Halloween Horror Nights 2021 (USH) - News & Info

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Yikes that is insane. I’m not sure about getting shut down, but it wouldn’t look good. I was wrapping a Nickelodeon show on a soundstage for a week last month, and a crew member tested positive but the only people required to quarantine or not report to work and provide two negative tests, were those in close proximity to them, for long periods of time. Now… I guess you can make the argument if a guest had covid and they were in front of you in line and they weren’t social distancing yada yada… but I don’t think the event can get shut down for that.

Sounds like a nightmare regardless of the pandemic tho. There does seem to be a weird imbalance with express to GP pulsing through mazes too, even from my last visit in 2019.

The point i was trying to make was more kinda people were constantly squished up so close together outside of mazes and in lines, it would extremely easy for 1 person to come in contact with potentially hundreds of others just by going from maze to maze. Half the reason I chose to leave and not stick it out to round out my maze lineup was so many places were so shoulder to shoulder with so many people not wearing masks I just really didnt feel comfortable. I doubt the event would get shut down for 1 person, but with how many people were mashed together if anything were to happen, it wouldn't be a one person occurance.
Hopefully all the performers and cast members are managing well under the circumstances, since theyre easily putting themselves in the most risk.

 

[Ron101]

Moving away from the covid talk. I think it’s insane how busier it was compared to yesterday. Today wasn’t even sold out! Wonder what a sold out night would look like:afraid:

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Moving away from the covid talk. I think it’s insane how busier it was compared to yesterday. Today wasn’t even sold out! Wonder what a sold out night would look like:afraid:

As I was driving out I saw the big screen on Lankershim said it was sold out. Could they have just not changed the graphic from Thursday? Maybe, but I think it probably did sell out just later than usual.
At least i hope thats the case, these crowds were unbearable so i shudder at the thought of anything bigger.

 

[highdefrex]

Finally almost home. After my last post, nothing changed. Managed to get every maze done, shockingly, but really cut it to the wire, as H4 was the last one. It was posted at 50 minutes, we got in line around 12:25… and got out around 1:45. Yet another situation where Express was just being funneled through as if the general line didn’t exist.

The whole reason we went today was because I saw how great it seemed to be last night, and man… yikes. Even taking the pandemic out of the equation, this was just rough, bizarre, and ridiculous. I had fun to a point, but there was a lot that really sucked about tonight to where my enthusiasm drained pretty fast.

 

[DTH]

If things stay this way with lines, should we change up the general game plan?
I saw TCM with the longest waits when I checked, so now I'm debating doing that first, hitting Exorcist, then running up to Hill House, running over to do Terror Tram and hitting Pandora later if I have time since that's my lowest priority. I also saw H4 get insane waits too for the very end of the night and while that's usual for that venue (and I do hear it's one of the better mazes this year), I frankly don't want to be stuck in a 2 hour line at the end of the night on a repeat.

OLD PLAN: Exorcist, TCM, TT, HOHH, PB, BRIDE, H4
NEW PLAN: TCM, Exorcist, HOHH, H4, TT, BRIDE, PB

Thoughts?

 

[Wigglepebbles]

Never been to the Hollywood event, but these crowds can definitely be attributed to the fact that there are no lower lot options, which churns out a good amount of the crowds.

 

[tacalert]

Was there firsthand. No clue what happened. There was literally almost nobody when i showed up for early entry at the same time as opening, but boom 2 hours later and its among the most crowded nights ive ever seen. Terror trams line stretched all the way to the simpsons ride by the time I got off, I got in line when it said 35 minutes but it turned out to be more like 70 since they were letting an absurd amount of express through with nearly no general. Hopefully this was a fluke and will never happen again.
I still managed to get everything but Halloween done, but it was a gauntlet to even get that far. Not to mention if even 1 guest had covid tonight would become an absolute nightmare for universal and maybe even get the whole event shut down. I dont know what the hell they were thinking not capping capacity lower, its genuinely insane.

Can we please not turn this into a COVID conversation? Guests have tested positive on multiple occasions. It will not shut down the theme park or anything else because they would have done it already.

Let's enjoy we got our park back and that we got HHN back and stop spreading our opinions on what can or cannot happen to the park if someone tests positive.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

Never been to the Hollywood event, but these crowds can definitely be attributed to the fact that there are no lower lot options, which churns out a good amount of the crowds.

There are two houses on the lower lot. Do you mean the backlot? The Terror Tram is on the backlot. Hill House and Pandora’s aren’t on the backlot, but the walk to get there is pretty similar in length to the walk it usually takes to get to the backlot space. But when you get there, it’s basically just the houses, where the normal backlot space has more happening, which may impact churn.

I’m honestly not sure how to explain last night, other than it seems like the park did not limit capacity at all and then gave extra, extra priority to express tickets. Sorry for everyone who had to deal with that, hopefully you get a chance to go back — and hopefully the wait times come down to a point that makes it worth it to go back!

 

[Rideguy70]

I was there last night as well. Can echo everything about super long lines, and most moved fairly slowly. Even FJ had a 60 min wait at 8pm. We saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave at 8:30, because we have FFP and realized it'd just be easier to leave and return for another night. We only got 3 mazes done (Exorcist, TCM, and Bride).

Tried to wait for Terror Tram when the app said it was a 35 min wait. By the time we walked over their from the Plaza, it had gone to 55 minutes. Got in the line, and it was 75 minutes, all within maybe 10 minutes. Stood in the line for about 10 minutes and didn't see a single tram, and nobody was moving. If there's one thing about the tram, it's the even if the line is long, it's nearly always moving. But not a single person was moving in the queue for 10 minutes.

So we got out and tried to head to Halloween, because the app said it was 35 minutes. By the time we walked up there, it was at 50 minutes. Just left the park instead.

Can we please not turn this into a COVID conversation? Guests have tested positive on multiple occasions. It will not shut down the theme park or anything else because they would have done it already.

Let's enjoy we got our park back and that we got HHN back and stop spreading our opinions on what can or cannot happen to the park if someone tests positive.

I'm sorry, but Covid is still going to be an issue for me. The first hour or two was crowded, but largely managable. By 8pm, it was wall to wall people, over half without masks, and it didn't feel super safe to me. Will the event get shut down over it? Probably not. But did I feel safe from a pandemic point of view? No, not particularly. Really, if these crowds continue, we'd maybe only visit for about an hour or two and just leave. And it kind of sours me on the event in general.

 

[Wigglepebbles]

There are two houses on the lower lot. Do you mean the backlot? The Terror Tram is on the backlot. Hill House and Pandora’s aren’t on the backlot, but the walk to get there is pretty similar in length to the walk it usually takes to get to the backlot space. But when you get there, it’s basically just the houses, where the normal backlot space has more happening, which may impact churn.

I’m honestly not sure how to explain last night, other than it seems like the park did not limit capacity at all and then gave extra, extra priority to express tickets. Sorry for everyone who had to deal with that, hopefully you get a chance to go back — and hopefully the wait times come down to a point that makes it worth it to go back!

The usual three mazes and gauntlet by the Hill Valley set area.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

If things stay this way with lines, should we change up the general game plan?
I saw TCM with the longest waits when I checked, so now I'm debating doing that first, hitting Exorcist, then running up to Hill House, running over to do Terror Tram and hitting Pandora later if I have time since that's my lowest priority. I also saw H4 get insane waits too for the very end of the night and while that's usual for that venue (and I do hear it's one of the better mazes this year), I frankly don't want to be stuck in a 2 hour line at the end of the night on a repeat.

OLD PLAN: Exorcist, TCM, TT, HOHH, PB, BRIDE, H4
NEW PLAN: TCM, Exorcist, HOHH, H4, TT, BRIDE, PB

Thoughts?

Put Bride near the end if possible I think. It still had a long line last night, but there were times when it was posted as 25 minutes or 35 but in reality was completely empty for the general line.
I got 2 runs in purely because the express line was twice as long. Pandora was low at first but got big quickly and only ever got bigger.

 

[nicodingus]

Hey all, random question...
Dunno if this is the right place to put it.
Does anybody know what part of the soundtrack plays at the facade for Haunting of Hill House?
It's been stuck in my head since opening night lol.

 

[Clive]

Any idea on when I should show up for early entry? Don’t mind waiting, but would prefer to be in the front of the pack so I don’t get backed up in Exorcist.

 

[Ron101]

To those that went yesterday, did it seem like they oversold express passes? Were there a lot of RIP guests?

 

[Michael S]

The point i was trying to make was more kinda people were constantly squished up so close together outside of mazes and in lines, it would extremely easy for 1 person to come in contact with potentially hundreds of others just by going from maze to maze. Half the reason I chose to leave and not stick it out to round out my maze lineup was so many places were so shoulder to shoulder with so many people not wearing masks I just really didnt feel comfortable. I doubt the event would get shut down for 1 person, but with how many people were mashed together if anything were to happen, it wouldn't be a one person occurance.
Hopefully all the performers and cast members are managing well under the circumstances, since theyre easily putting themselves in the most risk.

Right, that sounds like a nightmare no pun intended. I mean are they still “asking” people to social distance? Seems like this kind of crowding would be annoying in other years and could be potentially dangerous, now.
I’m with you and hope they fix these issues soon

 

[highdefrex]

Any idea on when I should show up for early entry? Don’t mind waiting, but would prefer to be in the front of the pack so I don’t get backed up in Exorcist.

We got in line for early entry around 4:50ish and it wasn't too bad; in the line we got in, there was maybe 20 people ahead of us. Went straight to Exorcist first once they let in thinking we'd be near the front of the queue and... nope. Even hauling ass through the upper lot, going down the stairs instead of the Starway escalator, and getting over there as fast as possible, we still ended up finding that that entire queue space adjacent to the Panda Express was packed full of people who all had day/night combo wristbands who had all been waiting there for who knows how long, and even once they started letting people into the maze, it was still a good half hour or more beyond that before we actually got in.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

I don’t think Exorcist should be anyone’s first stop. TCM is a better maze that seems to get similar (or worse) wait times. At least here in the early stretches, TCM should be your first stop with early entry.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

To those that went yesterday, did it seem like they oversold express passes? Were there a lot of RIP guests?

Absolutely. I think somebody already mentioned but for stuff like tram the Express line was clogged to a point of blocking the regular line. When I did Bride the express line was longer than the actual general line and that was true in a lot of cases for a lot of the mazes. However they were also letting far more Express groups through too. I'd honestly blame the massive wait times almost entirely on the amount of express sold since they had to make up at least like 30% of the total guests at the event last night.
RIP wasnt much of an issue comparatively, i dont recall many tours or media going through the special lines for it at least.

 

[Rideguy70]

I don't know if I'd blame it all on Express. The Standby lines were plenty huge, indicating there's still a crapload of people that were there without Express.

If you have an AP and FFP, our plan is: go into the regular park around 4:30 or 5, and then get our wristband right after entering the park (there's usually a kiosk right inside the park entrance for all the day/night combo guests). That way we can already have our wristband and be in the park at 5, allowing us to head down to the lower lot before anyone else with regualr HHN tickets are even inside the park.

And because I think that kiosk is used mainly for the day/night guests, you can sometimes get your wristband as early as 2 or 3... depends on availibity, sometimes they run out and have to wait for more. We've done this for the last two years HHN was open, and it worked really well.

 

[Clive]

I don't know if I'd blame it all on Express. The Standby lines were plenty huge, indicating there's still a crapload of people that were there without Express.

If you have an AP and FFP, our plan is: go into the regular park around 4:30 or 5, and then get our wristband right after entering the park (there's usually a kiosk right inside the park entrance for all the day/night combo guests). That way we can already have our wristband and be in the park at 5, allowing us to head down to the lower lot before anyone else with regualr HHN tickets are even inside the park.

And because I think that kiosk is used mainly for the day/night guests, you can sometimes get your wristband as early as 2 or 3... depends on availibity, sometimes they run out and have to wait for more. We've done this for the last two years HHN was open, and it worked really well.

They more than doubled the attendance cap, so crowds in general were an issue. The decision to only have six mazes plus tram is going to haunt them. It sounds like ops doesn't know how to manage express queues, however, and they were likely sold out. Express is sold out tonight.

Sadly I'm going tonight on one of my only blackout dates! So I will be waiting until they let early entry people in. Will report back on how it goes...