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Unmasking the Horror Tours


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Someone always starts this thread each year, so might as well be me :)

 

Anybody have any insight as to what the tours are going to be (I know it's early for that, haven't even announced all the houses yet) and more importantly, if the "photos in originals only" policy is in affect again?  The site says "select houses"...but also says you will tour "select houses".  So it's still kinda a gray area.  Also, the rumor was AHS caused the picture policy issues last year, so maybe something along the lines of "every house but this one...." might be in affect.

 

The UTH tour is always the highlight of my trip, but mostly for the photo ops.  Might pass on it for the first time in forever if they are still greatly restricting the photography options.

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  • 4 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Oysterhead00 said:

Shameless bump to make this look like a new comment so anybody that might have done the UTH tour(s) opening week can comment on what the current photography rules are :)  

My 2 pm tour did AHS, Fallen and Dead Waters. Fallen and Dead Waters were basically free game to take pictures, with like one small exception, there was one (I think just one) room in one of those (I think Dead Waters) were the tour guide said we couldn't take pictures of that room for some reason. AHS was the opposite, weren't allowed to take pictures in almost all of the house, but we could take pictures of the Asylum facade and one room in the Roanoke section. Odd random exceptions to the rule. 

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Curious what others taking the tours have found with regards to which houses they are doing then.  I really want to do it to see Dead Waters, but don't want to take the full tour so hoping there is some insight on which houses they are doing what type of day.  I see that someone posted they did Dead Waters on the afternoon tour.  Anyone else?

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1 hour ago, Neko said:

Curious what others taking the tours have found with regards to which houses they are doing then.  I really want to do it to see Dead Waters, but don't want to take the full tour so hoping there is some insight on which houses they are doing what type of day.  I see that someone posted they did Dead Waters on the afternoon tour.  Anyone else?

 

I can't 100% guarantee it, but if you go that day early in the morning and ask them, they'd probably be willing to change you from AM to PM if needed.  A couple years ago my friend decided to do it at the last minute and it was listed as sold out, we went and asked if there was any way they could get him in.  They told us to buy a ticket for the next day and they'd transfer it for us.  He ordered from his phone, ran to the kiosk, and got in the tour and they added him as a +1 (with pen to the print out) with me to make sure we were in the same group.  The VIP people are VERY accommodating and it's only the last 3 or so years you've been able to buy a ticket for the tours...you used to have to call VIP,  get them to email you a form,  that you then had to fax to them (they wouldn't even accept emailing it back) and then go on blind faith that they had you for the tour.  If you called VIP to confirm you were on the list, they'd say something generic like "If you faxed it to the number provided with the correct info, you're in."

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Took the combo tour last weekend. We did:

1. Shining

2. AHS

3. The Fallen

4. Dead Waters

*LUNCH BREAK*

5. Blumhouse

6. The Hive

 

In the Shining we could only take a pictures of the facade and the bathroom. AHS we could take a picture of the facade and one of the rooms in Roanoake, but you had to avoid the puppet in that room. In The Fallen, there were 2 scenes we could not photograph. I believe we could take pictures of everything in Dead Waters. In Blumhouse we could photograph the first two rooms in Sinister, no photos in The Purge. We could not take any photos of the Insidious logo/entrance, but we could take photos of the ‘Tip Toe’ room, which is similar to previous Insidious house where they did an UTH tour (so maybe that’s why you can photograph that room) and than the “mash up area” in Blumhouse was allowed to be photographed which is just booholes, SIF and green/black paint. In The Hive there were two areas we could not photograph, the room with the two dead babies in the cribs and the room with the two people hanging. Our tour guide let us take pictures of the cornfield of Scarecrow when walking to Hive.

 

My take is that the areas you can take pictures in the IP’s are somewhat generic, like they could be in any house. The only exceptions are Sinister and Insidious. It’s almost like they said what part of the house has the least IP related details, we can use that for UTH. It kind of sucks because The Shining has some awesome rooms that I would love to take photos in, but it is what it is.

 

I wish they would make the tours how they used to be, or add something else to the tour to make it more valuable if they are going to restrict rooms. This is the first year I remember them limiting photos in the originals. If they are going to restrict the photos in basically every house, at least give me some information I can't find anywhere else. The other new thing they offered was you could eat lunch in Blue Man, they had a cart with drinks, snacks and souvenirs. They had a lunch slip where you could order food, which was the items in the cart, a pretzel or a hot dog.

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22 minutes ago, CATVII said:

Took the combo tour last weekend. We did:

1. Shining

2. AHS

3. The Fallen

4. Dead Waters

*LUNCH BREAK*

5. Blumhouse

6. The Hive

 

In the Shining we could only take a pictures of the facade and the bathroom. AHS we could take a picture of the facade and one of the rooms in Roanoake, but you had to avoid the puppet in that room. In The Fallen, there were 2 scenes we could not photograph. I believe we could take pictures of everything in Dead Waters. In Blumhouse we could photograph the first two rooms in Sinister, no photos in The Purge. We could not take any photos of the Insidious logo/entrance, but we could take photos of the ‘Tip Toe’ room, which is similar to previous Insidious house where they did an UTH tour (so maybe that’s why you can photograph that room) and than the “mash up area” in Blumhouse was allowed to be photographed which is just booholes, SIF and green/black paint. In The Hive there were two areas we could not photograph, the room with the two dead babies in the cribs and the room with the two people hanging. Our tour guide let us take pictures of the cornfield of Scarecrow when walking to Hive.

 

My take is that the areas you can take pictures in the IP’s are somewhat generic, like they could be in any house. The only exceptions are Sinister and Insidious. It’s almost like they said what part of the house has the least IP related details, we can use that for UTH. It kind of sucks because The Shining has some awesome rooms that I would love to take photos in, but it is what it is.

 

I wish they would make the tours how they used to be, or add something else to the tour to make it more valuable if they are going to restrict rooms. This is the first year I remember them limiting photos in the originals. If they are going to restrict the photos in basically every house, at least give me some information I can't find anywhere else. The other new thing they offered was you could eat lunch in Blue Man, they had a cart with drinks, snacks and souvenirs. They had a lunch slip where you could order food, which was the items in the cart, a pretzel or a hot dog.

 

WOW!  Thanks for such a comprehensive write up...that's crazy what you were allowed and not allowed to do.  They don't want you taking pictures of the sensitive stuff like dead babies, but hey, tens of thousands of people can walk by them every night.  And they're Uni originals.  The IPs are ridiculous too.  Sounds like they're just letting you take a couple pics per house so that they can say you can take photos of EVERY house and be correct on a technicality.  If they said nothing for the parts from Insidious 4 that hasn't come out yet, that would actually make a bit of sense.  But to say you can't take pictures of scenes that you have on DVD at home is just nonsense. 

 

Did they make you stay in a tight group to ensure nobody was taking pictures of the restricted stuff, or were you allowed to stay a room or two behind the group?  Not like I'm talking about taking pics I'm not supposed to :rolleyes: but I wanted to try to take some 360-degree pictures of a few rooms when there's nobody else in them.  I wonder what their stance is on 360 pictures....they aren't video, but rather a collection of stills...but it suuuuuure looks like you're filming video when you do it. 

 

I wish they had a Photo Tour option...where it would be the 4 originals for $100 or something.  That would be pretty awesome.  Have it like one day a week during the event, and have a photographer be the tour guide and give you advice for how to compose shots and stuff like that.

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9 hours ago, themazethinker said:

are there any neat facts about the houses your guide said

To be honest our guide was not that great on back stories or cool information, he told us very generic information that we have all heard before, like the scent cans and the codenames for the houses this year (things I didn't need to spend $100 on to learn). I have had friends that took the tour after us and they got way more information, like apparently there are Raggedy Ann Doll in each house. Our guide did say there were literal easter eggs in each house, but only showed us the one in The Shining behind the bar in the Gold Room. 

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3 minutes ago, CATVII said:

To be honest our guide was not that great on back stories or cool information, he told us very generic information that we have all heard before, like the scent cans and the codenames for the houses this year (things I didn't need to spend $100 on to learn). I have had friends that took the tour after us and they got way more information, like apparently there are Raggedy Ann Doll in each house. Our guide did say there were literal easter eggs in each house, but only showed us the one in The Shining behind the bar in the Gold Room. 

 

Some tour guides definitely seem more into it and willing to slip stuff than others. I believe David is the best one, though someone else can verify his exact name. Had him for my 26 UTH and his info made it worth the lack of photos.

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9 hours ago, Oysterhead00 said:

 

WOW!  Thanks for such a comprehensive write up...that's crazy what you were allowed and not allowed to do.  They don't want you taking pictures of the sensitive stuff like dead babies, but hey, tens of thousands of people can walk by them every night.  And they're Uni originals.  The IPs are ridiculous too.  Sounds like they're just letting you take a couple pics per house so that they can say you can take photos of EVERY house and be correct on a technicality.  If they said nothing for the parts from Insidious 4 that hasn't come out yet, that would actually make a bit of sense.  But to say you can't take pictures of scenes that you have on DVD at home is just nonsense. 

 

Did they make you stay in a tight group to ensure nobody was taking pictures of the restricted stuff, or were you allowed to stay a room or two behind the group?  Not like I'm talking about taking pics I'm not supposed to :rolleyes: but I wanted to try to take some 360-degree pictures of a few rooms when there's nobody else in them.  I wonder what their stance is on 360 pictures....they aren't video, but rather a collection of stills...but it suuuuuure looks like you're filming video when you do it. 

 

I wish they had a Photo Tour option...where it would be the 4 originals for $100 or something.  That would be pretty awesome.  Have it like one day a week during the event, and have a photographer be the tour guide and give you advice for how to compose shots and stuff like that.

No problem! The sensitive stuff I get, but I was like CMON this is what I am here for lol! I did not get why we could take a photo of the Sinister logo, but not the Insidious one? The IP stuff and technicalities were getting  kind of ridiculous. I think the guides think it is kind of silly to be like hey we can't photograph this room, but the next one you can. 

 

They didn't make you stay in a close group, at least not our group. I wandered towards the back a few times to get pictures without people in them. Dead Waters has so many little details, I could have easily been in there forever. 

 

A photo tour option is an amazing idea! Even if they would allow a photographer to take pictures of the high points of the IP's I would be happy because I would have loved just one picture of the REDRUM door. If they are worried about the photos of IP houses being used inappropriately, this could solve the problem. I feel like if they are going to be restrictive they need to add some other value to the tours because some of the guides don't give you back stories or new information. 

10 minutes ago, ForeverEvil1 said:

 

Some tour guides definitely seem more into it and willing to slip stuff than others. I believe David is the best one, though someone else can verify his exact name. Had him for my 26 UTH and his info made it worth the lack of photos.

I know exactly who you are talking about and I think you are right on his name being David. I was hoping we were going to get him because I seen him in action last year and he seems awesome. I overheard  many cool little tidbits, plus he is super enthusiastic, you can just tell he loves what he does. 

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Ash is not part of the tour.

 

I rated this year's UTH as abysmal because of the overly restrictive and random no photograph policy.  You can read about it in my trip report.   Maybe your mileage differs with some tour guides.  Original houses should never have a restricted policy on photos; there never has been in the past.  Yet we were not even allowed to take a picture of the fallen FACADE!  Total bullshit.  But Universal has pictures of that verboten facade on their own site.  Two other rooms in Fallen were off limits, as were two in Hive.  

 

Don't open the tour by apologizing for the restricted photo policy from last year and then proceed to restrict it even more than last year.  Absolute craziness. 

 

Oh, and as for taking pictures of two skeletal babies being too sensitive - these are the same people who let us take pictures of drowned children in La Llorona, and who showed videos of the AHS opening credits with skeletal babies in it.  So, yeah, I don't buy that crap.  If this was a tour guide that screwed up, I'm pretty pissed at that.  Sounds like others had no restrictions in originals at all.  Our guide had done UTH tours only a couple of years.  I've had David for the past 12 years but instead got this guy who knew a whole lot less.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did the 6 house tour and the guide told us that scarecrow was too dark to tour even with the lights on and didn't want to ruin the crow room, didn't give a reason for not touring AvED and said Saw was not included because there is notthing to discuss during a tour to make it worth putting on the list. The guide said they usually pick houses that will be popular or have lots of interesting features, and my guide said Saw had neither of those going for it. But he did tells us where the gats were. 

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On 9/21/2017 at 0:10 PM, CATVII said:

Took the combo tour last weekend. We did:

1. Shining

2. AHS

3. The Fallen

4. Dead Waters

*LUNCH BREAK*

5. Blumhouse

6. The Hive

 

In the Shining we could only take a pictures of the facade and the bathroom. AHS we could take a picture of the facade and one of the rooms in Roanoake, but you had to avoid the puppet in that room. In The Fallen, there were 2 scenes we could not photograph. I believe we could take pictures of everything in Dead Waters. In Blumhouse we could photograph the first two rooms in Sinister, no photos in The Purge. We could not take any photos of the Insidious logo/entrance, but we could take photos of the ‘Tip Toe’ room, which is similar to previous Insidious house where they did an UTH tour (so maybe that’s why you can photograph that room) and than the “mash up area” in Blumhouse was allowed to be photographed which is just booholes, SIF and green/black paint. In The Hive there were two areas we could not photograph, the room with the two dead babies in the cribs and the room with the two people hanging. Our tour guide let us take pictures of the cornfield of Scarecrow when walking to Hive.

 

My take is that the areas you can take pictures in the IP’s are somewhat generic, like they could be in any house. The only exceptions are Sinister and Insidious. It’s almost like they said what part of the house has the least IP related details, we can use that for UTH. It kind of sucks because The Shining has some awesome rooms that I would love to take photos in, but it is what it is.

 

I wish they would make the tours how they used to be, or add something else to the tour to make it more valuable if they are going to restrict rooms. This is the first year I remember them limiting photos in the originals. If they are going to restrict the photos in basically every house, at least give me some information I can't find anywhere else. The other new thing they offered was you could eat lunch in Blue Man, they had a cart with drinks, snacks and souvenirs. They had a lunch slip where you could order food, which was the items in the cart, a pretzel or a hot dog.

 

 

Wait, isn't it supposed to be two sets of three houses? My brother is considering the tour but he'd only be able to do the afternoon tour and ... Frankly this whole line of discussion makes it sounds like that'd be a waste of money. 

 

Also it's sounding like the people who have taken the tour didn't have a good time. What say ye, do youse guys recommend it or was it a frustrating waste of money?

 

Also also, it sounds like everybody's describing a different set of houses and a different set of photography rules . . . What's the deal? Each tour guide gets to choose their own arbitrary set of policies? And possibly their own list of houses? I'm not sure I trust tour guides with that much power to ruin my day!!

 

Finally . . . What are the times of the tour?  Sorry if that information is elsewhere; I couldn't find it. 

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I think you're talking about two different options. The full day tour (6 houses), and the afternoon or morning version (3 houses).

 

What was laid out above is the full day tour. Sometimes that gets split up differently than 3morning/3afternoon depending on how quickly they get through a house or two.

 

If you sign up for just the morning, or just the afternoon, you're still guaranteed 3 houses.

 

Sure the picture limitations are kind of a bummer, but at least they loosed up the policy a bit this year, and it's a pretty decent compromise. 

 

We decided to skip the tour this year, but we had gone two years in a row previously. If you've never gone, it's totally worth it. It's the only time you'll ever get to feel like a true insider walking through these sets with the lights on.

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10 hours ago, PleaseAndThankYou said:

 

 

Wait, isn't it supposed to be two sets of three houses? My brother is considering the tour but he'd only be able to do the afternoon tour and ... Frankly this whole line of discussion makes it sounds like that'd be a waste of money. 

 

Also it's sounding like the people who have taken the tour didn't have a good time. What say ye, do youse guys recommend it or was it a frustrating waste of money?

 

Also also, it sounds like everybody's describing a different set of houses and a different set of photography rules . . . What's the deal? Each tour guide gets to choose their own arbitrary set of policies? And possibly their own list of houses? I'm not sure I trust tour guides with that much power to ruin my day!!

 

Finally . . . What are the times of the tour?  Sorry if that information is elsewhere; I couldn't find it. 

This year was the first year I had done the tour and I would absolutely recommend doing the tour. I did the 6 house tour, my only complaint is you couldn't pick the houses you tour. Other than that if you hang back in the group you can get quick pictures of anything you want. My group was about 12 people so not too big, but one tour guide can't watch everyone the whole time :D the tour guides answered any question you asked. Things he couldn't answer he'd give a winking answer. My tour guide would say no photos of this or that and then walk to another room of the house so you've got a chance to snap some pics if you're sneaky. My guide also said he was doing the houses in the order he prefers so we do more walking up front and then come back for a break and do the last three that are closer. So we started with Blumhouse, then Hive, then dead waters. Then a break then fallen, shining, and ahs. The 6 house tour starts at 11 am and we were done around 4-415. The guide said there's no point doing saw or scarecrow because there isn't enough to discuss or show on a tour. Didn't give a reason why we didn't do AvED. I would think AvED would've been better than Hive to tour but that's just me. I'm pretty sure my guide was named David and he was great if I ever get to do a tour again I would ask for him specifically he definitely didn't ruin my day. David said he's been every year since the beginning starting as a guest and now as a guide and he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the event, horror movies, and a great sense of humor. 

Edited by MoonKnight
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