Greetings from hhn.

[PencilTest]

As for Carte Blanche, if entertainment spent their budget on something other than giving themselves bonuses, they'd have a truly great event on their hands. HHN is an example of UO mismanaging funds.

Too bad I'm not privy to bonus information. Can't dispute or corroborate that, so I'll move on.

HOS is a superior event. Hands down

Man, you had a good argument up until here. Chalk it up to difference of opinion, I suppose, but I'll give you a (somewhat) brief rundown as to why HOS pales this year:

(Spoilers!)

1. All the scarezones are short. As in, I could throw a rock from one end to the other. Blood Masquerade is the only one at HHN that suffers from the same.

2. Scarezones are poorly themed and staffed. With the exception of Zombie Junction (which had very little to do with zombies), the scarezones were jokes. Pharoah's Revenge, Bone Grinders, and Wicked Woods all had the exact same sets, which were primarily crates and canvas.

3. Deathly Departed and The Hunted were decent. Trapped in the Walls was the best, but it loses points for multiple Verizon plugs. Tacky. But Freaked, 3rd Dimentia, and After Hours were major letdowns. Freaked just plain wasn't scary. Houses like 3rd Dimentia have been done. Over and over. And over. Not that HHN is innocent either. Disorientorium, Cold Blind Terror, and even PsychoPath to a lesser extent all suffer from the same thing. I am so over "wacky fun-house" scares because anyone can do them, and probably already has. If I want to go to a wacky fun-house, I'll go to a local carnival. And After Hours was just not that impressive. The set was okay at times, but for being the flagship house, it should've been the best. It amounted to incredibly loud music and "scary rave people".

4. The shows were lame. I affectionately refer to them as Zombie Dance-Offs. Because that's what they are. Except Zombie Dance-Off actually sounds a lot more entertaining.

(No more spoilers!)

There was no crowd when I was there. Literally. We walked straight into every single house, and were often the only guests for a good 100 feet, if not the entire house. And to give it a fair shake, we did all the houses and scarezones more than once, just to see. Sorry, but HHN is better.

 

[JT3000]

Granted, it's far from being a professional event... I still expect to be impressed. Not have my pants blown off. I've been 3 times this year, so far, I'm not impressed.

HOS is a superior event. Hands down

HHN isn't a professional event? That's news to me. You're not impressed, yet you've already been there three times? Amusing. As for HOS, well, you have the right to an opinion, even if it makes you sound insane.

 

[mkt]

HHN isn't a professional event? That's news to me. You're not impressed, yet you've already been there three times? Amusing. As for HOS, well, you have the right to an opinion, even if it makes you sound insane.

I get in for free, so going 3 times hasn't set me back a penny The lack of professionalism is apparent when you know the system on the inside. There are a few true consumate professionals within the ranks, and they truly deseve to succeed in life and in the company... but for the most part, the company is lacking professionalism all over. The few professional employees they have I've noticed will leave to greener pastures once they start feeling their souls dying.

As for my opinions... this isn't the first time I've been called insane due to them, but rest assured, normalcy escapes me.

 

[mkt]

Too bad I'm not privy to bonus information. Can't dispute or corroborate that, so I'll move on.

In all fairness, Marketing is worse than Entertainment when awarding bonuses out of budgets intended for other things

Man, you had a good argument up until here. ..... Sorry, but HHN is better.

As an 8 year veteran of Universal Orlando, the last 6 of which have been spent in Entertainment, I will respectfully disagree. I've seen it go downhill year by year. HOS has gone downhill as well, but nowhere near as much as HHN has. They're both trying to inject too much subtlety, rather than the big scares which are needed.

 

[JROK]

In all fairness, Marketing is worse than Entertainment when awarding bonuses out of budgets intended for other things



As an 8 year veteran of Universal Orlando, the last 6 of which have been spent in Entertainment, I will respectfully disagree. I've seen it go downhill year by year. HOS has gone downhill as well, but nowhere near as much as HHN has. They're both trying to inject too much subtlety, rather than the big scares which are needed.

While I agree that both events are a step back this year, HOS is by far the biggest one backwards. Having enjoyed HOS in 2004 to the extent that I said it was just as good and in some aspects better than HHN XIV, I was in for a huge disappointment this year. The houses are longer yes, but have only as many or less scareactors than HHN does, less detail and less scares. And the streets? Don't exist. HOS is bad this year, real bad. The only good thing about HOS is the fact that there are zero lines and you can have the whole event, including all three shows, done in about four hours, and that includes rollercoasters as well. Only down side is you'll spend just as much time driving there as you do at the event.

 

[PencilTest]

In all fairness, Marketing is worse than Entertainment when awarding bonuses out of budgets intended for other things

Hmmm...maybe I oughtta shoot for there, then.

As an 8 year veteran of Universal Orlando, the last 6 of which have been spent in Entertainment, I will respectfully disagree.

That's cool. Halloween is pretty much my number one holiday, so I really get a kick out of discussing it, including both the good stuff and the bad.

HOS is bad this year, real bad. The only good thing about HOS is the fact that there are zero lines and you can have the whole event, including all three shows, done in about four hours, and that includes rollercoasters as well. Only down side is you'll spend just as much time driving there as you do at the event.

Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so.

 

[mkt]

I went back to HHN last night...

WORST NIGHT EVER. I gave the event 2 weeks to get better... I really did. The houses and streets just weren't scary, and the overselling of expresspass (we're not really sold out... just ask and they'll sell it) combined with the alcohol being sold everywhere ended up in 3 fights in 1 queue we were in. And I got swung at for no reason in the second fight.

My friend also slipped and nearly sliced his foot open due to the quarter inch of standing water in the RUN house.

I was so embarassed I brought my friends there... I actually went with them to Guest Relations to get their money back. They will never return to a Universal event.

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

Agreed mkt, whole heartedly agree with that statement. Run is a health code violation just waiting to happen.

The problems stemmed for us from those coordinating the Parking Garages. We arrived at Universal from Sand Lake after catching dinner at Buca di Beppo at the Florida Mall. The parking garage entrance at Hollywood Blvd. was closed, no worries, we'll take a right hand turn and enter into the other one. Nearly one hour later we made it through said toll booths and were parked on level two of The Cat in the Hat. The one glimmer of hope was that the signs outside posted the park remaining open till 2am. Which was confirmed that it was still indeed midnight later on.

That's fine we assured one another, we're here, it should not be too busy. Every house had a waiting time of at least an hour all night long. Don't believe the posted wait time signs scattered throughout the park that advertise a thirty minute wait for a house clear over on the other side - it's simply not the case. All in all we managed to hit four houses (People Under the Stairs, All Nite Die-In, PsychoPath, Run: Hostile Territory). That's all we did. Didn't see anything else and we arrived at the park around 7:30.

The majority of our evening was spent on the backside of the Men in Black show building continously switching back and forth while the glow from the convinently placed alcohol becked us to leave our place for watered down sanity. If not from there, then perhaps from the many jello shot selling women that usually clog up CityWalk. Couple this with the many location selling mix drinks and you have a recipe for disaster. Truly the really scary thing all evening was the associated problems with such of an abundance of alcohol. We saw two fights one of which involved one poor line control employee being assalted. I never remember seeing so much alcohol being pushed this year compared with years pasts.

We tried hitting the 11:15 Bill and Ted, but they put up the ropes between our group claiming the show was at capacity. Two of our six person group made it through that line and the crowd control employee would simply not budge.

THEN to top things off was the chaos that ensued in the parking garages again. We arrive back at our car in Cat in the Hat level two shortly after the park closed. Nobody is moving. Horns are blazing. Not an employee or security car in sight. People were just walking out of there cars to find out what was occuring. After almost a hour of standstill security started routing us back through the entrance of the garage.

I won't be heading back to Halloween Horror Nights for quite some time.

 

[JCrane]

I gotta say - the more I read on here the more I'm regretting picking up my tickets for the 30th! I have very good recollections of the event, albeit from about 7-8 years ago, and this will be first time returning but all this talk of fights, hour-long queues and the over-abundance of alcohol induced idiots has got me wishing I hadn't forked out $120 for this...

I guess all I can do is hope for a more relaxed experience as I'll be attending on one of the very last nights...wishful thinking!? Probably! I'll find out soon enough...

Anyone got any positive reviews to keep my spirits up!? Apart from Universal emloyee's...

 

[PeecahSmoocher]

JC, I had a lot of fun there, but I do agree - they push alcohol WAY too much. I went the 2nd weekend and flew through 4 houses and hung out in the streets watching people get scared for a few hours. The best thing you can do is be there when it opens. they feed everyone to the right so that you have to pass The Arrival. Ignore it - double back behind Mel's (don't try and go left when you first enter the park - the "security guards" won't let you) and hit the houses on the LEFT side of the park first (Psychoscareapy, All Night Die In, Screamhouse, and Run). Then you can hit the rest of the houses (if you want to) because they will all have massive lines in the beginning since that's the direction almost everyone will be headed. You may be able to avoid a few lines if you go left. No fights (that I saw, anyway) when I went, but it does tend to get more and more crowded the closer you get to Halloween. I hope you had fun - I really wanted to go again but can't stomach paying that much money twice...

 

[pheneix]

I went Sunday night too. It sucked. They've started extending hours for non-peak nights for the rest of the event because its been so oversold, but this year sucks anyway, so having an extra hour to see a crappy event isn't a real benefit to me.

Its really sad to say, but Universal Studios Hollywood did a much better job with their event this year. Yes it is smaller, but for their first night ever (and in the middle of a downpour no less... how often does it rain in LA?) I think they did a great job. The best part of the event? They did not push alcohol at all. In fact, they were giving away Full Throttle for free instead.

If anyone here is planning on going to the event, take full advantage of the stay and scream offers inside USF and IOA. You get early access to the soundstage houses, and if you can knock those down in quick succession you can probably see everything in the park before the hour long lines form around 7:30. You should probably also plan on getting to Bill and Ted about 30 minutes before show time. The ampitheater only seats 1800 guests per show, and on any given night there are probably 30000+ in park, and you can bet your ______ they all wanna see Bill and Ted. You do the math.

 

[PencilTest]

The best part of the event? They did not push alcohol at all. In fact, they were giving away Full Throttle for free instead.

That seems to be a pretty prevalent complaint. Can't say I disagree, either. Though the actual amount of drunk trouble-making morons is pretty small, they are unfortunately the ones who'll ruin it for everyone else. Too bad Universal makes the money they do on alcohol sales, or else maybe they'd look at getting rid of it (or at leat paring it back) in order to alleviate some of the headache.

...on any given night there are probably 30000+ in park

Another common complaint. I think they sell too many tickets for this than they ought to. I've heard through the grapevine that Friday the 13th was one of the highest attendance levels in the history of HHN -- somewhere in the excess of 40,000. To me, that just sounds like too much. Again, the battle is between sweet, sweet money and "Guest Comfort", which I suppose is always gonna be the case in something like this.

 

[pheneix]

Yeah, both Friday and Saturday were both nights in excess of 40,000 (way past that, actually). They were also nights that should have sold out but did not. They are ringing as much money as they possibly can from this event. It is the only profitable thing they have done all year.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

My friends and I have tickets for the 22nd. We're doing the RIP tour so we can avoid the lines AND the few idiots who insist on ruining the event for everyone. The alcohol abuse was my huge complaint from last year, which was my first. Even the weather (Wilma was arriving and the rain was coming down hard) wasn't as bad as the drunks.

If this year turns out to be more of the same, I have to say I won't be attending again. I'm hoping it doesn't turn out that way.

 

[JT3000]

I love how everyone who thinks the event absolutely sucks are the ones going several times, whether they pay full price or not. It's just... funny.

 

[Legacy]

I love how everyone who thinks the event absolutely sucks are the ones going several times, whether they pay full price or not. It's just... funny.

I completely understand the hatred for alcohol... but considering that's one of the things people expect I'm kinda surprised at the complaints about it. Alcohol has ALWAYS been a major selling point of the event and always will be. If you ignore the drunk people, you will have a much better time (but then again, I'm trapped in Korea with a bunch of alcoholic Americans... so I'm use to ignoring it...)

 

[PeecahSmoocher]

I don't think people are alcohol haters, so to speak. It's just that when you make it so easily available in a place where people might like to tie one (or two, or three, or twelve...) on to relax a bit, you REALLY should consider how many people will be in the park. With 40,000+ people in the park (was it REALLY that many??), you need to watch how many people get loaded. A drunk person that is forced to stand in a line for an hour and a half or two hours is going to become a SERIOUS pain in the rear end for anyone "lucky" enough to be standing near them. I am FAR from innocent in the "Drunk at Horror Nights" department, but I also go when it's not as crowded, so it's not much of a problem. My neighbor went this past Sunday night, got there at opening (actually, shortly before), and only got into 2 houses as the lines were too long. That's just ridiculous.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

I have absolutely no problem with people drinking at HHN. I may even buy a shot or two. What I do have a problem with is the idiots who drink way too much, or can't hold what alcohol they do drink, and then proceed to act like idiots. That holds for HHN or any event.

 

[Michael72688]

These people keep complaining about the crowds but go back year after year. I hate dealing with all those people but it isnt going to stop me, I love HHN way to much to let 40,000+ other people get in my way lol. As for the drunks, ignore them it will make your night much better.

 

[mkt]

I love how everyone who thinks the event absolutely sucks are the ones going several times, whether they pay full price or not. It's just... funny.

It is funny... however, he who laughs last, laughs best. My party was refunded every cent we spent at HHN. We laughed all the way to the Adventurers Club, where we happily spent the money we were refunded by Universal and spent the rest of the evening talking with others in the same situation

I completely understand the hatred for alcohol... but considering that's one of the things people expect I'm kinda surprised at the complaints about it. Alcohol has ALWAYS been a major selling point of the event and always will be. If you ignore the drunk people, you will have a much better time (but then again, I'm trapped in Korea with a bunch of alcoholic Americans... so I'm use to ignoring it...)

But Jeff, the drunks you're trapped with, are they violent? You know I adore alcohol.

These people keep complaining about the crowds but go back year after year. I hate dealing with all those people but it isnt going to stop me, I love HHN way to much to let 40,000+ other people get in my way lol. As for the drunks, ignore them it will make your night much better.

This is the first year I've complained about the crowds... and the drunks are kinda hard to ignore when they're grabbing your @$$ and getting violent.

I have absolutely no problem with people drinking at HHN. I may even buy a shot or two. What I do have a problem with is the idiots who drink way too much, or can't hold what alcohol they do drink, and then proceed to act like idiots. That holds for HHN or any event.

Amen!

I don't think people are alcohol haters, so to speak. It's just that when you make it so easily available in a place where people might like to tie one (or two, or three, or twelve...) on to relax a bit, you REALLY should consider how many people will be in the park. With 40,000+ people in the park (was it REALLY that many??), you need to watch how many people get loaded. A drunk person that is forced to stand in a line for an hour and a half or two hours is going to become a SERIOUS pain in the rear end for anyone "lucky" enough to be standing near them. I am FAR from innocent in the "Drunk at Horror Nights" department, but I also go when it's not as crowded, so it's not much of a problem. My neighbor went this past Sunday night, got there at opening (actually, shortly before), and only got into 2 houses as the lines were too long. That's just ridiculous.

YES! YES YES YES YES YES!