Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Going to HHN Orlando for the First Time

Mar 29, 2015
905
958
I've been to HHN Hollywood a few times but this will be my first year experiencing the Orlando version. If we are going on September 21st (a Wednesday) would y'all recommend getting an express pass to hit all the houses? Or are Wednesdays pretty slow in September?

Thanks!
 
As a failsafe measure coupled with the fact you've never been to HHN Orlando before, I would probably recommend Express (plus it will likely be cheaper given it is a Wednesday).

Buuuut, I do also think it is entirely do-able in one night without Express, especially on an early Wednesday in the event, so long as you pay attention to early reviews and buzz regarding crowd interest and are prepared to be there rope-drop to park close.

If the goal is just to spend as little as possible but still bolster your chances, you may also want to consider the cheaper options too that aren't exactly Express but help you get a leg up on things such as the Scream Early ticket (assuming you don't have day passes already) or the after 10/11 (I think it is 11), half priced Express. I would caution against banking on the second option there though, as they do not always offer it (it depends on regular Express sales and numbers for the night).

I will also say that last year, oddly for us, Wednesday and Thursday were perhaps the two busier nights for our group, kind of bucking general trends from past years. Could have been the rising cost of FF passes that encompass all days, pent up desire to go from locals, increased interest in the RoF passes given how late they were announced, etc etc, but it is hard to say if that trend will continue!
 
If you are a one-and-done kind of person where you are cool with doing each house just once, you can probably knock out all of the houses in one night, IF you do Stay and Scream by Springfield, or possibly NY.

Stay and Scream, if you're not familiar with it, is basically Orlando's equivalent of early entry for Hollywood. The caveat here is that you have to be able to have admission to the daytime park to be able to do this. During normal park hours, they have various fenced-off sections by New York, Springfield, etc. where you scan your HHN ticket and you can wait there and get a head start in line for the houses.

If you have never gone before, even if you're going to be able to be in USF during the day and utilize Stay and Scream, I would say chalk up the extra cash to get Express. It's a good investment if you're going to be coming in from out-of-town. You have that to fall back on in case the lines get longer than you expect. If you're not going to be in the park during the day and just doing HHN, get express, especially if you're the kind of person that enjoys multiple run-thrus of your favorite houses.

Also, this person below has some solid advice vvvv
As a failsafe measure coupled with the fact you've never been to HHN Orlando before, I would probably recommend Express (plus it will likely be cheaper given it is a Wednesday).

Buuuut, I do also think it is entirely do-able in one night without Express, especially on an early Wednesday in the event, so long as you pay attention to early reviews and buzz regarding crowd interest and are prepared to be there rope-drop to park close.

If the goal is just to spend as little as possible but still bolster your chances, you may also want to consider the cheaper options too that aren't exactly Express but help you get a leg up on things such as the Scream Early ticket (assuming you don't have day passes already) or the after 10/11 (I think it is 11), half priced Express. I would caution against banking on the second option there though, as they do not always offer it (it depends on regular Express sales and numbers for the night).

I will also say that last year, oddly for us, Wednesday and Thursday were perhaps the two busier nights for our group, kind of bucking general trends from past years. Could have been the rising cost of FF passes that encompass all days, pent up desire to go from locals, increased interest in the RoF passes given how late they were announced, etc etc, but it is hard to say if that trend will continue!
Out of curiosity, were the Wednesdays and Thursdays on the last week of September? If so, that might've had something to do with it being the last week of Rush of Fear. The event will probably be a little more crowded from people on those nights trying to get their money's worth from that pass. We went on Wednesday and Thursday nights the last week of September for 29 and it was kinda crowded on those nights we went.
 
Out of curiosity, were the Wednesdays and Thursdays on the last week of September? If so, that might've had something to do with it being the last week of Rush of Fear. The event will probably be a little more crowded from people on those nights trying to get their money's worth from that pass. We went on Wednesday and Thursday nights the last week of September for 29 and it was kinda crowded on those nights we went.
We went the week of the 22nd-26th, so second to last weekend. I know it was likely due to people coming in to get the most, but we usually do the third weekend in September most years anyway and this was far more packed (by feel and wait times, no solid numbers) than usual. Still had a banner year in terms of runs, but it was strange to us how Saturday and Friday seemed oddly calm comparatively.
 
We went the week of the 22nd-26th, so second to last weekend. I know it was likely due to people coming in to get the most, but we usually do the third weekend in September most years anyway and this was far more packed (by feel and wait times, no solid numbers) than usual. Still had a banner year in terms of runs, but it was strange to us how Saturday and Friday seemed oddly calm comparatively.
After the year before there was a lot of pent up demand so maybe people just wanted to get their haunt on. They also were experienced in the ways of HHN so avoided the weekends?
 
I've been to HHN Hollywood a few times but this will be my first year experiencing the Orlando version. If we are going on September 21st (a Wednesday) would y'all recommend getting an express pass to hit all the houses? Or are Wednesdays pretty slow in September?

Thanks!

As others have said, if you're only going for one night, I'd get express to cover all bases. The crowds can be predicably unpredictable, even on supposed slower nights. You don't wanna' be caught without express on a night that turns out busier than expected.

Also, since you're doing just one night, I'd take advantage of Stay and Scream since that can give you a good head start and possibly knock out some of the busier houses. And I'll also highly recommend staying the entire night since the last hour or so is great for hitting up just about any house as crowds head home for the night, leaving some wonderfully short lines to go through.
 
As others have said, if you're only going for one night, I'd get express to cover all bases. The crowds can be predicably unpredictable, even on supposed slower nights. You don't wanna' be caught without express on a night that turns out busier than expected.

Also, since you're doing just one night, I'd take advantage of Stay and Scream since that can give you a good head start and possibly knock out some of the busier houses. And I'll also highly recommend staying the entire night since the last hour or so is great for hitting up just about any house as crowds head home for the night, leaving some wonderfully short lines to go through.
I agree with this, but a fair warning that you may get bad run throughs of houses the last hour. We went through Case Files last year the last 20 min of the event and we only encounter one scareactor throughout the whole thing. Another reason you might want to get express.
 
My first year I went only one night and did so with express and not much knowledge/planning for the evening.

I learned a few things that year:

1) I needed to research how best to do the event

2) I would have not gotten through everything without express

3) I needed more than one night to really take it all in (zones, shows, etc)

So if you're going one night, get the express. Save yourself the hassle/gamble and just fork over the money as you will kick yourself if it all goes sideways.
 
Really appreciate the responses! Super helpful.

Do the express passes for HHN go on sale at a separate time? I don't see them on the website.
 
Really appreciate the responses! Super helpful.

Do the express passes for HHN go on sale at a separate time? I don't see them on the website.

Express passes should be on sale now (I just got mine yesterday) -- unfortunately I'm going on a Friday in October so it wasn't cheap, but it is so worthwhile. Last year I used express combined with Stay & Scream and was done with all the houses in a few hours.
 
Top