Questions on HHNs (Newbie!) Recommendations please! Dinner first...

[Scott2tune]

We are staying 3 nights at Portofino and upgraded to Express Pass. We wanted to do dinner at Palm and Emeril two of the nights and enter the parks closer to 7:00pm. Is there an express line for hotel guests to bypass possible BIG lines to enter? Do you recommend simply staying in the park prior to the transition to HHN? If so what do guests do between 5:00pm-7:00pm? What link would you recommend to find the best-practice hints and strategies to see the most over a two nights. Thanks!

 

[schumigirl]

You can use hotel guest entrance between 6 and 8pm. It's to the right of the main entrances........

We won't do Stay and Scream any more.......its a waste of time for us as we could go 10 nights this year, we only went 6 and we saw everything we wanted to multiple times. We had EP for all nights we were there.....wouldn't do it without it.

Some people wait and eat in Finnegans.......others just hang around the holding areas........you can get a drink if you wish, or just wait. You do get a start on two of the houses usually around 6ish or thereabouts before general crowds are let in.

Get a park map and have a look at where the houses are and plan around what you want to do. You should be fine with EP and see everything you want.

HHN is excellent this year and scare zones are best they have been for years......don't miss any of them........

 

[motown21]

I highly recommend doing stay and scream. There are numerous holding areas throughout the park that they hold you in between 5 and 6. At 6 the people in the holding areas are released a half hour before regular HHN guests. You get a really good head start by doing this. Even though it's only a half hour early, I've always gotten 2 houses done and am in front of the line for the third by time the regular crowd starts getting in the lines. So it's helps ensure you'll see as much as possible.

This website is also really helpful. It tells you which houses you get early access to depending on which holding area you choose and also has a great touring plan. I use it to help plan My HHN trip every year

http://orlandoinformer.com/page/art...r-nights/2015-discount-tickets-express-passes

 

[Army Mickey]

Stay and scream is a MUST! We attended last night's HHN and completed all 9 houses and all shows without an express pass.

We ate a quick dinner when the park closed to day guests and completed 2 houses and were in line for a 3rd when HHN opened.

This was our first year at HHN...absolutely awesome. We will be back again.

 

[heidijanesmith]

We did a combo of things. 1st night Wed 10/7 we did non-private RIP tour, went through all 9 houses and the Bill and Teds show. Great way to see all 9 houses and scare zones, rides at the end with no lines. This gave us a good idea what houses that we liked and wanted to do again.

Next night Thurs 10/8 we did Stay and scream at the Simpson's area at 4:30, got a great seat at the bar. Ate and drank while waiting, they let us out at 5:45. We did all three houses in that area (Walking dead, Insidious and Purge) with little to no wait. We then hit Monsters/Mayhem once the public was let it with little wait. We got an Express Pass and then used it for all of our favorite houses again. Longest lines even with express were for Insidious and Monsters/Mayhem (35-45min). We did some rides, went through all of the scare areas and took lots of pics.

The hotel entrance is much quicker than the regular line to get in we waited about 5min in line.