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SO excited about Stranger Things!! The promo for it alone looks amazing! Really hoping they stick with this whole 80's theme. The fact that they specifically mentioned the 80's theme in the announcement for ST has me thinking this could be a running theme for the whole year. AHS is the only thing that won't fit the theme unless they do the house based on the upcoming season which may or may not be 80's themed. Time will tell I guess.

They don't even have the houses constructed yet. I would love for them to bring Death Eaters into the park just roaming around Diagon Alley but at the same time, they will just become photo-ops. I still doubt we will see anything HP related at HHN this year.

Wait, are you saying this is something that is already basically finished? Why would they rehearse it so far out? If this is just an all day show, that's fine but bringing into HHN is just an awful idea.

I HIGHLY, HIGHLY doubt this! JK would NEVER let it happen. It worked at another Universal park because they were just random, unnamed Death Eaters walking around. When she signed the deal with Universal, she made it very clear that they can never have actors portraying any characters from the book in things like meet and greets or shows. It took them years for her to let them just add a few Christmas decor items through the lands. Unless she wrote the script and helps with the casting, a random stage show will never see the light of day. Plus, do we really want a whole bunch of HP fans, with robes and wands, flooding the HHN gates to see a show and then complain about having to walk through scarezones to get to it? Not to mention all the parents that will complain that they can't bring their kids? It's best to leave HP out of the event. Now, I would love to see them come up with a Bill and Ted type show. Lets be honest, Bill and Ted were great but they were never the focus of the show. All the pop culture jokes and stabs at Disney, politics, etc was what made the show. Cast most of the same actors and create a show that's very similar but have a different set of people "anchor" the show. Literary the only things they can't use are the names and looks of Bill and Ted and the phone booth. Everything else was written and created by Universal A&D. They could make it work

Hopefully house announcements start rolling out soon. I don't want a repeat of last year where they wait until the event is almost here to announce stuff. If I was them, 20 weeks out announcements would start. 1 house announcement every other week for 18 weeks (9 houses) and toss in the scarezones and any other details the 20th week. This keeps HHN info in the spotlight for quite awhile with a bunch of press releases and news articles every other week. I know the backlash was pretty huge last year all over social media with not only the joke that was the "soul collectors countdown to nothing" and the total lack of news or even clues about houses for the whole summer. Hopefully they learned their lesson. They also need to just release all the ticket types! I want my Rush of Fear + Express pass dang it! Take my money Universal!

Surprised they didn't include ANY type of show in the announcement. They outline 9 houses and 5 zones and that's it. Last year they at least included the word "shows" in the announcement. I wonder if AoV won't be back (which would be a big disappointment!). I also hate that they are following the same method as last year and releasing a single type of ticket to start and not allowing you to book Unmasking or RIP without booking a vacation package. You would think they would want to make as many sales as possible now, well before construction starts, so they can better gauge the budget for the houses. I am ready to buy my tickets now Universal...let me give you my money! Also, why the random Thursday at the end of Sept with no event night? Figured I would get to go for 11 nights this year but I guess i'm down to 10 now.

Hoping for 10 just so they can spread people out a little more. Wish they could come up with a new house location around F&F. Not having a house back there on top of a small, cramped SZ makes the whole backside of the park almost pointless to go visit.

It honestly think it comes down to merchandise sales figures I think. In 2016, they put Chance on everything and she was part of the commercial and billboards. She also had a zone that sold merchandise on either side zone (the main Universal store and the small store across from Monsters Cafe). Sure, she was a recognizable face from years past but even if you had never been to an HHN before, odds are you encountered her at some point from the time you decided to attend to the time you walked through the front gate. Now last year was the same concept. Toss a skull on everything to tie the theme together. However a random skull, although cool in design, is not as nearly as popular as a character. You couldn't see or interact with the skull in the park. It wasn't in the commercial. Heck, outside of gift shops that skull was nowhere to be seen! People are more likely to purchase something if it has a face/figure/name they know on it. If the Chance merchandise sales far surpass the skull design, you can bet Universal will be pushing to get a recognizable face on the merchandise. Something they can easily use in marketing without having to pay much in licensing fees. As cool as the IP shirts can get, I'm fairly certain they have to share the profit with the IP holder. With the Chance design, that was 100% profit for them. Not to mention the fact that it's great fan service.

With such an IP heavy year, do you think they might bring The Usher back as the Icon? He is the only Icon (so far) that makes since to have with IP's. Really missed having an Icon last year to tie everything together marketing wise. Also, what are we thinking show wise with Bill and Ted gone? AoV is pretty much a sure bet and hopefully they will work on taking down more of the stage if another hurricane hits so they can put on the show they want to and not a rushed replacement. They were still incredible last year and always seem to draw a crowd. With still nothing being done to Fear Factor I'm starting to wonder if we didn't lose Bill and Ted because of the theater being removed but because of the new Bill and Ted movie. Putting AoV there is not a good idea but I wouldn't mind seeing a show like Bill and Ted just without them. The humor and energy of that show was always a nice break from the horror. Finally, the Scarezones better be a LOT better than last year! All but 1 zone where just not good compared to years past. I want zones where the actors can interact and talk with guests. Actor interactions can turn an bad zone around simply by what they say to you.

All this talk of possible house locations has got me thinking. We still don't have a confirmed replacement for T2:3D yet it closed during HHN27. Universal has a pretty good track record of closing something and announcing at least a tiny bit of info on what is going to replace it before or right after. Lots of things are getting tossed around but no solid info yet. What if they are working on a big, permanent house for this location like TWD at Hollywood. The theater, pre-show, queue and backstage areas took up a lot of space. It even had a small outdoor queue which I never knew about until I went to the very last showing ever and was stuck waiting outside. A massive AHS house could be a big hit here. It could include big scenes from all previous seasons along with a "teaser" of the new season that always premiers during the event. They could easily set aside enough empty space in the building to continue adding on to the house each year. Shut it down August 1st and get to work adding in a few new rooms at the end of the house. They already have a lot of props made and a good idea of what scenes worked from the past two houses. With AHS having the biggest line almost ever night for two years in a row, this is something they have to be considering. All the merch at the end of the maze themed to all the different seasons is just another driving force. With a simi-confimred 9 houses this year, a new permanent house would let them boost that number up to 10. Open it on Sept 14th and then when HHN is over, take out a handful of actors just like USH does. Put up warning signs just like USH to let parents know this is not something for young kids.

It's just so disappointing that the event has JUST started and it seems they already scrapped the show i'm sure they spent a lot of time working on. That set was fairly large with the big video wall which I'm sure the whole show's video had already been filmed and edited. I could see them doing a smaller show if Irma hit the last couple weeks of the event but we just started week 2! AoV was a MAJOR hit last year and everybody seemed really excited to have them back. I'm sure they are going to do their best with this smaller stage, but I just wish Universal would have done more for them to get the correct stage set up.

It's looking like a new, much smaller stage is going up today where the old stage was. Sadly it's not looking like we are going to get the Afterlife show AoV wanted to give us. Kinda sad and disappointed that Universal didn't jump on repairing the real stage faster.

Pretty disappointed that it took Universal that long to figure out the stage was damaged beyond basic onsite repair. AoV was a major hit last year. Heck, some people on twitter have even said the short 10 minute show this year is a highlight of the event. During last year's hurricane, they worked during the day to take down and put back up the stage. I don't think any work has been done during the day on the stage since Irma hit, which is just sad and they decided on Wednesday to finally repair it. No way the show is happening this week. Hopefully next weekend.

I saw a picture on Twitter about the Duff Gardens area in Hollywood. They ARE selling alcohol at Hollywood during HHN, however it comes with some STRICT rules which is what was shown in the picture! The ones I can remember off the top of my head are: 1) No speed drinking 2) Valid ID must be shown to ENTER the Gardens and then again when purchasing the drink 3) A STRICT two drink max PER NIGHT 4) Absolutely no sharing even if both people are over the age of 21 5) You are allowed into the area ONCE, must consume your entire drink inside the blocked off area, and leave. No drinks can leave the area and you can't come back later in the night if you want your 2nd drink Honestly I wish they would do something like this with Orlando. I have witnessed my far share of drunk people walking around the park and it really kills your night when your around it. Once had a lady VERY drunk next to me at Bill and Ted that kept standing up and yelling back at the cast. Problem was, she still had a drink in her hand and every time she stood up, people around her (myself included) would get some spilled on us. I'm totally against them making the whole event dry because I like to have a little "liquid courage" to get me through the houses. However, having bar's all over the place makes it WAY to easy for people that don't know their limit to get totally wasted. I feel like a great solution would be wristbands. Have the tents setup outside the gates (like they do for AP night's checkin) and laptop's hooked up to a database. The worker will type in some data (maybe name and last 3 or 4 digits of your ID number) and then give you a wristband. The band will have 2 or 3 boxes on it. When you purchase a drink, they mark off one box. When your boxes are filled, your cut off for the night. Since they have your name and part of your ID number on file, you can't throw away your band and go get another that night.

Hearing incredible things about nearly all of the houses. Quite a few people are having a tough time making a top 5 list because their top 5 could be put in any order because they are all so good. One person said it is the best HHN has been in at least 10 years as far as houses go. Nothing but extreme praise for Dead Waters and it's insane facade that I can't wait to see in person! Blumhouse is the only bad house from basically everybody I have talked with. Said Sinister your in and out of in about 30-40 feet and then Insidious and Purge have some copy/paste rooms from their previous houses. As far as Scarezones go, I am hearing great things about Purge (surprisingly) and Trick'r Treat (mostly just the visual look of it...not so much the scares). Invasion seems to be a let down. Alters of Horror and especially Festival of the Deadliest don't seem finished. Festival had NO props. Simply strange rock music and lights with actors. Even still, the zone is NOTHING like I pictured it and I don't think props will fix that. I was expecting a Festival of the Dead type zone with bright skull masks, neon colors, fun music, etc. Still going to go into the zones with an open mind because of Irma. Hopefully by next weekend (at the latest) things will be in full swing in the zones the way they were intended.

Been hearing on twitter that this is a very scary maze with the claustrophobic elements from Tomb returning and very well hidden actors making it nearly impossible to tell where a scareactor is hiding. One person I read earlier today said they have been going to HHN for years and have never once screamed or walked out of a house shaken up until they went through this maze. Was already looking forward to this and now I am REALLY looking forward to it!

The archway can be done over night since it's nothing complex anymore. There was also not much down the street heading to New York before the storm besides the hanging black strips. Typically that area doesn't get many props because of the parade that still happens daily. Whatever props they do put out, get placed during the hour(ish) long downtime after park close but before HHN opens. With it being a total selfie zone (why do you feel like killing your actors eyes universal?!?!) I can't see many props at all. I see it being just a giant mess of actors with guests chasing them down for a picture.

However, this is (apparently) the last movie of the series. Would be kinda silly to open a new show based on the series that had it's last movie release 2 years before the live show opened. Just can't see it being a thing Universal would think would work in the parks. Now, back to HHN discussion, I am so happy the pumpkins and corn made it!!! Was really worried about both. With the amount of movement the tree branches had I figured all the pumpkins would be gone. I wonder if all the lighting inside them still works? Hearing conflicting reports about employee preview tomorrow night. Anybody hear anything official?

Glad to hear everybody is doing well! Glad that the resort made it through the storm with minor damage. I'm sure they are already hard at work at getting everything set back up for HHN right now. I'm interested to know how the pumpkins in the trees fared. Any word on if the employee preview will still happen on Wednesday night?

I'm thinking this might be the case as well. A Dark Universe walk though experience that they can amp up during HHN. They could even use it as a "Live Trailer" in a way. If they plan it right, they can set aside a decent portion of the building for expansion and work on construction of new ares based on upcoming films at night while still keeping the experience open to day guests and then come opening night of HHN, they can open up the new area of the house based on an upcoming Dark Universe film.

Seeing on Twitter that a lot of elements in the streets have been removed already for the Hurricane. The tattered cloth between Minions and Shrek is gone. Everything but the pumpkins and the front doors are gone in Trick R' Treat (elements on and around the front doors are gone). The cloth behind the spaceship that was hiding the construction of F&F has been removed. The AOV stage started having it's lighting removed and will be lowered. Small parts of Purge have been removed. I'm also thinking that some house facades have had some things removed (like the projector at Blumhouse and probably the corn stalks) but we just can't see them. I'm expecting quite a few more things to come down in the next few days. Rock the Universe has been canceled on Saturday and the concerts on the AOV stage are being moved into a soundstage.

A "all-new live action experience" is an interesting choice of words. It doesn't say show. A year round haunt is very much a "live action experience". Going to be really interesting to see what they do.

I'm sure once RTU is over (if it even happens with the weather) and the streets get back to normal, the talk will shift back to HHN. For now, everybody should be focused on getting ready for Irma. As somebody who just made it through Harvey but is still having a hard time finding grocery items almost a week later, you need to get prepared now before it's too late! Nobody ever expected the forecast of TWO YEARS worth of rain falling in 5 days could ever happen...but it did and it was awful. Today was the first day it rained since Harvey and I was terrified. It's going to be awhile before I am ok with small rainstorms again. The almost daily rainstorms that FL gets are going to be interesting for me considering I head down in 3 weeks. With one of the largest Hurricanes in recorded history barreling towards Florida, things like HHN have to get put on hold. If you live in Florida, please stay safe and stock up on food, water and gas before it's to late!

All of the house locations, with the exception of Blumhouse, have been through a storm in the past. Blumhouse is a temporary tent, so i'm not sure what the state laws are regarding buildings of that nature. House flooding has happened in the past so i'm sure they will get them prepared with a lot of sandbags! Most of the outdoor stuff will be removed if a direct hit will happen. Last year they worked at lighting speeds to take down all the major elements before a much smaller storm was approaching. The entire AoV/Rock the Universe stage was lowered to the ground. With Rock the Universe this weekend, it's going to be to very interesting. I'm sure Universal is watching the weather VERY closely because come Thursday or Friday, RTU might get canceled and all the stages will have to get removed ASAP. Granted, it's been a VERY long time since a Cat. 5 has hit the US so if Irma doesn't decrease and decides really go after Orlando, who knows what will really happen. You can build things to withstand 180+ MPH winds but toss in other conditions and you just never know. All the teams at Universal have their work cut out for them the next few days for sure!

It's going to be interesting for sure! I remember last year they even took down most of the AoV stage with the last hurricane threat. Considering Rock the Universe is this weekend, I am interested to see what they do. I'm sure Universal is watching this storm VERY closely. Just have to wonder if they cancel Rock the Universe, I wonder if/when they would reschedule it. As someone who lives in Houston and has felt the wrath of a major storm that WAY overstayed it welcome less than 10 days ago, please get prepared if you live anywhere in it's path! Gas, food and water where SO hard to come by for days after the storm. Was at the grocery store today and still some shelves are bare.