Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - News & Information

[Tobias]

Yeah - I wouldn’t be so sure on that.

Fair enough, I stand corrected.

 

[HHN Maddux]

A part of me wonders if Sinist3r might've been a later addition, because the more time I've spent at the event, the more I've noticed that Surr3al feels like a much more fleshed out character.

 

[SeventyOne]

No rain that I saw but last night was plenty dead. A non-annoying local YouTuber (PCDev) did a video from the parks yesterday afternoon -- which were 2002 level empty -- and said friends in ticketing were urging him to go to HHN because they knew it was going to be slow. Just a trend to keep watching.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

No rain that I saw but last night was plenty dead. A non-annoying local YouTuber (PCDev) did a video from the parks yesterday afternoon -- which were 2002 level empty -- and said friends in ticketing were urging him to go to HHN because they knew it was going to be slow. Just a trend to keep watching.

Was at Epcot last night, food booths were quite empty. Headed out at around 8PM and there were guest service CMs out by SSE asking if guests wanted to ride GOTG again. Virtual Queue was "at capacity".

I think you and I agree that Orlando has been flirting with a price ceiling for a while now. The parks are only busy because they've been shoving great FL-resident & multi-day discounts. That's why, not to derail this thread, we're surprised to see continued price increases and the rumored ticket restrictions for Epic Universe.

 

[Clive]

No rain that I saw but last night was plenty dead. A non-annoying local YouTuber (PCDev) did a video from the parks yesterday afternoon -- which were 2002 level empty -- and said friends in ticketing were urging him to go to HHN because they knew it was going to be slow. Just a trend to keep watching.

It's funny you say this, because I saw tweets decrying how crowded it was. Bad luck on their part in terms of crowd patterns, I'm guessing.

Crowd patterns resort wide were weird 9/4-9/9. 9/5 and 9/6 were very dead during the day and very manageable during the event, with 9/6 of course being more crowded. The daytime parks were busier over the weekend, naturally, and the event was packed on 9/7. (9/8 was a fluke, I think, thanks to the monsoon.)

9/9, though, a Monday, was shockingly busy. Even ET had a 40 minute queue (actual ~20) with all three preshow lanes open and both loading stations.

 

[Mad Dog]

Looking at Touring Plans crowd levels the past three to five weeks, it looks like both WDW & Universal daily crowds have returned to the lower crowd levels that were normal in September prior to 2017-23 when the Sept. attendance jumped up a lot. Looks like a return to the old normal. October will be interesting to watch. That month became one of WDW's busier months the past 6-7 years, a time when HHN attendance seemed to jump also. Even since the rain slowed down, the crowds levels have remained old September low.....and all this with very generous multi day ticket discounts at both Universal & Disney for a good while. For some reason, Mondays have steadily been a busy day at WDW and Universal for the past 4 or 5 months. Even the almost two weeks that we spent at WDW in June that were very slow, Mondays were by far the busiest day of the week.

 

[Jake S]

For some reason, Mondays have steadily been a busy day at WDW and Universal for the past 4 or 5 months. Even the almost two weeks that we spent at WDW in June that were very slow, Mondays were by far the busiest day of the week.

Is it possible there's some correlation between cheaper tickets and higher crowds? I could see people making a three-day weekend of it and staying through Monday rather than arriving on Friday.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Was at Epcot last night, food booths were quite empty. Headed out at around 8PM and there were guest service CMs out by SSE asking if guests wanted to ride GOTG again. Virtual Queue was "at capacity".

I think you and I agree that Orlando has been flirting with a price ceiling for a while now. The parks are only busy because they've been shoving great FL-resident & multi-day discounts. That's why, not to derail this thread, we're surprised to see continued price increases and the rumored ticket restrictions for Epic Universe.

Uni and Disney hit a price ceiling a while ago and have pushed right through it. It’s not a secret anymore - major press outlets have been covering the story for a while. The only question is how painful it has to get for both guests and resorts before the corporate decision makers respond. There’s a point of no return looming…

To circle back to HHN, the event is one of the few things in Orlando that still offers something even close to reasonable value for cost (reduced 2024 budgets alter this calculation a bit). It encourages me to spend more time at HHN even as I balk at visiting WDW for more then one day per trip.

 

[Jake S]

reduced 2024 budgets alter this calculation a bit

my understanding is there was no budget reduction for 2024, for what it's worth. some bad design choices? absolutely. but I don't think we can blame those on financial limitation.

 

[queenmetroid]

I'm at HHN 33 every day until Monday and I won't say it's Stranger Things three hours lines so far, it does feel crowded simply due to the poor Universal Express line management. I randomly started talking to a person in line, who turned out to be a team member that was attending the event and he thought the express management was awful, so he talked to the line manager who repeated the policy about them doing two express for every one standard, which they clearly were not doing, and then added a snark, 'If you'd like a faster wait, purchase express."

As we walked away, someone in my party said, "He may as well have told you to stop being poor" and that basically sums up how this year feels.

 

[Jake S]

My experience actually using express was pretty much the opposite of that. We actually waited longer than a party that entered the standby queue for Monstrous at the same time as us. I know the merge position is challenging but I found it very inconsistent across the park.

 

[Clive]

My experience actually using express was pretty much the opposite of that. We actually waited longer than a party that entered the standby queue for Monstrous at the same time as us. I know the merge position is challenging but I found it very inconsistent across the park.

I also found it very inconsistent. Depending on the timing, you could indeed beat Express guests if a bunch flooded the queue at once. Major Sweets was an offender on one occasion of way too many express admits per standby, but it was nowhere near as bad as Chucky last year. (I think one of the challenges in that spot is that the merger can't really see how long the express line is after it passes outside, so they're tempted to just clear it.) Universal Monsters was the other chronic offender. All the others had pretty reasonable ratios, in my experience.

 

[queenmetroid]

Last night, Insidious, A Quiet Place, Universal Monsters, and Slaughter Sinema were all massive offenders. I noted they cleared the express line every single time from 6 PM to 11 PM at a nearly 5 to 1 ratio. I can't speak for the other houses since I hit them a lot later and everyone was probably done with express, by that point, but it underscores that an average person doesn't have a good shot at completing all the mazes, especially on a busy night.

 

[Lucky Planet]

my understanding is there was no budget reduction for 2024, for what it's worth. some bad design choices? absolutely. but I don't think we can blame those on financial limitation.

ouch, that concerns me a little. it's just my personal opinion but I was hoping that next year got better with some of the zones and some of the other stuff. but if everything this year was as intended then that's kind of bad.
I was hopeful that it had just been a budget thing.
I still hope the lagoon show comes next year and I still wish they put the zone in front of minions at least ( I know it's probably not likely)

 

[Casper Gutman]

my understanding is there was no budget reduction for 2024, for what it's worth. some bad design choices? absolutely. but I don't think we can blame those on financial limitation.

My understanding is that budgets weren't cut after they were allocated, but I don't believe we know how those allocations compared to previous years or what other park elements pulled from that allocation and overran their budgets. I believe we have fairly reliable information that problems with the parade impacted HHN budgeting somehow, though we don't have anything like exact details. I find it a bit hard to believe that budget issues didn't play a significant role in shaping the scarezones and ancillary elements like the Coconut and hotel photo-ops/ decorations. The lack of a second show, however legitimate the reasons, is also a significant savings compared to the pre-Ian era.

 

[Brian G.]

My understanding is that budgets weren't cut after they were allocated, but I don't believe we know how those allocations compared to previous years or what other park elements pulled from that allocation and overran their budgets. I believe we have fairly reliable information that problems with the parade impacted HHN budgeting somehow, though we don't have anything like exact details. I find it a bit hard to believe that budget issues didn't play a significant role in shaping the scarezones and ancillary elements like the Coconut and hotel photo-ops/ decorations. The lack of a second show, however legitimate the reasons, is also a significant savings compared to the pre-Ian era.

The HHN budget is its own thing. Doesn’t matter what happens with the other projects. The only impact from other projects is how Ops is handled.

 

[Lucky Planet]

My understanding is that budgets weren't cut after they were allocated, but I don't believe we know how those allocations compared to previous years or what other park elements pulled from that allocation and overran their budgets. I believe we have fairly reliable information that problems with the parade impacted HHN budgeting somehow, though we don't have anything like exact details. I find it a bit hard to believe that budget issues didn't play a significant role in shaping the scarezones and ancillary elements like the Coconut and hotel photo-ops/ decorations. The lack of a second show, however legitimate the reasons, is also a significant savings compared to the pre-Ian era.

I don't know anything about anything besides what I hear in here and Twitter or Reddit or stuff,
but, I just hope that once the new park opens and the parade is all fixed and stuff, I just hope hhn can go back to normal. ( and the new tents are already counted for and everything.)
there's so much commotion this year.

I hope we get that Hispanic scarezone that was rumored. I hope we get better ips.

 

[Brian G.]

I don't know anything about anything besides what I hear in here and Twitter or Reddit or stuff,
but, I just hope that once the new park opens and the parade is all fixed and stuff, I just hope hhn can go back to normal. ( and the new tents are already counted for and everything.)
there's so much commotion this year.

I hope we get that Hispanic scarezone that was rumored. I hope we get better ips.

It doesn’t matter what the IPs are, it’s all about execution. Most of the year, y’all scoffed at Ghostbusters and Insidious - and the overall consensus are very positive for how they turned out.

Some years are gonna hit and some aren’t.

 

[Midnight Detective]

Last night, Insidious, A Quiet Place, Universal Monsters, and Slaughter Sinema were all massive offenders. I noted they cleared the express line every single time from 6 PM to 11 PM at a nearly 5 to 1 ratio. I can't speak for the other houses since I hit them a lot later and everyone was probably done with express, by that point, but it underscores that an average person doesn't have a good shot at completing all the mazes, especially on a busy night.

I will never understand how people collectively bought - figuratively and literally - into Express Passes. Cats out of the bag though and there's a lot of incentive to cater to express.

 

[Casper Gutman]

The HHN budget is its own thing. Doesn’t matter what happens with the other projects. The only impact from other projects is how Ops is handled.

Back in July, Legacy posted

"I had been told that Torture Faire and Swamp (at a minimum) were somewhat late adjustments resulting from Entertainment and A&D’s focus on fixing the parade. A lot of resources (time and money) got adjusted to the daytime entertainment. So “simpler,” less high-level concepts were decided on instead of the originally rumored zones that required a LOT of meticulous scenic (Toys / Latin)."

Someone brought that matter up a few days later and you seemed to confirm key elements of the post:

Adjustments were made, but the theme was always the same. The only changes were SF and Hollywood.

I'm sorry if I misunderstood.

Issues with houses like Triplets and Bloodlines seem like they can be laid at the feet of the design team (and, to be fair, there don't seem to be more such issues then in previous years). But the streets and ancillary elements do have a palpable feeling of suffering from unusual financial constraints.