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I'm glad they made the right choice. Having the 30th anniversary when so many people don't feel comfortable visiting the parks just wouldn't have been good. This event costs A TON to put on every night. They would have been operating at a loss or close to it nightly. Plus it would have just been nearly impossible to socially distance and create a safe environment for the guests and Team Members in the scarezones and houses. Hopefully they will expand on the houses for next year's 30th. Add extra effects and details that they didn't have time/budget for this year since i'm sure we will be seeing all these houses next year. Can give us an even more amazing 30th anniversary next year. Who knows, maybe even give us an 11th house.

With California basically under lockdown again, I don't see HHN Hollywood happening this year. Their governor is being smart and trying to keep large public spaces closed to slow their spread. With how strict both Disney and Universal are being with masks and social distancing, I am really curious as to how they think they can pull this off in Orlando. The queues are simply not large enough to space people out every 6 feet and "zig-zag" so people are not standing next to each other unless capacity levels are dropped a TON. Spacing inside the houses will also be interesting. They will need to space them out more than 6 feet. People stop and people run forward while inside. They are also not doing character meet and greets still so how do they expect to do scarezones with actors roaming around the streets with the guests? I hope we get info about how they plan to run things this year when they do the announcements to help ease peoples concerns.

I have a feeling this could be a surprise hit. Her music and music videos are twisted just enough and have lyrics that can be turned into something special. I view this house almost as if its another original concept house. Art and Design using their creative minds to get ideas and inspiration for creatures and sets. Even a video like "When the Party's Over" (the only song from her I don't mind) could easily be turned into a room with actors bleeding from their eyes. I feel like Thursday will be the big reveal. Wednesday the ticket sale ends. Thursday we get all the tickets, info about express, most houses, all scarezones and shows. By the end of the week, the HHN store opens up. Work on the inside is rumored to have been going on since the parks reopened. Outside construction popped up on Saturday. They can't afford to hold things back anymore. People need info and time to decide if they want to come down to the event. Opening up the HHN store allows money to start coming in sooner and from day guests that might not be returning for the event.

What I mean by a "re-do" year is basically taking everything they designed and built this year and just doing it again to save on design and construction costs. If the event doesn't draw much of a crowd, the event would be "new" to most guests and for guests that did brave the event this year, they would be able to experience their favorite houses again.

They are building out from the tent like they did with Depths of Fear last year. A "tunnel" to walk though. Hong Kong Disneyland is officially shutting back down again. Tokyo Disney canceled all special events until March. If the cases in Florida continue to break records like they have been for at least a week, its only a matter of time before the state goes back on lockdown. I'm in Houston and am fully prepared for us to shut back down again as well. I don't see construction for the event stopping, but with this virus showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon, I just can't see it going on and if it does, I don't see it bringing in enough money to justify not delaying it. They could move it to January or just hold off until next October. I also don't feel like its right on Universal's part. The parks and rides will always be there but Horror Nights is so unique because every year in totally different. This year being a big anniversary year means that they usually go all out with original content and shows. As a die hard fan, it is leaving me with this tough choice of possibly getting Covid or missing out on a "once in a lifetime" experience and at the end of the day, my life is way more important than seeing the 30th anniversary but the fact that Universal doesn't see that makes me a little upset. I honesty hope that this year kinda fails so they just bring everything back again next year for a re-do of the 30th anniversary. I mean, at my work alone, we have just over 300 employees and in the last week 8 have tested positive and another 14 are out waiting for results. We have had strict mask guidelines in place for over a month now but we are human and all lower it from time to time to take a drink or just to get some cool air. I fear for the Scareactors working the event who may not be required to wear masks, and if they are, they might feel "safe" to lower it during their breaks since they are around coworkers. EDIT: Open auditions for the event are now live. To stick with social distancing guidelines, all auditions will be done from a recorded tape next to your refrigerator to gauge height. This alone scares me. If they are taking these steps for the auditions, what is the event gonna look like? Scareactors in the streets all on raised platforms away from guests? Houses with "socially distanced" scares? Whats the point of having the event if all the actors are gonna be 6 feet away from? How do you put on a house when actors can't get right next to guests?

Patrick was a major part of the Art and Design team who has worked on HHN for many years and was with the company for 15 years total. He was always a "face" of the team, usually being on stage during the press event, was a speaker at the AP event a few years ago were fans could come and ask questions to the team. The fact that he was cut because of Covid is a scary thought. What and who else was cut. This year event was basically finished in terms of planning and budget. It's next years event that is going to suffer if the cuts of others from the art and design team that were not in the public eye happened. We are going to be feeling the effects of Covid for many years in the theme park industry as a whole. After the Jurassic Park coaster opens, I don't see new construction happening for a while (again, that was budgeted for before this started). Epic Universe is already delayed at least a year. Disney has said that construction even on current active projects won't be starting back up fully right away. I see projects like the Star Wars Hotel being put on the back burner. They have said Tron won't be starting right away. These companies lost millions and millions of dollars and will continue to be losing money for some time cause the crowds are just not there. I honestly feel like Universal is going to continue to hold off on announcements. With cases rising every single day and we are now at almost double the number of new cases reported each day than we were when things were all shut down, you have to wonder how long it is before the parks are forced to close again. I'm in Houston and things are looking really bad here and I know Florida is in the same boat as us. Even if the parks aren't forced to close, the guests are simply not coming to the parks which is evident in all the videos I see from locals visiting. At some point, they are gonna have to do the math and decide if its worth staffing and running the event this year.

It didn't show anything we didn't already know. Couldn't see any construction at all. Was just that they could hear hammers coming from the MIB tent. Nothing special.

I really feel like the event never lost its local fan base. I don't think the event was a huge draw for out of state visitors. Sure a decent amount of us traveled from out of state (like myself), but the event started to draw in a more local high school/college crowd in recent years. The problem with games is that it costs money to create and put on. If the event as a whole isn't going to draw locals to the park, I don't think a game at the event will do that. Another concept would be limited time merch but then you run the risk of getting upset fans that are not local who can't get it just cause they live out of state. At this point, the biggest draw is going to be price point and with basic tickets already out, I can't see that price changing. The other draw would be super popular IP's marketed early and often to get non-locals to the event. With this year already finalized, and VERY LITTLE marketing done so far which is a big mistake I feel, the only thing they can do is hope the crowds turn up. If not, they will have to make some changes next year. Bring back American Horror Story for the newer seasons. If this years Haunting of Hill House is well received, do the 2nd season which should be coming out in Oct called Haunting of Bly Manor. Bring back the Bill and Ted show. IP's with broad appeal, easy to access, and less "hard core horror" IP's would bring in people from out of state but those guests need many months of planning. Hard core out of state fans know and plan for the event every year. A random person in Iowa who hasn't heard of the event might start planning a trip if they find out in Feb. that one of their favorite IP's is coming to the event in Sept.

I can't see them cutting back on house count without them lowering the price. It would just rub people the wrong way if the house count has been 10 for a few years now and then all of a sudden it drops down to 8 without a cheaper ticket cost. If anything, I see the number of IP's dropping significantly. Maybe 2 or 3 the next few years and they would be Universal owned properties so they can avoid higher costs. I don't see IP's in the street at all. I don't see the rumored Bill and Ted show returning anytime soon either. That show requires a lot more planning and production costs on Universals end. AoV is paid a "flat rate" to create the show and given a budget for set costs. Universal doesn't have to pay their own creative costs on it like they do with other shows. I do think it would be cool to bring back some OLD fan favorite original houses as well to save on cost. They have already been designed and many props are saved so the cost would be small. I will say, if the event does happen this year, I can easily see this year being a "dry" year in terms of alcohol or VERY limited (like your given two drink tickets to use all night long). Masks will be required and having everybody walking around drinking and getting drunk will just make the mask wearing issue way to hard to enforce. It will definitely cut into their profits but safety is way more important.

Well, more and more halloween events are getting canceled. Dark Horizon in Orlando is canceled. Queen Mary's Dark Harbor in Long Beach CA is canceled. Kennywood parks Halloween event is canceled. A positive is that the HHN orlando twitter is going thru old (i'm talking 2+ month old) tweets of other people asking for announcements with the HHN twitter asking these people for permission to use their tweet. This is very odd and makes me wonder what they are up too. Wondering if they are gonna use these tweets in an announcement video. Sorta like a "You've been dying to hear about this years event" and then show some tweets followed by a big announcement drop. With the ticket offer going until July 22nd now, an announcement later this week would be great to hopefully drive up sales. Another positive is that they were testing the new water show just a couple of nights ago with proof from a video posted on twitter.

The point wasn't really about merch being cut. It was more pointing out the fact that they are cutting a source of revenue in general. Her art sold out both years because they produced a limited amount of it. If they are willing to cut a source of revenue, what else will they be cutting that never created profit for them? They could cut 4-5 actors per house per cast. They could cut half the street actors. More rides could be closed. The water show (if it was planned) could and most likely will be cut. At this point, the only show I think we will get will be whatever they put in Fear Factor because they can control social distancing there. So, it could be AoV, a special 30th anniversary show, or the rumored and hoped for Bill and Ted return (which is doubtful, that will draw a big crowd). Cases continue to rise at an alarming rate. With Disneyland opening pushed back, the Halloween party canceled at Disney, universal letting go of quite a few parks and resorts employees, and travel restrictions still in place for quite a bit of a the world, I'm starting to lose hope that we will be getting HHN in Sept. HHN costs a TON to put on but it also typically brings in a ton of money. This year, they need to decide if they take a gamble and hope crowds show up and nobody gets sick from attending which would cause more issues or just wait it out and do HHN 30 at the start of the year if things have calmed down.

With the job cuts at Universal that happened yesterday, I am worried about what the event is gonna turn out like. I know already that the artist who did the amazing art sold in the prop shop and the now Bourne gift shop last year has been cut from the event this year. The fact that they cut a single artist, who's artwork was always selling out and hard to come by, is surprising because they cut a source of profit. They clearly made more money off the art than they paid her to create it, so why cut it? Makes me nervous about what other stuff is getting cut if they are already cutting sources of income out of the event.

Universal won't drop Express for HHN. It's literally free money for them and a heck of a lot of it at that. That's why I said people who buy express will skip the virtual queue and get right into the regular line that's kept at 20 minutes or less.

With social distancing requirements being in effect, they simply don't have the queue space to get hour+ lines spaced 6 feet apart especially when the queue space also has express lines. My guess for this year is that all houses will use virtual queues + social distancing the queue and no express queue so they can really spread out. Each queue will hold roughly 20 minutes worth of guests. This will prevent any "dead" time in the queue while also promoting social distancing. Guests will express passes will be able to skip the virtual queue and jump right into the line once per house giving express pass holders a wait no longer than 20 minutes. An added perk for express pass holders is that they would be able to be in a virtual queue for one house while still using their express at a different house to see a few houses twice if wanted. This will also fix the major social distancing issue of the stay and scream area. Once a guest scans their ticket, they will be able to join a virtual queue for any of the early opening houses so guests don't need to line up shoulder to shoulder in the holding area to get out first. This system could also be used for guests just attending the event. They could put stations throughout Citywalk to "check in" HHN guests. Once checked in, they can join 1 virtual queue and then go and explore Citywalk instead of waiting at the front gate for 45+ minutes just to get into a queue right away. At the same time, I seriously don't see them packing the park this year. I see capacity severely reduced. The last thing Universal needs is pictures/video of people shoulder to shoulder in queues, packing the streets with guests, or worst case, an outbreak that is traced back to the event. Depending on how much they limit capacity, queues might not even need a virtual system.

They said on Twitter they forgot to move the marker to Shrek. For a period of time, the rumor was that Shrek was gonna be shutting down before HHN and they were gonna use Cafe La Bamba as a new house location to try out. Covid I'm sure halted those plans for Shrek so no need to try to work out a new house location this year.

I hope we don't have to wait until July 22nd for an announcement! I like the slow reveal of a house once a week or so. By now we normally know 2-4 houses. A reveal before the end of June would be great. Ticket sales have me worried. I want them to keep things like Rush of Fear and Frequent Fear but with a presumed reduced capcaity, I could see them going away so they can more easily keep track of attendance each night.

So those rumors about no HHN and instead doing a "Fall Festival" were definitely false now that casting has started. I'm wondering when we will start to get announcements. It's strange not knowing a single element of the event in June. We are 3 months away now. Hopefully in a few more weeks we will get info.

You do need to keep in mind the size difference between the two resorts. Universal had 8 resorts (which besides Cabana and Endless Summer complex all mostly all smaller than Disney's) that guests could be booked in before this started. Disney had 30. Multiple Disney resorts were sold out due to spring break. None of Universals resorts were fully booked. While Universal still gets many out of state visitors, the majority of them "add on" Universal to a Disney trip still. While still an unprecedented challenge, Universal had a much easier time navigating the logistics of reopening because of the smaller property and significantly less guests in "limbo" about when their previously booked vacation could take place. If Universal sold every single room on property, they wouldn't get to 50% of their parks capacity with onsite guests. Disney on the other hand will far exceed the much lower capacity numbers if they allow every room to be booked. This is why Universal is still selling tickets and rooms and Disney is not. Disney simply doesn't have enough places to put people if they sell every room and still have non-onsite guests visiting as well while park capacity is at the rumored 40% level. While both resorts are complex beasts that take a lot of people and planning to operate each day, Disney is on a MUCH larger scale than Universal and takes a lot more effort and planning to recover from something like this. One final thing to think about. Back in 2018, Universal had a reported attendance of 10.71 million people (average of 29,342 people per day). The same year, Disney had 58 million with an average of 158,904 per day, over 5 times the number of guests in a single day.

Along with SIF and GATs being removed, I don't see any water effects this year. The likely hood of catching the virus from an infected person from briefly passing by them is pretty small. It's the prolonged contact with the person that your chances go up. Briefly passing by an actor in the house isn't any different than passing by a customer at the grocery store. There really isn't a ton of stuff that will effect the event as a whole. By the time Sept rolls around, masks might not be required. Social Distancing will most likely still be a thing, but they can space out the queue, reduce capacity and use virtual queues for the houses as well. Scarezones could still happen as well with the right precautions in place.

I really doubt that they are cancelling it. They wouldn't extend the BOGO offer to a point after this "planned announcement". Also, way wait almost another month to announce it? If the rumor is true, they have their mind made up, just announce it now so people can change their travel plans and stop ticket sales so less to refund. If anything I could see this "Fall Festival" idea coming to Hollywood. With California still under a big lockdown, no plan in sight of when California parks will open, I feel like things will be much stricter once they open...if they are even open by Sept.

Well, with the parks now opening to the public on June 5th after they had their meeting with the city, we will find out HHN stuff soon hopefully. They extended the BOGO ticket offer until the end of July so they are clearly still planning on having the event. Most of the stuff we expected in their safety plans. No water features on rides was an odd one but I guess it makes sense. Also virtual queues for most rides. This got me thinking. What if this year HHN does virtual queues for all the houses. With a reduced capacity, its something they could pull off. If they offer express, its main perk could be skipping the virtual queue portion and getting right in line. Today they showed off how they are gonna handle queues with switchbacks and if that carries into HHN, its gonna mean queues are gonna be LONG. No party will be standing in a switchback with another family to either side of them or 8 ft in front or behind them. If they go the virtual queue route, they won't need as much space and could use the express pass space for the regular queue. Maybe keep the regular queue at 20 minutes or less and then switch to virtual with express never having more than 20 minute wait.

I agree with most of this exact for Islands being open. I also see the capacity being 50%. With capacity being down, Islands doesn't need to be open. Rides very rarely have much of wait during HHN except for maybe RRR. Adding islands would increase operating costs by quite a bit for no reason. I am expecting no express passes this year. Again, capacity being cut means way less crowds. They can then use the express pass space to socially distance the line and help control the pacing of guests entering the houses. Other tickets are gonna be interesting. I really hope the Rush of Fear is still a thing but I could see just single night tickets with a discount being applied for the more nights you purchase at the same time with all guests needing to select the date they are attending. I see alcohol being SEVERELY limited or possibly this year being a dry event. We ALL know alcohol brings out the bad side of quite a few guests. Its the reason we have Orlando PD and Security all over the park and the exits of all houses. Trying to tell a drunk (or even slightly tipsy) guest to put on their mask or to socially distance while in queue is not gonna go over well. Universal (and theme parks in general) need to make sure they stay out of the press for things happening. The last thing we need is a drunk guest assaulting a TM just trying to keep people safe and following the guidelines.

I remember reading about this too. I want a year were all of them were in the spotlight again. 25 put its main focus on Jack and just had a little tease of the others. I want them all back in a bigger way. I just hope that if that was the plan, this pandemic doesn't mess it all up. I would much rather they delay the big 30 than do a watered down version. With the 18+ months now that it takes to develop this event each year, I really don't think they could modify it that much. If the plan was all the icons, i'm sure the merch has already been created and production well under way. Ads and TV commercials already filmed with them. I feel like after a few weeks of the park being open, that's when we will have a clearer picture as to what is gonna happen. On a side note, when does casting usually start? We are getting toward the end of May. I thought we usually had dates for casting by now.

At the very end it almost looks like the cryptkeeper as well.

This is really interesting. The site was created on 3/30/20 and was only purchased for 1 year. Esoteric Pictures is the name on the gate leading backstage near Horror Make Up Show. I'm unable to find anything about who purchased the domain. Either a fan just wanting to have fun or something more official and a tease of whats to come. I'm leaning more towards fan created but its hard to tell. There is also a Twitter that was set up. The video plays a little longer in one of the tweets they sent out. I'm having a hard time making out the faces in the video. https://twitter.com/EsotericPicture