The *OFFICIAL* HHN Review Thread

[donaldduck352]

What was up with Sunday?? That place was packed!!!All the way upto 1PM,it was supposed too close at midnight,but they extended the hour to 1AM...

Seen Akdar,but he must of had 20 CSW surrounding him so never got a chance to say hellow.(Finnegans was packed)!!!

I'll give a summarey on this year event tommorrow..Went twice and diff both times!!

OK DM,how did I miss Ya??

 

[donaldduck352]

One more thing too add,the zombie drill team was AWSOME AND FUNNY AS H***!!!!!!!!

 

[inkkognito]

Do you know what times you've gone through? I'm seeing a lot of posts like this and can't quite figure out why. We really haven't changed out acting style.....

Have there been problems with gaps in personnel? Several times it has seemed like scareactors are missing in a couple of the scenes, particularly the bathroom and the end. I think most of our disappointing visits have been fairly early, i.e. within the first couple hours of opening, although at least once was a little later. We'll definitely be trying again on Weds. and Thurs. because I LOVED LOVED LOVED this house the first couple weeks. It's got everything I like best...darkness, stobes, and quality scares that are even better due to the disorientation.

 

[the Dark Marauder]

What was up with Sunday?? That place was packed!!!All the way upto 1PM,it was supposed too close at midnight,but they extended the hour to 1AM...

Seen Akdar,but he must of had 20 CSW surrounding him so never got a chance to say hellow.(Finnegans was packed)!!!

I'll give a summarey on this year event tommorrow..Went twice and diff both times!!

OK DM,how did I miss Ya??

I used the shadows as my cover and traveled stealthily.

That, and the fact that it was obscenely crowded.

 

[geeksbsmrt]

Have there been problems with gaps in personnel? Several times it has seemed like scareactors are missing in a couple of the scenes, particularly the bathroom and the end. I think most of our disappointing visits have been fairly early, i.e. within the first couple hours of opening, although at least once was a little later. We'll definitely be trying again on Weds. and Thurs. because I LOVED LOVED LOVED this house the first couple weeks. It's got everything I like best...darkness, stobes, and quality scares that are even better due to the disorientation.

Yes, there are sometimes gaps depending on the times that you go through. If there is a cast change happening the house can seem empty. Anyways, my cast is on set from 6:30-7:15, 8:00-8:45, 9:30-10:15, and 11:00-11:30. I would recommend not coming through during the first set. Let me know what you plan on wearing and Ill look out for you Also, don't come through 5 minutes before or after the end of a set. You will catch a change if you do.

 

[inkkognito]

I will probably have my white shirt with a place drawing of Elvis that says "I'm dead." in pink on the bottom, although it may be covered with a sweatshirt or jacket. The set change may be the problem, as twice when we had "flat" experiences we saw the scareactors heading out a few minutes beforehand. I'll try to time it in the middle of a set today. We'll be there four more days since they just added the last two to Frequent Fear, so with any luck I'll catch a couple more good times in DE.

 

[donaldduck352]

My opinion of this years HHN:

First off we did the RIP tour on the 10th of October with the dis crew..Great time!!

Then we went back the 26th,extremly busy for a Sunday.Did the stay and scraem but had no EP's they were sold out weeks ago!!But we hit 4 houses in a hour!!Then the waite in line started..

Now this will not be in any particular order:

Creaturesn the tour I thoght it was pretty lame--On Sunday it was the 1st house we hit.No lack of scareactors,got a couple of really good scares!!

Body Collectors:Liked it on the tour and liked it on Sunday!!

Interstellar Terror:On the tour it was pretty good-on Sunday it got better.We did it twice once at 6;30 and then at 12:30,both times the scareactors were hitting there ques!!Espiacally the captain..That tunnel got me evrytime..

Doomsday:thought it was laid out good but lack of scares during the tour-but on Sunday the scareactors were very very good.I have never been scared by a chainsaw before but that dude at the end scared the H** out of me.They were 2 cops and 1 security standing about 20ft away when he got me and they were laughing so hard at me..

Reflections of Fear:A really good house both times with plenty of Mary's but way to short..

Dead Exposure:Loved the house both times,the strobes and all one of my favs this year!!

The Hallow:Very well done house.The scareactors were right on in this house evrytime we did it!!

Scary Tales:Got to say it was on my top 3 this year..The Tin Man got me wet everytime!!

So to me It goes (1the best--8 my least fav)

1)Body Collectors cause of the set layout
2)Dead Exposure cause of the strobes and the zombies at the end
3)Scary Tales cause I just loved the way it was put together
4)The Hallow another one that I loved cause the way they pulled all together
5)Interstellar Terror another house that was put together very well-the captain-and that tunnel
6)Doomsday Really never got it,but got the best scare out of me on Sunday handsdown
7)Creatures nice set not that many scares and were was all the creatures
8)Reflections of Fear this house could of been a whole lot better if it was LONGER

Scarezones to me were awesome.The worm was funny as heck,the zombie drill team was crazy.I hope next year they have them again,and keep all the scarezones!!!!With diff themes of coarse!!

Bill & Teds was OK,last year was funnier,but it had its moments!!!

All in all I thought it was a pretty good year.I'm already thinking abuot next years!!
Hats off to all the scareactors this year.Ya'LL did a great job.I will be getting a CSW shirt next year!!

And one more thank you to Bailey in guest services,you made our night man!!!!

 

[Jason71]

Went last night (Wednesday) with the intention of seeing my top 3 (Scary Tales, Hallow, Dead Exposure) one last time. Yes, FFP has been extended, but I already have plans and can't make it over again.

Did the IOA thing, crossed over around 5:45. Done with ALL EIGHT houses by 7:45!

Actually walked through the entire line and house at Scary Tales without seeing a single other person...very creepy. Later, even the caterpillar in "Asylum in Wonderland" was commenting on the light crowds. Making a mental note for next year.

 

[inkkognito]

We were amazed at the light crowds too. Did S&S at Finnegans, then did the soundstages houses till the others opened. I never saw a posted time over 30 mins. and most were much less. Sadly, Dead Exposure and Hallow were the two that were up around the 20-30 mark...not that that's unreasonbly long, but when people are liquored up they apparently can't stand more than 10 mins. without lighting up and we're going with EPs today so I figured I wouldn't bother to deal with that. We did get into DE once but missed the Hallow (we didn't want to do it early when the line was shorter because the daylight really ruins the last scene), but we did all the others and some more than once and we were outta there by 9.

They released Stay & Scream way late...of course "late" is a relative term, but we've usually been out before 6 and this time it was well after. By the time they let us out, it looked like the front gate people were coming in. We still had some good sound stage house time tho'.

They got me good in Creatures twice because they added a scareactor at one point and I kept forgetting that and being distracted by the one who is always there, and the other would jump in for the kill. Doomsday was in fine form too, with some good chainsaw scares. I always like Body Collectors and Scary Tales...Mary wasn't too bad either, Dead Exposure was a bit better than it has been although not quite up to its great beginning-season status, and Interstellar Terror still didn't really do anything for me.

I had scareactors all over me in the zones, maybe because of the light crowds. In the past, I've been real meh on American Gothic, but last night I didn't think I was going to get out of there alive! I always seem to attract 'em in Streets of Blood, and I was accosted by a stilt walker on Path of the Wicked (stilt walkers always seem to go for me and I've had an aversion to them ever since one snuck up on me and just about made me wet my pants outside the Mummy years ago).

We didn't stay late because we plan to go tonight (with EP), Fri. and Sat. so we didn't want to abuse our feet too badly. On the way out, we stopped and had a nice dinner at Bubba Gumps before picking up the car at valet. I have never seen that so dead either. Usually there are at least a couple other people in line, and I always get the ones behind us a freebie with my Premier Pass (DH uses his for our car). This time I didn't think that was gonna happen because no one else showed up in the whole time it took him to pay and for our car to come, which took forever. Finally another party appeared just before our car arrived.

I wonder if it will be so dead again tonight...we'll see. It really surprised me that they added both Fri. and Sat. to Frequent Fear. I wonder if they're expecting the light crowds to continue or if the bean counters were just feeling generous.

 

[inkkognito]

Just got back from HHN, and even though this was our 10th time going this year, tonight was the absolute best! The houses were right on the mark with quality scares at every turn, and the scare zones were awesome too. It's like the planets were aligned perfectly for a prime HHN experience.

We did Stay & Scream as usual and they let us out pretty early so we got a lot done before the crowds descended. Once the lines started getting bad, we switched over to EP. We did every house twice except one on Interstellar Terror and three on Mary, Creatures, and Dead Exposure.

The first two times through Creatures were unbelievably awesome. It hasn't been impressive for the last few visits, but tonight it rocketed back up in my estimation. Doomsday, which had already become a favorite over the past few visits, was over the top tonight. I got triple teamed by a trio of scareactors while hubby was busting a gut. Dead Exposure was closer to its original level of greatness too. Scary Tales and Body Collectors are always good...Hallow wasn't bad (I had one REALLY good scare in there). Interstellar was the only one that didn't wow me, but that's usual.

As for scare zones, one of the zombies by Dead Exposure chased me all over the place! I thought she would never stop! Hubby totally lost track of me as I ran for my life, and I finally lost her near the MiB store. The people watching thought it was a riot. Streets of Blood was good as usual, and American Gothic was great. Earlier in the season that one was so blah for me, but the last two nights I've been scareactor fodder.

I'm glad we still have two more days of Frequent Fear, but even if this had been the last night, at least it would have ended with a bang. It wasn't as crowded as last Sun. but by the time we left it was getting pretty darned packed with some of the lines going from 45 to 75 mins. (although some were still shorter).

 

[geeksbsmrt]

inkkognito, Im glad you enjoyed your night. Im also happy to hear that DE's performance has come back up. Hopefully we will see you again sometime this weekend

 

[inkkognito]

We plan to be there both tonight and Sat. although it's gonna be hard to beat last night. Between the triple-teaming in Doomsday and the chasing zombie, anything else will seem tame! We're thinking about trying to Fievel waiting pen tonight and doing Scary Tales first, although Creatures was so good early on yesterday that we might end up changing our minds. I'm sad that there are only two more days to go. We also saw Dark Marauder last night but we haven't seen any other DISers in a while.

 

[macraven]

i totally enjoyed the 4 nights i was at hhn.

wishing i could be there for the ending nights......

 

[Dax]

For those who might be interested on an opinion of the "other" halloween event..

Here

My full report from 10/30

 

[macraven]

I go to HHN yearly.

The only way I could do HOS, which I would love to do someday, is to hook up with someone that has a car.

I don't know the area and not sure about driving by myself down to the Tampa area.

Thanks for your review.
Sounds like you had fun.

 

[Metro West]

For those who might be interested on an opinion of the "other" halloween event..

Here

My full report from 10/30

I want to check out HOS next year.

 

[Dax]

I go to HHN yearly.

The only way I could do HOS, which I would love to do someday, is to hook up with someone that has a car.

I don't know the area and not sure about driving by myself down to the Tampa area.

Thanks for your review.
Sounds like you had fun.

Getting to Busch is actually VERY easy...just a short drive down I-4, to I-75, then follow the signs...

 

[macraven]

Getting to Busch is actually VERY easy...just a short drive down I-4, to I-75, then follow the signs...

i use car service when i fly into orlando.
i use it also for going to disney for a stay and then on to universal to stay there.

i just don't drive when i am on vacation.
i used to but prefer letting someone else do the driving.

when i said about driving at night, i meant by being the navigator if i hooked up with someone that had a car.

i drive everyday of my life when i am back home.
vacation time to me means no driving..

some of the csw homies go down as a group to HOS. some year when our schedules coincide, i'll try to hook up with one of them.

 

[inkkognito]

Just back from Halloween night HHN, and it was unbelievably dead! There were lots of people heading over when we left around 9:30 so maybe it picked up, but waits were pretty much non-existent for the first three hours.

We tried the kiddie area stay and scream and did Scary Tales first. I liked the area because it was spread out more, i.e. easier to stay away from smokers so I wasn't horking my lungs out before we even got going. People started lining up for ST early so we joined 'em. It opened before 6 so we got it in twice, then switched over to the Hallow. By the the park was open so we did some power housin We probably did a total of 20 houses with little or no waits (obviously we went through our favorites multiple times). Hubby got the heck scared out of him at the end of Doomsday, which was in fine form. We discovered that it's definitely A team that we prefer in Creatures, although both are good. We did all the rest too except for Interstellar, which actually had a line (Hallow got one too so we only did that one once). We finally had to leave because we wanted to save some stamina for tomorrow, so we had a late dinner at BJ's Brewhouse at the Loop (note to locals: GREAT place for beer).

We did see one poor freaking-out kid hauled out of one house by Security. In my profession I'm a mandated reporter for child abuse, and I always have fantasies of impounding the poor kid on the spot (or better yet, slapping the snot out of the parents). As the weeks have gone on, I'm noticed more and more very little ones being brought in vs. the earlier weeks.

I was truly in awe of the lack of crowds. I would have been royally pissed if I'd purchased the $70 EP but thankfully we didn't. We had an absolute blast and went through the scare zones a few times too. The same zombie that was after me last night must have remembered me because she tried to chase me down today. Streets of Blood and American Gothic were both great too, and I said "Bloody Mary" to the mirror guys who I've thought all this time were aliens so I could see Mary in the mirror. VERY cool! I don't think people even realize what they do.

I scared someone down by valet. As usual I offered my freebie to the people behind us, and I truly think they thought I was trying to car jack them or something. I couldn't convince them that there were no strings attached and that handing me their slip wouldn't give me automatic ownership of their car. Oh well, the next people were more than happy to accept!

It was a great night, although I suspect that the crowd did grow. Since tomorrow is a Sat. it will be interesting to see if a lot of people extend their holiday weekend or if they stay away because the 31st is over.

 

[Metro West]

It was a great night, although I suspect that the crowd did grow. Since tomorrow is a Sat. it will be interesting to see if a lot of people extend their holiday weekend or if they stay away because the 31st is over.

That wasn't the case last year...LOTS of people on 11/1.