More HHN questions

[mulchpuppy]

Hey all.

I'm going on the 24th, and want to hang in the parks inbetween. I've seen mentions of the holding areas, but I can't find a thread where anyone said where the actual holding areas were.

Are they still using the Oak? And are there other areas that may be better suited to being near the right houses at the right time?

And what's an Express Pass running on a Sunday night?

That's all I got.

 

[rhysd2]

not been yet but heres the info i've been seeing from trip reports etc

The Stay and Scream holding locations in IOA are the Captain America Diner, and Circus McGrukus. As far as I know the one at Universal is right next to Midway Of The Bizarre.

as for express passes i believe sundays are something like $21 as their off peak nights. check the HHN website.

 

[mum4jenn]

We were just there on the 10th. sunday is cheaper but it closes at midnight . That was plenty of time for us. We stayed until around 11 pm. We bought the express passes also which was a good thing. If we had to have waited 45-60 minutes to get into those haunted areas we would have really been mad. To us there was really nothing scary about any of the stuff. We are in our 40's so maybe that has something to do with it. All the areas had different names but they were all basically the same stuff in all of them.

The above poster was correct in the holding areas. Once they get you checked in and everything is ready they let you in a bit early than the posted time but you have to be in the holding areas. We got a good jump on the larger crowds by at least 30 minutes.

 

[dinks]

I called about the Express passes, and they are gone for Sat. Can anyone give me some great advice about which houses to see first, which can be skipped, etc so that we can see as much as possible. I guess I need a touring plan. Thanks! Kelly M needs to do a book for that.

 

[my5sonsgra]

I was there on Oct 9. I would suggest you wait in the IOA area and do Disentorium, then go to House of Wax, Ghost Town, then go back towards IOA (this is crucial since the UO park is still clearing people out and you can't enter to go to the other houses)and proceed to Hell's gate, Castle Vampyr and Deadtropolis and Nightmares (you can possibly reverse the last two) We didn't have this advise and experienced disappointment when we couldn't enter UO until after 7 pm and we didn't know about the other way to get to the houses back through IOA, so we experienced a 150 minute wait for Vampyr and skipped the wait for Deadtropolis because we left them two to the last. My family thought Vampyr was the best of the 6 houses we had seen. I have also heard this from others. Don't spend too much time in the scare zones while you are getting to the houses because it will still be light and they are not as fun. Get the houses first and then scare zones. We couldn't get the parade in but we did get Bill and Ted's. This was my family's 3rd time but my first along with my 12 yr old's. Great fun! If I can be of any more help, let me know. I tend to follow plans when I am at Disney and Universal to avoid crowds.

 

[dinks]

This is exactly what we need. One more question, please. Do you know what time the parade happens? We may not want to get out of line for it, but I'm not sure.

 

[my5sonsgra]

I am not sure but I think I remember maybe 3 parades around 8, 11 and 1 and Bill and Ted's seemed to run every hour on the half. Good luck and have lots of fun!

 

[mulchpuppy]

I'm assuming you were not using Express passes, right?

And thanks for the headsup regarding the later opening for the Studios side. I didn't realize they opened later.

Are all the houses in Islands open once the holding areas release folks, or are any of them partially outdoors (last year I got stuck in a cave in Camp Jurassic, not realizing that that house didn't open until right. Big old bag of suck there)?

Thanks again!

 

[my5sonsgra]

We did not use express passes. There is only 1 house technically in IOA. It is open the whole time. The staggered openings are in USO, I took this into account when I suggested my ideas. Universal could certainly change the times but they should be listed on the maps that they give out. There are 3 outside scarezones that are also open the whole time and they will also be shown on the maps. I hope this helps and have lots of fun