MGregorio594

This will be my third year but every time I've gone my group and I do stay and scream or get there after the gates have already opened. That's why I'm wondering, though, if it's any different the opening night compared to any other night. Is it worth it to do it the first night where it will be one of the busiest nights or wait at the gates another night when it will be less busy if it's no different?

I'm trying to figure out my game plan for opening night. Is the opening scaremony at the gates worth getting there early for and waiting? Or is it better to just do stay and scream and get into the houses early? Is there a difference between the opening night scaremonies and any other night they open the gates or is it the same?

I must've read over the "over" part. I don't get how they're gonna do another Blumhouse house, though. What do any of their movies have to do with the 80's? In fact, what year exactly is Trick r' Treat supposed to take place? Maybe the flashback to the kids on the bus scene is from the 80's, but I'm not really sure.

First off, I guess there isn't going to be an announcement today... Second, if 80% of the map is correct, two houses of the 10 are incorrect. I'll assume Blumhouse and one of the originals aren't true.

So it's safe to say we are going to see an announcement today... If we do, and they keep it consistent until HHN actually starts, we should receive announcements today, the 9th, the 16th, 23rd, 30th, and 6th of September. That's 6 different announcements, enough for the remaining 5 houses and one, most likely, for merch/food/drink options. For the next 5 weeks, I'd imagine they are going to do IP, original, IP, original, IP. Poltergeist, a Halloween house, and the two originals I can see happening, but, from the speculation map, I'm not convinced we are getting a Blumhouse house. Happy Death Day, Get Out, Split, and pretty much any other movie they've made isn't based in the 80's (correct me if I'm wrong and they've got movies based in the 80's). Does anyone have any other ideas/heard any rumors about a different IP house? Or is Blumhouse a lock?

Sorry for going off topic of HHN speculation, but... I don't think it needs replacing either, I love everything about the Lost Continent and hope it never gets re-themed. But the fact that it's the only land in IOA that isn't based on an IP and doesn't have any rides (there's Poseidon and Sinbad but they are shows and can be easily re-themed), it's the most likely island Universal will change for something else. I still consider Volcano Bay the 3rd gate because that's how Universal bills it. My knowledge on Disney isn't all that great, but I don't believe they consider Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon theme parks. They are just called water parks. Universal calls Volcano Bay a water theme park and dubs it their 3rd park. I agree that it isn't technically their third gate since it's a water park, but that's how they categorize it.

Does anyone think they will do stay and scream the opening night of HHN? Do they usually or is it just the opening "scaremonies" at the front gate then everyone is let in?

While I agree with you that Orlando's newer attractions aren't all that impressive, I think creative does a great job at being creative where they can be. I'm not a big fan of Kong and F&F. They are obviously just Hollywood rip offs with very very little added to the ride experience. They didn't have to spend any money into planning out a new attraction, though. So why would the big wigs at Universal decide to throw millions upon millions into something new when they could just use blueprints or whatever they use to build rides that they already have? They are based on extremely popular IPs that will bring in crowds no matter how good the ride is which is why they built these rides. Creative did create insanely immersive and detailed queues that Hollywood doesn't have, however. Fallon is a mediocre ride at best but the queue, again, is the most impressive part. Universal excels with creativity most when it comes to immersion. No matter what the ride experience is, the ride itself can even suck, the attractions at Universal put you into a certain environment. Same goes for anything at HHN. Last year Saw kind of sucked, yet, it can't be said that they weren't creative by pretty much replicating scenes from the movie that made you feel like you were apart of it. Kong has a wow factor on the exterior and a scare actor in the queue, Fallon is practically a full museum, and F&F has a very cool showcase of cars and movie references. Again, I agree with you that creative didn't go all in on these, but they definitely did with the other aspects of the entire ride experience. I haven't seen the new lagoon show either, but from what I've seen from pictures and videos, it looks like they put a lot of time and effort into making it an impressive night time show with water screens, pyro, fog, and lasers. Some of the fountains shoot upwards of like 140 feet, I believe, which I'm sure is amazing to see in person. There are scenes from current movies that are relevant and also throwbacks to movies in the past. Having Potter stuff in the show is probably the most noteworthy of all the IPs considering it isn't a Universal property. I'm sure you're right that the Simpsons weren't used because of Disney most likely getting Fox soon. In terms of being creative, I guess Universal could have done more. But still, it seems like a nice way to cap off a day at Universal. I am doubtful they will run the show during Horror Nights this year since, to your point, they don't stay open past 7 on nights Horror Nights isn't running. You make a good point that the 80's theme is literally this years icon. AOV, assuming it is going to be in Fear Factor this year, will definitely have less crowd participation. But who knows, maybe they can have an area blocked off for people to stand near the stage for them to dance and what not. AOV worked with a lot less space these past two years than they will have with the FF stage. Maybe they can compromise some of the space towards the front for standing room? You missed a new experience that they added late last year which was the Harry Potter nighttime show at IOA. Mike Aiello worked on this and the lagoon show and he's the brain child / creative genius behind a lot of the aspects of what makes HHN so great. He obviously puts his heart and soul into whatever he works on and I think it shows in whatever he has had his hands on. With the new Potter coaster next year, Nintendo Land, replacements to older rides/lands like Shrek, Terminator, KidZone, and Lost Continent coming someday, the eventual 4th gate, and years of HHN to come, I'm positive creative will redeem themselves for just replicating rides at their other park on the west coast.

Would they really announce another house already, though? They only announced Dead Exposure last week, feel like it's kind of soon for something else.

https://blog.universalorlando.com/visiting-us/dates-and-ticket-offer-hhn2018/ https://orlando.halloweenhorrornights.com/hhn-news.php For reference.

Or they'll just skip over HHN entirely......: https://blog.universalorlando.com/visiting-us/universal-holidays-2018/

Okay, so Universal just announced dates and the lineup for Rock the Universe, the Christian concert event they do every year right before HHN, for this year which is the weekend before the supposed starting date of September 14th: https://blog.universalorlando.com/whats-new/rtu-talent-announcement-2018/ Last year they did this announcement on March 27th: https://blog.universalorlando.com/whats-new/rock-the-universe-2017/ So the announcement for this is earlier than last year. March 27th of last year the Rock the Universe announcement was made. My original post for this thread was about AHS being announced on March 29th of last year. That's a two day period that they waited. They might just give us our first announcement by Wednesday or by the end of the week, is my prediction.

Then again if people are all going to Diagon Alley to see Death Eater's in the streets, it would clear up some other areas. If Diagon is a scare zone then they can take away a scare zone in, say, San Fransisco and have that be a safe haven where people can look out over the lagoon and grab a drink and such.

Well just like any business, all Universal is concerned about is what is going to be more profitable lol. In AHS last year, Roanoake and Coven were so condensed compared to Asylum. I don't want the IT house, if they make it a mega house with part 1 and part 2 in 2019, to be 80% the first movie and 20% the second. There's enough to work with to make two separate houses and it gives us something to look forward to the following year instead of getting everything all at once.

I'd like to see two houses of IT. One house would be a little too jam packed with all the content they could use. The new IT film alone has enough material they could make two houses. They're going to make a lot more money if they have Part 1 this year and Part 2 next year.

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/03/05/everything-we-know-so-far-about-halloween-horror-nights-28 Looks like the writer of this artice was reading this forum lol

To answer in short, hell no. I only started going to HHN for 26 and that year the tents that served drinks had fully stocked bars. You could get whatever kind of mixed drink you'd like and shots. 27, though, the tents were only were serving beer, wine, and the signature drinks in the souvenir cups. Finnegan's and Chez Alcatraz still had their full bars open, however. Having less access around the parks to liquor is definitely helpful for Universal because of those who act like f'ing maniacs when they drink. They can continue to limit what you can get but they would NEVER stop serving alcohol during HHN. They charge about 10 bucks for a beer, more when you get the souvenir cup, I'd imagine about the same for wine, and 15+ dollars for one of the signature drinks. They make a fortune off drinks. They would suffer dramatically if they didn't sell booze all together. Moving forward maybe they'll only serve beer, wine, and the signature drink at Finnegans and Chez too but I doubt it.

I'm not sure if you're asking if HHN would take place in just IOA again or in both IOA and Studios. If you're asking if it'll be in just Islands again, I highly doubt it. If you're asking if HHN will take place in both parks, however, I can totally see it happening this year. If Nintendo Land construction starts before September where KidZone currently is, then they need to find a new spot for a ninth house. Last year you had to walk through KidZone to get to Ash vs Evil Dead, so they most likely would have that whole section blocked off for construction. I am also newer to HHN, so I'm not sure they have any other place in Studios they can put a house in that they aren't already using. Bill and Ted used to take place in Fear Factor Live but there's also been rumors in the past that the reason they aren't coming back is because they are getting rid of Fear Factor for something else. Bill and Ted was a huge people eater and would free up the streets/houses but if it's not there anymore for another show, the crowds are gonna be even more ridiculous than they already are. I think it makes a lot of sense to split up the houses to both parks this year. Maybe put IT in Studios and Stranger Things in Islands and then put four of the other houses in Studios and the remaining three in Islands to make the crowds a little more bearable and spread out. Doing this would mean there would have to be even more scare zones too and they could even go up to 10 houses, putting five in both parks just to keep it even. Then that means they could charge even more for tickets since they'll have to also keep some rides in IOA open and they could start selling one park or park hopper passes for the event because there would be two totally different experiences in each park. There are rumors going around, though, that they might just put Nintendo Land into Universal's fourth gate so KidZone may be safe for now and they'll have the room to put nine houses in Studios. I'm just rambling at this point, but yeah, HHN could quite possibly be at Islands and Studios this year. As the event continues to grow and get more popular each and every year, eventually they are going to have to split it up into both parks.

Yeah, that's a hard one. I would love to see all of these as houses, but at the same time I would be fine if they scrapped one or two so there could be more than just two originals (assuming they are doing 9 houses like years prior). Because we just got it last year in it's scare zone, I would be fine with Trick 'r Treat not being a house this year and saving it for a year in the future. Contrary to popular opinion, I enjoyed AHS Cult, but I would also be fine with them holding off on that for a mashup house at HHN 30 with seasons 8 and 9. I like the mix of 5 IP's and 4 originals and the five remaining IP's will be more than enough to draw in crowds.

I took a look back at Universal's Blog page and researched when the first house announcements were made for the past two HHN's... It looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the first house announced for HHN 26 on April 14th, 2016: https://blog.universalorlando.com/whats-new/texas-chainsaw-hhn-26/ and American Horror Story Volume 2 was the first house announced for HHN 27 on March 29th, 2017: https://blog.universalorlando.com/whats-new/hhn27-american-horror-story/ So with that, can we assume that we will learn what the first house is going to be by next month or even sooner? If the trend follows, they may announce the first house by mid-March, possibly early March. I'm leaning more towards early March, but who knows. With It and Stranger Things being so heavily rumored and desired by guests, it makes sense for them to announce one of these, if not both, as soon as possible so people can begin planning their trips now. If both are mazes, they are going to draw in so many people. You would imagine Universal would make these announcements earlier than usual to get the hype train going. I am unsure when the dates for the event were announced for 26 and 27, but from what I found, TCM and AHS2 were the first announcements made overall for their respective years. Sound off on when you think Universal is going to make their first announcement/house announcement concerning HHN 28.

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting on Horror Night Nightmares. I just recently discovered the site and have thoroughly enjoyed reading the content and other people's reviews on this years and past years of Halloween Horror Nights. Last year was my first HHN and I fell in love with the event. I visited HHN27 three times this year, October 1st, 4th, and 5th. In my review, when it comes to the houses, my rankings will all be based on my thoughts and opinions on the facade, set design, make-up and costumes, scariness, and overall immersiveness (is immersiveness a word?). The scales will be ranked from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). And away we go... Houses (ranked from least favorite to favorite) 9.) Horrors of Blumhouse- I saw Sinister a few years back but have never watched any Purge or Insidious movies which could be why I didn't really care for this house. As many have noted, Blumhouse featured the Sinister and Purge sections rather quickly compared to the Insidious portion. I don't think this is why the house suffered, though. I found it pretty scary at times and they worked with what they had, there just weren't any memorable or ooo and ahh moments in it. I only went through Horrors of Blumhouse once, and that was really enough for me. Facade: 2 (When I went, they didn't have the projections yet) Set Design: 3 Make-up / Costumes: 3.5 Scariness: 3.5 Immersiveness: 2.5 8.) Ash vs. Evil Dead- I've never seen the show or anything pertaining to Evil Dead so just like Blumhouse, it could be why I wasn't blown away by this house. I only went through once but I wish I would've gone through at least another time. From what I recall, there were some funny moments, the sets were cool, and I got a few scares. Facade: 4 Set Design: 4 Make-up / Costumes: 3 Scariness: 2.5 Immersiveness: 3 7.) Saw: The Games of Jigsaw- As a fan of the Saw movies, I thought this was a cool house. Walking in and hearing the audio how we are part of the game was a good touch. Lots of recognizable scenes from the movies and I got a decent amount of scares the two times I went through this house. I'm disappointed after reading about the interactive button things that were apparently in the house. Definitely would have made the house a little more worthwhile if I could've found/clicked them. Personally, I really liked this house, especially the recreation of the bathroom scene. By no means is this one of my least favorites because of where it's ranked on my list. The other houses were all just so strong that I placed this one here. Facade: 0 Set Design: 3.5 Make-up / Costumes: 2.5 Scariness: 4 Immersiveness: 4 6.) Scarecrow: The Reaping I know, I know. I'm sure you just whispered "wtf" to yourself seeing where I ranked this house. I went through Scarecrow twice and my expectations were through the friggen roof because of how people hyped this house. I wanted to love this house. I truly wanted to feel what everyone else did with it, but sadly, I didn't. To begin, I am an easy victim to scare. Very easy. Even if I know it's coming, I'll still jump back, duck, or scream if I'm the one getting scared in a house. With that being said, I really just wasn't that scared in this house. I may have jumped a little a few times but there was never a stand out scare. I I loved walking up to Scarecrow and through it because of the facade, design, dripping of bird poop, and mirror room. The scares just weren't there for me and I really don't understand why. Maybe the two times I went through there was a cast change happening. Maybe I wasn't targeted for scares like others. I don't know what it was that I didn't experience what others did in Scarecrow. Tomb of the Ancients was my favorite house last year and I thought Scarecrow would have been at the top of my list this year. But it wasn't, and I'm sad about it. Facade: 4.5 Set Design: 4.5 Make-up / Costumes: 4 Scariness: 2 Immersiveness: 4.5 5.) The Fallen Walking into The Fallen has a wow factor. The facade looks very much like a run down, destroyed cathedral. Make-up was great, the flying scares were incredible, and the sets were designed very, very well. The house is marketed completely wrong, however, as many have said before. There are no angels versus demons. This is not a good versus evil house. This is simply evil and more evil. I was expecting battles between angels and fallen angels, but that's not what we got. It was a tremendous house either way, I just wish there would have been the good vs evil aspect they said there was going to be. I guess I just didn't like the whole hell thing, which is why it is so high up on the list even though the rankings are higher than most. Facade: 4.5 Set Design: 4.5 Make-up / Costumes: 5 Scariness: 5 Immersiveness: 4.5 4.) The Shining What a cool house. I'm a big fan of the movie and I think they did a good job representing the big scenes from it in this house. Whether it be the bathroom scene, the Gold Room, the hedge maze with the snow effect, or the blood elevator, there was just so much to love about The Shining. I got good scares, the sets were awesome, the Jack Nicholson masks were well done, and I screamed then laughed when that bear popped out at me. I get it couldn't of been done where the house was located, but imagine if we got an Overlook Hotel facade? Probably would have been my second or first favorite house. Facade: 3 Set Design: 5 Make-up / Costumes: 4 Scariness: 4 Immersiveness: 5 3.) American Horror Story: Volume 2 I've watched Asylum and Roanoke but never bothered with Coven. I went through this house three times and something that really stood out to me about this year's AHS wasn't actually in the house. I loved how they made you wait in that second, dark queue before the walk through begins. The loud, and I mean loud, music that they play really prepares you for what's ahead. I don't believe any house is like this and I totally think they all should be. You can't ignore the music. You can barely talk to the person next to you because of how loud it is. Before getting into the other houses, you walk through a queue with some background music and then go right into it. Most of the time when I'm in line for a house, I kind of forget what I'm doing. I look at my phone or talk to who I'm with. I often neglect that I'm going into a haunted house because of the wait time. This might just be me, but I'm sure others reach the end of a line and are like, "Oh man. Am I'm mentally prepared for this?" This house and even last years does a great job of reminding you that you are about to step into something crazy and scary. And, indeed, it is crazy and scary. The Asylum facade was awesome, the make-up and costumes were great, the scares were very good and the Santa/mirror one was unique, the sets were pretty much identical to the shows, and the smells were nonstop. I like when smells are added to a house, but my goodness, that one rooms smell was horrific. Each time I walked through I actually told the girl in that cage or whatever it was that I was sorry she had to sit in this room all night. I could barely stand the stench walking through it for all of what, 10 seconds? No matter, as an American Horror Story fan, I thought this was an amazing house and representation of the show. That last pig got me good on my first walk through. Facade: 4 Set Design: 5 Make-up / Costumes: 5 Scariness: 5 Immersiveness: 5 2.) The Hive My top two houses are originals and I love that. Universal is king when it comes to themeing and creating immersive and realistic experiences for guests and The Hive was one of those highlights this year. The Hive was the first house I went to this year. I did stay and scream in Springfield and purposely picked this as my first house because I wasn't expecting much from it. I thought I was gonna go through with my low expectations and be done with it for the year just to say I did it, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed The Hive a lot. It was scary, it was dark, it was immersive, and it was long. I remember saying to myself the first out of four runs I did through The Hive, "is this thing ever going to end? Get me the hell out of here," (in a good way, of course). I loved the hanging vampires, the sets, the black lights, and the house as a whole. Facade: 2 Set Design: 4.5 (If there weren't two dead infants in a crib, this would be a 5.) Make-up / Costumes: 5 Scariness: 5 Immersiveness: 4.5 1.) Dead Waters Dead Waters is an amazing, amazing, house. Coming around that corner and seeing the sunken ship really took my breath away the first time and the other three times I went through. The music that plays before entering the ship is perfect and I actually loved that there were scare actors outside of the ship. They capitalized on scaring people in the last place you would anticipate getting scared. I thought it was smart and didn't take away from the facade one bit. I loved that they used a mask from last year's Dead Man's Wharf scare zone in the crooked hallway. I loved how the floors really messed with you, either being sideways or on a decline to really make you feel like you were inside of a shipwrecked boat. The rooms and sets were beautiful in this house and it really made you feel like you were in these so called "Dead Waters". It's only flaw, and I don't know if I can even count it as a flaw, is that it is somewhat short. One extra room would have made this house even more incredible but this house still won my heart as #1 this year. Facade: 5 Set Design: 5 Make-up / Costumes: 5 Scariness: 5 Immersiveness: 5 Scare zones (ranked from least favorite to favorite) 5.) Altars of Horror Meh. Literally no design or sets whatsoever in the streets, just those big signs advertising the IP's. The scare actors did their jobs and were trying to scare people when they weren't busy taking pictures with park guests. 4.) Festival of the Deadliest I walked through this zone a few times, and it wasn't a bad zone. It wasn't good, though, either. Nothing really stood out to me. The scare actors were doing their best to scare people from what I saw and unfortunately I never saw Bone. 3.) Invasion! This was a very cool and fun zone. It wasn't scary, but the aliens, other scare actors, and crash landed UFO made this an awesome zone to walk through. 2.) The Purge The Purge scare zone was very big and very scary. Like Saw, this is a little too realistic. There are no zombies, aliens, or vampires. No, it's just plain human beings like me and you killing for pleasure. I didn't mention this earlier but even though I like the Saw movies, the torture scenes make me extremely uncomfortable. I watch the Saw movies for the interesting twists and turns in the story, not for the gory and gruesome stuff. I haven't seen any of The Purge movies, but the zone made me feel uncomfortable because of how real it feels. It gets the job done as a legit scare zone and not some photo op. The actors and auction show are terrifying. The guys on the motorcycles were getting so close to people and I just did not feel safe in that zone. One night that I went it rained really hard then stopped. It was still drizzling a bit and I thought I was safe to walk through The Purge because usually the scare actors don't stay out in the rain. Of course, I was wrong and a woman who had make-up that looked like blood on her face came right up in my face with this look of terror and sadness and fear and it scared the shit out of me. To me, that was the scariest thing I saw the entire event. It's too real. I hated this zone, but I ranked it so high because it was most certainly a scare zone. 1.) Trick r' Treat Trick r' Treat was a big highlight of this year's HHN because it was absolutely gorgeous and it had this awesome ambiance when you stepped into the scare zone. The puking kid, the kids with their bags that made the loud noise, and the multiple Sam's were all so accurate to the movie. This one had to be seen in person to really be appreciated. Pictures of it look incredible, but they don't do it justice. Shows Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure- Sadly, I can't really appreciate the last year of Bill & Ted's because last year was the first time I've ever seen the show. Last year, I thought the show was awful. This year, on the other hand, was funny, entertaining, and heartwarming. I wish I had gone to HHN in years past so I could appreciate this final showing and I hope someday it comes back for a fun and triumphant return. Academy of Villains (Irma Edition)- It sucks that the AoV stage got messed up by the hurricane and they couldn't perform the original show they had probably slaved over rehearsing for. This was not a bad show in the least. There were a lot of awesome moments, but it felt incomplete. I loved AoV last year and I have hope that they will be back next year to give us a show that isn't as condensed and is even stronger than HHN 26. Food and Drinks I never got to eat any donuts on a stick, pizza fries, or any other unique food offerings at HHN this year. I did try that double wall cup drink, though. It was good, I guess. I liked the orange side more than the purple side. I didn't get a buzz off of it so gets a thumbs down from me. I only got it the one time. Even though it wasn't a specialty drink specifically for HHN, I got a few Dufftoberfest's the nights I visited and they were excellent. It's a tasty and smooth fall beer. Overall thoughts Houses- I can't say that any of the houses were necessarily bad. I would gladly do Blumhouse and Ash again and give them another shot. I'm sure if I could do Scarecrow again, I'd see what everyone has ranted and raved about. The IP houses were all good design wise, especially Shining and AHS. The original houses were even better than the IP's and I hope that because of Dead Waters, they set a new standard for what the facade of a house should look like from now on. Scare zones- Other than Trick r' Treat and Invasion, I could care less about the other scare zones. Next year I hope Universal pulls out all the stops to make them stand out more than this year. Shows- Bill & Ted was emotional, and Academy of Villains still put on a good show with the troubles they faced with their stage. Interesting to think what will be in Bill & Ted's place next year and if AoV will return... Event as a whole- I loved HHN 27. I had a great time each night and I wish I could come back for the closing weekend. I would give Halloween Horror Nights 27 a 4/5 as one cohesive event and I can't wait to see what Universal has in store for HHN 28.