Opening Day Crowds

[Jwhee]

Hi, do you think tomorrow (opening day) will be busy?

 

[kimlovesfl]

Not like later in the event, and if it rains, expect small crowds. Opening weekend is when the true HHN freaks flock to the park, so that's when all the cool people are there.

 

[Jwhee]

Great:thumbs: I'll be there

 

[Jakemeister]

I expect it to be a very manageable night. I would say attendance was at least equal to last year's preview but it felt much less crowded. The 8th house of course helps but I think TWD in streets actually helps with crowds. Cabin In The Woods is going to have a high wait time fast, I suggest you do it after 11, the wait should be down to 15 minutes. Evil Dead is going to have a pretty steady wait time throughout the night as well, that has a lot of potential to drop later in the night as well. Having Transformers open is going to make a profound difference on this event. I promise you. Last night some houses had "60 minutes" but were closer to 45, that was all phased out by the end of the night. I think Walking Dead and Evil Dead might have closed with a 10 minute wait.

 

[Clive]

I expect it to be a very manageable night. I would say attendance was at least equal to last year's preview but it felt much less crowded. The 8th house of course helps but I think TWD in streets actually helps with crowds. Cabin In The Woods is going to have a high wait time fast, I suggest you do it after 11, the wait should be down to 15 minutes. Evil Dead is going to have a pretty steady wait time throughout the night as well, that has a lot of potential to drop later in the night as well. Having Transformers open is going to make a profound difference on this event. I promise you. Last night some houses had "60 minutes" but were closer to 45, that was all phased out by the end of the night. I think Walking Dead and Evil Dead might have closed with a 10 minute wait.

The addition of the 8th house, more concrete, high profile zones, and Transformers are undoubtedly going to make high crowds far more manageable. I'd expect reduced wait times across the board.

 

[Jwhee]

Do you think I should get express for the houses?

 

[Hockeyman55]

Do you think I should get express for the houses?

When are you going and for how many nights?

 

[Jwhee]

I'm planning in going tomorrow night.

 

[romo]

I'd say no if your there early especially for aphn but I could be wrong...

 

[Jakemeister]

An easy way to gauge how busy the night will be is by the fact that they haven't sold out of express and it is the day before. They used to offer a deal where you could get half off express after 10pm. They might offer that this year. If you plan on getting any pass I would get that.

 

[Manx27]

I will be there tonight. At some point I will be at Duff Gardens. Will anyone else?

 

[mrjoe]

More like Finnegan’s

 

[TylerDurden]

Transformers did nothing for crowds, at least tonight anyway. It was 10 minutes throughout the night from what I saw, and house lines were as long as any other opening night.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Crowds werent to bad tonight, ran into most house with 45min waits and the occasional 60 min but really only waited for 3 house or so that had 30 min + waits

 

[snoman]

It felt more crowded to me for an opening night than usual but that might be just because I don't have passes this year so came in the front gates with the rest of the hordes. The longest wait time I saw posted was 45 min which was really 60. BTW the wait times overall were just stupid they were so far off, might as well not post wait times, Universal needs to improve this quickly. We ended up doing 6 houses, missed havoc and la llorna but saw BnT, ate, and rode a couple rides. Transformers we walked right on and rode twice in a row with no wait which was cool since we hadn't been on that one yet.

Streets to me felt more crowded and congested than usual for opening night but overall not too bad. Heading back tonight!

 

[Jakemeister]

Transformers did nothing for crowds, at least tonight anyway. It was 10 minutes throughout the night from what I saw, and house lines were as long as any other opening night.

Last night was the fans night. The Express scanner lines were REALLY long because of all the people with FFP+E. Come a peak night it will be an hour wait.

What I realized last night, is that this event has created such a fan base it's going to be really hard to gauge attendance like we have in the past by opening night. Maybe opening Saturday, but definitely not opening night. There have always been the big HHN fans, but I have never seen so many people wearing website shirts and event shirts from 3 or 4 years ago.

 

[graspthesun]

I get the feeling that Universal is still trying to get the wait times calibrated. I'd expect them to be much more accurate next weekend.

 

[mrjoe]

Last night at LaLLorona, the posted wait time was 30 min, but I was in line 60 +... The express pass line got really long and the regular line came to a stand still while they thinned out the express pass lines...

 

[hildyp0824]

We actually waited less that the posted wait times in 3 of the 4 houses we went to. The only line that was as long (or a little longer) than the posted time was After Death...all due to the Express line

 

[IzzyB]

We had a mix. Some lines said 15 and was 30 or more and others said 45 and was only 15. So it was all over the place on wait times. But overall we were able to do all houses, a show, and walked all over the park to see the various scare areas. But that was the busiest I had seen it for a PH preview night.