zombieman

I'd think that after Universal's (and Disney's) recent announcements, the word "never" would not be used so freely... In the past few months, we've heard about Avatar, the closing of a beloved ride, and a major HP addition on both coasts. I don't think any of us saw those coming so soon (or Avatar Disney coming at all). Separate, similar events have worked fine for Disney. Uni is betting people will buy a separate ticket for more Harry Potter. I don't think it takes a hardcore HHN fan to want to do a night at each park. HHN does steal a whole lot of daytime visitors from Disney parks - lots of people buy HHN as an add-on. Universal already tries to squeeze 2 days of parks out of people with HHN wedged in between - that is a very common ticket option. I see it as a perfect opportunity for them to sell 3 days with an HHN night at each park. Two different but parallel events lets Universal gauge people's interest of HHN at IOA and gives USO another year to deal with the sudden loss of HHN house locations. While I think it's far more likely that a 2-park event would be along the lines of HHN 14, I still think this idea has legs.

I'd kinda like to see them use both parks, but make them separately ticketed slightly smaller events. Say, 6 or 7 houses in each park and two different competing themes. Maybe battling icons and different headliner shows at each. Perhaps each park would present the same houses, but with completely different themes. It's kinda like what Stephen King did about a decade ago when he released Desperation on the same day that he released The Regulators written under his pseudonym. Same characters but two parallel universes - completely different story/setting/theme. It would certainly address the issue of crowds. It would also be a pretty big capital expenditure by Uni, but the extra ticketing would help offset that. I've tossed this idea around yearly since 2004. Maybe this is the year for something like that...

To be honest, I'd have listed Catacombs as one of my least favorites as well, but I thought Dead Exposure AND Catacombs would get me a beatdown.

It's strange that your list is in chronological order. So, what you're saying is that HHN is getting progressively worse?

1. Horror Nights: The Hallow'd Past (2010) 2. Scary Tales: Once Upon a Nightmare (2008) 3. Nigh+ingales: Blood Prey (2011) 4. Psychoscareapy: Home for the Holidays (2007) 5. Ghost Town (2004) 6. Saws N Steam (2011) 7. Deadtropolis (2004) 8. Leave it to Cleaver (2009) 9. The In-Between (2011) 10. Everything else (seriously - most of the HHN Orlando houses are top ten material) More than anything else, the one I wish I could have attended was S.S. Frightanic... My least favorite of all time: 1. Disorientorium (2004) 2. The Spawning (2009) 3. Where Evil Hides (2005) 4. Cold Blind Terror (2005) 5. Vampyr: Blood Bath (2007) 6. Terror Mines (2005) 7. Dead Exposure (2008) - I feel like the only person who didn't like this one.. 8. Doomsday (2008) 9. Chucky: Friends Til the End (2009) 10. Reflections of Fear (2008)

2008 was a damn good year, but I still had to vote 2011 as the best overall. Even though the theme itself was rather weak, this was the first year I can remember when every single house was great. Not just good - great. Other years may have had a standout classic house, but those years also had their really bad ones. If 2011 had even a single terrible house, I'd have easily chosen 2008 - driven primarily by the great theme, great website, and great in-park game.

Christ! Every time I see this house name, I read it as "The Foreskin". It is WAY too late to be on this board...gotta get some sleep. I hope they don't serve calamari at the caffeteria tomorrow.

Jeez, I'm really disliking this game software now. I live on the west coast, so if I log in after work, no one else is logged in to play the multiplayer games, since it's so late. No problem, I thought, so I opened a different browser, created a different user and tried to "play myself". I'm now staring at two screens that say "Waiting for other players to join...". Crap. I guess it's detecting the same IP address and disallowing it. So thanks, Universal, for coming up with a brilliant idea of hiding information about your event from customers. For next year, how about just putting it at www.howloscream.com? Or how about www.wdw.com? No one would ever think to look there...

The only thing I don't like about the multi-player games is that there's never anyone online to play. I wish the site would generate a computer opponent for you after a minute or two. How hard could that be? I haven't been able to play the latest Green card game for several days. If that is supposed to generate excitement for the event, it's not doing a very good job.

It doesn't hurt to call. I bet they would let you upgrade, but it would probably require you to exchange the unused ticket at the booth. Call early, before things start to sell out! I'd take the approach that you were planning to go just one night, but it sounds so exciting that you'd like to go more nights and take advantage of the FFP+ pass.

I'm flying in for the 6th, 7th, and 9th. I have always come armed with the Express pass. The 6th will probably not be that bad, but the 8th will be a madhouse. Honestly, the extra $100 for the Rush of Fear with Express is a good deal. If you are at the gate just as they open, you should be able to get in a few houses until it gets slammed. Many times they sell mini Express Passes around 11PM that are good for an hour or two. Every time I've seen them being sold was out in front of MIB. I take it you're going to HOS on the 7th?

When is Michael Roddy coming back? (That one might not go down too well...) Are they going to banish unlucky people from the park for 30 minutes at a time?

Best time to go to HHN is at night

Last year HHN Hollywood sold a generic hoodie that could have just as easily sold in Orlando. The only marking on it was "Halloween Horror Nights 2010". I mentioned this on the board last year, but no one followed through and ordered one. I will be at HHN Hollywood on Sep 30th, and if I see them again, I'll post it here. Last year, Uni Hollywood was shipping free for purchases over $100. So, if a few of you got together...

REALLY hard to rank these this year. I look forward to everything other than the In-Between. 1 - Forsaken. I never got to see the other ship-based houses at HHN (other than the one-room tribute last year). I've long dreamed of walking through Ship of Screams. 2 - Nightingales is also really high on my list because of the time period. As long as it's not just another "haunted hospital", I think it will be great. 3 - Saws & Steam, because the steampunk in Frankenstein was so well done, and the S&S scarezone was great. 4 - Holidays of Horror. I loved what HHN did with comedic houses the past two years. 5 - Nevermore 6 - Winter's Night. I have a feeling this may be the sleeper of the year. 7 - The Thing. Assimilation was just ok. 99 - The In-Between. I can't stand 3D houses and this one looks to be a funhouse on top of that (i.e. Cold Blind Terror, in 3D)

Okay, this is a little unsettling... Look near the bottom of Page 7 of the newsletter. "Mary Shaw" won an award for Service Excellence. I'm just sayin'...

1) Acid Assault (I think this has great potential but could suck). I'm envisioning a light rain effect over the whole area uplit with green lights. At worst case, it's a great place to cool off. 2) Nightmaze (Rat-run with black walls?) 3) Grown Evil 4) Canyon of Dark Souls 5) 7 (I have no idea what this is going to be) 6) Your Luck Has Run Out (I put this last because I fear it will be used for little more than a photo-op with Lady Luck)

I will be there on the 6th, 7th, and 9th. Wearing my Nightmare shirt on at least two of those

Color me confused about the Arcane Insights tour. I'll only be in Orlando one weekend and would be available for Oct 7th, but I need to know information about this tour. I mean, it does not include a light-on tour, and we already learn a ton of background information on UTH tours. I know Uni reads these ports. Is this tour basically a RIP tour + UTH tour without the lights on? I really wish we could get a straight answer here.

Site is live!

Someone mentioned that the black fabric in the Shrek alley was fairly see-through. You suppose they might use it as a scrim? I've never seen that effect in a scarezone before, and I don't know if they could keep light off the foreground, but it would be a cool thing to experience.

Not a difficult plan at all. If you arrive at HHN and get through security before the gates open, then run to the houses asap when they open, you should be able to do at least 4 houses before the crowds start. Even so, I recommend being armed with an Express pass on a weekend night. As for MNSSHP, that event is rarely crowded, because they limit ticket sales. Every year I take my 4 day trip to Orlando and the schedule is usually: Thu: HHN Fri: AK + DHS + Howl O Scream Sat: EPCOT + MNSSHP Sun: HHN + behind the screams tour I'm dog-tired at the end, but it's always a fun time.

Very clever game. Interesting that there are far fewer paths to death in this one as compared to their Text games in the house queues. And, yup, that's Screamhouse...

I made the implication that HHN would randomly ban people during their event for doing unlucky things purely as a joke. If they seriously tried that, it would pretty much be the final year for HHN. The thought of making a oh, let's see, a BLACK paying customer randomly go to the back of the line would be a corporate nightmare - not to mention a legal one. Ain't gonna happen in our lifetime. Still, even if 1% of customers that visit the website walk away with the inference that they may be singled out during the event for some stupid reason and decide not to attend HHN 2011 as a result, how on earth did A&D get this idea past the pencil pushers? Jeez, I mean, why didn't they at least add some sort of "luck factor" element shown as some sort of meeter on the screen that grows and shrinks during they day? If the luck factor is strong, you do better at the games. They could have tied it perfectly into the event by making the luck factor always shrink to zero during what would be the hours of HHN, making a creepy implication for the potential customer. By the way, is there anyone who doesn't expect our "House of cards" that is being built to fall down once by the time the full site reveal happens in 10 short days?

I finally beat it once after about a dozen tries. God, these are stupid games. I honestly don't know if you click or just point at the ropes; if your cursor touches them, they glow. I was wildly clicking and sawing at them. In my previous 10+ attempts, I was unable to cut even a single rope, then the latest time, I was able to do all 4. I probably couldn't repeat that performance if I played another 10 times. There are times you can sort of steady the cannon, but then the boat rocks wildly to one side. This is when I went for a rope by overcompensating. So if the cannon is heading quickly to the right, go for a rope on the left. This will counterbalance the boat at the same time. I'm using a Logitech trackball, by the way. You have to cut all 4 ropes, also. I heard people saying there was three real ropes and a 4th that would break your sword. I cut two, broke my sword on the 3rd, and then cut the 4th. I thought I had won, having cut 3 ropes, but noooo... You have to cut all 4. The fact that my sword broke was bad luck. If the sword breaks a second time, you lose. If you are expecting there to be a point to this game, you lose. If you are looking for fun by playing this game, you lose. If you are expecting to find clues to HHN through the game, you lose. If you are hoping for a website as good as 2005 or 2008, you lose. If you really enjoy pure nonstop frustration, you win. I can honestly say that this is the first year that I can read "SITE UPDATE!!!" on this message board and say "meh, I'll wait for someone to post the screenshot". They really managed to kill the spirit of the event so far.