Dog67

You have your opinion. I have mine. We will agree to disagree. I think the release this morning was garbage and explained why. Your passionate defence of Mike is comical. Cheers.

Lol Creative "DIRECTOR" = executive position = corporate. Come on. Has no control over interviews .... laughable. Seriously. To suggest creative and marketing are two unrelated entities is patently absurd. Yeah I know it's fun to pit one against the other but it's inaccurate. They may do a terrible job of working together, but they work together. Aiello does a European tour that revolves partially around marketing.

This is gong to ruffle some feathers, but whatever. The USA Today is a rag newspaper. Total garbage. But it has circulation far beyond the Universal Twitter account or website (lol !). If there was any question this is event is targeted at the masses as opposed to hardcore fans see above. They are ok with the USA Today scooping their own marketing. I actually feel sorry for them. I know a lot of you worship at the altar of Aiello, but he is corporate now. Heavy on the mass media and $$$, while light on creativity. So so brace yourself for more IPs, less creativity, more selfie stages, less horror, more 3D sh$t houses and whatever the flavour of the day is.

Agree 100% on the front facing camera! I don't care how old it makes me sound. I have two teenage daughters and they spend more time at events trying to get the perfect picture to post on instagram etc than they do enjoying the event. Their friends are the same. It doesn't matter where we are (family event, sporting event, outdoors) - it's not about the experience rather it's about capturing something fake, something made up, something disingenuous to show you had a great time. It's sad to me ... I'm going to stop but what a fu$$ing brain rot those cameras are. Edit - so don't be too upset about Altars. Have a look at the detailed costumes and then move on. It will be a good distraction for the self absorbed selfie generation and keep wait times down elsewhere.

Oh yeah. My wallet will be Universal's for a couple of weeks. I was already excited for The Shining. I mean, I can't wait to see what they do with this. Can't wait to see what they do with my fav season of AHS (Asylum - I know it doesn't fit but a scene from the name game and I would die on the spot). I don't care what anyone says the anthology was extremely well done last year and faithful to the content. I have become an Ash vs Evil Dead fan the last couple of weeks - what a great tv series! A nice combo of gore and humour and easy to watch with 1/2 hour episodes. I might be MORE excited for the scare zones though. I may have to spend an evening in SanFran. We area 1 month out. Can't wait. An excellent week for marketing. I'm pumped.

I guess I'm in the minority, but B&T was funny in 1990 and I'm more than ok with it being turfed. Went last year - was meh, simply ok. In no way memorable. A break, chance to sit down. In fact this was the only thing along with chance that I didn't enjoy last year. AoV totally destroyed B&T and im guessing by the crowds lots of other paying customers felt the same. Looking forward to the replacement and I hope to never see it again at HHN.

My bad, didn't realize he deleted it. Regardless, they get something tangible on a regular basis from Murdy. Personally the poor marketing doesn't impact my decision to go as I still think the event is awesome. Besides, I'm not local and it is a vacation where I will do other things ... However, for myself the anticipation and buildup is part of the event. They are missing out. Imagine a big IP or original push in July with some pre-event merchandising. There are so many opportunities to engage their fans and make more $$$.

Lol. I don't think Murdy does much by accident. Exhibit "A" above. Hollywood marketing vs Orlando. Men vs boys. Sad. Hollywood still gets a nice trickle of info, tweets etc from Murdy. Orlando gets a twitter account being run by a 12 yr old whose imagination doesn't go beyond trolling it's subscriber base with the same tweets over and over. Pathetic. I actually wonder if they didn't give the Orlando twitter to an executive's kid as a summer job or internship. Any who ,,, I would leave that as a gap,in the resume. i still think the event will be awesome thanks to creative, design, sound, actors etc. It's too bad they suck balls at marketing.

Re Fallon. Normally I'm really excited about a new attraction. Right from the get go this sounded like a huge turd. I hope this isn't the kind of shameless corporate cross branding universal is going to push for the next decade. If so the mouse will put its foot on the darkside. It's only one ride .... but what a total POS. Now back to HHN ..... Was really skeptical re Ash vs Evil Dead, but it prompted me to watch the first season. If they can capture the blood, gore and humour it could be an epic house. Tons of source material. I like a good laugh. Really looking forward to this house. If you haven't watched the tv series, do it, do it now!

On the bright side there is more to look forward to in the next few weeks. It will all get announced. I'm going regardless and plan on having a great time. Would like Ike to see marketing that connects more with fans, but personally I think the marketing has nothing to do with the quality of the event. I will occupy myself further by finishing season 2 of Ash vs Evil Dead and other movies.

I would like to think its poor marketing. I've only been once but IMO this event has always had poor marketing. It started as a local haunt and exploded over nearly three decades to what it is today. They don't use social media to engage their fans, and IMO Universal is poor across the board with their social media. Having said that, given your options I would rather it be lousy marketing. Losing one IP is fine, but at some point they need time to work with design and sound to get these houses built. Like anything else if it is rushed it will suck. Everything will be off. Looking forward to the originals. The IP selection this year, unless something changes, ....... meh. Universal has been too busy with Volcano, Jimmy Fallon, Nintendo, new hotel ... they are going to lay an egg this year with some of you that have been going for years.

I see the Orlando HHN twitter has taken to tweeting links to selling tickets and various extras such as the unmasking tour etc. Really? That's the best they can come up with? I'm not sure what's worse that (a) the people running their Twitter are totally oblivious to the fact that their followers are likely NOT casual fans ... or (b) they are trolling their hardcore fans. I hope it's option b with an announcement around the corner but I fear it's option a. I went for the first time last year and loved it. Booked way ahead of time this year. I plan to have a great time regardless but am dismayed with how poorly a media giant would handle their marketing and social media. Seems like a missed opportunity to engage and retain fans ... but hey, at least there is a social media pyramid scheme in place.

Thanks for the replies - appreciate it!

What time can I expect to be done the unmasking tour in the afternoon (doing the combo tour). I am hoping there will be time to get back into the park before it closes at 5 so I can get to one of the holding pens. Thanks! And yes, I have a regular ticket for the park - have a day left on a multi day.