Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - News & Info

[UniversalRBLX]

I was there on the “sold out” weekend last week. It really wasn’t that bad. Most I waited for express for like 20 mins for last of us and noticed the standard times were all under 90 minutes. Maybe they dropped the sell out threshold. No reason to freak out about greed and all that until we see the actual effects of this in the park. Is it busy? Yes. Was I overwhelmed last week? No. Really didn’t seem much different than last year.

Saying it's a sold-out day seems more like a way to deter frequent fear locals who might stop in for an hour or so. Found some non sold-out night crowds much more unbearable.

However, you are lying to yourself if you think last year had similar crowds lol

 

[Alsands]

It sucks but I don’t blame them. You have RIP at $500 sold out and people paying $500 plus for one night with express… why sell anymore FFP? I don’t know what the future of the event is going to be but, the days of going multiple nights might be slowly fading away.

 

[snayberry]

Multi nights are definitely not going away. It’s about to be October. If you haven’t bought your multi night pass by now, I mean that’s an L. I was there last night and it was busy. But by 1230-1 it was damn near a walk on for a lot of the houses.

 

[DannyPowers]

If you haven’t bought your multi night pass by now, I mean that’s an L.

October is on Sunday and those bad boys have been on sale since July. I know money can be an issue, but y'all have had the time to plan.

 

[Alsands]

Multi nights are definitely not going away. It’s about to be October. If you haven’t bought your multi night pass by now, I mean that’s an L. I was there last night and it was busy. But by 1230-1 it was damn near a walk on for a lot of the houses.

Yea , I’m saying it might get to a point where it’s unaffordable to go multiple nights with express. If the popularity of the event continues on this trend, how much will the passes be in 2-3 years? Ultimate was 1k with express this year, when does it get to the point where it’s just not practical.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Yea , I’m saying it might get to a point where it’s unaffordable to go multiple nights with express. If the popularity of the event continues on this trend, how much will the passes be in 2-3 years? Ultimate was 1k with express this year, when does it get to the point where it’s just not practical.

The best solution is to just get rid of express for all fear passes and stick to single-night only.

 

[Alsands]

October is on Sunday and those bad boys have been on sale since July. I know money can be an issue, but y'all have had the time to plan.

Agree with you but I’m just going to play devils advocate… I seen someone say they are coming in mid October for a week. They were going to buy FFP with Express. Personally I buy tickets in advance but the hotel and stuff I wait to pay just in case something happens and I need to cancel. As I mentioned I agree, should have bought the tickets but I also feel they have a right to be disappointed. Did Universal make the decision because of capacity or because of financial gain- probably the latter.

 

[Jake S]

Agree with you but I’m just going to play devils advocate… I seen someone say they are coming in mid October for a week. They were going to buy FFP with Express. Personally I buy tickets in advance but the hotel and stuff I wait to pay just in case something happens and I need to cancel. As I mentioned I agree, should have bought the tickets but I also feel they have a right to be disappointed. Did Universal make the decision because of capacity or because of financial gain- probably the latter.

They're welcome to feel however they want, but they took a risk by not purchasing their tickets in advance and got burned by it. So it goes.

 

[HandsomePete]

Honestly, the wait times don’t look worse than the 2009-11 days when it was almost impossible to wait less than 90 minutes for a house. This is what the event has always been. I think there are opportunities around crowd flow and line management for food booths, but that is an Ops issue and not a total attendance issue.

I think what people are feeling is Universal trying to price people out of the event. That was always going to have a lagging effect, meaning… people weren’t going to see the new prices and nope out of spending an extra $50-100 on the front end. It comes in the form of paying the higher price, feeling that it isn’t worth it anymore, and noping out the following years.

 

[sparky]

It sucks but I don’t blame them. You have RIP at $500 sold out and people paying $500 plus for one night with express… why sell anymore FFP? I don’t know what the future of the event is going to be but, the days of going multiple nights might be slowly fading away.

I like the idea of weekly tickets for out of towners. We book hotel and flights for a set week, why not a set week of event access? It would help them plan for crowds. I feel like them asking you to pick a start date for rush of fear was them testing out the idea

 

[DannyPowers]

We book hotel and flights for a set week, why not a set week of event access? It would help them plan for crowds.

Exactly! As it stands they're in a situation where they need to figure out how the thousands (tens of thousands?) of guests with FFP will be distributed over 44 different nights.
That means that they have to make major decisions over very important things like capacity and staffing (both of which effect their bottom line) with a big 'ol honking variable in there.
Sure they have historical data to help with those decisions, but even that has some very large variables in it.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Does anyone know why the lagoon show didn't return?

 

[Clive]

Exactly! As it stands they're in a situation where they need to figure out how the thousands (tens of thousands?) of guests with FFP will be distributed over 44 different nights.
That means that they have to make major decisions over very important things like capacity and staffing (both of which effect their bottom line) with a big 'ol honking variable in there.
Sure they have historical data to help with those decisions, but even that has some very large variables in it.

This is spot on. They have literally no clue how many multi-night ticketholders will appear on a given night, and many of them have express. This arguably puts them in a worse position than Disneyland pre-park reservations, as attendance of express multi-nighters can dilute the efficacy of their premium product. The only levers they have to pull are declaring a night "sold out" (thus discouraging multi-night ticketholders from attending) and exaggerating wait times, which has other unfortunate downstream effects. Neither are sustainable.

I hate to say it, because I hate park reservations... but if they don't make other drastic changes to the multi-night tickets, I think they're going to need a park reservation mechanism. Otherwise, you gotta either sell way fewer of them, double the price, or remove the express element. No solution is going to keep everyone happy.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I don't think Universal wants to play the reservation game... and honestly, I don't think they need to. Just get operations fixed, add that 2nd show and they should be in a better situation.

They're playing a balancing act between attendance and all of the additional per capita spending at the park.

 

[Clive]

I don't think Universal wants to play the reservation game... and honestly, I don't think they need to. Just get operations fixed, add that 2nd show and they should be in a better situation.

They're playing a balancing act between attendance and all of the additional per capita spending at the park.

"Just get operations fixed" isn't a magic wand solution. Operations is breaking down in part due to the sheer number of multinight ticketholders, many with express, flooding the park. There are other factors in play, to be sure, but many are not directly fixable. A lagoon show is also not going to make much of dent, I fear.

 

[Lucky Planet]

This is spot on. They have literally no clue how many multi-night ticketholders will appear on a given night, and many of them have express. This arguably puts them in a worse position than Disneyland pre-park reservations, as attendance of express multi-nighters can dilute the efficacy of their premium product. The only levers they have to pull are declaring a night "sold out" (thus discouraging multi-night ticketholders from attending) and exaggerating wait times, which has other unfortunate downstream effects. Neither are sustainable.

I hate to say it, because I hate park reservations... but if they don't make other drastic changes to the multi-night tickets, I think they're going to need a park reservation mechanism. Otherwise, you gotta either sell way fewer of them, double the price, or remove the express element. No solution is going to keep everyone happy.

I don't think Universal wants to play the reservation game... and honestly, I don't think they need to. Just get operations fixed, add that 2nd show and they should be in a better situation.

They're playing a balancing act between attendance and all of the additional per capita spending at the park.

Well opening weekend kind of try that
Remember when frequent fear passes stopped being available on Wednesday 2 days before opening day. So it already was kind of a reservation try out.
But then anyone was able to buy frequent fear at the park. So it didn't really work .
I was happy to buy my ticket but I was shocked that the park allowed you to buy frequent fear at the gates. Because it defeated the purpose of the reservation for your first day.

It makes me wonder, which day is the worst one for frequent fear, which day of the week has the most people. And then universal can have block out dates. Maybe. Have "HELL WEEK" be blocked for frequent fear.

But then again how much money in food and drinks does universal lose by blocking out frequent fear guests? They might not remove dates if they get a lot of sales from them. Because maybe frequent fear guests spend a lot in the park every time?

 

[UniversalRBLX]

"Just get operations fixed" isn't a magic wand solution. Operations is breaking down in part due to the sheer number of multinight ticketholders, many with express, flooding the park. There are other factors in play, to be sure, but many are not directly fixable. A lagoon show is also not going to make much of dent, I fear.

Not the only solution, but definitely a big part. HHN being underpriced, overselling express, and not enough show capacity are all a part of the mix as well.

I just think there are several solutions to attempt from an ops POV before they approach the Disney business model of saying screw it and increase pricing until you hit a ceiling.

I've already said a lagoon show won't do much, but a show in Bourne/Animal Actors/Anything would do wonders for the event to reduce the demand a bit on Nightmare Fuel.

 

[Brian G.]

Not the only solution, but definitely a big part. HHN being underpriced, overselling express, and not enough show capacity are all a part of the mix as well.

I just think there are several solutions to attempt from an ops POV before they approach the Disney business model of saying screw it and increase pricing until you hit a ceiling.

I've already said a lagoon show won't do much, but a show in Bourne/Animal Actors/Anything would do wonders for the event to reduce the demand a bit on Nightmare Fuel.

Adding a show means adding capacity. The problem isn't stuff to do - the problem is there are too many people within the confines. It would just be adding another pipe instead of fixing the solution.

Does anyone know why the lagoon show didn't return?

Because it was damaged by Ian last year and they're building a new one.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Adding a show means adding capacity. The problem isn't stuff to do - the problem is there are too many people within the confines. It would just be adding another pipe instead of fixing the solution.

I somewhat agree that yes, there are way too many people at HHN... but shows give people an opportunity to do something outside of waiting in lines all night, specifically locals with multi-night passes whose threshold for waiting is much lower than a single-night guest. I can guarantee it'll reduce the demand for some of the houses/shows if there's another show or two at the event and take people off the streets. Just running something at Bourne & Horror Makeup is an additional 1,000+ people off the street at any given time. That's about an hour plus of guests being removed from the houses.

Hate playing the comparison game, but Knott's has 10 houses, 5 scare zones, and 4 shows... what's Universal's excuse? HHN is god knows how much more busier (and expensive) and yet Knott's has the higher number of attractions?

 

[Clive]

I somewhat agree that yes, there are way too many people at HHN... but shows give people an opportunity to do something outside of waiting in lines all night, specifically locals with multi-night passes whose threshold for waiting is much lower than a single-night guest. I can guarantee it'll reduce the demand for some of the houses/shows if there's another show or two at the event and take people off the streets. Just running something at Bourne & Horror Makeup is an additional 1,000+ people off the street at any given time. That's about an hour plus of guests being removed from the houses.

Hate playing the comparison game, but Knott's has 10 houses, 5 scare zones, and 4 shows... what's Universal's excuse? HHN is god knows how much more busier (and expensive) and yet Knott's has the higher number of attractions?

The big difference here is Knott's repeats 70-80% of their mazes year to year, so they can devote a little more of their budget to entertainment. With that said, I agree Universal needs more shows if only to improve the quality of life of the event, even if it won't resolve the capacity and crowding concerns. The trouble is I fear Universal would increase the capacity cap with the introduction of new experiences instead of leaving it where it is, defeating the purpose.