Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Reviews, Photos, & Videos

[Grabnar]

Alright

After two nights, soon to be three, and my 3 + 6 House UTH tours, here's my ranking.

Overall I would rank this as a pretty mid year. I think my ranks 1-4 could probably shift depending on the cast, and Museum could rank up as the event goes on. I think Triplets is hampered by straddling the line between comedy and horror and needs to go all in on being aggressive. The one triplet that looks and sounds like Tiny Tina from Borderlands takes me out of it immediately every time. I flat out do not get the hype about Insidious and do not think it's a scary house. Nothing this year reaches the peaks of 32 but nothing is as bad as Chucky was last year. None of the SZ's are fantastic but are all serviceable. Best zone is probably Demon Queens or Swamp Zombies. Blumhouse and the HHN bar are both instagram zones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1. Slaughter Sinema 2
2. Monstruos
3. Ghostbusters
4. AQP
5. UCM
6. Goblin
6. Museum.
8. Triplets
9. Sweets
10. Insidious

Haven't done NF yet. Dead Coconut is awesome though the Blumhouse transition is odd.

Best food I've tried (no order):
Slimer's Corndog - Worse than last year's Korean dog but not bad.
Heart Beet Tostada
Coffin savory pie

Worst food I've tried:
Goody bag from Triplets

Best drinks:
- Dead Meridian near Transformers (One of the best HHN drinks I've had)
- Coffin Mojito from Dead Coconut

 

[Casper Gutman]

How did they bobble Monstrous?

Shame about Museum, it’s a great basic concept and I hope they take another stab.

 

[Jake S]

How did they bobble Monstrous?

I’ve also been surprised to see this so low on many rankings. I’ll be interested to see it myself.

 

[Grabnar]

How did they bobble Monstrous?

Shame about Museum, it’s a great basic concept and I hope they take another stab.

I think Museum will improve as they figure out the space, my run last night was already better than premium scream night. Of all of the houses it’s the one that has the most potential for improvement imo.

Fwiw everything this year is fine to good, but only the top 1-4 really stand out in any capacity.

 

[Midnight Detective]

Best drinks:
- Dead Meridian near Transformers (One of the best HHN drinks I've had)
- Coffin Mojito from Dead Coconut

Thank you for your service

 

[Grabnar]

Thank you for your service

Will report back more tonight, I have an RIP tour so I’m hoping to get a few extra food/drinks I’ve missed out on so far. Last night of the year, gotta make it count

 

[GA-MBIT]

Here for opening night! Interested to see how tonight goes. Currently, I'm really not crazy hyped about anything in particular, but hopefully those low expectations lead to a pleasant surprise with each new attraction.

Skipping over the Scaremonies for today. Hanging out in the NY S&S, and planning on hitting Major Sweets as my first house. Pretty curious on how they portray a Wonka-esque factory setting in the more cramped F&F location, and about how the new tent changes the experience from Blumhouse & Chucky.

Looks like a little bit of drizzle is forming. Here's hoping that doesn't grow into anything worse.

I have so far done every house except Slaughter 2 and Triplets, and spent a little bit of time in every zone including Death Eaters. I didn't watch NF and didn't get to see the Tribute Store; didn't feel like waiting in line for something I'll be able to walk right into in about a week. There are specific threads for each of these, so I won't go too specific here. Just general thoughts and impressions.

IMO the event is, regrettably, mid. Nothing is downright bad. There are no Chucky's or CryptTV's this year where I walk out baffled. Everything I've experienced so far has some positive qualities to it, but at the same time, nothing has completely floored me or wowed me in the way other years have.

My favorite houses of the night were Insidious and A Quiet Place. Those feel like they have the level of production value and scope that I usually expect from an HHN haunt. Insidious consistently dished out scares, while A Quiet Place had some moments that were pretty unique to itself. These are great HHN attractions and hit the bar I hope every house can reach.

The remaining houses I went in were unfortunately just okay. There are certain scenes, effects, or performances that stuck out in my head above others, but not enough of them to lift the lineup higher than most other years I've been going. Museum definitely feels like the weakest I've seen so far, and I feel like it's going to end up being unfortunately forgettable in hindsight. Nothing screams "This is clearly really bad/cheap/not scary", but it just kinda doesn't execute on it's ideas very well and lands with a whimper.

A few deadzones this year. Simpsons is aching for a horde. The walk over to the old Pizza Company is really bare and hidden, I really didn't see that big of lines for Pizza Fries when I saw it.

The zones were surprisingly good. Torture Faire and Demon Queens are surprise favorites for me with the casts honestly doing great work in each, supplemented by pretty great costumes and sets. Duality is very tiny and kinda lame, while Blumhouse fits with Museum as not bad, but purely forgettable. Swamp is solid, but missing an X-Factor to put it over the top personally.

I think the Icons will have to grow on me a bit. I think the costumes are neat, especially Sinister with her Face Crown and Krueger hands, and the performers were clearly giving their all last night. I think they definitely fit the trend that I believe Legacy brought up awhile back of the new Icons being pretty much superhero villains. These definitely feel like Power Rangers bad guys, even up to costuming. I like having a single performer as the character the whole night, being able to walk around the event like Jack back during HHN30. The Icons having their own zone to walk around in between sets at Duality is also a cool idea.

The new Tent locations are wonderfully spacious and very long, and I love that new culdesac area that they built back there. The new F&F setup also worked surprisingly well, if feeling a little cramped at parts. The Ops across the whole event was surprisingly very seamless from what I experienced. I honestly liked the Museum queue a lot with it taking place in Simpsons for a time, where there are legitimate places to sit and lean in line.

Music loop is a little generic and I haven't really gotten a specific vibe from it outside of Heavy Metal.

I'm willing to give the event the benefit of the doubt for now and hope that as the performers get more used to the roles that the houses will elevate themselves in time. For now, I honestly can barely give a ranking at all. I might have to wait until the end of the weekend to really cement my thoughts on everything. I should be returning for at least some of tonight and tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[Wesker69]

Thanks @Brian G. for the 8 out of 10 videos! Being on the west coast, it's very much appreciated!

With that being said, out of the 8 houses I've seen videos for, they all kinda seem to struggle with an identity crisis (some more than others). Also feel samey-same to an extent.

Major Sweets looked to be a well done house! Now to go find a video for Goblins & whatever the other house is

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Alright

After two nights, soon to be three, and my 3 + 6 House UTH tours, here's my ranking.

Overall I would rank this as a pretty mid year. I think my ranks 1-4 could probably shift depending on the cast, and Museum could rank up as the event goes on. I think Triplets is hampered by straddling the line between comedy and horror and needs to go all in on being aggressive. The one triplet that looks and sounds like Tiny Tina from Borderlands takes me out of it immediately every time. I flat out do not get the hype about Insidious and do not think it's a scary house. Nothing this year reaches the peaks of 32 but nothing is as bad as Chucky was last year. None of the SZ's are fantastic but are all serviceable. Best zone is probably Demon Queens or Swamp Zombies. Blumhouse and the HHN bar are both instagram zones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1. Slaughter Sinema 2
2. Monstruos
3. Ghostbusters
4. AQP
5. UCM
6. Goblin
6. Museum.
8. Triplets
9. Sweets
10. Insidious

Haven't done NF yet. Dead Coconut is awesome though the Blumhouse transition is odd.

Best food I've tried (no order):
Slimer's Corndog - Worse than last year's Korean dog but not bad.
Heart Beet Tostada
Coffin savory pie

Worst food I've tried:
Goody bag from Triplets

Best drinks:
- Dead Meridian near Transformers (One of the best HHN drinks I've had)
- Coffin Mojito from Dead Coconut

Not sure I can accept a review with Incidious as last lol, that house rocks! 4 visits and every run awesome

 

[Grabnar]

Running tally:

CityWalk bar cart:
Ketel Cooler - Thumbs up
Rose Mule - Thumbs up

El Mercado De Los Muertos
Spinal column : not bad, half a thumb up
Tres leches: no thumbs up
Depredora : one thumb up by proxy (Mrs Grabnar liked it)

La Bamba Veranda Bar:
Watermelon Fizz: 5 thumbs down this is crap
————
RIP TOUR FOOD:
Salad bar
Desserts: macarons, some sort of small cake, guava empanadas, churros
Falafel
Bloody goody bag
Pizza fries
Crudite tray w/ hummus
corn rib things
———
Dead Meridian x2 - Solid af for being majority Fanta.
————-
Lots of holes in the houses today. Ranking largelt unchanged. I’s be interested in seeing how things shake out in like a month.

all kinda seem to struggle with an identity crisis

Theme of the event this year imo.

Not sure I can accept a review with Incidious as last, that house rocks! 3x visits and every run awesome

I think the big issue for me is that I hate the designs from the movies and do not find them scary. Triplets would be my 10 but I appreciate it was trying something different as opposed to the book report compendium house format which is tired.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Yeah, I like a few storybook houses, fun for prep too.

 

[Grabnar]

Runs were consistent yesterday, Museum was getting more aggressive which was needed and they adjusted some of the lighting I think. Sweets bumped up to 8 and Triplets down to 9.

Overall I’d give this year a solid C. A lot of good ideas that were wasted with middling execution.

As an aside I noticed a LOT of things that point to Universal being stretched thin in terms of TMs and maybe some training is slipping: A lot of new RIP/UTH guides who weren’t as familiar with policies, a lot of TMs in wardrobe crossing the entire park (only zone I didn’t see this was HP), flower beds and landscaping desperately needing weeding as well as tree saplings growing from in the middle of shrubs and lots of dying trees that were pruned too far back. Also a lot of guests in borderline costumes that I don’t think would’ve been let in a few years ago. I’m hoping this is just them gearing up for EU and being stretched thin rather than them resting on EU to drive attendance and letting “soft goods” like hospitality and cleanliness go to waste.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

Runs were consistent yesterday, Museum was getting more aggressive which was needed and they adjusted some of the lighting I think. Sweets bumped up to 8 and Triplets down to 9.

Overall I’d give this year a solid C. A lot of good ideas that were wasted with middling execution.

As an aside I noticed a LOT of things that point to Universal being stretched thin in terms of TMs and maybe some training is slipping: A lot of new RIP/UTH guides who weren’t as familiar with policies, a lot of TMs in wardrobe crossing the entire park (only zone I didn’t see this was HP), flower beds and landscaping desperately needing weeding as well as tree saplings growing from in the middle of shrubs and lots of dying trees that were pruned too far back. Also a lot of guests in borderline costumes that I don’t think would’ve been let in a few years ago. I’m hoping this is just them gearing up for EU and being stretched thin rather than them resting on EU to drive attendance and letting “soft goods” like hospitality and cleanliness go to waste.

I always respect people’s opinions, and I’m not saying I am disrespecting yours by saying this.

But dude, did you just complain about weeds?

 

[Kichkinet85]

After going again last night and completing all ten houses I have to say Insidious took the number 1 spot! It’s creepy and eerie and just uncomfortable so naturally I love it! Slaughter Sinema is a worth sequel and just won’t end. Goblin’s is just fun. Not super scary but I like it a lot. Museum got somewhat better already and I fully plan for it to move up. My rankings rn:
1. Insidious
2. Slaughter Sinema 2
3. Goblin’s Feast
4. Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America
5. Museum: Deadly Exhibits
6. Triplets of Terror
7. Universal Monsters: Enteral Bloodlines
8. A Quiet Place
9. Ghostbusters
10. Major Sweets
I’m going back again tonight for the full opening weekend!

 

[Grabnar]

I always respect people’s opinions, and I’m not saying I am disrespecting yours by saying this.

But dude, did you just complain about weeds?

Not so much complaining as noting a trend. In management this type of slipping in housekeeping standards is usually an indicator that things are not going well, or a leading indicator to that. I suspect that EU has stretched their team thin and they’re having issues hiring or have consciously decided to not do so for some of these roles to save costs which is not sustainable long term. Attention to detail and cleanliness are one of the biggest things that set the big two apart from regional parks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Lucky Planet]

I always respect people’s opinions, and I’m not saying I am disrespecting yours by saying this.

But dude, did you just complain about weeds?

it could be a symptom of a bigger issue, I understood what he was trying to say.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

it could be a symptom of a bigger issue, I understood what he was trying to say.

I understand Cleanliness and such.
But it feels really weird talking about weeds in flowerbeds in the HHN review thread.

I try to judge this event by how great the houses are, and how the food quality is, not by taking about weeds.

 

[Jake S]

Alright, I think we’ve plowed this ground enough. Let’s move on.

 

[Chumpieboy]

Not so much complaining as noting a trend. In management this type of slipping in housekeeping standards is usually an indicator that things are not going well, or a leading indicator to that. I suspect that EU has stretched their team thin and they’re having issues hiring or have consciously decided to not do so for some of these roles to save costs which is not sustainable long term. Attention to detail and cleanliness are one of the biggest things that set the big two apart from regional parks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kevin Yee at (i think?) Mice Age used to call this “Declining by Degrees”. These kinds of things are actively noticed by frequent guests and subconsciously noticed by infrequent guests.

 

[Freak]

Kevin Yee at (i think?) Mice Age used to call this “Declining by Degrees”. These kinds of things are actively noticed by frequent guests and subconsciously noticed by infrequent guests.

Dang that is a term that I haven’t heard since at LEAST 2012.