We have the Frequent Fear Pass this year and did our first HHN last night, Sunday 9/5.
We arrived for stay and scream and first stopped at the Tribute Store looking for the Lil Boo baseball hat. We were told they were sold out and most likely would be all around property, which I believe was correct. We looked all over and couldn't find any.
Did the NY Stay and Scream, lined up for Coven.
They released us a few minutes after 5:30 and I think we had roughly a 10 minute wait when we got into the actual queue.
This house looked pretty sweet but we were overall disappointed. It seemed like a very long house but we barely saw any scare actors. Maybe we just had a really bad run through or some were late but this house wasn't great for me. Will definitely do it again, though.
We immediately went to Dead Waters almost exactly at 6. This was a mistake. We ended up waiting 35 minutes, which I thought was crazy for stay and scream. Last year we could usually get about 4 houses before the lines started to get crazy.
This house was so beautiful, I loved it. We didn't get many scares but then again, I don't really get scared anyway so that was fine. I do think their audio was off, the scare actors would jump out but there was no loud sound, just them almost gently jumping out. Or is that how that house is meant to be? I still really loved the design, I can't wait to do it again.
When we were exiting this house it was pouring, so we sheltered at the Tribute Store for 10 minutes.
We got in line for a Lil Boo pumpkin bun but they were sold out so we shared an African lentil & potato coffin. It was surprisingly good and easy to eat with your hands. I would definitely recommend that and we'll be getting it again.
We moved on and checked out wait times and scare zones as we went.
I am beyond tired of the San Francisco scare zone, it just always creates a bottleneck and is terrible to walk through. I wish they would put it elsewhere.
We were still hungry and decided on a churro dog on a stick but that entire stand was out of food. Not sure how, but it was. We were pretty hungry at this point and disappointed that most houses were already listed at 30 minutes or higher. I had high hopes we could get 3-4 houses with stay and scream and not have high waits.
We tried to mobile order from Mel's but that had shut off at 5 pm and there was only one register open inside so we passed. It was threatening rain again at this point and we were frustrated and decided to head out.
We did peek into Dead Coconut Club on the way out which looked awesome. Can't wait to go back.
I am still excited to go throughout this season, but this was probably the worst experience we've had at HHN in years. The park seemed super crowded and hard to navigate. Maybe my wait time expectations shouldn't have been so high for a sold out night? But in the past we've never waited 35 minutes for our second stay and scream house. So I just don't know.