Official 2024 Universal Studios HHN 33 Thread

[zavandor]

Ah, that‘s why the wait times were green last year. I am trying to get away with not purchasing express passes for a one night visit, but I might just have to do it.

From reading last year‘s experiences, the crowds seemed to be overwhelming at times. I hate waiting in line for more than 30 minutes. Add in FL humidity, I‘ll turn into a horror character.

30 minutes is considered a quasi-walk on for standby. I saw Stranger Things approach the three hours at times, last year.
Also, in theory Express guarantees to skip half the wait time. So if standby is 2 hours you should wait 1 hour with Express.
It's usually shorter, but sometimes you'll wait even with Express. Last year Yeti, Chuck, Dark ritual and Last of Us had usually the longest wait with Express. At the others I usually didn't wait more than 10 minutes. (I went 8 nights with Express).

 

[CAPSLOCK]

It is not an event for everyone. It is very expensive, it's overcrowded, often frustrating.
And sometimes you go in a house and you miss all the best scares, because you'll be rushed and you won't be able to linger to appreciate all the details.

But you could say the same about the theme parks in general: why go to Orlando and spend thousands in travel, hotels and tickets when you can go to a local regional park for a fraction of the cost?

If you don't buy Expess it might still be worth it, just go in with reasonable expectations. Plan for a few houses that appeal you the most, walk around the scare zones, try some novelty food, watch the show and you'll have a great night anyway.
If you're a completioninst and you wouldn't be happy if you won't experience everything, go multiple nights, buy express or prepare to suffer with a commando style touring plan.

I think the Halloween event at Sea World is a good value for money. It costs 1/3 of the HHN, has fewer houses but it's less crowded so easier to experience. Lines for attractions are short, so if you like coasters you can easily get your money worth just for that. A couple of the shows were decent. And the houses are good. But they're not HHN. They're not in the same category or even on the same planet. If you want the best, go to HHN (this said by someone who doesn't even like horror movies).

Agree with this whole post!

 

[tony67]

It is not an event for everyone. It is very expensive, it's overcrowded, often frustrating.
And sometimes you go in a house and you miss all the best scares, because you'll be rushed and you won't be able to linger to appreciate all the details.

But you could say the same about the theme parks in general: why go to Orlando and spend thousands in travel, hotels and tickets when you can go to a local regional park for a fraction of the cost?

If you don't buy Expess it might still be worth it, just go in with reasonable expectations. Plan for a few houses that appeal you the most, walk around the scare zones, try some novelty food, watch the show and you'll have a great night anyway.
If you're a completioninst and you wouldn't be happy if you won't experience everything, go multiple nights, buy express or prepare to suffer with a commando style touring plan.

I think the Halloween event at Sea World is a good value for money. It costs 1/3 of the HHN, has fewer houses but it's less crowded so easier to experience. Lines for attractions are short, so if you like coasters you can easily get your money worth just for that. A couple of the shows were decent. And the houses are good. But they're not HHN. They're not in the same category or even on the same planet. If you want the best, go to HHN (this said by someone who doesn't even like horror movies).

Yeah that is one of the reason if I am going to do HHN I go multiple nights - amazing how different walkthroughs can be.
I find it best to try and get behind people who seem like they will scream a lot as the SAs will target them for the most part.

I did a RIP tour a few years back and in one of the houses the walkthrough was so bad the guide just took us back around again. It was a private tour so they could do that.

Last year I did walkthroughs where one or more of the SAs were not even there - it was far more common last year than any year I've been through before that. I'm very luck and able to go for 10 nights typically so I do get to see it all, but it is extremely frustrating when I have wasted my EP for the night and missed every scare in the house.
Seemed like I was always hitting houses around the shift changes and they seemed to be short handed as well

This is one place where the SW is much better - you tend to go through in small groups instead of conga lines so there is none of that rushing you through and you miss everything. I tend to walk through dragging a leg or limping just to slow it down.

 

[soniam]

Ah, that‘s why the wait times were green last year. I am trying to get away with not purchasing express passes for a one night visit, but I might just have to do it.

From reading last year‘s experiences, the crowds seemed to be overwhelming at times. I hate waiting in line for more than 30 minutes. Add in FL humidity, I‘ll turn into a horror character.

It is a lower time of year though. Halloween always seems less crowded for HHN.

 

[scottishgirl1]

This will be our second HHN. we went in 2022 before and we are going 2nd week in October so will attend on 3 nights. I have already caved and gone for RIP tour lol, should we consider Express for one of the other 2 nights as well or should we be able to get around all the houses again fairly easily over the remaining 2 nights?

 

[djmeredith]

Yeah that is one of the reason if I am going to do HHN I go multiple nights - amazing how different walkthroughs can be.
I find it best to try and get behind people who seem like they will scream a lot as the SAs will target them for the most part.

I did a RIP tour a few years back and in one of the houses the walkthrough was so bad the guide just took us back around again. It was a private tour so they could do that.

Last year I did walkthroughs where one or more of the SAs were not even there - it was far more common last year than any year I've been through before that. I'm very luck and able to go for 10 nights typically so I do get to see it all, but it is extremely frustrating when I have wasted my EP for the night and missed every scare in the house.
Seemed like I was always hitting houses around the shift changes and they seemed to be short handed as well

This is one place where the SW is much better - you tend to go through in small groups instead of conga lines so there is none of that rushing you through and you miss everything. I tend to walk through dragging a leg or limping just to slow it down.

This! We did Chucky first and we were horribly disappointed because there were literally almost no scareactors at all. It happened in other houses too but that one was a complete waste of our time.

Still debating on whether I will have the budget for HHN this year. We squeezed in one night last year during our Disney trip and we said we would never do that again. We had stay and scream and EP, but we were so tired by midnight that we skipped the last house. The year before we were onsite and did 2 nights, 1 with EP, and it was so much better. So I will have to budget for 2 nts hotel and tix for 3 people. We may skip this year and do a big trip for Epic and HHN fall 2025.

 

[Bird003]

This will be our second HHN. we went in 2022 before and we are going 2nd week in October so will attend on 3 nights. I have already caved and gone for RIP tour lol, should we consider Express for one of the other 2 nights as well or should we be able to get around all the houses again fairly easily over the remaining 2 nights?

We usually do rip tour on a weekend night that is typically busier. Then for our second night we do weekday and utilize stay and scream. We skip express pass since rip tour so expensive

 

[Ta.Ham1989]

We did all the houses in one night late Oct last year with no EP - we arrived super early, followed a plan from DIS for the first 4 houses, & actually had finished all 10 houses much earlier than I expected (I think it was before midnight). And ended up calling it a night after the last house. Something I hadn't really considered was that with normal park touring, you're sitting on rides which gives your legs rest breaks. HHN is walking to a house, standing/walking in line, walking through the house, walking to the next house, etc.

This year we'll do a nice long break during those busiest hours so that we can enjoy the end of the event with fewer people. That was the plan last year too, but we saw "short" lines for popular houses and took advantage of them, then did the adjacent house to avoid walking back & forth, etc, and our plan fizzled. Will learn from that this year.

Up for a private RIP this year? I think we have spots open. You started it. lol. I can’t not go w/o a private RIP.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

@Ta.Ham1989 what is your date this year?

 

[Ta.Ham1989]

It looks like we will be doing the RIP on 10/31

 

[scottishgirl1]

We usually do rip tour on a weekend night that is typically busier. Then for our second night we do weekday and utilize stay and scream. We skip express pass since rip tour so expensive

Thats great, we are there Wed, Thurs, Fri and i have booked RIP tour for the Friday even though that is the wrong way round but just because otherwise I think that it will be too busy and we will just give up lol, its the last night of our holiday so it will be good to be busy! I am hoping I will be able to have a great plan to follow the other nights, when we went in 2022 for our first time we were tied to opening weekend so had no idea of strategy!

 

[Bird003]

Thats great, we are there Wed, Thurs, Fri and i have booked RIP tour for the Friday even though that is the wrong way round but just because otherwise I think that it will be too busy and we will just give up lol, its the last night of our holiday so it will be good to be busy! I am hoping I will be able to have a great plan to follow the other nights, when we went in 2022 for our first time we were tied to opening weekend so had no idea of strategy!

Sounds like a good plan! Yeah we did opening weekend last year , on,y our second year, and did not utilize stay and scream the right way. So I am glad to go second week of October to be able to watch videos

 

[scottishgirl1]

I had no idea how crazy expensive Express pass is!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Thats great, we are there Wed, Thurs, Fri and i have booked RIP tour for the Friday even though that is the wrong way round

No, that's the right way. Because once you do the RIP tour it will spoil you for waiting in the lines and the reserved show seating is also really good, so you won't want to watch it again from a worse vantage point. There are no lines at all with RIP, so it legit does not matter how busy HHN is on your tour date.

 

[chad_1138]

So, quick question. We just bought our HHN and Express Passes for HHN. I know the express pass is once per house. Is it also once per ride? Thanks!

 

[keishashadow]

Possible? Yes, but it requires a very good plan executed with military precision, early entry via Stay and Scream (a paid extra or a park ticket for the day), extremely early queueing in the holding pens (think 3:30pm), a lot of walking (A LOT), a lot of standing on your feet in line (A LOT) and staying until the very last minute.
Doable? Maybe, if it's not too crowded and you have a lot of stamina (A LOT).
Enjoyable? Questionable.

Wednesday should be better than Sunday, which is way better than Friday and Saturday.

They sound like seasoned Disney people…likely can commando with the best of them lol

Is it ideal way to tour HHN? Of course not. However, it beats not experiencing it at all
IMO

 

[DarthEsquire]

I have often done the RIP tour (public and private) and if you have never done HHN before I agree that is a great way to do it. I usually travel solo to the parks though so it keeps me out of really long lines as even the express lines can get long and being around all the switchbacks for people can get uncomfortable.

I did something last year though that worked for me and I felt was good value. I'm usually not interested in all the houses since I think the "scares" are a little repetitive after many years and that experiencing/noticing the details in the throng of people is hard but I do appreciate the effort put into them. I did the "Behind the Screams" 6 house tour before attending HHN one of the days last year (which I found a good value). I really like that it gave a much more detailed look at the storylines of the houses and gave things to look for in them (admittedly my favorite houses are usually some IP house and the Universal Monsters house). We also did talk on the tour about the houses we didn't see.

On the night I actually went to HHN, this allowed me to choose which houses I wanted to prioritize and to really be able to follow the storylines. While I have been to HHN the last 10 or 12 years, I am not as immersed in the history and storylines so the behind the screams allowed me to get the refresher/explanations I need about the characters that HHN focuses on that year (ex. Dr. Oddfellow and the integration into each scarezone) so I could better understand what was happening. It is also a lot of fun to see the behind the scenes magic/logistics for me. I feel bad that I don't remember the name of my guide off the top of my head, but she was also great.

 

[shh]

I did something last year though that worked for me and I felt was good value. I'm usually not interested in all the houses since I think the "scares" are a little repetitive after many years and that experiencing/noticing the details in the throng of people is hard but I do appreciate the effort put into them. I did the "Behind the Screams" 6 house tour before attending HHN one of the days last year (which I found a good value). I really like that it gave a much more detailed look at the storylines of the houses and gave things to look for in them (admittedly my favorite houses are usually some IP house and the Universal Monsters house). We also did talk on the tour about the houses we didn't see.

On the night I actually went to HHN, this allowed me to choose which houses I wanted to prioritize and to really be able to follow the storylines. While I have been to HHN the last 10 or 12 years, I am not as immersed in the history and storylines so the behind the screams allowed me to get the refresher/explanations I need about the characters that HHN focuses on that year (ex. Dr. Oddfellow and the integration into each scarezone) so I could better understand what was happening. It is also a lot of fun to see the behind the scenes magic/logistics for me. I feel bad that I don't remember the name of my guide off the top of my head, but she was also great.

for those of us on a tighter budget or who may not want to do the actual "behind the scenes" tours, look for a series of podcasts (most run about 20-30 min each) by Universal that may be released in late July/Aug. Last year, they had one for each original (non IP) house and explained the whole Dr Oddfellow story line with a lot of interesting backstory on characters.

It was fun to listen to and helped when I toured the houses. I really hope they do it again this year. (I found them on Spotify - not sure if they were broadcast on other services.)

 

[CarouselofColor]

So, quick question. We just bought our HHN and Express Passes for HHN. I know the express pass is once per house. Is it also once per ride? Thanks!

Yes

 

[wmoon]

Thanks for starting the thread. Makes it very exciting.

We will be over for a week from 10/11 to 10/18. Hoping for frequent fear with the Friday included so we can do 4 nights.

Just been pricing up the behind the scenes tours. Ds and I really fancy doing both the 6 house and 3 house this year. Dh just wants to do one so might just leave him at the pool.

I wonder if they will offer unlimited express again as an upgrade on the day. I plan to buy one night express and do the upgrade again as it was so much fun last year.