Phroobar
Well-Known Member
October just gets worst and worst. I might hit up Knotts again in October but by then I would have done everything.
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All things Universal Studios Hollywood
- Thread starter Darkbeer1
- Start date
Nirya
Well-Known Member
I usually go on a Friday or Saturday for Knotts to take advantage of the extra hour, though last year we were done with all the mazes by around 12:30 so it's doable on a week day as well. And yeah, I've never felt a need to get the Express pass at Knotts while it is basically mandatory at Universal if you want to do everything.
The key to Scary Farm for me is pretty simple:
- Be there as close to rope drop as possible. We've walked in like 15 minutes after the official start the last couple years, which means we avoid the initial crush of people queued up waiting to enter Ghost Town. The intro show is fun but this is mostly to take advantage of time.
- Start at the Ghostrider mazes area. Usually with the one in the middle of the coaster (so Wax Works this year), as that one has a rough line if you wait later in the night. That area also tends to get skipped by a lot of people early as they're rushing to the back, so you can knock out those 4 mazes in an hour and a half (used to be faster but the Vampire shooter maze is here now and that has the roughest line of the four).
- Go down Ghost Town after make a judgement call based on the line for the barn maze (right now it's Origins). If the line is short (aka not taking up the entire area) then jump in it and do that one and the Mystery Lodge maze. If it's long, head straight over to the mazes in the Boardwalk Ballroom and behind XCelerator, as those will likely have smaller lines as a result.
- Save the maze near the entrance for the end. Later in the night it never has a real line so you can walk onto it. This also applies for the years they had a maze next to Reflection Lake.
- No rides until mazes are done. You'll have time for a show if you really want to do the Hanging, but you gotta hold off on any of the rides until the mazes are done because people love hitting those early, especially if they have kids that aren't going to last well into the night.
(I will note this may be the first year I get an Express pass, not because it's necessary but because the person I'm going with doesn't want to do Universal this year and decided she wants us to treat ourselves on the Knotts trip).
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
How many of the Chucky movies are worth watching?
I just watched the OG Child's Play last week, and it was fine (thankfully pretty short too). I've heard mixed things on the others and have a vague aversion to horror sequels after a few too many bad ones over the years.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Well, I haven’t seen most of them in a very long time (since I was a kid for some) so I’m not 100% sure they hold up but I’m fairly certain that Child’s Play 2 and 3 are worth a watch too. Child’s Play 2 was my favorite growing up but I think the original is probably the best. Here’s how I rank them…
Child’s Play 1
Child’s Play 2
Child’s Play 3
Cult of Chucky
Curse of Chucky
Bride of Chucky
Seed of Chucky.
Bride and Seed are abominations to the franchise and not worth a watch.
To sum it up I’d definitely check out Child’s Play 2. If you don’t like it, then you won’t like part 3. The rest aren’t really worth it. Curse and Cult of Chucky ditched the ridiculous stuff they did with Bride and Seed and felt much more like the original trilogy. Perhaps even a little darker than part 2 and part 3 but I only saw those one time- they were both straight to streaming/ video. Don’t remember loving or hating them.
Skip
Well-Known Member
I love the Chucky franchise - even at its weirdest and when it's clear they only got a few dimes and nickels to make a movie.
If you want to be caught up for the house and catch all the references, you really need to watch --
Child's Play 2
Bride of Chucky
Seed of Chucky
Cult of Chucky
Chucky TV Sseries (both seasons)
With that said, the house still works even if you aren't super familiar with the franchise.
If you want to be caught up for the house and catch all the references, you really need to watch --
Child's Play 2
Bride of Chucky
Seed of Chucky
Cult of Chucky
Chucky TV Sseries (both seasons)
With that said, the house still works even if you aren't super familiar with the franchise.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I'm basically completely unfamiliar with everything this year (so not terribly different from my first experience in 2019, really). Part of me would love to catch up with everything before then. Part of me, though, just isn't interested in doing the homework-and potentially spoiling, say, Season 4 of Stranger Things if I start it but don't quite get through everything before I visit.
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Phroobar
Well-Known Member
I went to HHN last night and used the Express Pass. It made the event a lot more tolerable than without it. Every maze was an hour to two hours long. With the pass everything was a walk on. We even stood in line for a couple of shorter 20-30min mazes.
We started with the Latina America Monsters maze. It was a solid maze with some unique monsters. Basically there was a bird that stole babies and a tall Freddy Krueger looking guy that would put you in a bag. The puppets were huge and well animated. It was a good effort.
The Evil Dead maze was in the walking dead building. I was disappointed they just recycled last year's haunted hotel maze for this. They just added the two bad guys from the recent evil dead movie. It was acceptable.
Blumhouse Presents behind the scenes is in the Dreamworks theater. You get to look at props from Five Nights at Freddy's and MEGAN and Black Phone. You watch a trailer for Five Nights and then MEGAN comes out to dance and you are thrown out. Everyone was left asking "That was it?"
The Terror Tram had a bug exterminator theme except we were the bugs. It is the usual walk around the Bates Motel and the Airplane set. Finally you walk the Nope set with US characters. It was okay but not as intense as previous years. Not enough scare actors I guess.
Behind Harry Potter was the Classic Universal Monsters maze. These were monsters of Paris that included the Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of ND and Invisible Man. This maze was well put together and fun. The other maze was the Chucky kill count maze. It was also excellent with many AA Chuckys killing people.
The Water World arena had the Purge: Dangerous Waters. This was a stunt show similar to Water World but with less boats. They had two water skis that were more transportation than stunts. It had lots of pyro but no splashing of the audience. It felt like a highlight reel of the daytime show. It was very short.
Lower lot included Stranger Things 4 which covered that season very well. The Last of Us was also a summary of the show/game. The Exorcist Believer felt similar to the original Exorcist but gorier like the recent Evil Dead movies. It had some good world building areas. Finally there was Holidays in Hell which treated Halloween as an afterthought with floating pumpkins. It should have stayed a scare zone.
Universal is packed during the event with 20-30 year old. They were kind of the same group you would see at a Raiders game or Magic Mountain. Not really a family friendly group. Security felt like they were in charge which was good. Rides were up with minimum waits. You are in for a much more pleasant night with an Express pass.
We started with the Latina America Monsters maze. It was a solid maze with some unique monsters. Basically there was a bird that stole babies and a tall Freddy Krueger looking guy that would put you in a bag. The puppets were huge and well animated. It was a good effort.
The Evil Dead maze was in the walking dead building. I was disappointed they just recycled last year's haunted hotel maze for this. They just added the two bad guys from the recent evil dead movie. It was acceptable.
Blumhouse Presents behind the scenes is in the Dreamworks theater. You get to look at props from Five Nights at Freddy's and MEGAN and Black Phone. You watch a trailer for Five Nights and then MEGAN comes out to dance and you are thrown out. Everyone was left asking "That was it?"
The Terror Tram had a bug exterminator theme except we were the bugs. It is the usual walk around the Bates Motel and the Airplane set. Finally you walk the Nope set with US characters. It was okay but not as intense as previous years. Not enough scare actors I guess.
Behind Harry Potter was the Classic Universal Monsters maze. These were monsters of Paris that included the Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of ND and Invisible Man. This maze was well put together and fun. The other maze was the Chucky kill count maze. It was also excellent with many AA Chuckys killing people.
The Water World arena had the Purge: Dangerous Waters. This was a stunt show similar to Water World but with less boats. They had two water skis that were more transportation than stunts. It had lots of pyro but no splashing of the audience. It felt like a highlight reel of the daytime show. It was very short.
Lower lot included Stranger Things 4 which covered that season very well. The Last of Us was also a summary of the show/game. The Exorcist Believer felt similar to the original Exorcist but gorier like the recent Evil Dead movies. It had some good world building areas. Finally there was Holidays in Hell which treated Halloween as an afterthought with floating pumpkins. It should have stayed a scare zone.
Universal is packed during the event with 20-30 year old. They were kind of the same group you would see at a Raiders game or Magic Mountain. Not really a family friendly group. Security felt like they were in charge which was good. Rides were up with minimum waits. You are in for a much more pleasant night with an Express pass.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I'm curious about this from a recovering ankle perspective. After Nope, do you get on a tram to go to the exit? Or do you walk back? If you walk back, how long/hilly is it?
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
You get on the tram when you exit Nope. There is a semi-steep hill between the Bates Motel and War of the World though.
Emmanuel
Well-Known Member
Yesterday I went to HHN for the first time in 9 years. I had the Platinum Pass which includes a free general admission ticket to the event (and with Flexpay, i get one every year). I also bought early access which was surprisingly cheap at $20 for yesterday.
Checking in was easy as I didn't had to exit and re-enter the park. Went to a kiosk set up by the park exit. They do have differently colored wristbands depending on wether or not you have early access. Brown was the color i was given.
Made my way down to the lower lot where I was able to do 2 mazes down there with early access which was Holidayz in Hell which I got in line for with less than 5 minutes before it opened at 5:30 and The Exorcist: Believer which already built up a 50 minute wait time before 5:45 when the maze opened. Had a quick dinner at Jurassic Cafe before heading back up to the upper lot for the Purge Dangerous Waters (which I ended up seeing twice) and then seeing the Death Eaters before heading to Terror Tram which didn't had much of a line when I did it. Did two more mazes which was
Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America and Evil Dead Rise which both had a 45-50 minute wait each.
The remaining 4 didn't end up doing due to not having express and their normal lines were 2-3 hour waits most of the times that I checked the app.
Doing half of the mazes actually is a win for me as I didn't think I'd get half done before I left before midnight.
Checking in was easy as I didn't had to exit and re-enter the park. Went to a kiosk set up by the park exit. They do have differently colored wristbands depending on wether or not you have early access. Brown was the color i was given.
Made my way down to the lower lot where I was able to do 2 mazes down there with early access which was Holidayz in Hell which I got in line for with less than 5 minutes before it opened at 5:30 and The Exorcist: Believer which already built up a 50 minute wait time before 5:45 when the maze opened. Had a quick dinner at Jurassic Cafe before heading back up to the upper lot for the Purge Dangerous Waters (which I ended up seeing twice) and then seeing the Death Eaters before heading to Terror Tram which didn't had much of a line when I did it. Did two more mazes which was
Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America and Evil Dead Rise which both had a 45-50 minute wait each.
The remaining 4 didn't end up doing due to not having express and their normal lines were 2-3 hour waits most of the times that I checked the app.
Doing half of the mazes actually is a win for me as I didn't think I'd get half done before I left before midnight.
Emmanuel
Well-Known Member
Very much impossible indeed. And it really does feel that they oversell for HHN. While I would've liked to have bought Express, the price was too high for me to get so I just stuck to getting what mazes I could do plus the Terror Tram.
Yesterday was also the last Saturday that Platinum Pass Members can use their free HHN ticket on a Saturday this season. This month, it can only be redeemable on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Disneyland/DCA
Active Member
I'm addicted to the scent of the Easter room from Holidayz.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
It's been kind of a turn off. I may just get a Scary Farm pass instead. But then again, twice is enough of that.
How is the LA Hay ride?
Emmanuel
Well-Known Member
Hadn't been to the Hay ride myself. I've mainly stuck to Scary Farm because the ease of enjoying the event.
When I went to Scary Farm on opening weekend, I was able to do all 10 mazes easily because everyone started leaving around midnight making it easy to do the mazes. When i do return visits to Scary Farm, I'm planning to take it easy to enjoy the shows and the scare zones while the increasing masses focus on the mazes
I'd say two visits to Scary Farm is decent enough to get your moneys worth from the pass but you're probably better off just buying a normal ticket
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
My daughter has a Scary Farm pass. She is treating it like a After 5 pass to enjoy the park, rides, any mazes she wants to do and hang out.