30 Years & Counting HHN 2021, XXX Let’s Stick This One!

[keishashadow]

Looking forward to reports from those there on Saturday & tonight.

Were there the past week, as we just didn’t get enough the first go-round. our run throughs were much better this time. going with after the original exodus of scareactors who couldn’t handle often having to wear two masks in the house; the new crop stepped up.



Thanks to Universal for managing to put on the show, despite very trying circumstances. a very big shout out to all who worked the event, from the park staff to the scareactors.

Crowds never what I’d call crazy busy...starting around 7pm anywhere from 45 to 75 min standby for the big ticket houses. line did start to build more around 10 pm. Managed to get half the houses done well before that time every night.

rain did help cull The crowds. Appears the locals wisely waited out the early weather & arrived later In evenings. Tourists going to do what tourists do

Rather surprised to see a few people i know from GS enjoying HHN @ on Wednesday Once again U opened the calendar up for employees, a rarity That laTe in the season.

happy to enjoy 7 nights there this year. Oh, how I loved Hill House & Beetlejuice & seeing Leatherface & co along with ‘the great pumpkin’. Show was also solid stuff, especially the magic!

surprised to see:



*so many kids, little kids, many in strollers; far too many crying. Not one to tell people how to raise their kiddos. However, please be considerate. It’s very disruptive & time consuming to watch it play out in front of you, repeatedly.

Did see staff finally pull one family out of line after they blocked the entrance for a good bit of time @ Hill House. Appears it was suggested they not drag their son (kicking & screaming) thru the house. Seething, the man settled on a child swap sort of thing. Thanks for the drama there, dude.



*a LOT of it in the lines this year.


*tons of costumes...full on ones, even group sorts, to a trend of women wearing Leotards/full makeup & accessories, ala Vegas showgirl sort of thing Interesting but, either permit them, or not so we all can play along; please.

 

[KStash]

First time at HHN and it seems insanely busy to me, though I have nothing to compare it to. Beetlejuice is closed right now. Hill house has a 95 minute wait.

 

[macraven]

Thanks for sharing that info!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We decided to head out to HHN for one last time on Halloween. We were at home handing out candy to trick or treaters. We didn't have many kids at all past 8 so we packed it up and headed to HHN.

Arrived around 9:15 due to a wreck on I4. There were decent amounts of people leaving, the temperature was down to mid 60s and I don't think a lot of people were dressed for those temps.

I was a little worried about getting in since it was a sold out night, but our Ultimate Fear Pass worked without issue.

We were in around 9:40 and were headed to the tribute store first when we saw Case Files had a short wait so we joined the line. The wait time said 45 but that's one of those houses where you can clearly see the waits (other is Bride).

We'd had such a good night Thursday we didn't have a lot on our must do list: Case Files, Icons, Wicked Growth and the Tribute Store.

Only waited about 20 due to lots of Express. Had a nice time saying goodbye to Case Files. Really wish they'd fleshed out the story for that one more for people while waiting in line. We learned about the story during the Unmasking the Horror tour.

Next up was the Tribute Store. I wanted the AP shirt with the fan favorite houses of past years but of course I waited too long. I had been hoping for sales as there have been in the past towards the end of the event. But the only sizes left in the AP shirt were 3 and 4 x. Most things weren't even marked down, there was a small 30% off section. I wonder if they just didn't have a lot of HHN merch to begin with due to supply chain issues?

The Tribute Store bakery also didn't have my Frankenstein cookie/cake thing. They had barely anything left besides fudge.

So we left empty handed.

Wicked Growth had a posted 65 minute wait time but we decided to just wait it out. All the houses were long at this point (10:30ish). We stopped to get one last Bahn Mi, which was our fav food of the event.

The wait was only around 40 minutes and we were headed in at 11:30.



Had to say our goodbyes to Lil Boo and the Pumpkin Lord.

We slowly walked through Gorewood and Hacktion. Our friend was headed out and wanted to spend some time sitting in Hacktion. I do recommend grabbing a bench and hanging around scare zones, lots of fun.



We said our goodbyes to our friend (never go alone) and it was once more into the fray.



Pumpkin stilt walker was having a great time dancing around.





Icons had a 60 minute wait time posted. I didn't think the line looked bad at all. I think we waited 35 or 40 minutes. One of the coolest things is right before we went into the house they had a cast change for Fairy and Icons. The whole crowd went crazy and were cheering and clapping for the scare actors. This was around 1 am so unsure if it was the last change. From this point on the event had a really happy, appreciative energy to it.

You're able to see the line for Tooth Fairy from Icons when leaving and we could see it was a walk up so we decided to go.

After Fairy we could see the line for Bride was short so we got in line. Only took about 5 minutes and I finally had the perfect bungee cord scare. Save the best for last?

Two bonus houses with practically no wait! Score!

We were down to half an hour left in HHN 2021. No way could we leave at this point, we were gonna stick it out. Even though we'd already said goodbye to Lil Boo we headed back that way.



It was 1:40 am and we made it to the back of the park. Puppet and Wicked Growth were two of my favs so I was happy to see them again. Puppet had a 10 minute listed wait and we decided to chance it in the hopes we could also do another Wicked Growth run.

Turned out Puppet was a walk on. I love the soliloquy guy, he is great and was in fine form hamming it up.

We made it to Wicked Growth with about 15 minutes to spare.

It was roughly a 7-8 minute wait and we got our final Lil Boo selfie.



And even better, we made it out of the house with about 6 minute til 2 so of course we went again!

This was the best run through yet. There was no one ahead of me so I took my time going through.







When we left the house it was 2 past 2 and HHN was over.

With one last wave at Lil Boo we made our way out.

Another high point was walking by Case Files, they must have just wrapped up and cleared the house because the cast came walking out in their robes. The remaining crowds all stopped and cheered as they walked by. It was a real festive, party atmosphere.

We made our way back to the car and were home and in bed by 3 with work the next morning, but that's a horror story for another time.

We'd done all our must dos except we struck out at the Tribute Store on both food and merch.

We did 8 houses overall and 6 out of the 10. Case Files, Wicked Growth x 3, Icons, Tooth Fairy, Bride and Puppet Theater.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

FInal Thoughts.

This was our first year being locals for the event. We ended up with the Ultimate Fear Pass which I think was money well spent. Besides the first weekend, I think we made it to the event about once a week. We never really stayed the full night, we just came and went as we pleased. Though we did do more stay and screams than anything else, there were plenty of days and speed walking up to the turn styles with 10 or so minutes to spare before 5.

Rankings Scare Zones:
1. Lights, Camera, Hacktion
2. Gorewood Forest
3. Seek and Destroy
4. Crypt TV
5. 30 Years 30 Fears

May as well not even call the last 2 scare zones. Though I think by now everyone should know the entry scare zone is just a selfie zone. I really wish they'd find a new spot other than the San Francisco streets for a scare zone. That area is just way too congested for a scare zone. Gorewood was my favorite most of the event (love the tree lights and the slilt hand monsters) though Hacktion really came on strong at the end.

Rankings House:
1. Wicked Growth
2. Case Files
3. Puppet Theater
4. Bride of Frankenstein
5. Icons
6. Haunting of Hill House
7. Beetlejuice
8. Tooth Fairy
9. Scarey
10. Chainsaw

1-3 are pretty interchangeable to me. If the event had gone on another night those would probably have changed. Also 4-8 are pretty close as well.

Extra props to the dancing/pirouetting chain saw wielder in the Chainsaw house, you and the pig puppet were about the only things I liked about that house.

I knew the history behind the Scarey house, it just never did that much for me.

Cannot express enough my love for the opening of Tooth Fairy. Loved the pull tab pop up book style.

Beetlejuice was a great house, the movie just isn't my favorite and I had too many bad run throughs that were missing cast.

Hill House was the scariest house for me. I always appreciate it when they do scares that are not at normal height levels. Like the crawling skeleton and the ghost on the ceiling.

Icons was just a lot of fun. I always liked giving the usher a thumbs up, I never saw anything wrong with what he did. You talk/pull out your phone in a movie theater? Get bludgeoned. Makes sense to me. Also, Jack was on the throne during our final walk through sometime after 1 am.

I love the classic monster movies so Bride was always going to rank high. Loved all the details in the house and the bungee scare.

I love the theater so no surprise Puppet Theater ranked so high. Couple of really good scares in here, I appreciate how simple the mirror was yet so effective. Of course one of the mirrors didn't have glass in it. And once again, the soliloquy guy was the best.

Case Files just had such a fantastic story, wish everyone could have heard it. Plus I was in love with the set for the Kitty Kat club.

Wicked Growth. What can I say? It's Halloween and it's a pumpkin house. It has the cute Lil Boo, the awesome Pumpkin Lord and is just a great house. I love the covered bridge and the galloping with the pumpkin head puppet at the end of the bridge.

Overall I didn't think this was the strongest HHN I've been to, but I think they did a great job with what they had (plexiglass in houses, limited scare actors, etc.). I still had a fantastic go at it and can't wait to see what they come up with for next year!