zombieman Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 As of this writing, the only tours left are Unmasking: 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 31st Arcane Insights: 26th I took BOTH tours on the 12th, after having attended the event for the first time of the year on the 11th. I have taken the UTH tour as long as HHN has offered it. It has increased in price over the years and now tops out at almost $60. Nevertheless, it is still a great value. The walkthrough of the three houses (was only two the first years) is always presented with the rich backstories that you would otherwise never learn. What is especially great is that over the years, they have adjusted the tour lighting in the SS houses knowing that people would be taking and posting tons of photos. The lighting is now camera-friendly, so that photos look show-quality when posted. Another perk of the UTH tour is that park admission is not required. In fact, if you take the 1:30 tour, you will be allowed to stay in the park for the 90 minutes between tour end and start of HHN. So you essentially get a "stay and Scream" pass for FREE. In that time, you can easily fit in a couple of rides that won't be open for HHN. When you get let out of the "holding pen" for HHN, you can make a beeline to the SS houses and see them each two times before people start filtering into the event. This was the first year I took the Arcane Insights tour. I gotta say that at $230 - NOT INCLUDING ADMISSION, this is way too steep a price for what you get. They do throw in valet parking ($30 value), but that doesn't begin to offset the cost. What you DO get is several hours of TJs time. To me, that was great. $230 great? No. But still great. I went into it thinking it would be kind of like a night time UTH tour. Of course, there would be no lights on house tour. I did think there would be some thorough descriptions of the backstories and effects, but then I realized "how are they going to do that in a packed park?" What they do is: * Take you to a "quiet" area and tell you about the house you are going to enter. You get a super abbreviated backstory. * Go through the house. TJ goes with you, and the actors are even more intense than normal. But of course there's no stopping along the way to talk about what you are seeing. * Go to another nearby "quiet" area where TJ fields some questions about the house. * Go to the next house. Thankfully, the the trip through the SS houses is one after another, avoiding the endless queues. Likewise with the tent houses. At some point, you think to yourself: How is this tour going to last 6 full hours? There's just 7 houses and no shows. We've been spending about 20 minutes tops per house. The 6 hours consists of: a SINGLE VIP trip through each house A 20 minute break (no snacks or drinks included for your $230) A second 20 minute break (again, no snacks or drinks included) An hour sit down with TJ at Lombard's. You get bottled water but no snacks. You also get a "goodie bag" filled with about 25 cents worth of crap from your local Party City. They could have really done something neat like a pin or coin or something collectible. The tour ends with priority seating at the 12:30 B&T show, which TJ attends with you. This is optional, as you can leave if you like. NO rides or other shows are included in the tour. At the Q&A TJ will field any question you have and will not duck anything. He won't necessarily answer your questions, but he won't give you happy-speak. TJ will stay and chat as long as you like after the show as well. He really does make himself fully available to you - great guy, and an excellent face for the event. What would make this VIP tour a good deal: * Allow you to use the VIP glowstick as an Express pass for houses. They allow you to use it for rides (except RRR coaster). So, you can use it for the rides that already have no lines. Thanks a lot. I honestly don't see what the big deal is about letting you use it at the houses. First of all, you spent over $200. Secondly, there's only about 90 minutes to use it. How many houses can you even get to in that time? It's not going to hurt anyone to let you use it. * Include park admission - OR at least move the AI tour to a Thursday, so people with FF can go. * Include some sort of snack or water during the tour - this costs Universal nothing. * Give some sort of discount (15% or 20%) on HHN merchandise at the stores. This would cost them almost nothing. I want to go back to the ONE trip through the houses again. One of the things we learned on the UTH tour is that some scareactor cast changes can take a decent amount of time to complete. As a result, it's entirely possible that you might be unlucky enough to go through the house and miss several scareactors. You would THINK that a $230 VIP tour would be timed so as to avoid a cast change. You would be wrong. In Alice, there were several people missing. TJ told us afterward that it was a shame that some were not there, and told us what we would have seen. Would this have made you happy, had this been your only exposure to HHN for the entire year? Fortunately, I was able to see all of the houses the night before. But NOT having the ability to Express my way back into the house after the tour meant I could maybe choose one house to see. I know the tour can't keep going through the same house again and again until everyone is happy, but it would have been nice had they timed it so that the full cast was in place for all houses. I will most likely never do the AI tour again unless they really increase the value, but will be happy to do the UTH tour again. Thinking about this again, this would be my dream AI tour, worth the money. It essentially adds the UTH tour to the AI tour: * Start at 1:30 with an Unmasking tour. TJ wouldn't even need to be present for this part, but it would be great. * Go to Lombards for a 90 minute "TJ time" while everyone else is in the holding pen. * Do the VIP tour of the houses with TJ * End the tour about 90 minutes earlier because the TJ time happened earlier. Tour would end at about 11:00 * Have 3 hours to use your VIP necklace as an unlimited Express pass (rides and houses) If it was like this, I wouldn't mind that I had to pay park admission. I would be ecstatic if this sort of tour existed. Not to save me money; it would end up totaling about the same as what I spent. It would just make me feel as if I got me full money's worth, but all I really would have gotten is the unlimited Express privilege. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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