All things Universal Studios Hollywood

[BuddyThomas]

This is the line for The Last of Us house on September 21 at about 6PM, before they let the general admission people in at 7PM. Also, we bought the front of line passes, and we were standing in the front of line lane when this photo was taken.

 

[CaptinEO]

This is the line for The Last of Us house on September 21 at about 6PM, before they let the general admission people in at 7PM. Also, we bought the front of line passes, and we were standing in the front of line lane when this photo was taken.

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Surely people won't return to this event? I always hear how crowded horror nights is for years now. Sounds like this is a case where reservations should be required.

 

[Phroobar]

Surely people won't return to this event? I always hear how crowded horror nights is for years now. Sounds like this is a case where reservations should be required.

People keep returning to Disneyland and it is crowded. They do have reservations, it is a ticketed event. They throw regular park visitors out.

 

[PiratesMansion]

This year: people complain about crowds constantly.
Next year: prices go up dramatically because there's clearly more money to be made, people flood the internet, somehow shocked and outraged.

Then, as people get crowded/priced out of OBB and USH, people pile to Knott's even more than they already have been and then the cycle repeats at Knott's.

 

[BuddyThomas]

This year: people complain about crowds constantly.
Next year: prices go up dramatically because there's clearly more money to be made, people flood the internet, somehow shocked and outraged.

Then, as people get crowded/priced out of OBB and USH, people pile to Knott's even more than they already have been and then the cycle repeats at Knott's.

Knott’s is the best one we went to out of everything on our entire trip including Disneyland.

 

[Phroobar]

This year: people complain about crowds constantly.
Next year: prices go up dramatically because there's clearly more money to be made, people flood the internet, somehow shocked and outraged.

Then, as people get crowded/priced out of OBB and USH, people pile to Knott's even more than they already have been and then the cycle repeats at Knott's.

This is why we can't have nice things. People ruin everything.

 

[Nirya]

This year: people complain about crowds constantly.
Next year: prices go up dramatically because there's clearly more money to be made, people flood the internet, somehow shocked and outraged.

Then, as people get crowded/priced out of OBB and USH, people pile to Knott's even more than they already have been and then the cycle repeats at Knott's.

(My secret hot take is that Knotts has way more unused capacity during Scary Farm and could probably take more bodies and still be fine, especially because they don't oversell the Express pass so even the regular lines are perfectly fine waits unlike at Universal.)

 

[PiratesMansion]

(My secret hot take is that Knotts has way more unused capacity during Scary Farm and could probably take more bodies and still be fine, especially because they don't oversell the Express pass so even the regular lines are perfectly fine waits unlike at Universal.)

An interesting notion. I know they were talking about moving some backstage things across the streets and/or perhaps some of the mazes(?) pre-covid, but I guess I'm having trouble picturing where other things/people would go. Basically the entire park is already being utilized, so far as I can tell.

 

[Phroobar]

An interesting notion. I know they were talking about moving some backstage things across the streets and/or perhaps some of the mazes(?) pre-covid, but I guess I'm having trouble picturing where other things/people would go. Basically the entire park is already being utilized, so far as I can tell.

They used to have a maze near Silver Bullet where the Boysenberry vines are growing. It would cross the little train tracks. They even used to use the bumper car area in the past.

 

[Nirya]

They used to have a maze near Silver Bullet where the Boysenberry vines are growing. It would cross the little train tracks. They even used to use the bumper car area in the past.

Basically the whole north-east section (Camp Snoopy, Fiesta Village, area around Reflection Lake) is underutilized. We used to have Cornstalkers on the outside edge of Camp Snoopy, they used to have another maze that used the elevated platforms in Camp Snoopy, we had a decently-done IP maze in Fiesta Village, all to go with the maze spot that Phroobar mentioned (that used to be Grave of the Gunslinger iirc). They basically put Spec Ops here the first year, and once it moved to the Mystery Lodge area they just ignored this area entirely.

But also even taking those things away, I think Knotts operates their maze lines so efficiently that they could stand to increase their attendance without a huge drop in the experience.

 

[Phroobar]

The opposite end of the spectrum is Magic Mountain's Fright Fest. Here you have mazes that look someone's garage complete with teenagers jumping up yelling at you. The teenager at the standby vs Express Lane connection allows anyone in the express lane to go though but only small standby groups every fifteen minutes if there isn't someone in the express lane. Sometimes they lose track of time and it becomes longer. It is $25 for standby and $65 for express. Sounds good until you realize that it doesn't include park admission. ($135 online) They don't kick out regular day guests so the park is packed so don't expect to ride anything. The experience is pretty miserable.

 

[Nirya]

Some of my students swear by Fright Fest and I think they're crazy, but Knotts is much harder for them to get to so their main options are either that or Universal. In that instance I can see how Fright Fest wins out because it's much cheaper than HHN.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Basically the whole north-east section (Camp Snoopy, Fiesta Village, area around Reflection Lake) is underutilized. We used to have Cornstalkers on the outside edge of Camp Snoopy, they used to have another maze that used the elevated platforms in Camp Snoopy, we had a decently-done IP maze in Fiesta Village, all to go with the maze spot that Phroobar mentioned (that used to be Grave of the Gunslinger iirc). They basically put Spec Ops here the first year, and once it moved to the Mystery Lodge area they just ignored this area entirely.

But also even taking those things away, I think Knotts operates their maze lines so efficiently that they could stand to increase their attendance without a huge drop in the experience.

Very true. There's just nothing going on in Forsaken Lake (or at least there wasn't five years ago) and no one around, and why would people be over there? There's basically no reason to go into Forsaken Lake unless you want to ride Silver Bullet. It's a void that needs to be filled IMO.

I'm know some people appreciate a respite area in Fiesta Village, but that area is crying out for a scare zone and maze themed after Dia de los Muertos, La Llorona (sp?), or something along those lines.

 

[Phroobar]

Very true. There's just nothing going on in Forsaken Lake (or at least there wasn't five years ago) and no one around, and why would people be over there? There's basically no reason to go into Forsaken Lake unless you want to ride Silver Bullet. It's a void that needs to be filled IMO.

I'm know some people appreciate a respite area in Fiesta Village, but that area is crying out for a scare zone and maze themed after Dia de los Muertos, La Llorona (sp?), or something along those lines.

Then you round the corner where camp snoopy is totally dark. No rides are running and it is a big scare zone. No reason to go there unless you are heading towards Chilling Chambers at the front of the park.

 

[Professortango1]

The issue is Cedar Fair I believe. Management didn't want mazes being seen "onstage" during the day. The last one I remember in Camp Snoopy was the mirror maze, which I loved, but was very simple. I miss the non-ADA complaint mazes at the balloon platform.

The mazes that went along the corner of the stagecoach trail always suffered because they were left open air and they suffered from light pollution from the street on the other side of the fence.

I'd love to see Forsaken Lake become a dead end with a maze set up between the lake and Timber Mountain. Its not heavily traversed and I think the park could deal with the loss of the path for a few months a year.

Another factor is the loss of live actors in Timber Mountain and Calico Mine. The themes thrown at these attractions used to be extensive and felt like draws to the center of the park. Now, everything feels heavily weighted to Ghost Town with 6/10 mazes lying over there as well as 3/4 shows. Ghoul Time Theatre and Room 13 aren't too far from that side, leaving Mesmer, Chilling Chambers, and Cinema Slashers feeling like these little islands of Scary Farm and detatched from the rest of the park.

Camp Snoopy defiantly needs something else. Without any decor this year, it was really sad. Gone was the cool entry archway and boxes set up for scares. It needs a proper scare zone and a reason to go there, be it a maze or an interesting show.

I also remember when Knotts was trying to make the area behind Ghost Rider a themed area. They had a stage set up with hay bails between what is now The Depths and Bloodlines. There would be animatronics, props, and set pieces set up along the path to those mazes to give it a character and things to explore, instead of being an area to walk through to get to the maze queues.

TLDR: Knotts still has a few areas where they can create draws to undervisited sections of the park, it would just entail having things onstage for 2-3 months.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Does HHN have any restrictions on bag size in the way that Scary Farm does?

 

[Phroobar]

Does HHN have any restrictions on bag size in the way that Scary Farm does?

Not really since they use airport x-ray machines to check the bags. Granted the crowd at HHN isn't known for diaper bags and dragging a lot of stuff with them.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Just got back from HHN. In terms of the IP featured in the event, I have seen Evil Dead Rise, the very first Chucky movie, Phantom of the Opera & Hunchback of Notre Dame, and that's about it. I did experience Holidayz in Hell in its first incarnation in 2019.

Early Entry actually worked out ok on a Wednesday, and that was me being (I thought) ten minutes late after getting off of Mario Kart a bit later than I had hoped-turns out the houses open at 5:45 and not 5:30, so I was actually a few minutes early to Last of Us, the closest house from the SNW exit. Unlimited Express Pass definitely helped, as the regular lines were already insane, to the point where I would say that if you're not planning on doing Express, you may only be able to do a house or two during Early Entry. I started with Last of Us, and then headed to Stranger Things, hoping that knocking out the big ticket items early would make everything easier. When you exit the Exorcist house, it basically puts you in prime position to do Holidayz in Hell-after HIH you eventually join the Stranger Things exiting crowds. I was able to do all of the mazes once and half of them twice before the event officially began. I did Mummy, my only ride of the event, shortly after 7, which was smart because no one was thinking about rides yet and I walked right on. Single Rider Line was not operational, so I was very happy to have Express-though I didn't really need it at that point because the event had just started, and no one was thinking about rides yet.

Then I made it to The Purge about 5 minutes before showtime. This was a great show that I would recommend to anyone coming to the event.

Following this was Evil Dead Rise and Monstruos. These were my favorite houses of the night, but for whatever reason they seemed to consistently have the shortest waits of the night, at least when I came across them. Considering that EDR takes place in maybe five rooms, I was very impressed with what they did with it. Monstruos had wonderful sets and some AAs and scares; it also exited into the best scare zone of the event.

I had heard that two of the mazes were back by the parking garages, but it truly felt like it took forever to get back there. Chucky was really fun, but it was clearly the most popular maze of the event, and even with Express, I waited about 40 minutes-otherwise, my waits were half that or less. The other maze over here was Universal Monsters.

At that point I felt compelled to make it over to Terror Tram, as by this point it was within 30 minutes of the last tram of the night. Consistently throughout the night I saw Terror Tram with no wait, and the same carried through here-the Express was basically worthless here. By the time I got back from the TT experience, it had already closed for the night.

The last new thing was Blumhouse, and my big takeaway was that this was too short to be worthwhile. They bring you into the Dreamworks Theater lobby with some props on display, and you're taken into the theater under the premise that you're going to some behind the scenes featurette. They play basically a promo reel, then the power goes out, and then several M3GANS come out, kill the MC, then dance, and then almost immediately the show's over. It was a bit like Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The Show. Everything that was there was fine, I suppose, but in an event screaming out for excuses for people to sit down, they could have fleshed it out into something longer that would have felt more worthwhile.

House/Experience rankings:
1. Monstruos-Loved the aesthetics and atmosphere of this one
2. Evil Dead Rise
3. Chucky-Very fun house that I would have liked to experience more than once
4. Holidayz in Hell-Loved this back in 2019. Still thought it was fun, but thought the original incarnation of the maze was better.
5. Purge (aka HHN Waterworld)-Wonderful show
6. Exorcist
7.Stranger Things-MUCH better than the 2019 maze.
8. Universal Monsters-Too many monsters in one maze, to the point where the whole thing feels jumbled together and that there was no coherent vision behind it.
9. Last of Us-I'm not familiar with the source material and wasn't crazy about the maze's aesthetic. Probably a situation where the issue is me and not the house itself.
10. Blumhouse-too short and insubstantial to be worthwhile.
11. Terror Tram-I don't quite know where to begin with this. This was my first HHN with a Terror Tram, and I was kind of excited about it because this should be an asset-take guests to be terrorized on a studio lot that has literally brought some of the most famous movie monsters to life, and use an icon of the park (the tram tour) to deliver a unique experience in a way that no other park could-sounds like a win! But the execution was dreadful. There should be some sort of consistent theme tying these different parts of the backlot together, or something that plays to the studio's legacy in some way. Instead it's "Ew! Bugs! I'm not going to deal with that, so you guys get off this tram and fend for yourselves!" Why are bugs terrorizing iconic film sets? I don't know and I'm not sure Universal does either. In between sets there was either nothing or there were some minimal props and things that honestly felt very Six Flags Fright Fest quality to me, and not in a SFMM "we have to put some effort into our mazes" sort of way. The whole thing felt like amateur hour and brought the whole event down for me. What should be a signature instead is just as hokey as the rural haunt just down the road of any midwestern town.

Scare Zones didn't really figure in much-they were too small to make much impact.

I enjoyed the event, and was able to do everything I wanted with Express Unlimited before Midnight on Wednesday. I would absolutely say that you need Express and Early Entry in order to do everything at the event based on what I experienced. Looking foward to Scary Farm tonight!

 

[Phroobar]

I enjoyed the Chucky maze too. I just finished watching season two. The maze is based on season 1&2 of the tv show. I recognized a lot of the kills.

There was a time a few years ago, you could get the 2pm pass, do a couple of rides and get all the mazes done by 11 on stand by. Those days are long gone now since everyone uses express pass now. It just makes it more expensive.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I enjoyed the Chucky maze too. I just finished watching season two. The maze is based on season 1&2 of the tv show. I recognized a lot of the kills.

There was a time a few years ago, you could get the 2pm pass, do a couple of rides and get all the mazes done by 11 on stand by. Those days are long gone now since everyone uses express pass now. It just makes it more expensive.

Standby waits were crazy all night long, and it was Wednesday. Even with Express (granted, recovering injury skews with stamina a bit) I was exhausted and running out of stamina halfway through. I don't want to imagine what it would be like on Friday or Saturday.