Adventurers Guide to Halloween Horror Nights XXI

[snoman]

Going on opening night I think I'm planning on going the same route Vyrus takes. With all the media, AP, etc. early entry I kind of think it the tent house area may be pretty congested once they open the gates to us non early entry losers, ha ha! That being said this is my first opening night. Can the opening night veterans on here offer suggestions? Also, is there any kind of grand opening show? I have seen videos of some in the past but recent years haven't seen anything worth going out of our way for. Any ideas?

 

[Brian G.]

Seems like theu have done away with opening shows
As far as media, they actually don't start doing houses til around 8

 

[Tbad556]

Going on opening night I think I'm planning on going the same route Vyrus takes. With all the media, AP, etc. early entry I kind of think it the tent house area may be pretty congested once they open the gates to us non early entry losers, ha ha! That being said this is my first opening night. Can the opening night veterans on here offer suggestions? Also, is there any kind of grand opening show? I have seen videos of some in the past but recent years haven't seen anything worth going out of our way for. Any ideas?

To add on to what BriMan said, the tent house area tends to clear out somewhat once the park opens because all of the early entry people were already able to do all of those houses and usually head over to the soundstage houses around that time. :thumbs:

 

[MIAboy]

I posted a picture up yesterday which now when I look at it, its crude and looks bad, my plan is this:

Knowing that the gates always open at least 30 to 45 minutes earlier than the 6:30pm poeted opening time, I will be at the gates at 5:30pm.

1. Go straight in through Production Central and hit the SS houses in order from closest entrance to furthest entrance:
a. Winter's Night
b. Nitengales
c. The Thing
2. Before going into Thing I will walk around in Acid Assault and experience this SZ.
3. By this time I only expect about an hour or so to have gone by and done with 3 houses already. Once exiting Thing, I will go straight through Shrek Alley and Black Maze SZ.
4. I make a right before the front of Mel's walk by Death Drums, and then go through Your Luck Has Run Out SZ (I can either walk it from Lagoon side to NYC street side, or walk around and do it the other way)
5. From there I just simply walk over to Disaster and go through HR Bloodengutz.
6. Once exiting I go straight to Saws N Steam, hopefully by this time a B&T show is going on, but I expect at least a 45 minute for this house always cause of the capacity.
7. Once I exit SnS I will either experience a B&T show or continue on down World Expo and through Canyon of Dark Souls SZ.
8. Enter Forsaken House, exit, and enter In Between House, at this point I will exit by MIB and I will either continue to Nevermore, or see a B&T show if I didn't go before.
9. Experience Nevermore, then walk back down World Expo, through CoDS SZ again, walk through Grown Evil SZ, and then down Hollywood through 7 SZ.
10. At this point I will either make a right and try to ride HRRR or just walk out after seeing it all.

I'm going on the first Saturday next week, I fully expect as usual the house lines to be no longer than 45 minutes, and the shortest being 5-20 minutes the most by the beginning and end of the night. With an avg of 30 minutes a house, that should only be 4 hours of my time for houses.

No rides until the end of the night if we have time, and I give myself a couple of choice moments based on B&T show times.

But this works best because earlier in the event dates since the APers get early entery and Stay n Scream, that whole group of people work the park counter clockwise already and earlier dates in the event are MOSTLY APers cause the event is emptier.

There is my mini-guide for any of you who are interested in knowing :thumbs:

I think your plan is better because if you do the closest houses from entrance last, by the time you get there, they are gonna be full with people that have just entered the park. Get the closest ones done, then move to the back of the park.

 

[Octobers Fade]

What is most important to me, and maybe a scareactor can help, when are the stinking cast changes? Does it vary by the house? I was gypped last year in a lot of houses that were understaffed due to shift changes, bad timing I guess. This info would probably change my game plan a little if I could avoid that nonsense this year.

 

[bronzey]

If I got free tickets to go to any day, but fridays and thursdays and sundays are all bad for me...which night should I go?
due to my schedule it looks like october 1 or next saturday
probably the wrong thread, but I saw conversation about wait-times

 

[Brian G.]

I think your plan is better because if you do the closest houses from entrance last, by the time you get there, they are gonna be full with people that have just entered the park. Get the closest ones done, then move to the back of the park.

That's not really accurate. Most of the HHN crowds arrive within the first 2 hours and usually shoot straight for the soundstages since it's right there. If you go to the right, where less crowds are headed, you can knock out 4 houses, esp the Jaws houses which always has the most insane waits, within those 2 hours, enjoy a show or drink/meal, then head to the soundstages which should be at 20-30 min waits on a good night.

What is most important to me, and maybe a scareactor can help, when are the stinking cast changes? Does it vary by the house? I was gypped last year in a lot of houses that were understaffed due to shift changes, bad timing I guess. This info would probably change my game plan a little if I could avoid that nonsense this year.

They change every 45-60 minutes, depending on when the house opens.

If I got free tickets to go to any day, but fridays and thursdays and sundays are all bad for me...which night should I go?
due to my schedule it looks like october 1 or next saturday
probably the wrong thread, but I saw conversation about wait-times

Any of the 1st 2 Saturdays, or the last one.

 

[Vyrus]

Ugh, I knew this would happen, my friends who are going with me this weekend came over to my house last night to hang out and the topic turned HHN. Well suppossedly BOTH my friend and his wife were shocked and balked at the idea of the plan that I came up with for the night. Not the order of it, but the fact that I said we won't be riding any of the rides until the end of the night.

I had to remind them uuhhhhhh DUH the rides are there forever, the houses will be gone in a month and this is our chance to see them.

I'm sorry, but if they want to ride a ride, I'm skipping it and going onto the next house. Last year Mummy broke down while we were in line, wasted 45 minutes, and Simposons took us another 45 minutes to ride cause of the line.

I'm now considering taking my single friend and do the early AP entry to make sure I get the first 3 houses in the tents and parades, running back to the entrance to meet up with them, and then do the SS, Disaster and Jaws houses, and then repeating whatever of the last 3 houses again.

I missed 2 houses last year, ain't gonna happen again.

Sorry about my rant, I had to vent

 

[Octobers Fade]

I don't understand why people make a big deal about the rides, only Jaws and HRR&R are any different at night. Now for HOS I can understand there are a lot of rides that are open not dark rides... but the more fools that go on the rides the less in lines for the houses.

 

[fitness_runner]

We are there for 4 days & will get on the rides plenty! We are actually doing HHN a night before my inlaws arrive so that we can get everything in first. I want to do HRRR at night (being a dork) but that's it! We got stuck on the Mummy last year before they closed the park (we had S&S tickets.) We just about got screwed out of eating. Much longer & it would've been hot dogs, not fish & chips!

 

[Vyrus]

I don't understand why people make a big deal about the rides, only Jaws and HRR&R are any different at night. Now for HOS I can understand there are a lot of rides that are open not dark rides... but the more fools that go on the rides the less in lines for the houses.

Exactly I don't understand the point. We are paying for the ticket to see the houses not ride the rides, and I agree the more people on rides, the better for us.

 

[mantaguy]

Although Jaws' firewall at night is pretty intense.

 

[Andy]

Those who wait in lines for the rides are afraid of the houses!

 

[Vyrus]

Those who wait in lines for the rides are afraid of the houses!

EXACTLY! :rep:

 

[Felipe]

This year I promised to take my brother and his friend to HHN, and they are already talking about rides... :bang: ... My brother and I have APs, so we can go on the rides often, but his friend doesn't get to go to Uni very much, so we're going to have to take some time for that. We're doing the AP VIP, so that will save us some time, but still :bang: ...

I'm buying day passes this year, so I hope I don't have to upgrade to a FFP if I don't get everything done. I've missed houses in the past and to this day I'm still POd. Hopefully I'll just get everything in and I can put that money to a better use... like a Behind the Screams Tour :D

Anyways, I think I'm gonna follow the guide and hope for the best

 

[MIAboy]

For any HHN veterans, do you think on October 1 (Saturday) the crowds are going to be bad ??? Its only the second week. I dont wanna pay for an express pass.

 

[Octobers Fade]

As packed as it could be? No, but it is a Saturday night...
As Spook said, look at the price of the EP and that will give you an idea of how busy Uni thinks it will be.

 

[Vyrus]

Uni thinks ALL saturdays will be packed, honestly the first 3 weeks are the least attended since people want to go closer to Halloween, hence why the AP ticket prices are cheaper at the beginning of the event. But the 1st also closes at 2am as well, you should be good, just be at the gate at opening.

In other news, I RSVP'd for my early entry with my friend and I'll meet the rest of my group at the gate when they walk in. There is no reason for me to have to suffer because one or two people want to ride rides. I'm seeing all of the houses this year, and a couple of them twice cause of the early entry. I'm not catering to anyone except myself this year.

 

[Andy]

Uni thinks ALL saturdays will be packed, honestly the first 3 weeks are the least attended since people want to go closer to Halloween, hence why the AP ticket prices are cheaper at the beginning of the event. But the 1st also closes at 2am as well, you should be good, just be at the gate at opening.

In other news, I RSVP'd for my early entry with my friend and I'll meet the rest of my group at the gate when they walk in. There is no reason for me to have to suffer because one or two people want to ride rides. I'm seeing all of the houses this year, and a couple of them twice cause of the early entry. I'm not catering to anyone except myself this year.

Spoken like a true haunt veteran.

 

[Vyrus]

Spoken like a true haunt veteran.

Damn skippy, I'm 30, not 15 so I'm not going to attend the event like I've never been there before. My purpose is to see the houses..PERIOD. :thumbs: