Just back: HHN and HRH

[jtopicz1]

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

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

jim will you be meeting us this weekend? 10-20

 

[hhnfreak]

Hey, not to bash you, but HHN on Sat. nights are busiest and the crowd's a little more jovial, if you have attended HHN for awhile this should be a given. What 'Bill and Ted' show did you attend. Almost every show I've been to this year gets great reception and a standing ovation at the end. It's unfair of you to compare the show over the last several years, each show is a different product, and for those who've never seen the show, they absolutely love it. Glad you enjoyed the HRH and the 'express queue access'. I wish peeps would get this FOTL out of their heads, as I've said before and will repeat again, the only one who gets true 'Front of the Line Access' is the VIP Tour guest, and certain physically handicapped guests, peeps with doctors notes on claustrophobia. Unfortunatly someone in Universal's marketing dept. came up with this misnomer which hasn't been marketed for over a year. Resort hotel guests were once promised 'VIP Front of the line access!' Well, when no one was booking VIP Tours anymore and they started to lose lots of cash they had to change their strategy. Resort hotel guest have 'express access' only, when in operation. Universal resort hotel guests do not get 'express access' when the program is not in use; during slow season, or special events like Halloween Horror Nights. Your express wait can be approx. 15 min. or I've seen longer sometimes at Spiderman at peak times. In the fine print you'll see all this explained when you check in. Rarely, but sometimes the 'express access' at venues will close for short periods because of capacity!
Sorry, didn't mean to write a book......but hopefully I've covered everything there is to know about 'express access' for Universal Resort Hotel guest. Don't even get me started on 'express access for non Resort Hotel guests. That's another book!

 

[grumbada]

Jtopicz1, thanks for the post! I'd been wonderin' about what to expect from Run... Scary-tales sounds like something we just can't miss....
Busy or no, expedited line or no, hubby and I will be there and will be on a mission to have a great time and enjoy whatever they have to offer!
Once again, any cool/cheap souveniers?

hhnfreak said:
"I wish peeps would get this FOTL out of their heads, as I've said before and will repeat again, the only one who gets true 'Front of the Line Access' is the VIP Tour guest, and certain physically handicapped guests, peeps with doctors notes on claustrophobia. Unfortunatly someone in Universal's marketing dept. came up with this misnomer which hasn't been marketed for over a year."

I'm not expecting any FOTL or Express Line access or anything for HHN... But I do want to let you know that a few weeks ago, I received a Universal advert. brochure card from the company that dispurses the Orlando Magicard. The card DID say that with an overnight stay at a Universal Resort Hotel.. that you would receive FOTL Access to many rides in IoA and USF.... But if you look closely at the fine print on the ad card, you will see that it was printed several years ago.... SO!... I just thought I'd point out some of the fuel that's adding to the mass confusion...

Believe me, I DO know to expect to wait, even if we're staying at the HRH... Anything good is worth a little suspense!... I just cringe at the thought that one day... so many people will be in the "Express Line" that the shorter wait will be the regular one"...

 

[hhnfreak]

Hey Grumbada, thanks again for pointing out that once you put something 'out there' it'll almost never go away, and continue to haunt you. I wish the Uni marketing folks would think before they act, actually most of 'them' probably got canned a few years back when Uni layed off most of their marketing folks in 99' and 00'. I am glad you are smart enough to read the fine print, accolades to you!

 

[DocBosch]

Thanks for the run through Jim.

Stange enough, from your descriptiion, this years HHN seems great. And I'm a five or so year veteran.

I didn't enjoy last year as much as I wished to, but it might have been because it wasn't a peak night. The crowds do make the difference, in both senses.

All the mazes you described, except for The Mummy (I already did a Mummy maze at Uni Hollywood), sounded great. Run seems great, and I havn't been affected by the "hype", o I'll probably enjoy it. And the fact that there are new scare zones through out the park exites me. I could care less about Boogeymen, now that you said it was more like a commercial. Just something else to thin out the crowds.

Is the Ooz Zone the same thing as last years maze in the Kong building? Even though walking through the streets of Kongroftation New York was cool, the haunted maze it self did nothing for me.

I just ordered my tickets for Saturday the 27th (I know, I know, suicide,... but thats the only day the person im going with could go,.. and get this,.. we're leaving early too. Akk!)

Thanks again.

 

[elinore]

I was also at HRH last weekend. We went to HHN on Friday and Saturday as well. This is our fourth year and I must say that Saturday night's crowd was the worst I've ever seen. I was at HHN last year on the Saturday before Halloween and it wasn't as crowded as it was last Sat. I noticed there were some school groups at the park, I'm sure that added to the crowds.

My daughter had her face painted and my husband had a fake gunshot painted on his forehead. I know, wierd family.

I enjoyed Bill and Ted. Everyone in our party thought it was great.

We did most of the houses and shows on Friday because the crowds weren't bad at all that night.

All in all it was a GREAT trip.