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HHN 25 Discussion


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It's an ANNIVERSARY year. It SHOULD be about reflecting on the past 25 years of the event. There is ONE house that is going to be an actual repeat with new effects, American Werewolf in London, but the rest are NEW houses and Scare Zones based on previously utilized IPs or concepts. And you can't count Insidious just because Hollywood had it last year, not to mention it includes the new movie. Comparing a house die-hard fans never really wanted in the first place coming back, The Walking Dead, to some of the biggest fan favorites is night and day.

I for one am excited to experience my first Anniversary year (I've been going since 2009 and skipped 2010) and see a lot of HHN staples that I have yet to experience.

 

I noticed they didn't list Despicable Me on the website as a ride being open for HHN. Is that because it's not going to be open this year, or is it just because they only will have it open peak nights?

The rides listed are only the ones open during HHN.  It makes sense that a Minions ride isn't open during an adult event.  Just like Shrek was never open during events.  Minions will surely be open during the day...thought Shrek I don't know about.  Not sure it they're demoing it or remodeling it and if the other theater will be open (sure if you search the topics you'll find the answer, I'm just guessing).

 

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Not to beat a dead horse but my two cents:

I'm fine with the reveal in general and am no less excited for this year. Like many others I've pretty much accepted that the creative style of pre-HHNX is pretty much gone and will only be seen as glimpses from now on. 

Literally my biggest complaint is the website. And not the fact that it's not interactive- we all expected that and knew that that wouldn't happen. Lavish websites for HHN died when the creativity/marketing changed (once again, something we all realize.) But this is by far the most disappointing HHN website to date. It's bland, no unique graphics at all, no music or sounds... I mean it is the bare minimum. I mean, Jesus- the Singapore site kicks our ass! Even the Hollywood site has a better layout, I feel, compared to the Orlando one (even though theirs is fairly bland as well.)   

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The rides listed are only the ones open during HHN.  It makes sense that a Minions ride isn't open during an adult event.  Just like Shrek was never open during events.  Minions will surely be open during the day...thought Shrek I don't know about.  Not sure it they're demoing it or remodeling it and if the other theater will be open (sure if you search the topics you'll find the answer, I'm just guessing).

 

minions was open the last couple years, since it opened it has been open for HHN I'm pretty sure. And I'm all for as many rides being open because that'll take away from the crowds in the houses and make wait times smaller. So kinda sucks that they decided not to make Minions open

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I know some people feel like this event isn't going to be good because it is a whole bunch of repeated themes/characters but you need to remember that this event has really taken off the past couple of years and most (if not all) of these themes/characters haven't been used since the first TWD house. I would say nearly half of the people attending this year will have never seen Jack in person. I would say more than half of the people attending haven't been inside a RUN house. I would say at least 99% of people attending will have not attended every single event for the past 25 years. So many of the characters/themes/locations will be brand new to people. Heck, the last RUN house was NINE years ago back in 2006! 

As a long time follower of the event and finally attending last year for the first time, I am so excited to finally see the Icon's, take a walk through H.R. Bloodengutz twisted version of the holidays and see other iconic scenes from their massive collection of Original Concepts. 

The other thing that really bugs me is the fact that once a theme is reused, people instantly hate it. Sure, Alice has been used before, but she has NEVER had a full house. Sure, Purge was used last year, but this time its in a fully themed maze. Yes, RUN has been used multiple times, but the story and setting are totally changed. Sure, Scary Tales has been used as a house, but never in Steampunk form in a Scarezone. Mike said it himself, they have NEVER reused a house. This is the first year in 25 years that a house is being recreated room for room. Even then, they are adding a few things to help keep it fresh.

My theory is, just be happy your getting an event in the first place at a really decent price if you get a RoF ticket. The fact that I am paying $73 to go for 5 whole nights is just mind boggling to me. SOOO much money goes into this event its absurd, but they don't charge an insane amount of money and give you a ton of content unlike the mouse down the street that charges $65 to visit the park for 5 hours with some special lighting and a firework show...

Not to beat a dead horse but my two cents:

I'm fine with the reveal in general and am no less excited for this year. Like many others I've pretty much accepted that the creative style of pre-HHNX is pretty much gone and will only be seen as glimpses from now on. 

Literally my biggest complaint is the website. And not the fact that it's not interactive- we all expected that and knew that that wouldn't happen. Lavish websites for HHN died when the creativity/marketing changed (once again, something we all realize.) But this is by far the most disappointing HHN website to date. It's bland, no unique graphics at all, no music or sounds... I mean it is the bare minimum. I mean, Jesus- the Singapore site kicks our ass! Even the Hollywood site has a better layout, I feel, compared to the Orlando one (even though theirs is fairly bland as well.)   

Agree 100% about the website! It is AWFUL. They don't even list the starting and ending times of the event anymore! When it first came out this year, it had them but it was super hard to find. Now, I can't find them anywhere on the site. Selling tickets to an event and not including the starting/ending times is just horrible. 

We have seen some amazing websites over the years but this looks like an intern tossed it together in an hour or two. When Six Flags Freight Fest has a far better website than yours, you know you have a problem. Heck, I have seen some small home haunts with much better websites than this. I made sure to let them know that in the survey that pops up from time to time as well and once the event is over and we get another, I will mention it again. They can do so much better than this even if they are done with the whole "interactive game" format.

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As a West-coaster, I generally don't participate on the Orlando discussions; however, since I will be going to HHN for my third time ever over on the East, I skimmed through some of the discussion mainly on this thread. Although some points i will mention may have been addressed beforehand, I will give my full two cents on the complete line-up:

I think the line-up is very solid. I'm VERY excited to see it firsthand. The house line-up sounds great. You have two potentially awesome mash-up houseshouses (RUN & Body Collectors) that are nice continuation of fan-favorites. 25 Years sounds like an awesome anniversary megahouse suitable for the occasion. Having a house on two of the biggest slashers ever is a big hallmark. The highest-rated house ever is returning for thiS. TWD, the bigger contributed to the event's success, is apart if this (raises shield). Malice sounds like an awesome original concept building off of Scary Tales. The Purge and Insidious....well, they're there. 

The scarezones sound awesome, and I can't wait to see Jacks show and B & T after going a year without it.

What's the point I'm making here? I think UO has done their best to make it a very-solid anniversary year. I think the originals sound amazing and the IPs sound extremely promising. Yeah, I'm not going to deny the marketing was abysmal this year. Very poor approach on several things; but is that going to make the event itself suck? I seriously doubt it. If you are going to go out of your way to nit-pick and criticize, you'll find reason to. This may be because I'm so accustomed to Hollywood's event, but I don't mind the IPs that much. If anything, I think HHN is more well-rounded with them there. If the mazes are awesome, then who cares what kind they are. I'm going to choose to be excited and enjoy the event and I anticipate that I will. :) 

BTW, if you long time Orlando fans want to complain, go to our event in Hollywood then we'll talk. Ours has no identity, no Bill and Ted, ZERO original content, mostly rehashes of IPs, worse marketing, a determination from creative to have nothing with a good creative story or "icon" at our event, and no willingness to completely solve capacity issues by cutting a maze so guests don't have to walk more. At least you guys don't have all of what I mentioned. 

I said all this to say this: "Be excellent to each other, and PARTY On DUDES!" See you in O-Town! :) Just go with an open mind, be thankful for what the event still maintains, and just HAVE FUN. 

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What are your thoughts on seeing Insidious over here?  I'm psyched for it and watched the YouTube videos of both of your houses and thought they looked awesome.

i wasn't a fan of our rendition. I look forward to seeing both, eespecially yours. 

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This is only my third year attending HHN but I'm really happy with the lineup. Has anyone heard anything about Passholder nights yet?  I asked USO but the rep didn't know anything. 

 nothing official yet but usually it's the first few weekends

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Don't know if it's been discussed already, but I definitely think it's lame of Uni to not have Gringotts open, I can understand it not being open the first year because then people could be buying a ticket that's 45 dollars to ride Gringotts the first year it's open. But now that's been open for over a year, Uni definitely could've opened it and it would've made this event a lot more fun for me going on Gringotts with a big group of friends at midnight after walking through a house. 

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I don't see them opening Gringotts any time soon. Not because of how new the ride is (the hype has died down considerably), but because of the idea of having to staff a pretty large separate area of the park just to keep one ride running. Then it's pretty dark in Diagon with knockturn, which could add into security concerns with all of the smoking/drinking that goes on during HHN. I don't think anyone would like the idea of creating a roped line from the front of diagon to gringots and back just to keep one ride open either. That's just my thoughts about Diagon though. 

I for one, everything is 100% new to me. I've only been in Havoc and From Dusk Till Dawn. That's all I've seen and I like clown/carnie concepts so I'm interested in Icon Jack a lot and have a lot to experience that I've never experienced before.

My personal opinion but I find it fair for Universal to balance out the audiences. They acknowledge the old timers and die hard fans with some of the lesser known original concepts that you guys crave. But ultimately the mass mainstreamers are where the money is with any type of situations. Mainstream things like TWD and other popular headliners are what's going to fill the houses. Generally people go to what they know and anything else is an afterthought, and they know TWD, Insidious, and household names like that.

 

Edited by MissBA
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This is only my third year attending HHN but I'm really happy with the lineup. Has anyone heard anything about Passholder nights yet?  I asked USO but the rep didn't know anything. 

The passholder signup page is active but not taking RSVP's just yet. Here is the link:

https://www.universalorlando.com/rsvp/hhn25/rsvp.aspx

The "To Be Announced" house is most likely The Purge since it is in the same area as the other two. For those that don't want to visit the link, the dates are Sept 18, 19, 25 and 26 from 5:30-6:30.

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I have to say, This year has probably the best sounding scarezones of the past 4 years, while at the same time having probably the WORST website of the past 15 years. 
I am really happy about what the streets will have, while feeling pretty let down by such a weird website. They don't even bother playing any music anymore. or have any interesting graphics. that's pretty bizarre.
All the houses sound pretty good. this is turning out to be a great year. 

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Has anyone found out which mazes will be for each of the Unmasking the Horror tours? Already booked both on Oct. 3rd but I figure I should find out sooner than later. Lol

If I had to guess, I'd say:

TWD

Insidious

FvJ

The Purge

25: Monsters & Mayhem

Body Collectors

 

My rationale for the other 3 not being chosen are:

Run: Disaster queue house is rarely a part of the tours since it's all outdoors and it will still be fairly warm

AWIL: Was a part of the tour two years ago, no logical sense to include it again.

Alice: In the Shrek building, which is in use during the day, also 3D houses don't make for good lights on tours.

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The passholder signup page is active but not taking RSVP's just yet. Here is the link:

https://www.universalorlando.com/rsvp/hhn25/rsvp.aspx

The "To Be Announced" house is most likely The Purge since it is in the same area as the other two. For those that don't want to visit the link, the dates are Sept 18, 19, 25 and 26 from 5:30-6:30.

Thanks! Yeah, after looking at that map mockup on the previous page, it's gonna be The Purge. Pretty cool that it's all IP houses this time. Last year had my favorite house (Halloween) and two of my least favorite (Cannibal Colony and the Dollhouse).

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On that whole "cohesion" thing, blizzards don't always happen in the Winter.

There was a nasty one that affected much of the American Midwest in October, 1991. It's called "The Halloween Blizzard".

The Great Blizzard of 1888 was in the Spring. In March.

But we could always just say that the inmates just stole the TARDIS out of AWiL and used it to travel between 19th Century Shadybrook and 20th Century Manhattan.

So if the TARDIS is missing in the Piccadilly scene, then we will know that is exactly what happened.

Edited by Dr. Jimmy
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On that whole "cohesion" thing, blizzards don't always happen in the Winter.

There was a nasty one that affected much of the American Midwest in October, 1991. It's called "The Halloween Blizzard".

The Great Blizzard of 1888 was in the Spring. In March.

But we could always just say that the inmates just stole the TARDIS out of AWiL and used it to travel between 19th Century Shadybrook and 20th Century Manhattan.

So if the TARDIS is missing in the Piccadilly scene, then we will know that is exactly what happened.

Blizzards in the MW can happen from Oct 1st to April 31st. You just never know. Mother Nature can be quite the slut...

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Has anyone found out which mazes will be for each of the Unmasking the Horror tours? Already booked both on Oct. 3rd but I figure I should find out sooner than later. Lol

When I called yesterday, she said they are changing the rotation of houses each day, so there is no set lineup for each(which they might do every year anyway), but she wouldn't say anything about which houses. :P 

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