Oysterhead00

Marketing is for the general public, not for us freaks that hit refresh on this forum 100 times a day. :-) Joe Public has no clue about what was leaked and I know that nobody here believes it, but there's a method to marketing's madness. They aren't going to abandoned all plans because one poster went up and a handful of speculation forums picked up on it. That's like if someone posted a "Bruce Willis............................" tweet about the Sixth Sense that a few people saw and then the release company comes out and annouces the twist ending. Edit:. Don't point out the lack of Twitter at the time....you get my point

This thread is a yearly tradition, so might as well get it started...please add your lists to the thread. Houses Carnival Graveyard - I love abandoned locations and this sounds awesome. Also, the first picture released showing how wide open the house is has me super excited to see how it works out. Seeds of Extinction - The premise sounds promising coupled with the single light source rumor. Makes me really excited, just like Carnival, to see how they pull off the new idea. Poltergeist - This movie freaked me out as a kid...and still freaks me out a bit to this day. Slaughter Sinema - Campy horror, love it. Trick R Treat - Love the movie and the scare zone was one of my favorite ever. It being at #5 is a testament to how strong of year it is. Stranger Things - enjoyed the show, should be some awesome set pieces, just not sold on how good the scares will be. Dead Exposure: Patient Zero - The first one was one of my favorite houses of all time...trying not to have unreasonable expectations for this one. Halloween 4 - my favorite of all the Michael Myers sequels. Just nothing special to move it up the list. Scary Tales: Deadly Ever After - Sure this will be awesome, just haven't heard anything about it to get me excited. Blumhouse 2 - Haven't seen either of the movies, but enjoy the Purge series. Not a fan of the multiple movies in the same house (unless they're all the same franchise). Zones Killer Klowns from Outer Space - Dream come true! I'm going to spend hours in this zone just taking it all in. The Harvest - Sounds amazing and very curious as to how they pull off the barn. Twisted Traditions - There needs to be a traditional Halloween house every year. Vamp '85 - I think I'm the only person on this board who wasn't blown away by Vamp 55. I grew up in the 80s so have a feeling I'll love this from the music alone. Revenge of Chucky - zzzzzzzzzz.

Ooops, OK....I live(d) in NY and everything was called Season Passes....just like season tickets for sports. Guess when your parks are open all year long and don't close for the winter, you call them annual :-)

This is probably an honest mistake...the same one I made talking to my friends. 2 of my friends have family in Florida and have Florida Resident Season Passes for Universal, and when I was reading up on the ticket info for the event, it said something like "Free Parking for Seasonal Passes not valid during HHN event nights" or something like that. Seasonal vs Season - I didn't pick up on the difference. I guess Universal has fall seasonal passes available or something...and they aren't valid for HHN nights.

I think we now know where the Vomit Vortex is showing up...

How was the UTH Tour last year as far as photography being allowed? Did the tour every year for like a decade, including the year they changed it (we took as many pictures as we wanted and they didn't care so long as you were discrete about it) but haven't done it since. I see this year the wording is photography is permitted in "Select Rooms of Select Houses" which even crappier than before. Just curious if they eased up on the IP restrictions last year or not. Really want to do it again this year, but not paying $150 for a guided tour with just my memory as a keepsake. IF we get Poltergeist I'd imagine they'd have to have some sort of pool scene....probably not with scare actors, but maybe some triggered/pop up skeletons and spraying water. Or, possibly an old bus portion sticking out of water for Trick R Treat. Like a chopped mini-bus resting on the ground with a pool with like 3" of water to make the illusion. That would be pretty awesome. Of course there will be a million opportunities throughout the houses for "blood sprays" replicated with water.

Probably Purge and I'm fine with that. It's never had a real presence in a house...if the new movie has some key or memorable scenes that could be recreated in the house that would be interesting. Plus it's a prequel that probably takes place in the 80s so makes sense. It gets a lot of hate from people since it's been a half-assed emergency fill in...I think they owe it to the IP to give it a real appearance in house form. And I've LOVED the street zones...especially the mini-show aspect of them. It could be in the streets every single year as far as I'm concerned.

Apologies if this was already posted...have 5 min to spare and just saw this story and had Conjuring visions floating through my mind.... Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of Netflix supernatural series sensation “Stranger Things,” are reportedly being sued for allegedly stealing the idea. THR reports that Charlie Kessler is suing the Duffer brothers for breach of implied contract, claiming he pitched them his concept for a sci-fi story set near an abandoned military base during a party at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Kessler adds the series is based on his short film “Montauk” and a feature film script titled “The Montauk Project” about the New York State town which in these works is home to “various urban legends, and paranormal and conspiracy theories.” Kessler’s attorney argues the pitch at a party created “an implied-in-fact contract pursuant to well-established industry norms” – in other words a verbal contract. Kessler is seeking an injunction ordering the Duffers to stop using his concepts and to destroy all materials based on those concepts, as well as restitution, lost profits and punitive damages. An attorney for the Duffer Brothers has responded to the lawsuit, telling Deadline that the claim is “completely meritless”. The attorney goes on to say: “He [Kessler] had no connection to the creation or development of ‘Stranger Things’. The Duffer Brothers have neither seen Mr. Kessler’s short film nor discussed any project with him. This is just an attempt to profit from other people’s creativity and hard work.” The suit comes as renegotiations are underway with the show’s young cast members whom will each reportedly score pay raises to around twelve times that of their previous salaries.

Also, in my experience, they don't send you an email asking if you want to take a super duper secret HHN survey. They send you a boring as sin one, with a simple "Have you attended Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando in the past?" and after you answer that, you may be presented with a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) laying out the rules for what you are going to see. Businesses take these VERY seriously, I have to give them out for stuff at my company and our legal teams require that I hold on to the physical papers that were signed for 10 years and I can be audited to see if I have them. Something like this pretty much is just to cover their butts in case people talk and amounts to little more than the "Continuing to this site means you agree to our site using cookies." It's something to be taken seriously (especially with tracking cookies), but nobody cares Of course, if they see stuff showing up on sites like this that would have the adverse affect of making them pull back on the info they put in the survey. While a majority is never going to happen, they do get legit feedback from past attendees so that could help....and probably has helped in the proliferation of IPs versus originals from all the GP that do the survey and only go for the IPs. But I find them fun....being in marketing myself I like to see what they are possibly thinking of doing or, more likely, something SIMILAR to the content of the survey to see how likely people would be interested in something "in the same vein" that they are actually contemplating.

Not sure if this video is going to work...but this was after already passing them for a WHILE and taking a bunch of pics. It was insane how many people it was. Trip was great, but it was mainly for my 7 year old nephew. Did 4 days at Magic Kingdom and then 1 each at Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Did mostly half days starting around noon-3 and staying until close. That's about all he can handle. His favorite ride at Magic Kingdom? THE PEOPLE MOVER!!!! His favorite park? Epcot. LOVED Soarin'. He's not your typical 7 year old and this was the anti-HHN trip. Next year we're going to try to add a day or two at Universal and one at Sea World. The last 2 years we had gone to Yankees Spring Training games and Legoland. Left NY when it was 19-degrees and got home the day after a Nor'Easter dumped 14" of snow here...and now we're supposed to get up to 18". Been a weird 2 weeks.

I just went on a family vacation to Disney last week so I'll chime in with a little bit of info that was new to me. We went from Sat to Sat and the first two days we went were INSANE. Disney has a crap ton of races that week and it draws in thousands of people. Here's one picture of a half marathon that had 25,000 participants. They had to show up at 3am for a 5am start time. This picture was taken at 9:30am on our way into the park...it was all the walkers just doing the race. This went on for MILES. They all then went to the park(s). When we parked they had no tram service as they were dedicated to the race and we parked out in the farthest lot. They were allowed to wear costumes during the race and then wear them into the event so long as they didn't have something obsuring their face no matter what their age. (At the end of the day we were on a monorail with a bunch of participants so this is where I got all the info). They said it was VERY expensive to do the race and they had really nice looking medals. Some had as many as 5-7 on. They came from everywhere from Ft Lauderdale to Baton Rouge to Sacramento. They said it was VERY expensive to do the race, but it was worth it. The medals from the race are the envy of all their friends. The lines the first couple days we were there were INSANE. Like everything 90min plus. Then they significantly died down. There was press EVERYWHERE. If Universal wants in on this craze and can draw in 10,000 runners, generate revenue, contribute to a charity, get press to show up, and introduce thousands of new people to the event it's a great idea on their part. A 5K might be open to younger people, but a longer race wouldn't add to the "childfication" of the event. If you had them running during the event and a finish line giving out prizes and stuff, people would show up for the spectacle of it all and would drunkenly cheer them on all night. Freddy Kruger and Twisty could greet the finishers and Pennywise could hand out the medals. It could be fun...even for fatasses like me who can't run 5 meters let along 5 kilometers EDIT: The race ran through the park(s) before they opened, so a very unique experience for the runners, and not sure exactly where they ended...but if you had a race NEAR universal that ended somewhere in the park (without them running through the park) that would be really cool.

Event Weather: 0/10 By far the worst weather we’ve had on any trip…including when we were down during a Hurricane a few years ago. Thursday was 93 with a real feel of 102…but there was no HHN that day (thanks Microsoft). Friday the rain held off until 6pm. Did the S&S at Finnegan’s and left and went straight to The Shining. Halfway through the neverending maze in the concert queue it started drizzling. Then raining. Then POURING…right about when the line stopped moving. Stood there with zero shelter for a good 10 minutes. Sat was the worst day and after the Friday fiasco, didn’t even go until 11pm and stayed until closing. Did both shows that night and a couple houses. Sunday, that they were forecasting to be the worst day, was actually the best and the only time we really saw all the scareactors (though a lot seemed to be missing from the IP zone). Overall Event: 8/10 Houses rated a solid 10. Blumhouse was the only one my group didn’t care for. The facades, where they had them, were amazing. Both shows were solid. The real weakspot was unfortunately the Scare Zones. I’ve been on record often saying I prefer the Scare Zones to the Houses…but this year they were horrible. The Purge was probably the best in terms of atmosphere and scares. Trick R Treat was the best to walk through but had pretty much zero scares. Their directions seemed to be to walk directly at people and turn away at the last second without so much as lunging at them or screaming or anything. Invasion looked great and the costumes/masks were great….but they just paced around. The only person doing anything was the soldier by the sandbags. 100% Spoiler Free Rankings (may update this review in a week or two after I’ve had more time to think about it). Houses Scarecrow – Amazing house with the best scares and cast in the whole event. Dead Waters – Pretty much any other year, this would be #1 without a doubt. JAWDROPPING FACADE Ash vs Evil Dead – Love the movies, love the show, loved the house. The one “can’t believe they did it!” gag was great…except the time we went through and there was nobody in it. Those who have already gone through it can imagine how weird that looked. The Shining – Looked great, low on scares. Twins were amazing though. Hive – The actors BROUGHT it. They really need to get BLACK ear plugs though…nothing like shining black lights on people with neon orange earplugs. First time that a smell effect actually felt right and helped with immersion. AHS – I hadn’t seen any of these seasons so I wasn’t all that impressed. I blame myself for that. There were a couple good scares. The Fallen – The disappointment of the event in my mind. Came in with sky high hopes and it was a huge let down. Lots of eye candy sets…but just boring. The coolest creatures were just there to do their thing and not even try to scare. Saw – Same problems as the first time…it’s all about timing. Horrors of Blumhouse – Other than The Purge I haven’t seen any of the movies from this house. Did nothing for me. Zones Trick R Treat – Looked amazing. Should have not bothered with having Scareactors in it. Would have been just as good without any actors as they didn’t add anything…should have added the actors to the Alters of Horror zone. Invasion! – Thought it was just as good as last year’s zone here, but was even more cramped and no real scares to be had at all. The Purge – Worked just as well as before, the one stage was boring, but the rest was entertaining. Clowns in Springfield (and front of the park…ran into a couple there) – Same old same old. They bring it. Alters of Horror – Where were all the scareactors? And can we stop calling it a selfie / photo op zone? It’s like they were explicitly told NOT to allow pictures. Also, we went through this and never saw the Twins or the Bear if they were actually there. Pablo just kept doing the same “scare” over and over. Festival of the Deadliest – had a lot of stages to be used…but scareactors were NEVER on them. Only saw the antler chicks one night before it got dark...never saw them at night. I blame the weather for that. Shows Academy of Villains – Was just awesome. Hope that the stage fiasco means they’ll be back next year with the full show. The painting was awesome. Bill and Ted’s – Was OK. I’ve said it before, I’m getting too old to get all the references. My breakdown would be 25% were hilarious, 50% I didn’t really get, and 25% I understood but didn’t really care about. They seemed like they upped the cursing and lewdness a bit which is great. This might be the tiniest of tiny spoilers: They never got in the phonebooth! They used to get in and out a few times a show. That really stood out. Unmasking the Horror Tour: 0/10 First time in the past 10 years I didn't do the tour. The photo bullshit means I won't be doing it ever again. If seeing Deep Waters' facade didn't make me relent, nothing will. I'm not paying $150 after taxes for Story Time. Already spent $300 for 3 nights (once again, thanks Microsoft) so not paying half that again to get to look at the houses with lights on and have arbitrary rules about what you can and can't take pictures of.

They are the "After 10 Express Passes". They routinely sell out and you can buy them any time of the day and starting at 10:00on, you can do each house once with the pass. They used to advertise them around the park, but haven't for years.

Because Florida companies that make scaffolding, temporary structures, other infrastructure, etc don't have more important things to do in Florida right now.... My brother in law worked for a company that did work like this. He erected stages and stuff for bands like U2 in non-union areas. He built temporary structures and also did stuff like change the aircraft warning lights on 500' radio towers. Licensed climber, electrician, among other things I can't remember. My sister made him quit when she got pregnant since it was so dangerous. He saw a foreman have his leg crushed to point of having to have it amputated by a concrete jersey barrier anchoring a guy wire that came loose during a stage set up for a county fair. I've been bored by a ton of stories at Thanksgiving Dinners. It's not a trivial thing. You need signature upon signature from inspections to erect and break down such a structure. WHY have a redundant stage when you have rated to withstand Cat 5 hurricanes? Do they have a spare spinning Universal globe just in case? Do they have a full spare track for The Hulk just in case? Of course not...regardless of the storage they have.

Done more? ...like put giant fans by the stage to blow the hurricane away from it? MacGyver'd a half ass fix? The stage is not only complex, but it's highly customized. If there was even a 1% chance that there was any kind of loss of structural integrity on it, they absolutely had to not allow anybody to perform on it. And as for repairs and stuff, I don't think the local Home Depot stocks parts for the stage. They surely had structural engineers come in to inspect it. And when they decided to take it down, they probably had to have them inspect it further to ensure the safety of the crew doing the dismantling. Universal paid for the production and everything, they're not doing this out of some kind of laziness. You need look no further than the Indiana (or was it Iowa...can't be 100% certain) State Fair tragedy to see what can happen. The fact that they didn't COMPLETELY take down the stage before the hurricane surely means it was rated to withstand the strongest hurricane imaginable as there was a potential for 150+ mph wind gusts in Orlando. With daily thunderstorms and freak occurrences like crazy down force winds (that just flattened trees in a big part of NY by me a few years ago) you can't half ass something like this or count on it having the promised structural integrity.

Updates from IU from 9/21...wine is now being sold at carts and they were starting to reconstruct the AoV stage earlier today. EDIT: Tagging on this mostly non-event related blurb...because people have been speculating about the Amityville snow globe at Krampus last year: Following years on the shelf and multiple delays, The Weinstein Company and Blumhouse are finally set to release “Amityville: The Awakening” in about the only way possible – for free. The horror film will be available for free exclusively on Google Play from October 12th to November 8th. http://www.darkhorizons.com/amityville-being-released-free-on-google-play/

WOW! Thanks for such a comprehensive write up...that's crazy what you were allowed and not allowed to do. They don't want you taking pictures of the sensitive stuff like dead babies, but hey, tens of thousands of people can walk by them every night. And they're Uni originals. The IPs are ridiculous too. Sounds like they're just letting you take a couple pics per house so that they can say you can take photos of EVERY house and be correct on a technicality. If they said nothing for the parts from Insidious 4 that hasn't come out yet, that would actually make a bit of sense. But to say you can't take pictures of scenes that you have on DVD at home is just nonsense. Did they make you stay in a tight group to ensure nobody was taking pictures of the restricted stuff, or were you allowed to stay a room or two behind the group? Not like I'm talking about taking pics I'm not supposed to but I wanted to try to take some 360-degree pictures of a few rooms when there's nobody else in them. I wonder what their stance is on 360 pictures....they aren't video, but rather a collection of stills...but it suuuuuure looks like you're filming video when you do it. I wish they had a Photo Tour option...where it would be the 4 originals for $100 or something. That would be pretty awesome. Have it like one day a week during the event, and have a photographer be the tour guide and give you advice for how to compose shots and stuff like that.

I can't 100% guarantee it, but if you go that day early in the morning and ask them, they'd probably be willing to change you from AM to PM if needed. A couple years ago my friend decided to do it at the last minute and it was listed as sold out, we went and asked if there was any way they could get him in. They told us to buy a ticket for the next day and they'd transfer it for us. He ordered from his phone, ran to the kiosk, and got in the tour and they added him as a +1 (with pen to the print out) with me to make sure we were in the same group. The VIP people are VERY accommodating and it's only the last 3 or so years you've been able to buy a ticket for the tours...you used to have to call VIP, get them to email you a form, that you then had to fax to them (they wouldn't even accept emailing it back) and then go on blind faith that they had you for the tour. If you called VIP to confirm you were on the list, they'd say something generic like "If you faxed it to the number provided with the correct info, you're in."

It's definitely clear as mud...that's why I'm trying to keep my summary post updated to at least be a bit helpful. Everywhere I look I see contradictions on everything from price, availability, if there's wine, someone even posted a picture with a heart jello shot allegedly from Orlando that pretty much is universally posted as not being available, etc, etc, etc. I'm a beer only drinker so I'm the least affected by this, but a bunch of my group are mix drink people so was trying to put together a clear summary for them.

NEVER got them or wore them. Nor did I go to PT. Yeah, I'm stupid like that...

Thanks for the update. Over on IU someone said it cost $26 for two drinks and $25.40 for two refills. Must have been a Hollywood person on the wrong forum Will update my original post.

I'm relatively new to photography too and never took a class or anything. If you're shooting with fast glass, put it on Av or A (Aperture mode) and set your f stop the (ummmm, I always get confused with saying larger and smaller) lowest number you can. Like if you have an f/1.8 - f/12 lens, go with f/1.8. Shoot on RAW+JPEG mode. You can be like me and take pictures that look horrible and washed out and then easily correct it in RAW format If you are using a zoom lens...don't use the zoom. Shoot at the widest setting you can and use your feet to get you closer or further from the subject. When you zoom in, the camera usually allows in less light often forcing a change in your settings. Shooting on Aperture priority mode means that your camera will pick the best shutter speed for the light conditions based on you choosing the aperture. This will let you get the most crisp photos with as little blur as possible without you having to continually play with the shutter speed to compensate for fog and other movements. It has an effect on Depth of Field...but I'm not smart enough to know how to explain it. Another option is to get something like a gorillapod that is small and light and use it to mount your camera on top of a garbage can / smoke machine / whatever and take a long exposure where people walking around will just be a blur/light trail and you'll get a good shot of the zone with dynamic lighting. You can get the DSLR+Zoom one for like $50 on Amazon and it comes with a rotating ball head. You can use it to mount your camera to any railing as well...however...they aren't PERFECT and if you don't mount it properly and are using a heavy lens, it could fall. https://www.amazon.com/GorillaPod-Flexible-Ballhead-Mirrorless-Cameras/dp/B002FGTWOC/ The best bet is to get a 50mm or 35mm (this would be my personal choice as I got a 50mm and feel like it's zoomed in a bit too much for me...and 35mm is approximately what the human eye sees) prime lens. That means you can't zoom at all and you can get a f/1.8 for like $200 and a f/1.4 for a bit more. I have a Nikon so not sure about Canon prices. The lack of motors and mirrors for zoom and stuff make the lenses a better quality for the most part. You sacrifice flexibility, but get cleaner shots as the lens is so much simpler. Adjusting your ISO to 1600, 3200 or even 6400 can help a great deal as well, but the higher you set it to more digital noise you get...it's a fine line you have to figure out based on your camera and your tolerance for the artifacts that it adds...but for night photography it can make a HUGE difference. That's an idiot's guide to taking pictures at the event....an idiot's guide because it was written by an idiot Some not quite so idiotic advice: https://photographylife.com/low-light-digital-photography-tips https://expertphotography.com/capture-great-photos-low-light/

I've seen 3 fights since HHN14. One was at Bill & Ted (MIGHT have been the Bushwood Magic Show or RHPS, was definitely a show and like a decade ago) where a guy stood up an started punching a guy sitting behind him. Not 100% sure what happened, but the puncher's girlfriend/wife stood up and basically poured beer out of her purse when they were being ushered out and her shirt was soaking wet. I think the punchee spilled a whole beer on her and her purse. Second time was some schmuck trying to start something with a group of guys who just ignored him for a while. Then he flipped off a guy's hat and started to take off and crashed into someone and the guy came and punched him in the face twice....and then just walked back to his group of friends like nothing even happened. You could argue neither were really fights as they were one sided and, to an extent, justified. Lastly, saw a couple 18ish year olds fighting outside the SF restrooms by Bill and Ted's...both throwing punches but not landing much. Then one of the guys either fell off the sidewalk, or tripped on the step up to the curb and went down and the other guy split. I've seen more fights at at every individual sporting event and large concert I've been to than I've seen at all the HHN's combined. Last year (or maybe the year before) I saw security carrying a passed out girl and recently saw a guy on the ground handcuffed yelling and screaming about something. Also, last year (according to an event coordinator on a podcast) some 22 year old punks got wasted, somehow stole potatoes from Twisted Taters, and were throwing them at scareactors in SanFran. Saw someone else getting cuffed at the "old" security with the officer holding a bag full of minibar bottles of liquor. And, hilariously, some kid who looked waaaay underage had tried to sneak a huge bottle of Jack Daniels stuffed in his shorts and when security called him on it, he took it out and then just bolted into the crowd between old security and ticket swipe. Not sure if they got him or not. That's about it. That's pretty amazing given the atmosphere and (previous) overabundance of easily accessible alcohol. And, as my second paragraph of stories illustrate, the worst drunks that cause the few problems that there are will just try to sneak in their liquor anyway.

Limits your ability....or enhances it? That's debatable. Some would argue it limits your awareness of your surroundings and makes you more open to scares. And while some of us might be raging alcoholics, for a lot of us it's a part of the trip as we have real lives as responsibilities at home that may or may not include jobs, kids, other dependents, etc. and this vacation is a time to cut lose and have some drinks. Many of us stay in local hotels and take shuttles/cabs to the event when at home we all have to drive home from bars. Etc, etc, etc. It's our vacation to escape reality for a few nights and go into a world of horror which also allows us us to drink alcohol (to excess) in a way that doesn't have any adverse consequences for our jobs/families/public, etc. Someone who has responsibilities 360 days throughout the year looking forward to 5 days of vacation where they get to have jello shots they purchase form a scantily clad young lady that they look forward to all year...that's a shame that they can't have that experience for some crazy reason. Now, 22 year old locals who drive to the event, get wasted, and throw potatoes at scareactors are just assholes and a completely different story. And you know what? They'll STILL get belligerently drunk. Pregaming, sneaking in liquor, spending whatever they have to do get to that point through the alcohol available, etc. And, as shocking as this may sound, there is such a thing as drinking in moderation where you have a few beers throughout the course of night where you walk 10 miles and metabolize it super fast...and getting so drunk that you get lost in houses, don't understand them, and puke in the bushes.

When I broke my ankle my Dr recommended compression socks if I felt like I needed added support and was quick to point out that you ALWAYS wear them under your regular socks. Regular socks tend to sag and roll up and if they are under the compression socks, that could cause circulation issues. If they roll up and then are subjected to the compression that could cause an issue. I THINK he also said something about it hindering the healing process from lack of bloodflow (though I assumed it was already healed if I was walking on it). He recommended a particular type for my type of injury...but I can't remember now. Google to find more about it, but that's what I was told by an Orthopedic Surgeon 2 years ago. He told me more, like how to put them on for max results, but I honestly can't remember as I didn't pay attention (I'm an idiot like that, I never went to PT either). Take this with a grain of salt...but seems logical so I think I'm remembering correctly.