Official 2019 HHN-29 Thread

[Monykalyn]

Ghostbusters has secret codes to get trinkets??????? That is the first that I have ever heard of that! Can anyone give details????

On random days the Halloween horror nights twitter will give a "secret" code to say to a character in the house.

 

[Cinemaxwell]

I am super, super excited to say that I'll be flying back to Orlando to go to HHN again on October 18th! I'm so glad to be able to go through these houses again and have another amazing HHN experience.

 

[blondie511]

On random days the Halloween horror nights twitter will give a "secret" code to say to a character in the house.

What twitter site? Halloween horror nights twitter page do you mean? I am soooo excited to hear this!

 

[heidijanesmith]

So, having done numerous nights at HHN this year.......I concluded this isn’t our favourite year.

We always have the Rush of Fear with Express Pass. It’s a fabulous buy for folks like us who can go many nights. We could have gone 17 nights this year, but we didn’t. We did go around 11 nights for varying amounts of time.

We never take advantage of Stay and Scream as we can go so many nights, but it is ideal if you only have one or two nights for the event. The hotel guest entrance saves you going through a long line at certain times. It was always quiet whenever we used it.

Some houses are done really well, but like every year there’s always one or maybe two that just don't work for us, and this year was no different.

Scare zones were a disappointment.

Anarch-Cade was poor. I just didn’t get this zone.....if the whole theme had been 1980’s, maybe. But......nah. No scares.

Zombieland was just not scary........someone coming up and rattling something in your face isn’t what we want. Good costumes and make up though.

Vikings was decent-ish......no scares and sometimes it was too foggy to make them out. The scenes to the side of the path were excellent though. And some good SA interactions.

Vanity Ball.......well. It was funny for about the first 2 minutes. Good interactions but not great. After Anarch-Cade this was the quietest scare zone we saw over many nights.

Hellbilly Deluxe.......this was better than I expected, Tom actually got a scare which was funny.......I liked some elements of this zone......the undead girl was good.

One thing we did notice this year and others said the same thing.....for the first time we saw SA passing the time chatting to each other and to security......not pointing out bad behaviour, just chatting. We’ve never seen that ever before. The chainsaw folks were among the worst and the SA from Vanity Ball. Mentioned it to some TM at the hotel and a few said they noticed it too. Very unusual.

The houses........well, in reverse order........we did go through all the houses numerous times over many nights. Most we were lucky with the SA and had good experiences.......but, some were just poor.

10......Depths of Fear.

This reminded me of the rather poor Alien scare zone they had a few years back........I think they reused the costumes. This house disappointed on so many levels and no real scares.

9........Stranger Things.

We watched the show so could understand what they were trying to do in this one. But it fell flat for us, mainly because they used dummies where they could have used real SA. We just didn’t enjoy this any of the nights we did it, and eventually decided even with having EP, this wasn’t worth a 15 minute wait.

8........Killer Klowns.

I did like it better than I thought I would, but overall.......it’s just not scary.

7........US.

This was decent and I had a few good jumps with this one.....knowing the film does help with this one.

6.........House of 1000 corpses.

I really don’t know Zombie’s works at all, except the unforgivable remakes he did of Halloween! But, I had heard the theme of this was particularly unpleasant. However, it just looked like a regular gory HHN house......it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I’d read. I did get a good scare a couple of times in this house.

5........Nightingales Blood Pit.

This was a strange one. I don’t remember much of it, but Tom says I enjoyed it.

4........Ghostbusters.

We did really enjoy this house. It was full of everything you knew from the film and they did it well.....it was fun and the actors playing the characters were brilliant.......Janine was fabulous, she often Insulted folks walking through or asked a question.......good interactions. I got a high five from “Venkman” twice......this house consistently improved a lot from the first night. But.......it’s not scary......you can’t make Ghostbusters scary. But, it is an excellent house.

3.........Yeti...Terror of the Yukon.

Before the event, I had decided this would be one we wouldn’t like. We loved it!! It is an incredibly cool house and the SA are phenomenal......and the Yetis were always massively cheered by the waiting crowds from both houses in that area as the SA changed..something I’ve never seen before......this was one of the houses we did every night except once when we just concentrated on the rear of the park.......but good scares and visually it is beautiful.

2.........Graveyard Games.

This was almost a joint #1. This house had it all......excellent theme and it is so well done. It is quite eerie in parts and the scares were fabulous. The guy at the end who kind of crawls out at you....he is freaky!!! I never saw him the first three times, then he got me good!!!! We were so lucky with our walk throughs in most houses, but this and Classic Monsters we always seemed to hit it perfectly.

1........Classic Monsters.

Absolutely brilliant.

We got almost every scare going every single night. The SA were perfect and their make up, was as always quite spectacular. We liked how each monster had their own little zone, and it was clearly defined. This for us was a stand out house this year along with Graveyard Games.



But, although there were some amazing houses this year, really our top 3 were where we found the best scares. Too many of the houses just weren’t scary.......I want HHN to be scared witless and be terrified in the houses.

They need to bring back an icon for the event.......and a definite theme.....this year was all over the place with one thing and another.


The water show especially for HHN was really enjoyable. We only watched this once and it was a lot of fun. I wish we’d seen it once more, but I’m glad we did catch it.

AOV........I wish I enjoyed this more. But, it’s just not a priority for us. Once is enough. I got a bit bored by it.

We didn’t have any food this year, nothing really appealed to us. And for the first time we didn’t buy the HHN cocktail.......last few years it’s just been like sugared Water.



Overall, we do love the event. Some houses were spectacular and some were just ok. I really hope for the 30th Anniversary they make it go with a huge bang......it should be truly spectacular........

There was something missing for us this year, good scares in a few of the houses being one of them.

We wouldn’t do the event without Express Pass.....as some regular lines were downright scary some nights. But with Express we usually waited a very short time, sometimes houses were complete walk ons.

I also wish they would ban babies and toddlers. We again, many times saw strollers and twice we saw babies around 7 months old being carried in arms. Toddlers crying, upset and looking a little bewildered. Not nice to see.

But, it’s still a fun thing to do and we did enjoy it.......but they need to go back to being primarily one thing .......scary!!

Agree 100%. I want HHN to be scarier and less PG. I want the scare zones to be scary. I want to be afraid that I might pee a little in the houses! Not really pee my pants, but I want to be scared.

So many children this year; strollers, toddlers and babies.

I am also looking forward to the 30th Anniversary. I thought the 25th anniversary was really great.

 

[Monykalyn]

What twitter site? Halloween horror nights twitter page do you mean? I am soooo excited to hear this!

Well crap-I went and looked it is for Hollywood-I follow both sights But you can high five Venkman at the end of Orlando's house. Just hold your hand up as you go by

 

[schumigirl]

I agree Schumi, the scare zones were very disappointing. Especially compared to the purge a few years ago!

Nope, not just you...spoke to many folks who were disappointed.....including many TM who go every year too......

Glad to hear it was not just me.

One thing I know for sure - the SAs were told not to scare children - maybe the children should not be there then?
This came from a VIP tour guide during a tour.

I guess this is the issue when you are relying on IP to bring in the crowds and that is working.
Really tired of seeing people in Scoops ahoy hats to be honest - this is getting to be worse than Walking Dead and I'm pretty sure we have at least one more year of Stranger Things.

Another thin I heard from a good source - they were told last year not to "bully" people.
In the past I have seen them really pick on one person because they freak out. I've seen people tapped in shops for 1 or 20 minutes because the SAs keep getting them. I guess they are no allowed to do that anymore - that used to be a lot of the fun in watching the scare zones for me.
I can see reigning it in a bit but there rally is not much scare in the scare zones anymore

They had less SA this year and one reason is the number of assaults verbally and physically last year especially. I was shocked the SA we know told us this......I knew it was quite bad last year but you can see the ripple effect this year of that.

If folks don't like being scared or freaked out don't go and let us that do enjoy it!!

Thank you @schumigirl . I was hoping you would pop in with a ranking. I never really paid attention to the quality of scare zones but we absolutely adored the whole “Purge” thing. It really seems everyone has a different ranking on websites I see. Working on seeing US before we leave. It is nice that some Universal and original themes are well regarded.

Always happy to give an opinion on most things

Their original houses were excellent......I think we were all happy to see that, especially with the classic monsters being a focus. I wasn't a fan of the purge, but did like the scare zones.

Hope you love it though and have a blast!!!!

I sure wish they'd be stricter on age as well and keep the event more adult themed, but based upon what I'm seeing and hearing last year and this year, I sadly suspect the opposite will happen and this will start becoming MORE of an all-ages event: a blend of some scary stuff mixed with a growing dose of WDW- Not SoScary-style offerings to please parents and kids.

It will be a shame - but park leadership may feel there's a lot more money to be made by drawing kids and pleasing their parents than pleasing teens and adults there for a scarier experience. WDW is raking in big bucks on NotSoScary, now at 100+a night and often selling out.

If Busch Gardens was smart, they'd definitely capitalize on UO's shift- I know it's a much smaller and less sophisticated event, but from what I hear, they are most decidedly NOT kid friendly. I've never been to it.

We may look at BG too...….being honest if next years 30th Anniversary doesn't live up to their HHN name...it may be our last year spending $700 on tickets to go as it`s just not as scary as we`d like. We've only been going since 2007 but we have seen a decline in scares......although the standard of houses has always been high.....we did get a good few scares still in them, but the scare zones were lacking a lot!!

I don't want the event dumbed down to appeal to families.....and will whine to anyone who will listen to that complaint.

I know not many enjoyed Chucky SZ last year but my DD got one of her best "creep out" scares from that zone last year. The SA stalked her through the zone, not malicious or anything just popping up as we walked though the zone. I actually sent the pic to GS to compliment the SA as we enjoyed it so much.

I loved most of the houses this year, but I do think the original houses were "scarier". Graveyard Games was a favorite as was yeti. We did depths of fear a couple time and while it was ok, it wasn't one we repeated (to save our feet) each night. I did enjoy "Us" but I also like the movie. 1000 corpses was well done and creepy even without knowing the movie. Ghostbusters was definitely a favorite high fiving Venkman was a bonus and now they are doing "secret codes" to get trinkets (while supplies last). ST was ok-I think I appreciated it more after the daytime tour though. Classic Monsters-I wanted to like this so much, first run through wasn't good at all. However this is one we did each night we went and it definitely ended up a favorite! Nightingale was fun and some runs got some really great scares. I did like Killer Klowns as well but I also liked the scare zone alot last year! As far as scarezones-only the Viking one was really worth the time.
ETA-we had RoF with Express. Was there 5 nights but ended up only going 4 nights to HHN (wed-Sunday-we skipped Saturday)

As far as dumbing down the scares-either enforce the age restrictions or stop listening to the whiners who complain about being scared at a HORROR event! I know some kids younger than 13 would enjoy the event but is it REALLY a horrible terrible tragedy to wait until they kid is 13??? I mean really? Or alternately only enforce the age restriction on weekends? Or have huge disclaimers when buying tickets that you have to acknowledge that this isn't suitable for younger kids?

Good review Monyk…….completely agree......the original houses were scarier......and so well done!!!!! I`m so happy to hear you and DD had such a fabulous time and had good SA experiences.....

I too wish they`d enforce the age to something reasonable......I selfishly don't want to be surrounded by kids at what is supposed to be an adult event......but doubt that`ll happen......we again saw two sets of parents whine their kids weren't happy.....seriously...…….??????

Agree 100%. I want HHN to be scarier and less PG. I want the scare zones to be scary. I want to be afraid that I might pee a little in the houses! Not really pee my pants, but I want to be scared.

So many children this year; strollers, toddlers and babies.

I am also looking forward to the 30th Anniversary. I thought the 25th anniversary was really great.

lol.....I said exactly that too......maybe not literally pee my pants but.....close.....

Every single night we saw a mixture of kids/toddlers/strollers/babies held in arms.....we also saw several service dogs this year too. Two beautiful Golden Retrievers one night…...I was worried for them as folks just turn and run at times and pay no attention to what`s around them.

The 25th was so much fun!!! Yes, I have high hopes for next year, or it will absolutely be the last one we attend......sounds OTT as we did enjoy this years event.....but it absolutely lacked something.......

 

[SpaceCommander]

I'm going to HHN Orlando this weekend, any tips for drinking?

 

[macraven]

I'm going to HHN Orlando this weekend, any tips for drinking?

Drink at LaBamba, Finnegans,etc, not at the stands in the park.
I swear what alcohol that was in the HHN park stands for the speciality drinks, was about a teaspoon if even that....

 

[tony67]

Drink at LaBamba, Finnegans,etc, not at the stands in the park.
I swear what alcohol that was in the HHN park stands for the specialty drinks, was about a teaspoon if even that....

Yeah - I recommend drinking at city walk before you go in if you can.
The outside bar at Springfield was also good in the past as well as any of the bars where they make the drink for you - LaBamba, Finnegans,etc. as macraven said.

Unfortunately if you want the HHN cups you have to buy drinks at the stands- also just an FYI-they are tipped employees which is ridiculous IMO.
The drinks at the stand were very refreshing though on a hot night.

Also annoyed all four cups were not available day 1. They seem to be doing that for a lot of thing now. There are magnets that get released every Friday or so I guess for the houses and the scare zones. I only found out about that on the last day.

 

[tony67]

On random days the Halloween horror nights twitter will give a "secret" code to say to a character in the house.

I had not heard about this - but one thing to be aware of is at the end of Ghost Busters is rare exception where you can "touch" an SA (high five or fist bump) if the SA is offering it. I saw a lot of people kept Venkman hanging for a High five. Be sure to go easy on him though.

 

[5lilfish]

My 19 yr old daughter and I did HNH on Oct 2. We did the non-private RIP. This was our second year doing a HHN and both times we did the RIP (don't think we will ever go without doing the RIP).

Top 6 houses for me: Yeti, Us, Stranger Things, Universal Monsters, Graveyard and Ghostbusters.

We only had last year to base this off of, but I thought the Scare Zones were Complete Duds. None of them impressed me. Half of them it was hard to even pick out the 'scare actors' much less actually be scared by them. I mean, yes you could tell who they were, but...The costumes and the theming were just not impressive. Last year's scare zones were MUCH better. I especially miss the scare zone that had the pumpkins in the trees. The Viking theme in that area this year probably had the best costumes scare actors, but it was nowhere near as good as that area was last year. Honestly, I missed the pumpkins in general. It seemed odd to me that there wasn't really anything Halloween Themed. No pumpkins and the haunted house we took a picture in front of last year wasn't there. Nothing that gave it a Halloween eerie feel..

We had a great time with the houses though. There were a couple that didn't do a lot for us, but as a whole, they were great. We enjoyed the Monster show too. Great night...

Jess

 

[glamdring269]

Last night was my first HHN and it will definitely not be my last. Did a RIP tour which was great and ended just before midnight. After that I just kind of took it all in for a bit and by around 1:00 or so realized that some of the houses had really low wait times including two of my favorites, graveyard games and classic monsters. Basically walked right on those. Then decided to head over to the Us, Yeti, and stranger Things trio. Managed to get all 3 of those in as well by just barely making the 2am line cut off for stranger things.

Great night but now it’s back to the parks. I’ll sleep eventually!

 

[LCoulter]

What are the hours for HHN's? Do they allow you into the park early the way they do with MNSHP? If so, what time?

 

[soniam]

What are the hours for HHN's? Do they allow you into the park early the way they do with MNSHP? If so, what time?

You can only enter the park early if you have a day ticket or buy the special HHN ticket that allows you in early. It costs extra. You have to be in the park before it closes at 5pm. You will wait in a holding area, Stay & Scream area, until the park reopens, about 5:45-6pm. You cannot do attractions during this time and must stay in the holding area. There are some food and beverage places open in the holding areas: 1 by Finnegan's and the other by Simpsons. However, you may not be able to get seating, especially by Finnegan's. The holding areas let out to the houses near them, so pick based upon the house you want to go to.

 

[fanoforlando]

So we're planning on going Saturday October 26th , with general admission tickets plus the early entry ( $25 ) my question is what stay & scream holding area would be best if we wanted to go to house of 1000 corpses? I can't seem to find a map online of the house locations

 

[ZekeMaster]

So we're planning on going Saturday October 26th , with general admission tickets plus the early entry ( $25 ) my question is what stay & scream holding area would be best if we wanted to go to house of 1000 corpses? I can't seem to find a map online of the house locations

I believe the Simpsons/Springfield holding area is going to be your best bet as Corpses is behind Men in Black.

 

[1GoldenSun]

Well, I've now been twice this year (after only going once before about 18 years ago) and I have to say I'll definitely be back next year but I'll be changing my strategy.

My daughter and I got the Ultimate Fear passes. The plan was not to spend the extra money on the Express Pass but to go often (we live within an hour and a half away) and see a couple houses each time, so not an excessive amount of line-standing on any given night. But DD wanted to take her boyfriend for his birthday, and since that would only be for one night--our first night-- I sprung for Express for that night.

What a difference! We split up (DD and boyfriend went off on their own--teens don't want mom tagging along, haha) and on my own I was able to see all of the houses by 10:00. Then I went back and did my three favorites again. I also went through all the scare zones multiple times, sat down and ate a meal, and rode Gringott's, RRR, and the Simpson's. We also spent the night on property so we stayed until almost the end of the event since I didn't have the drive home to be concerned about.

The next time my DD and I went was kind of anticlimactic. We enjoyed ourselves, but having already been through all the houses we were reluctant to wait in any long lines to see them again. It was fun, but more relaxed. Also, the scare zones that were frightening and exciting the first time lost their thrill. You just get used to it. We also had the drive home to "look forward to" at the end of the night so I didn't want to stay too late or get too tired. We'll go a few more times this year because I want to get my money's worth, but I'll do it differently next year.

I think we'll go for two nights, and spend the night in between. We'll get express for both nights. That will be more expensive short-term but actually cheaper in the long run than what I paid this year. I think it will be more fun and exciting to go just for the two days, and maybe come away wanting just a little more, than to get inured to it all after umpteen visits. The houses are awesome, but standing in line is not, and I'd rather go two days with express than go all season without.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I'm back! We went Oct 2-6 every night save Saturday. I thought the crowds were a lot lower than last year.

Good:

-projection show. I loved this! It was great with the classic monsters, I liked all the 8 bit stuff with Stranger Things, and when the Stay Puft was defeated everything turned white.

-AOV: I always really enjoy their shows. I liked the storyline this year and the music. Could have done without the contortionist, but he was still very talented. I kind of wish I'd seen it twice.

-pizza fries at Louie's. I had them in past years from the counter service stand, and these were so much better. They were hot and fresh and not soggy at all. If you want them, get them from there and you can also have a nice air conditioned break.

Bad:

-the scare zones.
Vikings: this one was ok, but nothing special
Vanity Ball: interesting to sit at a table and watch for a while, but not scary
Zombieland: probably the most interesting to me. I liked the little sets (the carnival drop ride, the prize hut where Tallahassee hid). I loved the jogger zombie.
Rob Zombie: didn't really understand it, were all the weird things from his music videos or album covers? Was not sure what that robot with the car, the tuxedo guy and white dress girl had to do with each other.
Anarchade: visually nice, though I was disappointed. I feel like they really could have done so much more with deranged video game characters. But that scare zone by the park entrance is always just a picture zone, I never expect much from it

-sweet potato smore fries: I love sweet potato fries. And I really love sugary snacks. But it was not working for me. I'm glad I tried it, and if I'd only eaten about 10 it might have been just right. It was too much, I wished that they were just regular sweet potato fries.


House Rankings from worst to best:

We did most houses at least 5 times, except for 1,000 Corpses which only got 2 run thrus.

10. 1,000 Corpses

I was just meh about the whole thing. Didn't find the material that interesting, didn't think it was that scary.

9. Nightingales: Blood Pit

I very much liked the idea of this house, but it didn't all come together. The Nightingales were pretty scary, though they kind of reminded me of Doctor Who things (btw, can they please just do a Doctor Who house?!?!).

The house just smelled so bad though, it took down my enjoyment of it quite a bit. Towards the end of the house everytime, I was having trouble breathing and just wanted to get out.

8. Stranger Things

I was more than halfway through this list before I even thought of Stranger Things. So if that says anything...I thought it was well done in regards to feeling like I was in the tv show. I was baffled why they wanted to combine Seasons 2 and 3. 3 had so many iconic settings and they barely used any of them.

I might be a bit over Stranger Things. I didn't think seasons 2 or 3 were particularly scary.

7. Depths of Fear

I liked this one decently well. I don't know if I kept missing scares or they just weren't there. I felt there were a lot of places where I was expecting them and they never manifested. I was surprised there weren't more water effects.

6. Us

One of the scarier houses in my opinion. Whenever scare actors crawl on the floor that always gets me. Crawling stuff? No thanks, walk normally please. I also thought the scareactor who played Red did a great job with the creepy walking and moving.

This almost got the number 5 spot, but I just seriously love Killer Klowns.

5. Killer Klowns from Outer Space

This one would be higher, but it just wasn't that scary. Like Ghostbusters, it was like walking into the movie and I really loved that.

I was surprised they had the giant clown puppet, but happy.

Also had fun pressing all the red buttons, only got myself with water once.

4. Yeti: Terror of the Yukon

What a great house. Everyone loves yetis. It was freezing and I liked how it slowly built up to the yetis. Didn't see them much at first but there were hints. One walk through one of the humans audio wasn't working so he just said hi to us and chatted us up.

3. Ghostbusters

Not scary, really. But it felt like stepping into the movie. I loved Janine, I loved the ghost in the book stacks, didn't even notice that effect until my third time in. Slimer was great!

Really loved the Dana as Zuul scene, and that the Rick Moranis Keymaster popped up. The Gozer scene was also fantastic.

2. Graveyard Games

Really the only truly scary house, in my opinion. So many creepy good effects. Loved the punk teenager at the beginning with the aerosol can who called us dorks.

1. Universal Monsters

In preparation we watched all the original films. I discovered that I really enjoy the Frankenstein series, Wolfman and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I had my little wolfman that I won from the prize booths and he got pats from almost all the creatures at one point or another.

Just so well done, loved the Hunchback Room with all the mirrors and the bells and the gargoyle. Loved the Phantom's area with the disappearing walls. The Wolfman getting tossed back from the rifle shot. The only thing I was bothered by was the Bride's scream. Tone that volume down just a tad.


Final thoughts:

Still love HHN. I hope I get to come back for the anniversary year next year. We are planning on potentially doing Disneyland's Halloween party, and Hong Kong DL (if it's still there). So we'll see. It probably depends on the houses and theme and scare zones when they announce them.

I think we finally worked out the best way to do the event. We stay at Cabana Bay and walk over to Volcano Bay in the mornings. Then we take the afternoons easy, then head over to stay and scream. Loved that combo.

I went on @soniam private tour. It was a blast! But I gotta tell ya, maybe save that for your last night. It was a bit difficult going back to two more nights and not being able to just walk up to whatever we wanted. The private bar/food area was also fantastic.

 

[MaskedRacer]

Rob Zombie: didn't really understand it, were all the weird things from his music videos or album covers? Was not sure what that robot with the car, the tuxedo guy and white dress girl had to do with each other.

They were The character with the tophat and girl in the white dress were from the video for his song, Living Dead Girl, from his first solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe (hence, the scarezone name), and the big robot has kind of become a Rob Zombie mascot, the design is from the 1939 serial, The Phantom Creeps, starring Bela Lugosi.

If you're a fan of Rob Zombie, it was a "Hey look it's ...", if not, I'm sure it was more of a, "What the ... ?"

The actor Sid Haig, who played the clown character in the House of 1000 Corpses house, passed away a few weeks ago, he had a long career in all sorts of schlocky, horror exploitation movies, quite a character, it was kind of neat to see him sort of live on through that house

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

They were The character with the tophat and girl in the white dress were from the video for his song, Living Dead Girl, from his first solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe (hence, the scarezone name), and the big robot has kind of become a Rob Zombie mascot, the design is from the 1939 serial, The Phantom Creeps, starring Bela Lugosi.

If you're a fan of Rob Zombie, it was a "Hey look it's ...", if not, I'm sure it was more of a, "What the ... ?"

The actor Sid Haig, who played the clown character in the House of 1000 Corpses house, passed away a few weeks ago, he had a long career in all sorts of schlocky, horror exploitation movies, quite a character, it was kind of neat to see him sort of live on through that house

Well that makes more sense. I did like the robot, just wasn't sure what it had to do with anything.

I bet that was a fun experience for fans.

I did hear about Sig