Oysterhead00
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Posts posted by Oysterhead00
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A few pics from what you were allowed to take
TWD wasn't part of the tour, but our Tour Guide brought us by the Facade since that's all we were allowed to take pictures of.
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16 minutes ago, criticalanalysis said:
FYI HHN 26 is getting scathing reviews online.
Where are you seeing that? If you say Twitter or FB I'll just laugh, because a majority of those people are trolls who just like to complain about everything....so I'm sure that's how you found it
I thought this year was stellar as far as the event goes. Yes, I'm pissed about the UTH ordeal and that I had to shell out $80 more for my ticket this year (but Express was truely express this year, didn't wait longer than 20min for a single house), but the event itself was top notch. Other than Chance, all the houses were amazing. The Scare Zones were really strong. Bill and Ted's was great and Academy of Villains was amazing and a great change of pace for the event. The HHN Store/Museum was fantastic. They tied for the most houses ever and introduced something new with the VR upcharge house (I won't include in that in my house count as it was an upcharge and not part of the event itself). They got rid of the ridiculous security that would take an hour to go through, got rid of the flashlights that all the ushers had, and actually had a house shirt worth buying this year. Hell, The Walking Dead is getting great reviews even from people who were dreading it. They had 3 awesome event mixed drinks and greatly expanded the draft beer options at the beverage kiosks. They brought back the 3D projection technology and introduced amazing new FX in the Halloween house. By all measures, the event is a rousing success.
Google Halloween Horror Nights 26 Reviews and these are the first 5 reviews that come up (well, there's a hit at #4 that isn't really a review, so I skipped that one). Not me picking and choosing to prove my point, rather picking the first 5 actual reviews to show up on the search.
http://www.zam.com/article/1103/universal-orlando-halloween-horror-nights-26-review
http://orlandounited.com/2016/09/halloween-horror-nights-26-review/
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Some other things to add....
We were told that all single tours would be doing Ghost Town, both AM and PM. Makes sense since it's the only one you're allowed to take pictures in, but not sure what house gets left out of the generally accepted lineups stated at the beginning....or if they just add it to the tour that originally didn't cover it.
Also, the AM/PM combo was a bit different year, we did Krampus, Halloween II, TCM, and Excorcist in the AM. We were then brought back to Blueman Group and had about 80min for lunch out in City Walk (lunch isn't in the park this year). We then did AHS and Ghost Town in the afternoon.
My guess is because AHS is so big and popular and Ghost Town is the only place you are allowed to take pictures, they wanted to give you as much time as possible in those two houses.
We were also brought back to Blueman Group at the conclusion of the tour and not the usual "I assume everybody here has day park tickets, so we'll just break up here" thing they've done every combo/PM tour I've done before.
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Oops, just realized I forgot TWD. It was actually quite good this year. Lots of good scares and the set pieces were awesome. It wasn't just a rehash like everybody thought it was, but a "retelling" and it really worked. The house was a bit on the darkside so I completely missed a whole room the first time through...it was a cool set piece with a zombie but it was just too damn dark. Saw it the 2 other times we went through though. Seemed like it had more traditional boo scares this year and less of the wandering around zombies that would periodically scare random people.
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Just got home after getting up at 4am to catch our flight so it's going to be a random and spoiler free review.
First statement that many will disagree with: The houses were BETTER this year than last year. Scarezones looked pretty good this year, but were a bit lacking.
- American Horror Story. I didn't start watching it until we week before we left so only made it through like 10 episodes of Freakhouse but the house was AMAZING. Tons of Scares throughout. By far my favorite house of the event. Consistently awesome all 4 times we went through it and it was the overwhelming favorite of everybody in my group.
- Tomb of the Ancients. Just a really cool cramped house....yank the vines/ropes in the beginning.
- Ghost Town. AMAZING sets, but a little lacking on the scares. And those rumors about no guns in the houses this year? Not so much.
- Halloween II. There are a shit ton of Michael Myers in this house! At least 40 regular ones, plus ones with unique names....just based on seeing signs for the boo holes with character names like "Michael Myers #29 & #30" on the tour. That might be for both casts so it could be half the number...or it could be a dual scare area and counts as 2. Not sure. But even if the numbers were cut in half, there are at least 25. I was soooooo underwhelmed by this house the first time through, but my 2 friends (others hadn't flown in yet) LOVED it. I just missed all the scares. The following 3 times through were great.
- TCM. Visually stunning, the Leatherfaces are HUGE and great! The other scares are a bit weak/generic. The ending of the house is AMAZING with the "window" and other stuff I won't get into to keep this spoiler free.
- Krampus. Loved the house even though it didn't come close to meeting my expectations. From the UTH Tour we learned A&D wanted to have the front facade have the snowmen and Krampus on the roof of the house, but it just couldn't be done in Shrek. You walk in and the house is only like 5-10 feet in front of you so your viewing perspective is too narrow to do much. Oh, and the gingerbread men have little asses on them. Also, the tour was amazing since there is a RIDICULOUS amount of detail that you couldn't possibly see in the dark even if you went through the house 100 times.
- Chance. I LOVE 3D houses, but this was pretty boring. The 3D effects are much better this year, but it wasn't all that interesting...until Sat night. For whatever reason, we missed most of the scares every other time and there were only like 2 or 3 Chances at the end of the house. But Sat night, it seemed like there were twice the scareactors as other nights and it was actually quite enjoyable.
- Exorcist. This house was great...but lacked scares or we just missed them. Also, from the UTH Tour we learned that something was supposed to be moving during the events, but it was just stationary each time we saw it. It was good, but lacked the scares.
That's not in the order of preference, just in the order they came to my head. Also, heard a LOT of people bad mouthing Bill & Ted this year which shocked me. I LOVED it! The last few years I've only gotten like 25-50% of the pop culture references (I'm 42 so I know that's the reason why, not that the references were bad or anything) but I got 95% of them this year (didn't know who the hell the weird sunglasses / goggle guy was) and thought it was great. A fair amount of cursing and some pretty risque jokes had it feeling like it did when we first started going almost 15 years ago.
Last but not least, THANK GOD they took the flashlights away from the ushers! I think we only saw one the whole event. My friend even went the wrong way at one turn and a scareactor just told him "GET OUT!". Ha ha ha. Part of this might be due to the crowds...the lines seemed REALLY short this year. AHS and TWD get ridiculous, but with express we never waited more than 20min even when AHS was 120 minutes. Some houses we literally walked right in when the waits were between 15-40 min.
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9 hours ago, TheBlueBlazer said:
It is absolutely mind boggling that it's been a week and they've still not resolved the issue. I wonder if they've handled any partial refunds, for if you still would like to do the tour, but it's unfair for those who aren't allowed take photos, while we paid the same price as those who were able to. I'm really crossing my fingers that they're able to get this resolved by this weekend. Really breaks my heart to not be able to photograph the tour this year.
We were told this was the new rule for rest of this year and the website no longer says you get to photograph everything.
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The honey beaver cookie jar thing is in the AHS house as is a cloth with Jack the Clown on it (both in the bus).
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Yesterday, during a crazy storm that turned into a Murder Death Kill storm, we got let out of Finnegan's at 5:40ish. We had done the UTH Tour earlier and were trying to get up front to meet our friends coming in the main gate, but it was all closed off and it took us a while to get up there. They didn't let the Hello Kitty zone out until 6:10 which was pretty crazy. When they let it out it instantly went to 40min and by the time our friends got through the front gate at 6:35ish it was already at 90min and people were lined up to the street.
If you have express, you REALLY don't need to do the stay and scream. The new security screening is SOOOOOOOOO much easier! We never waited more than 15 min to get through security or more than 5min to get into the event itself. When AHS said it had 120min wait time, we honestly didn't wait any more than 15 min. Chance we honestly walked directly in to...all 3 times we did it. Used express each time just because we knew we wouldn't do it again, but the posted wait times were between 15-40min and the regular line couldn't have been more than 5 or 10 max.
Attendance seems to be down this year and Express seems to be about 75% less crowded than last year. We always go the last weekend in Sept/first weekend in Oct.
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I just did the tour yesterday. We had 15 people in our AM/PM group and they told us about the no picture policy and 4 or 5 people from our group punched out. They will give you a full refund on the spot as they know people will opt out.
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4 minutes ago, JDW said:
It is is money in the bank. But it hinges on being able to take pictures. If the ban remains, interest will fall dramatically and it will no longer make mad money.
Couldn't agree more...and that's what I was trying to say. They'd be pissing away hundreds of thousands of "free" dollars. I guess my scatterbrainedness of finishing up stuff for work, getting this news, last minute packing, and...well, an adult beverage or two have me throwing up half-assed posts
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8 minutes ago, JDW said:
Agree this may be the death nail in the UMTH tour.
Actually, I was saying whatever the inciting incident was, was in the past....HOPEFULLY not tour itself.
Sure hope this storm blows over and they come to their senses (after all the outrage this week...my tickets are for next weekend) and reinstate the photography angle with some new rules/limits/whatever in place to make everybody happy.
I can't see them getting rid of the tour. It's thousands and thousands of dollars every day with salaried (I assume) VIP tourguides so it's just money in the bank.
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57 minutes ago, _Veritas_ said:
I'm going to assume that that is probably what happened, although if it is I'm curious of the story as to why. Hell, I'm curious anyway. Def seems to have caused a huge uproar, and it makes me wonder if it IS a problem one of the IPs getting the tour if they'll change up the schedule and do a different house for future weeks so people can keep taking pictures.
Regardless it sucks, especially for those that were not really giving any forewarning and it being advertised otherwise.
That's why it doesn't make sense. TWD obviously doesn't care since they've been on the tour before and Tombs and Chance (while there are issues with both for being on the tour) are originals. So if there is/are 1, 2 or even 3 IPs with their panties in a bunch, they have options to swap in.
There's something behind this that doesn't make any sense. Maybe people with cameras are taking full videos with the lights on? I know they stress NO VIDEO on the tours, maybe people have been recording the houses plus the audio of the tour guides or something?
EDIT: Regardless, whatever happened it's over and done...can't get the toothpaste back in the tube. Plus they say "up to 3/6 houses" so dropping one would still be covered if there wasn't a replacement option....removing the photo option breaks the T&C's outlined for the tour.
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58 minutes ago, OrangeRyan said:
This is fucking ridiculous...... They shouldn't have all the IPs then if we can't enjoy the house with pictures.... Bull shit. (Sorry for the bad language)
There is a time and a place for F-Bombs....and this is one of those times
Highlight of my trip just went down the shitter...the day before I get on the plane down.
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The only explanation I can think of is that someone did the tours already and was actively SELLING pictures they took and that caused the problem. Nothing else makes sense.
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33 minutes ago, ScottEdmondson41 said:
nope universal just confirmed it on twitter. I'm so glad I did the tour last weekend before this happened. Tour is now ruined
Pardon my french, but fuck them. Will be getting a refund as soon as I get there. Didn't pay $130 for story time.
Enjoy exclusive VIP entrance to Universal Studios Florida™ with a guided walking tour of up to three houses per tour (six for the combination tour), a commemorative Halloween Horror Nights lanyard and the chance to photograph every gruesome moment.-
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31 minutes ago, warp3dali3n said:
Someone just posted on Facebook that they are on a tour now and a new rule is in place: You aren't allowed to take pictures in the IP houses. Can anyone else confirm?
That's 99.9% BS. But in the 0.1% chance that it's legit, I'll raise holy hell next weekend and demand a refund.
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20 minutes ago, Avic77 said:
Where is the hello kitty store? i found the restr on the USO sites map but i cant locate hello kitty
It might still show up as I Love Lucy / Betty Boop in Hollywood. They're the old shops in the same location. Scan your ticket, enter the park, look at a candy store on the corner to your right and the huge merchandise store on your left, walk forward to the next intersection and it's there on your right. The street that leads to Terminator 3D.
EDIT: I've never done the S&S there, but I know that's the general area. Finnegan's has beer and that's where I go
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18 hours ago, Jediwhit82 said:
I've been checking the App, and it looks like with the exception of Rock-it, every ride and thing not HHN related is dead during the event, like walk right on to mummy and transformers.
Don't ask me WHERE I saw it, because I can't remember, but someone posted/tweeted out pics of the house/ride wait times a couple days over opening weekend. The Mummy was always like an hour (I think they said because the store takes up the one option for going on the ride where the queue usually splits, so it was running at half capacity) and Rip Rocket was all over the place, but always over 30 min. Transformers and Harry Potter were like 5-15min. Can't remember what MIB was as I didn't really care.
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1 hour ago, Jediwhit82 said:
What do the sizes go up to this year?
https://www.universalorlando.com/Merchandise/Gift/Halloween-Horror-Nights-26-Adult-T-Shirt.html
That shirt is available up to XXXL
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5 minutes ago, duh1011 said:
I'm pretty disappointed that the roaming hordes all are chainsaw-based. That ruins the theming of most of them and honestly I'm sad that Uni felt the need to stick chainsaws on everything. Scarecrows and geishas with chainsaws? Come on. They were so close to making the hordes really special this year.
Well, they kinda don't have many choices for roaming hoards since they don't have any props to hide behind or heavy fog to surprise you from. A few years ago when they had the guys with the "bang cane" things, they were still too little of a noise to really scare you even when they snuck up on you. They really need something as loud and sudden as the chainsaws to startle you. Can't think of any thing that a scarecrow would legitimately have access to that could pull that off (yes, a shotgun for the scare crows...but we all know that wasn't an option for this year).
Would be cool for them to have some kind of system where the scareactors had speakers "hidden" in their costumes and a way to trigger a LOUD sound for their scares. But the logistics of constantly charging, wiring, rain issues, etc, etc, etc limits it to having to be something like a chainsaw that just needs gas every few hours.
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2 minutes ago, ForeverEvil1 said:
Well thinking about what's not being used:
TWD is mostly stuff seen before.
Lunatics is 3D House with nothing particularly groundbreaking.
Tomb could work...maybe too cramped? I could see that.
Oh, I'm happy about it...but thought A&D's "Crown Jewel" or the "Icon House" would have to be on it. I LOVE TWD show and always enjoyed it on the house tours (think I've done it 3x with lights on and always enjoyed the lights on sight seeing more than the night house itself) but am happy the "Best of" house isn't being included as I'd have already seen most of it.
I would personally prefer Tomb over Halloween regardless of cramped space or anything else just as it sounds 100x more interesting scenic wise (I haven't been reading reviews or looking at pictures so I'm just basing that out of stuff pulled out of my @$$) and more in it for the photo ops than the behind the scene stories.
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Wow, 5 IPs and 1 original. Pretty surprised by that. Thanks for the info!
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16 hours ago, OrangeRyan said:
AM- Ghost Town, The Exorcist, American Horror Story
PM- Krampus, Texas Chainsaw and something else
Is that confirmed...or your guess? I nope it's confirmed and the "something else" is Tomb of the Ancients
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Once the event has started, the entire forum and every HHN Fan site should be considered Spoiler Territory.
You shouldn't be reading rumor sites for info if you don't want to know said info...especially when it is no longer rumors but is fact.
Better tell Mike and Murdy not to post anything on twitter that might spoil it for Critical. Then again, the more spoiler stuff posted the more he can complain about and be happy.
If you DVR'd a UFC fight and don't want to know the outcome before you watch it, you avoid ESPN, CNN, Facebook, etc, etc, etc. That's just common sense. If you don't want to find out about HHN before you go, don't visit HHN sites. You've been warned....regardless of the size of my font.
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duh1011's Unpopular Opinions Review
in Reviews
Posted
3 out of the 4 times we went through whoever had the trigger for the "That's My Gold!" was waaaaay too trigger happy. He tried to trigger it and swipe at every single person in the Conga Line. It was a bit ridiculous and we all took note of it. The other pass, I'm assuming was the other cast, and it wasn't as crazy where you'd hear it 1.5 rooms before and 1.5 after.