Halloween Horror Nights 25 Discussion

[April]

I'm pretty sure it's to make sure people don't cut out of line for a house and into another. They aren't handing them out at houses that are separated from others like RUN.

They did it at RUN for employlee preview and I've seen them do it at the Disaster house in years past. It seems to happen whenever the line is very long.

 

[s8film40]

I'm pretty sure it's to make sure people don't cut out of line for a house and into another. They aren't handing them out at houses that are separated from others like RUN.

I do remember getting them last year at Giggles and Gore. But yeah I think where there's an opportunity for someone to just cut under a rope it will deter that.

 

[UNIrd]

This is the first I hear of GAC abuse at Universal and Horror Nights. Don't they have a similar system to what Disney adopted recently where you're still waiting in the same amount of time, just not in the queue?

 

[sjago13]

This is the first I hear of GAC abuse at Universal and Horror Nights. Don't they have a similar system to what Disney adopted recently where you're still waiting in the same amount of time, just not in the queue?

I think they take off 30 or whatever the expected wait when you get into the express line would be such that the waiting out of line plus epress line equal what the standby line is. However it allows you to wait in one line for a house while virtually waiting in another line essentially doubling your effectiveness and inflating waits. There were a lot and I mean a lot of those floating around friday night. Like I think half of the express people were using them.

 

[Nick]

I agree with Express being an issue. RIP also huge--had two 20-person tours cut in front of me in maybe a 5-minute span; an extra 300/hour would test even a people-eater like Haunted Mansion on a busy night. Also, to be blunt, abuse and fraud with GAC is probably even more rampant than it was at WDW when the Mouse changed policies.

I agree Express the only way to go. Even with express, 20 - 30 minute lines standard for the popular houses.

I think it's fair to say at this point, the system is broken. 9 houses and Diagon (which seems popular) and it doesn't make a dent.

A big problem is that 4 houses (with RUN and Wonderland nearby as well, so really 6) are all at the front of the park. I would love to suggest IOA as some sort of option, but the walkways are very cramped and Seuss/Potter aren't usable for the event for actors.

 

[Cole]

Yeah all the action was right there for the front of the park. It kinda made evils roots and icons optional witch was a big bummer for me but I guess that's the way it always is. Whatever though Im sure next year is gonna be a 22 in the sense that attractions will close leading to desperately trying to find new house locations. They now gotta keep it at 9 houses too. Tall order, gonna be interesting how the deal with it

 

[Nick]

Yeah all the action was right there for the front of the park. It kinda made evils roots and icons optional witch was a big bummer for me but I guess that's the way it always is. Whatever though Im sure next year is gonna be a 22 in the sense that attractions will close leading to desperately trying to find new house locations. They now gotta keep it at 9 houses too. Tall order, gonna be interesting how the deal with it

No need to find new houses, they already essentially have 10. M&M is like TWD house from last year where it is basically a double house. All they'd need to do is make that two houses, reroute the entrance for the Twister house (since Fallon will be under construction) and they already found a new location for this year in Shrek.

Next year they could easily have 5 Soundstage houses, Shrek, the 2 tent houses and the Parade building. So they will still have 9 next year if they choose to utilize what they have to it's fullest. The only other spot I can think of where they could potentially put a house is if they wanted to put a tent in between B&T and MIB, but there isn't a lot of room back there.

The event itself is bursting at the seams though... even with opening Diagon/Gringotts (which is popular), it hasn't eased crowding. I have to think it's only a matter of time before they will be forced to utilize IoA.

 

[anihilnation]

Yes, tickets are to combat line cutting, asked an employee. Funny thing, in Body Collectors they did not ask for it back, but they did in AWIL

 

[Nick]

Yes, tickets are to combat line cutting, asked an employee. Funny thing, in Body Collectors they did not ask for it back, but they did in AWIL

I had a similar situation. Didn't ask for it back in The Purge, but did at Insidious.

 

[graspthesun]

I think there's a better possibility of a ticket price hike before increasing operational costs by opening another park. I imagine they'll reduce the add on ticket discount first before raising the stand alone ticket price. You might also see frequent fear passes get cut back in availability or eliminated.

 

[Nick]

I think there's a better possibility of a ticket price hike before increasing operational costs by opening another park. I imagine they'll reduce the add on ticket discount first before raising the stand alone ticket price. You might also see frequent fear passes get cut back in availability or eliminated.

I have a feeling the rush of fear pass will likely get the axe soon. It causes such an influx of guests in the early weeks and it's really ripping Universal off as well.

Rush of Fear served it's purposed when September/Early October used to have lower crowds, but now that the entire event is pretty packed, it's time for this ticket to go away.

 

[MrRoamer]

Yeah I think Rush of Fear is causing more headaches than it is worth for them. First off they could probably be making more money with just the cost increase in ticket price (would be interesting to know what the avg net gain on a FFP pass is). Secondly the whole can can't upgrade arguments and confusion with marketing/ticketing/etc. I say increase FFP by $5-$10 and include the RoF dates into it. Another item is that RoF is becoming more crowded times than later in the event. Stress testing before the event is one thing but completely stressing the event for the first 3 weekends must make it really hard to get everything fully operational. Hopefully opening night was just super packed and the rest of the event will even out a little bit.

 

[Shucker]

I have a feeling the rush of fear pass will likely get the axe soon. It causes such an influx of guests in the early weeks and it's really ripping Universal off as well.

Rush of Fear served it's purposed when September/Early October used to have lower crowds, but now that the entire event is pretty packed, it's time for this ticket to go away.

I doubt they will do that. It is serving its purpose, getting as many people in during the slower times. This year had a ton of hype being the 25 anniversary, but the last three years has not been that bad during the RoF dates.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Ok so crowds seem like an issue this year, and I wont lie, I kind of think that the Rush of Fear is part of the problem. That being said, Im trying to figure out the best time to come this year since Ive never been so far from the event/so busy. Was planning for Oct 4, but would it be smarter to go the 11 instead?

 

[Clive]

I've said for years that Frequent Fear Pass and Rush of Fear need to be dialed back significantly, or in the case of the latter, eliminated. (The argument was in my open letter some time back.) Instead, I think they need to focus on out of town visitors with weekend passes. That's where the money is.

We're going to need 10 houses, ideally more streets, and additional rides.

 

[Brian G.]

2 things that need to be fixed after opening weekend:

1. Express Ops
2. Ops inside the Houses

This is the first year we got Express and for the most part, worked well. However, there were some houses this weekend where the Express line wasn't that much shorter than the regular line. On Friday Night, Asylum's express line was around 30 min when the posted wait time was 45. Freddy Vs Jason had issues twice for us. On Friday, we waited about 20 min when the posted wait was 45. Granted I know they promise no more than half of the regular wait time, but we were at the front of the Express line for 10 min of as she let the regular line through. I'd understand if the house wait was much higher but I just thought it was silly. On Saturday, FVJ was again very high, where the line extended all the way to the entrance of the Express line. We opted to hold off until it died, but there is no reason it should ever get THAT backed up.

The ops inside the houses also need to tone down the "hurrying". If the house is moving at a good pace, I don't need to be told to "Keep moving" with an arm pointing to go left/right in my face. It ruins the atmosphere of the house.

 

[Brian G.]

Ok so crowds seem like an issue this year, and I wont lie, I kind of think that the Rush of Fear is part of the problem. That being said, Im trying to figure out the best time to come this year since Ive never been so far from the event/so busy. Was planning for Oct 4, but would it be smarter to go the 11 instead?

The next 2 weekends should be good comparably. Opening Weekend gets busy because of the die-hard fans, media, travel agents, ops working out the kinks, etc.

 

[Hockeyman55]

@BriMan how did the AP/S&S work out? Saw AP looking like it was super packed and seeing how 2 of those houses back there are on the bottom of the rating poll I might just skip AP this weekend and go S&S since that side has more of the houses im interested in anyways.

 

[UNIrd]

The ops inside the houses also need to tone down the "hurrying". If the house is moving at a good pace, I don't need to be told to "Keep moving" with an arm pointing to go left/right in my face. It ruins the atmosphere of the house.

And the flashlight.. But honestly, I've always found the "atmosphere" and the Special Event ops of HHN to be borderline obnoxious, especially with all the security and cops all near the house exits. Does not feel very Universal.. but I guess they need it for the type of audience this event attracts. It's the one time the TM service is kinda shitty at the park.

 

[Brian G.]

And the flashlight.. But honestly, I've always found the "atmosphere" and the Special Event ops of HHN to be borderline obnoxious, especially with all the security and cops all near the house exits. Does not feel very Universal.. but I guess they need it for the type of audience this event attracts. It's the one time the TM service is kinda shitty at the park.

Yea, it's a necessary evil.

@BriMan how did the AP/S&S work out? Saw AP looking like it was super packed and seeing how 2 of those houses back there are on the bottom of the rating poll I might just skip AP this weekend and go S&S since that side has more of the houses im interested in anyways.

Didn't do AP. Stay and Scream had a good crowd for the Lucy and Finnegan's locations though. In Lucy, we walked into M&M no problem. In NY, everyone made a beeline to FVJ and that house jumped up to 30(?) min immediately.