Halloween Horror Nights 28 Discussion

[pg1287]

Looks like Tuesday 10/30 was added as an extra event night. The crowds this year are insane!

[Rikku]

14 hours ago, zombieman said:

Wanted to give a wait time update according to app.  Boy, it’s crowded!

 

These are the wait times for midnight 10/17 (Wednesday)

 

Carnival Graveyard: 40

Dead Exposure: 45

Halloween 4: 70

Poltergeist: 85

Scary Tales: 50

Seeds of Extinction: 35

Slaughter Sinema: 40

Stranger Things: 90

Blunhouse: 65

Trick R Treat: 40

 

 

What are the average wait times for Express lines? Either way all the reports make is sound like I am more thrilled than ever to have an express pass this year, won't be there till next week.

[zombieman]

28 minutes ago, Rikku said:

 

What are the average wait times for Express lines? Either way all the reports make is sound like I am more thrilled than ever to have an express pass this year, won't be there till next week.

 

That's not an easy Q to answer.  Some houses have merge points AT the house entrance (H4, TrT, SoE, DE, CG).  Others have merge points that have a built in post-merge wait of 5-10 min (i.e. Stranger Things, Scary Tales, Slaughter, Poltergeist, Blumhouse), so there's that.   Even if a house is a walk on, it's a 5 min walk through the whole queue and another 5 from the exit back.  So a walk-on house can be 10 min of walking, not counting the house itself.

 

My rule of thumb is that if you see a 5-10 min standby, don't even waste the Express.  5-10 min is probably a walk on.  Sometimes 15 min is a walk on.  There is nothing more pathetic than seeing two people in Express when the event opens and standby is a walk on.  Those two people either don't realize they won't be able to Express a second time, or are too drunk to care.

 

In general, Express is about 25%-30% of standby.  But that is a big generality.  I've done a (rare) walk-on using Express when line is clearly 90 min, and I've done a (fairly rare) 25 min Express when standby is 30.

I will do standby if it's 20 min or less.  Otherwise, Express.  When I was younger 30 min was the threshold.  Conversely, if I see a large wait (i.e. 100 min), I usually skip the house until it's 60 min because Express would be too long of a real wait for me.  Waiting in an express line for 45 min can only piss a person off.  So for you, maybe 30-75 min standby is a great time for Express.  Up to you.  You are paying $10+ for the privilege of skipping one line, for one house, one time, so make the most of it.

 

It also depends on how the employee meters between Express and standby.  I've seen them equally split and heavily weight in one way or the other.  Affects the waits drastically.

 

 

[SATX]

On 10/17/2018 at 1:32 PM, zombieman said:

 

Thanks for all the tips the other day guys, needless to say yesterday was a much better day when though we still didn't get to do everything we were satisfied with what we did get to do. 

 

We first hit Trick 'r Treat which had a 20 minute wait, then Dead Exposure which had 35, after we really wanted to hit Halloween and everything else at that point had swelled up in wait time anyway so we went straight to that. We did all of that in about 2.5 hours and by then our ride had came so we left. 

[Jediwhit82]

7 hours ago, Rikku said:

 

What are the average wait times for Express lines? Either way all the reports make is sound like I am more thrilled than ever to have an express pass this year, won't be there till next week.

Express works great on 9 houses. Seeds of Extinction express line is complete garbage.

[Mog]

My first post here.

Just wanted to share my experience of this years HHN. I really love this event, we save up and look forward to going to it every year.

Been going to the event since hhn#25, only just really discovered this forum, it has some great information.

 

We went last week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). Managed to get through all the houses and see the show on Wednesday and Thursday. Spent Friday enjoying the food and beer, and just chilling out in the scarezones.

 

Really busy this year. We did not have express pass. My tip (as others have pointed out), is to get a map early, really spend time planning the night, and if you are able, get in the park before the event starts.

 

Wednesday we went to the Simpsons stay and scare area, then hit the houses in that area. Very low wait times to begin with. The highlight for me was going through Trick R treat house on our own, no other people in the queue or in the house!. We had the scareactors full attention! Really well done house.

 

Thursday, we started in Finnegans stay and scare area. We started with stranger things to get it over with whilst we were not tired. They pre-loaded the queue before the house (and park) officially opened, we still had about a 60 minute wait!! Great to get all the houses done in two nights without express.

 

Was a great year. Only thing that let it down a bit for me was the scarezones being a little tame. They just felt like selfie/photo ops (especially the killer klown area). Very few scares. But to be fair, I have never seen the park as busy as it was this year. The houses were excellent though.

 

Looking forward to HHN 29 now!

 

[casperthegm]

We'll be there next Thursday and Friday.  In the past they opened up a couple of houses early on each side of the park, for those who visited during the day and were staying for HHN. Are they still doing that, or are all houses open when they let us out of the pens? 

 

We plan to stay at Finnegan's the first night and head straight to Stranger Things, but that 60 minute wait right from the start concerns me a bit. That's time we could be using to knock out a couple of houses early. Would we be better off starting with a different house on that side of the park, like Poltergeist?  We plan to get the 5 houses on that side of the park done on Thursday and the remaining 5 toward the back of the park on Friday.  No express pass, so we want to make sure we make good use of the first couple of hours, hit the houses, and then chill and soak up the atmosphere the rest of the night. Any tips would be much appreciated.

[Mog]

Hi Casper,

 

We might have been unlucky as far as wait times go, the park was very busy.

From what I saw, (I could be wrong), they opened all the houses at the same time. As soon as finnegans area opened everyone seemed to go straight for stranger things. The stranger things queue didnt start moving for another 10 minutes after that, I think they were basically pre-loading the house queue. This is all before the main gates opened.

I never saw the wait times for ST below 60 minutes on any night we went. Hghest wait time we saw was 95 minutes late on Friday night. Poltergeist and Halloween also got busy as the night went on. (We probably waited 30 mins for Poltergeist, 45 for Halloween).

 

Like I said, we could have just picked a bad week. Orlando seemed very busy in general. Maybe people evacuated there to avoid the hurricane?

 

The wait times dont feel as bad when you are in them, there is an amazing 80's soundtrack being blasted around the park. Great atmosphere.

 

Have a great time

Edited October 19, 2018 by Mog

[zombieman]

Mog and Casper, welcome to the forums!

 

This has been a very busy year indeed.  Stranger Things has definitely opened the event to a new group of people.  

This year, the big waits are for: Stranger Things, Poltergeist, Halloween 4.

H4 and ST happen to be the first houses you come to as you enter the park.  As such, whatever goes into the Shrek venue where H4 is location tends to have long waits.

 

Casper, if you are doing Stay and Scream, then you would choose to be corralled at Finnegans or Simpsons, and would be able to do houses a bit earlier than the general public.

 

If the night you are going is super crowded, be on the lookout at around 10:30 for pop-up stands selling Express Passes that are good after 11PM.  They will be reduced price, IF they are selling them.  

 

As for HHN 29, expect to see Stranger Things, Season 2, and therefore big crowds again.  As for crowd patterns, opening week is usually slammed.  Avoid it.

Weekend #2 and Weekend #3 are the best to go in terms of avoiding crowds, but the weather is super hot and the weather unpredictable.  But even this year was crowded at that time.

Around Weekend 4, central Florida schools let out and then event becomes a madhouse.

Final weekend can also be a good time to go, but last year it was incredibly crowded.

 

[Mog]

Hey Zombieman,

Thanks for the welcome, this really looks like a great forum.

 

Appreciate the information you have shared. I enjoyed this year so much, I have already booked a hotel for next year, hoping to go last week in September. Hopefully the weather will be kind, and I can save enough money.

 

I was in Orlando and planning to visit hhn when hurricane Mathew clipped the state in 2016. I was amazed how quickly and how hard the people at Universal worked to get the show back on. I think it only disrupted one night, but destroyed the Academy of villains stage (but I hear that happens a lot anyway ) So I try not to worry too much about the weather, and just make the best of it.

 

Not being a big stranger things fan, I wasnt really that bothered about it, so I dont understand all the hype and the wait times. I actually preferred the houses like slaughter sinema and dead exposure, as you had no idea what you were walking into. Both of these we were able to get into multiple times with hardly any waiting.

 

 

[zombieman]

3 hours ago, Mog said:

Appreciate the information you have shared. I enjoyed this year so much, I have already booked a hotel for next year, hoping to go last week in September. Hopefully the weather will be kind, and I can save enough money.

 

I recommend booking onsite (Sapphire Falls, Aventura, or Cabana Bay), and of course keep checking as rates go up and down.  Between the water taxi and the USO entrance just for hotel guests, I cannot imagine staying offsite anymore.  The best argument against staying onsite is the stupid parking fee.  But staying onsite with no car is not much more expensive than staying on Major Blvd and renting a car.  Plus, you can always cancel Universal hotel reservations.

[Mog]

Agree with you 100%,

We stayed at Sapphire falls this year, after a night on your feet, the water taxis are great. Well worth the extra money. Last week when we were there, one of the hotel receptionists commented to us  that all the onsite loews universal hotels were currently full to capacity! No wonder they are building new hotels.

We dont rent a car during our stay. As you said,  the car parking fees are very high. It also means we can have a beer and not worry.

 

Good tip about the hotels though. We have provisionally booked Cabana bay because it is a bit cheaper at the moment, but will keep an eye on Sapphire falls rates.

 

[Jediwhit82]

Ban alcohol

[casperthegm]

Thanks for the welcome and feedback.  We've been checking out the wait times on the app.  Looks like we really need to have a solid plan to make use of the first two hours.  We'll definitely keep an eye out for the reduced price express pass as the night goes along.

 

I've read that there is a que over at Finnegan's that fills up first and that is the one they let out initially, so it's best for Stranger Things. The second one by Finnegan's lets out after that one and at that point it's best to head to Poltergeist instead of ST.  Sound right?

 

Also, wouldn't the que over by Hello Kitty be a good spot for ST?   Or does that one get out later than the others?  Thanks again for the feedback.

[itsabee]

Update for anyone interested: Ernest Lee and his incredible barrels are back in full swing! I could see the cord they hang from shaking under tension and movement before I entered his shed, and I was not left disappointed!!  I heard a comment about them being made of metal once before; it looks like they’re plastic now, but they’re still pretty loud when he slams them together.

[OhHaiInternet95]

55 minutes ago, itsabee said:

Update for anyone interested: Ernest Lee and his incredible barrels are back in full swing! I could see the cord they hang from shaking under tension and movement before I entered his shed, and I was not left disappointed!!  I heard a comment about them being made of metal once before; it looks like they’re plastic now, but they’re still pretty loud when he slams them together.

They are. I didn't find them very loud. Still a pretty inventive scare.

Edited October 22, 2018 by OhHaiInternet95

[Mog]

16 hours ago, casperthegm said:

Thanks for the welcome and feedback.  We've been checking out the wait times on the app.  Looks like we really need to have a solid plan to make use of the first two hours.  We'll definitely keep an eye out for the reduced price express pass as the night goes along.

 

I've read that there is a que over at Finnegan's that fills up first and that is the one they let out initially, so it's best for Stranger Things. The second one by Finnegan's lets out after that one and at that point it's best to head to Poltergeist instead of ST.  Sound right?

 

Also, wouldn't the que over by Hello Kitty be a good spot for ST?   Or does that one get out later than the others?  Thanks again for the feedback.

 

Come to think of it, I do remember there being a two queues at Finnegans. 

They let out one lot first, then the second lot which we were in. We didnt queue in the first one because the second area had more places to sit. The first queue was tightly packed and standing in the sun. We had done over half the houses the day before, so were not in a great rush.

 

I think you really have to prioritise what houses you want to go in. Zombiemans advice is good, keep a look out for the reduced price express pass if you need to. 

[zombieman]

20 hours ago, itsabee said:

Update for anyone interested: Ernest Lee and his incredible barrels are back in full swing! I could see the cord they hang from shaking under tension and movement before I entered his shed, and I was not left disappointed!!  I heard a comment about them being made of metal once before; it looks like they’re plastic now, but they’re still pretty loud when he slams them together.

 

 

Hell to the Yeah!

[zombieman]

HHN Hollywood just added Nov 4th.

 

I gotta believe HHN Orlando will be doing the same in short order....

[Rikku]

1 hour ago, zombieman said:

HHN Hollywood just added Nov 4th.

 

I gotta believe HHN Orlando will be doing the same in short order....

 

I obviously have no clue but would be surprised if they added the 4th after already adding the 30th, two add on days in the same week seems unusual to me or at least not announcing them at the same time.

[zombieman]

4 minutes ago, Rikku said:

 

I obviously have no clue but would be surprised if they added the 4th after already adding the 30th, two add on days in the same week seems unusual to me or at least not announcing them at the same time.

 

What I am actually doing in writing that is wishing out loud.  I am 75% sure I will be returning to HHN, but adding the 4th would push me over the edge.  So I need to believe this will happen.  Scareactors be damned.

[Tman875]

14 hours ago, zombieman said:

 

Scareactors be damned.

 

That's cute....

Wait until guests show up on the 30th....anyone who has been more than once will see what adding extra days a week or so before will look like.

[FaceBagman]

Just arrived in gorgeous Orlando from snowy Syracuse! First year attending with a buddy, staying for a week; I'm ready for an amazing experience

[DtahDrew]

Have been going to Horror Nights the last 5-6 yrs or so. Since meeting my wife we've made it an annual trip and religiously buy Express Passes. We normally plan our trip early in October but this year we planned late and are going the last Saturday on Nov. 3rd. Would you recommend Express or take our chances being that Halloween has passed and the event is ending?

[zombieman]

3 hours ago, DtahDrew said:

Have been going to Horror Nights the last 5-6 yrs or so. Since meeting my wife we've made it an annual trip and religiously buy Express Passes. We normally plan our trip early in October but this year we planned late and are going the last Saturday on Nov. 3rd. Would you recommend Express or take our chances being that Halloween has passed and the event is ending?

 

If this was 5 years ago, I'd say you wouldn't need Express.  The past few years have seen huge turnout on the last weekend, just as opening weekend has been a madhouse lately.  It probably won't be crowded enough that they sell out of Express; they will most likely be selling them outside the gates.  They have also been selling the "After 11PM Express" passes quite a bit.