I went last night (Friday), which was a sold out night and I did not have express.
My experience was completely opposite to everyone else's on Thursday. I actually got into the park late to have dinner with a friend (Google says 7:55 PM), which I never do, and I still managed to see everything except for Stranger Things and the Blumhouse show. The wait times were *absurdly* inflated, more than I have ever seen. I probably should recorded the time of night but since I was lazy and didn't, but I can give the order I went instead:
Evil Dead Rise: 35 minutes (20 actual)
Monstrous: 40 minutes (25 actual)
Terror Tram: 55 minutes (25 actual)
The Exorcist Believer: 100 minutes (40 actual)
Holidayz in Hell: 55 minutes (40 actual, but see my comments)
The Purge: 12:30 AM
The Last of Us: 60 minutes (20 actual)
Universal Monsters Unmasked 15 minutes (5 actual)
Chucky Ultimate Kill Count 55 minutes (25 actual, although I walked in at 1:55 AM so it technically didn't count).
I know this is not typical, but I consider this a very, very good run and not what I was expecting. Obviously there's a lot of inefficiency in the travel here, but I don't have an issue with that if it means I can hit everything. People usually want to stay and do the mazes right next to them, but it's not necessarily the most time efficient option. Some other notes:
- Getting through the security conga took a long time.
- The Terror Tram ops were flying and that 25 minute wait time shocked me. This is the farthest I've ever waited in the line but also the quickest I've ever gone. *There were three stops the whole line but otherwise it was a constant walk.* Now, once you were in, the loading chutes at different parts of the path were packed, so you'd wait 5 minutes to proceed to the next section, but that's really not an issue. I rather prefer it.
- Both Stranger Things and The Last of Us reached 180 minutes on the app.
- Holidayz in Hell would have been a 15 minute wait at most, but they were pulsing to the extreme. I noticed express was seriously backed up and they were waiting 45 to 60 seconds between groups. I've almost never seen this at Hollywood.
- As is typical of this event, by the end of the night, everything was a walk on, regardless of posted time. It's not unusual for me to hit all the remaining houses in the last hour.
- I felt like express was not nearly as much of an issue this night, with the sole exception of The Exorcist. That was the only maze I went on where there was any backup for Express at all.
So there you have my data point. I have a multi-night pass so I'll be back, but I felt overall that this was much smoother than other trips I've had. If I had been there on time I could have hit every maze with ease.
EDIT: I also had a first timer with me who was an absolute trooper and kept up with my absurd pace the whole night. So kudos to him lol.
