Well I just got back from a weekend at the HRH and HHN. We checked-in at HRH on the 12th and left the 14th. We attended HHN Friday and Saturday Nights. This won't be a very complete report but I'll cover the highlights.
The Good: HRH, FOTL, Friday Night at HHN
The Bad: HHN in general, Bill and Ted
The Ugly: The HHN crowds on Saturday the 13th
To begin with HRH was GREAT! We checked in about 4:30pm with the $99 FLA Redisent rate and had no problem. Check-in took less than 5 minutes. We got room 3091 which was on the third floor(same as the lobby). The view was decent and the room was decent size and clean. Housekeeping was great as well as every other employee we encountered. If you have specific questions about the hotel ask away. We really didn't explore it too much as we were at the parks all day, and HHN all night. 2 nights just isn't enough!!
FOTL was also great. At one point on Saturday Hulk and Spidey both had 45 minute waits. Using FOTL we walked right on. Same with MiB and BTTF at USF. THis perk is great, even for Floridians who visit the parks often, and really makes staying onsite worth it.
Before I get bashed let me say this is my fifth year attending HHN. I love this event and look forward to it all year. 1997 and 2000 were the best years I attended. That being said, this year HHN just didn't do much for me. Nothing really original was done, and it really seemed dull compared to 2000. Friday night was fun because the park was nearly empty. We never waited more than 20 minutes for anything and walked right on most attractions/mazes. Saturday was unbearably packed and the crowd seemed rather rowdy and obnoxious. Bill and Ted's was a BIG dissapointment as well. No one in the audience really laughed at all and the show was generally boring. As others have said, it seemed like a rehash of last year. All in all the event was still fun, just not the A+ event it usually is. This year I'd give it a C+.
Here's the attraction rundown:
Scarezones. The scarezones were well done and fun. The Unknown was cool, however Nightmare Alley was probably the best. Having slasher movie villains inhabit an entire scarezone was a great idea. Freddy, Michael Myers, and Pinhead were all present! A-
Boogeymen. How can they call this an attraction. This was nothing more than a BORING infomercial for the Boogeymen DVD. It was held in the MakeUp SHow theater and lasted about 10-12 minutes. F-
The Ooze Zone. This seemed cool enough and there was never really a line to get in. You entered a small haunted maze to start. In the middle underneath Kong was a foam dance party. Then you exited via a medium size maze. The crowd unfortunatly didn't seem into it so it kind of sufferred. C
Pitch Black. This was pretty good. The scareactors had glowing faces and it was generally just pitch black with different walking surfaces and things to feel. Not being able to see anything definatly raised the scare-factor to nothing short of terror. B+
Scary Tales. This one was pretty good as well. Some of the effects and music were pretty neat. Demented Disney characters are cool, enough said!! Watch for Pinochio in this one. A-
Superstitions. This one didn't seem to have a whole lot of theming to me and relied mostly on the Scareactors for thrills. Because of this the experience varied from Friday to Saturday night. Friday the scareactors seemed to be sleeping, Saturday they were really into it. Friday D+ Saturday B
The Mummy. This maze was rather bland, but parts of it were as dark if not darker than Pitch Black. Several times I wound up being seperated from my party and in the process of feeling my way around, I poked many a scareactor. Oops! The parts that were light enough to see were very well themed. B-
RUN. I was really anticipating this one and it was perhaps the only unique thing at this years event. The maze was very bright and loud, with a cool Rob Zombie sountrack.The begining had walls padded with matresses. Scareactors with padding would jump out and seperate people from their group forcing them another way. The middle of the maze was a chainlink fense maze with scareactors with bats and chainsaws. (and other suprise weapons - which I won't ruin the suprise). On the was out there was a neat moving room / strobe effect. The only thing that hurt this maze was the hype. It was very good, just not that amazing. A-
Thats all for now. Ask away if you've got ?'s
Jim
The Good: HRH, FOTL, Friday Night at HHN
The Bad: HHN in general, Bill and Ted
The Ugly: The HHN crowds on Saturday the 13th
To begin with HRH was GREAT! We checked in about 4:30pm with the $99 FLA Redisent rate and had no problem. Check-in took less than 5 minutes. We got room 3091 which was on the third floor(same as the lobby). The view was decent and the room was decent size and clean. Housekeeping was great as well as every other employee we encountered. If you have specific questions about the hotel ask away. We really didn't explore it too much as we were at the parks all day, and HHN all night. 2 nights just isn't enough!!
FOTL was also great. At one point on Saturday Hulk and Spidey both had 45 minute waits. Using FOTL we walked right on. Same with MiB and BTTF at USF. THis perk is great, even for Floridians who visit the parks often, and really makes staying onsite worth it.
Before I get bashed let me say this is my fifth year attending HHN. I love this event and look forward to it all year. 1997 and 2000 were the best years I attended. That being said, this year HHN just didn't do much for me. Nothing really original was done, and it really seemed dull compared to 2000. Friday night was fun because the park was nearly empty. We never waited more than 20 minutes for anything and walked right on most attractions/mazes. Saturday was unbearably packed and the crowd seemed rather rowdy and obnoxious. Bill and Ted's was a BIG dissapointment as well. No one in the audience really laughed at all and the show was generally boring. As others have said, it seemed like a rehash of last year. All in all the event was still fun, just not the A+ event it usually is. This year I'd give it a C+.
Here's the attraction rundown:
Scarezones. The scarezones were well done and fun. The Unknown was cool, however Nightmare Alley was probably the best. Having slasher movie villains inhabit an entire scarezone was a great idea. Freddy, Michael Myers, and Pinhead were all present! A-
Boogeymen. How can they call this an attraction. This was nothing more than a BORING infomercial for the Boogeymen DVD. It was held in the MakeUp SHow theater and lasted about 10-12 minutes. F-
The Ooze Zone. This seemed cool enough and there was never really a line to get in. You entered a small haunted maze to start. In the middle underneath Kong was a foam dance party. Then you exited via a medium size maze. The crowd unfortunatly didn't seem into it so it kind of sufferred. C
Pitch Black. This was pretty good. The scareactors had glowing faces and it was generally just pitch black with different walking surfaces and things to feel. Not being able to see anything definatly raised the scare-factor to nothing short of terror. B+
Scary Tales. This one was pretty good as well. Some of the effects and music were pretty neat. Demented Disney characters are cool, enough said!! Watch for Pinochio in this one. A-
Superstitions. This one didn't seem to have a whole lot of theming to me and relied mostly on the Scareactors for thrills. Because of this the experience varied from Friday to Saturday night. Friday the scareactors seemed to be sleeping, Saturday they were really into it. Friday D+ Saturday B
The Mummy. This maze was rather bland, but parts of it were as dark if not darker than Pitch Black. Several times I wound up being seperated from my party and in the process of feeling my way around, I poked many a scareactor. Oops! The parts that were light enough to see were very well themed. B-
RUN. I was really anticipating this one and it was perhaps the only unique thing at this years event. The maze was very bright and loud, with a cool Rob Zombie sountrack.The begining had walls padded with matresses. Scareactors with padding would jump out and seperate people from their group forcing them another way. The middle of the maze was a chainlink fense maze with scareactors with bats and chainsaws. (and other suprise weapons - which I won't ruin the suprise). On the was out there was a neat moving room / strobe effect. The only thing that hurt this maze was the hype. It was very good, just not that amazing. A-
Thats all for now. Ask away if you've got ?'s
Jim