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Here's what we know: Nothing Other than the fact that we're getting a Walking Dead themed house, and that there were six permits submitted (which we don't even know if some houses are or aren't dual path yet), we personally know nothing. If you're willing to risk your reputation on here and say that something is a 100% going to happen, then do so and we'll see if it comes to fruition. I suggest that instead of continuing to base arguments on rumors and other speculation that you might've heard here, or from a friend, or the guy that valets the cars at Universal, that we at least wait till we get the basic gist of what this event is gonna bring this year from the website itself. I know that this is a speculation thread (and by all means keep speculating), but it gets a little repetitive and redundant when you basically see the same post/argument, talking about the same thing for the past 20 pages. I personally have faith in Universal, not because I've grown to love the event, but because they're a business. They know that they have to knock it out of the park every year if they don't want to see dwindling numbers and sales. Harry Potter might be a cash cow, but Horror Nights is a cash cow and alot easier to profit from. Especially from liquor. Something else I wanted to mention. I, like everyone is really sad over the fact that Ray was't asked back to join the team for website design this year. This doesn't mean they might dumb down the website though (like Hollywood's. Sorry West coasters). They might just want to go in a different direction than years past. Just in the last day I've seen people demean others here over certain opinions they've made. Like Mark (mz_) has mentioned, we don't want to hide posts or lock topics. We just want people to be civil to each other. When it comes down to it, we all have one thing in common. We all love Horror Nights and are all very passionate about it. tl;dr : Chill out peeps and be patient. Speculate about the event, not argue with each other's opinions.

I really feel (and I'm sure that I'm not alone) that Universal is hiding something for this years HHN, that NO ONE knows about.

AD is not running by the "seat of their pants". I know one of the major designers personally, I've talked with him on numerous occasions. They plan contingencies and these type of projects are adaptable. If anything, they are pulling their die hard fans right into their teaser statement "It's never too soon to start panicking". I am reading a lot of worried and panicky posts and its hilarious. They have you all right where they want you. "Kings to you HHN A&D".

I think we found the answer from HHN 2004 "What's Your Breaking Point" It seems to be HHN 22 speculation...

HHN has always been a high net profit event for Universal. It's not like this even doesn't make plenty of money for Universal. I don't think new ownership would change things that drastically. Another thing, the "cutting costs" concept doesn't match well with the announcements of the new retro resort, referbished rides and expansions they are working on. Just be patient folks...this event will either be on par or better than years previous. Dialing back HHN would be like Universal dropping the Mardi Gras to fewer floats or dropping the number of summer concerts or dropping the Macy's down to just Santa Clause. It just wouldn't make good business sense and would hurt their bottom line and ruin their reputation. HHN will be excellent this year and better than before (houses and scarezones alike). Just keep the faith HHN faithfull!

I think the sources are just confused and it will probably be the status quo....BUT, I know I'm in the minority, but I would love it if we had one less house and the extra scaractors, money, and props were put into the scare zones...including an extra. I love the houses...but after doing each 4 times or so on our yearly trip, I find myself enjoying the Scarezones more for the sheer variety/unpredictability of it. The houses, while the different casts, catching certain events (like the countdown clock), and other stuff can change it up a bit, I REALLY enjoy the scarezones that while similar in theme, you don't know what to expect. Again, not much along the lines of speculation and I expect 95% of people to disagree with me, but I'd be really happy if the more scarezones rumor is true

So basically what's left is hoping that all of this is just a big ruse by A & D. Yeah I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. At first I didn't want to believe the info that one coming out, but when I considered it dispassionately I realized there was no reason to doubt the insiders that have had good intel in the past. It would be nice that you're right but it's nothing more than a hope.

Concerns of the number of houses and scarezones is troublesome however another element that seems to be highly lost (at least in speculation of course, we know nothing till all is revealed) is the creatiivity and new ideas. Sure all these trademark (is that the right word for it?) houses like Alice Cooper, Silent Hill and etc sound fun but the thing that has always attracted me to the event (Orlando over Hollywood at least) is the stories and new ideas they have created and has always been a favorite for me. Even if the house looks like something straight out of Silent Hill I want there to be at least a guise of a backstory and a fun name. Only personally like one or two trademark houses/scarezones ... just wanted to put that out there ... *crossing fingers for more houses and scarezones! Is it bad that I am more concerned about the scarezones? For I feel it really sets the mood throughout the park, I can handle missing a house or two but I def can't get any major cutbacks on the scarezones.

what exactly are you basing this off of? The park itself always closed at 5pm (thats plenty of time to enjoy the park during the day) They extended the event hours back in 2010 to accomodate the bigger crowds. Lets take a look back at HHN 2002... (which started an hour later than HHN does today, since they open the gates earlier) Event Hours: 7 pm - 2 am Friday and Saturday nights (except Oct. 4 and Nov. 1) 7 pm - 12 am All other event nights Here are the event hours for 2007... Now lets look at the 2010 Event Hours And of course, here are the 2011 Event Hours If they have done anything regarding the hours, its extended them to maximize your time. Why would they "close earlier" as use claim? That would be stupid for business since the longer you're there, the more money you'll spend. And there were quite a few nights from 2006-2009 where they stayed open an extra hour, so it allowed many of us to see the last B&T show and hit up a few houses another time before leaving. If you can't experience everything that HHN has to offer, that is just poor time management skills (with the occasional long ass line thrown in). The event hours certainly weren't any shorter than previous years.

what if the Mayans were right and the world ends, and the last HHN we ever had sucked? ah? ah? did anyone ever Think about that?? :wacko:

Can we Please stop talking about the number of houses and scarezones we will have this year?!! I'm quite excited for this years event!(like I am every year since 2010 when I first started going.) I started thinking about the queue videos and if we will have any this year..Of course the Walking Dead will have a queue video...But then I wondered if the Penn & Teller house will have a queue video of them talking and doing crazy stuff....Maybe even the Alice Cooper house will have one too?? Any thoughts???

6 houses and 1 scare zone will not cut it. The wait times will go from bad to completely terrible and that alone will be enough to ruin many an experience, especially for people who are going one night only. I tend to think positively but at a certain point one must look at things with a more jaundiced eye. Why bother with one super big zone when you could do 3 regular sized unique zones for the variety that people want? It's just wishful thinking. They'res going to be one regular sized zone and then a bunch of roving mobs of scareactors. This thing has budget cuts written all over it. They know people will come anyway.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry... if we got 8 houses and 7 zones I don't think I could take it, even 7 houses and 6 zones would be nice, I am worried about the zones but, some of my favorite zones which were in 2008 didn't even had props, like Wizard of Oz didn't really have props, or the Fairy tale zone, I think if we get 6 zones like that I will be really glad....

Half of Nazerman's is now a Ben & Jerry's/Starbucks. Not available anymore.

As of right now I'm hearing 7 houses and 8 scare zones.

I am the last person who wants to throw cold water on any of this, but I am getting conflicting reports that say it says 7 houses on the sheet.

I'm happy to hear we may get 8 houses and 7 zones but I'm skeptical until we get confirmation I'll still be skeptical. Of course it would be great if the whole Never to soon to start panicking was a dig at us on the forums like I said it was a few weeks ago.

Bizarre, surprising stuff. I'm being told 8 houses, 7 zones. Houses listed as Disaster, Soundstages and "DG" Scarezones listed as: CP LP BY LG SO Zones (I was told "Zones" was in fact listed as a zone.) I'll post thoughts later.

Wait there's gonna be 8 houses?!?!

Thief.

Wow for someone who has a grand total of 16 active posts on this forum you sure seem to think you know better than everyone else. Seeing as you are so good at reading others posts you may want to reread the ones by owner Mz and other experienced posters telling people to respect others on here even if you don't agree with them. Everyone has an opinion which they are allowed to express because last time I checked we still had something called free speech. We're all here because we love the same event so if you see a post you don't like just ignore it, much more productive than trying to put people down don't you think?

Not even Universal. Could'nt resist, I agree with you. They are toying with the fans........its never t00 s00n t0 start panicking.

And I like mine with a little bit of kindness and optimism:)

To correct the comment about "this is not planned 2-3 years out, they start planning in January"- this is completely wrong. If you have ever gone on a UTH tour, or spent time in 2010's VIP lounge and talked to A&D, you know that they have ideas running about 2-3 years in advance. The hardcore planning for next year's event starts as soon as this year's is over. That doesn't mean to say they don't have monkey wrenches thrown in from time to time-look at 2001, and the last minute changes that had to be done because of 9/11.

I pray you are right here and this is all a big ruse... I'm not buying it though... Seems to me too much writing is on the wall

This is a great idea. Especially if they added one of those foam machines from Acid Assault last year and made it look like if there were small pieces of ash falling from above.

Trust me when I tell you there is no shortfall. They're looking for excuses to spend money. Not to cut back. On anything. You can say they are all you want, but it isn't the truth.

6 houses just doesn't sound right, I dont care if they had 1 house 15 years ago, but is just not the same, I really have no doubt the houses will be great, and look great, and, if they made them longer, if they made the houses with more rooms it would even be good, I really have no doubt the houses will be even amazing, but 6 houses is going to be crazy, specially with properties like Walking Dead and Silent Hill, that is going to bring a lot of crowds, I mean, 6 houses would be okay if we had rides open and shows, but who knows. I wonder if Uni has something else prepared, like a show we don't know about or something, if we get one zone I wish is as long as 3 regular zones, i know it won't be, but, it would be cool

Your logic is not...logical. Just because corporate expends a bunch of capital over "here" does not make it a foregone conclusion that they will expend a bunch of capital over "there". As a matter of fact, all of the spending they've been doing refurbishing the main park makes it more likely that they will try and streamline things in other areas to make up for the shortfall. People like to say that hhn is Universal's big cash cow, but that's not true anymore. Going forward the big cash cow will be the Harry Potter theme park. Here's what we know; they're combining the websites. They may be combining the A & D for the two parks at Orlando and Hollywood. There are six houses and one scare zone this year, or at least we think that's the case. They've been trying to squeeze more money out of patrons by making it a "multi night" event. They closed the park at earlier times last year to try and guarantee that you wouldn't be able to see everything in one shot. What does that tell you, honestly, when taken in it's totality?

People that have an emotional attachement to a protuct or service are the reason why cash-ins work. You see it all the time in the movies. George Lucas got millions of fans coming back for more after they witnessed Episode I, one of the worst movies ever, and even got most of them pretenting that Episode I wasn't a big steaming pile for months and YEARS after it was released. Fact is, all signs point to Universal under new management tightening budgets and cutting corners when it comes to hhn. They'res been rumors on other forums of Universal consolidating Hollywood and Orlando hhn operations, basically making them identical. That's why the web designer that usually does the work for Orlando wasn't rehired. They'res going to be one website and one set of houses and scarezones, identical on both coast. It's a money saver. Next you have 6 houses and 1 scarezone. Sure, they're going to demolish SS44, so what can you do? Moving past the fact that this is an incredible screwup by the team that runs hhn, since it wasn't exactly a secret the building was going to be demolished, what happened to the other house? Why only 7 as the original baseline. Is it because they're getting rid of the Jaws queue? Is it really a set of unforseen circumstances that leaves us with 6 houses or is it just misdirection for another cost cutting move? But 6 houses might be fine, if they were all good, you say. But ultimately it's not fine. Not at all. With the number of houses and scarezones they're planning on, average wait times to get into houses will skyrocket. What was the average wait time on the weekends last year? 40 minutes? I went on a Sunday and it was elbow to elbow and the wait for each house was about that long. Well, with 6 houses and 1 scarezone, you can add 30 minutes to that. 30 extra minutes soaking up the 1000% humidity at that time of year. And with that kind of a log jam, what are your chances of even going through the reduced number of houses once before the park closes (and closes before it needs to, so they can make this a multi night event and grab even more money out of your pockets.) Feh.

i talked to my buddy today and he told me that he is still very out of the loop on whats going on but he did say there is going to be 2 3D houses this year, he didnt know which ones, but due to all the love the one got last year they are going to have 2 this year....for me thats finally some good news we can all like

Yes, that exactly! I have not been on here in months, but I have been hearing about the speculation and negative feedback, and it makes me kind of sad. Universal is doing a LOT in the studios, and what you all need to realize is, HHN takes up only 6 weeks of the year, and does not appeal to everyone. They have to think about the most bang for their buck, what will bring in the crowds on a daily basis for years to come, not just what the HHN fans want in the fall. I mean, really, what business would think this: "Oh, we can't tear down that building that's been empty for 13 years and put in a new attraction because it might disrupt our HHN business. Nope, gotta leave that waste of space there, can't piss off the fans." Yeah, not gonna happen. If we have 6 houses, we have 6 houses, and we'll go back to 8 as soon as we can. There are lots of areas for scarezones, and New York and Hollywood could easily be used with roaming scareactors and no set pieces. Sting Alley is still usable, and you know what, it is so amazing in there that you need no sets, because there are tons of hiding places. So yes, everyone, take a chill pill. We will still all go to the event, we'll all have a great time, no matter what is done. They can't always top every year.

Yeah Rick says that every year

I really hope the next ride we get at Universal isn't anything Harry Potter Related. I saw Transformers in Hollywood and all I can say is that it's just another Spiderman. I'm hoping they add a ride with actual animatronics instead of all this digital movie crap. (King King and Jaws you will be forever missed)