Was going to bring this up in my review but it was already too damn long ...
Officer Hot Pants and I were explaining the "classic" event to a first-timer (a Disney refugee), and he was incredulous as we described the sexy nurses with Jell-O shots and the bars inside house queues and the foam parties. Couldn't reconcile that with the tween-heavy, haunt-centric event this has become. And I realized how far the event has come from being "a Halloween party" first and a haunt event second.
Just as scare-actors have been reduced to flesh-and-blood animatronics, I feel Universal wants guests to tour the event in a pre-set order going from house to house no matter how long Universal makes the queue, never stopping, like automated robots themselves. Even the gift shop is essentially designed as a giant queue--browse but never stop moving toward checkout! They've put very little thought into the fact guests might want to stop and grab a bite to eat, have a drink with friends, or just sit down after a half-mile walk! (So much seating removed this year since, say, 10 or even 2 years ago. People just on the sidewalk up against construction walls.) The party atmosphere helped guests not notice the capacity issues--much like Jell-O shots, we made our own fun. The pendulum needs to swing back a bit. Make it a fun party again, not a marathon of queuing through houses a half-mile backstage..