with EP and it's fantastic value, so again I don`t feel nickel and dimed at all...with tax and delivery for 2 tickets it was $487......not bad for possibly 10 nights of fun. We used the hotel guest entrance opening night and it wasn`t too bad....we usually did Stay and scream previous years, but this year apart from opening night we just came in bit later and it was better. It`s too long to hang around in those areas for us......may consider the Simpsons area as at least there is seating in there for next visit.

Did notice the TM with the twirly batons, but it was just kinda routine for them.......only once we actually heard a TM shout keep moving.....as Keisha said you don`t even notice them after a bit.

As for shirts and stuff......we are perfect fodder for Universal....lol.......we buy everything.....shirts, lanyards, shot glasses, mugs......you name it we`ll buy it......

I bet by next you will be raring to go again ........I`m sorry you felt a bit let down this year........did you enjoy the actual houses and scare zones though despite feeling a bit rushed?

We loved it!!! Apart from Run and Alice which I thought were poor. WD too, but we don`t like the show anyway.

 

[epcotty]

We don't do HHN at all, don't think we would like it

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Since we are annual passholders do we automatically get "stay and scream"?? Or is that something extra I have to buy?

 

[PammyK]

Since we are annual passholders do we automatically get "stay and scream"?? Or is that something extra I have to buy?

Yes, if you enter the park prior to 5pm using your annual pass, you will be permitted to remain in the park in one of the designated holding areas during park clear. There will be team members with scanners at the entry points for the holding areas to scan your separate HHN pass for event entry.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

We had a great night! We arrived before 5:00, went into the holding area at Finnegan's for about 45 minutes or so. Then when they opened the gate we did 3 houses (Freddy vs Jason, American werewolf in London, and the 25 years of monsters) all in 30 minutes! Then we headed back to do Insidious and the Purge, both had less than 30 minute wait. After 5 houses we decided to do some fear zones, went though all of those, then did several rides (Gringott's, Transformers, Rip Ride Rock it). Then we did both shows (Carnage and Bill & Ted's) hit Diagon Alley again then left around midnight. I definitely feel like we got our money's worth, we did way more than I thought we would be able to do.

 

[TheRealDrDisney]

Thanks everyone for the feedback - it's great to hear from my fellow Uni lovers!

I had a great time in spite of the feedback listed above, sorry I gave the impression otherwise. Mostly I was interested to see if what I saw as a trend really was one, or if it was just me.

Sounds like we agree that it is definitely crowded - I was there on Oct 4 also Doom1001, we probably passed right by each other! But crowds are to be expected, for sure. And I'll try to not take the baton twirling personally - lol!

I'm sure I'll give it a try again next year. Lots of good strategies mentioned above to save time and/or money.

Thanks again!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We did HHN for the first time this year. Since our tickets were "free" with our Premier AP's, we splurged and booked a public RIP tour and the Scareactor Dining Experience. We had an amazing time....and thought the add-ons (tour & meal) were well worth the price. We found value in both upgrades, even though they were pricey (and we had 35% exchange on top of the US dollar price....so it really hit us in the pocket book).

We have no previous years to compare it to, as we were HHN virgins, but we are already planning to return next year, same time (God and the budget willing) and HHN with an RIP Tour will definitely be on our itinerary.

 

[atricks]

HHN really punishes those who don't do their homework. It's possible to do everything in one night without express, but it requires a commando style approach and study of crowd patterns. Stay & Scream helps a lot (Either Finnegans or Simpsons holding areas) but it's doable if you get there around 5:15 and wait at the gate also. (They typically start letting people just after 6PM, even though the advertised opening is 6:30 -- only some of the houses are open at 6pm) Some nights (like the night before Columbus Day) were even too much for that, but early in the run or very late (like Halloween day itself and any days after) are the best bets for crowds.

 

[heidijanesmith]

We have only gone to HHN the last three years, but I thought this year was more crowded than the past years at about the same time.

We went on Thurs Oct 8th and bought Express passes and did the stay and scream. Stay and scream at the Simpson's area was fantastic, three houses real quick.

As the night went on, even the EP lines were big for Insidious and 25 years house. We timed our EP line for Insidious to be 40 min (much better than 120 min regular line), but still quite long. The 25 years house EP line was 30 min (much better than 90 min regular line).

 

[schumigirl]

Thanks everyone for the feedback - it's great to hear from my fellow Uni lovers!

I had a great time in spite of the feedback listed above, sorry I gave the impression otherwise. Mostly I was interested to see if what I saw as a trend really was one, or if it was just me.

Sounds like we agree that it is definitely crowded - I was there on Oct 4 also Doom1001, we probably passed right by each other! But crowds are to be expected, for sure. And I'll try to not take the baton twirling personally - lol!

I'm sure I'll give it a try again next year. Lots of good strategies mentioned above to save time and/or money.

Thanks again!

Glad to hear it DrD...........