Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Reviews, Photos, & Videos

[Brian G.]

This thread is for reviews, photos, and videos of HHN 33! Please limit all discussions to media and reviews of the event.

Please include if your visit was during Premium Scream Night in your Review.

Any general discussions should be posted in the News & Info or Tips & Tricks threads. Thanks!

 

[Grabnar]

Ok so I’m drafting this as I go, I’m planning to start off my weekend with a bang and do a lot of drinking so I’m sorry if this goes off the rails quickly.

1pm I arrive at my hotel. I’m technically “working remotely” today so while waiting for my room I debate the best way to get the alien bar in frame for my video calls with a client. I see Peter from Ordinary Adventures hanging out ordering some food. I want to say hi but I have 3 minutes before my call and my room is now ready. Hi Peter, if you read this.

5:00pm I arrive in Universal Citywalk Orlando. The security line makes me take off my belt like I’m some common fool and don’t have TSA PreCheck. -1 star. I pause briefly to put on my belt and am accosted by LEDs advertising the Universal credit card, I can only assume these are the Blinding Lights that started the Weeknd rumors this year. I make my way to the Dead Coconut Club and find that it’s closed for some sort of private event, which makes no sense but nothing this year has so I shrug and go check out the preview center. The model is better in person but still not what I wanted but that’s for another thread.

5:45 pm I’m in line waiting for the gates to open. The people behind me are discussing the finer points of the final destination franchise. l’m starting to sweat and reconsider being here on opening day

6:49 I’m 3 houses in and have stopped for food. The food lines are longer than the houses. If you’ve been to an OI event this is similar feeling. Pulsing is not perfect, it’s like mini Conga lines instead of full individual groups. Still a vast improvement to a normal night.

Will double post later just to annoy Brian

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I've been told that house lines are virtually nonexistent!

 

[Jake S]

Yeah, I’d be curious to know how many tickets they ended up selling for this.

 

[Grabnar]

I've been told that house lines are virtually nonexistent!

 

[Grabnar]

Double post, SHAMELESSLY:

There are 15 people in line for Monstros.

 

[ReelJustice]

Yeah, I’d be curious to know how many tickets they ended up selling for this.

If tonight were my brainchild, I think I’d be packing up my office.

 

[Grabnar]

If tonight were my brainchild, I think I’d be packing up my office.

They didn’t market this well tbh. This is 100% worth the $300+ and if they are smart they’ll give it the old college try and do one more year to see if WOM makes it succeed.

Side note: the food this year is *markedly* lower quality than last year

 

[vgp]

If tonight were my brainchild, I think I’d be packing up my office.

One of the tough parts about marketing an event like this is obviously attendance and capacity are very closely guarded secrets, so it was difficult to illustrate the degree to what 'limited capacity' meant without using numbers. It was really limited, if that isn't clear by now, by design and not from a colossal sales failure or anything similar.

 

[GlitterandGloom41]

One of the tough parts about marketing an event like this is obviously attendance and capacity are very closely guarded secrets, so it was difficult to illustrate the degree to what 'limited capacity' meant without using numbers. It was really limited, if that isn't clear by now, by design and not from a colossal sales failure or anything similar.

It never sold out so no, we didn’t really get to see how busy they would let it get. Hopefully they’re okay with this level for the price, but this sounds like the price and maybe the newness worked it out to this level naturally.

Seems amazing though, if it’s even close to this next year I’d consider going. It’s too much for me currently to do in addition to my ultimate FFP, but if I ever can’t go a bunch with an FFP (or I guess if I just get a lot richer lol) I’ll do it, I think this is the way to go for a single night for sure

 

[HandsomePete]

It never sold out so no, we didn’t really get to see how busy they would let it get. Hopefully they’re okay with this level for the price, but this sounds like the price and maybe the newness worked it out to this level naturally.

Right, without a sellout there's no way to know if this is what they intended or if they missed forecast by 50-70%

 

[SeventyOne]

Right, without a sellout there's no way to know if this is what they intended or if they missed forecast by 50-70%

This probably should be its own thread, apologies mods, but word on X is that the event only sold a third of anticipated tickets. Which would be a huge whiff compared to what OI can do.

 

[ReelJustice]

Right, without a sellout there's no way to know if this is what they intended or if they missed forecast by 50-70%

we’ll know when they never do it again

 

[Freak]

Sadly can’t make it to Orlando’s event this year…but man what a contrast compared to last year’s opening night!

 

[Ringwraith]

That's because it's not the typical opening night

 

[soilsigh]

Just finished the premium scream night. So I have been coming to HHN since 2019, making the trip from Texas every year. Did it the regular way the first year, and 2021. Then did RIP for 2022, 2023. Decided to do the premium scream night since all the RIPs for the weekdays were sold out. Best choice I ever made!

Must say this was my favorite year of all of the years! Not sure if it was the staggered entrances that made the houses better this year but even the weakest houses all had something I liked. It is hard for me to say any house failed as a house and I could say there were 1 or 2 that had in the past.

The weakest houses for me were Mr. Sweet's Candy Factory, Eternal Bloodlines, and I guess Ghostbusters. Yet I like some of the tricks made for Mr. Sweets. The house design for Ghostbusters was still top notch though! My favorite house was surprisingly Insidious. It had so many scares even though it was the weakest in elaborate set design. My next two favorites were Slaughter Cinema 2, and Monstruos. Goblin Feast was just a lot of fun, perfect harmony of humor and gore.

Nightmare Fuel was great, but I do hope they do something different next year. I'm getting kind of tired of the show tbh. I do think the food options were a little weaker this year. Torture Faire and Swamp scare zones were awesome! Felt like the other scare zones were a miss but it could also be that there just weren't that many people in the park. I don't think I waited more than 20 minutes in any line, and most of them were 5 minutes.

I hope they continue adding the premium scream night. The staggered entrances make all the difference!

 

[HHN Maddux]

Attended Premium Scream, and already love this year. I'll have more to say as the event goes on, but current favorites are Sinema, Triplets and Insidious.

 

[Frank Drackman]

took a gamble at trying tonight over a pass, see what we could do in a night. I did not expect such a selection of (free) food! Not needing an HHN ticket and then an add on made this far cheaper than buying food, adding on express of RiP.

We tried some of the foods we would not normally try. Most of the sweet stuff was gone before we were in the mood for sweets, but nothing for us to complain about, was truly our best HHN experience ever. We could take our time going through houses as well as go through houses as often as one cared.

Lots of potential this year! Insidious is already there, lots of energy, early lead for me. I really enjoyed everything. The only disappointment for me is Bloodline, I love the monster houses, but I do not think this one can be saved, I just think it is not going to work.

Muesum is sort, not sure I liked it, but I did get my biggest scare in there, so go figure. I truly liked everything else.

couple of pics:

 

[TheCodeMan95]

For all the negativity leading up - it sounds like (to no surprise) the houses are largely very good. Surprised to see so much love for Insidious - it wasn't high on my hype list, but it's been universally praised so far.

 

[vgp]

This probably should be its own thread, apologies mods, but word on X is that the event only sold a third of anticipated tickets. Which would be a huge whiff compared to what OI can do.

TM's have gotten too chatty with this kind of information, which in this case is inaccurate. The crowd levels last night have been known and expected for a long time.

I'm not terribly into the HHN thing and only did a couple houses last night but I'll say Slaughter Sinema was hilarious and very entertaining, and the staggered entrance really does make a difference in how you experience a house. Feels more anxious and you don't feel as bad stopping to admire some details. Scare zones were solid and an improvement on last year for sure, although again with the crowd levels you could focus a bit more instead of trying to maneuver around the oncoming rush of people.

Food items were decent but some of them I can't imagine trying to eat while walking around in a mess of people (the stay puft smore and the pincho, especially). I think some of the items as well will have much more appeal later in the event when it's cooler. Will be curious how some of the lines extend out and affect the crowd flow, especially around the Fallon area.