Come on now. The ops are a problem almost every year, in almost every house. In HAVOC they literally stood in the middle of scenes, and in Evil Dead and AWIL they'd leave their rooms and come yell at me to keep moving if I wasn't directly behind the person in front of me. It's ridiculous, it isn't the least bit conducive to scariness - I felt like cattle. It isn't at all fun.
I know many scare actors personally and they happen to hate ops in many circumstances. Their job is to protect the actors, yet their primary action appears to be interrupting a scene/taking you out of a moment by waving their flashlight and screaming to keep going. Yikes.
Thank you. I thought it was strange that there was anger towards me for expressing my experience. Maybe those were Universal employees who's feelings were hurt. I'm not talking badly about Universal in general just this event.
You nailed it. I felt like cattle, it wasn't conducive to scariness and wasn't at all fun. And I wanted it to be fun. I was excited to be there. Talked up this event for weeks beforehand to all of my friends. It did not meet my expectations. Not by a long shot and I was disappointed. Simple as that.
Hopefully expressing my experience will give someone else thinking of traveling to this event the knowledge of the basic setup so that they can decide if it is something they think they will like. Personally, I need to suspend disbelief and be immersed in a scene to be scared. As you stated, staff is constantly interrupting scenes and taking you out of the moment. And when they are not interrupting, they are almost always within view. To me this didnt make HHN the more adult version of a Halloween party, it made it feel less adult, like my mom was there holding my hand all the time.
I get it. It's insanely crowded. And if this is the way that Universal chooses to handle it then this event is simply not for me and I will not return. As I've stated from my first post. I do believe they have other options to make it a better experience if they so choose. However this one is easy. I'm sure they view that steady stream of cattle being horded through the mazes as a steady stream of revenue.
To anyone who loves this event, I'm not bashing you. Have a great time!
And Skip thanks for the recommendation of Howl O Scream. Maybe I'll give it a shot next year. For the time being, I'm in NYC and we have some quality, truly scary events here such as Nightmare, Blackout and Sleepy Hallow in upstate NY. As well as some other options such as Times Scare, Blood Manor and the new Jeckyll and Hyde haunted house.
Lastly, let's call these haunted HOUSES, lol. Mazes do not sound scary. Kidding, don't attack me.