OH The Horror! Scary Clowns, Haunted Houses, Scare Zones, Monsters, Pumpkins, Crooked Cats, Creepy Bears, Shopping, Dining and more….My HHN 34 Trip

[Robo56]

Wednesday, September 10th

I wanted to be up and showered and down to the Club Lounge for some coffee and
Juice early this morning. I did not want to be rushed. My tour started at 8:30 am so I wanted to be on the Water Taxi by 7:45 or 8 am.

I did make it down to the Club lounge and had my coffee and some yogurt and made the hike to Water Taxi in time.

There was a boat waiting and off we went.


I stopped for a picture of the Universal rotating world sign. People love to stop and get a selfie with this in the background.




I have to admit it is a little sad to see RRR being taken down, It has been a around for a long time, but I’am looking forward to seeing what is going to replace it.




When you see the HHN sign hanging in the archway entrance to Universal Studios you know it is officially HHN time for sure.


This year do to the deconstruction of RRR the meeting place for the start of UMH Hour Tour was the VIP Tour area at Guest Services at the front right of the park when you walk under the Arch.

You wait outside by the fountain until they come out and call you in.

The entrance to the VIP area downstairs is nicely decorated for the Halloween season and HHN.


This pumpkin looks like it had a little bit of that spaghetti and meatball pizza from Louie’s…….LOL


When you are called in you can either walk the stairs to the second Floor or take the elevator.

The room upstairs is set up with tables and chairs and once you are checked in you are given the table you will be sitting at with your fellow Tour group members.

At each place on the table was a little personal PA to wear during the tour. This was a wonderful addition a couple of years ago and really helps with hearing your Tour Guide while on the Tour.


Also at each place on the table was a UMH Tour lanyard and Pin.


I had noticed our large table only had 5 of us sitting at it. Before long our Tour Guide Rogue came over to the table and introduced himself to us. He let us know that there would be only be 5 of us on his tour.

I noticed that the other Tour group tables were full. Rogue said that there had been a large enough amount of people who signed up for the 8:30 am Tours that they needed to add another group and ours was the smallest.

What a nice surprise.

I did get a chance to see and talk just a few minutes with one of the nicest most knowledgable Tour guides who has been a guide for both HHN and the VIP Tours for Universal for years and now Epic too. The wonderful David. He is such a nice guy. If you ever get a chance to be in one his tours you will never forget him.

Rogue our Tour guide rounded his small group up off we went. Just wanted to add after meeting Rogue I knew he was going to be a great Guide. First impressions what a sweet young man. He seemed as excited as we were to show us the houses.


The six houses we were seeing today were.


It is so nice that they do group the 6 houses you see in threes. With the first 3 being in the front of park and the last 3 in the afternoon in the back of the park.

Our first house of the day was Terrifier. This was a IP (Intellectual Property House)

You are allowed to take photos in designated areas of the house and your Tour guide lets you know where those will be.

This Terrifier house was set in a dark ride attraction in an abandon Carnival.

It is now functioning as a entrance to Hell and the Lair of Art the Clown.

This house was a representation of one of the settings in Terrifier 2.

The code names for all the houses this year were flowers and the code name for this house was Poinsettia.

Code names for the houses are used in their construction information to keep the many sleuths from finding out the true name of the houses until Universal decides to release them.

It does not bother me to see other peoples online photos of the houses before I go, but I want to let everyone know that I will be showing photos of these 6 houses on the tour ahead of time.

You can really appreciate some of the artistry that goes into the creation of these houses that can not be seen in the dark.


Workman were present this morning doing some repair and upkeep on the exterior and interior of the house. I think the various houses do take a bit of beating from all the traffic that goes through them.

 

[Robo56]

 

[Robo56]

In this section of the the house is the Clown Cafe




This is the Tunnel of Fire




Cupids Love Canal


Art the Clowns Winter Wonderlight Maze.

 

[Robo56]

I will admit this was the only house I had been in for HHN so far and I had the feeling this was going to be one of the Goriest Houses of HHN this year.

These photos are only just a sample of the gore in this house.

There had been a lot of talk about the wet and dry side endings you could choose to go through at the end of the house.

I looked online to see if I could find a photo to help explain it and found this one. To the left is the dry side and to the right is the wet side.

Guess which one Art the Clown was wanting you to go through…….The right side.

Our guide Rouge said, this was one of the bloodiest houses with the most bodies they had ever presented. Along with the fact that is was one of the wettest houses they had ever had at HHN.

He said there is a 330 gallon take of water to make sure you don’t forget the wet side. Folks have been wearing ponchos through it to keep from getting drenched.

Here is Art the Clown conducting the Symphony of Blood directing people to the wet path.



I will admit I’am not a big fan of the intense Gore Haunted Houses, but I do respect the artistic interpretation.

This house embodies some of the most gruesome scenes I have seen in the houses over the years.

If you hear people screaming in this house it is warranted. It is not for the faint of heart.


More to come

 

[disneyseniors]

Robo: Thanks for the photos of the HHN houses tour. I now know that I won't be doing those in the future, so it was nice to see these houses on here. I admit I don't like a lot of the gore or being scared by jump actors. It's just not for me as a big chicken, but I love to see the houses

 

[Robo56]

Robo: Thanks for the photos of the HHN houses tour. I now know that I won't be doing those in the future, so it was nice to see these houses on here. I admit I don't like a lot of the gore or being scared by jump actors. It's just not for me as a big chicken, but I love to see the houses

Ruth so good to see you post and I’am glad you are enjoying the photos.

The nice part of the Unmasking the Horror Tour (daylight Tour) is that you don’t have to worry about anyone jumping out at you and scaring you.

More houses to come. I hope you enjoy them.

 

[Robo56]

Wednesday, September 10th

The next house we were visiting was the The Horror of the Wyatt Sicks.

All of three houses we were visiting this morning were in the front of the park backlot.



I want to make sure to give a little back story on this house that would honor the creator of the Wyatt Sicks characters…..Bray Wyatt (Wyndham Lawerence Rotunda). He had also wrestled under the name of Husky Harris earlier in his career. He loved wrestling and the Horror Genre.


A little aside…….I remember many years ago my Aunt Louise, one of my mother’s older sisters loved to watch Wrestling matches on TV. She also enjoyed going to the wrestling matches that used to be held at our Colosseum in town.

I went with her a few times to the wrestling matches when I was a child. I was more amused by the behavior of the spectators watching the Wrestlers then the Wrestlers themselves.

The spectators would have their favorite wrestler they would cheer on. There was always a nice group of wrestlers verses the villainous group of wrestlers,

I could imagine the Wrestlers having a drink at the bar after the show talking about how they had riled up the spectators.

I saw WWE Wrestling as more of a Theatrically scripted show then a true sports event, but I know there are some WWE fans that would debate that.

On the other hand Greco-Roman wrestling like what is seen in the Olympics is a true sport.

Almost all Wrestlers in WWE come up with a persona other then their true birth name in their Wrestling career. Along with their created ring (Wrestling ring) persona they do create at times some elaborate costuming and theatrics to add to the wrestling persona they have created. Thus was the case of Windham Lawerence Rotunda and his created persona Bray Wyatt.

Bray Wyatt was a third generation Wrestler. His Grandfather, Father and also two Uncles had been wrestlers as was his younger brother Taylor who’s ring name is Bo Dallas.

At one point in his career he rebranded himself under the persona name of Bray Wyatt a villainous leader of a Bayou dwelling family cult. In his theatric persona as Bray Wyatt he believed himself to be the different created personas of an immoral world.

Wyatt used a lantern to light the way in the dark arena as he entered the wrestling ring and when he looked out at he audience with their phones held high with the lights on he would called then his “fireflies”.

One of his favorite catchphrases at the end of his performances was to tell the audience to “Follow the Buzzrds”.

In 2019 after a hiatus from the ring Bray Wyatt returned to wrestling with a different persona and he hosted the “Firefly Funhouse”.

His new persona was “The Fiend” a demon clown. During the Fiends entrance to the ring he would carry the lantern and the head of his previous persona Bray Wyatt himself.

He was a fan of the Horror Genre and brought that to his Wrestling Theatrics and his fans loved him.

Wyatt created the Character Uncle Howdy who is real brother Tayler protrayed.

Bray Wyatt (Windham Lawrence Rotunda) died on August 24th 2023 in Brooksville Florida where he lived. He was 36 years old.

On April the 1st 2024 the WWE released a documentary titled “Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal. I have not watched it yet. I have heard it is wonderful.

He is remembered for his love of wrestling and his genius creation of personas and characters in the wrestling world.

In honor of Wyatt his brother Taylor ( in his persona of Uncle Howdy) decided to bring Wyatts characters from his FireFly Funhouse to life as a wrestling team called the Wyatt Sicks. Which included Uncle Howdy, Rambling the Rabbit, Mercy the Buzzard, Huskas the Pig and Abby the Witch.







The Fiend Mask

 

[Robo56]

The code name for this house during construction and in keeping with the theme of Flowers was Snapdragon. Also the name was chosen in honor of a move in Wrestling called the Snap.

 

[Robo56]

 

[Robo56]

 

[Robo56]

His Fireflies







More to come

 

[Robo56]

Wednesday, September the 10th continued

The third and last house of the morning before our break for lunch was

El Artista: A Spanish Haunting.

The code name for this house during construction was Poppy. I thought was strange that they would use the code name Poppy for this house as there was Wisteria on the facade of the house and in The Conservatory.

The house was an original house by Universal.

In 19th century Spain a tortured artist moves into an isolated country house for inspiration, but his art comes alive and begins to possess him.

Interestingly there was an actual Artist named Francisco Goya who I’am guessing this house was inspired by.

Goya purchased a house on the banks of the Manzanares. The house was called the Quinta del Sordo ( Villa of the Deaf Man) near Madrid.

During the time that Goya was in the house between 1819 and 1923 he painted a series of 14 paintings on the walls of house called the “Dark Paintings”. It was theorized that these haunting paintings were a reflection of his state of mind at the time.

Now back to El Artista: A Spanish Haunting.

Backstory: In the 1800’s a famous artist named Sergio Navarro who was down on his luck at the time. Moved to a house in the middle of the woods call “La Casa Creacion” The Creation House.

The house had a legend associated with it. Unbeknowst to the Sergio the manor’s grounds were infested with the spirits of other artists who had come to the house over the years before him.

Evil was rooted in the manor grounds. Most of the evil spirits were located in The Conservatory.

The spirits overtake Sergio’s mind forcing him to paint horrifying things that come to life. This allowed the spirits a portal to enter this world.

On one night when veil between the real and spirit worlds were the thinnest. Sergio fought to overcome his madness and the whispers of the ghosts as they broke through his art work.

This house was designed by Dylan Kollath and I a knew it from the time I turned the corner. HIs work is unbelievably beautiful and are grand masterpieces of design.

Some of you will remember some of his houses in the past. Dead Man’s Pier: Winters Wake, Blood Moon: Dark Offerings, Goblins Feast and The Haunting of HIll House.

I will pop those exteriors up for you to see.

The Haunting of Hill House






Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake








Blood Moon: Dark Offerings

 

[Robo56]

Goblins Feast









Back to El Artista





You could see the Wisteria hanging on the front of the house.

 

[Robo56]

 

[Robo56]

 

[Robo56]

There is a lot of Wisteria hanging in The Conservatory and it has a strong smell of Wisteria.





Every year the designers of the houses decide on a little design element which they add to the houses for folks to look for and this year it was a Lizard.

 

[Robo56]

More to come

 

[Robo56]

Wednesday, September 10th continued

After we were done with El Artista house it was time for our lunch break.

This year as part of the 6 house Tour Universal was providing a buffet lunch.

In the past if you took the 6 house Tour you had to run out and find lunch and be back in about 50 minutes. That really posed a problem to leave the Blue Man Group Building and either enter the park for food or run to CityWalk and get back in time.

On the way to lunch I saw Gru out for photos.


We had a short walk through the Cat Lady of Crooked Lane Scare Zone





The lunch Buffet was held at the Media Center


It was nicely decorated for the lunch and there was plenty of seating.



Universal does a nice job of trying to address any dietary issues folks may have.


All the food was presented very nicely. There was a nice array of fresh salads.


There was a vegan option with the Paella. The paella, potatoes and Mango barbecue chicken were hot fresh. The Mango barbecue chicken was delicious and so tender.


I had never had Mango Slaw before and it was very good.

 

[Robo56]

There was a nice selection of cheesecake flavors to choose from for dessert. The mango passionfruit cheesecake and the raspberry cheesecake were delicious.




The Chef’s did a great job of including Halloween edible chocolate decorations on top of the cheesecake. Like the Witches Hats.


The Bats


The knives


Chocolate Straws




There were large iced containers with a choice of soda’s and water to choose from to have with your meal.

This was a wonderful buffet lunch. The food fresh and delicious. I think this was the best food I have ever had inside the parks.

You were not rushed and it was very relaxed.

I hope Universal continues this in the years to come. It is a great answer to making sure you have a nice relaxing lunch break in between the morning and afternoon house sessions on the 6 house Tour.

If you have not done this Tour so far you can still sign up for this year. You will not be disappointed with the houses selected for the 6 house Tour and the wonderful lunch included.

Great Job Universal.




More to come