Halloween Horror Nights 26 Discussion

[sjago13]

It seems like Express lines weren't as bad as last year and the regular lines seemed to move well enough. However the streets were really crowded this year and it made zones like Wharf really suffer. They also need to make the house exits flow better and not have VIP run up the exits. The exits are crowded enough then you have huge groups of VIP pushing the other way.

 

[s8film40]

It seems like Express lines weren't as bad as last year and the regular lines seemed to move well enough. However the streets were really crowded this year and it made zones like Wharf really suffer. They also need to make the house exits flow better and not have VIP run up the exits. The exits are crowded enough then you have huge groups of VIP pushing the other way.

Definitely agree with the Wharf zone. This to me ruined that particular zone. They realized this part way through and moved all the props back closer to the former Disaster entrance, but that boat still stuck out way too far. I think this zone would have been significantly better if things were spread out more along the street rather than all being concentrated into one pinch point.

 

[Clive]

A quick word on event extensions into November, from a Hollywood perspective --

Last year, Hollywood did its last-minute extension "after party," announced two weeks before the original end of the run. It was mostly dead - so much so that they allowed front of the line tickets "unlimited" usage to pump up sales.

This year, they announced the November dates with the rest of the event. Many suspected similarly low crowds - this was absolutely not the case. Sell-throughs were approximately 15K and 18K each night (22K is considered a sell-out in Hollywood). Granted, team member ticket prices were slashed, and Costco offered further discounted tickets to the general public... but the queues were absolutely filled, with 90 minute waits for the top houses.

Long story short? If you advertise the November dates from the beginning, the crowds will come. Expect it to happen next year.

Anyone have any details on the AHS lookalike thing? In Hollywood we were all cast out of the regular pool... to the detriment of some roles, admittedly, and many characters who were "face" in Orlando were masked in Orlando ("masked" Twisty, Dandy, James Marsch).

 

[Lucky Planet]

Sometimes i see attacks and hate on ffp passes for the horrible crowds during the regular month yet these two days were full of ffp and the lines were so tiny... so whats the deal? Whenever there are talks of over crowding ffp gets the blame yet the locals on saturday didnt even make the lines pass 30 minutes... most houses were at 10 minutes till 9... i hate whenever someone suggests getting rid of ffp to help crowding.

 

[s8film40]

Sometimes i see attacks and hate on ffp passes for the horrible crowds during the regular month yet these two days were full of ffp and the lines were so tiny... so whats the deal? Whenever there are talks of over crowding ffp gets the blame yet the locals on saturday didnt even make the lines pass 30 minutes... most houses were at 10 minutes till 9... i hate whenever someone suggests getting rid of ffp to help crowding.

Im pretty sure the bulk of the crowding comes from the casual local visitors.

 

[sjago13]

Sometimes i see attacks and hate on ffp passes for the horrible crowds during the regular month yet these two days were full of ffp and the lines were so tiny... so whats the deal? Whenever there are talks of over crowding ffp gets the blame yet the locals on saturday didnt even make the lines pass 30 minutes... most houses were at 10 minutes till 9... i hate whenever someone suggests getting rid of ffp to help crowding.

What helped was that publix pulled their tickets after halloween. FF is basically most of the people in stay and scream and that not many. I got into the park around 4.45 sat and there were maybe 10 people waiting out front and I don't think they even used the center gates to scan people. They seemed to be better with express but I can see regular prices taking a bigger hike next year versus FF tix. It will be busy at times and unless they offer more dates that won't change.

 

[Stewie_Griffin]

What helped was that publix pulled their tickets after halloween. FF is basically most of the people in stay and scream and that not many. I got into the park around 4.45 sat and there were maybe 10 people waiting out front and I don't think they even used the center gates to scan people. They seemed to be better with express but I can see regular prices taking a bigger hike next year versus FF tix. It will be busy at times and unless they offer more dates that won't change.

Maybe your Publix. My Publix was still selling tickets after Halloween. They even had a modified window sign indicating the extended dates. I, in fact, had a conversation with the cashier about the event being extended, as she noted my Texas Chain Saw shirt.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Crowds = Express useage. IMHO don't offer a FFP with express at all. If it's a premium then sell it day of. That'll help a lot.

I'm going to be interested in how they handle a future closure of KidZone. Two entrances next to Simpsons ride/Quick E?

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

Crowds = Express useage. IMHO don't offer a FFP with express at all. If it's a premium then sell it day of. That'll help a lot.

I'm going to be interested in how they handle a future closure of KidZone. Two entrances next to Simpsons ride/Quick E?

That could force them to do a two-park event again.

 

[sjago13]

Crowds = Express useage. IMHO don't offer a FFP with express at all. If it's a premium then sell it day of. That'll help a lot.

I'm going to be interested in how they handle a future closure of KidZone. Two entrances next to Simpsons ride/Quick E?

The parade building could use the hollywood gate next to horror make up and run behind ET. It would be a long walk but Gothic and Dead End had super long walks as well.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Crowds = Express useage. IMHO don't offer a FFP with express at all. If it's a premium then sell it day of. That'll help a lot.

Do a lot of ffp guests get express? I wonder how many guests do

 

[s8film40]

Do a lot of ffp guests get express? I wonder how many guests do

I think it's actually pretty rare, especially this year. I would guess a large majority of FFP tickets sold are only used for 2-3 days, in those cases express wouldn't be a very good value.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I assumed ffp guests got ffp to not need express.

 

[s8film40]

I assumed ffp guests got ffp to not need express.

Anyone going more than one night would get FFP. While some (myself included) get it for the duration of the event and go many nights, I think this is likely a fairly small percentage of overall FFP sales. For me because I go many nights express isn't needed, it's not so much that I get that ticket to avoid needed express but rather because I want to go multiple nights. Express for me is an unnecessary luxury, if it's affordable I will do it but if not it's really not a big loss. For someone going 2-3 nights buying express for a single day is a better option.

 

[SeventyOne]

Judging by anecdotal evidence of friends and how little I saw Express used last weekend (which kept the lines moving), I don't think a lot of FF with Express was sold this year. I think the crackdown on GAC, unpopular as it was on Twitter, also helped keep Express lines down to a dull roar.

The problem is any sort of Fastpass system instantly increases lines. The more people use it, the worse lines get exponentially. I know Disney fanbois consider it the Holy Grail of Theme Parks, but it's pretty much the worst invention ever. Universal parks still have shorter daytime lines, over a decade later, just from ripping out their free Fastpass system.

 

[Jakemeister]

I have a lot of thoughts on the whole Express, FFP, last weekends attendance "conundrum".

I don't think it's fair to say that FFPs made up for very little of the attendance as a whole. If you look at opening weekend, Halloween night, and then the "Encore" you can see clear differences in attendance. Every "Multi-Night" ticket is good for Opening Weekend, and it shows in the crowds that have become the norm. Opening Weekend for me, is less fun than pretty much every other weekend because of how crowded it has gotten. Halloween night had the die-hards without commitments there, and while it was a significantly less busy night than those weekends in September it was relatively steady. When you put that final weekend into play though, the event was much more sparse and there's a lot of reasons for that, but HHN was competing with EDC for starters, and then start to factor in the late announcement of the "Encore", and you've got two founding reasons of why it was less busy.

As far as Express as a whole, I think that Express for what it's retailed at is attractive enough to get people to purchase it. There were quite a few nights where Express sold out, and that can not be blamed on Frequent Fear Pass users. I don't think their attendance greatly impacts the Express lines simply because of the investment attached to purchasing one of those tickets.

As far as GAC, I think the only way they were impacting the lines was people having multiple GAC, and using that to breach the system. The way Universal's system is set up helps significantly with reducing the impact of the GAC, and I think the current system of just asking for the tickets would probably be enough to have quelled that problem.

TL;DR HHN "Encore Weekend" will probably come back but with more planning on Universal's part

 

[SeventyOne]

I don't think it's fair to say that FFPs made up for very little of the attendance as a whole. If you look at opening weekend, Halloween night, and then the "Encore" you can see clear differences in attendance. Every "Multi-Night" ticket is good for Opening Weekend, and it shows in the crowds that have become the norm. Opening Weekend for me, is less fun than pretty much every other weekend because of how crowded it has gotten.

There's no question some nights attract more multi-night ticket-holders than others. As you say, opening weekend is packed*--I'd guess upwards of 90% of ticket-holders take advantage. Later on, Sundays are noticeable more crowded at open than any other night. Again, I think that's the FF crowd. Less of an effect on, say, Thursday.

Not sure they will, but I'd be curious to see what effect swapping Friday and Sunday in the FF Plus ticket would have on crowds.

* Opening weekend also exacerbated this year by press tours and the sheer number of RIP tours, many if not most populated with bloggers. If TMs are just going to sneak in en masse anyway, should make Wednesday the media night.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I have a lot of thoughts on the whole Express, FFP, last weekends attendance "conundrum".

I don't think it's fair to say that FFPs made up for very little of the attendance as a whole. If you look at opening weekend, Halloween night, and then the "Encore" you can see clear differences in attendance. Every "Multi-Night" ticket is good for Opening Weekend, and it shows in the crowds that have become the norm. Opening Weekend for me, is less fun than pretty much every other weekend because of how crowded it has gotten. Halloween night had the die-hards without commitments there, and while it was a significantly less busy night than those weekends in September it was relatively steady. When you put that final weekend into play though, the event was much more sparse and there's a lot of reasons for that, but HHN was competing with EDC for starters, and then start to factor in the late announcement of the "Encore", and you've got two founding reasons of why it was less busy.

As far as Express as a whole, I think that Express for what it's retailed at is attractive enough to get people to purchase it. There were quite a few nights where Express sold out, and that can not be blamed on Frequent Fear Pass users. I don't think their attendance greatly impacts the Express lines simply because of the investment attached to purchasing one of those tickets.

As far as GAC, I think the only way they were impacting the lines was people having multiple GAC, and using that to breach the system. The way Universal's system is set up helps significantly with reducing the impact of the GAC, and I think the current system of just asking for the tickets would probably be enough to have quelled that problem.

TL;DR HHN "Encore Weekend" will probably come back but with more planning on Universal's part

do you agree that getting rid of FFP would solve all the over crowding problems? would you vote to get rid of FFP if you could?

 

[Brian G.]

do you agree that getting rid of FFP would solve all the over crowding problems? would you vote to get rid of FFP if you could?

They may do away with Rush of Fear, but not FFP. Bad PR with fans.

 

[s8film40]

I'm surprised they haven't offered either something opposite of RoF were you get the last week or made a pass where you get just non peak weeks. First two weeks and last week or something like that.