HHN 2024: Tips, Tricks & Planning Thread

[Wesker69]

Waittimes 1030pm:
Insidious - 70 (did hit 90)
Weeknd - 60
TCM - 60
DE - 45
UM - 35
Ghostbusters - 30
Terror Tram - 30 (did hit 40)
Monstrous - 20
AQP - 15

Temp: 85° & a nice cool breeze

 

[DTH]

What's the Early Entry protocol this year? When should I line up, what time do they start corralling people inside, when do they let you loose to go line up? I know mazes open at 5:30, but that's about it!

 

[Jerroddragon]

I went last night

So around 5 PM they started to hold people in the upper lot near Hollywood and Dine and told people this is where they had to be if they were going on houses but its not true. Some people were standing near WW waiting to be let into the Ghostbusters area and they just let them cut off the people they forced to stop near Hollywood and Dine. So if you just "lied" and said you were going on rides you could get out of the area and then go down to the lower lot or near WW and basically get in line faster then the people following the rules that TMs were telling them
As someone who went Thursday, I knew that the people held here were getting screwed because the people waiting for the Weekend are already lined up down stairs and at 5:20ish they let people go so by the time you get to the Weekend of TCM there will be a bigger line then if you just "lied" and said you were doing rides and ran off before they let EA people out of the holding area
I also pointed this out to TMs and they just said, sorry they have 2 PM entry and nothing can be done

Anyway, walked onto Ghostbusters when it opens...Insidous took 30 mins after that. The Garage area had fans and AC set up which was nice at parts but the the heat was so extreme i was still sweating in line. After that I walked back and while they took us from WW area to Ghostbusters area, when I was exiting Harry Potter gate was being used as an entrance and exit for that area

I got on Monstrous next it didn't open at 6:30 PM as posted and what TMs told people at the holding area earlier but it did open before Quiet Place. I then got in line for Quiet Place right as they let in more people which was nice but also...not a fan of the Quiet place line math. We waited 5+mins to move at all in the general line, I watched as they just kept letting in people with express and not letting any general in for a long time, this from what I could tell is one of the only houses doing this. When I did Monsterous later the General line moved like every minute or so. I know people will say the Quiet place has more demand but they need to let the express people wait a minute or two, its express not walk on pass. Its fine to let people wait 5 mins or less over just walking on houses and pretending like general guests didn't pay to be here. I didn't hit the lower lot so maybe the Weekend was worst with the general line but when I went Thursday it moved at a good pace but have heard TCM can be a mess for general as well

After the upper lot houses were done, I hit the Terror Tram it was a walk on for everyone and still was when I was exiting. No Wolf man part yet, I assume we wont see it until next Thursday when the heat does down...or longer if they are working on the area to make it better.
I then grabbed a Buzz Cola and hung out in Simpsons land for a minute before heading to the Chucky show, which starts at 8 PM and I got in line 5 mins before 8 and was done at 8:32 missing the Scareamony by just two mins. I also got choosen by the Co host, Chucky said all he needed was your name and will tell you how he (chucky) would kill you. I like this and adds to the show letting you somewhat interact with Chucky.
Then mainly walked aorund the scarezones enjoying the enivernments, the Luchadores area had wayyyyyy less actors when I was there then thursday. Whil the Crowz area was great, had the two ground actors and saw 4 Crowz in the and around the area.
The Punkz zone had one person in it when I was exiting the park....so seems like Skullz and Punkz are kinda jus combing the area near the fire towers and one or two people might greet you near the front of the park

Did Monsterous again and left. A solid night but yeah some Ops still need in my option tweeting and literally ghostbusters for EA, had like half the monsters so...yeah can't really judge the house when literally the end scene when the house opens doens't have the monster....feels like staffing could be improved during the early houses. I will say Quiet Place when it opened seem to be pretty much fully staffed and its a petty well done house.

 

[Rideguy70]

I went last night as well, and had a much better experience than Thursday. We also decided to wait until around 10pm to even arrive, seeing how many of the lines went drastically down after midnight--not to mention staying a bit cooler.

I'm sure it was more because of the heat, but for the most part, most mazes had lines about 30-45 min. But there were also lots of short fluxuations... for example, one minute a maze would be a 20 minute wait, and then half an hour later it'd be a 45 minute wait, and then an hour later it'd be a 15 min wait, and then later still it'd be an hour wait. Some of this could be just incorrect estimations of wait times, but I also do sort of feel the crowds are trying to figure out the high points as well.

As for the longest wait times, Insidious seems to be getting the most demand, hitting at least 80 minutes (the highest time we saw) for a good while... and even at 1:30am, it was still a 50 minute wait and looked it. Meanwhile, Ghostbusters right next door is a total walk on. TCM seems lower in the first half of the night, but gets longer into the night, settling in at about 60 minutes much later into the night, which it was usually 25-30 minutes for the earlier part of the night.

Terror Tram had about a 45 min wait at about 10-11pm. Only about half the queue was being used, but the line moved a lot slower than it usually does.

Weekend, while it does have some peak moments in terms of wait times, also had a lot of moments (especially later in the night) where it had 20 minute or less lines. We even did it twice, because at about 11:30pm, half of the queue inside the soundstage was empty. Aside from TCM, the lower lot really dies off late into the night.

And when we arrived at about 10pm, TQP and Monstrous were listed as about 20 minute waits, and basically stayed pretty short until around midnight, where both got to around 60 min or so and mostly stayed that long... clearly, a lot of people are hitting those mazes on the way out.