September - October/HHN Let's meet up !

[thedjwaver]

9/23 and 9/25 already booked unmasking the horror tour with our on site hotel stay for 9/25 waiting on Rip for both dates!

 

[Zim]

Staying one night at Royal Pacific for October 9th and 10th (HHN on the 9th)!

It's a short trip, two parks days - and a disney water park day on the prior Saturday so I don't even think that counts as a motherland visit XD

 

[Marquibiri]

I'm back on the boards!

Count me in Mac! You know my dates!

September 29th Fright Feast and Howl-o-Scream
September 30th, Oct 1st and 2nd HHN!
Booking Unmasking The Horror Tour for Oct 1st.

Cheers!

Marqui

 

[tink1957]

Just booked one night at Pop 9/27 - 28 to go to Food & Wine festival so please add WDW to my stay. Can't miss meeting up with mac this trip.

 

[keishashadow]

mac - tossing out my dates/places, feel free to edit as it best suits the thread. Thanks for starting it!

Sunday, October 2 to Thursday, October 6 @ WDW (SW, Aquatica, DC?, MNSSHP)

note: will be driving up to Universal on Sunday, October 2, to hang with my girls

Thursday, October 6 to Monday, October 10 @ U (HHN Thursday, Friday & Sunday)

Monday, October 10 to Friday, October 14 back to WDW.

 

[Raeven]

Darkside-sep 16-18
Hhn sep 17, unmasking tour 2 pm 18th
Motherland-sep 19-22

 

[frank808]

I want to join to! Coming from Hawaii!

Dark side October 10-16 at Portifino Bay FIRST TIME! Hoping to do a RIP Tour

Motherland (WDW?). October 16-28 BLT/BCV first time in 19 years!

Hi there. I live on oahu and we will be there from oct 14 to 16. Will be at parks all day and hhn for those two nights. Will be staying at rpr this trip as pbh didn't have you first plat upgrade.
We have done the unmasking the horror tour every year as its really neat to see all the thought into the houses. Lots of stuff you miss during the night. Maybe we can get enough people together to do a private rip tour? You can put me down for three if we can scrounge 10 peeps to do the tour.

 

[macraven]

frank, i would love to help you but i booked my private rip tour today with 10 peeps

i did my first booking the private tours by contacting peeps on the boards that talked about going when i was going.
i'm on my 12th year in a row doing the private tours and they are well worth the money.

why don't you make a thread and list the dates you are available and see who else would want to join you.
the policy with vip tours is one person books the tour, pays for it and holds the reservation.
if you can get others to join in with you, figure out the costs for how much each one will pay.

when i do the date thread for attending hhn, check it out and pm the people to see if they would be interested in it.

by you creating your own thread, it would get more attention as many threads with questions like yours, gets lost as the thread grows.

if you can't get a large enough group together, go with the public rip tours.
it is a shorter tour but still well worth the money.

two peeps that have done the private tours with me the past years i met on the public tour
i kept in contact with them and they joined in when i switched from public to private tour.

got to add that i really enjoyed my trips to oahu.
i had a brother that lived there for over 26 years.
visited him and had my private tour guide.....lol

 

[Melanie415]

Hi there. I live on oahu and we will be there from oct 14 to 16. Will be at parks all day and hhn for those two nights. Will be staying at rpr this trip as pbh didn't have you first plat upgrade.
We have done the unmasking the horror tour every year as its really neat to see all the thought into the houses. Lots of stuff you miss during the night. Maybe we can get enough people together to do a private rip tour? You can put me down for three if we can scrounge 10 peeps to do the tour.

I've never been to Universal but am interested in doing a RIP Tour. However, I wouldn't want to be in charge of booking the reservation and coming up with the guests because I am not on the disBoards enough to coordinate.

Question 1: Is the private tour more beneficial than the regular RIP Tour?

If it is, I would happily join (for 2 adults) for either October 13, Thursday or October 14, Friday.

Question 2: Does anyone know how quickly the tours sell out?
I'm afraid if I wait for a private group to form, we will miss out on reserving a regular tour.

 

[macraven]

I've never been to Universal but am interested in doing a RIP Tour. However, I wouldn't want to be in charge of booking the reservation and coming up with the guests because I am not on the disBoards enough to coordinate.

Question 1: Is the private tour more beneficial than the regular RIP Tour?

If it is, I would happily join (for 2 adults) for either October 13, Thursday or October 14, Friday.

Question 2: Does anyone know how quickly the tours sell out?
I'm afraid if I wait for a private group to form, we will miss out on reserving a regular tour.

i'll try to answer some of your questions.
everyone that takes the rip tours do have different opinions.

i started out with the public tours in early 2000.
did three of them and decided the private tours suited me better.

public tours take a certain number of people into the group.
last year i think it was at 15. this is changeable each year and i have not explored the info this year for public tours.
you are assigned to a group based on the date you are booking for.
there are a few different time periods your tour will start.
usually the first one out will be about 7 pm.
you have a tour guide that will go over the rules of the evening when you meet in the vip lounge that evening.
the TG will take you to the entrance of the houses and thru the house as a group.
you will cover each house in the park and a session of bill and ted's show.
do not know if any rides will be done in your group.
the evening is planned by your TG.
you will get a bathroom break determined by your TG.
Once your tour is over, you can use the light stick to go on a ride thru the express line.
but, if you want to redo a house, you use the regular line as the light stick won't allow you ep for that.
each person that signs up for a public tour pays the cost directly to UO.


Private tours are a max of 10 people.
you have a TG and you meet at a designated time in the vip lounge.
(all groups will be given a lanyard and light stick to wear in the evening to show you are in a tour group)
the person that booked the tour group will be the one to work with the TG in handling the evening.
What i do is give my TG a schedule of how we want to do the evening, when we have our dinner break, what rides we want to do, etc.
Our group always does the houses twice.
We go through each house when team A is performing and when team B is on set.
sometimes we do house three times.
We start at 6:45 and end at 2:00 am the next morning.

we can change plans during the evening as private tours are more flexible with schedules.

when i did the public tour, i loved them.
only once i was in a group that i didn't bond with.
The TG is in charge of the entire evening and input from the guest in that tour don't change the evening schedule.
this is a great way to see the houses and get inside info on them.
the TG will present the theme and things to expect before you go into each house.
that is very helpful as it is dark and loud in most houses.

some tours will sell out based on the date it is on.
i know some people that were booking the week before their trip and did not have an issue getting into a tour.

i feel that fridays and saturdays have more fuller tours.
the parks are crazy crowded then and you don't have to deal with long lines in a tour group.
that makes it well worth the money.
and you don't need to buy an express pass for the night, apply what that would cost you towards a public tour and it works out well financially.

i went solo on my public tours.
never felt out of place
and, that is how i found 2 people to start with in setting up a private tour for a future year.

the private tour can cost more is you go on a friday or saturday.
the person that holds the reservation pays the cost of the tour when booked.
how that person wants others to pay a portion is up to them.
i pay the cost up front at booking and contact those in my group for their share.
i divide the total amount by the number in our group and they send me their portion.
i have had great luck each year doing this.
in the beginning i would have maybe 7 or 8 in the group when the private tours were up to 12 max in a group.
about 2011 (maybe later) it was cut back toi 10 in a private group tops.
money has not been an issue for our group.
this year the basic cost for private tours has increased.
in years past, with using the ap for a discount, it ran about $1800 roughly.

the days i have read about selling out have been on saturdays and some fridays.
with sunday growing as a popular day to go, i can imagine they could have tour sell outs but none i am aware of.

all in any group must have a paid hhn ticket.
if you don't have one when you go, you will buy one from vip tours.

Melanie, thursday night public tour will cost less than the friday night public tour.
check the website for the individual costs.
thursday will have less crowds than friday.
are you planning to do both nights of hhn ?
i would do thursday on your own and friday with the tour.
i say that as friday evening will be planned out for you completely.
you will see all houses once and bill and teds.

if you plan to do one night only, use the public tour so you will not miss anything in the park.

if you read of anyone in this thread that is interested in a private tour, look at the list i have on page 1 here.
pm them to discuss the possibility of getting a group together. assign one person to be the one that books and pays.

if you are not confortable with that, go with public tour.

anymore questions?

i don't have all the answers but i can share what experiences i have had with tours.

 

[Melanie415]

You are the Best macraven!
Thanks for taking the time to give such detailed information.

Both tours sound great with the private being the better option if I could join in on one with someone who has been before. Seems like I may have a little time before they sell out. If no private tour materializes, I will for sure book the non private tour.

I'm only planning on going one night. I'm thinking maybe Thursday night. I just read about the behind the scenes tour and that seems really interesting. Might do that AM on Friday.

 

[macraven]

thank you melanie, there are lots of homies that post that have just as much info as i do.
unmasking the horror tour is fantastic if you are wanting to have background info of the houses.
they are done with the lights on inside the house during that tour.
you can see all the hidden gems inside that you will over look during the evening house tours.

the TG is thorough and will explain the background of the house and correlations to the theme.

i do both am and pm tours, already booked them.

only 3 houses are in the morning and 3 different houses in the afternoon tours.
VIP Tours makes the decsion on the house selections.
they will be the same for all day tours during the event.

 

[DarkOne]

Steve & Ruth from Philly

Sept 28 - IOA
Sept 29 - UtH Tours, Private RIP tour (SEEKING PEOPLE TO JOIN US)
Sept 30 - Both parks, HHN
Oct 1 - Both parks

PM me if interested in joining our private RIP tour for Thurs Sept 29. We're looking for up to 8 people to join us.

We're looking for up to 8 people to join us. We have the tour from 6:15 pm to 1 am, and our plan is houses, houses, more houses, Bill & Ted, maybe some scare zones, and then more houses. We're not worried about the rides . . . we just want to experience everything that the haunt has to offer. We plan to hit each house at least twice, getting both sets of casts.

Steve in Philly

 

[tink1957]

Wish I could join you but I'm leaving on the 27th...good luck finding people.

 

[FaithsWish]

We will be Sept 17 - 24th.

Unmasking The Horror Sept 18th @ 2pm

 

[RAPstar]

Dark Side for sure Sept 22-24. Maybe MNSSHP on the 25th, but big maybe, depending on the final house announcement for HHN.

 

[macraven]

updated to here

 

[pcstang]

10-3 to 10-10
First three nights at SF to check it out and hangout. Next 4 nights at RPR.

 

[pigletto]

My DH and DD19 will be at the October 30th party. We are at Cabana Bay for the week. It will be their first time. I already bought them Express passes as a surprise. DH felt bad about spending the extra money for one night, so I paid for it out of my secret stash and will surprise them. I want them to be able to see as much as they can.
DS12 and I will be over at MK for MNSSHP. Our plan is to go back in 2017 before our AP's expire and sneak in a HHN for me to attend with DH. It just worked much better for us to split up this year. Plus I'm a chicken lol.

 

[reddfrogg]

Staying HRH Oct. 11-13th