HHN Hollywood General Discussion - 2017

[Timberfellingrobot]

Not totally ruined, but the light leaks within Insidious are hard to ignore. This maze was the one we saw reach a two hour wait last night, so unless you have FOL/RIP, I would still recommend getting through Insidious early.

I was planning on doing Insidious first but I didn't want the light to ruin the experience. At least it's not completely shafted.

 

[DTH]

50 bucks for the last 3 hours doesn't sound too bad if you're an idiot who came late like at 8 PM and complains "I got here early and have only been in one maze, did 3 rides and the Terror Tram."

 

[Rideguy70]

^That is a good deal. Have they always done that?

My biggest complaint (aside from the obvious crowds) was that for early entry, they were down to only having one escalator going down, creating huge bottlenecks. It was pretty unpleasant, and seemingly poorly planned.

 

[Freak]

50 bucks for the last 3 hours doesn't sound too bad if you're an idiot who came late like at 8 PM and complains "I got here early and have only been in one maze, did 3 rides and the Terror Tram."

As long as his only maze was Titans, that's all he needed to see this year.

 

[Red Carpet]

Wizarding World of Harry Potter closes at 5:30pm, and employees check to make sure you don't have an HHN early entry wristband.

They check wristbands?! I was hoping to take some friends of mine on Forbidden Journey.

 

[LSK]

^That is a good deal. Have they always done that?

First time I've seen them offer the late night FOL. More money for Universal, and more GA guests leaving satisfied. I would have totally opted for this last year when we had GA on opening night.

They check wristbands?! I was hoping to take some friends of mine on Forbidden Journey.

There were two colored wristbands for Early Entry, one for those that had 4pm Early Entry to enjoy what they could during Universal's operating hours (as part of the HHN presale), and everyone else holding tickets that arrived before 5pm. There was a line of employees checking everyone at the entrance to the Wizarding World. We managed to slip past, but they may get more savvy as the season goes on.

 

[Red Carpet]

I view this move as Universal going out of their way to make the experience worse for guests.

 

[Freak]

I view this move as Universal going out of their way to make the experience worse for guests.

This is what I can't stand about Universal now. Their strategy is to make the experience more unpleasant for guests to squeeze every penny. Instead of relieving crowds by opening Potter, make them pay for those Day/night combo tix! Instead of adding Wednesdays to spread out crowds, bunch them up to only peak nights to make us look popular! Instead of going for quality over quantity, let's add another maze and put black walls everywhere! No one will care!

It's really frustrating that they have crowd control solutions right there at their fingertips when they could very easily add more nights and open Potter and let people buy all of the FoL online only. They would actually be more successful but are only blinded by short term solutions. If guests are happier, guests will spend more money. It's that simple.

 

[Clive]

This is what I can't stand about Universal now. Their strategy is to make the experience more unpleasant for guests to squeeze every penny. Instead of relieving crowds by opening Potter, make them pay for those Day/night combo tix! Instead of adding Wednesdays to spread out crowds, bunch them up to only peak nights to make us look popular! Instead of going for quality over quantity, let's add another maze and put black walls everywhere! No one will care!

It's really frustrating that they have crowd control solutions right there at their fingertips when they could very easily add more nights and open Potter and let people buy all of the FoL online only. They would actually be more successful but are only blinded by short term solutions. If guests are happier, guests will spend more money. It's that simple.

I agree they should open Potter and there were too many black walls, but adding Wednesdays is not as easy as you're implying. It's already very challenging for scare actors to manage four day runs (Thursday through Sunday). The annual five-day run is always dreaded. Adding a bunch of Wednesdays would lead to even more aggressive turnover.

 

[Rideguy70]

This is what I can't stand about Universal now. Their strategy is to make the experience more unpleasant for guests to squeeze every penny. Instead of relieving crowds by opening Potter, make them pay for those Day/night combo tix! Instead of adding Wednesdays to spread out crowds, bunch them up to only peak nights to make us look popular! Instead of going for quality over quantity, let's add another maze and put black walls everywhere! No one will care!

It's really frustrating that they have crowd control solutions right there at their fingertips when they could very easily add more nights and open Potter and let people buy all of the FoL online only. They would actually be more successful but are only blinded by short term solutions. If guests are happier, guests will spend more money. It's that simple.

This is starting to sound like a Disneyland forum: the park is too crowded! Ride quality is slipping! MaxPass goes down! Not enough parking! Security lines too long! They only care about money!

It's quite the deja vu. As long as the GP is willing to pay and take it, I wouldn't expect much to change.

I do agree that adding Wednesday nights could be hard for the cast, and I also wonder if opening Potter is in a similar boat. While the land is small, the number of cast members to run it seems pretty large. I don't know how easy it would be to keep Potter fully staffed for literally 17+ hours (because they are often open for early entry at 8 or 9am until 2am closing for HHN) four days a week, not to mention keeping the ride operational for such a long stretch. I've heard it takes an hour to shut down and start up, so it'd be working damn near 20+ hours a day. Probably wouldn't be good for maintenance, I'd imagine...

 

[ChaseTuff]

Figured I'll post this here.

 

[horrornights789]

Figured I'll post this here.

Halloween for sure

 

[Timberfellingrobot]

Murdy's ominous response today kinda supports that but I'd say it's a bit too early to say that Halloween is concrete.

 

[foodstampsFTW]

Anyone else going tonight.

 

[foodstampsFTW]

I know I'm double posting but if you didn't go tonight, you missed out, it was pretty much dead, longest I waited was 45 mins for Blumhouse. Left at about 10:30 because everything was 35-45 min wait and I had already done repeats of everything except AHS, Blumhouse and Titans. Also got videos of the houses but they're probably terrible, but idk I might post them

 

[ush.hacker]

So now that I have gone through every maze at least three times I actually like this year

 

[Freak]

I decided to go around 9 when a friend who was there texted me it was dead. Of course as soon as I show up wait times started to increase a little bit. I did everything except Saw which I didn't have time for and hated anyway. Everything was just a 15-20 minute wait. Ash was s straight walk up!

While I had a much better experience than opening night, i still don't like this year.

 

[ush.hacker]

I finally took the time last night to get my butt into the Jabbawokeez show. I got there five minutes before the show and got a seat in the very back (the best seats....) Anyways, per usual the pre-songs pumped up the entire crowd up. The story for the show was completely new and fresh but they still incorporated old routines into it! I feel asleep for a minutes during the same old "CALIFONI-AAAA!" The ending was incredible! It brought the show up from its ashes. The entire laser harp left me in ah but, overall if you're reading this please, don't bring them back.

 

[Rideguy70]

I wasn't in the park last night, Friday, but out of curiosity, I checked the wait times on the app... and at about 8:30pm, I noticed that every line was less than 60 minutes. I seem to recall last year, that wouldn't be the case. And Freak just mentioned above that Thursday was pretty light. Does this mean it's generally shaping up to be a slower year, at least on non-Saturdays?

 

[DTH]

Possibly.
1) most of the mazes being repeat themes
1a) one of them being Walking Dead, which is oddly still heavily advertised, which has been around for like 6 years now
2) low popularity mazes nobody cares about (Ash/Blumhouse)
3) concepts that are a bit confusing to the general public (Titans/Blumhouse)
4) even the classic maze people always wanted to see gets low lines, so apparently it's not as popular as we thought.
5) the popular themes we've seen before, and seen them done better (Insidious/Saw)
6) word of mouth is that this year is "okay" and it's probably spreading fast, before October has even come.
7) general bad word of mouth over the years that it's too crowded and that the scares are repetitive, not enough scarezones, and too expensive for what's offered according to people who only see one maze, 3 rides, and the Terror Tram.

I suspect it'll still have it's sold out nights during peak time, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see them pulling last ditch efforts to get people into the parks, like opening Harry Potter, adding another show, or just dropping the prices dramatically.