Friday, October 14 Part 2 Halloween Horror Night. AKA I think I peed my pants a little.
HHN was a new experience for me. DD went a couple of times before but 7 had not. Did not know what to expect but I knew I would not be bothered if I followed two teenage girls. My thought process was the scarers thought process would be, Do I jump out at this guy or do I scare the pants off of the two girls in front of him. If you want to be scared dont bring two teenage girls with you. If you want to laugh your butt off bring them.
The trip over was uneventful. I-4 was moving at a good pace. We left a little later than I hoped but I am used to a teenaged girl (let alone two) taking their time to get ready. Pulled into the parking lot and was told to go to the left where the handicapped parking was. I use the permit when a lot of walking is involved because my feet are still messed up a bit and it sometimes is painful to walk. No big deal and better than a lot of people.
Parked here
We of course could go left or right and picked right. Didnt know we were going the wrong way until we saw the Come back soon sign. Course corrected, we entered the park before seven and it was still daylight. The mayhem started right away.
First screams of many screams are here. Noticed how they are stuck together like Siamese twins? This was the norm throughout the park.
Of all the people walking around (including me) who does the chainsaw guy go after? You guessed it. The people on the sidewalk seemed to be enjoying themselves watching the girls chased by a maniac with a chainsaw. I know I was.
Not being chainsawed now. What is up with bending the leg? Who do you think you are, pin up girls? Happened in many of their poses.
Our goal was to head to as many houses as possible and then go through the scare zones. I listened to the Dis podcast and had some favorites picked out and the girls gathered intelligence from friends that went this year. I wont go into the statistics on number of houses/scare zones, theming, etc. but rather what we experienced. I will say that the overall theme is Lady Luck who entices you into blood and mayhem. Comments on that later in the post.
So we head to the left and notice all the barriers set up for a line into the Winters Night house with no one standing in them. Thought about getting a fast pass thing for the event that was until I looked at the price. Glad I didnt.
As we headed to the house, DD noticed that Rip Ride Rocket was running. Universal also had a few rides open. Since we are both going to the Disapalooza Harry Potter event, we didnt go there. Saving our first time for then. Besides, HHN was the main focus. The wait for Rip was listed at 45 minutes which from what I heard, this was a shorter than normal wait. Left the decision up to the kids and they decided to ride this first.
Let me start by saying I am a coaster Junkie. I love them. Not a big fan of inversions but point me to a coaster and I am on it. DD inherited that gene from me. When I lived in New York and she spent the summers with me we would hit parks in the area. The Cyclone at Coney Island, Six Flags New Jersey, Bush Gardens Williamsburg and Hershey Park were all visited. I am getting to the point that I can only take a ride or two at a time but DD can (and does) ride over and over again.
Having said that, this one was a bear. Very cool ride and any coaster fanatic should ride it. So the three of us try to enter the line. A staff person (dont remember what they call their employees) stops me and tells me I need to put my bag in the locker. Forgot about that procedure. Bags and other stuff taken care of we walk through the line. Not very impressed with the theming but then again nobody does it like Disney.
We are strapped in and ready to go. The girls of course were together and I was seated next to a nice woman whose kids were just in front of us. She was concerned her daughter would lose her glasses. We leave the staging area and I think I have a few seconds to psyche myself up for the ride. NOT HERE. Moments after you leave, you are off at warp speed. The first drop is intense. I could have sworn we were going at more than a 90 degree angle. Very cool. Many twists, turns, inversions and drops later we were back at the station. All I could say was WOW. That and I had to go back to find where I lost my stomach. I knew it was somewhere on the track. The kids loved it. DD still has R&R coaster ahead of this. Not me. I think this is the number 1 coaster in Florida.
My camera has a video mode which I use primarily underwater. Just started playing with it on land and I have a tendency to stop filming way too soon. It is a great camera but the videos can come out grainy in low light. Another thing I need to work on. Did not take a ton of stills but have a few videos to spread around the report. Here is a one as a group of screaming people fly by on Rip Ride. As you can see, it is getting darker outside.
http://youtu.be/vfFfEVbQJuY
From there we got into the line for Winters Night. This is the first time in the history of the event where a cemetery is the focus of a house. You would think that it is the perfect genre for a haunted house but until now, Universal resisted. So far that night, they only encountered one chainsaw guy so I didnt know how they were really going to react. Well, after this I knew. They entered confidently (maybe false bravado) and were immediately scared out of their wits. Their screams were ear piercing and when spooked, they backed up into me. At first I was right behind them but after my toes kept getting stepped on I stayed a few feet behind them.
Of course their screams let the scarers ahead of them know they were coming. They were ready. I am sure they made the spookers (spookers is the best I could come up with, sorry.) night. I let them go ahead and they acted as a trip wire provoking scares and more screams as I watched behind them laughing all the way. No one bothered me because they were too busy scaring the girls. When we got out, I looked at them and asked if they were faking it and their answer is, Are you kidding? I think I peed my pants,
From there we went into one of the scare zones. Here is another short video of them. It is dark and I cut it off early to get a still. Wish I could do it again and kept the film rolling.
http://youtu.be/F3NNtmv9CqQ
That was them backing up 20 feet. Anyway, here is the pic I took when I should have been videoing. Im behind them and as they were running back, they ran into me me. You may have heard the OW, Girl exclamation right when the camera moved.
Another guy was threatening them while the guy in the wheelchair blindsided them and chased them back another 20 feet. It took them about 15 minutes to go the block. A few feet forward and 20 feet back. Too funny.
The next Haunted Mansion was Nightingales. The setting was the trenches during WWI. This was my favorite. They did a great job of theming here. You walked through this 10 foot high trench past the fighting and guns going off, a wounded soldier warning you to go back. All the while people are jumping out to scare you. You also enter a hospital where the wounded (some legless) reached out to grab you. The kids did not disappoint. One chainsaw chased them in the room a bit. Quite funny.
From there we did Saws and Screams Machine. In this one machines run on water and the people entering are fuel for the water content of their body. Each room is separated by plastic strips hanging from the doorway. By now, they no longer bravely went through them but slightly parted them to see if they could see what was on the other side before first entering. Didnt work. Theming was pretty lame but maybe because I was watching the girls scream and making sure my feet were not trodden on. I felt Winters Night and this were about the same; scary scenes, scary people but with different theming. Not much theming but different. This time a chainsaw near the end of the house chased them out into the open area. More fun for me.
Not much of a wait for the houses
One of the two shows was about to start, Bill and Teds Excellent Halloween Adventure (or something like that). We got there just as it started and were seated at the top near the exit. All I can say is thank god we were near the exit. How do I put this? It was terrible? No, thats not strong enough. The worst ever? Maybe, there might be other stage shows out there that are worse. I just havent seen them. Maybe the Stitch thing they tried to pull off at the MK that lasted a week. But again, I never saw it. I was ready to go after the first couple of minutes but the kids did not. So I suffered. And suffered. And suffered. When we got out I shared my thoughts and they came back that it was pop culture, you just didnt get it. Well, I am hip (or whatever the equivalent slang is now for hip), I got it. It just wasnt funny. At all. Came back to them and noted they didnt laugh either. That stopped any further retorts. This was just plain bad. Not humorous at all.
A Parental Note: This show has a lot of profane language. It is not for kids. I saw one guy get up with his two tween daughters and left. Also a comment in general for HHN. It is not for the younger set. If you dont want to permanently scar your younger kids for life, dont take them here. It is at times intense and a little risqué.
Anyway, I think 30 - 40 minutes was the most we waited for any of the houses. Our plan worked out well. After arriving early, we did the houses first starting with the front ones and working our way back. Another favorite (and my last) was Nevermore. The girls were excited because they studied the Raven for school a couple of years ago.
I told you earlier the patch would come into play during the night. Here is where we encountered a dork that saw DD and decided to make pirate jokes every time we passed at the lines switchback. He was with a bunch of friends and thought he was as funny as Bill and Ted. As bad as they were, he was an amateur by comparison. Remember she has heard every pirate joke in the book. When we passed them the second time and he said something, I gave him the glare and asked the Pirate/Princess if she wanted me to shut him up. I told her I would be glad to do it. Her response, No dad, I got this. The next time they passed us she leaned over and said something to him that I didnt hear. All I saw was his friends laughing at him. The next time we passed he tried a half hearted effort to redeem himself and she leaned in again and said something that made his friends laugh even harder. He was quiet the rest of the wait. The girl can handle herself. Makes a dad proud.
Back to Poe. All I can say is that he got angrier and crazier as you went through it. More screams, more stepping on my toes, and possibly more pants peeing. As we exited, DD got a call from a friend and former school mate or hers and 7 that was also in the park that night. They were going on the Simpsons and the girls hustled over there to meet them.
By then I was done for the night so relaxed waiting for them to get off the ride. Ran into another one of the nurses that were spread throughout the parks hawking blood red jello shots. I did not partake.
After the kids got off the ride they decided to go to The In Between House. This is the one where you put on 3D glasses. At the end there is a barrel ride that gives the illusion it is rolling around. DD said that was very disorienting and fun. More screams were involved and their friend also asked them if they were faking it. By then I knew they were not.
Here is a pic of all of them
They got there late and that was only their second house visited. It was after 1:00 and the three of us were ready to leave. So we headed out.
This was cool signage
On the way out we hit the last scare zone. This was Lady Lucks alley. Kind of lame but the girls made it fun. Here is a very dark video. Not dark as in film noir but dark as in lighting. You may not see much of them but you can hear them. After the chainsaw guy, they ran through this one.
http://youtu.be/Z-jDIF1Qonc
Said goodbye to their friend and we were out of there. As we exited the park, they were asked to do a survey which they completed together.
You can see they survived
Heading out
They think they are adults but they are still little girls at times
Got to the car with hopes that DD would drive but she whined so I relented. After all, I only drove all the way up there. They were beat though. As soon as I started the car, they were out. Made it to Music without incident except I couldnt find the building at first. A few bad turns later we were at the room. They barely woke up to make it back to the room and then they were out for the count. I stayed up a bit to relax a little.
Final thoughts: First time for HHN. I was good but it was even better because of the girls. It was a hoot (can I say hoot) following them around. I am not a big get me scared person so without them it would be a waste of money. They LOVED it. They burned a lot of calories getting scared because the adrenaline was pumping. They both said when they left they were sweating. By the time it was over, they were exhausted. As I said, they loved it. So did I.
All in all a good day. Got up here on time and without incident, room check-in was smooth and we enjoyed HHN. Tomorrow was supposed to be a park day but for reasons I will explain in the next installment, it didnt happen.
Up next: Saturday, October 14 Part 1 GF visits the GF. AKA should my pinky be out?
A surprise cj9200 trip report!! 
can't believe you went to the place we will not mention on these sacred boards! 
Can't wait to read more!!
Me too... can't get enough!
