So I did a thing and went to Fright Fest on Thursday. Decided to go solo.
I got there pretty dang early. Arrived at the gate a little after 6 and just waited for them to open the gates. Bought my house wristband ($50. Ugh) and went on with the evening! Did Stranger Things first thing and got a solo runthrough! Got a solo front row ride on Wonder Woman right afterwards.
I waited only five minutes tops for all of the houses but waited about 45 min for X2 and 35 for TC. I went on some coasters since the house lines were so short and wanted to go on the coasters as it's been a hot minute since I went on them. Overall, I had a good time! The solo runthroughs of the houses made for a great experience. While I think Universal far surpassed how they did ST and, TrT, they were not bad houses in isolation. Saw was actually really good and I enjoyed it more than HHN 2017's house! Absolutely an improvement from last year as well as Conjuring (Though that was barely staffed lol). Strongest houses for me were Saw, Condamned, and WIlloughby's.
So Fright Fest is not quite as bed as what everyone was saying it was. I had no operational issues once I went. The biggest problem is that the price for the wristbands are.....ridiculous. Even as a passmember those prices are kinda steep. That's especially considering when you gotta pay for parking AND admission on top of that if you're going for a full day. But the thing is, when I went, the whole park didn't open until 7:00PM. So if you don't have a pass, you'd be paying north of $200 just to get in and do the houses. THAT is insane. If you are going to command a $50 pricepoint to get in, you might as well just have it as a hard-ticketed event.
Again, I had a good time. Houses were not too bad, especially considering I got a solo runthrough on a lot of them. They should really focus more on a quality-over-quantity approach and strongly consider a hard-ticketed event if they're gonna charge that much for maze wristbands.