Oysterhead00

10 houses = 10 houses 5 scare zones = 5 scare zones other live entertainment means one of two things: 1. Marketing is so stupid and inept they can’t count past the number of fingers they have or 2. There is other live entertainment. Shows. Magic Performances. Concerts. Parades. VR experience with live humans involved. Carnivals set up with barkers. Upcharge experiences with live humans. I don’t know if people needed charts to understand the post...or if it’s just the desire to crap on marketing and blame them for not spoonfeeding people exactly what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.

Those run on sentences would make for a terrifying house

No bottle opener or playing cards (that I've purchased every year they've had). No vinyl figures other than tiny Stranger Things ones you can get at Target and regular Funko Pops. The Killer Klowns shirt is REALLY nice. The shop on the corner of the Finnegan side street / Transformers / Killer Klowns had some Stranger Things stickers I didn't see anywhere else (including the Tribute Store).

Poltergeist movie/house spoiler warning Not really a spoiler as it's something you'd NEVER see with the lights out in Seeds of Extinction

It's a miracle! Finally got the embed to work... Killer Klowns from Outer Space 1 Killer Klowns from Outer Space 2 Killer Klowns from Outer Space 3 Chucky's Revenge 1 Chucky's Revenge 2 The Harvest Twisted Traditions

Houses Poltergeist - 10/10 This was the consensus #1 house for my group. Just amazing from the facade, smell, puppets, etc. Did I mention puppets? Don't want to give anything away, but the demons are just...amazing. Fun fact, the house is so cold as there's a special effects school in the sound stage and they have to keep it cool since the servers run so hot. Slaughter Sinema - 9.5/10 ABSOLUTELY LOVED this house. It's so much fun, but the scares are still there. There's so much fun stuff to look at that that you are easily scared by the scaractors. Queue video is a classic (possible hint to a return of Hive?) as is the last room. Carnival Graveyard - 9.4/10 After the first night, this was my second favorite house...but by the end of event Slaughter Sinema had taken over the spot. LOVE the layout. One night, all the overhead "Stuff" wasn't working. Including stuff like the noisemakers that smash above you (keeping this vague to be as spoiler free as possible) and the bungie scare. Scary Tales - 9/10 Great house and facade. Could easily have been my #1 house if it was last year. Had one dull run through with a shift change or something, but an amazing house. Wondering if they got rid of the rotten egg smell or if my sniffer just isn't that good. I didn't smell it. Seeds of Extinction - 9/10 LOVED this house...but it was just so dark. Maybe too dark. Seeing this with the lights on on the UTH tour was amazing and sad...you can't see 90% of the amazing level of detail in this house when you're walking through it. Halloween 4 - 8.5/10 I'm shocked this is so high, but it's a great house with great scares. Had been a while since I saw the movie, but it all came back to me as I went through. Some great gags and the sound cue's for when Michael pops out always get me. Dead Exposure - 8.5/10 Great fun house...shockingly not as dark as Seeds of Extinction. I remember getting lost in the original house but this one I had no problems with. Wish it was more disorienting. Stranger Things - 8/10 It was a very good house that fans of the series will love, but it just seemed OK to me. The characters are great and there are some awesome sets, just not that scary and the X-Mas light room being more of a disco strobe light than how it was in the show kinda put me off a bit. Maybe I drank too much coolaid expecting this to be great. WHICH IT WAS, but in such a strong year it's pretty far down my list. Trick R Treat - 7/10 Visually stunning and faithful to the movie, just didn't have many good scares. Maybe I hit this at bad times or something, but I was suprisingly underwhelmed by it. Blumhouse 2.0 - 5/10 Didn't like this one much at. Babyface killer did nothing for me, the deja vu was just annoying (I get it, that's how the movie is, but still didn't like it). When we walked in the house there were crew members telling us to walk as closely to a wall as possible and avoid an area. Figured someone puked there or something, but my friend said they did it earlier in the event as well. So no clue what that was about. It looked good and I got a good scare or two, so giving it a 5. Scare Zones Killer Klowns From Outer Space - 9.5/10 Would have been a 10/10 if it wasn't so damn small! There was sooooo much room there and a ton of clowns. Any time you stop to take a picture of something (or do a selfi, which isn't my thing) a clown would come up behind you to startle you...or photobomb your picture. Biggest laugh of the whole night was a tour guide going through with a lit up batton thing and the clowns with props (hammers, bats, guns) all joining the tour and walking through with their props up in the air like the tour guide. MAKE THIS A HOUSE NEXT YEAR!!!!! Vamp '85 - 8.5/10 The soundtrack gets a 10/10. A fun zone but not that scary. The show was a nice touch but was a bit disappointed that the ball doesn't drop....something else happens but don't want to spoil it. Revenge of Chucky - 8/10 This was suprisingly a ton of fun. First time through was a bit disappointing, but mostly because we were expecting more Chucky. But it grew on me and the Chucky stage was fun, but the other stages were great too. I like the reapeating, ummmm, "impact" of watch the other shows. Twisted Traditions - 8/10 This zone should be here every year. Yeah, very similar to others, but if it ain't broke why fix it? Wouldn't change a thing about it. The Harvest - 6/10 Pretty boring. Not sure why they didn't put up displays for the orignal houses. Stilt walkers were awesome, but they turned into photo ops and the other scare actors had a hard time doing good scares since it was so damn crowded in there. Not bad by any means, but just didn't quite work as it is. Show Academy of Villians - 7/10 I LOVED their show the past couple years, but in the big stadium it really sucks as you don't get to pick where you sit. We sat off to the side so we didn't get the head on perspective. It was still really good and had a ton of energy...but it started to drag on a bit about 20 minutes in. So happy that they had songs with curses in them...I know, that's stupid and childish to say but I'm a huge Rob Zombie fan and nothing is worse than "More Human Than Human" being edited so it sounds horrible. OVERALL I'd give the year a 9/10. It was definitely my favorite year for originals since the IPs started up. It' s right up there with 25.

I did the AM/PM tour on Thursday Sept 20th. Here's the houses we did and what I remembered. Potential MINOR spoilers as I'll try to say what room were and weren't allowed for photos. AM - the back of the park Trick R Treat - photos of the facade and the first room or two were allowed...then the room that was outside with the ghost sheets. Seeds of Extinction - I think EVERYTHING was fair game for pictures. Quick stop by Dead Exposure to take pics of the facade and in the tent out front and stuff. 30min lunch break. Shorter than previous years but there is a limited menu (turkey wraps, popcorn, hotdogs, etc) from the Blue Man Group concession stand that you have to "pre-order" before the tour starts. PM - the sound stages Poltergeist - Facade, super dark entry, and Carol Anne outside the TV transition room. Stranger Things - Forest Scene with Castle Byers and the "portal" room in the research facility. Carnival Graveyard - Hard to explain the rooms, but there was one or maybe two you weren't allowed pics in. Not sure why. Scary Tales - This was a big disappointment! You were only allowed pics of the facade, super dark entry way, and then the Rapunzel room. You'd think the Rapunzel room, which is extremely violent and contains a character from a disney movie, would be one of the offlimit ones and no clue why Humpty Dumpty wasn't allowed. REALLY wished they switched this with Slaughter Sinema. Still upset about the new policy and REALLY mad that they had original rooms you couldn't take pictures of (including virtually an entire house) but the pictures allowed in the IPs were a nice surprise and a good compromise. I didn't do the tour last year because I was too pissed about the policy change, but had done it probably the last 5-7 years before that. DO NOT assume this is set in stone or that the AM tour only does 2 houses. This was for the AM/PM so they got the hot ones out of the way early, then took us to all the A/C'd SS's for the afternoon session. Also, they said it should end around 3:30 but we kept going until 4:20ish which was really nice. Some of the puppets in the houses toured were "active" as a crew member was shadowing us and using them....unfortunately, they were all in non-picture rooms Take my memory with a grain of salt, had a bunch of days of drinking between the tour and the write up so was going by my photos. Just got home from my trip, but will post a link to the spoilerific tour photos when I get them all uploaded and stuff. End of test

According to the interwebs, Poltergeist, Stranger Things, and Trick R Treat allow you to take pics of 2 rooms each, Originals allow photos throughout. Too early to talk too confidentially about lineups....especially if houses lie Stranger Things have some issues to be addressed that might limit availability for day time hours.

I think the question is "Did EP goers post their thoughts on the forum" and I believe the answer is yes...but not as much as previous years where guests would spill all the beans.

https://shop.universalorlando.com/ProductList.aspx?q=Halloween Love the posters....will be coming home with a couple of them.

This would be truely horrifying if it was in the house... https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/stranger-things-ghostbusters-predator-chia-pets Just in time for the holiday gift-buying season, those collectible-loving folks at toymaker NECA are releasing Chia Pets based on Netflix's hit sci-fi horror series Stranger Things and a host of other beloved pop culture staples including Rick and Morty, Ghostbusters, Predator, Gremlins, and our personal favorite, Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. For Stranger Things diehards who can't get enough of Dustin's wild mane, now's your chance to own it in the form of those iconic terracotta figurines from the '80s that sprout the leafy green chia plants in a matter of weeks.

Just looks like they're going to do something stranger things related with the bike. No clue what, but that's sure what it looks like to me.

If the "Most Anticipated Brackets" are accurate, this year will be even better for me since I've voted for the "loser" every time so far...I hope the lines at the event reflect this :-)

Tuesday Fly in at night, chill at the resort. Drink. Wednesday Go to the parks in the late morning, get all our tickets, enjoy the parks, Finnegan's and then HHN. Hit the biggies first without express, then visit the scare zones taking them in with a beverage or two or three, then use our express passes to do the entire circuit. Pat O'Briens afterwards. Thursday Photography Day. Do the UTH tour solo, meet up with friends at Finnegan's for Stay and Scream. Group will repeat the plan from the prior night, but I'll go off solo to take pictures throughout the park before dark and then some more when it gets dark. My friends get bored watching me taking pictures Meet up with them later and hit up some stuff with Express. Catch the AOV show. Friday Hang out at resort, maybe head to the parks in early afternoon and hit a few rides, do something for dinner in City Walk, then go to HHN and just run through everything with express no matter how short the lines. Pick up an adult beverage or two. Call it an early night. Maybe pick up some souvenirs. Saturday Water Ride Day. Wear our bathing suits and sandals to the park. Do Bluto's Barge like 5 times. Dudley's a few times based on the wait. Then Jurassic Park a time or two. Get a fruity frozen mixed drink from JP Land. Go back to the resort to shower and change. We should all be dragging ass at this point....drag our asses to HHN. Probably skip a house or two we don't care for. Crowds will piss us off. Sunday Our timeshare at the resort is Sun-Sun, so we have to "move" to near Kissimme where a friend's parents have a house...so have to pack up early and move. One guy is flying home so bring him to the airport. Then go to Miller Ale House for lunch and football, and then hit up HHN at night. Just express what we want, maybe catch AOV again, pick up all the souvenirs we didn't get the other night, curse about how Sunday seems even busier than Saturday, head back to the house...and then start cursing about how we have to pack up our stuff again! Monday Wake up at the asscrack of dawn to pack up the rental, fill it up with gas, drop it off, and catch 9am flights back to NY and NC. Curse the drive home from the airport, pass out on the couch. Tuesday Curse the world and wonder why the hell I'm at work at didn't take the day off. Possibly check into rehab.

Without spoiling anything, Stranger Things involves some Telekinesis (thought not sure that's the exact right term) where someone could go into a sensory deprivation tank and "project" themselves somewhere else. It's a trope from a lot of movies that when it happens they're in a plain of existence that has a floor of water with an all back background replicating the tank a bit. Saw some posts on other pages with people saying they ripped off some other movie and it makes no sense, but it's used in Stranger Things too. The Upside Down is pretty much what they showed in the reveal video and is a real/physical world where as the water part is just a projection. For fans of the show, that was purposefully vague and not telling the whole story

Back...or (IMHO) stupid blood letters on the front? If it had an HHN2018 on the breast and some silly verbage on the frame of the back I just might have to buy it..

Last year we got screwed with the Microsoft night meaning we only got 3 nights with our RoF+Express. This year, we booked a week earlier just to be safe and now we just got a free night...a 5 night weekend Given how awesome the lineup is, this was a great trade off from last year!

As someone who's travelled from NY every year so far that's a huuuuge headache. There are a group of 4 of that go every year...then there are like 10 other people who go now and then. Their decision is partially based on the lineup. Making flight reservations now is no good. My flight down this year is $69 since I got a good South West deal. Others in my group are heading down a few days early, the cheapest flight I can switch to is now $267 and has two layovers if I want to go down at the same time. That's why you need the BIG announcement first so people like me, and to a bigger extent, the people coming from the UK, will be inclined to make their travel plans early :). And then the smaller announcements just give 10 more chances to convince those in my group on the fence to make the decision to go.

They better have a pint glass with that logo on it to purchase!

Taken from the Inside Universal Forum...not quite sure how to embed a tweet.

The last few years, the conga line Nazi's have gotten MUCH better. They used to have bright flashlights and would wave you through every single room. They'd point the flashlght at the ground at least, but it was ridiculous.

Do we know if any zones are going to have mini shows this year? Sorry if it's already been posted, I just can't remember if it's been confirmed either way.

ROF+Express. Best deal there is...except last year when Microsoft had the park to themselves for the Thursday of the week we went :( Waited until the super-super official schedule came out this year to make sure we'd get our 4 nights in and are heading a week earlier than ususal.

Never thought of that before....a Deja Vu house could be amazing. One room with 4 doors, one on each wall, then a trap door on the floor and a skylight on the ceiling. Walk in from one doorway into the exact same room, but this time you came through what was the rightside door....walk straight through and come out of the skylight and the whole room is sideways...you walk across then go through the hole in the floor into the next room where you come out through the same doorway when you first came in. Repeat that mindf*** for each room. That would be soooooooo disorienting! Have scares coming from the "unused" doorways as well as the ceiling and floor. Something like the disorienting affect from The Cube. You'd be so focused on the room and figuring it out the scares would really get you.

Not only that, but it's alien vegetation...so they can make the trees and stuff more human looking in their form factor making the camouflage that much more effective. And Tree Man from past scarezones better be in there :)