Official 2022 HHN 31 - Horror is Universal

[Jangles]

If you are not trying to get in all the houses your plan is fine.
Be aware that the lines to enter at the ticket gates are really long to start. Are you staying on site by chance? There is a Universal resort guest line that should be shorter. We are always already in so I've never tried it myself.
I would personally do Stay and Scream just to avoid the long entry or wait to enter. I hate those long lines though. I once had to enter with a local guest and wow, it was a nightmare. Never again. We meet inside now.

Can I enter with an AP before 5pm and then linger until an RIP tour at 6.30?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Yeah - I think it has just become too popular - I can remember times of doing 3 or 4 houses by 6:30 when I did stay and scream - now I buy the EP and go in late

I really hope this is not the norm.

Have you done Holiday weekend before? A sold out Holiday weekend at that? I'm sure between Holiday weekend, sold out, and pent up demand from International guests, you hit a trifecta for a pretty heavy wait time. Probably too soon to tell if that's going to be typical waits or not, do you think?

Yep. I sincerely hope this won't be typical of the event but we'll see.

Can I enter with an AP before 5pm and then linger until an RIP tour at 6.30?

Yes. You'll just need to hang out in a stay and scream area until they let you free around 5:30.

 

[Ghostface]

If you are not trying to get in all the houses your plan is fine.
Be aware that the lines to enter at the ticket gates are really long to start. Are you staying on site by chance? There is a Universal resort guest line that should be shorter. We are always already in so I've never tried it myself.
I would personally do Stay and Scream just to avoid the long entry or wait to enter. I hate those long lines though. I once had to enter with a local guest and wow, it was a nightmare. Never again. We meet inside now.

Yes, we are staying at RPR so we planned on using the resort guest line if it's not too hard to find. If not, we were planning on waiting until the initial rush went through at gate opening. Does that still sound okay? Having not been before, I'm not sure if what I'm planning is reasonable or not, so I appreciate all the help I can get!

 

[schumigirl]

Yes, we are staying at RPR so we planned on using the resort guest line if it's not too hard to find. If not, we were planning on waiting until the initial rush went through at gate opening. Does that still sound okay? Having not been before, I'm not sure if what I'm planning is reasonable or not, so I appreciate all the help I can get!

Can anyone tell me if this sounds like a bad plan? We are first timers to HHN(and Universal for that matter, so I think that's another reason we want to make sure our plan sounds okay) and have tickets and express passes for this Sunday. We plan on having a pool/lazy day and then heading over for HHN, but we really don't have any interest in doing stay and scream. Since we have express should we be okay with not lining up early for the houses? We won't be upset if we don't get to all of them anyway. Our main goal is three houses we have at the top of our list and then all of the scare zones and shows. We are thinking with express passes this should be okay and we might even have time for a few more houses if we don't get too wiped out from everything before then. Basically, we are looking to get a good taste of the atmosphere and not trying to rush to get everything done in one night, but we are worried that maybe we are approaching this in the wrong way since we've never been before.

Yes, we are staying at RPR so we planned on using the resort guest line if it's not too hard to find. If not, we were planning on waiting until the initial rush went through at gate opening. Does that still sound okay? Having not been before, I'm not sure if what I'm planning is reasonable or not, so I appreciate all the help I can get!

Ghostface, both Friday and Saturday we went in after the main crowd, Friday we didn’t go in till around 8pm, Saturday at 7 and we have rush of fear with EP ticket. We never do the holding areas anymore, so similar to what you plan.

Friday we did 5 houses, 3 scare zones and had a snack all in 3 hours, taking our time. Jet lag was the reason we left.

Similar hours on Saturday, just left earlier due to jet lag still biting.

I think your plan with not going in with the initial rush is a good one, if you stayed longer you’d get most done with EP and be able to do the scare zones too, it’ll be a long night but it’s workable. Relaxing during the day sounds like a plan too.

We haven’t managed the shows yet, but plan to do them this coming weekend.

Good luck, might see you in the crowds……..lol…….

 

[Ghostface]

Ghostface, both Friday and Saturday we went in after the main crowd, Friday we didn’t go in till around 8pm, Saturday at 7 and we have rush of fear with EP ticket. We never do the holding areas anymore, so similar to what you plan.

Friday we did 5 houses, 3 scare zones and had a snack all in 3 hours, taking our time. Jet lag was the reason we left.

Similar hours on Saturday, just left earlier due to jet lag still biting.

I think your plan with not going in with the initial rush is a good one, if you stayed longer you’d get most done with EP and be able to do the scare zones too, it’ll be a long night but it’s workable. Relaxing during the day sounds like a plan too.

We haven’t managed the shows yet, but plan to do them this coming weekend.

Good luck, might see you in the crowds……..lol…….

Thank you so much! And while I'm here lol..thank you so much for all your wonderful trip reports. I've been browsing this board since the first of the year trying to prepare for this trip and your reports have been an integral part of my "research." Many thanks for all the work you put into them!

 

[Monykalyn]

Yes, we are staying at RPR so we planned on using the resort guest line if it's not too hard to find. If not, we were planning on waiting until the initial rush went through at gate opening. Does that still sound okay? Having not been before, I'm not sure if what I'm planning is reasonable or not, so I appreciate all the help I can get!

Yep definitely save those feets! Plan to eat and hydrate before hand as well, even if you want to try snacks-lines can be very long so you may be waiting for longer than you thought to eat or not at all if line too long. Bring an empty water flask too so you can fill up inside the park (on HHN nights you can't bring in open bottles of any kind).
See ya'll in the fog tomorrow!

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Interesting to see everyone’s opinions and experiences. Although I know it’s not always possible (especially in one night), but repeat walkthroughs can really show how different the experience can be depending on the scares and timing. After last night, Monsters went way up for us as the scares didn’t stop after a lackluster first run. Weeknd went down a bit for the opposite reason. Chupacabra and Descendants were better as well. We probably did Bugs and Dead Mans Pier the most, and they were consistent in their delivery overall (although one particular scene in Bugs was noticeably missing the actor on 2 of 3 walkthroughs). We’d heard Coven got extra scareactors after opening night and was better - but we saw no difference last night.

This is how I felt about Hill House last year. The first time I went through I saw barely any scare actors. I think the third time, the tall man got me every single time and it was awesome.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Yep definitely save those feets! Plan to eat and hydrate before hand as well, even if you want to try snacks-lines can be very long so you may be waiting for longer than you thought to eat or not at all if line too long. Bring an empty water flask too so you can fill up inside the park (on HHN nights you can't bring in open bottles of any kind).
See ya'll in the fog tomorrow!

I thought they had their refillable cups you can bring back. No?

 

[djmeredith]

About Legends Collide:

Spoiler: Spoiler

I believe the reason why Orlando’s version is heavy on The Mummy is because it’s part of a 2 part story.

This explains some of my confusion.

I really have no interest in this one either - but everyone seems to be very positive on it - but I guess you need to watch the videos for it all to make sense

I had not seen the videos and I thought it made sense if you know the general theme.

I thought they had their refillable cups you can bring back. No?

Yes, you can use your refillable cups at HHN.

 

[djmeredith]

This is a mini trip report of our first full night report - no spoilers. This was our second night - 9/4 (Sunday of opening/Labor Day weekend). It was the first full night for us, and it did not start out like I had planned. I appreciated @OhioStateBuckeye giving a report as a veteran because our stay and scream experience was not at all what I was expecting because the times jumped so quickly. Our plan was to do Monsters and then Weeknd with low waits and then maybe even get in 1 or 2 more while times were short. That definitely did not happen because times jumped fast.

As i posted earlier, we chose to get in the Central Park SS area and chose the Monsters line instead of Weeknd because it was shorter. I am not positive, but I think there was a very large number of people in that line. They walked that line back to the switchback waiting area around 5:15 and then a new line formed in Central Park. I left my nephews in line and walked over to Springfield food court to get a refill. The food lines were short and there were very few people waiting in there. The drink/refill line had a little bit of a line, but not too bad.

Right around 5:45 they started walking us back. The reports about long walks to/from the houses still did not prepare me for how long some of them are. We did Monsters with about a 5 minute wait. Our plan was to do Monsters and then Weeknd with low wait times and then go back and do them again with our EPs. That didn't happen because Weeknd was already at 50 minutes when we got out of Monsters. It probably opened at 50 minutes based on what we saw of the line. Halloween was another one we hoped to do with a short wait, but it was also a long wait right away.

Bugs was only a 5 minute wait so we headed there. Standby was more like 15 minutes. We did MIB while it stormed. Then we did Descendants using our EP. It was basically a walk on. We all liked it, great theming. It was still early so we took a break that lasted about 45 minutes (well, my nephews rested while I stood in the ridiculously slow pizza fries line for 30 minutes). We did the Weeknd when it said Standby was 50 and EP took about 10 mins. We all liked it. We had dinner at Mel's, rode Transformers with no wait and then did Blumhouse for the second time. Standby said 50 mins and EP took 45-50 mins. As previously mentioned, they were clearly having problems getting the EP line through.

Mummy was 45 mins with no EP line available so we skipped it. We got in the EP line for Chupacabra. I think standby said 45 and EP took about 20. We came out and got in the Deadman's Pier standby line. It had dropped from 50 to 40 while we did Chupacabra. The EP took about 20. We got in the Halloween line when it said 50 and it took us about 15 in EP. We finished there at 1:00 and called it a night.

I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy the houses because I am a scaredy cat, but after the first house I enjoyed each one more and more. We are now big fans of HHN. As many of you have said, our first one will probably not be our last. We are already planning a return trip with the rest of our family next year.

 

[schumigirl]

Thank you so much! And while I'm here lol..thank you so much for all your wonderful trip reports. I've been browsing this board since the first of the year trying to prepare for this trip and your reports have been an integral part of my "research." Many thanks for all the work you put into them!

Awwwww…..thank you so much!

I’m so glad to read you enjoyed them and glad to have helped in some way! Hope your trip is amazing!!

 

[tony67]

I thought they had their refillable cups you can bring back. No?

They do - but if you want water you don't need to purchase a refillable cup

BTW - They also have an HHN Lanyard for holding the refillable cup that looked pretty cool

 

[SquashBanana]

Do the houses operate rain or shine? We are headed down for this coming weekend and the weather forecast is not looking too good. I know it's Florida so it could change in an instant, but prepping for the worst.

 

[mamapenguin]

Do the houses operate rain or shine? We are headed down for this coming weekend and the weather forecast is not looking too good. I know it's Florida so it could change in an instant, but prepping for the worst.

Yes rain or shine. It’s Florida, it should be fine. We will be there at the same time.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Do the houses operate rain or shine? We are headed down for this coming weekend and the weather forecast is not looking too good. I know it's Florida so it could change in an instant, but prepping for the worst.

100% indoors so yep

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Hi All!

Has anyone seen if they are offering an "After 10 PM Express pass" this year? We are only planning to go one night, would love to get all the houses done.

TYIA!

 

[emmabelle]

My daughter is at HHN tonight and just did the Weekend house. She said “you’re going to poop your pants.”

Not sure why I wanted to do this?

 

[Monykalyn]

Do the houses operate rain or shine? We are headed down for this coming weekend and the weather forecast is not looking too good. I know it's Florida so it could change in an instant, but prepping for the worst.

Bonus this year are elevated walkways to sprung tents-where little lakes occurred with rain in past. No more soaking wet feet! Double bonus is these walkways are little softer on feet. Important when it’s a straight up 5 minute walk no stopping until you reach just the express checkpoint in a queue: for The Weeknd house (which is pretty awesome BtW- hard to not get caught up when entire queue is a dance and singalong party).

 

[Monykalyn]

Hi All!

Has anyone seen if they are offering an "After 10 PM Express pass" this year? We are only planning to go one night, would love to get all the houses done.

TYIA!

Yes if EP not sold out for the day. Not sure if after 10 or after 11 though with every night open to 2 am

 

[Monykalyn]

My daughter is at HHN tonight and just did the Weekend house. She said “you’re going to poop your pants.”

Not sure why I wanted to do this?

It’s a fun house. Couple genuine scares. Sooooo much better than the plastic last year!
The scareactors can and do get literally right in your face-daughter go one who popped out at her on one side and she screamed so they got her on other side-like literally in her face—she had to stop walking or she’d have run into them-it was AWESOME (happened in Monsters house though)