Halloween Horror Nights 31 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[krazyhorrorkid]

I would still like to know what they were capping attendance at last year.
If we are in a similar situation next year can I expect the weird capacity issues again?

 

[Crowboy]

Ground actors are told they can accept photo requests, but they’re not obligated to. Stage actors are likely told the same thing. The big difference between now and then is that, I think, more performers are willing to have their pictures taken. Ten years ago, it wasn’t as popular among the cast.

(And if you’re wondering why that changed, being a HHN “influencer” wasn’t a thing then. Now, if a character/performer allows more pictures, it increases the odds they’ll become popular on social media).

The bats you’re referring to were in Grown Evil (2011), and they actually avoided pictures/covered their faces for safety purposes. The zone was dark, and the costumes spectacular. As a result the vast majority of photos were taken with a flash, blinding the performers and making it unsafe to scare. Because so many people wanted photos, and because the cast uniformly avoided them while adopting the “in character” behavior of hiding behind their wings, that’s the zone that garnered a lot of discussion.

Universal should really start telling people the no flash rule at the entrance. Happens about every 20 seconds and sucks, or even put it on the ticket if it’s not already there.
Also for a Universal Classic Monsters house, Phantom of the Opera would be awesome and could reuse a ton of puppet theater elements.

 

[Brandon Voorhees]

Thought crossed my mind that there were so many chainsaws in Hacktion as an attempt to discourage people from just hanging out there due to Covid. That's always been my favorite zone to grab a bench and just watch.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Ground actors are told they can accept photo requests, but they’re not obligated to. Stage actors are likely told the same thing. The big difference between now and then is that, I think, more performers are willing to have their pictures taken. Ten years ago, it wasn’t as popular among the cast.

(And if you’re wondering why that changed, being a HHN “influencer” wasn’t a thing then. Now, if a character/performer allows more pictures, it increases the odds they’ll become popular on social media).

The bats you’re referring to were in Grown Evil (2011), and they actually avoided pictures/covered their faces for safety purposes. The zone was dark, and the costumes spectacular. As a result the vast majority of photos were taken with a flash, blinding the performers and making it unsafe to scare. Because so many people wanted photos, and because the cast uniformly avoided them while adopting the “in character” behavior of hiding behind their wings, that’s the zone that garnered a lot of discussion.

yeah those are the bats, thanks for the explanation, makes sense.
and yeah I can see how actors becoming more famous online, but uni also pushes the hashtags and the instagram posting and stuff. it's interesting.

Universal should really start telling people the no flash rule at the entrance. Happens about every 20 seconds and sucks, or even put it on the ticket if it’s not already there.
Also for a Universal Classic Monsters house, Phantom of the Opera would be awesome and could reuse a ton of puppet theater elements.

even with a disclaimer I think most people wouldn't notice. this year the worst flash was in crypt tv. specially the Santa Claus character. it was pretty bad
flash is definitely something that has to be stopped but I can't see how (unless they make the zone brighter, because seek and destroy didn't need much flash for example.

Thought crossed my mind that there were so many chainsaws in Hacktion as an attempt to discourage people from just hanging out there due to Covid. That's always been my favorite zone to grab a bench and just watch.

that's interesting, I never thought about it. specially with the stages they had.
people tried to hang by the stages only to have a chainsaw scare them away. yeah I can see it

 

[shiekra38]

Y'know, for all the disdain the Zombieland zone gets, the porta-potty zombie was a fun little gag that incorporated something fresh into a zone.

People still wanted to crowd it and take video though (or if they got drunk enough they actually would try going inside lmao), so idk.

I agree, underrated effect and scare

 

[Neo]

I'm late to some of these discussions, but just to throw my $0.02 in...

Regarding flash photos. Maybe it's just me, but I think the plain clothes zone employees (directors? handlers?) are pretty good at the flash rules. Granted, I go in Sept before it gets crazy but they've stopped me for having the tiny "focus assist" light turned on on my camera. Always a pain in the butt to remember where that setting is But if they're stopping me for that, I'd have to assume all the other flashes are getting yelled at. But with the number of people in each zone, there really isn't anything they can do.

Regarding the 2 park event. My first two years were where they had the event in Islands and then both parks. Both parks was a HAUL to get from park to park. Think I went two nights, was less than sober, and can barely remember in my old age but I can remember just walking for what seemed like forever through a dead area that had the Unimog truck with someone in the back of it yelling at you and a single food stand with deep friend twinkies or oreos or something. That walk sucked. And as everybody has already said, there's no good locations for houses and with the crowds these days, zones would be impossible over there.

What I think would really help with crowds, but might hurt Islands attendance, is after they close the park for the day guests, put up gates by the Lost Continent pass through gates and then another one up right at the Velocicoaster line. Allow HHN attendees starting at 8 or 9 or whatever time, to go over and do Hagrids and Velocicoaster. The rest of the park would be off limits allowing for nightly clean up/maintenance to go on as planned. Having those two rides open, plus the long walk over and back, would surely eat up crowds. Maybe have the Potter Castle light show going on or just lit up or something. If they have that halloween shop there again, maybe have that open.

I think having that 25% of the park open would eat crowds and avoid any of the issues with Suess and Marvel. If HHN attendees are able to hit the two biggest rides, at night no less, they might be less inclined to go to the park during the day so that might make it a non-starter for Universal...but having it not start until after the park's regular closing hours shouldn't affect the regular day attendees. But I think it would eat more crowds than an 11th house or an extra show and would probably cost less in terms of construction and employees.

 

[Crowboy]

I'm late to some of these discussions, but just to throw my $0.02 in...

Regarding flash photos. Maybe it's just me, but I think the plain clothes zone employees (directors? handlers?) are pretty good at the flash rules. Granted, I go in Sept before it gets crazy but they've stopped me for having the tiny "focus assist" light turned on on my camera. Always a pain in the butt to remember where that setting is But if they're stopping me for that, I'd have to assume all the other flashes are getting yelled at. But with the number of people in each zone, there really isn't anything they can do.

Regarding the 2 park event. My first two years were where they had the event in Islands and then both parks. Both parks was a HAUL to get from park to park. Think I went two nights, was less than sober, and can barely remember in my old age but I can remember just walking for what seemed like forever through a dead area that had the Unimog truck with someone in the back of it yelling at you and a single food stand with deep friend twinkies or oreos or something. That walk sucked. And as everybody has already said, there's no good locations for houses and with the crowds these days, zones would be impossible over there.

What I think would really help with crowds, but might hurt Islands attendance, is after they close the park for the day guests, put up gates by the Lost Continent pass through gates and then another one up right at the Velocicoaster line. Allow HHN attendees starting at 8 or 9 or whatever time, to go over and do Hagrids and Velocicoaster. The rest of the park would be off limits allowing for nightly clean up/maintenance to go on as planned. Having those two rides open, plus the long walk over and back, would surely eat up crowds. Maybe have the Potter Castle light show going on or just lit up or something. If they have that halloween shop there again, maybe have that open.

I think having that 25% of the park open would eat crowds and avoid any of the issues with Suess and Marvel. If HHN attendees are able to hit the two biggest rides, at night no less, they might be less inclined to go to the park during the day so that might make it a non-starter for Universal...but having it not start until after the park's regular closing hours shouldn't affect the regular day attendees. But I think it would eat more crowds than an 11th house or an extra show and would probably cost less in terms of construction and employees.

With how popular rip ride rocket gets you have a solid point. I’m just not sure if people would see that walk as worth it for two rides open to daytime. I’m no psychic though so who knows what people would do. Possibly a scare zone with raptors outside velocicoaster would be a good draw? They have the puppets already and could just throw some victims in the employee outfits. Maybe keep the death eaters around for hagrids?
Wouldn’t that be a good way for universal to increase capacity as well?

 

[Legacy]

I still think they should just throw some carney rides on the backlot and make it a scarezone/working carnival.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

That entire area they used for Icons/Tooth Fairy queue is begging to be used as a festival center where they can move the carnival games and food/beverage locations with proper seating. It would benefit operations by moving 2-3 queue entrances back there and expanding the footprint of the park.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

That entire area they used for Icons/Tooth Fairy queue is begging to be used as a festival center where they can move the carnival games and food/beverage locations with proper seating. It would benefit operations by moving 2-3 queue entrances back there and expanding the footprint of the park.

I still think they should just throw some carney rides on the backlot and make it a scarezone/working carnival.

The problem is storage. That area is still used for parking, regular ops, etc. during the day. Only the bare minimum of what they need for queues are left up (if that). The team can set up barricades and ropes from scratch every night between 5 and 6…not sure about carnival rides and food booths.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The problem is storage. That area is still used for parking, regular ops, etc. during the day. Only the bare minimum of what they need for queues are left up (if that). The team can set up barricades and ropes from scratch every night between 5 and 6…not sure about carnival rides and food booths.

They can easily move all that parking if they actually wanted to.

The carnival rides idea is ridiculous, somebody else mentioned that.

 

[JunoSynth]

They can easily move all that parking if they actually wanted to.

The carnival rides idea is ridiculous, somebody else mentioned that.

Haha. I don't know man. I love the Carney athomsphere at night with the lights/smells/etc.. I would hang around there and do some rides while I was there.

 

[JawsVictim]

The fact they built their own drop tower instead of renting one for Zombieland: Double Tap tells me they’ll never do a carnival zone with rented rides. I also think HHNO is too polished for that, as it’s something you see at an event like Los Angeles Haunted Hayride.

 

[Freak]

I know y'all are talking about adding capacity for the event, but what more could they really do? Bring back an outdoor stage show in Hollywood? That would just cause another bottleneck. Add carnival rides? I wouldn't be opposed to that idea if that was for the Metro sets at USH's HHN, but I just don't see them doing that when you have better rides like Rock-It or Gringott's in the same park.

Eh, I feel like the event feels fairly "complete" in terms of adding capacity. The event is going to be crowded af now matter what.

 

[Kichkinet85]

They can easily move all that parking if they actually wanted to.

Where would that be?

 

[MikePat]

The fact they built their own drop tower instead of renting one for Zombieland: Double Tap tells me they’ll never do a carnival zone with rented rides. I also think HHNO is too polished for that, as it’s something you see at an event like Los Angeles Haunted Hayride.

Horror Made Here had a temporary drop tower.

 

[Crowboy]

I still think they should just throw some carney rides on the backlot and make it a scarezone/working carnival.

It would also be a good place for a larger stage that people could walk to and stand for the show. They could fit more people than the FFL and BMG that way.

 

[Legacy]

The fact they built their own drop tower instead of renting one for Zombieland: Double Tap tells me they’ll never do a carnival zone with rented rides. I also think HHNO is too polished for that, as it’s something you see at an event like Los Angeles Haunted Hayride.

The cheapness would be kinda the point. There’s a classic aura to that sort of haunt that Universal struggles to replicate. Throw a carney/haunt fest zone back there, complete with rough-wood fencing and a small stage for a live band, and you’d create everyone’s new favorite part of the park because it would be familiar but so unlike every other part of HHN. Enter two/three SS houses back there and suddenly you’ve fixed a whole slew of flow issues.

 

[Lucky Planet]

They can easily move all that parking if they actually wanted to.

The carnival rides idea is ridiculous, somebody else mentioned that.

Haha. I don't know man. I love the Carney athomsphere at night with the lights/smells/etc.. I would hang around there and do some rides while I was there.

make it part if the zone or part of the theme of the zone. crazy clown carnival. 2007 was almost that without the rides.

clown crazy carnival is an easy theme and a fan favorite in general. colorful, fun, attention grabbing, uni could make an amazing big colorful carnival zone area and the rides just the cream on top.

I can picture it. I wan it. they can literally make it like 2018s carnival Graveyard. use of the same props and costumes. it would be so easy and fun.

 

[JawsVictim]

The cheapness would be kinda the point. There’s a classic aura to that sort of haunt that Universal struggles to replicate. Throw a carney/haunt fest zone back there, complete with rough-wood fencing and a small stage for a live band, and you’d create everyone’s new favorite part of the park because it would be familiar but so unlike every other part of HHN. Enter two/three SS houses back there and suddenly you’ve fixed a whole slew of flow issues.

You’re essentially saying they should add LA Hayride’s main hub of Midnight Falls with Mountie Revolta performing at the event. Given HHNO’s history of “borrowing” ideas from SoCal haunts, I wouldn’t put it past them, but I still don’t think something like that could handle HHN’s crowds.