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HHN XX Rants


Michele
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I just got back from enjoying this awesome event two nights in a row and I will do a full review as soon as I can but I had one BIG problem with the event:

*Note: I'm not sure if this should go in the alcohol at HHN thread or not, but since this is a rant thread, I'll write it here:

This is supposed to be the nation's premiere Halloween event, yet they don't sell any regular energy drinks. I was feeling kinda worn out in the evening since I spent the day at Islands so I asked where I could buy Full Throttle or something to keep me up. I was pointed to one of those bar stands and it said, "Full Throttle" on it. My first thought was "Yes! They sell energy drinks here!" When I asked for one, they asked for my ID and said they only sell alcoholic energy drinks. WTC!? Alcoholic Monster drinks! Really? Coming from the Hollywood event, I'm used to them selling energy plain ol' energy drinks every five feet you see. I really don't see why it's so cotton pickin' hard for them to just sell plain ol' Full Throttles and Monsters. I mean, why would people want to be energized and be drunk at the same time? Don't they realize some people just need energy without being drunk?

Now let's get to the alcohol itself. That really disrupted the event for me with all of those drunks around. I rode the Jaws ride since I thought it would be cool to ride at night, and some guy in the row behind me (Who I saw finish up his whopping can of beer in the line) was yelling, "It's Jaws! I told you it was him!" The whole time. <_< I had another unpleasant experience with a couple of drunkards behind me while in the hour-long line for the Orfanage. This guy behind me with his beer was cussing his head off and complaining about how long the line was. Then he and his girlfriend started singing loudly, then make out, then bicker at each other, and bump into me the whole time we were moving in line.

Reading my rant about the alcohol and the lack of energy drinks makes me more thankful that I live close to Hollywood. :D

Ive always said we should become a dry event like hollywood...

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I just got back from enjoying this awesome event two nights in a row and I will do a full review as soon as I can but I had one BIG problem with the event:

*Note: I'm not sure if this should go in the alcohol at HHN thread or not, but since this is a rant thread, I'll write it here:

This is supposed to be the nation's premiere Halloween event, yet they don't sell any regular energy drinks. I was feeling kinda worn out in the evening since I spent the day at Islands so I asked where I could buy Full Throttle or something to keep me up. I was pointed to one of those bar stands and it said, "Full Throttle" on it. My first thought was "Yes! They sell energy drinks here!" When I asked for one, they asked for my ID and said they only sell alcoholic energy drinks. WTC!? Alcoholic Monster drinks! Really? Coming from the Hollywood event, I'm used to them selling energy plain ol' energy drinks every five feet you see. I really don't see why it's so cotton pickin' hard for them to just sell plain ol' Full Throttles and Monsters. I mean, why would people want to be energized and be drunk at the same time? Don't they realize some people just need energy without being drunk?

Now let's get to the alcohol itself. That really disrupted the event for me with all of those drunks around. I rode the Jaws ride since I thought it would be cool to ride at night, and some guy in the row behind me (Who I saw finish up his whopping can of beer in the line) was yelling, "It's Jaws! I told you it was him!" The whole time. <_< I had another unpleasant experience with a couple of drunkards behind me while in the hour-long line for the Orfanage. This guy behind me with his beer was cussing his head off and complaining about how long the line was. Then he and his girlfriend started singing loudly, then make out, then bicker at each other, and bump into me the whole time we were moving in line.

Reading my rant about the alcohol and the lack of energy drinks makes me more thankful that I live close to Hollywood. :D

They do sell just regular energy drinks. They sell Monsters for $6.00 at the Men in Black store over by Havoc...

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They do sell just regular energy drinks. They sell Monsters for $6.00 at the Men in Black store over by Havoc...

They're at some of the stands too you just have to look for them. It's like how some of the stands sell the Powerades but not all of them do. Just look for them.

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It's very possible that particular Op did not see you actually put the camera away. Or, if you all you did was turn it off, that's not enough. They want to see it in your pocket or bag. Turning it off and carrying it in your hand means that you can just as simply turn it back on.

It's their job, and they are trying to do it completely. You are not suppose to be taking pictures or filming in the houses. That's why they post signs. They are enforcing the rules of the park that, if you don't follow, Universal has the authority to kick you out of.

There is a certain way to handle situations and this Op acted as if I was beating the hell out of one of the actors. She got very loud with us and followed me into the next room. To which I turned around showed her no camera was in my hands and said "fuck off". I've had Ops tell me to put my camera away or to walk faster very calmly. She was purely on a power trip.

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They do sell just regular energy drinks. They sell Monsters for $6.00 at the Men in Black store over by Havoc...

For some reason, when I got off the MIB ride, I never thought they would have something like that in there. Guess if I ever go again I'll have to remember that. :P As a West coaster, I get the vibe that if they don't sell those at any of the vendors, they don't sell 'em at all.

They're at some of the stands too you just have to look for them. It's like how some of the stands sell the Powerades but not all of them do. Just look for them.

I looked at most if not all of the vendors and I don't recall any of them selling the energy drinks. Maybe like one of them did and I just too drowsy to notice. :rolleyes:

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For some reason, when I got off the MIB ride, I never thought they would have something like that in there. Guess if I ever go again I'll have to remember that. :P As a West coaster, I get the vibe that if they don't sell those at any of the vendors, they don't sell 'em at all.

I looked at most if not all of the vendors and I don't recall any of them selling the energy drinks. Maybe like one of them did and I just too drowsy to notice. :rolleyes:

I see what you did there. I definitely 100% saw them being sold and I want to say it was in line for LT or in the Production Central house exit area.

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I was avoiding posting here, but something happened Thursday night that irked me.

A couple friends and I were standing in the alley of Saws N Steam watching the guy and his victim. We started cheering for the guy as he beat his victim, and the guy walked over and whispered "Your next" An ops came over and yelled at me for trying to talk to the guy. I never said a word to the guy, so I am not sure what he was getting on to me for. I had a couple other issues with Saws N Steam ops.. but I won't go into that <_<

Also this isn't anything to do with Universal itself, or HHN.. but Why can't people conduct themselves properly in public? If you can't handle your alcohol..don't drink. Last night was worse than the other two nights I was there. I saw so many people being held up as they walked out of the park because they were so drunk they couldn't walk. I was lucky enough to get behind obnoxious people a few times last night <_< The morons were so bad that it ruined my mood towards the end of the night, and as tired as I was .. it was pretty hard to keep my mouth shut.

/rant

Edited by Cinderelly115
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I can't tell you how I and the other scareactors LOVE it when guests try to scare us...

For one thing, if they were any good at it, they'd be getting paid for it. And for another, if someone is right behind me muggin and acting a fool and I can't see them, they might get hit with a chainsaw when I turn around. I'm not saying I'd HATE to smear oil or blood across their shirt, but I wouldn't want to take time away from scaring to explain why to a coordinator why Johny ThinksHe'sFunny is laying on the ground with my bloody shoulder imprint in his chest.

In a related rant, "Why? ", guests (usually tweeny girls, and lately boys) who just like to scream at anything. The ones who walk straight up to you and scream in your face and then walk away. Or the ones that think it's funny to run at breakneck speed through the zones. Everyone has their own idea of funny, i guess; mine is to trip those people. But again, I hate talking to coordinators about something Darwin should be applauding me for, so I refrain.

I love scaring people, and I go out of my way to add a little something extra. If I don't scare you, I'll at least make you laugh. But when these jackasses come through and try to take the show onto themselves, it ruins the experience for the guests and scareactors alike.

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I don't have many rants about this year, just one really. I wish Universal had a way to deal with those who are drinking just a little more than they should be. There is nothing more fun then being stuck behind a drunk man in Orfanage who kept screaming, "Where are all the little children?" And then continuing to inspect every hole, crack, opening, or anything he could poke his head into trying to "find the children."

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After 20 years of attending this event, I can tell you how to handle dealing with drunks: ignore them. ;)

I've seen more than my share of drunken idiots over the course of the last two decades, but I've yet to let any of them have a negative affect on my experience. To me, they aren't any worse than the screamers, the whiners, the smokers etc. Sure they are obnoxious, but there are other groups that are equally as much of a pain in the ass.

If anything, they are entertaining because they are making complete asses out of themselves and don't remotely realize it. :D

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I normally don't have much of a problem, but this year I had a BIG problem with someone. My 12 year old brother came with us this year. This was his first year attending, and he was loving it and taking it like a champ! We went through Havoc, and he's screaming and having a good time.. But at the end he got a GREAT scare and ran into this guy ahead of us by accident. The guy turned around, got up in my brothers face and yelled him, telling him to stop. He was smart enough to run off as quickly as he did, because my uncle and I were ready to rip the guy a new one.

If you don't like be pushed and shoved a little, don't come to the event at all. You're walking through haunted houses that are meant to scare you, people are gonna run into you. It's part of the experience. That's really the only thing I had a problem with this year.

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After 20 years of attending this event, I can tell you how to handle dealing with drunks: ignore them. ;)

I've seen more than my share of drunken idiots over the course of the last two decades, but I've yet to let any of them have a negative affect on my experience. To me, they aren't any worse than the screamers, the whiners, the smokers etc. Sure they are obnoxious, but there are other groups that are equally as much of a pain in the ass.

If anything, they are entertaining because they are making complete asses out of themselves and don't remotely realize it. :D

Eh... I am able to ignore them until they walk through houses in front of me and either constantly A.) stumble into me repeatedly B.) Yell vulgar things at the scareactors C.) Put people's safety at risk D.) Drunks that feel they are able to touch you/say things to you without you ripping their lower regions off.

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I normally don't have much of a problem, but this year I had a BIG problem with someone. My 12 year old brother came with us this year. This was his first year attending, and he was loving it and taking it like a champ! We went through Havoc, and he's screaming and having a good time.. But at the end he got a GREAT scare and ran into this guy ahead of us by accident. The guy turned around, got up in my brothers face and yelled him, telling him to stop. He was smart enough to run off as quickly as he did, because my uncle and I were ready to rip the guy a new one.

If you don't like be pushed and shoved a little, don't come to the event at all. You're walking through haunted houses that are meant to scare you, people are gonna run into you. It's part of the experience. That's really the only thing I had a problem with this year.

I sometimes go by myself to the event, except when my friends can go with me, so a lot of times when I am in a house, the people behind me tend to push me or sometimes even grab onto me, but I have No problem with that at all, unless they push me to the floor or hurt me, is all part of the fun, and sometimes thanks to the stupid Pulsing, I am walking in the house thinking there is no one in front of me when I run into the people in front of me, it just happens, even with Pulsing. that guy sounds really dumb if he got that angry for no reason,

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So, I felt like riding Jaws...and some drunken idiot is carrying on annoying everybody. Finally one of the staff comes up to him and says "Come with me sir, you're not riding this ride" the guy starts getting extremely defensive as if he's going to attack the staff member saying "Oh, I hope for your sake that you're not serious!" until the staff said "You're right, I'm just kidding." and he walks off....WTF?! Follow through. I was about to clap as he escorted him out, then he chickens out. Of course the guy boasts to his friends how he was going to "lay out" the staff member if he was serious enough to escort him out of the house, and a bunch of tough guy mantra of course. He went on to be loud and drunk on the ride, almost ruining it, but our skipper turned his volume up and was able to be heard over him pretty well.

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Although I've never been Ops, I was crowd control for Mardi Gras and I did something similar for Grad Bash and I seriously doubt you guys realize how rough that job can be. I had a woman yell at me during Mardi Gras because I told her to stay on the sidewalk and she didn't get enough beads because of that. That's the type of thing that happens to Ops but about 50 times worse. Do I think they are perfect, nah. All I'm saying is most of you say you would but you probably wouldn't do to much different than the average Ops person.

On the note of the guest last night, I concur. For the most part they almost felt unresponsive and were "wild".

Edited by Jakemeister
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I've said it before, but since it's an ongoing issue. . . It really pisses me off when the gates are opened at the same time that the stay and scream people are let out, which seems to be happening daily. If I would have paid for the stay and scream upgrade, I'd be demanding a refund.

Ops needs to do a better job of keeping people from blocking access to the lines. It seems like we've had to push through crowds of people to get in line. Sometimes, those people aren't too nice.

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And here is my rant!!

Drove from Atlanta (as we do every year!) and actually bought Express passes since this was the only night I could attend and being a peak night, thought it would be best to purchase Express.

And it was great, lines in Express were short (less than 10 minutes). We were able to do all houses/sz but here is my rant:

If you spend 150/person between tickets and Express passes than there SHOULD BE NO LIMIT ON HOW MANY TIMES YOU SEE A HOUSE!!! Or at least limit it to more than once!!

Most greeters in the houses were so nice if we used our passes more than once! Seriously not a single greeter gave us problems about entering twice UNTIL we got to HHN: Hallow'd Past. This was our first house of the night so naturally we wanted to go back one more time on our way out of the event. We waited in a small 5 minute line and as we had our card scanned, the greeter (whose name is JOHNATHON) became extremely rude and said "nope, you're not entering again--there is the exit" (as he rudely turned away as started scanning the folks behind us) We were so nice to him as we approached so I then asked why we couldn't enter again as it had been over 6 hours since we saw the house the first time. He rolled his eyes, looked at me and said "I don't care when you saw this house, I'm going to call security if you do not leave". Now becoming a bit more agitated I asked his name for which he promptly pointed at his name tag and rudely said "Jonathon--remember it."

Now I'm not a mean person, I'm always so friendly to the greeters as I was once a greeter many years ago, so I remember how boring of a job it is. As I left the line, I spotted a supervisor standing at the front of the house. I approached him and said "I'm sorry to interrupt however I have a problem". He listened to what just went down and instead of saying how sorry he was for how rude his greeter was to me, he instead said "thanks for the feedback" and turned his back on me so he could keep talking to his other colleagues. I found the way BOTH employees treated me was unfairly rude. I understand that they get rudely yelled at for things out of their control, but here I am being nice/friendly and only asking to go into this house one more time and I was RUDELY denied by two of the employees. I would understand if I was mean, yelling and rude at them BUT I WASN'T. And seriously I wasn't asking for the world or anything for free--just to enter a house one more time before we left for the evening!!

AND TO JOHNATHON THE GREETER AT HALLOW'D PAST ON SATURDAY NIGHT AROUND 1AM:

You seriously need to learn some people skills!! Please and thank you are not terms to threaten people with security! Your position does not entitle you to a power trip or act of some higher power. People who are nice and nicely ask to see the house after paying 80/person for express passes does not entitle you to yell and threaten me with your "power". A nice "no, sorry I cannot because my supervisor is watching" would have sufficed.

TO ALL OTHER GREETERS IN LEGENDARY TRUTH/ORPHANAGE:

Thanks for being so nice and letting us enter a second time!

RANT OVER :(

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My rants, as some still existed as of last night.

- Stay & Scream (New York); Why are we being let out a 6:00 PM and not 5:45 PM? Why are the main gates opening at 6:00 PM, same time as Stay & Scream? As Michele said, if I paid for S&S.. I'd be at guest services demanding a refund.

- The finger scanner at the main gates; Do they EVER work right? How many people have encountered problems or have seen others having issues? Not only do they not work right 90% of the time, the attendants at the stalls must have a flow sheet of stupid questions to ask. Lets see; Is that the finger you used? YES! When was the last time you were here? Yesterday!, Try your thumb! Hello, iI just told you what finger I used. Wipe your finger on your shirt! Still don't work! Repeat all of above! UGHH! - Now not only is this annoying, but the line gets longer and it takes you about 10 minutes just to get through the gate. Terrible! Fix this issue Universal, instead of blaming it on the guests MAYBE it's your machines! Fix them, and maybe even try cleaning them?

- Guest blocking the entrances to the houses (regular and express). The OPS should tell guests to move to the side if they are debating, waiting for others, or chatting.. some get very rude when you ask them to move out of the way.

- Pulsing house lines: Not only is this making the lines longer than normal, it's making the EXPRESS lines longer than normal. It's not working as "intended" either, as you still catch up with the group in front of you. Pointless.

- In House OPS: Don't rush guests through the house if they are still walking at a normal pace just because no one is in front of them. WE as guests PAY A LOT OF MONEY to enjoy this event. Some may ONLY attend ONE or TWO NIGHTS and would like to enjoy every aspect of the house. Thanks.

- The first 1:00 AM closing (Sunday, 10/10/2010): The guide clearing states that Bars will close 30 minutes before closing. At about 11:30 PM we saw a number of bars ALREADY closed or closing along with some FOOD stands! Why? The event still had 1 Hour and 30 Minutes left! Eh.. ?

- Parade Building Express Line: For next year (2011) try to rework where and how the express line merges with the regular line. As of now it's way to far back in the regular line to merge.

That's it for now. :)

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- The finger scanner at the main gates; Do they EVER work right? How many people have encountered problems or have seen others having issues? Not only do they not work right 90% of the time, the attendants at the stalls must have a flow sheet of stupid questions to ask. Lets see; Is that the finger you used? YES! When was the last time you were here? Yesterday!, Try your thumb! Hello, iI just told you what finger I used. Wipe your finger on your shirt! Still don't work! Repeat all of above! UGHH! - Now not only is this annoying, but the line gets longer and it takes you about 10 minutes just to get through the gate. Terrible! Fix this issue Universal, instead of blaming it on the guests MAYBE it's your machines! Fix them, and maybe even try cleaning them?

I'm not sure why but I never have a problem with this and without fail my wife does. I know that when I got my finger scanned originally I just light layed my finger on the scanner... and that is how I always do it.

But I see it happen all the time. Why do they need biometrics anyway?... I guess that is another can of worms :P

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I have to say, the pulsing is pointless. They pulsed lines when I was there at a few houses. Didn't work at all. You caught up with the people ahead of you quickly.

You catch up with them because OPS pushes you through when you are trying to keep a normal pace. Hate to disappoint but my profession isn't speed walking.

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