This isn't an attack, just an honest question. So please don't take offense.
You've gone twenty times so far in just under a month. Why? Doesn't it get old? Like, is there even any joy in going through the houses any more? Haven't you got everything pretty much memorized by now?
I know that we go 3-4 times the week that we travel (which starts Sunday, so anyone around say "hey"), and I know we're pretty over it by our final night. It usually ends with us saying, "Eh...we could wait 45mins to see this house again...or we could go back, sit in bed, and have a snack.".
Again, this is genuine curiosity. I'm just trying to understand the appeal.
I myself have only gone about 13 nights this year, but for me it really helps with some issues I have in my life, its my escape and my happy place as weird as that sounds. I enjoy being able to go to all of these different worlds, looking at the sets, the costumes, the makeup. I can just sit in the streets and enjoy the atmosphere. When Bill & Ted was there I would go to the last show of the night each and every night. I never get bored of this event, but thats just me.
By the end of October I literally just sit by the scarezones and do the rides and I used to do the lagoon show every single night I could. ( even watch it from outside the viewing area. ) by the end, the last week I think I stop doing houses and just enjoy the park itself. Do the shows, sometimes I literally just walk around doing nothing at all by the last day.
Losing the lagoon show this year is the most painful thing that could have happened this year......
I get your general point, as I suspect you probably meant it more for locals … but my squad is flying down from Philly for 8 days at considerable cost. So, yeah, I want / need to do more than one day in a week to make it worth it. But as I said up-thread, I’d love a pass option for 5 or 6 visits where I have to pick specific dates (obviously we know them). Right now we buy the FFP because it’s the most cost effective. But we will not be going for more than 6 nights total.
Still need to separate this conversation into 2 dimensions: Locals vs. out of town guests on one axis and buying daily passes vs. multi night passes on the other.
We flew in from out of town, stayed onsite, ate every meal onsite incl. dinner plus snacks plus significant drinks at HHN. Every night passed through the Company Store near the exit and purchased something on the way to the boat dock or to another CW venue.
We also had ROF tickets since that was the best price to give us 5 nights at the event.
Purely anecdotal I know. For every group who vacations like mine does re HHN there are other out-of-towners who are onsite but only do one night of HHN or FFP locals who do every night of HHN from 3PM to 2AM.
They really need to find solutions for all 4 groupings of guests.
Ascribing behavior to types of ticket users is kind of hit or miss to be honest.
In the years I had a FF pass, I’d do the math at the end to add up my total spend outside of the ticket and it was usually in the $400-500 range, and I’ve never purchased a single piece of HHN merchandise. Some nights I’d buy nothing, other nights it’s 3-4 drinks plus food. I’d add it up at the end to remind myself of the actual “cost” of going beyond just the ticket. If they get rid of FF passes, the people who drop $1,000 over the course of the event are not magically backfilled with single night goers - those are different audiences. They’d also be annoying the people who (although I just said ascribing behavior is hit or miss) are most likely to be smashing the refresh button on the online store the day new merch drops to buy things.
That said, my experience is also just anecdotal. Universal is the only one with the macro data, and frankly I think a lot of the complaints are down to more little operational things they could fix and not some massively broken event. The HHN Operations thread had a good link to an article from 2007 where all of the complaints of today were around back then.
And this brings a good point. Should universal stop selling FFP to people out of Florida? How many people out of Florida buy ffp.
A decade ago I used to think that FFP was only sold to locals, I didn't know people out of state were buying it, but how much would that backfire on universal?
Everyone is attacking FFP passes as the reason for the crowds, but then how much of that is locals vs out of state guests?
Does Publix and Spencer's still offer discounts? Maybe universal can remove all discounts completely
Do you get a discount if an employee helps you buy the ticket or an annual pass holder helps you? Does that still exist? I honestly don't know if Publix or employee discounts still exist.
Seems like there is so much wiggle room to "fix " the issue. You can literally start by removing any discounts for locals and remove any perks for annual pass holders or employees,
I've used the help of people to get discounts in the past but they could just have one set price
( why are tickets cheaper on the website vs the entrance of the park?
Why does universal want you to pay cheaper on the website? What's the benefit for UNIVERSAL to have a lower price on their website?
Does universal get a benefit from selling online?)
I don't know, I hate to bite the hand that feeds but uni has all these plans and local discounts that I have used myself that could be removed. Just the discount on the website aline can be removed immediately if they needed to.
midnight visitor. I couldnt Imagine staying every day from opening to closing. Honestly in 15 years of going I have only done from opening to closing 4 times. Literally 4 days in 15 years because family came.
