MGregorio594

I'm curious how they will handle the remainder of the announcements this year. In early/mid-August of last year, Universal uploaded a singular, less than one minute YouTube video, see below, announcing the five scare zones, remaining five original houses (Icons got its own reveal on 8/5/2021), and two shows (Nightmare Fuel and MoM weren't titled, there was just a statement that there'd be two shows). The merch and food & drinks didn't receive announcements at all last year. Universal did put up a video of a walkthrough of the tribute store in late August that showed merch on the shelves, but it wasn't an announcement. The food & drink menus were being displayed on the tent and bar fronts a few weeks before the event began, but again, there wasn't a formal announcement. 2018 is personally my favorite year, not only because it was a tremendous event with some of the best houses Universal's ever put up, but the way Universal built to it. We got our first announcement which was Stranger Things, accompanied by an epic trailer, more than five months before opening night. Then we got the Dead Exposure: Patient Zero trailer and announcement later in April, followed by Trick r' Treat in mid-May. The remainder of the announcements were spread out through August fairly evenly. Almost each announcement was on a Thursday and was associated with a trailer and blog post that provided details on what would be within the house, and it made it feel more special. The scare zones got their own blog post, as well as the food & drinks and merch. To top it all off, we got the below hour long video about a month before opening night of the Horror Nights team discussing the years event. This year, just like last, is going to be dominated by originals, so it is odd that Universal is treating them as throwaways in their announcements. The title of the video below doesn't even let the viewer know it is an announcement. Going back to a few years ago where each house and the scare zones would get their own announcements, it made everything feel more important and bigger. Uploading a video announcing so much stuff, and not even stating its an announcement makes me scratch my head. Hopefully Universal gives the originals, scare zones, shows, food & drinks, and merch their own announcements that lend more to years in the past in the coming weeks, but I fear we will see something like the below.

To clarify, this post is not aimed at anyone on this forum, as the comments I've seen on here have been mostly positive. It's aimed at other sites/Twitter.

This 1000% percent. It is extremely disappointing the way that people are viewing the addition of this house to the event. I fully respect that people have different tastes in music and The Weeknd doesn't produce their preferred flavor. On a personal level, I'm just a casual listener of his music. I think he has some good music and I've got a few of his mainstream songs in my Apple Music library, but that's the extent to it. I have yet to dig into his music videos, but I gather that he implements a lot of horror themes into them. That being said, I don't know what to expect going into this house, but I trust that Universal will provide casual guests, diehard HHN fans, and The Weeknd fans with a great house, as they usually do. The issue I have with the people who are so against this is that they clearly don't trust the creative team. I can't stand to see all the whining and bitching about something that they haven't even seen yet. Like you said, assuming it's widely revered, this house may usher in a new era of music related houses based off artists that die hard fans are more fond of. This house is going to bring in A LOT of people who have never come to the event, likely Stranger Things level of new attendees, so the house is going to have to deliver. I have full faith in Universal that they will come up with an excellent house that will surprise a lot of people. The event is only being "ruined" by a mere 10% on a house level. There will be nine other houses to enjoy (or hate based on the comments I've seen, since no one can enjoy anything it seems) plus five scare zones, two shows, and six rides that people can go on to avoid this one house. The hilarious thing to me is the people who are saying they're appalled that Universal would implement this into the event and are going to boycott this year are NO DOUBT still going to come and walk through this house. Bringing a little bit of change to the ever evolving event that is HHN every year is only good both for Universal and us as consumers. This has to be looked at with a business perspective. More people at the event means more money in Universal's pocket. More money in their pocket means more detailed houses, scare zones, shows, etc. in future years to invest in. More detailed houses, scare zones, shows, etc. means happier fans like us. What's so hard to comprehend about this? Universal is a business and they're going to rake in A LOT of cash because of this house. Why wouldn't they collaborate with this mega icon? In regards to your comment on The Weeknd's popularity and value, I looked at two posts from yesterday. The Weeknd house announcement post on HHN Orlando's Instagram sits at a little under 40K likes. The Weeknd's Instagram post of the house announcement sits at 1.6M likes. Does anything more need to be said about how HUGE this is for Universal, and, again, how it will only bring good to the event in upcoming years? The attitude people have towards this house is not warranted or necessary. The same team who are working on this house worked on Wicked Growth, Scarecrow, and *insert your favorite house here*. Quit the moaning and complaining, have some faith, and give The Weeknd house a chance before you completely dismiss it, y'all who are enraged over this.

Unfortunately, I think masks indoors and plexiglass scares are inevitable. And I agree, I don't think the event will be cancelled. In fact, I'm 100% certain the event won't be cancelled. However, I could see major issues with running the event because of a lack of healthy, unvaccinated employees, come the second week through the end of HHN (in the event of a hypothetical spread of the virus opening weekend amongst Universal workers). The major thing is keeping the scareactors and other Universal team members safe/able to work. Let's take a trip a few miles down I-4 to Disney, where they're pushing a requirement to be vaccinated in order to obtain a job/continue working for the company, or they won't be hired/will be terminated. Another massive corporation, Walmart, is doing the same. Why is that? It's, of course, to keep their workers safe, but, ultimately, it's to make sure they don't get sick and that they keep coming into work, which, in turn, helps them avoid any potential shutdowns and to continue making dough. Universal hasn't taken this step yet, but I can see them making it a requirement at some point, because of the insane amount of cases in the state and overflow of patients in the hospitals. You have to imagine some of Universal's unvaccinated team members are a part of these statistics due to the amount of exposure they undergo at the parks (if anyone has any internal information on this, I'd love to know). I'm mentioning unvaccinated people again because the ones who are vaccinated aren't the ones getting sick. An effective way to continue with the event and avoid staff shortages/people being out sick after opening weekend, even though it will suck and limit the potential of the event and scareactors, would be to re-enforce guests to wear masks in all indoor locations and have a plexiglass divider between the scareactor and the guest. As someone who is vaccinated, no part of me wants that to be the case. But, the success of the event is more important to me than having to wear my mask in indoor settings. Also, I didn't attend HHN Lite last year, but I'm sure scares are still pretty effective behind plexiglass. Universal makes it entirely clear that they can't guarantee you won't get sick at the parks, and you accept the risk yourself by coming. They want to continue operating their business and make as much money as possible, so I don't think there's a chance they hold back on executing their most profitable event of the year. Since people are willing to attend, despite the risks, they may not do anything at all and keep the event maskless and at 100% capacity. But, the photos that are being posted of scarezone construction suggests there are going to be a lot of platforms this year, which I expect means not many scareactors, if any, will be getting up in guests faces in the streets. I'm not sure if there is an overall point I am trying to make in my essay above lol but tomorrow we will be one month away from opening night, and I am confident Universal will put on an incredible event, despite any limitations they have to implement to keep their employees safe.

From the HHN Orlando Twitter page. Interesting post. "As we infest your phone, your computer, and your brain with years' worth of HHN content". Maybe it's like a DVD/Blu-Ray collection of house and scarezone walkthroughs from previous years with behind the scenes footage available in the tribute store? There was a rumor we would get behind the scenes stuff from HHN 30 this year on Peacock, maybe they will also add it on there? Total speculation, not a clue what this could possibly mean.

Does anyone have any predictions for the third room of the tribute store? My thoughts are: Old props from past events like they have in Williams of Hollywood. That screen printing machine they've had the past two years that you can get a shirt based off past years logos. They have the retro merch from 91, 92, 99, and 2000, so why not have the screen printing machine there so they can print other past logos from any of the 29 HHNs by request? This in turn would save them money instead of buying bulk shirts of every single year and not selling them all. IP Merch - Billie Eilish, Beetlejuice, Haunting of Hill House, and Texas Chainsaw stuff. With the uncertainty of Universal being able to use these properties next year, they likely already purchased a lot of merch for these properties and have to get rid of it. Who knows if Billie Eilish will be as popular as she is this time next year, or if Haunting of Hill House will be relevant still if their second season flops. Any of these four properties could sell merch really well by themselves. Not saying any of this stuff will be in the next room, just theorizing and wanted to gauge peoples thoughts.

So very upsetting, yet absolutely the right move by the company. Imagining the event in this COVID world wouldn't of been the same anyway. Clearly Universal waited this long to come out with an announcement because they were working their hardest to make this happen, but finally came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be possible and the backlash of the continual growing cases in the state of Florida would not be worth it for the reputation of the company. It would of been disastrous. The impact of this virus has to be MURDERING Universal. The fact that HHN isn't happening is going to be yet another massive financial set back for them, on top of stopping Mardi Gras early and shutting down the parks for over two months. To the team members, scareactors, etc. who were working to make this year happen through all this, we thank you and look forward to the next time we can walk through the fog. Also, those who are saying it will be HHN 31, the next time the event is held it will still be HHN 30 / 30th anniversary year considering the event never took place, right? Plus, and I'm just getting my hopes up, they didn't say we will see you next September, they said see you in 2021. HHN 30 in January lol?

They very much could just keep it to retro shirts. Last year they had the three massive rooms for merch, so maybe they just use one room and lead people in a one-way direction kind of thing to leave without seeing the rest of the sections of the tribute shop. However, I still think they are going to reveal everything tomorrow. As many have mentioned, we are nearing very close to the event and if people start seeing what's going to be at the event this year, they will be more inclined to buy tickets now and plan out their travel. Speaking of travel, I have unfortunately opted out of this year like others on the forum. I am up in Connecticut and I think the risk of contracting rona' at the event, which has to be extremely likely, out weighs the reward of going to the event. It breaks my heart to not be coming, but I believe it is the right choice. Thank God we live in a digital age where we can all watch walkthroughs on YouTube and see the reports on everything through this forum and other social media platforms. It doesn't compare to actually going, but it will help with the FOMO lol. Regarding the event, does anyone have past data on the demographic of people who come from out of state vs Florida residents who come? I'm just curious, as the tri-state area has a 31 state travel ban where you have to quarantine for 14 days after you return from traveling to those places and, obviously, Florida is on that list. I question how many people make up the events revenue from outside of Florida. There are plenty of people that come from different countries that won't be able to come and others that live in NY/NJ/CT that don't have the choice of missing work for 14 days after a trip. I'd love to know what the numbers are and how much money HHN won't make off those people if someone's got it. The amount of money they pour into the event and the return they won't see from the scenarios above and even locals who are fearful of attending due to the virus must be pretty substantial.

With the buy one get one ticket sale ending today, tomorrow and Friday likely look like this: Thursday, July 23rd, 2020 - Entirety of event is announced on the Universal Orlando blog or in some form of video. Reason I say this is because... Friday, July 24th, 2020 - "Team members outside of the #HHN30 Tribute Store are telling guests it will open on Friday." (from the Orlando Informer Twitter page posted around 10am this morning) Not to say that this is 100% true, but Orlando Informer is a very reliable Universal source. If the store does open on Friday, they are going to have to announce what the houses, shows, and scarezones are tomorrow, as they won't be able to hide anything anymore. How can Universal allow guests to walk into the store and see Beetlejuice and Billie Eilish shirts and other merch all over the place without spilling the details on what will be at the event?

Not per say. All of these guidelines can make for an interesting dynamic for this year and allow Universal to do things they have never done before. I am trying to look at things positively. It will certainly be the most unique event we've ever seen and I'm excited to see how it unfolds / what the event will be like this year.

Lol. I don't know, I almost want to attend this shit show of an HHN. I really don't think there's anything they can do for me to not attend. It wouldn't be content wise, at least. It would be more about changes made due to the people who come to the event and if they want to make even more money than they already do. If they banned alcohol all together, which I doubt they ever would, because people don't know how to hold their liquor and all of the past issues and incidents they've had because of it, it would take away so much from the event. That's a big reason I go. If they got rid of multi night passes that would be a huge one. My wife performed for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party this year and they only sell single night passes. It cost me at the least $110 a night to go, and the prices varied on the day. I only went twice to see her due to the pricing. Imagine having to pay over a hundred bucks a night to go to HHN only once, not including express? I don't see either of the two instances above ever happening, but that would be my biggies for not attending. Even still, I would just pre-game and go less because of the price of admission. I would still definitely attend, it would just be less so.

It's crazy that there is going to be less nights for 30 than there was for 29. I wonder what they do with their ratio of IPs to Originals for 30. We just saw 6 IPs and 4 Originals for 29. What are the odds they do more originals than IPs for 30? I think it's extremely low, but from Universal's quote: “re-imagined haunts inspired by the past”, they may go heavy on the originals. It's just hard to believe since the event relies on the IPs to draw the masses in. In terms of bringing people in, unless Universal acquires the rights to It, this may be a slow year. Not slow, but the event will definitely see less people than the last couple years. ST4 is probably going to come out after 30 and I doubt they do a Stranger Things mashup house or strictly season 3 house next year. They almost have to get It. No current horror property other than It is big enough to bring in the amount of people that Stranger Things did. I believe this was Universal's plan all along, though. They knew that once there wasn't material to work with with Stranger Things that not as many people would show up. However, they got so many people to buy tickets to 28 and 29 and those people enjoyed everything else HHN has to offer, so now those people will return to the event no matter what IPs they have just based on how good the houses and scarezones are. But they still do need a big IP to back the event and, again, It really is the only true horror draw of the past couple years other than Stranger Things. Gotta see how Dr. Sleep does in the box office and if they bring Haunting of Hill House or something else that people really enjoyed. Either way, those two properties aren't nearly as big as It or Stranger Things. 30 will be an interesting year that may cater more to the diehards than the masses, which is an awesome thing. But that's not how a massive corporation like Universal works. They strictly care about selling tickets and boosting attendance numbers. They don't care about old money, they want the money of those who've never been yet to add to their dough from the old money they know they'll get year after year. That's why they're probably doing everything they can, if they haven't already, gotten the rights for It and are going to bring back big names like Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, and Chucky. Excited to see what this coming year of speculation and announcements bring!

Wanted to get a discussion going here concerning what people define as "scary" nowadays. A big sum of people have been mentioning that this year is "off" and not "scary". What exactly does this mean? Please educate me on what the whole "not scary" comment means. IP houses are known for not being as "scary" as the originals due to people knowing the content they are going to see. Originals, however, people don't know what they are getting in to. That is, on their first walk through. Is it that the event is getting less "scary" or is it, in my opinion, more of a conditioning of going to the event year after year? I was absolutely horrified my first year at Horror Nights because I had never gone before or been through a haunted house / walked through scare zones. Since then, I've gone four years in a row. Granted, the event is not nearly as "scary" as my first year, but that is merely due to the fact that I'm conditioned to know what to expect with the atmosphere of the park as well as what to expect inside a house / scare zone. The "scariest" moments at HHN are your first night visiting for the year. If you didn't see any spoilers / watch videos on walk throughs / etc., how can you not be somewhat afraid considering you don't know what Universal has conjured up inside? Maybe it's not "scary" to people anymore because they've walked through the gates of USF a million times for a replica of the event they go to every year, just with different costumes and themes. Dead Exposure Patient Zero from HHN 28 was probably the scariest house I went through since I started going back in 2016. Now I'll preface this with saying the first time I went through, it was the scariest house I've gone through at HHN. After that first time, though, I knew exactly what was going to happen. How can people expect something to remain scary once they've done it before? I believe any walk through of a house has an unnerving feeling no matter how many times you go through it. I still find them scary no matter the amount of times I got through, I just am more keen to what is up ahead. HHN houses / scare zones / horror movies in general are only as scary as that first jump scare you get. After that, if you go through / watch again, it won't get you or be as "scary". I'm sure everyone on this forum has seen the original Halloween. Watch it again and tell me it is just as scary as that original time you watched it. Obviously, that's not going to happen because you know what's going to occur. On top of that, again, it has to do with conditioning. Going to the event year after year, you know how Universal works their haunted houses. Large sets, triggers with loud sounds accompanied by a jump scare, flashing lights, tight hallways, and the list goes on. They do different themes each year with completely different IP's and original content, but their system of how haunted houses and even scare zones are run remain pretty much the same. Go through Tomb of Ancients, Scarecrow, Dead Exposure, and then Nightingales. That can't be done of course since they all took place over different years but they share the similarity of being the "scariest" (this can be debated) house of their respective year. Why? They are located in the same exact tent year after year. This is the location Universal clearly goes in on attempting to make the "scariest" house. So what is it then? Is it the content that isn't scary to people? Is it that they are making the event too teen friendly? Or is it too much of the same thing and knowing what is coming around each corner? Please give examples of something you would find scary if HHN did in a house or street that you would find horrifying every single time you saw it. Just trying to get a grasp on what the true reason people don't think the event is "scary" anymore. Sound off...

Stranger Things or Ghostbusters

So Hurricane Dorian looks really concerning now not only for Puerto Rico but for Florida as well. From the charts, it's looking like it will hit the coast by Monday, September 9th at 110 MPH. I don't know much about hurricanes, but I would imagine they would want to play it safe and cancel Sunday the 8th to take a lot of the props to the back to protect them and such? I'd also think the Orlando area would start seeing an increase in wind speeds and some rain Sunday night. Again, I'm no meteorologist, but these are just my thoughts and what appears may sadly be the case. Any one hear any rumblings on this or have any stories on how the parks handled a hit from a hurricane in years past?