Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Parkscope Joe]

So everyone seemed pretty set on the idea that Universal Monsters will be in Paris - any idea as to why?

Also if it is in Paris, are we thinking the Hutchback will show up? He's made an appearance before but if he's there I'd expect his setting to be monstrous rather than him being antagonistic.

Either way I'm here for the Phantom

Phantom is located in Paris until he moves to New York city and starts a circus.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

That’s a hot take if I’ve ever seen…

Excluding the houses, they haven't really put much effort into transforming the event as much as they innovate with the houses. My gripe is mostly with the way they operate the event, but the scare zones aren't really given much focus.

Talk about a nuclear take given how terrible the merch generally is lol

Agree, but I mainly meant the tribute stores lol

"Actually HHN is bad", Scooby Doo discussion, and when Rush of Fear goes on sale. I think everyone needs to take a break.

Love the event, never said the event is bad. It's not that hot of a take to say the event outside of the houses hasn't changed much.

 

[Tbad556]

Love the event, never said the event is bad. It's not that hot of a take to say the event outside of the houses hasn't changed much.

Hasn't pretty much everything outside of the scarezones changed though in recent years?

Tribute store was an improvement on the old merch model and just a cool addition in general. Shows changed from B&T (RIP) to Academy of Villains/Nightmare Fuel and the heavily acclaimed Marathon of Mayhem. Food stands went from generic stands to heavily themed. They expanded to including the hotels for things like the Jack'd Up Experience, Icons Bar, Spooky Swizzle Lounge, Universal Monsters: Gallery of Legends, etc. They expanded to include CityWalk with the Dead Coconut Club. They added more light-hearted elements like the Scarecrow Stalk through both parks & Citywalk. Etc.

The scarezones absolutely need a refresh, but feels weird to lump the rest of the event in with that.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Excluding the houses, they haven't really put much effort into transforming the event as much as they innovate with the houses. My gripe is mostly with the way they operate the event, but the scare zones aren't really given much focus.


Agree, but I mainly meant the tribute stores lol


Love the event, never said the event is bad. It's not that hot of a take to say the event outside of the houses hasn't changed much.

Weird, if I was to make that argument I’d flip it on its head. I think the houses are what’s staying too formulaic (even to the point we can telegraph what “feel” a house will have, i.e. tight hallways/aggressive scares in the right side tent dating back to 2016).

Meanwhile they’ve added a whole food festival element, new entertainment options, and toyed around with the atmosphere drastically year after year since 2015. Plus the tribute store becoming an attraction unto itself.

 

[HHNNewbie]

The only change I would ask for from HHN is maybe tease us and give us hints to the originals during the offseason like right now. I wish I was around for their interactive webpage days as stuff like that helps when I get my hyper fixation kicking in lol

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Hasn't pretty much everything outside of the scarezones changed though in recent years?

Tribute store was an improvement on the old merch model and just a cool addition in general. Shows changed from B&T (RIP) to Academy of Villains/Nightmare Fuel and the heavily acclaimed Marathon of Mayhem. Food stands went from generic stands to heavily themed. They expanded to including the hotels for things like the Jack'd Up Experience, Icons Bar, Spooky Swizzle Lounge, etc. They expanded to include CityWalk with the Dead Coconut Club. Etc.

The scarezones absolutely need a refresh, but feels weird to lump the rest of the event in with that.

I should have been a bit more specific in my original statement, but the event marketing/operations wise hasn't changed. The past year was an absolutely brutal guest experience. The food stands are great, I'll give the event that. Some of the other changes are minuscule.

The hotel offerings are nothing more than very little theming with a popup sign and a "specialty" beverage option. The Jack'D Up Experience was laughable.

B&T to AoV/Nightmare Fuel isn't a dramatic change as they've ran multiple stage shows in the past. Dead Coconut was a decent addition, but I don't really include that as part of HHN, more of a general Halloween offering to the resort.

 

[Killer Klown]

Scooby Doo discussion

I see no problem here???

 

[Casper Gutman]

Weird, if I was to make that argument I’d flip it on its head. I think the houses are what’s staying too formulaic (even to the point we can telegraph what “feel” a house will have, i.e. tight hallways/aggressive scares in the right side tent dating back to 2016).

Meanwhile they’ve added a whole food festival element, new entertainment options, and toyed around with the atmosphere drastically year after year since 2015. Plus the tribute store becoming an attraction unto itself.

The Tribute Store debuted in 2015, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). The entertainment has stayed steady at two shows even if the shows, like the houses, have changed from year to year. And as much as I adore the Coconut Club and want it to become a permanent staple, it doesn't really impact capacity issues. Now, if you could get something similar (but larger) INSIDE the event...

If you periodize the event, I'd argue 2000-2005 was an evolutionary period, 2006-2011 a stable (golden) era, 2011-2014 another period of pronounced instability and change, and 2015 to today another stable era. Someone familiar with the current event would find 2015 much more familiar then someone in 2015 would find 2005. I enjoy the current event much too much to call it stagnant, but it might be fair to say it errs on the side of the familiar and has been slow to respond to its explosive growth.

 

[Brian G.]

I should have been a bit more specific in my original statement, but the event marketing/operations wise hasn't changed. The past year was an absolutely brutal guest experience. The food stands are great, I'll give the event that. Some of the other changes are minuscule.

The hotel offerings are nothing more than very little theming with a popup sign and a "specialty" beverage option. The Jack'D Up Experience was laughable.

B&T to AoV/Nightmare Fuel isn't a dramatic change as they've ran multiple stage shows in the past. Dead Coconut was a decent addition, but I don't really include that as part of HHN, more of a general Halloween offering to the resort.

There’s a big difference between “I don’t like their efforts” and “there is no effort”

 

[OrlandoGuy]

The Tribute Store debuted in 2015, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). The entertainment has stayed steady at two shows even if the shows, like the houses, have changed from year to year. And as much as I adore the Coconut Club and want it to become a permanent staple, it doesn't really impact capacity issues. Now, if you could get something similar (but larger) INSIDE the event...

If you periodize the event, I'd argue 2000-2005 was an evolutionary period, 2006-2011 a stable (golden) era, 2011-2014 another period of pronounced instability and change, and 2015 to today another stable era. Someone familiar with the current event would find 2015 much more familiar then someone in 2015 would find 2005. I enjoy the current event much too much to call it stagnant, but it might be fair to say it errs on the side of the familiar and has been slow to respond to its explosive growth.

I mean there’s only so much they can do to “grow” the event. They utilize about as much space as possible. I’m still a proponent for raising prices to help control crowds but that’s a different discussion.

I think you’re not giving enough credit lumping 2015 to now into one period. The Walking Dead years were stale. Since then, I’d put 2015 - 2017 as the first years they successfully scaled the event without sacrificing quality. 2018 - 2019 were the 80’s aesthetic years. 2021 - 2022 have been the party years with the food booths and the more eclectic music/scarezone choices. If we go another two or three years in the party era then I’d be more onboard with what you’re saying but the way I see it they’re really just now getting started with the latest iteration of how the event is presented.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

There’s a big difference between “I don’t like their efforts” and “there is no effort”

Never said anything about them lacking effort, it's just not at the level expected from a "World-Class Resort" and #1 Halloween Event in the world.

SeaWorld/Busch events are far from the quality of an HHN production, but they innovate at a much higher pace year over year than Universal.

 

[Tbad556]

There’s a big difference between “I don’t like their efforts” and “there is no effort”

And I think that's a big issue with a lot of the discussions lately. Most of us are on the same page. The speaking in extremes just makes things messy.

"Uni needs to freshen up certain aspects of the events like the scarezones" is a take most would agree with.

The same goes for the social media discussion. Almost no one is saying "an active, interactive social media campaign would suck". More "the internet has changed and it isn't negatively impacting the ticket sales of the event or the level of the fandom."

 

[The Ranger]

I should have been a bit more specific in my original statement, but the event marketing/operations wise hasn't changed. The past year was an absolutely brutal guest experience. The food stands are great, I'll give the event that. Some of the other changes are minuscule.

The hotel offerings are nothing more than very little theming with a popup sign and a "specialty" beverage option. The Jack'D Up Experience was laughable.

B&T to AoV/Nightmare Fuel isn't a dramatic change as they've ran multiple stage shows in the past. Dead Coconut was a decent addition, but I don't really include that as part of HHN, more of a general Halloween offering to the resort.

Why are hotel offerings factored into your HHN experience but not Dead Coconut? If anything, both should be considered complementary but otherwise tangentially related to HHN in that they're meant to promote the season. They're not integral to the HHN experience and I'd wager that only a small portion of HHN-goers experienced Dead Coconut Club or the hotel bars. That's not to diminish either, Universal should continue with such offerings and plus them, but they're not intrinsic to the HHN experience.

I'd say anything happening within the confines of the event, within the park itself, is far more important than what happens at the hotels. And as others have mentioned, what's been going on at the event has largely trended toward positives.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I mean there’s only so much they can do to “grow” the event. They utilize about as much space as possible. I’m still a proponent for raising prices to help control crowds but that’s a different discussion.

I think you’re not giving enough credit lumping 2015 to now into one period. The Walking Dead years were stale. Since then, I’d put 2015 - 2017 as the first years they successfully scaled the event without sacrificing quality. 2018 - 2019 were the 80’s aesthetic years. 2021 - 2022 have been the party years with the food booths and the more eclectic music/scarezone choices. If we go another two or three years in the party era then I’d be more onboard with what you’re saying but the way I see it they’re really just now getting started with the latest iteration of how the event is presented.

I think you're confusing aesthetics with substance here.

We all know crowds have exploded, and when folks want to explain why certain elements fans enjoyed have disappeared, they're very quick to talk about how the event has "outgrown" them. At the same time, there seems to be a reluctance to acknowledge that Uni really hasn't tried to significantly expand capacity for several years even as the crowds grow. I'd question how meaningful an impact the increased "food festival" element, the main innovation of the last 8 or 9 years, has had on crowd issues. Other then that, structural changes have been minimal. I don't buy that positive changes addressing the issue are impossible; Universal is a huge corporation with many ingenious designers and planners and this is their trademark event - and it prints money. There are options (and no, raising prices to extortianate levels is not the smartest or even the most lucrative, its just the laziest).

 

[Brian G.]

Never said anything about them lacking effort, it's just not at the level expected from a "World-Class Resort" and #1 Halloween Event in the world.

SeaWorld/Busch events are far from the quality of an HHN production, but they innovate at a much higher pace year over year than Universal.

My friend…

Too logical. The event should have done these "festival centers" years ago. Love HHN, but excluding the houses, they don't really put much effort into the event outside of merchandise.

 

[Clive]

I don't mean to be coarse, but a little tough love: How in the world do some of you keep convincing yourselves that Scooby-Doo, a children's cartoon, could someday come to the event when that is not even a remote possibility?

 

[The Ranger]

SeaWorld/Busch events are far from the quality of an HHN production, but they innovate at a much higher pace year over year than Universal.

I haven't attended any Howl-O-Scream, so I can't speak to how innovative they are. But it's easy to say that they might experiment more simply because they're trying to gain market share. Universal comparatively owns the market.

 

[00_Themeparkfan_00]

HHN32 Vecna Leak:

 

[OrlandoGuy]

I think you're confusing aesthetics with substance here.

We all know crowds have exploded, and when folks want to explain why certain elements fans enjoyed have disappeared, they're very quick to talk about how the event has "outgrown" them. At the same time, there seems to be a reluctance to acknowledge that Uni really hasn't tried to significantly expand capacity for several years even as the crowds grow. I'd question how meaningful an impact the increased "food festival" element, the main innovation of the last 8 or 9 years, has had on crowd issues. Other then that, structural changes have been minimal. I don't buy that positive changes addressing the issue are impossible; Universal is a huge corporation with many ingenious designers and planners and this is their trademark event - and it prints money. There are options (and no, raising prices to extortianate levels is not the smartest or even the most lucrative, its just the laziest).

I don’t think I’m confusing aesthetics with substance lol…I’m just not sure that there’s much that trumps aesthetics in terms of how to innovate a theme park Halloween event? Most stuff in a theme park is defined/differentiated by aesthetics…that’s how UOR is able to make an international destination out of two Scoop rides, two 360 tunnel rides, four launched roller coasters, etc.

Just talking solely operations…I dont know what really you would expect from them. The more stuff you add, the more capacity you can fit, and crowds are still going to feel proportionately the same. Maybe raising prices is lazy, but there’s definitely a middle ground between where they’re at now and “extortionate”…in fact I’d say HHN is the only thing in Orlando that may be underpriced.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

My friend…

I don't believe my statement changed at all throughout this discussion - you specifically called me out for saying that HHN has no effort... I never said that. I don't think its unfair to call out the event for lacking effort in some areas.