OhioStateBuckeye
DIS Veteran
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- Sep 7, 2007
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Sorry about that last post, posted some of the pics multiple times and is being difficult to edit so I just give up.
Official 2018 HHN-28 Thread
- Thread starter keishashadow
- Start date
Fantastic write-up and review of a private RIP tour! Awesome pics too! Thanks for sharing!
I just want to add a bit of info for those unfamiliar with RIP tours. There is also a public RIP tour, and although most of the info provided is applicable to private and public tours, for the public tours, the guide will take the group to each house only once. As you can see, if you have enough people for a private tour, that is the absolute best way to tour HHN. And that is not to slight the public RIP tour in the least. It is the second best way to tour HHN. Then express pass (also fantastic), then finally standard ticket (which is obviously still a great time!).
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On Wednesday, saw the sign for a sweet deal
5 houses completed in one hour for public rip tour for (i think) $100
Choice of 5 houses in the back area or the 5 in the front of the park
Can only sign up that day for this new trial tour
I mentioned this event I’m the prior page but wanted to list the house sets as did not ha e that info when I first posted about this
Wednesday is the cheapest day for this trial new tour
If the demand is there, maybe it will continue for next year
5 houses completed in one hour for public rip tour for (i think) $100
Choice of 5 houses in the back area or the 5 in the front of the park
Can only sign up that day for this new trial tour
I mentioned this event I’m the prior page but wanted to list the house sets as did not ha e that info when I first posted about this
Wednesday is the cheapest day for this trial new tour
If the demand is there, maybe it will continue for next year
keishashadow
Proud Redhead...yes, I have some bananas!
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2004
- Messages
- 32,312
Went over and introduced myself to soniam after recognizing gent in her tour from last year. Probably wondered who the wacky lady was lol. Didn’t realize you & yeullin (who recognized me later lol) were in group too or I’d have shouted out
It really is the way to go. Have only done one public tour but not a fan
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OhioStateBuckeye
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2007
- Messages
- 7,614
Went over and introduced myself to soniam after recognizing gent in her tour from last year. Probably wondered who the wacky lady was lol. Didn’t realize you & yeullin (who recognized me later lol) were in group too or I’d have shouted out
It really is the way to go. Have only done one public tour but not a fan
I don't remember seeing anyone come over, so looks like I missed seeing you
OhioStateBuckeye
DIS Veteran
- Joined
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So now that I am back home
Time to do HHN 2018 overall review.
DATES
It was my boyfriend and I for the most part, we attended HHN Sept 30 Sunday, Oct 3 Wednesday, Oct 4 Thursday and Oct 5 Friday.
We both feel that Thursday was the emptiest, but all nights were pretty busy, we never experience a night where most waits weren't at least 40 minutes during most of the night.
Manner of Entry
We did stay and scream 3 nights, RIP private tour one night.
1 night we did the Simpsons area stay and scream, this is a good holding area because you can go inside the food court and relax, seated, in air conditioned with food.
2 nights we did Finnegan's stay and scream. The restaurant fills up quickly and early, so the other options are to hang around outside. There are two holding areas inside here, the main area and then a smaller queue that fills up faster and is let go first (most head to Stranger Things from this first queue).
We did not do the Hello Kitty stay and scream, but we walked by it one night when the park was closed and there were about 20 people in there. This could be a good option if you want to start with Halloween 4, then do the back of the park houses.
Best Strategy for Stay and Scream without Express Pass
In my opinion, this is the best way to see the houses if you do stay and scream without express.
Do the Finnegan's waiting area. Try to get into the smaller queue. You might have to show up around 4 to get inside there.
You will most likely be let loose around 5:30. If you are in the first queue let go, head to Stranger Things. If you are not, do Poltergeist.
After Stranger Things, head to Poltergeist. After that, you should still be able to get into Carnivale Graveyard and Scary Tales with a 15 minute or less wait.
Skip Halloween unless it's listed at 15 minutes or lower.
Head to the ET area. You should have short waits for both Trick R Treat and Seeds of Extinction.
Head to the MIB area and do Slaughter Sinema and Dead Exposure. Next up Blumhouse, near the Academy of Villains show, should still have a short wait.
You may need to go back to Halloween or Poltergeist at this time and just deal with the longer waits.
During the 8 pm-midnight time you should spend your time doing scare zones, the Academy of Villains show, and frequently checking the app for lower wait times. The problem with that, everyone will rush the houses with the lower waits. So you need to be lucky in checking the times and get over there quickly, because everyone else is headed there too.
Around midnight the waits should start to lessen. Don't trust posted wait times during the last hour, they are rarely accurate.
If you want to repeat Stranger Things, get in line a few minutes before park closes. We did that one night, posted wait 90, we waited a little less than 40. Once express pass clears out the regular line just moves continuously.
House and Zone Rankings
Here are Brian's house rankings:
1. Seeds of Extinction
2. Poltergeist
3. Scary Tales
4. Slaughter Sinema
5. Stranger Things
6. Dead Exposure: Patient Zero
7. Carnival Graveyard: Rust In Pieces
8. Halloween 4 Return of Michael Meyers
9. Trick r' Treat
10. Blumhouse
The difference between 1-9 is very very minimal. They were all excellent houses.
Here are my house rankings:
My top 4 were all very close. I don't really get scared by most of the houses, just occasionally startled by the quick movements.
1. Scary Tales
So creative, I didn't appreciate getting soaked several times in the Humpty scene but other than that I loved all the little details and smells (candy and bacon).
2. Dead Exposure
This house was the only one that I felt was genuinely scary. This one was very dark, but I liked it once I realized it was part of the story line. I think it got better each time I went thru since I saw more details. Loved the subway scene with the noises.
3. Seeds of Extinction
I loved the whole apocalyptic mall. Good use of little hand puppets, liked the light fading in and out when you went thru the glow plants. Liked the tilted floor, that was a good effect to 'throw you off balance', physically and mentally.
4. Stranger Things
Great representation of the show series. I liked that they had actor lookalikes, though I never did see Lucas or Jonathan.
5. Poltergeist
I'm not sure I liked how they executed the house. They started their timeline very late in the movie, and you entered thru the pool. I did like the smell of dirt at the pool. I would have liked to have seen the scene in the kitchen with the chairs moving. I did like the big puppets/animatronics.
6. Slaughter Sinema
Loved this idea, and the designers did a very good job with the house overall. There was a little portion to put the movie poster, then they had to set up the entire feel/premise of the movie with a very small space and they did a good job on that. I didn't like the weird 'locked in the basement' Chunk type guy. His volume was turned up way too loud and you could hear 'daddy!!' all thru the house.
7. Trick R Treat
I think I enjoyed the scare zone more than the house. It was a well done house, just fell a bit flat for me.
8. Carnival Graveyard
Creative house, some decent scares. Just didn't hit it out of the park. This house has two giant red buttons that you can press to add additional elements.
9. Halloween 4
Decent overall house, Michael Myers is very imposing and scary. Was actually probably stronger than the movie, but still just a bit meh.
10. Blumhouse
How do you not have the glowing contacts from the movie? Overall, the house was very disjointed. Happy Death Day was just the same dorm room over and over, and the First Purge was kind of a mess with no overall story line.
And scare zone rankings:
1. Vamp 85: such a great idea and I loved all the musical icons represented. Also really enjoyed the Michael Jackson vamp moving among the crowd during Thriller and acting out the music video scenes.
2. Killer Klowns from Outer Space: not scary, but I loved the movie and the zone was so much fun. They even did shadow puppets on the walls occasionally.
3. Chucky: all the supporting cast was kind of meh, but Chucky was hilarious and worth watching.
4. French chainsaw clowns in the Simpsons area: loved the costumes and the music really added to the atmosphere/them
5. Twisted Traditions: had to go thru a few times to appreciate, it's best later in the night after the dark and fog settles in. Still kind of seemed a Trick R Treat rip off.
6. The Harvest: meh, it's a selfie zone. Though the stilt walkers were cool this year
7. Dock Worker chainsaws in the San Francisco area. Just meh. Though I did get scared when one of them crouched down behind a group of tourists walked toward us then jumped out from behind.
Academy of Villains
I really enjoyed the show. It has a very loose Matrix apocalypse type vibe. Loved the tight rope dancers and the audience dancers. I would definitely see it at least once. It's also a nice sit down break.
Extras
I had two of the special food items. The waffle sundae, which was good if a bit pricey, and the waffles and syrup slushie which wasn't bad but not great either.
I really liked the whole 80s theme.
Time to do HHN 2018 overall review.
DATES
It was my boyfriend and I for the most part, we attended HHN Sept 30 Sunday, Oct 3 Wednesday, Oct 4 Thursday and Oct 5 Friday.
We both feel that Thursday was the emptiest, but all nights were pretty busy, we never experience a night where most waits weren't at least 40 minutes during most of the night.
Manner of Entry
We did stay and scream 3 nights, RIP private tour one night.
1 night we did the Simpsons area stay and scream, this is a good holding area because you can go inside the food court and relax, seated, in air conditioned with food.
2 nights we did Finnegan's stay and scream. The restaurant fills up quickly and early, so the other options are to hang around outside. There are two holding areas inside here, the main area and then a smaller queue that fills up faster and is let go first (most head to Stranger Things from this first queue).
We did not do the Hello Kitty stay and scream, but we walked by it one night when the park was closed and there were about 20 people in there. This could be a good option if you want to start with Halloween 4, then do the back of the park houses.
Best Strategy for Stay and Scream without Express Pass
In my opinion, this is the best way to see the houses if you do stay and scream without express.
Do the Finnegan's waiting area. Try to get into the smaller queue. You might have to show up around 4 to get inside there.
You will most likely be let loose around 5:30. If you are in the first queue let go, head to Stranger Things. If you are not, do Poltergeist.
After Stranger Things, head to Poltergeist. After that, you should still be able to get into Carnivale Graveyard and Scary Tales with a 15 minute or less wait.
Skip Halloween unless it's listed at 15 minutes or lower.
Head to the ET area. You should have short waits for both Trick R Treat and Seeds of Extinction.
Head to the MIB area and do Slaughter Sinema and Dead Exposure. Next up Blumhouse, near the Academy of Villains show, should still have a short wait.
You may need to go back to Halloween or Poltergeist at this time and just deal with the longer waits.
During the 8 pm-midnight time you should spend your time doing scare zones, the Academy of Villains show, and frequently checking the app for lower wait times. The problem with that, everyone will rush the houses with the lower waits. So you need to be lucky in checking the times and get over there quickly, because everyone else is headed there too.
Around midnight the waits should start to lessen. Don't trust posted wait times during the last hour, they are rarely accurate.
If you want to repeat Stranger Things, get in line a few minutes before park closes. We did that one night, posted wait 90, we waited a little less than 40. Once express pass clears out the regular line just moves continuously.
House and Zone Rankings
Here are Brian's house rankings:
1. Seeds of Extinction
2. Poltergeist
3. Scary Tales
4. Slaughter Sinema
5. Stranger Things
6. Dead Exposure: Patient Zero
7. Carnival Graveyard: Rust In Pieces
8. Halloween 4 Return of Michael Meyers
9. Trick r' Treat
10. Blumhouse
The difference between 1-9 is very very minimal. They were all excellent houses.
Here are my house rankings:
My top 4 were all very close. I don't really get scared by most of the houses, just occasionally startled by the quick movements.
1. Scary Tales
So creative, I didn't appreciate getting soaked several times in the Humpty scene but other than that I loved all the little details and smells (candy and bacon).
2. Dead Exposure
This house was the only one that I felt was genuinely scary. This one was very dark, but I liked it once I realized it was part of the story line. I think it got better each time I went thru since I saw more details. Loved the subway scene with the noises.
3. Seeds of Extinction
I loved the whole apocalyptic mall. Good use of little hand puppets, liked the light fading in and out when you went thru the glow plants. Liked the tilted floor, that was a good effect to 'throw you off balance', physically and mentally.
4. Stranger Things
Great representation of the show series. I liked that they had actor lookalikes, though I never did see Lucas or Jonathan.
5. Poltergeist
I'm not sure I liked how they executed the house. They started their timeline very late in the movie, and you entered thru the pool. I did like the smell of dirt at the pool. I would have liked to have seen the scene in the kitchen with the chairs moving. I did like the big puppets/animatronics.
6. Slaughter Sinema
Loved this idea, and the designers did a very good job with the house overall. There was a little portion to put the movie poster, then they had to set up the entire feel/premise of the movie with a very small space and they did a good job on that. I didn't like the weird 'locked in the basement' Chunk type guy. His volume was turned up way too loud and you could hear 'daddy!!' all thru the house.
7. Trick R Treat
I think I enjoyed the scare zone more than the house. It was a well done house, just fell a bit flat for me.
8. Carnival Graveyard
Creative house, some decent scares. Just didn't hit it out of the park. This house has two giant red buttons that you can press to add additional elements.
9. Halloween 4
Decent overall house, Michael Myers is very imposing and scary. Was actually probably stronger than the movie, but still just a bit meh.
10. Blumhouse
How do you not have the glowing contacts from the movie? Overall, the house was very disjointed. Happy Death Day was just the same dorm room over and over, and the First Purge was kind of a mess with no overall story line.
And scare zone rankings:
1. Vamp 85: such a great idea and I loved all the musical icons represented. Also really enjoyed the Michael Jackson vamp moving among the crowd during Thriller and acting out the music video scenes.
2. Killer Klowns from Outer Space: not scary, but I loved the movie and the zone was so much fun. They even did shadow puppets on the walls occasionally.
3. Chucky: all the supporting cast was kind of meh, but Chucky was hilarious and worth watching.
4. French chainsaw clowns in the Simpsons area: loved the costumes and the music really added to the atmosphere/them
5. Twisted Traditions: had to go thru a few times to appreciate, it's best later in the night after the dark and fog settles in. Still kind of seemed a Trick R Treat rip off.
6. The Harvest: meh, it's a selfie zone. Though the stilt walkers were cool this year
7. Dock Worker chainsaws in the San Francisco area. Just meh. Though I did get scared when one of them crouched down behind a group of tourists walked toward us then jumped out from behind.
Academy of Villains
I really enjoyed the show. It has a very loose Matrix apocalypse type vibe. Loved the tight rope dancers and the audience dancers. I would definitely see it at least once. It's also a nice sit down break.
Extras
I had two of the special food items. The waffle sundae, which was good if a bit pricey, and the waffles and syrup slushie which wasn't bad but not great either.
I really liked the whole 80s theme.
Do the refillable cups only work at the Freestyle machines?
OhioStateBuckeye
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2007
- Messages
- 7,614
Kind of. You can also get icees but you have to ask for those to be filled by a team member at a kiosk that has the machines.
Thank you to those who answered my many questions about HHN and the RIP tour. We had a great time! Exhausting, but great!
We stayed at Sapphire Falls (we usually to Hard Rock). Really enjoyed the hotel and the pool area. Had two great, relaxing pool days. My only complaints about SF is the bathroom. I don't get why hotels don't put exhaust fans in the shower area. Drives me crazy. I also am not a fan of the barn door. It does not conceal noise and it's loud in the middle of the night when someone gets up to use the bathroom. Finally, the lighting in the sink area is terrible. It needs additional lighting terribly. Would absolutely stay at SF again.
The HHN non private RIP tour was worth it's weight in gold on Sunday night (10/7). We checked in the "people in the scrubs" we were told to look for about 5:45 and the let us in the park about 6:10. We rode Mummy twice and wandered around until we went to Cafe La Babamba at 7:00. We ate some apps and had a drink and were off on our tour with Lacey. She was great. During the show, it started pouring, but by the time it was over it had stopped. She had gone and bought us all ponchos just in case. Thankfully we did not need them. In the 4 1/2 hours we did all the houses and scare zones. Made 2 bar and potty stops and one stop back at the Cafe for a break and desserts. After the tour we wandered around again and rode RRR and then headed back to the hotel. We had a morning flight home....that was rough!
I would absolutely do the RIP tour again. I'm not sure how you do it all without it unless you can go multiple nights.
We stayed at Sapphire Falls (we usually to Hard Rock). Really enjoyed the hotel and the pool area. Had two great, relaxing pool days. My only complaints about SF is the bathroom. I don't get why hotels don't put exhaust fans in the shower area. Drives me crazy. I also am not a fan of the barn door. It does not conceal noise and it's loud in the middle of the night when someone gets up to use the bathroom. Finally, the lighting in the sink area is terrible. It needs additional lighting terribly. Would absolutely stay at SF again.
The HHN non private RIP tour was worth it's weight in gold on Sunday night (10/7). We checked in the "people in the scrubs" we were told to look for about 5:45 and the let us in the park about 6:10. We rode Mummy twice and wandered around until we went to Cafe La Babamba at 7:00. We ate some apps and had a drink and were off on our tour with Lacey. She was great. During the show, it started pouring, but by the time it was over it had stopped. She had gone and bought us all ponchos just in case. Thankfully we did not need them. In the 4 1/2 hours we did all the houses and scare zones. Made 2 bar and potty stops and one stop back at the Cafe for a break and desserts. After the tour we wandered around again and rode RRR and then headed back to the hotel. We had a morning flight home....that was rough!
I would absolutely do the RIP tour again. I'm not sure how you do it all without it unless you can go multiple nights.
purple hippo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2009
- Messages
- 268
We just returned from our week at USO and attended HHN on three nights - Sun Sep 30, Wed Oct 3 and Thurs Oct 4. This was meant to be an anniversary trip for DH and I but my parents couldn't come to stay with the kids (DD 15, DS 13) after all so we drove down from Toronto area. DH and I first attended HHN on our honeymoon back in 99. We've been back twice - 2001 and 2013. This is our 4th trip to HHN and the kids were cautiously interested in attending as well but understood what it was all about. Didn't hurt that Stranger Things was there this year either.
Sunday we expected to be busy but seemed crazy busy to us. DH and I arrived around 7:15 and used the hotel guest entrance without delay. Thought that was a great bonus.
Everything had a huge wait. We went right to the back of the park and waited for Dead Exposure and then Slaughterhouse Cinema. Enjoyed those houses very much but wait over an hour for each. The scarezones weren't very scary as it was crowded so SA couldn't really move around or sneak up on people. We caught the AOV show and thought it was great but since we were on the extreme right we didn't really see everything. We waited for Blumhouse and it was ok but meh as others have said. Once midnight 12:30 hit the wait times finally started to go down and we were able to complete 7 of the houses (all except for Stranger Things, Poltergeist and Halloween) before we left at 2 am. We really enjoyed the Vamp 85 scarezone. SA seemed quite into it in this area and the show was great.
Wednesday all 4 of us were booked on the 6 House Behind the Screams tour. I can't thank enough all of you who recommended this tour! It was fantastic!!! One of the pet peeves we have during HHN (especially DH) is that you spend all that time waiting in line to go into a house and then the staff rush you through it to keep it moving. This tour gives you the chance to really look around and appreciate not only all the work that goes into each house, but the easter eggs, the tribute pieces, the full story line of the house, little known facts such as how they come up with codenames, and photo ops. We all really enjoyed this tour and our tour guide Andrew was awesome. I would definitely do this again! Our tour ended around 4:30 and then we headed over to the holding area by Finnegans. The people that were already in the entire holding area was shocking and it was only just before 5! They released us around 5:40 but the waits were already at over an hour. I thought this would be our great advantage to see Stranger Things - Wednesday night and Stay and Scream but both seemed to backfire on us. We ended up waiting for Scary Tales to open and checked that house off the list. We walked through the Vamp 85 section after and the scare actors took a liking to my daughter. It was great fun to watch and she was a good sport about it all. We headed to Seeds and then the kids needed a break so we left them by the line entrys and DH and I did Trick r Treat again. Completely new appreciation and I found myself looking for things I had learned on the tour. Saw AOV again with centre seats - fantastic show - lots of energy. We walked around through scarezones and then just before midnight decided to bite the bullet and enter the Stranger Things line which was at 75 minutes. As this was the only night the kids would be joining us we had to complete that house that night. It was a good house but the wait ended up being just over 90 minutes.
Thursday DH and I decided since it was so crowded we would arrive later this time. Sounds like from other posts that's the night we should have arrived earlier lol. We enjoyed our evening though and completed Halloween with a 40 minute wait and Poltergeist later in the the night with another 40 minute waited followed later by a 10 minute wait (although it was posted as a 35 minute wait). We even did Stranger Things with a posted wait of 35 minutes and we were in and out in 15 minutes. We had a great time and did all houses twice over 3 nights with the exception of Halloween (by choice - gave me a lot of good scares but that was it - I rather repeat others). It seems later in the night the posted times are more guidelines. We Poltergeist, Scary Tales, Carnival and Stranger Things in about half an hour total, and they all had a wait time of 30+ minutes posted. We noticed when behind the buildings the waits were non-existent so decided to redo them again.
Although we brought our teens I found that this was not as scary of an event as it used to be. Not sure if that's because they toned it down for younger people attending or if it was just us. The number of small children we saw around too was shocking. The streets were rarely filled with fog as we remember them to be. I think it was a lot scarier in previous years and perhaps it would be better if they were to reduce the limit of people able to attend in a night and put a hard age limit as well. We were trying to figure out what has changed since our first HHN to now and the crowds seem to be so much larger now and we seem to remember an age limit back then, but maybe we are imagining it. Even when we attended in 2013 for the Walking Dead it didn't seem nearly as crowded. Not sure what the solution is or if it is just us. I had hoped that with us avoiding Friday and Saturday the crowds would have been lighter. It was also a lot warmer/muggier than we were expecting as well - especially in the evenings so that may have also contributed to it.
Perhaps next time we will do the RIP tour or Express Pass and go one night rather than several nights without an advantage. I think that might be the way to go for us next time. Thanks again to all for all your insight and tips that helped make our trip a great one!
Sunday we expected to be busy but seemed crazy busy to us. DH and I arrived around 7:15 and used the hotel guest entrance without delay. Thought that was a great bonus.
Everything had a huge wait. We went right to the back of the park and waited for Dead Exposure and then Slaughterhouse Cinema. Enjoyed those houses very much but wait over an hour for each. The scarezones weren't very scary as it was crowded so SA couldn't really move around or sneak up on people. We caught the AOV show and thought it was great but since we were on the extreme right we didn't really see everything. We waited for Blumhouse and it was ok but meh as others have said. Once midnight 12:30 hit the wait times finally started to go down and we were able to complete 7 of the houses (all except for Stranger Things, Poltergeist and Halloween) before we left at 2 am. We really enjoyed the Vamp 85 scarezone. SA seemed quite into it in this area and the show was great.
Wednesday all 4 of us were booked on the 6 House Behind the Screams tour. I can't thank enough all of you who recommended this tour! It was fantastic!!! One of the pet peeves we have during HHN (especially DH) is that you spend all that time waiting in line to go into a house and then the staff rush you through it to keep it moving. This tour gives you the chance to really look around and appreciate not only all the work that goes into each house, but the easter eggs, the tribute pieces, the full story line of the house, little known facts such as how they come up with codenames, and photo ops. We all really enjoyed this tour and our tour guide Andrew was awesome. I would definitely do this again! Our tour ended around 4:30 and then we headed over to the holding area by Finnegans. The people that were already in the entire holding area was shocking and it was only just before 5! They released us around 5:40 but the waits were already at over an hour. I thought this would be our great advantage to see Stranger Things - Wednesday night and Stay and Scream but both seemed to backfire on us. We ended up waiting for Scary Tales to open and checked that house off the list. We walked through the Vamp 85 section after and the scare actors took a liking to my daughter. It was great fun to watch and she was a good sport about it all. We headed to Seeds and then the kids needed a break so we left them by the line entrys and DH and I did Trick r Treat again. Completely new appreciation and I found myself looking for things I had learned on the tour. Saw AOV again with centre seats - fantastic show - lots of energy. We walked around through scarezones and then just before midnight decided to bite the bullet and enter the Stranger Things line which was at 75 minutes. As this was the only night the kids would be joining us we had to complete that house that night. It was a good house but the wait ended up being just over 90 minutes.
Thursday DH and I decided since it was so crowded we would arrive later this time. Sounds like from other posts that's the night we should have arrived earlier lol. We enjoyed our evening though and completed Halloween with a 40 minute wait and Poltergeist later in the the night with another 40 minute waited followed later by a 10 minute wait (although it was posted as a 35 minute wait). We even did Stranger Things with a posted wait of 35 minutes and we were in and out in 15 minutes. We had a great time and did all houses twice over 3 nights with the exception of Halloween (by choice - gave me a lot of good scares but that was it - I rather repeat others). It seems later in the night the posted times are more guidelines. We Poltergeist, Scary Tales, Carnival and Stranger Things in about half an hour total, and they all had a wait time of 30+ minutes posted. We noticed when behind the buildings the waits were non-existent so decided to redo them again.
Although we brought our teens I found that this was not as scary of an event as it used to be. Not sure if that's because they toned it down for younger people attending or if it was just us. The number of small children we saw around too was shocking. The streets were rarely filled with fog as we remember them to be. I think it was a lot scarier in previous years and perhaps it would be better if they were to reduce the limit of people able to attend in a night and put a hard age limit as well. We were trying to figure out what has changed since our first HHN to now and the crowds seem to be so much larger now and we seem to remember an age limit back then, but maybe we are imagining it. Even when we attended in 2013 for the Walking Dead it didn't seem nearly as crowded. Not sure what the solution is or if it is just us. I had hoped that with us avoiding Friday and Saturday the crowds would have been lighter. It was also a lot warmer/muggier than we were expecting as well - especially in the evenings so that may have also contributed to it.
Perhaps next time we will do the RIP tour or Express Pass and go one night rather than several nights without an advantage. I think that might be the way to go for us next time. Thanks again to all for all your insight and tips that helped make our trip a great one!
crostorfer
Gryffindor Gal
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 3,885
Those of you who saw the booths for the 1/2 RIP Tour available night-of only, do you remember where you saw the place to sign up at?
purple hippo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2009
- Messages
- 268
Thanks for taking time to share your experience, purple hippo (btw...great DisBoard name! Purple's my fave color!)
You're quite welcome! Thank you to all for all that you do, say and share!
I forgot to mention that I agree with OhioStateBuckeye's list of favourite houses. Scary Tales was my favourite house because it was so creative and I saw something new everytime I went through - same with Slaughter Sinema.DH loved Dead Exposure and Carnival Graveyard.
DH still wants to find a way to fly back ourselves and go one more time. Not sure it will happen but guess that's a sign he still enjoyed it!
I saw the sign advertising this new tour at a few places
First as in the bridge you walk over before you enter the park
And stand up large signs by minions ride and after Boulangerie but before horror make up show
Further in the park saw same sign last Central Park on the walkway near beat builders
I looked at the signs and it listed where to go to purchase the discount rip one hour tour for 5 houses
This tour lasts one hour
I talked to one of the team members by the sign and was told 12 tops allowed in each tour
Also was told uo is trying this and will judge after the fact if this is something that can be continued next year for hhn
We all know that if uo can make a profit out of this, we will see it back next year
For this hhn season, it is sign up and pay the day you are there
No prepaying or setting it up in advance
Ten houses this year
Five houses close to each other in front part of park
Back area had five houses near each other
If a person goes on a crowded day
Half of the houses total can be done in one hour
To complete the rest of the houses is where the longer wait lines will be but still makes it possible to see all the houses in the park before you leave the park
I think it is a good concentrate
And cover half of the houses that are close together with a guide
It’s a money maker
Not all people buy the season ep
This could help lessen long ep line waits
crostorfer
Gryffindor Gal
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 3,885
We are going on the 24th and I've decided we're going to go this route vs EP. It was never my desire to do every house, I knew after reading the house descriptions that Dead Exposure was a no-go for me due to total darkness and strobe lights. I'm so over The Purge that I don't have any desire to try Blumhouse. If I can get through 3 of my 5 absolute must-do houses in an hour, that's money well spent to me, and a better value than the EP, when I never intended to hit every house anyway.
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