Halloween Horror Nights 34 will taking place on select nights between August 29 through November 2 this year...
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Event Halloween Horror Nights 34 (Orlando)
- Thread starter MikePat
- Start date
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First official announcement… alongside Five Nights at Freddy “experience” (most likely a house) for HHN34
Historically, I have mostly preferred the original stories to the movie- (or video game) based houses. But I may be in the minority. I remember one year being one of the few people on my Unmasking the Horror Tour who didn’t care that much about the Stranger Things house. It was cool, but (for me) didn’t touch Dueling Dragons, Darkest Deal, Blood Moon, Dr. Oddfellow, or Yeti. (Just as an example.)
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I tend to prefer the original houses too. And that's not to say that the IP based are bad, but the original concepts aren't constrained by a very specific defined story and universe. What the HHN team are capable of designing and building each year is amazing and they really get to show that off with their original concepts.
Next house confirmed... Jason Universe...
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Bioreconstruct flew over the rumored location for this house, F&F Queue:
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Bioreconstruct flew over the rumored location for this house, F&F Queue:
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I'm a sucker for any snow house so Gálln is definitely speaking to me the most out of these five. Hatchet and Dolls are probably the two others that stand out as strong candidates for my tastes.
I'm sure El Artista will be great—the cultural folklore-type houses are typically gorgeous and very well executed in my opinion—but I feel like we've been returning to this well a lot lately.
Grave of Flesh is... a graveyard/funeral/zombie house. Doesn't do anything for me on paper, but who knows, I've been surprised by houses that sounded bland in print but were executed incredibly many times before.
I'm sure El Artista will be great—the cultural folklore-type houses are typically gorgeous and very well executed in my opinion—but I feel like we've been returning to this well a lot lately.
Grave of Flesh is... a graveyard/funeral/zombie house. Doesn't do anything for me on paper, but who knows, I've been surprised by houses that sounded bland in print but were executed incredibly many times before.
Ugh I considered skipping this year and doing Halloween in Europe, but these mazes sound incredible, plus they're giving us Fallout and Jason?
I'm itching for another visit to Epic Universe too. Maybe a fall weekend is in the cards for me.
I'm itching for another visit to Epic Universe too. Maybe a fall weekend is in the cards for me.
I'm nine days out from Horror Nights trip... just got even more hype because Universal dropped a 28 minute backstory for El Artista tying a bunch of houses and scare zones together. Horror nights is not the scariest haunt around, nor will it ever be - but good lord, the love and detail that they put into the production of this event is unrivaled.
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For those of you who will not be attending but want to visit virtually, our first full POV of one of the HHN attractions has dropped—this being of the “Haunt-O-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey” show. I have attached it below [EPILEPSY WARNING FOR FLASHING LIGHTS AND COLORS]:
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For anyone who may be wondering, Premium Sceam Night was not remotely worth it. I book a trip down here to attend a September weekday most years and have always done notably better with Express on those nights than I managed last night (read: an early weekday) even though I paid way, WAY more for the "premium" privilege than I would have with a simple Express addon a week or two from now.
Long lines (saw some posted 50s and heard reports of people actually waiting an hour in some cases) DESPITE houses often not pulsing by group as explicitly advertised by Uni. That plus absolutely mobbed food booths with some of the longest lines I've ever seen. Super, super disappointing. I've seen some folks calling it Premium Scam Night this morning and I honestly agree—I definitely feel scammed. The event was simply not anything like what was marketed by the park.
Long lines (saw some posted 50s and heard reports of people actually waiting an hour in some cases) DESPITE houses often not pulsing by group as explicitly advertised by Uni. That plus absolutely mobbed food booths with some of the longest lines I've ever seen. Super, super disappointing. I've seen some folks calling it Premium Scam Night this morning and I honestly agree—I definitely feel scammed. The event was simply not anything like what was marketed by the park.
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For me one of the most frustrating aspect of the event was the poor communication. For example, I called yesterday morning, so we knew we could Stay & Scream, but there were contradictory rumors online and no official announcements prior to the event. So, we were there when some mazes opened at 5:15, but a lot of people didn’t arrive until the 6:30 start time.
And then there is the merch. Uni has never seemed to understand what souvenirs people will really want, and both the Tribute store and the merchandise around the park perplexed me last night. The store lacked the usual detailed sets and design and was mostly stocked with t-shirts. As usual, the focus seemed to be almost entirely on the movie IPs. This frustrates me every year. There have been so many original IP houses that I have loved and I can rarely find anything themed to them.
I found a few kiosks with more interesting merch (like the one near Mel’s Die-In), but even at those they missed some obvious opportunities. For example, the staff at Mel’s were wearing event-specific aprons. Why weren’t those for sale? Similarly, the Cat Lady scare zone is built around a children’s book. It is online and shown on the path. So, why aren’t they selling the book? They must know from last year’s Earl the Squirrel book debacle that there is a market for it.
I haven’t investigated the Dead Coconut Club merch yet this year, but if past is prologue there will be one (hard to find) shirt and nothing else.
Seperately, I agree with everything @Zachary said. They clearly oversold the event and the experience wasn’t worth the money. We just didn’t get any advantages from the limited capacity. The lines were long. We didn’t get our own “space” in the houses. Even at the show where the theater was only half full, they decided to cram everyone in like sardines.
One thing I did like about the experience was that the lines were almost nonexistent in the restaurants and the free food was surprisingly good.
And to be clear, I enjoyed the houses and the event. It just wasn’t a dramatically better experience than when we have gone early in the season with Express.
And then there is the merch. Uni has never seemed to understand what souvenirs people will really want, and both the Tribute store and the merchandise around the park perplexed me last night. The store lacked the usual detailed sets and design and was mostly stocked with t-shirts. As usual, the focus seemed to be almost entirely on the movie IPs. This frustrates me every year. There have been so many original IP houses that I have loved and I can rarely find anything themed to them.
I found a few kiosks with more interesting merch (like the one near Mel’s Die-In), but even at those they missed some obvious opportunities. For example, the staff at Mel’s were wearing event-specific aprons. Why weren’t those for sale? Similarly, the Cat Lady scare zone is built around a children’s book. It is online and shown on the path. So, why aren’t they selling the book? They must know from last year’s Earl the Squirrel book debacle that there is a market for it.
I haven’t investigated the Dead Coconut Club merch yet this year, but if past is prologue there will be one (hard to find) shirt and nothing else.
Seperately, I agree with everything @Zachary said. They clearly oversold the event and the experience wasn’t worth the money. We just didn’t get any advantages from the limited capacity. The lines were long. We didn’t get our own “space” in the houses. Even at the show where the theater was only half full, they decided to cram everyone in like sardines.
One thing I did like about the experience was that the lines were almost nonexistent in the restaurants and the free food was surprisingly good.
And to be clear, I enjoyed the houses and the event. It just wasn’t a dramatically better experience than when we have gone early in the season with Express.
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Went last night. First time ever after a decade plus of intensely following the speculation and event year round. Incredible. Returning tonight. Does BGW fog the houses, been so bad I haven’t been in a few years. Imagine how much they could hide the shitty sets if they fogged them.