atigeg

Apparently not familiar with the house backstories.....

This is Forsaken and Winters Night. Last two lights-on video tours: Forsaken: http://exm.nr/oRty70 Winter's Night: http://exm.nr/r7iTmI Enjoy!

Yeah, I loved seeing this house. I wish I could see the Busch Gardens version with the lights on for a detailed comparison. They used some of the same stories, which of course makes sense since they're the most popular.

LOL, I wish they'd leave the old games indefinitely after the event. I go through terrible post-HHN withdrawal and that would ease it a bit.

Here's a link to the full lights-on tour from Nevermore with the guide's narration (warning: spoilers): http://exm.nr/rlc1Ij

We did the very first lights on tour yesterday morning. Here are Winter's Night photos. I'll be posting photos from the other two (Poe, Forsaken) and full tour videos later. Enjoy the details you never get to see in the dark: http://exm.nr/rekmMd

God, I wish everyone would go to those e-cigs. You get your nicotine in line...I get to spend the night without choking on my own snot overproduction...everyone's happy. And not much Uni can do about it, since the rule is against smoking, not against producing water vapor.

Here's a link to Tony's EP review with some spoilers: http://exm.nr/nJFP93

Total nights - 18 Forsaken 33 The In Between 29 Nevermore 30 Saws n' Steam 36 H.R. Bloodengutz 30 The Thing 27 Nightingales 20 Winter's Night 21 Bill and Ted - 2 Death Drums - 1

I know most of you will be seeing it live very soon, but in the meantime I posted the full HHN 21 entrance arch video on Examiner: http://exm.nr/qOHuaZ

Here's my husband's brief impressions of the houses from EP (no spoilers): http://exm.nr/pnkoza

Okay, I'll start this off since my husband (who shares this ID) is at the employee preview as we speak. Don't know who it was, but props to whoever scared the hell out of him in the Raven room! He was on the RIP tour for the tweet-up winners. He got another good scare in another room, but doesn't remember which one it was. It's only preview night, and the Poe scareactors are already rocking HHN. Edited to add, he says Lincoln got him good in Bloodengutz.

I balanced my complaints with kudos. The flashlights don't even bother me (heck, they're bailed me out a few times early in the year when I got lost). Literally, my only complaint is the "keep moving" BS when no one is ahead of me or behind me. I've been to the event enough to see scareactors and Ops take abuse, and I'm sure what I've seen is just the tip of the iceberg. Without Ops, the houses would be even more vandalized and the drunks would be running rampant in there. I personally think tasers, handcuffs, and a baseball bat should be standard issue for Ops.

I understand about the people behind me thing as well as the people in front, and I am very sensitive to that too. I do not stop when there are people behind me, but I've been hurried along even when I was alone in the house with no one anywhere close in the front or behind. There are dead times, which we learn over the course of the event, and we hit the houses at those times, purposely let people go in front of us, then enter when there is no one anywhere in sight behind us. I am careful not to inconvenience my fellow guests, and Ops isn't going to stop me from taking in the detail when there's no one around me in front or behind. But on the flipside, I go enough to see them deal with some real douches. I'd never want to do that job because I'd be arrested for tasing the drunks or sneaking in a billy club and cracking me some skull. I'm amazed at their patience and ability to deal with some of those people (and same goes for the scareactors).

While I understand why Ops are needed, and while you could never pay me enough money to do their job, they need to use some common sense. I've learned to tune them out when there's no one else in a house in front of me and I'm admiring the details. Yeah, I'm sure some people stop and do something destructive, but puh-leeze! I'm a middle-aged woman, not some punk guy drunk on booze and testosterone. I'd think they'd have the ability to distinguish between a likely threat and someone who is simply admiring the artistry. Please forgive me if I'm wrong and am just unaware of the marauding bands of 40-something sober women who love to tear up the houses. I loved the Ops in the robes last year, and props to the one who even petted my cat one time when I went through (remember the cat combing?).

Definitely do not use it if the lines are short. Every year I'm there for Stay and Scream multiple nights and watch people waste Express when there is NO line. Do as many houses as you can firsdt, then go back and casually repeat them all. We get Frequent Fear Plus with Express, and that's what we do every night.

We're pretty lazy, and we're not big drinkers, so we usually just have two or three drinks in the park. I like to get the specialty drinks or Smirnoff Ice. Very refreshing after a hot round or two around the park.

Once per house at HHN, whereas in past years you could pick any houses at HoS (i.e. do one twice and skip another) with their version of the pass.

Mostly background noise for us too. My most memorable, although not bad, experience was when the really, really drunk couple in line in front of us for Dead Exposure decided they HAD to have a turkey leg. I warned them we were close to the entrance, but the guy ran off and bought one anyway. Sure enough, we were almost going into the house when he got back, so his girlfriend shoved the hot, greasy turkey leg down the front of her white pants! Then she danced around and screamed from the pain. When she finally pulled it out, he stashed it in his cargo pants pocket. God, I wish I'd had a video camera. Speaking of video, if you have a phone that takes it, it can be a big help with line troubles. Last year in the Zombie line, we had trouble with a family (I think parents and older teen/young adult) so I whipped out my phone and said, "You'd better back off because I'm recording this. Young punk proceeds to literally, physically threaten me! (kids, don't do drugs, it fries your brain). I said, "You know, I just recorded your threat. Want to make another one?" He shut up after that, but had the brass ones to complain about us to the team member outside the end of the house. He ranted for a while, and then I finally said, "This is going to be settled in one of two ways. I'll give these people a chance to walk away right now and drop it. Otherwise, I want an Orange County officer here right now to review my video and advise me on what charges I can press." Oddly enough, the jerk family suddenly needed to go somewhere else very quickly. But that's outside the norm. You can tune out most of the obnoxious people or just drop back in line a little.

They did say at the tweetup to give feedback if you'd like to see it come back. That worked for the behind-the-scenes tours, so let Guest Services know if you miss the lounge.

The tour from this year isn't until the 24th so he'll probably post it on the 25th. They didn't let us bring cameras into the Forsaken house at the tweetup, so no video of that.

No credit required. I just thought it was cool to see his videos posted; he loves it when they get shared. He'll be taping/posting the first lights-on tour too.

I think those are my hubby's videos (he's the true owner of this ID). He was sitting on the floor; look for the extreme scareactor close-up in the presentation vid where one of them gets right up in his face!

Early is good in terms of crowd avoidance and seeing the houses/props before they get destroyed. But it's also nice to go one more time, late in the season, if you can swing it to see how things change over the course of the event. The houses, Bill & Ted, etc. all get tweaked as the weeks go on. I love living nearby and getting to go every week so I can see the event progressing. I'll echo the fact that Halloween is usually not crowded. That should be especially true this year because of how it falls.

Here's me last year at Busch Gardens (on the right, in the glasses). Feel free to terrify me. This is really my husband's ID. He's usually with me and is taller than me, with gray hair.