That's the reason I've never gone to a HHN. A friend who did told me it was worse than Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Having been to one of those....yeah...no thank yew.
It wasn't always that way. But while UNI now seems to attract a higher caliber guest than Disney in general during the day and at its resorts, well, HHNs is a different story. It's often a trashfest due to the Frequent Fear Pass (had one last year for the first time, won't be repeating) where so many locals who drink and use drugs and are young and dumb are prevalent.
I've only once felt unsafe. That was last year when there was a group of wannabe gangstas who kept pushing my group, playing the touching game (not funny in middle school, much less funny when it's a 29-year-old stranger) ... I finally was about to leave and go find a cop when all of a sudden I heard a scream and turned to see that four of the guys in this group of 12 were beating the crap out of each other.
It took almost four minutes for police, followed by UNI security, to get there, which is insane.
Bill Davis and his OPs team is well aware they have a problem, a major one. But they just look at the bottom line and this event prints money.
But I'm done with it. I'd rather head to SoCal and do the events there (usually in much better weather too!)
FWIW, we arrived at 6:45 for a Thursday night 2a.m. close and did six of eight houses (only missed Dracula and From Dusk Til Dawn), saw Bill and Ted's and had dinner at Finnegan's. That's less than I have ever done considering we left the park at 2:40 a.m. And we wouldn't have gotten to see The Walking Dead (MUCH better than last year's) if not for the kindness of Dusty and Fishbulb of Micechat who gave
@Lee and I two of their Express Passes that hadn't been scanned for that house for some reason. At that point, the wait was something like 140 minutes and I wouldn't wait that long for anything in a theme park anywhere.
OPs are a nightmare because they refuse to put caps on attendance and/or Express Pass sales. I don't think we waited longer than 45-50 minutes for anything (
@Lee might recall better), but I am a Spirit who flat out doesn't believe in waiting more than 15-20 minutes for anything, so some lines felt like an eternity. And again, UNI does nothing to dress up the fact you are backstage in parking lots and dark areas etc ... nothing ... well, except for selling alcohol.
Once in the houses, they try their damndest to rush you in and out, so scares are few as is the opportunity to see some of the amazing design work that is put into the event.
It's all about $$$, much like Food and Wine Fest ...and what were once great events that I looked forward to annually going back to the 90s are now events that I largely want no part of.
I have the feeling if they're removed from the park, they're not going to placed into another. They'll just be gone.
