Official 2022 HHN 31 - Horror is Universal

HHN continues to get busier - I’ve seen a few veterans posting that - for the first time in a long time - they were not able to get through all 10 houses during the event even with Stay & Scream. A few grumbles that Uni may need to be more restrictive (or raise prices) on multinight passes next year. One culprit is the Rush of Fear pass - which for a relatively low price has allowed a lot of people to attend every night so far. It’ll be interesting to see if October improves, since lower level passes start blocking out some weekend nights (particularly Saturdays, which are only included in the highest level pass).

Best strategy likely is to start in the NY S&S and line up for Halloween early. That house releases at 5:15 and gives the earliest start. It also gets a house with a consistently high wait out of the way. From there, hit Coven or line up for Dead Mans Pier or Chupacabra. Then head towards Blumhouse/Bugs/Descendants. As front of park houses, Hellblock and Coven tend to have higher waits early and later as people are entering and leaving the park. Monsters seems to have a generally reasonable wait time in comparison with other houses. The Weeknd seems to post high waits on opening and dips for a bit before building back up. Watch the wait times but don’t chase a house unless you’re pretty close by - nothing worse than seeing a low wait, hauling it across the park, and it’s doubled by the time you get there. Also - Bugs seems to have consistently low but misleading wait times early in the evening. It often seems to say 15 to 25 min when the real wait is 50-60 min. One option is to do Descendants first - you’ll be able to see the Bugs line that way. If the Bugs standby line goes all the way back to the end of the MiB building, it’ll be at least 30+ minutes. Although I’ve been a fan of starting back of park (and the Springfield S&S) in past years, the strategy is less effective this year with only 2 houses instead of 3 in that area.
 
Yeah, Just checked our Oct 9 date, and price is now 11.00 more!
Ok, so trying to plan our attack. No express, holiday weekend, expecting crazy crowds.
tracked wait times this past weekend, and wow, they were insane! Weekend got up to 120 mins, Halloween 80 (and higher), Bugs 110 , etc. etc.
so anyone who has been, where do you suggest waiting for S/S. I originally thought Halloween area to knock out it out (it's is my no1 priority, I'll wait for it no matter how long), Chupacabra, Dead man's Pier, but now wondering if better to start in the back, w the Weekend, Bugs, ??? any tips appreciated! can't waiT!
I have the all September pass ($175). That was nice because I could knock off 3-4 mazes at 6 pm each time I went with little to no wait and then leave the park. Takes alot of pressure and waiting in line off of a one night adventure.

I've noticed that Bugs, etc in the back initially have little wait time (10 min) but by around 8:30/9 pm they go up to 1 hour plus. Most of the crowd moves from New York then later on towards the back.

Coven and Chupacabra those lines are shorter in the first two hours (25 min) then the other ones in the same area n New York.

Monsters Legends people tend to not go here because it's old classic monsters but is a really good maze.

Hell Block Horror near Minions has really short lines but isn't a very good maze.

Do you have a park ticket so that you can queue up early inside the park? That is an advantage.

My favorite Mazes in order:
Blumhouse (This is near fast and furious. I want to do it when it is dark because like in previous years theres a portion where you go outside inside the mazes)

Haloween

Monsters Legends: People were most scared with this maze for some reason.

Coven: Speak Easy maze

Chupacabra: Mayan jungle type maze

Wekend (good because there is music while waiting in line)

Indiferent:
Bugs (bugs are kind of gross, especially the roaches)
Dead Man's Pier

Didn't like (waste of time)
Descendants of Destruction (too dark)
Hell Block Horror
 
Went to HHN on Thursday Sept 15th….weather was horrendous. It started pouring right before 6:30 and didn’t seem to stop completely until almost 11 that night. Definitely disappointing, since I’d planned a trip to Orlando specifically for HHN (I’m from Canada). Still, with Express pass and plastic ponchos, my husband and I tried to make the most of it. Scare zones were all closed due to weather (though it seemed like they were opening up around 11pm, just as we were leaving). Made it through all 10 houses and saw the Nightmare Fuel show (very well done, we both enjoyed it a lot). Favorite houses were Dead Man’s Pier, Bugs Eaten Alive & the Universal Monsters house. Worst was probably chupacabras (not a lot of scares and unclear story) or Hellblock Horror (felt really generic to me).

Bonus pic of my spooky outfit & pumpkin purse 5 minutes before the monsoon started and everything got soaked!

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Went to HHN on Thursday Sept 15th….weather was horrendous. It started pouring right before 6:30 and didn’t seem to stop completely until almost 11 that night. Definitely disappointing, since I’d planned a trip to Orlando specifically for HHN (I’m from Canada). Still, with Express pass and plastic ponchos, my husband and I tried to make the most of it. Scare zones were all closed due to weather (though it seemed like they were opening up around 11pm, just as we were leaving). Made it through all 10 houses and saw the Nightmare Fuel show (very well done, we both enjoyed it a lot). Favorite houses were Dead Man’s Pier, Bugs Eaten Alive & the Universal Monsters house. Worst was probably chupacabras (not a lot of scares and unclear story) or Hellblock Horror (felt really generic to me).

Bonus pic of my spooky outfit & pumpkin purse 5 minutes before the monsoon started and everything got soaked!

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I can't love this post enough! You look so wonderful :love:
 


Went to HHN on Thursday Sept 15th….weather was horrendous. It started pouring right before 6:30 and didn’t seem to stop completely until almost 11 that night. Definitely disappointing, since I’d planned a trip to Orlando specifically for HHN (I’m from Canada). Still, with Express pass and plastic ponchos, my husband and I tried to make the most of it. Scare zones were all closed due to weather (though it seemed like they were opening up around 11pm, just as we were leaving). Made it through all 10 houses and saw the Nightmare Fuel show (very well done, we both enjoyed it a lot). Favorite houses were Dead Man’s Pier, Bugs Eaten Alive & the Universal Monsters house. Worst was probably chupacabras (not a lot of scares and unclear story) or Hellblock Horror (felt really generic to me).

Bonus pic of my spooky outfit & pumpkin purse 5 minutes before the monsoon started and everything got soaked!

View attachment 703744

The good thing when the weather is bad is that there are less people at the park and the lines are short unlike Sunday.
 
I was there Sunday night and it was ridiculously crowded compared to the previous two times this year that I went (a Friday and Thursday). I thought there was supposed to be less people on Sunday, and it's only September but the lines were super long. Halloween was already at 90 min at 6::00 pm and the Weekend at 60 min. Even the Mummy ride was 25 minutes at 7:00 pm. By 10 pm every maze was 60 minutes or more.
maybe because Fall breaks are starting? not sure how many but one of our private schools started is on theirs this week
 


Went to HHN on Thursday Sept 15th….weather was horrendous. It started pouring right before 6:30 and didn’t seem to stop completely until almost 11 that night. Definitely disappointing, since I’d planned a trip to Orlando specifically for HHN (I’m from Canada). Still, with Express pass and plastic ponchos, my husband and I tried to make the most of it. Scare zones were all closed due to weather (though it seemed like they were opening up around 11pm, just as we were leaving). Made it through all 10 houses and saw the Nightmare Fuel show (very well done, we both enjoyed it a lot). Favorite houses were Dead Man’s Pier, Bugs Eaten Alive & the Universal Monsters house. Worst was probably chupacabras (not a lot of scares and unclear story) or Hellblock Horror (felt really generic to me).

Bonus pic of my spooky outfit & pumpkin purse 5 minutes before the monsoon started and everything got soaked!

View attachment 703744
Love your outfit and purse! I'll be wearing Vixen too when I go to HHN in a few weeks :) I got the new Trick R' Treat harlequin skirt. Wish I would have sprung for one of the purses like your Sleepy Hollow pure or the Trick R' Treat purse--oh well! I'm sort of holding out hope that I'll find a Lil Boo purse in Universal, I'm not sure if those or sold out in the parks or not.
 
HHN continues to get busier - I’ve seen a few veterans posting that - for the first time in a long time - they were not able to get through all 10 houses during the event even with Stay & Scream. A few grumbles that Uni may need to be more restrictive (or raise prices) on multinight passes next year. One culprit is the Rush of Fear pass - which for a relatively low price has allowed a lot of people to attend every night so far. It’ll be interesting to see if October improves, since lower level passes start blocking out some weekend nights (particularly Saturdays, which are only included in the highest level pass).

Best strategy likely is to start in the NY S&S and line up for Halloween early. That house releases at 5:15 and gives the earliest start. It also gets a house with a consistently high wait out of the way. From there, hit Coven or line up for Dead Mans Pier or Chupacabra. Then head towards Blumhouse/Bugs/Descendants. As front of park houses, Hellblock and Coven tend to have higher waits early and later as people are entering and leaving the park. Monsters seems to have a generally reasonable wait time in comparison with other houses. The Weeknd seems to post high waits on opening and dips for a bit before building back up. Watch the wait times but don’t chase a house unless you’re pretty close by - nothing worse than seeing a low wait, hauling it across the park, and it’s doubled by the time you get there. Also - Bugs seems to have consistently low but misleading wait times early in the evening. It often seems to say 15 to 25 min when the real wait is 50-60 min. One option is to do Descendants first - you’ll be able to see the Bugs line that way. If the Bugs standby line goes all the way back to the end of the MiB building, it’ll be at least 30+ minutes. Although I’ve been a fan of starting back of park (and the Springfield S&S) in past years, the strategy is less effective this year with only 2 houses instead of 3 in that area.
Thank you for posting this strategy! If I don't have Stay & Scream but do have an Express Pass, would you still recommend starting in the NY area to line up early? Or does S&S stand for something different? Sorry I am new to HHN this year will be my first time, and I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Universal park layout too but plan on studying a map prior.

I've also been seeing that this year is really busy in a HHN ******* server I'm in. Someone did say that they are curious if October will be less busy, because the locals Rush of Fear pass or AP deal only has like 1 October date in it so potentially a lot of this HHN busyness could have been because of that. I'm really hoping to get through most of the houses with an express pass and still have time to try multiple of the food offerings but we will see. I'm going early October so I'll post back here with how it went in terms of crowds and getting things done.
 
Great information in this thread. It will be my first time at HHN, and I will be doing RIP. I bought a stay and scream to get a few rides in before the 8:00 pm RIP and have a question; how early can I get the RIP credential? If I show up to the park at 3, can I use the express lanes as I am doing the RIP tour? Thanks!
 
We attended again Wednesday 9/21

I think the crowds were much better than our last time (Sun 9/4), but still way busier than a Wednesday in the middle of September used to be. I'm beginning to wonder if every night isn't going to be packed. It still wasn't empty.

Here is what we did:

Stay and scream for the Weeknd. In line at 5:10, line started to move at 5:25. House opened at 5:55 (ten minutes late). Through the house at 6:22.

I would highly recommend against doing stay and scream for the Weeknd. The house isn't even supposed to open until 5:45, so the New York stay and scream seems like a much better value.

I also hated how they did it, we were queued at first and then they had us do a smoosh near the Animal Actors and it was just a giant sea of people that then had to squish into a queue again. Also pretty sure people from the Monsters queue were jumping over into ours ahead of a lot of us as the mob squeezed into the queue.

In line for Destruction at 6:39, in at 7:06.

Monsters at 7:19, in at 7:44.

In line for Hellblock at 8:51, in at 9:22.

Chupacabra in line at 9:30, in at 10:04.

Most lines were 5-10 minutes quicker than advertised.

Thoughts: we had rain, if you have the option head for Hellblock if there is rain coming because that queue is inside.

Don't do stay and scream for the Weeknd. I think @ShadeDK has hit upon the best stay and scream strategy above. I'll be trying that out on Friday.

We had pizza fries which were good this time (I have had them when they're not so good), lil boo pumpkin bun was good, and the african lentil coffin is good and easy to eat while walking as well.

The Lil Boo hat still eludes me. I will have it.

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How long does it usually take to walk through a house? I saw a video walkthrough on YouTube and it was less than 4 minutes which surprised me but I’ve never done a haunted house before.
 
Seems like there have been a lot less streams this year than in previous years - after that first media night I've not seen all that many - not sure if that just because of all the rain or if its lack of interest. There are folks that stream almost every night of HHN in the past and I am not seeing that this year - again might just be all the rain.

Anyway PCDEV on youtube posted a Wednesday night (I assume the 21st) and it was crazy busy for stay and scream - especially for a Wednesday.
Not sure if a lot of this is because of ROF or it just really busy and this is just how it will be going forward.
Still if you want to get an idea of what is going on on the ground its well worth watching.
Some of the houses seemed t o be greatly improved since the first nights - which is pretty typical IMO - they seem to add stuff as the even goes on and of course SAs get more experience. Personally I'd never go opening weekend again - things just are not ready at that point.

Watching the video did convince me to buy the FFP with express.
 
Love your outfit and purse! I'll be wearing Vixen too when I go to HHN in a few weeks :) I got the new Trick R' Treat harlequin skirt. Wish I would have sprung for one of the purses like your Sleepy Hollow pure or the Trick R' Treat purse--oh well! I'm sort of holding out hope that I'll find a Lil Boo purse in Universal, I'm not sure if those or sold out in the parks or not.
:wave2: Hello fellow Vixen!!!! Your Trick r' Treat skirt will look fabulous for HHN! If you'll be in Islands of Adventure at all, there's a store over there that would make for a perfect photo spot with your skirt - check out the doors! I didn't see any of the Lil Boo purses when I was in the parks but I also wasn't specifically looking - hope you're able to snag one while you're there!

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I think what you are seeing is 2 years of extremely pent up demand for activities combined with international travel returning. While yes, we had HHN the past couple years it was not even close to "normal" HHN. This is. Folks want it. Bad. So they are returning in higher numbers than before. I expect to see that continue as the norm this year, rather than the exception. Sure there will likely be a few nights that drop off but they'll be the exceptions.
 
Got a question for you folks who have gone on, or around, Halloween night itself.
What are your thoughts? Is it any different going that night? A more fun/seasonal vibe? Or just another night?
We've been considering coming down, long story to set up the why's and where for's just suffice it to say, things are coming in to place for us to come down Sunday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon. So we could go on Halloween night (Monday)
I've got flights and AP rooms at Hard Rock
I haven't bought the tickets yet but was planning to today. OI still has some discounted for 10/31.

Oh, and speaking of AP rates, I've been finding them for the hotels more and more often lately. Never give up looking. Either they are releasing more or folks are cancelling rooms (hoarding multiple stays maybe?) and they are dumping back in to inventory. But I got rooms for our stay next week all lined up just last week. They weren't there for the longest then bam! several rooms at Royal came open.
 
Got a question for you folks who have gone on, or around, Halloween night itself.
What are your thoughts? Is it any different going that night? A more fun/seasonal vibe? Or just another night?
We've been considering coming down, long story to set up the why's and where for's just suffice it to say, things are coming in to place for us to come down Sunday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon. So we could go on Halloween night (Monday)
I've got flights and AP rooms at Hard Rock
I haven't bought the tickets yet but was planning to today. OI still has some discounted for 10/31.

Oh, and speaking of AP rates, I've been finding them for the hotels more and more often lately. Never give up looking. Either they are releasing more or folks are cancelling rooms (hoarding multiple stays maybe?) and they are dumping back in to inventory. But I got rooms for our stay next week all lined up just last week. They weren't there for the longest then bam! several rooms at Royal came open.

We went on Halloween itself last year after handing out candy in the neighborhood and loved it.

The crowds were high but not too bad, and as the end of the event neared everyone was very happy and celebratory. People would walk through the houses and clap and cheer for their favorites. We saw an employee take down Lil Boo (the famous pumpkin from Wicked Growth) and take him backstage (probably so no one got any ideas).

We were running between Puppet Theater and Wicked Growth (two of our favs) with almost no wait at the end of the night.

As we walked out the final cast from Case Files Unearthed came out and everyone stopped in their tracks and cheered for them.

That kind of atmosphere only came from the final couple hours of the event, though.

I would highly recommend it, it's our new favorite tradition now that we live here.
 
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We went on Halloween itself last night after handing out candy in the neighborhood and loved it.

The crowds were high but not too bad, and as the end of the event neared everyone was very happy and celebratory. People would walk through the houses and clap and cheer for their favorites. We saw an employee take down Lil Boo (the famous pumpkin from Wicked Growth) and take him backstage (probably so no one got any ideas).

We were running between Puppet Theater and Wicked Growth (two of our favs) with almost no wait at the end of the night.

As we walked out the final cast from Case Files Unearthed came out and everyone stopped in their tracks and cheered for them.

That kind of atmosphere only came from the final couple hours of the event, though.

I would highly recommend it, it's our new favorite tradition now that we live here.
Thanks. Sounds exactly like the kind of thing we were wanting to experience.
We'll have already done 3, 4 other nights so it will be a bonus night for sure.
I think I'll make that final, no backing out commitment and buy the tickets today.
Right now the flights can be canceled for a credit and hotel refunded.
Event tickets will make it a done deal
 

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