Official 2019 HHN-29 Thread

[Dismamx2]

Last year ST typically had longest lines. Would do it first night, then hop over to GB. IMO only the tent houses suffer from ambient light before dusk.

Rinse & repeat the next night, picking up at least another house or two each night. Scarezones better in the dark.

You'll see that when you're in the Finnegan's S&S that there will be two holding queues set up pretty close to the mummy, one for GB and one for ST. Since you have 2 nights at HHN, it seems like you'll be able to pick one pen each night. I've never waited for the headliner house in that S&S area so I can't accurately comment on how long the wait will be for them, but I'm certain you could be through the house you choose by 7PM. The lines for both of them seemed pretty equal when I was there, but I really only passed by to get to the Starcourt Mall area.

Also, I would suggest going through Killer Klowns from Outer Space if you have the chance. It has it's moments of scariness, but is definitely a whole lot of fun.

Thank you both, if we aren't too scared by ST and GB we might try Killer Klowns. We will go to ST on our first night, if it doesn't take too long we will head for GB. If we feel ST takes a lot of time and GB has a long line we will wait until the following night for GB. We tried old House of Horrors in US CA & the Walking Dead and swore never to be repeated I just hope we will be ok with the scare zones!

 

[MoeJ]

Just for fun, I opened the Universal Orlando app on my phone but it doesn't show wait times for the houses tonight (we're going tomorrow and are currently home in SE Florida)... is the HHN portion of the app based purely on geolocation? Just curious...

 

[MoeJ]

Never mind! Found it! Sorry y'all!

 

[schumigirl]

Quietish tonight.......

Although we have EP I did note houses were around 25 - 35 minutes around 7.00/8.45pm.....the walking paths were busy though at times...

Houses have improved massively since the first night........US is so much better for one.

Yeti and Ghostbusters are pure fun........

Giving tomorrow and Friday a miss as we have dinner plans.....but look forward to next visit.

 

[crostorfer]

Night 1 down. We didn’t get to Graveyard Games or Classic Monsters yet. We’re skipping House of 1000 Corpses.

Initial thoughts:
1. The scare zones are all kind of duds this year. Zombieland is ok. I felt like my 16 year old shouldn’t have been allowed in Hellbilly Deluxe. The area was congested with people staring/taking pictures of the GoGo dancers. Good music but definitely not for kids. Or married men, lol.

2. Ghostbusters and Stranger Things were not scary, they are just for fun. Props to the lady who plays Gozer though, she was great.

3. I think we had a bad run through the Yeti. Great, great theming, love the ice caves, but we had no Yetis until the very end. The timing of the scares can make or break your experience. I want another run through there.

4. The houses that I expected the least from ended up delivering the most. Us and Nightingales absolutely killed it. The scareactors in Us were on their A game tonight. That last room........*shudders*. And the Nightingales doubled up on us in several areas, which scared the bejeezus out of us. Loved both houses.

 

[simnia]

You'll see that when you're in the Finnegan's S&S that there will be two holding queues set up pretty close to the mummy, one for GB and one for ST. Since you have 2 nights at HHN, it seems like you'll be able to pick one pen each night. I've never waited for the headliner house in that S&S area so I can't accurately comment on how long the wait will be for them, but I'm certain you could be through the house you choose by 7PM. The lines for both of them seemed pretty equal when I was there, but I really only passed by to get to the Starcourt Mall area.

They have separate holding pens for GB and ST? Last year (and year before) I only recall one pen for the headliners in that area.

 

[HollyMD]

On Wednesday October 9, do you predict busy enough to need EP? Or would we be safe waiting til we got there and getting the discounted one if needed?

 

[amar831]

They have separate holding pens for GB and ST? Last year (and year before) I only recall one pen for the headliners in that area.

Yup, they have team members holding up a sign for each house, so it's pretty clear with the way they have it laid out.

 

[WhiteWalkerNL]

Im not new to the HHN, but we never used the EP for our visits. We just accepted the crowd level as it were and still managed to do most of the houses (party of 2) and some rides.
This year however, im going alone sadly (especially since its our honeymoon).
Because our twins of 1 year old are of course coming on holiday with us. But this means we cant go together to HHN anymore.
Im a scare addict and my wife isn't, so she told me to go anyway as she knows what it means to me (bless her).

long story short, what is the general waiting time for an house with EP?
Is it cheaper inside the park to buy EP, or better purchased upfront?
We are staying at cabana bay, and since this is our honeymoon could i expect a nice upgrade with park or HHN tickets? (just asking just in case)

thanks

 

[imprint]

Im not new to the HHN, but we never used the EP for our visits. We just accepted the crowd level as it were and still managed to do most of the houses (party of 2) and some rides.
This year however, im going alone sadly (especially since its our honeymoon).
Because our twins of 1 year old are of course coming on holiday with us. But this means we cant go together to HHN anymore.
Im a scare addict and my wife isn't, so she told me to go anyway as she knows what it means to me (bless her).

long story short, what is the general waiting time for an house with EP?
Is it cheaper inside the park to buy EP, or better purchased upfront?
We are staying at cabana bay, and since this is our honeymoon could i expect a nice upgrade with park or HHN tickets? (just asking just in case)

thanks

Our experience with EP at HHN has been less than 20 minutes per house, but we've often waited less than 10 minutes (including virtually no wait). This is counting the time from when actually standing in line. Many houses have a long trek to get to the facade, so that doesn't count. Though I want to say that the EP lines are shorter than the standby lines, so you will save time (and steps) there too.

When we honeymooned at USO, we mentioned it at check-in and we were given a room upgrade. Obviously they could do this since they had a vacancy in the upgraded room. They might not be able to do that (due to policy or occupancy), but it's worth a try. You can also get "We're Celebrating" buttons to wear in the parks, and you will receive shout-outs and possibly comped food (we've receive desserts for birthdays and anniversaries) or "close-enough" on carnival game prizes (we've received both and also not offered both, so YMMV on that).

Since you are staying at Cabana Bay, be sure to visit the temporary Stranger Things photo-op there.

 

[WhiteWalkerNL]

Thanks Imprint for the kind feedback and i did hear about this photo-op there. We will make sure to check it out.

 

[osufeth24]

Will be going in 6 days! Can't wait. Getting EP as it's the only day we're going. Don't want to have to rush anything

 

[crostorfer]

2 nights down, on the way home now.

Tip1: Try the mini pumpkin donuts. If you get no other food item, get those.

Tip 2: See the Monsters of Mayhem lagoon show. It’s amazing, they did such a great job. It’s worth your time.

The scare zones this year are seriously lackluster. Don’t waste much time lingering. Disappointed in all of them a little bit but that’s ok. Last year’s were so good all around, it was bound to not meet my expectations.

We ended up getting EP’s both nights. If I was a patient person I may not have needed them. I, however, am not patient. Those lines are looooooong. I won’t go without them. Can’t do it, worth the extra money.

I asked about the 1/2 RIP Tour, they are not offering it this year is what I was told. However, don’t take that as gospel, last year the Team Members didn’t seem to all be on the same page there.

The Pizza Fries from Louie’s are better than the ones in the Kid Zone. The ones from Louie’s aren’t soggy. The Street Corn from the Starcourt Mall Food Court is excellent.

As far as a houses/mazes go, I honestly almost can’t even do a ranking. Strong, strong year all the way through. Every house killed it. We had a terrible run through the Yeti on Wednesday, but had a FANTASTIC run last night that made up for it. I think they must have been doing a shift change when we went through Wednesday. If you held my feet to the fire and made me choose it would probably be:

1. Yeti/Nightingales
2. Us/Graveyard Games
3. Universal Monsters
4. Depths of Fear
5. Killer Klowns (I like it better as a scare zone)
6. Ghostbusters
7. Stranger Things

We didn’t do House of 1000 Corpses by choice. I didn’t dislike any house, they were all good, Ghostbusters and Stranger Things just weren’t scary. Ghostbusters was a lot of fun though.

 

[conniehar90]

Leaving for our trip to Disney tomorrow and just decided to go to HHN next Thursday. Just DH and I - have been to Universal several times but never HHN. I have started scrolling through these pages but I still have to pack! Can someone give me some quick tips on when to get there, where to go first, etc in order to minimize waits. We don't plan to get EP. We have all day so can get there early and stay all night! We love haunted houses - scarier the better!

Thanks! I will try to read through some of these pages if I have time tonight.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

So I'm almost through my pre-watch list for HHN.

Last night was original silent Phantom of the Opera. That Christine, geez. Was all about going with the Phantom. Left Raoul a note that was like 'please never contact me again and don't ask why!'. Goes with the Phantom, he gives her all these gifts. Just asks her one thing...never take his mask off. What does she do?! Not even 5 minutes later, takes off the mask, reveals his hideous face, and hates him. Geez. Right back to Raoul.

Phantom's makeup was amazing though.

Also watched Creature from the Black Lagoon. Was surprised how much I liked it. Also surprised they haven't tried to remake that one, I think it would work well. Was also surprised to see it was filmed in 3d. Will have to try that out.

Next up on the list are Invisible Man and Us.

 

[soniam]

Phantom is definitely one of the old ones that I could do without. When I was a kid, they released the 3D B&W Creature from the Black Lagoon on TV. We watched it with those cheesy blue/red paper 3D glasses. It was hilarious.

 

[keishashadow]

We are staying at cabana bay, and since this is our honeymoon could i expect a nice upgrade with park or HHN tickets? (just asking just in case)

Have never heard of that grand of an upgrade Enjoy ur trip

Also watched Creature from the Black Lagoon. Was surprised how much I liked it. Also surprised they haven't tried to remake that one,

Shape of waters director, Guillermo del Toro, has mentioned it was one of his favorite movies as a child. Character in this movie is a homage of sort to the creature who he felt was misunderstood He actually wanted to shoot his movie in Black & white but cost was prohibitive. Too bad, it works so well in the telling of classic horror flicks

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Shape of waters director, Guillermo del Toro, has mentioned it was one of his favorite movies as a child. Character in this movie is a homage of sort to the creature who he felt was misunderstood He actually wanted to shoot his movie in Black & white but cost was prohibitive. Too bad, it works so well in the telling of classic horror flicks

That actually makes a lot of sense, I can see the influence now that you mention it.

I did feel really bad for the Monster, except when I thought back to the beginning when he attacked/killed those two guys in the tent.

I've felt bad for most of the creatures in the original Universal monster movies.

 

[Sunday]

I'm googling these questions but can't seem to find a definitive answer.

- HHN will be my only time in the park this vacation. Are ALL the stores open in Diagon Alley? I'm trying to find a specific wand and I'm worried I won't be able to get it during the evening.
- with EP, do you get only one skip the line entrance per maze / ride? Or is it one entrance per maze and unlimited entrance for the open rides?

 

[macraven]

Hhn ep valid for houses and rides one time only per date