Chris90day

Just now looked at the prices for this year's multi day tickets. Holy cow. Those price hikes though...Might be the first year I only do one night instead of three or four. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to keeping with tradition but an increase to 300.00 bucks for a ROF and Express pass has my wallet and brain balking big time. Might get the regular ROF and then just add Express to the one Saturday night I am going.

Holy cow! I go away for half a day and the forum explodes. I for one really feel for some of the folks over at Universal at the moment. In particular, Mike. This has got to SUCK big time. I am definitely interested in seeing the solution and getting the whole story eventually.

I am sitting here appreciating the irony of us fans "knowing" all of the houses earlier than we ever have...only to have big possible shake ups and delays in the official announcements coming out. I've brewed my traditional HHN beers for my small group of friends that are going (Pumpkin Ale and Weizenbock) and am getting pumped for the event. Either way it won't be long now! I also have Diagon Alley to look forward to since we are doing a one day two park pass before the event.

Not trying to bring the hate on this lovely Friday but I am seriously starting to wonder what is happening with the announcements/teases. My memory may be fuzzy but I feel like we had more teases and a more evenly spread out release of "content" in years past whether that be announcement, photo/written teases etc. Wonder if there is something going on behind the scenes that is tying everyone up. I am as excited as ever for this year (I'm that dumb sheeple person who enjoys it every year regardless) but I do wish we had more substance in terms of marketing/announcements. On the bright side with six weeks to go they can't hold out much longer!

I second that! I will say however that I will be extremely surprised if Legacy's info is bad based on the current track record...

Weird. As of this morning the article/blog from OI has nothing but a header at the top. The body of the article is completely empty. Wonder what that is about. Anybody else showing this? I accessed it from my mobile this morning so that could be the problem. nevermind. Accessed it from a laptop and I have the full article. Hmmm. Will be interesting to see which house drops from the lineup if this is true.

I don't think the line up looks all that bad tbh. Recent years have taught me that so much of it is execution vs potential. I would rather see great execution on an idea that looks so/so on paper than to see poor execution on an idea that looks amazing on paper. As I have mentioned before I am more excited for some of these over others but I LOVE to be pleasantly surprised (usually happens once per event year) when A & D proves me wrong with a great house that I thought would suck. I just hope that some of the decisions (AWIL I am talking about YOU!) were not made due to a strained budget/desire to save money.

Anybody have an idea of what the "Outside the box" maze is/was that Mike referred to a while back?

Hmmm. Very interesting! Might as well take a stab at some guessing. Duh - Walking Dead? West Coast Duh - Insidious? Duh and Duh-er - hmm. Freddy Vs. Jason? Grunge Throwback - Run? Prison House? Surprise Return - American Werewolf in London? Montage - Reunion House/Hallowd Past? Curiouser - Asylum in Wonderland? Reboot - Scream? Literal Originals - Blizzard house? Multiple houses!? Not even gonna bother with what I assume are the scare zones or street hordes. I am assuming the second grouping is scare zones and that the morde and forde are some kind of roaming hordes. It would be cool to see a mixture of both again. If indeed the second grouping is scare zones I am happy to see six on there. Looks like Bill and Ted are coming back (Stallyons). Wonder what carnage is.... could costumes be Rocky Horror? I am a lot more sure on some of these than others. Will be interested to see what others think...

The more I think about it the more I disagree with the whole "It's a guy with a knife in a house = good maze material" argument. That isn't what made the Halloween house amazing last year. That house was amazing because of several important factors: The iconic status of the film and everything in it. The mask, the music, the memorable scenes, the settings, the characters. The team at Universal Orlando took all of those elements with a healthy dose of passion and an eye for detail and translated them into an amazing experience. I look at original Scream (for the sake of argument Iwill call this the most iconic iteration of that franchise). It shares a lot of the same things with Halloween (slasher movie, small town, the last girl etc) Are there memorable moments? Sure. Was it a fun film? Absolutely. Can it be a good or even great house? Maybe. My point is that having a clausterphobic space with a masked maniac and a knife isn't enough to say that it will work. I certainly hope that this isn't the approach taken by the folks at Universal. Legacy - is that the cheat sheet from last year? And if so can you explain how it decoded? lol just trying to make sense of that. Some of the things I think I understand like Stallyons = Bill and Ted.

I would absolutely love queue videos for any throwback/sequel houses. HHN 21 was my first year so I got just a little taste of what an icon event is like (Lady Luck). If it wasn't for these forums/the internet I would have known nothing about Havoc prior to attending the 2013 event. I saw some of the queue video for that house but the sound was pretty low ( I was in the express line) so I am not sure if they explained the story behind the house/caught everyone up on the story so far. If they don't do a queue video I think it would be cool to add an interactive or multimedia section of the official site showcasing some of the glorious past. Thoughts?

*happy sigh* - Just popped on to the website to see if the pre-event speculation/clues have started and MAN does it feel good to see that it has. I've been going to the even annually and for multiple nights since HHN 21. I missed out on the classic era for the most part it sounds like so I cannot speak much to the return of icons etc. So some of my thoughts on what I am seeing on here so far: AWIL - part of me is a little disappointed that they would repeat this house again so soon. HOWEVER...it was such an amazing house. I have a girlfriend who went to the even for the first time last year and I have discussed this house many times with her (one of the few horror movies she had seen when we started dating and that changed pretty quickly lol). I told her that it was too bad that she wouldn't get to experience it. I'm glad now that she may be able to. I am sure lots of you guys feel that way about so many of the past houses ( I know I do! ) FVJ - These are two of my favorite horror icons ever. I was a little disappointed with the film but all in all I didn't think it was too bad. I wouldn't mind them going the route of AVP from last year though and doing their own story. TWD - I am probably more aligned with the group who is burned out with Walking Dead houses at this point. That being said I usually enjoy them (last years was pretty damn sweet at times) and I am sure that if the franchise returns to HHN I will still have fun in the house. Reunion/Throwback house - Again, can't speak much to what was done back when the event had some of these classic icons. I do like the idea of celebrating the history of the event by doing a house that showcases some of the acheivements/characters from past icons. Scream - Thist could be fun or very lackluster. The original film was great because it played with horror conventions and made fun of many of them. If the HHN folks can fine a way to capture that self-aware ribbing/ eye-winking I think this could be a fun house. I could also see it being fairly lackluster if it is just Ghostface popping out with a knife here and there. Asylum in Wonderland House - This could be a beautifully twisted and vibrant house. I saw somewhere in the forums of the possibility of it being a 3D house. I've been both impressed and unimpressed with 3D houses of the past but I think this one could really work. The world of Alice in Wonderland is chock full of genuine weirdness that I think could translate well to a house. Insidious - Have not seen the film. I have a buddy who harasses me constantly to watch it and I may have to break down finally. I don't have anything against the film per se, just didn't stand out from the trailer/description. Blizzard - Seems like a lot of potential there. Typically I enjoy that they original houses have a theme/brief description teasing what the content will be without giving you the whole story in advance. I look forward to originals every year and this year is no exception. Streets/Scarzones/Shows - Seems like this is where we are lacking the most "concrete" information. Bill and Ted always seems to be hit or miss. Last year was awesome! Rocky Horror was fun the last two years but I could easily do with a different show. I do think Rocky Horror should come back every so often because it is a lot of fun. Last year had me excited for scare zones again but ultimately was disappointing. Between roughly half of the park being utterly devoid of ANY kind of atmosphere and the Bayou of Blood being quickly gutted (see what I did there) of what made it cool...Look, I did enjoy a lot of the scare zones and what they had to offer and was greatful to have them but it just seemed a little lumped together. I know theme parks are under pressure to strike a balance with the public but I would have liked to have seen Universal stand their ground with teh Bayou controversy last year. They have disclaimers everywhere about the content of the event. This year whatever they choose to do I would like to see them spread the love over more of the park grounds. Whether that is roaming hordes, scare zones, or some combination..I just want it to add to the atmosphere ALL OVER. This exactly. This was a simple concept that worked really well. No special effects, no show elements, and I have to imagine relatively low cost. Yet it WORKED. So well. I was a huge fan of the that group ultimately even though my first reaction was "That's it!?". They did undeniably add to that Halloween spirit that is often hard to put into words but easy to feel. Sorry for the uber long post (I will be more succint in the future lol) but I wanted to weigh in on what has been discovered so far after taking a long leave from the boards. Good to be back!

Is it true that the dancers have their cleavage covered in FDTD as well? Anyone want to do an online petition saying the ticket prices are "too intense" or "offensive"? LoL

You can definitely spot the Floridians and/or theme park veterans. We tend to be the people who exclaim "Awesome! It is supposed to rain! Looks like we will get a few extra rides/houses in tonight!". I agree with Duh and Mrevio. Wear a poncho (or not) and get a little more done! I will admit that the street experiences can be somewhat diminished by rain.