"Worst" (Least Favorite) HHN Ever

[defgmx]

As obsessed as I am with reading about all the awesomeness & great years of HHN, I'm also somewhat intrigued to read about what you guys consider to be the worst or least favorite HHN ever if ever. We can include least favorite houses, scare zones & or icons.

 

 

Go!

[ThNdIzNiR]

I've only been attending since 2010, but I'll put in my 2 cents.

 

HHN 22 (2012) was the year I think is worst by far. For starters, I wasn't a fan of most of the houses. The Walking Dead house was by far their worst version of TWD. I thought the Penn & Teller house was kinda cheesy. I got injured having to duck in the Universal's House of Horrors, so that 1 sucked for me. The only real good 1 that year was 1 called Gothic. Another reason why I wasn't a fan of that year in particular was because of the weather (which isn't Universal's fault obviously). There was a hurricane (Sandy) churning off the coast which caused them to shut some things down and it rained quite a bit. Most importantly of all though was the fact there were no scare zones that year only roaming hordes. Not only were there no scare zones, they hardly decorated at all for the event that year. I remember walking around thinking you'd never even know it was HHN. The roaming hordes were the biggest fail ever in my opinion. I know many were displeased with the following year's scare zones because they were all themed TWD, but at least there were zones scattered around the park as opposed to nothing.

[JDW]

"worst year" is tough. Each year has it's strengths and weaknesses.

 

If you want to say worst street experience... and in the modern era... 2007. Old era had few street experiences but was 92? 93? they put scareactors into the ride queues and it was pretty lame.

 

house-wise... I couldn't say. I've genuinely loved houses at every single event... and typically just dismissed some as well. My worst house experience was Vampyre bloodbath. one run through 1.5 hr wait time, to get stuck behind morons. House was super short. Also my highest anticipated that year.

 

FEELING-wise is easy for me. Last year. Absolutely terrible. Didn't get to all the houses. Barely stopped for a bathroom break let alone food. Paid out the nose and still came to the conclusion that you have to do express. Overall very stressed, upset, and generally just aggravated the entire night.

 

But see the varies from person to person. Before that HHN 20. I was injured on a fence in an unlit line. I was evacuated out of line twice (once do to an underage drinker well exceeding her limit and passing out in line), and I was harassed and humiliated by security for having buttons.

 

Before that 2007. Great Great houses. Horrible horrible lines. Didn't see Jason of Jack's house. Saw literally 3 scareactors in the streets that night. Was burnt by a cigarette, broke up a fist fight that I almost got dragged into, line jumping was completely horrendous that year as they had wide open food carts in the lines themselves and people were exploiting it.

[ThNdIzNiR]

31 minutes ago, JDW said:

 

FEELING-wise is easy for me. Last year. Absolutely terrible. Didn't get to all the houses. Barely stopped for a bathroom break let alone food. Paid out the nose and still came to the conclusion that you have to do express. Overall very stressed, upset, and generally just aggravated the entire night.

 

Yeah... Feeling-wise last year might have been even worse than HHN 22 for me (although close). Even with express there were a few lines that were quite lengthy. For some reason I didn't enjoy the Bill & Ted show. Most noticeable for me though was the amount of pain/fatigue I experienced due to my damaged spine. The meds they put me on made drinking beer rather unenjoyable. For some reason, I just felt icky and gross. I didn't even close out the event every night we were there which was a 1st. We also had trouble finding the last minute turkey drumsticks before they closed during the nights we stayed until the end. I just wasn't into last year as much as most of the other years I've attended. Hopefully my mindset is better this year when I attend. I got a feeling the lines this year are going to be something special (and not in a good way).

[ScottEdmondson41]

Probably 2012, 2013 is close. Both had some great houses I loved, but no scare zones, some bad houses, and the marketing was terrible for both. And 2012 had 7 houses when we were used to 8 by that point. 

[Johnny Topside]

It's so funny to me that 22 was so hated and that was my first real time going to the event. I went to earlier ones but didn't do much because I was younger. 2012 was my first time doing every house, going multiple nights, and getting sucked into the HHN world. For me walking up to the front porch of Dead End is where I feel in love with the event and knew I was hooked. But I do understand why people who were aboard the train before me would look down on it, if I'm being honest it wasn't close the best of my soon to be 5 years going (looking at you 24) but nostalgia puts a rose tint on things.

 

My worst year would be 23, still enjoyed but man I didn't like Resident Evil and HATED Havoc.

[criticalanalysis]

HHN 22 = worst.

 

HHN 14 = best.

[Jediwhit82]

Since I've only been to two years, I guess 24 is my worst.

[SeventyOne]

Been every year since 2001 (tho the early years starting to fade).

 

2012 was worst by far. One truly great house--Gothic--two that were ok--Dead End, House of Horror--but probably overrated given the low quality elsewhere. And even HoH wasn't fully ready until two weeks in. Given that 2011 didn't have a single weak house, line-up looked even worse in comparison. No scare-zones just hordes that never really worked (not a dig at the actors, who tried their best, but lack of decor and getting to "learn" their area hurt scares).  An alright, not classic, Bill & Ted show that was neutered halfway through its run. And yeah, worse weather than usual, felt more crowded than usual with so much closed, people just seemed worse than usual (recall Cooper house incident).

 

I remember 2007 being disappointing as well--again, had the misfortune to follow a stellar 2006 and the best B&T ever. Soundstage houses solid, rest of event was meh. The Enigma remains a low point for me.

[_Veritas_]

Since I've only ever been three times (19, 23, 25) I don't have a lot to go off of.

 

If I had to pick though it'd probably be 23 for me. Just... too much Walking Dead. The streets were cool looking, and the actors did do a good job but compared to the actual scarezones that we see in other years I was just underwhelmed. Doesn't mean it was particularly bad, I still had a great time, but it just wasn't what I had come to expect. The interactive LT CFO experience was fun though, and there were three stellar houses that year (although the rest ranged from okay to meh to me... so, that's kind of a give and take.) Also was disappointing that the whole "What evil has taken root thing" didn't pan out or play in to the event... like... at all. Glad to see the opening scaremonies were present though.

 

The only thing that disappointed me about 19 was the Cirque du Freak push. I was really hoping for a opening ceremony and we got that Q&A instead. Was also underwhelmed by the scarezone also, despite the actors doing their best.  Pretty stellar houses and some good zones that year though.

 

And I really, really enjoyed 25. 

[HHN Explorer]

22 and 23 were the worst. 18 was the best followed by 20 and 25.

[PeoriaBJJ]

I will say that Im never disappointed with the houses. Some are perfect, some are lame but taking ALL the houses of each year... always good.

 

I will say 22's roaming hordes fell so flat it was sad. I did 4 nights that year and I bet I saw 2 "hordes" the whole time. It was terrible. My wife being 5 months preggo didnt help either! LOL

 

But the houses were great! I was actually excited for TWD (it was pretty average at best), Gothic, Dead End, Penn and Teller was still fun, Silent Hill was good if you had the right timing... and say what you want about House of Horrors (its was a last minute replacement for something) it was a fun house. Im a Classic Monsters geek at heart so I loved it and got lots of jump scares out of it. So IMO the houses always rock. With all that said... Alice Cooper house was... well... shit. Went through it once and skipped it the rest of the event.

 

Favorite HHN.... 19. Icon, cohesive houses, cool scare zones. Great event!!!

[duh1011]

UNPOPULAR OPINION ALERT

I actually somewhat enjoyed the roaming hordes of '22. I know they weren't as good as scarezones can be, but there were a few things that really made them for me. For one, I loved how the individual actors could go *anywhere* as long as they stayed in the general area of their horde. I had some really fun interactions with a few in places such as restaurants and near the restrooms. Along those lines, every single little nook and cranny could be used by the actors, and as a huge fan of Universal I was delighted to see where some of those people went to scare passerby. Ntm the scarezones since have felt lackluster overall to me, as lots of times they're used as photo-ops (and not just the zones designed to be photo-ops) and many have just been extremely underwhelming.

 

 

I probably enjoyed '23 the least, because while the houses were pretty overall good, none really stood out to me as fantastic as opposed to every other year. Also, I preferred the roaming hordes over having an all-TWD park, even if I thought the barn was pretty cool as a tiny little distraction. Objectively, however, '22 was probably the worst out of all the ones I went to content-wise. I thought the lines were handled horridly during '24 and had the worst time with lines that time, where 1 hour wait times were mismanaged to the point of being 3 hours long... DotD made up for that in spades to me, however