Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - News & Info

[Clive]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

 

[Jake S]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

not very!

 

[Alsands]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

Exactly! The event is money printing machine, it’s the best thing they have going. The park is never as packed as it is during HHN.

 

[Brian G.]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

Very true. The way the handled the multi-nights this year may be enough in their eyes.

Congestion can be just attributed to the KidZone construction - so they may wait on that but I think it’s an inevitable problem that will need to be addressed.

 

[Alsands]

Very true. The way the handled the multi-nights this year may be enough in their eyes.

Congestion can be just attributed to the KidZone construction - so they may wait on that but I think it’s an inevitable problem that will need to be addressed.

They wont start admitting there’s a problem until they have to turn multiple people away from sell outs night after night.

 

[JungleSkip]

Also, maybe I’m misremembering, but I’ve been going for 12 (god I’m old) years now and I can’t say my weekend this year was markedly more crowded than any other year I’ve gone

 

[Bort]

Let's again keep in perspective that we're all the outliers of the group. "The event can't be done in one night" means something very different to us than it does to the vast majority of the guests. If they get through a handful of houses, grab a drink, snack, and take a couple of photos, then they've "done the event" in one night.

Until that is no longer feasible...I wouldn't expect any major changes.

I was a little frustrated in 2022 with 3 nights of ROF standby ($140ish). Returned in 2023 with 2 single-night tickets, one of the nights had express ($410ish), and left totally satisfied. That's a win for me and UOR.

 

[Tbad556]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

This is why I asked earlier if this thread could even pinpoint a singular, main issue and the answer was a resounding "no" hah.

Universal makes big adjustments annually. TM access changes almost annually to adjust crowd levels. FFP leaps annually. And so on. It's not like they aren't shifting regularly.

There are notable outliers this year like @Brian G. said and some gripes feel more like individual situations rather than large overarching issues. For example, I got food no less than 5 times and never waited more than 5-10 minutes. I never really waited in abnormally painful house queues. I never encountered a clueless TM. Etc. Do those issues occur sometimes? No doubt. Enough to "stop doing IP houses" or "get rid of all passes"? Not even a little.

There may be some issues, but this thread spiraled real fast with the degree of panic.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

Very little - they've shown they're not afraid of capacity issues or overcrowding impacting the guest experience.

I was at IOA earlier this year on a Rock the Universe event night, and felt bad for anyone visiting for 1-day only - IOA was way over it's comfort limit.

I still think the event could benefit from maximizing space/increasing bar areas/moving props/booths that congest areas before they take drastic actions.

 

[Allison]

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

Yep, I would not be surprised in the slightest if they don’t see any issue at all with crowd levels. More tickets sold, more vacations sold, etc., more money spent will always be top priority.

 

[Lucky Planet]

My question is are there really a lot of people buying FFP or Ultimate? Would love to know the numbers. I truly believe selling out of FFP before October was a financial move masquerading as a way to cut down crowds. The people it really effected are the guests flying in for a week in October. Most locals wouldn’t wait to buy them passes.

That's exactly what I wonder, because my Wednesday and Sunday FFP nights aren't bad at all. Sometimes suuuper light days.
For ffp being so bad, such a problem, why are Saturdays still the worst days? It just doesn't add up. Why are Saturdays so bad always and which ticket is it. ??

I also have to ask the question... how confident are we that Universal even believes there is a problem that requires action?

They wont start admitting there’s a problem until they have to turn multiple people away from sell outs night after night.

Specifically if there's no complaints on the surveys at the exit.
If no one ever mentions the crowds then that's another issue

 

[Amity6]

The overall atmosphere needs some work. There’s just too much dead space in the back end of the park.

 

[sparky]

I wonder what the percentage of our of town rush of fear compared to frequent fear ticket option is?
My second year and both times chose rush+express option. I priced it out, and rush was the best deal for a 5 day visit. We planned 4 nights, but our flight was massively delayed on the Wednesday that the tents flooded.

 

[Brian G.]

They wont start admitting there’s a problem until they have to turn multiple people away from sell outs night after night.

They can fix congestion without touching multi-night passes.

 

[wutisgood]

Sept. daily park crowds, at both Universal & Disney, according to Touring Plans lines, seemed to be slow like they were before September became busier around 2017/2018. Crowds seemed to be limited to special events like HHN, and a few days at Epcot. I have no access to internal numbers, but my guess would be that HHN crowds are primarily being fueled by locals going many multiple times on the tickets that are relatively inexpensive if you go more than 4 or 5 times. And with what happened after a lid was put on purchases, Brian's theory probably holds up. I'd bet they change the ticket structure next year to discourage that hang out segment of the HHN crowd. Sounding a lot like the problem Disneyland was having with their AP's when the park basically became a hang out after 4:00 PM most days, and just got too crowded to even move.

I have heard at least a few people who work in citywalk tell me restaurants heave deen dead for a while and people have had to take second jobs. You would think the HHN money would be insane this year but they claim summer was slow too.

In 2019 I got a 5 day 1 park per day to disneyland at around 220 with tax on touring plans. Why were they giving locals such great prices yet now the same ticket is 391 without genie plus. Apparently crowd levels were solved by raising prices on everyone and still blocking expensive day tickets without reservations. What I noticed was out of towners and vloggers started buying season passes to disneyland as it became cheaper to visit again vs disney world passes and then they just canned everything apart form renewals.

Agreed completely. As someone with an almost 3 year old and a 9 month old that stayed with grandma at Sapphire Falls the two nights we did HHN, I was shocked to see multiple strollers. What are people thinking?

The other added benefit of an age restriction is the majority of issues I saw in lines were caused by groups of teenagers being teenagers.

I saw someone with maybe a 9 or 10 year old at HHN hollywood early in the line for stranger things. There is no way you can consent to such an event as a kid. He was covering his hears the whole time and looked miserable. I think these people should just be kicked out. If you cant afford a babysitter you cant afford to go out. Some people just should have never had kids.

If I had a teenager and could buy such a cheap pass for 20 or so nights of such a major event for so cheap I prob would do it. Not many safe places for teens to hang and they would not care about that 2 hour line

And that's the problem really. For the past 10 years I have to hear everyone asking to end and destroy the frequent fear pass that I personally use, that I have used for 15 years.
Everyone always asks to end ffp. Year after year. End all forms of ffp. So I hear you. It's hard to see everyone gunning for multi days passes. Either ROF or FFP. if they get rid of ffp I'm affected immensely. This conversation happens year after year.

But this year I just realized that we need at least one day per week where only single ticket guests are allowed. I don't know, but I feel like maybe Saturdays could be for single day guests maybe. At least one day?
I don't know how the crowd problems gets solved but ROF seems to be when everyone got the worst wait times.

Like I said the number 1 goal of universal is to push the highest profit express passes. We have people on vacation spending money on passes that are good for the majority of nights they can't even use just to "save" money at this point. If they don't purchase multi night tickets they reward universal with ever increasing express money,

We see the addiction to raising prices in how disney runs the orlando parks right now. They are actually turned off from expanding ride capacity because they have monetized the lack of capacity with high demand. Universal with the 3rd park is able to take on all of that turned away capacity as long as the market is growing. Even the Disneyworld local passes with free parking are crazy cheap compared to what non locals pay even before genie plus. All parks have become a business model of stuffing the parks for non locals who are afraid to not get everything done if they pay the pleb ticket price.

I live in the Northeast. HHN didn’t even hit a lot of people’s rader 5 years ago, now people I would of never thought would go to a horror event are going.


The problem is HHN is not a 1 night event and they would really alienate the die hard fans. The other issue is the people who stay a week on property just for HHN.

I am not sure that is just HHN. Orlando is pretty much the cheapest place to fly to in america form the northeast with some on the cheapest hotels to stay in around the parks outside disney itself. HHN to get in is also cheaper still than a day ticket. I think I spent more money at the jersey shore in a few days not paying for the house.

 

[Legacy]

I know a few of people who go to HHN with no intention doing the haunted houses themselves. And most of the people I’ve attended with feel they got their money’s worth doing 3-5 houses the single night they go.

Different strokes.

 

[IHateJumpScares]

I know a few of people who go to HHN with no intention doing the haunted houses themselves. And most of the people I’ve attended with feel they got their money’s worth doing 3-5 houses the single night they go.

Different strokes.

I don’t understand the people who say you can’t do the event in one night.

We went 3 nights, and did 44 or 45 runs. I think we did 15, 16, and 13 or 14. One night was even sold out and one night 4 houses were closed at once for flooding.

We did stay and scream and also had express but we definitely could have done all houses every night if we had not had express and only did each one once.

We also visited the zones, hung out in them, did tribute store multiple times, had sit down dinner each night, spent an hour tracking down the Megans, spent probably an hour totally failing to ever find DS Pumpkins…

It was pretty demanding physically but I’m 53 and we hit the parks hard during the day, rope dropping hagrids and all that. It can definitely be done in one night. What you can’t do is roll in at 7 pm with no plan, wander around inefficiently, and just kind of wing it and still get to all houses. It just isn’t that kind of event.

 

[qwerty]

The overall atmosphere needs some work. There’s just too much dead space in the back end of the park.

Agreed. I also found myself mostly cutting through the transformers area multiple times throughout the nights I was there, and it feels dead. I think they need a zone there.

 

[zombiekimmie]

It will be interesting to follow the wait times for the rest of the event this year. I fly in from NJ and have been attending since 2018 when I bought 2 single night tickets with express (which I’m sure was more expensive than ROF but did not even know those passes existed at the time lol). I’ve been to every year since including HHN Lite and have increased the number of nights I go each year. I always stay on property (usually at RP so I can have daytime express for the parks), am also an AP holder since that is most cost effective and gets me into S & S for HHN, and since 2019 have gotten ROF + Express. I came down this year for Sept 14-18 since I thought crowds may have lightened after the first 2 weekends and express kinks would be worked out. As many of us know, crowds were absolutely insane that weekend which made me rethink my whole annual HHN trip planning.

I do think ROF has become way too attractive for both locals and out of towners which must have contributed to the Sept massive crowds. I’ve already reserved my hotel for the next to last weekend of the event next year which I really hope doesn’t come back to bite me lol. Willing to take the risk in exchange for better weather and equal or lower crowd levels than this year’s Sept crowds. I’d have to purchase the FFP with express if still available but I’m old and would pay the extra cost if I could avoid the insane crowds I saw this year. Stay tuned!

 

[sjago13]

Sunday has felt like the least busy I've seen the event in 3 years. Normally trying to walk down the main stretch during peak time is a pain but 9pm we were leaving after doing every house and you could actually walk and not having everyone bumping you and being shoulder to shoulder which was refreshing. I'd pay extra for a night like the hurricane makeup day from 26. Did 20+ runs that night and it was so empty.

On a side note, I know they have the kennels for the service dogs, but when did they start letting people take their animals through the houses? Saw a dog walk out of stranger things as I was exiting blood moon and it threw me for a loop.