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mikekilpatrick

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Everything posted by mikekilpatrick

  1. To respond to the first part of this thread, I have often read people will go to the event, stand in line for a couple hours, hit one or two houses, then come back the next night or next week to hit other houses. Basically stretch out the event over 4-6 weeks. Good social activities and Universal I am sure loves the revenue from drinks, food, parking, etc. And to the second part, Yes, there was touching in the Repository, but no type of abuse. It was what the houses SHOULD be, but CANT be due to the massive crowds. You had an individual immersive experience that allowed you to become part of the house. The VR was a little gimmicky, the puzzle solving was convoluted, but the overall experience was progressive and a good start. Universal should EXPAND on this and start developing more of these houses on a fee per house basis to allow more individual tailoring at a price which will support the project, but limit crowds. Such a pleasure not to be in a Single, non ending line with no spaces and to make you feel "part" of the experience. They should add to this Holograms and the best technology out there to step up their game in my opinion. This would keep the massive crowd houses in place and then allow the next generation of the event to mature.
  2. I still feel like Universal doesnt know it has grown up. They are a direct competitor to Disney now, but SO many of their decisions make them look like they are a secondary park. They close at like 6 or 7 PM in the off season? Last year I went to get dinner at I think 10 pm and could not find but one place that was serving, granted it was a Tuesday or Wed night, but still, it was during HHN week. I held a season pass for almost 20 years, and I live in NJ. Had the Premier pass with my picture on it until last year since many of the benefits we USED to have such as free Valet parking durning HHN and other items were removed with barely any notice. Moved down to the Medium level pass last year since they finally moved back to a plastic pass over the paper ones they did for so long. As far as HHN goes, Universal just hasn't done anything in my opinion to step up their game. They should be escalating innovation to include Holograms, making the houses have things that no one else does, start including extreme houses to escalate the experience (like they did last year, their extreme house was a great innovation), and they need to go back to the model where you pay by the night, not the month. Yes, I realize many people like the monthly pass model, and if you are local, it is great. But when you have tens of thousands of people in the parks now, you just have TOO many people in these events which detracts from the whole thing in my opinion. And Yes, I realize Universal makes a crud load more money on booze and food purchases than the ticket purchases which is why they moved over to the weekly, and monthly pass model. Yearly events should be standardized to be release on a certain day, they should follow a standardized model and the release of the information should be done at a single POC so everytone is in the know. Then market it with reliable dates of release. Won't be going this year, and only the second time in like 20 years I cant/wont be attending.
  3. That was my line of thinking. We did something similar a few years back. I would standardize the front with horror night nightmares as I suggested previously, then have the artwork open for voting. But it is July, so any design process would have to be quick to design, vote and put into production. We are talking only three months till first event and you have to include manufacture time and ship time. Maybe we can use an online shirt store for making and drop ship....
  4. How about setting a minimum goal to move forward? I will buy four of them to get ball rolling. Maybe we can discuss ideas about it and see if group design helps sales. Always liked the personal attention from houses scare actors seeing the shirt. i would like to aim for a glow in the dark or led lowered front of the shirt with rear design being the artwork. This makes it easier to identify you in you Congo lines... i.e. "Horror night nightmares 2016 or 26" in big glow and black light ink on front and then something cool artwork wise on back. Can we use a CHANCE theme or is that trademark problem riddled ?? Personally, I think an evil clown on the back, no trademark similarity, would be cool cause people hate clowns. Lol And maybe "HNN" on each shoulder sleeve glow in the dark to help be seen...
  5. I met one of my best friends now, Daniel and his wife, many years ago because I had a Vault shirt on at the bar. He walked up to me, talked about the forum and bought me a drink. We have been planning our vacations together for the past decade and he lives in GA and I live in NJ. Is there a T shirt planned for this year? I looked all over the forum and did not see a thread on it, so figured I would start one. I really think it is an awesome way to identify one another at the event and maybe even make some new friends. ...Mike
  6. Good review write up. I am telling you Penn and Teller are like the COOLEST celebrities that are out there. They truly love their fans and as I have said in the online chats here several times. If and when you see their show out in Vegas, you will see that they wait outside the show to meet EVERY guest who wants to shake their hands or talk with them. The BONUS of this meet and greet is that you actually get to talk to BOTH Penn AND TELLER, something you are not used to as his side kick never speaks on camera. Just a awesome pair of guys and I am so glad people got to meet them in the line at the event. I doubt they will be their both weekends, but I am hoping to see them next week, Sept 27-30 at the house...
  7. Flying down on 26, will be there sept 27, 28, 29, 30, I plan on being at finnigans every night for pre game drinking if anyone is interested in hanging....
  8. All I can say is....WALKING DEAD...WALKING DEAD...WALKING DEAD...!!! This really looks like a walking dead house, which should coincide with the new season premiere if I remember the starting dates properly for the year.
  9. I have to say, I went the second weekend, starting on Sept 29th and saw wait times of about 15-30 minutes at the max for most of the night. Express pass got me in the houses in 5-10 minutes. I then went the 3rd week on Thursday and Friday 6th and 7th and saw 75+ minute waits on thursday at 6:45-7:00 most of the night and express lines were about 15-30 minutes long. I actually went to go to the forsaken and about 15 steps past the express check person, the line came to a dead stop (which meant at least a 20-30 minute wait) I got pissed for such ridiculous lines on the express side, so I left and went to go see the movie Moneyball (GO SEE THAT MOVIE!) I was still under the weather from the FLU I caught while in Florida, so I really was not up to crazy lines. On Friday I went again, but went through the pass over from IOA. Seems like there was quite a bit of confusion by the employees if that X over was even open for the night, but I managed to hit about 6 or 7 houses by 10 pm in a casual pace. At 9:30-10:00 pm, the lines again got to the 75 minute mark, so I left and went back to my buddies house in order to pack for the plane trip the next day. I like the second week of the event, hotel prices are low, HHN lines are short, the SA have had both the Employee Preview and a couple standard days to get their scare tactics timed well and overall it was just a MUCH better experience than the third week in my opinion. I would have been pissed if UNI was experiencing 30+ minute waits for express ticket owners if I was only attending the event 1 or 2 nights. They may have to go back to standard tickets for the month and then charge a PER NIGHT express pass fee to keep the crowds down in the future if this keeps up. BTW, great attention by all the SA on my HNN shirt both in the streets and in the houses! Good eye GUYS/GIRLS!
  10. I just wanted to THANK YOU for all the scare actors that gave extra special attention to me and my group while we wore our HNN shirts last weekend and this past thursday and Friday night. Cudos to the SA that managed to see me in the Canyon of Souls on Friday night and gave a gentle hand swipe across my HNN shirt and said "walk slowly".... That was great! I can think of at least a half dozen or more extra scares or attention while at the event and it really gave that extra Umpff to the event. Also, great job Last Friday night (Sept 30th) when at 1:55 am the area between the Canyon of Souls and 7 had about 8-10 SA wandering around with the trench coats and masks. The girl I was hanging out with fell behind me by about 20 yards and she started to shout my name looking for me, it was like CHUM in the water and she was surrounded by a circle of SA! Laughed my ass off at that. It was great to see you guys putting that much effort in after a long night of scares and especially just 5-10 minutes before closing! UNI needs to realize the work you guys put in to make this event great!
  11. that is a different show that what I saw...
  12. The show was ok and everything, but I would like it to go back to the roots a bit more and focus on Bill and Tedd with a bit more of an "adventure". Like others have said, better than last year, but still needs improvement.
  13. I did the AP event on 10/1/11 and entered the park at five PM. We were very easily directed over to the houses and I was in and out of 4 houses, plus Men in Black by 6-6:15 pm so I was impressed by the whole thing. It was also nice to see the insides of the houses during the daytime as the overhead daylight lit up some areas that I previously had not seen during night time events.
  14. I was there all weekend and did not see one issue in or out of the houses with the drunks this year. I also don't think there was more alcohol this year than in previous years so no difference from what I could tell.
  15. I used this service every night on the 29, 30, 1 and 2nd with the "tonight" to 64646, what bothered me was that I would get 10 pm wait times at 10:40 pm. I mean every update was like 30-40 minutes BEHIND what time it was, so I think they need to push out the updates faster.
  16. I watched the show and I think they spelled out "sexy" at the end with the neon glow sticks the dancers were holding. Not really sure if that is appropriate for HHN myself. Would have liked the drums to be amplified more (like the big bass in Blue Man Group), but I guess that is difficult to do outside. I agree with other opinion in this tread, it was neat, nice try Uni for trying something new, but I would rather have an extra scare zone...
  17. I have always, and will always (if he is still around) love the # 13 stilt walker in the scare zones. He is just creepy and I just love the whole outfit! Have taken some pretty good pics with him and he has even "gotten" me when I was too busy trying to get my co guest to take our picture!
  18. I love the LMAO Party Rock song! Hope it is included!
  19. Trust me, people from NJ HATE THOSE kinds of guys! I used to live in Toms River, NJ and worked at the Jersey shore. THOSE guys were the idiots that used to get beat up all the time! Freaking North Jersey and NYC idiots ruining what is really great at the shore! NO ONE has EVER said T shirt time before the losers on the Jersey Shore said it. I mean, they went to their "own" country of Italy and can't hook up to save their lives. People laugh at them over there as well.
  20. I have been going to HHN since the late 90's when I used to live in Jacksonville, FL. My friend told me about it and we went down for weekend. Been back almost every year only missing one year out the past ten. ...Mike
  21. yes, true, but you would think they would have designed a bar with at least two bathrooms so you would not have to walk across the court to use bathroom
  22. Problem with Cigarz is ONE STINKING bathroom! If it is crowded, it is a freaking nightmare getting to use it. I have shared the bathroom with a girl on the toilet and me on the pisser (not that I was complaining that much about the incident), but you would think Universal would have a little more bathroom space for a bar!
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