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 17th continued


I continued my walk around the Koven.










We did not try any of the cocktails, but the club was busy and other folks seem to be enjoying them.

 

[Robo56]

Talk about a interesting Chandelier.











I thought this note on the The Witches Broom stand was a nice touch…LOL

 

[Robo56]

After we were done looking around the club it was time to head over to HHN.


We were able to get through the the gate pretty quickly and onto our adventure for the night.

The last couple of years my sister and I had ended our vacation with our last night of HHN.




The big Crow was out walking around.


We turned right and walked through the Masquerade Dance with Death Scare Zone










We saw a few Zombie Car Hops.

 

[Robo56]

Then it was onto The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane. I think this is without a doubt the best Scare Zone this year.







Whoever came up with the Cat climbing on the furniture through the backlit window was genius.




You can see the Old Lady taking one of the masked kiddos into her house.


They look at you through the window before they walk to the other room of the house.






The Old Lady then kills the Trick or Treater. All of this is theatrically played out through the window for the spectators to see.

 

[Robo56]

The Old Lady then brings out the intestines to give to all the other Cats.



Here is a Cat playing with yarn.


This is one of the most well thought out storied Scare Zones they have presented in years. Great job Universal HHN Creators.





More to come

 

[Robo56]

Good Morning everyone


Wednesday, September 17th continued


The show they presented in the Crooked Lady Scare Zone was awesome and those who stopped to enjoy it were treated to a wonderful mini show.

The past couple of years we had ended our last night of HHN and Vacation by going to Daigon Alley. So I guess this has become our last night of vacation tradition now.

The Death Eater show has really grown since its first inception of a little walk around in Hogsmeade that first year.

The Death Eaters do put on a nice show and walk around the entire area of Diagon Alley including Knockturn Alley.

There is a nice presentation when the Death Eaters come out on the stage at the beginning. This is a nice photo opportunity for you to get some quick photos of them.

There is no flash photography of the Death Eaters in Diagon Alley or the Scare Actors in the Scare Zones or the HHN Houses. Phone cameras now a days can counter photo quality so it is not a big issue.

As you have seen with some of my photos at dark there are various colored lights that set the mood in all the Scare Zones and that can mess with the clarity of your photos to some degree. I use my IPhone for all my photos.

I have seen some beautiful photos some folks have taken at HHN during the nighttime and it really speaks to the wonderful qualities of a good camera and a great camera person.

Taking photos during the daylight beginning hours of HHN does wonders for picture turnout in the Scare zones.

The most prominent Death Eaters are Slytherin House Alumni at Hogwarts with the exception of Peter Pettigrew who was a Gryffindor.

So in keeping with the Slytherin colors the lighting was green and the music ominous as the Death Eaters emerged.



It is so nice to see some lady Death Eaters in the mix of the group.















Another tradition we have started is that after walking around Diagon Alley we stop in the Fountain of Fair Fortune and my sister K gets a Frozen Butter Beer and I get a Fishy Green Ale.



We then took our drinks around the corner past the Knockturn Alley sign and have a seat on the bench across from the gate, That area behind the gate is accessed from a little Alley way. Not many people know how to get back there.

We sat and enjoyed our drinks in the cool of Knockturn Alley and enjoyed the Death Eaters walking intently with their wands at the ready to cast their deadly spells.

 

[Robo56]

After we were done with our drinks we walked through Knockturn Alley and there was a guy casting a spell with his wand in the stair area across from where the Skeleton spell site is.

I had never seen the Dementors before in this area and wondered if this was a new wand spell or if it had always been there.





Needless to say this way so cool.


Afterwards I needed to get a few photos of them Dragon on Gringotts. You can tell the sky was green/gray and I wondered if rain was in the works soon.









It was time to leave Diagon Alley. We made our way out into another busy night of HHN.

It is still a little surreal to see how much HHN has changed over the past few short years. The crowds which used to be low on Wednesday’s and Thursdays are not any longer.

As we made our way through the crowds out of the Amity area and then through New York. We then turned left and across from Gramercy Park we stopped at the FireFly Fun House.

I had taken this photo a few days earlier during a walk in the park during the day.


My sister wanted try the Rambling Rabbit Fried Carrot Cake. I had mixed feelings about trying this as I could not conceive how this could not be a greased soaked piece of carrot cake on a stick after frying,




The Cotton Candy was hard and inedible. Which was not a big deal to us. It was all about the Carrot Cake. I will admit I’am not a big carrot cake fan, but I was willing to try it.

We must have hit the booth at the best time if there is one. They were busy and we had to wait a few minutes. The Carrot Cake had just came out of the fryer.

We took the cake back to the sitting area by Minions Cafe with a couple of spoons. The outer battered layer was mildly crispy from being fried and was not greasy at all. There was a drizzle of the vanilla sauce on top. Just enough to not make it overly sweet.

The carrot cake inside was moist and delicious without a hint of grease. Boy was I surprised. If you have ever battered fried anything. You know you have to make sure every surface is battered with no air inlet holes to allow the hot oil to enter whatever you are frying.

This was fried perfectly and again it was delicious. I was so surprised.

It was a rich and decadent dessert and definitely something to share as are a majority of the food offerings at HHN.

 

[Robo56]

More to come

 

[disneyAndi14]

I have been enjoying your report and wow your pictures are amazing!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
We love Universal at Halloween season!

 

[Robo56]

I have been enjoying your report and wow your pictures are amazing!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
We love Universal at Halloween season!

Thank you.

The Fall and Halloween is one of my favorite times of year.

HHN at Universal Orlando is a yearly event vacation for me. I do enjoy it.

So good to hear you and your daughter enjoy HHN.

I enjoyed reading your trip report too. Thank you for sharing your experience, It is always so nice to read and look at others photos of their trips.

 

[Robo56]

In real time it is Monday morning November 10th and like a number of States here in the US we are experiencing an arctic blast and it is snowing hard here. Unusual for us this time of year. Now back to the report.




Wednesday, September 17th continued



After we were done sampling the Carrot Cake we headed out of the park. I always find it strange that it never seems like we have been at the event that long during the evening on what I call easy walk about nights. Then I look at my watch and realize we have been here for a few hours. Its like a Halloween time warp…..LOL

We caught the boat back to Portofino.

Once back to the room we took turns in the shower.

Then it was packing time. You know the drill trying to smash what you bought along with your regular packed items.

I had done laundry while down at my house on Sunday so thankfully that helped a lot.

I had everything packed and ready to go and then I could not find the paper boarding passes I had the nice lady print for us in Concierge.

I always like to have a printed paper copy “say’s she who does not trust electronic devices fully”.

After much looking I finally found the paper boarding passes in some papers I had already packed in the front of my suitcase.

My poor sister was just as tired as I was when we finally turned the lights off to try and get some sleep before our early morning wake up, but our bags were packed yahoo……

 

[Robo56]

Thursday, September 18th

I had the alarm set on my phone to get up by 5:30 am. We had to be walking out the door and have suitcases in the car and driving away from Portofino by 6:15 am.

I don’t think we had went to bed until 12:30 or 1 am.

I put the tip for the maid on the night stand before I went to bed so that was taken care of and we did make it out to the room pretty much on time.

Did you ever notice that schlepping down the carpeted halls with your rolling bulging suitcases before 6 am is not as fun as when you arrive……LOL

We were glad to make it to the tiled areas with our bags. They roll as you know so much better.

I stopped at the front desk and it was a ghost land. No one was in the lobby or at the desk.

Finally a nice young lady arrived at the desk and I did get a printed copy of my bill and looked it over. I always do this as if there are any discrepancies they can be addressed before I leave. Mistakes do happen in the hospitality industry occasionally, but I have found that Portofino has been wonderful at addressing any issues and those have been rare during my stays.

I just wanted to stop and acknowledge the nice folks at Portofino. This is my home away from home favorite resort at Universal Orlando.

Everyone has a favorite resort they like at Universal and I have stayed at Sapphire Falls and Royal Pacific also and they are my second and Third favorites. Wonderful folks at these resorts too.

Portofino had some of the nicest staff and they really do welcome you back when you arrive and do keep in touch to make sure you are having a great stay during the time you are there. This has been my experience time and time again. It is what keeps me coming back.

The Club Lounge Staff and food are great. They go out of their way to make sure you are taken care of. Very…very special folks for sure.

It was sad to end this vacation as we were driving away.

Then it was onto the I4 for the trek to Sanford Airport.

The EZ pass lane does make this trip a lot less stressful. Traffic was not bad heading that way, but I do like utilizing this lane. Just flows better. I have had a transponder for years and just keep it loaded for my trips up to Orlando etc…

Was a pretty easy trip back to Sanford. stopped and gassed up the SUV and then to the airport.

When we rolled into the Hertz return lot the guy accepting the cars asked how are rental had been. I told him about the non working front camera’s and the said warning on the dash that never went off. That was talked about at the beginning of the report.

He promptly went in and got the manager and she came out to talk to us. I had not expected this as they are not actually open at this time.

The Manager was very nice and said she would make sure the electronic warning sign on the dash was looked into.

I had not expected nor did I request any compensation even though there had been some wasted time on my part dealing with this situation at the beginning of the trip.

I’am concerned that they make sure to address issues with their vehicles when they are brought to their attention so they can fix them before they pass the vehicle on to the next customer.

The manager insisted on giving me a voucher for savings on the next vehicle rental I have with them. It was a kind offer and very unexpected. A wonderful costumer service experience for sure.

After we were done we headed into the airport and checked our bags.

Thought I would share this. We fly Allegiant as it is pretty much the most direct option for us it this part of Southern Indiana. Not sure how other airlines work the bag weight situation.

Found out this trip that if you are traveling with someone else like your spouse or another family member or friend and your tickets are bought at the same time on one order your bag weight is distributed between the two of your checked bags if needed.

So my checked bag weight was under the bag weight limit and my sisters was over a little so they used my under weight bag weight towards her over weight bag weight and there was no extra charge. Nice…………..

We finally had made it through security and found some seats near the gate it was posted that we would be loading from. We had plenty of time.

This was going to be a pretty full flight as it was pretty busy in this area.

We had finally found some seats and some lady shows up and says she just checked her phone and they had changed the gate. What!!!!!!!!!!! No overheard announcement on gate change for our flight had been made?????? Sure enough I walked to the desk and checked and she was right. I told the Allegiant rep they should announce that over the speaker so everyone could head to the new gate.

So off we went schlepping (I like that word…LOL) our carry on stuff all the way to the other end of the airport. It was a nice little hike. We finally made it to our new gate.

Now onto the baggage issue I think that is happening on all planes. On Allegiant you can pay to check a large bag or pay to have a carry on over head as well as have one free personal item bag. Each have the baggage weight limit and measurements on the website.

Airlines have become more strict in making sure when you are boarding that you only are carrying on the allowed bags.

Oh no!!!!!!!!! here comes my Airport pet peeves……..LOL

1. The I can’t wait to be the first in line person. The desk staff are pretty orderly in making sure folks board in order.

First the folks in wheelchairs then those with canes etc…Military and priority (which you pay extra for) then they board according to zones or isle multiples.

It never fails there will be a massive run to line up for boarding even though folks have not paid for Priority when it is called. This clogs the line and holds this up for folks that have paid extra for this perk.

The Allegiant staff at the desk do give clear and succinct instructions on the boarding process everytime and it never fails there is always a bit of a mess.

2. The allowed personal Item……Some people have taken the personal item bag to the extreme. Remember these are free to carry on and should be put under your seat or the seat in front of you where your feet go. Sometimes if there is extra space they do allow folks to store them overheard.

Some folk have shoved enough things into a big over sized soft rolling bag so much that it looks like two full grown german shepherds are in there. This will in no way be able ro fit under your seat. It will have to be stowed in the overhead luggage department if it fits that space…..which someone else has paid to have their overhead bag stored.

2. Massive Backpacks…..Another is the massively oversized backpacks stuffed rock hard so that if you are the unlucky soul that is in the isle seat and are accidentally hit with one of these it can cause real injuries…………as the passenger who is carrying it happily waddles from the weight of hit unaware of assaulting other passengers as they pass……them……LOL….can’t help it this is real.

3. Then there are plane landing runners……You have seen this I’am sure…..When the plane lands and the fasten seatbelt sign goes off some people will grab their bags and run down the aisle to be the first off the plane hitting others on the way to get there.

While I’am on he subject I saw folks putting their bags in the overhead bins in the front of the plane. Then walk all the way to the back part of the plane where their seat was. So they can just pick it up on their way out. Blocking the person that may have a seat under that bin from actually putting their carry on bag which they paid for in that space.

De-boarding the plane in an orderly manner is the most safe and courteous thing to do. Front to back if only one door is open and sometimes they will have two doors open to deplane quicker.

This unsafe behavior of running to get off the plane is a safety issue and is a comment I have shared when receiving requests from the airline after my trips. It is getting a little better. This is something that could be easily be taken care of if only the Stewardesses and Stewards would give clear instructions for orderly plane de-boarding once we land.

Just some of my observations having flown a bit. I do take into consideration other peoples feelings and experiences when sharing the space on planes and for the most part folks are also considerate of others too.

It was a nice uneventful flight in.




As we were getting ready to land I saw the shadow of our plane on the Soy bean and Corn Fields below.









More to come as I wrap up this trip report.