I went to HHN on Thursday, October 9 with 2 friends.
None of us had ever attended a HHN before.
We had been at Universal since Tuesday. Two of us have annual passes and the other had a 3 day ticket. We were each able to get the AP discounted ticket.
I had made reservations at Finnegan's using OpenTable about a month ago. Originally, only 2 of us were going to go so I had made the reservation for 2 for 3:45 pm. We went to the parks at opening that day, I went to Finnegan's around 11 and I was able to add a third to our reservation no problem.
I believe we went back to the room for a break around 1.
We were back in the park for our Finnegan's reservation at 3:45. We were seated right away and had a good waiter and good food. He knew that we were waiting around for HHN so he had all the food and drinks timed very well.
We also got to see some girl outside absolutely freak out over some guy who was on Big Brother who was there. I mean, she was shaking so bad we could see it from inside.
As time ticked on, the line for the Finnegan's bathroom got annoyingly long. Were there no other bathrooms to use inside that particular waiting area? So that was a little annoying. We got out of the restaurant and there was only about 10 minutes that we had to wait until we were quickly moving to the houses.
Before, we had worked out our must do list:
Walking Dead
Halloween
Face Off (I'm a huge fan of the show)
Alien Vs. Predator
Purge
Roanoke
From Dusk til Dawn
Dracula
Giggles & Gore
Dollhouse
then the other scare zones
I also wanted to see Bill and Ted because I'd heard so many good things, and one of my friend's really likes Rocky Horror so she wanted to see that.
So we had the 2 houses to choose from: Alien and Dracula. We joined what seemed like most of the rest of our holding area in the Alien line. People around us were snickering at all the people going through the express line that early, and there were a good many.
The wait time said 10 minutes, and we waited 15.
Alien Vs. Predator:
I feel like I need to say 2 of the 3 of us are not easily scared. And I think our third friend ended up feeding off our not scaredness so she wasn't easily scared either.
I was amazed at the set design of this house. I've been to haunted houses before but not anything on this level. I felt like I was walking through the movie.
I don't think any of the scares were timed to us. The 2 guys behind me were absolutely freaking out and I even turned around at one point and was like 'what is happening to you guys because it isn't happening to me'. I remember watching the guy with the alien on his face lying on the ground, I was pretty sure that he was an actor but we never saw him move.
I thought all the stuff hanging from the ceiling got pretty annoying.
I think maybe the special tours might be good for me, because I could not stop gawking at how well done all the sets and effects and makeup was. I thought the full body Predator at the end was awesome.
Anyway, we made it through our first house and none of us had really been scared.
At this point I had to use the bathroom, and we ended up walking through the Purge area to find one. It was really not scary in the bright sunlight. The girl was the mask followed me around a bit trying to get a reaction but she was disappointed.
After the bathroom I thought maybe it'd be a good strategy to try to make it to the Halloween house before the park opened to everyone else. I thought maybe since it was in the back we'd be able to beat some people there, so we headed there next.
The posted wait time was 30 minutes and we ended up waiting 40.
Halloween:
I liked how they had the facade of the house out front.
I thought this house was well done set wise as well, it felt like you were moving through the house and it was pretty detailed. I even remember some weird black and white show playing on the tv in the background when Michael was stabbing his sister.
Once again, none of us were really scared. I'm just not one to be scared at things that startle, especially if I'm expecting people to be jumping out.
But I did think the house was really interesting and neat. I think the room I liked best was the one with the laundry.
Next up it was just finally getting dark so we took a walk through the Bayou.
I think this was the most effective scare zone. There was a ton of mist so it was hard to see too far ahead. I liked the theme as well.
Next up we hit Face Off. I had to get my picture with all the make ups. I was a little disappointed with them though, I can think of a lot of scarier make ups during the show that weren't represented but it was still fun.
I can't really comment too much on the roaming scarers here, I was too busy smiling and enjoying the Face Off characters.
We were headed to Walking Dead but we saw on a wait times board that the wait was 120 minutes
Instead we veered off and got in a 30 minute line for Dusk til Dawn.
From Dusk til Dawn:
Once again, a really nicely put together house I thought. I really felt like I was in a seedy bar in the middle of the desert.
And once again, no one was scared. I did like the makeup on the bat looking vampires.
Even though we weren't scared, I think there were less opportunities to be scared in this house.
After we were finished, we saw on another wait time board (so convenient) that Walking Dead was down to 90 minutes and we thought we may as well bite the bullet.
The posted wait time was 90 minutes and we ended up waiting 95. 95 excruciating minutes...this day was about the 12th day of a jam packed Disney and Universal trip (including running the TOT 10 Miler) so my feet were just done.
The trivia up on the screen was great...until it repeated itself 10 minutes later. You think they could have got a few more questions, or maybe just played episodes of the Walking Dead up there.
And then we got in view of the Prison and forgot all about the tired feet.
The Walking Dead:
that was the best facade of any of the houses. It was very dark back there and it really felt like you were coming upon a creepy, dilapidated prison. My one main complaint is that I wanted to take some pictures of the outside and all the dead zombies on the wall, but the express lane was in between us and the prison and people were constantly either walking past or taking their own pictures, so I never was able to get any decent pictures.
I just thought the Walking Dead was so amazing. It felt like you were journeying through the last season. Starting out with the dead pig outside, then coming inside to all the cells with the sick people and zombies inside. The guy in the shower as a zombie was really good.
The grocery store scene was great. I always kind of glossed over those scenes in the show and was like I could do that just fine. Its one thing to watch, another thing to walk through it.
I think I'm in agreement with everyone else that the strobe warehouse room was great. You couldn't tell which zombies were real and which were fake. My only complaint is that I felt I couldn't look around too much, I felt like if I didn't keep my eyes on the person in front of me then I'd probably get lost and not know where to go.
Then it was neat to be herded through Terminus.
I swear, I think I appreciated all these houses more for making me feel like I was in the movie/show than for actually scaring me.
Walking Dead was definitely the best house of the night.
After we got through that, I believe it was after 11. We were all pretty tired and beat, I really wanted to see Bill and Ted and it would be a good break so we headed there next. I think we got there 10 minutes before a show started and were just fine getting in, we were seated near the back but I didn't mind and I think it might be better to be able to see the whole stage that way.
They were so vigilant with no pictures or recording, and I wasn't sure why.
We all thought the show was really funny, if not a bit vulgar. We did see a dad with his 2 kids leaving about halfway through, I don't think it is kid appropriate at all.
Some of the jokes I remember are: a bunch of Sterling jokes, magic bands, Frozen, Guardians of the Galaxy, the bachelor, Neighbors, Justin Bieber and many others.
I think the show was over around 11:30...but the times are iffy here.
We were all just super tired. I told the others they could stay but I was done. Everyone else agreed with me, so we decided to go one more time through the Face Off area. An employee had told me they had 2 shifts and we were lucky enough to see the second this go around.
My friend wanted to try the Purge area again, so off we went.
It was much better in the dark. But I just thought there were too many people and the area was too big. We saw some chainsaw guy chasing some girls around, but it was kind of a flop to us. I guess there was some sort of auction scene? We never saw it.
After that, we left and got to walk through the Masquerade area. I thought that was a cool area and I liked all the costumes.
We were staying at the Hard Rock so were back at the room 10 minutes later, which was nice. I believe we left around midnight, so we missed an hour.
Thoughts if we could do it again:
I think I would have started with A Vs. P again, but I would have done Dracula immediately after as its lines got pretty long later in the night.
Then we probably should have gone to Walking Dead. One of my friends thought we should go there at the start, but didn't voice her opinion so of course I got blamed for my plan
I think if we hadn't gone at the end of a long vacation we could have been close to getting everything done.
As it was, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.