Ok so we got back last night ( went saturday 10/26 ) and some observations, the early access ticket allows you in at 3 pm, not 2:45, not 2:50 not 2:59 but 3 PM ONLY!
We saw the line begin to get long at around 2:30 and asking a TM were told no early access was allowed any time before 3 pm, they aren't even allowed to scan before then, so we kind of hung out in the ticketing area until 3 pm ( ok we got in line around 2:55 and by the time we got close it was already after 3 pm )
We feel the early access for an extra $25 is sooooo worth the extra $$$$$!
When we got in we went and walked around, did the horror make up show, took photos and just kind of took in the atmosphre of the HHN excitement.
Talking to one of the TM at Finnegins we were told that strategically if we were looking for quanitity our best bet would be to wait in the Springfield holding area, which we did.
We hung out at Springfield and had some of the Bumblebee Man tacos ( the carne asada ones were the bomb ) and had some beer while waiting.
Once 5 pm hit they removed the barricades from either end of the walkway and we made our way towards the back gate by the restrooms to make our way to Universal Monsters area.
The TM in charge of letting everyone out had said they were ready a little bit early and removed the barricade around 5:38, we made our way into Universal Monsters and did that one, Depths OF Fear, and went to Killer Klowns all 3 houses BEFORE the official opening , we did all houses EXCEPT for Us, Stranger Things and Ghostbusters.
The TM at Finnigens said right off the bat there is already going to be a long line to get into ST due to the popularity of the 3 houses concentrated in that area, if we wanted to go through the most houses we should start at the back and make our way front.
We went through our 7th house by 8:00, by that time we were beat from all of the walking so we kind of just hung out ( the twisted tater was actually really good ) and went through the scare zones on our way out .
All in all not a bad year for HHN but i feel like they maybe held back possibly due to next year being the 30th anniversary , the vibe of this year didn't feel as gory or scary as in years past, i have read some people saying it wasn't as gory or scary and i see it now , IDK if it's because of next year or if it was on purpose because of guest feedback?
The crowds were huge though at last check ST wait time was 120 minutes by the time we left .
Other than the heavy downpour at around 5:20 things went surprisingly well.