Gameplan: 2011 Edition!

[DTH316]

Well we know all of the mazes, scarezones, rides and shows - - er, show that are coming to HHN this year! And last year, we had to plan with an extra maze thrown in the mix! This year, no different! Now it's 2 mazes more than usual we were used to in 07 - 09, so our game plans need to be revitalized a bit (or does it?) if you were trying to stay comfortable to those ways those years.

With six mazes, 3 rides, a Terror Tram and a show, I have a feeling that this year we might be cutting it pretty close.

Let's just say, GET THERE BEFORE OPENING or get one of those lame FOL passes if you expect to do everything in one night this year.

Also to consider: if you're attending Thurs or Sun, your Terror Tram visit will have to be on your first to-do list.

As of now, I have formulated my game plan as to how I think I can get through all the attractions in one night! But before we do that, and because I like to talk, I'll go over my previous game plans.

07 - 09, tradition was to hit Terror Tram first then go to the lower lot, Shrek venue, West venue, HoH Bill & Ted after park closing.

10 changed it up with an added maze that had super long lines all night. T2 Venue, lower lot, TT, Shrek, West, HoH, Bill and Ted.

So what's there to do this year? As far as I'm concerned, that first hour in the lower lot will be a PLAYGROUND with an added maze down there. Plus, it has my least anticipated maze so I'll definitely be hitting that early in the evening. Also, since this is a Friday, I won't have to worry about TT closing up shop so early. And as it'll be the first day (for me), I'll let the tour guides get a hang of their groove for awhile before I jump on a tram. Saving HoH towards the end, once again, to skip crowds. I'm still not sure if I wanna do The Thing if it'll have spoilers. And depending on wait times, I'm saving HOTC more towards the end in case I need to skip it. As for The Simpsons, I think this year I have to skip it. It takes WAY too much time as you have to wait about 5 minutes minimum in each queue area (usually small wait, then the level area, then the number area, then the safety area, then the actual ride itself is pretty lengthy so UGH, so many STEPS for ONE simple ride!) So here we go, here's the game plan I've formulated!

WTMN

Hostel

Jurassic Park

Mummy

WTMN & Hostel redo (if there's time)

Terror Tram

La Llorona

FOOD TIME

HOTC

HoH: Wolfman

The Thing

Bill and Ted

What do y'all think?! As for my Thursday trip, just a simple switch of Terror Tram first and then the rest normally.

Edited September 3, 2011 by DTH316

[iRampage]

Well normally I'm there for the opening scaremonies and i'm normally near the front. So this is what I do and it works quite well for me (receiving alot of the scares bc im first, or near first)

Head to the maze in the WWW venue, exit and go down to the lower lot.

I would probably hit the maze in the JP queue (i believe its WTMN) and then take a small break in The Mummy or KingKong if its still there (the line for KingKong was awfully long last year)

Then I would hit Hostel and then here, I normally ask my friends if they would rather go JP Ride or a maze again because we normally don't go back down (too much of a hassle) (you should at least be able to hit one of the mazes twice and all the rides)

From there I would go back up and take the Terror Tram. After that I usually take a break and eat at Cinnabon. Depending on the time, I either hit Bill and Ted or The Simpsons (if Bill and Ted times arent working, id probably watch the last show)

After that I'd head to the maze in the Shrek Queue. After that I WOULD go hit HOTC but i already went there last year so i'd go HoH (Wolfman) instead. If theres time i'm planning to hit Hotc but if not then ill go straight to bill and ted

[Hhnh86987]

See I don't go on the rides at all during hhn. I look at it this way, hhn is only open just over a month out of the year. Universal studios is open any time you want to go. I go to hhn for hhn not for their rides. I do do the shows though.

[Freak]

^What about JP in the dark? That's a unique experience from the daytime. I guess everything else you're right about.

Here's my gameplan on opening night:

-Lower Lot first and dinner at Jurassic.

-Terror Tram.

-The Thing

-Meet John Murdy for the fourth time.

-La Llorona (Buy a chimichanga in line...I HAVE TO!)

-Wolfman

-HoTC

-Shop for merchandise.

[DTH316]

I always have the time for rides. Only year where I only did HHN stuff was 07 but that's because I didn't get there until 10 and they were supposed to close at 12 but they extended hours to 1, which is good cuz otherwise, I would've only done Terror Tram and TCM. But with that extra hour, I got in F13, NOES and Bill and Ted

[djevilclown]

Our gameplan has been the same every year and its always worked good until 2009 when it was so busy were barely made it through everything:

Mummy maze/jp maze this year also

Jp (to get wet)

Mummy (air dry)

Simpson's

TT

Shrek maze

Meet with murdy

HOH

Somewhere here or after WW we eat at flintsones or Italian rest. Great eats!

WW

T2

B&T (last showing)

And then coming out of B&T chainsaw chaseout!!!

*all the merch we buy we buy while someone stands in line for us and we take it to the car

[Grindhousehero13]

*all the merch we buy we buy while someone stands in line for us and we take it to the car

how do you do this if there no re-entry?

my game plan for my group

1. City walk get some snacks while waiting in line for entry (our tradition)\

2. get in to see the opening Scaramonies

3. HOTC since it was the LONGEST line last year

4. Head to lower lot and hit Hostel

5. Welcome to my nightmare

6. Jurassic Park in the Dark and buy drop picture(Tradition)

7. Depending on time We'll hit the mummy. but then we will eat at the Jurassic Cafe

8. Terror Tram

9. The Thing

10. La Llorona

11. Wolfman

12. Last Bill & Ted

13. Chainsaw chase out and hit the universal stor for some Merch

as Shaun famousaly said "Hows that for a slice of Fried Gold?)

[Tmrw]

Guess I might as well add mine here since its gonna be hard during breaks.

However me and my double will work things out

So In order: (Hostel will be removed due to already seeing the maze)

Alice Cooper (since its right next to ours)

The Thing

Terror Tram

La Llorona

Wolfman

HOTC

then If i ever get enough time, I'll hit up Bill and Ted

Oh and both Opening night and Closing i'll be getting merch

Edited September 5, 2011 by StevenForTmrw

[djevilclown]

how do you do this if there no re-entry?

when were standing in line before we go into the event... we buy all our shirts and merch at the studio store on citywalk... if we see any of the stuff in the park we want we put it in our pockets so were hands free

[Grindhousehero13]

when were standing in line before we go into the event... we buy all our shirts and merch at the studio store on citywalk... if we see any of the stuff in the park we want we put it in our pockets so were hands free

thats pretty smart actuauly

[DTH316]

I never thought of that either... I think I'll make a trip there before going inside so all my friends don't ask to stop at a hundred places while doing the maze march and taking things off schedule.

[HorrorNights93]

See I don't go on the rides at all during hhn. I look at it this way, hhn is only open just over a month out of the year. Universal studios is open any time you want to go. I go to hhn for hhn not for their rides. I do do the shows though.

lol i thought i was the only one. i dont understand why people waste times on ride we can see for 11 months throughout the year but than again if you dont have a AP like me (well anymore i stopped getting them maybe ill reconsider when transformer releases) than it be a good time to get everything in. JP in the dark i've done before outside of hhn. back in the days when universal closed later in the summer and it actually helps me out because that just takes off the line wait for some mazes. Anyways although i was able to get my FFP i think its still necessary to device a gameplan. I usually switch up the order each time i go to change up the experience but lets plan accordingly to opening night.....

1)get there early and make sure im in front to watch the opening ceremony

2)WTMN

3)Hostel....shoot back upstairs

4)The Thing

5)La LLorona

6)TT

7)Wolfman

8) HOTC of course last because its a repeat

9) Bill and Ted for last

usually when we go we dont have a set time to eat its just when we get hungry. Also usually no matter what day it is when i do everything in this order (lower lot,upper lot, TT etc.) i always get everything done with hardly any wait time. and when i get done early i just re-do mazes or walk through SZ and enjoy waatching the scares

[DTH316]

I really hope our game plans & Universal's efforts to cut down on lines pay off so we can all see this event in one night!

[the ghost]

Stealing djevilclown's plan... that sounds great! I'm a coaster enthusiast and I count "credits"(and every time you ride a coaster you get a credit) and I've never been on Mummy! Also my friends have never been on the Simpsons... so this plan works best for us!

[djevilclown]

Stealing djevilclown's plan... that sounds great! I'm a coaster enthusiast and I count "credits"(and every time you ride a coaster you get a credit) and I've never been on Mummy! Also my friends have never been on the Simpsons... so this plan works best for us!

it works very well for us... the mummy is badass! always sit i front on either side not in the middle best experience ever

[the ghost]

^ Thanks! I've been on the Floridian version and LOVED it, so hopefully this is no different. Last year we were forced to miss NOES and I was okay with that, because although I love the original I have refused to see the original because NOES is my favorite horror movie and I didn't want them to bastardize Freddy. However, I DO NOT want to miss La Llorona and have no intention of doing so cause I want to see Murdy's creative side!

[DTH316]

Florida's Mummy is vastly different from ours. They shouldn't even be called the same ride. Florida's is way better - - I assure you (and that's from someone who's only WATCHED it on youtube). Hollywood's is still fun though but everytime I think of that Florida version... I just sigh and put my head down that we don't have that...

[the ghost]

^ Lol... I know! Florida's is my like 6th favorite coaster or something... not that I've been on too many... USH's Mummy will be my 49th coaster and then Green Lantern should fall into 50 at West Coast Bash 2012!

[00nightcrawler]

I'm probably going to use djevilclown's plan too, because some of my friends haven't ridden the simpsons. Just hope there is enough time.

And yes, Florida's Mummy coaster is AMAZING

Edited September 14, 2011 by 00nightcrawler

[ScreamAtMe]

Opening Scaremonies

Hostel

WTMN

Jurassic Park

The Thing

La Llorona

Grab Something to eat.

Terror Tram

HOTC

HoH: Wolfman

Repeats if we have time, don't know which yet, will make that decision based on which I determine to be my favorite that night.

Bill and Ted

I'm gonna weave my way through the SZ's as I make my way about the park, and I'm skipping Mummy and the Simpsons as they can be done any time of the year, and I'd like to see everything this year, as last year I missed Vampz and Saw (although saw was a conscious decision based on it being a repeat) due to time lost to the line for Simpsons (we skipped that the year before because my wife was pregnant, and I hadn't been to USH since they opened it)

Also will be attempting to do as detailed a review as possible, which isn't guaranteeing anything to be honest. At the very least I'll do an out-of-10 score based on Visual/Props, Audio, Scares, Length (basically whether I wanted more, less, or if I felt it to be just right) and Overall effect. 9 days to go!

Edited September 14, 2011 by ScreamAtMe

[Onca]

Let's see... as I lead my group into the depths of Horror Nights once more, I intend to use the normal attack plan of:

Rushing through New York and the Klownz to hop on the....

Terror Tram

Then down into the clutches of the Reapers to experience...

Hostel

And then..

Alice Cooper

Then make the long perilous trek up the hill to face...

La Llorona

and then..

The Thing

Finally make a pitstop at Mel's Diner for some food, if we haven't already eaten before starting the night, then taking a sight seeing stop to see the Freakz and the..

House of 1000 Corpses

And then make a roundabout through Zombieville to check out..

The Wolfman

Seeing that we may as well pick up the FotL passes, we'll probably see the Bill & Ted show then go through what mazes we like best. Then leave. Yeah.

Florida's Mummy is vastly different from ours. They shouldn't even be called the same ride. Florida's is way better - - I assure you (and that's from someone who's only WATCHED it on youtube). Hollywood's is still fun though but everytime I think of that Florida version... I just sigh and put my head down that we don't have that...

Something I can wholeheartedly agree on with you DTH, and this is coming from a person who has been on it in person. Completely awesome although my other half somehow thinks otherwise... I really don't get that. Then again he also thinks that Universal Orlando's use of icons for HHN is stupid, so whatever on that. Stupid is just his favorite word, I guess.

[Slacking]

I'm coming from Florida, and am only able to attend HHN one night (9/24) so I try to get the most bang for my buck. Also, am going to be solo, so will be able to do whatever I want, at my own insane speed.

At opening I'll try to hit w/o FOTL

The Thing

HOTC

La Llorna

Wolfman (may use my FOTL here)

I'll then hit the lower lot and hit w/o FOTL, and may do each one 2-3 times depending on if big lines have developed in the Lower lot yet.

Alice Cooper

Hostel

Depending on time, I would also probably hit JP and Mummy at this time.

I would then do TT, and then B&T

After B&T, I'll hit all the houses again using FOTL

[DTH316]

Okay, so I went back to my review for last year and made a time map of everything that happened. Now, I got through everything successfully BUT it was just at the nick of time which leads me to believe, there's always room for improvement. Considering this is opening night and I'll have a group of 8 - 10 in tow, I wanted to make sure I fine tuned my game plan. What went wrong? Where could have time been spared? What needs to be moved around so I have more time for down time, shopping and etc? More on that after the time map:

7:05 - Entered

7:10 - Line for HOTC (said 10 minutes, a bit more actually)

7:25 - HOTC entering

7:30 - HOTC leaving

7:35 - From HOTC to Starway

7:40 - Starway down

7:45 - Jurassic Cove

8:20 - King Kong

8:45 - Line for Saw (5 minutes)

8:50 - Saw

8:55 - Mummy Line (10 minutes, a bit more actually)

9:10 - The Mummy

9:15 - Jurassic Park (no wait)

9:25 - Leaving Jurassic Park

9:30 - Starway up

[The timing here is a little odd... I'm not sure exactly what happened but I do know we hit King Kong at 8:20 and The Simpsons at 10]

10:00 - The Simpsons (40 min wait)

10:40 - The Simpsons

10:45: KROQ for 30

11:15 - Terror Tram small wait

11:25 - Terror Tram

12:02 - NOES line

12:50 - NOES enter

1:00 - NOES exit

1:02 - F13 line

1:45 - F13 enter

1:50 - F13 exit

1:50 - Vampyre

2:02 - Ran to Bill and Ted

- Right off the bat, I can see where I went wrong. We got to the park FIVE minutes late. That might seem like nothing but in comparison to how we were merely 3 minutes too late to be able to see Bill and Ted at the end of the night, those five minutes could've made the night seem like a dud.

- Next, instinctually I wouldn't want to head to the T2 area for a maze first but considering the line was super long after the first hour on all the other nights, this seemed like a good investment and it truly was. Not much wrong here but we could've gotten there five minutes earlier and had 0 wait instead of a 10 - 15 minute what.

- Next we hit the lower lot which was a good move.

- Simpsons for 40 minutes and hanging out by the KROQ table, even at the time, seemed like a stupid idea. In retrospect, it still was.

- Everything else after that went smoothly.

I've drawn some conclusions. The biggest time wasters were:

Eating within the first couple of hours, The Simpsons, King Kong & KROQ 30 minutes. Now, not necessarily were any of these things a waste of time by the amount of fun we had but these things could've been moved, altered or fixed in some way to fit the time line a bit better.

This year, I will know to simply just head for the lower lot and finish everything down there PLUS the Terror Tram before deciding to eat. With King Kong gone (which took quite a lot of time) and instead being a regular walk through of a maze, I won't have to worry about the time down on the lower lot exceeding more than an hour. The Simpsons, as fun as it is, I will avoid if it has longer than a 25 minute wait. 40 minutes is TOO large of a chunk. The KROQ thing wasn't necessarily a choice - - we had to wait up for some people by the Terror Tram before we moved on with the night so note to self: keep the group together to avoid catching up times with the lost half.

The first 2 hours are crucial so I definitely need to remember not to throw any down time in there. It needs to be a marathon from one thing to the next until half of the attractions at the park are finished, leaving the other half able to be taken care of in the next 5 hours. The eating and King Kong stuff took away an entire hour from the initial first 2 hours. I'm confident in my decisions to hit HOH and Bill and Ted last.

It's always good to relook over your game plans, the actual time maps and reconfigure things to make sure your night goes by smoothly as now I have fine tuned my game plan year after year into what I think will be a very swift night this upcoming Friday. Hopefully others will learn from some of my fumbles and can fine tune their game plans a little better! Last minute, on the edge, nick of time moments are scary - - and not in a good way.

Edited September 17, 2011 by DTH316