|
Never been to the Hollywood HHN, but from everything I've seen and heard, the Orlando houses are much more elaborate, chaotic, and intense.
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 08:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 07:12 |
|
|
Elaborate sure, but I've never seen anything at HHN I would describe as particularly intense and definitely not chaotic. This is only for the last few years though. I'm sure it was a good bit wilder early on.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 09:51
|
|
|
Intense as in like, they'll assault your senses with lights and visuals and sounds. The USH ones are much more subdued and usually much more scarce on set design.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 10:19
|
|
|
Yeah I've heard smaller, less elaborate etc. too. I was in line for Jurassic World at USH just last week and someone behind me was showing their friend pointing to the overflow zigzag at the edge and said that's where they usually have one of the haunted houses. I tried finding a queue video on Youtube but none of them go in when it's long enough to use that spot. The area was no larger than the sections between the dinosaur profile dividers in this one though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-ubZc0ifOs&t=135s Ultimately though, I want to go this year and my Orlando area friends are all moving out west so I will go where the people are.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 13:47
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 16:52
|
|
|
Cais posted:Strangely enough HHN is a Florida original. I'm actually doing coast to coast this year for the first time. Getting in for the last day of opening weekend at Orlando and then Hollywood a few weeks later. Also doing Knott's Scary Farm too which I've never done but I've always heard it's very good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2023 23:52
|
|
|
I did HHN when I was there in October (which I never wrote up, and I have some thoughts, I really should). My impressions: First off, big thank you to the people who told me in the then-active theme park subforum, which I really wish we had back so we didn't have to use this as a catch-all, to buy the FastPass. It was crucial. I would've had a really crap time without it. I got a regular ticket for US too. In retrospect -- shouldn't have. The FastPass includes all the open rides too and spending the day in the park meant that I was already half-tired before HHN even started. That said, my one regret is that I'd looked up what rides would be open during HHN online, and the Simpsons Ride was on it, so as I was entering Springfield with like 15 minutes before normal operating hours ended, I saw a HHN waiting pen and was like "ehhh, might as well just get in there". Guess which ride was not, in fact, open for HHN. Goddamn it. Universal's food offerings are so goddamn bad and, worse, so goddamn sparse on the ground! They seem to want you to just go to CityWalk but loving hell, I don't want to walk through half the park just to leave and walk some more to eat at a god damned Panda Express. I'm not asking for a Michellin star, just let me get some goddamn chicken fingers, ok? HHN's big "instagram this" special food item was a chili dog, and I don't like chili dogs. But while you could get that goddamn chili dog every ten feet, I couldn't find any other option, and I ended up wandering like half the park trying to find somewhere to sell me dinner for God's sake, I was so hungry. I found one open restaurant only to find out that that one was only for people who bought the special VIP package. Eventually I found a random earthquake-themed burger place. When my asks are just "sell me theme park staple idiot food so I can shovel in some calories and get back out there", shouldn't have been that hard. There was an outdoor night show thing that I watched, mostly so I could sit down. It sucked. They just put some really dim projections on their fountains, you couldn't really see anything. The outdoor scare zones did nothing for me. Yes, that's a very nice costume and we're in a crowd and you're walking around. I've been to cons before. There was a pumpkin lord or something that some ladies were talking to, I guess there's lore about him? He seemed cool. Regarding the houses: first, it's kinda an odd experience going through them, since you're walking in line the whole time. Not only can you not get lost or linger, there's not even a sense of "oh no how do I get out of here", because... you follow the strangers in front of you, that's how. They do a good job with blind corners so that the scares don't get spoiled for you even though you've got your eyes on the people ahead of you the whole time, but... still a bit weird. My absolute favorite was Bugs: Eaten Alive. That one had really neat retro-50s themeing and it told a story the whole way through, putting you in a campy, scary fun B movie. There was actually a plot and everything! This company had developed a new pest control method that worked by overstimulating the bugs' brains so they'd rapidly age, you're in a product demo house where they show it off except oh no, oops, they overstimulated the wrong bit and the bugs get really big instead. In the first room the lady showing off the pest control sets it off, then you travel through a house that's increasingly infested and covered in slime and cocoons and poo poo, and at the end the Army's been called in, and a soldier hustles you out before they call in an airstrike. Strong second place to Dead Man's Pier: Winter's Wake. They had a full-sized soundstage at their disposal, and they used it. (Aside: why are there multiple full soundstages in USO? I asked my brother who works in the film industry, and they don't shoot anything there.) The opening reminded me of that XCOM level where you're in a whaling vilage that's quiet at first until the melee aliens start bursting out of the whale corpses; that same too-empty, dangerous eerieness. And it built to an amazing climax where you end up on the deck of a loving boat, with the ocean around it, crewed by zombie sailors. That was a major "holy poo poo" moment. The Weeknd's thing was interesting. Lot of neat imagery but it was all disconnected, I couldn't tell what I was supposed to be experiencing except "hey isn't this hosed up". Halloween and Blumhouse houses were both walking tours of movies, like yeah, I guess it is pretty neat to be in rooms that look like the movie sets? Halloween comes out on top of the two because of a really cool room filled with a bunch of Michael mannequins and mirrored walls so you see hundreds of Michael just standing still, and for once the question isn't "okay when is the guy going to jump out of that obvious hiding spot" but "obviously one of these is going to come to life and lunge at me, but which one?" Descendents of Destruction and Spirits of the Coven were both extremely mid. Points to DoD for the cooler theming, which extended to an outside that looked like a post-apocalyptic wrecked subway station and the whole thing was just "here's this society where they've been living in the subways since A Bad Thing happened topside, and this is the generation that was born underground and doesn't even know what they're missing". I grooved on that. Biggest disappointment, by a mile, was Universal Monsters: Legends Collide. It's sold as Wolfman vs. Dracula vs. The Mummy, and... bullshit. The Wolfman only "appears" in audio logs being played while you're in line. The house itself was just generic Egyptian Spooky House. It's got a mummy, but it didn't feel at all like The Mummy. Dracula was a no-show. I didn't do the others because I got just plain loving exhausted. CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Jun 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 00:21
|
|
|
They used to shoot things there. They still occasionally do AEW shows.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 00:33
|
|
|
Yeah I still think we need different theme park threads instead of this one being a catch-all for everything theme park related. I would be up for making some, but we'd have to decide on which topics get their own megathreads. Like, do you make another one just for Orlando? One just for Universal Orlando? A general theme park thread? When decided, this should just be renamed "Walt Disney World general discussion". Anyways ^^ the scare zones used to be better but in the age of Instagram they've transitioned into more of a photo op thing. Getting any food on a busy night at HHN can be a dreadful experience. I was once starving and settled on the pizza fries, which are okay, but I waited about 45 minutes for them. Food service and food quality are definitely one of Universal's low points. Nobody likes the "conga line" aspect of the HHN houses, but due to the immense crowds, there's simply no other way to do it. They did get better in recent years in not having the attendants try to rush you through as fast as possible. They used to be instructed on busy nights to continually bark at you to keep moving. If you do get lucky and get a low attendance night, they do pulse people in groups sometimes. Also some of the houses are sometimes a total walkon by the end of the night and there have been many times where my group went through without others in front of behind us. It's always worth it to stay until the very end if you don't have Express Pass, because that last hour is crucial. The worst thing about HHN is the insane crowds it attracts, and this is made worse by the fact that it becomes a hangout for all the local teens and young adults for the entirety of its run every year. There are TONS of locals who go almost every single night of the event. I wish they would cut down on this to alleviate crowd levels, but I know they won't.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 00:57
|
|
|
There’s not enough traffic for individual threads, it should just be renamed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 01:08
|
|
|
HHN is the greatest. Go to Publix before and also get super hammered
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 01:12
|
|
|
SweetMercifulCrap! posted:Yeah I still think we need different theme park threads instead of this one being a catch-all for everything theme park related. I would be up for making some, but we'd have to decide on which topics get their own megathreads. Like, do you make another one just for Orlando? One just for Universal Orlando? A general theme park thread? When decided, this should just be renamed "Walt Disney World general discussion". My general thought process is that because WDW is so big/unique/dominating, we could probably get away with a WDW and generic version of the big threads. We'd need an actual first-timers/advice thread and general chat for each as the megathreads, and then whatever smaller threads people want.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 01:15
|
|
|
You could probably get active seperate Disney and Universal threads (which would each cover all the global parks). And maybe a third thread for all other parks would have enough to discuss between Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and Busch/Sea World. Edit: in this subforum. Not a hypothetical theme park forum. Zero One fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Jun 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 02:25
|
|
|
When's the last time we even mentioned Dollywood and Knott's berry farm or my most hated Six Flags Great America?
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 05:29
|
|
|
My wife sent me a video of the Disneyland River Cruise boat bucket and it’s loving sick. Do they eventually move that kind of stuff to WDW or do I have to ask a west coast goon to send it to me?
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 17:12
|
|
|
Usually. Disneyland just gets stuff first because it all comes from China over the pacific.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 17:48
|
|
|
We could rename this thread "A salute to all theme parks but mostly Disney"
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 18:12
|
|
|
Speaking of non-Disney parks, we got back a day ago from a Florida trip where we made a stop at Legoland Florida. When I asked about it earlier in the thread, a couple folks mentioned it's a 1-day park. That's probably accurate if you're hyper-focused on rides because there really aren't a lot, and it doesn't seem like it gets crowded. But if you're there with kids like mine who love playing with Legos, ask to ride the same rides multiple times in a row, and really want to see every last possible character meet / show / 4D movie, you could spend 2-3 days there. We were there for 2.5 days, and my kids honestly could have spent more time. All of the rides skew to the younger crowd, and they have two shooting dark rides, which I despise. One is unique in that you wave your hands instead of using a gun, which makes it even more impossible to try to hit what you're aiming for. The theming around Lego genres / properties was pretty neat, and the entire Miniland USA area was impressive. My kids loved the Lego Movie and Lego Ninjago areas. The "bonus" of the trip is that our tickets got us into the Peppa Pig Theme Park which is right next door. And against our better judgement, we went to it. If you only wanted to ride the 5 rides there, you could knock it out in 15 minutes. It is a glorified playground, but it does have a pretty good water area that was the highlight for my kids. One of the days we were there had on-and-off storms during the afternoon which shot like 3 hours of our trip. What I didn't know until it happened was that if rides are closed for more than 120 minutes due to weather (which they were), Legoland gives you a gratis return ticket that expires in 365 days. That is a very generous policy that I don't think I've seen before. Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Jun 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 19:37
|
|
|
SweetMercifulCrap! posted:We could rename this thread "A salute to all theme parks but mostly Disney"
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 20:52
|
|
|
^Thirded. I've loved that title since that joke was first made.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 22:45
|
|
|
Oh man I am going to Epcot next week to get on Guardians and I am so excited to be back at a Disney park.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2023 23:58
|
|
|
SweetMercifulCrap! posted:We could rename this thread "A salute to all theme parks but mostly Disney"
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 00:19
|
|
|
TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Oh man I am going to Epcot next week to get on Guardians and I am so excited to be back at a Disney park. It’s such a fun ride! I hope you enjoy it!
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 01:26
|
|
|
We’re going to animal kingdom tomorrow. You probably don’t need genie plus for that park yeah? I’m guessing avatar is still ILL so we’ll probably buy that anyway
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 02:43
|
|
|
Disappointing Pie posted:We’re going to animal kingdom tomorrow. You probably don’t need genie plus for that park yeah? I’m guessing avatar is still ILL so we’ll probably buy that anyway If you’re there at rope drop and beeline to Flight of Passage, you’ll be fine there too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 02:54
|
|
|
Disappointing Pie posted:We’re going to animal kingdom tomorrow. You probably don’t need genie plus for that park yeah? I’m guessing avatar is still ILL so we’ll probably buy that anyway hesitantly no, but if you want very specific stuff you might do better to get it. I know someone who gets it so they can nail a very early kilimanjaro safaris, skip the afternoon line for dinosaur, and rope drops pandora as a whole because they just do single rider for Everest. it's worth it to them.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 03:05
|
|
|
Disappointing Pie posted:We’re going to animal kingdom tomorrow. You probably don’t need genie plus for that park yeah? I’m guessing avatar is still ILL so we’ll probably buy that anyway It's well worth it to stay until the park closes. You're typically able to walk in most things in the last hour and Flight of Passage will be a very short wait if you get in line right before park closing (even if it says it isn't a short wait).
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 07:12
|
|
|
SweetMercifulCrap! posted:We could rename this thread "A salute to all theme parks but mostly Disney" yes please In terms of food in parks Top tier: Satuli Canteen > Epcot > rest of Animal Kingdom Then its like.... i guess Hollywood Studios because Docking Bay 7 is decent And then Magic Kingdom, USO and IOA. Like god, what good even is there at Universal in park unless theres a festival at USO
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 14:49
|
|
|
Hey, don’t forget award winning (in 2008) Mythos!
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 15:19
|
|
|
BlueBayou posted:yes please As a vegetarian my list is largely the same except you story bbq is top tier as well. Mama Melrose in Hollywood is rest of animal kingdom level. Magic Kingdom is fire options for me
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 15:51
|
|
|
So, despite thinking my March trip was going to be my last time at WDW for a while, a friend is playing a show in town early July and I'm thinking I'll make ~a week out of the trip. My pass is still valid for admission until the end of July but my Universal one is expired, so Disney is going to be my time filler during the day(s) while my local friends are at their day jobs. I'm sure the lines are going to suck and I hate waiting in lines unless I have people to chat with anyway, so are there any interesting 100th special foods out right now? Unfortunately that week will be between Epcot festivals.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 16:18
|
|
|
BlueBayou posted:yes please Satuli is always a premium awesome food place, and I agree with you on Epcot, but Animal Kingdom is very meh outside of Satuli and Tusker House in my opinion. Hollywood Studios is one of those places that I just starve most of the day. Magic Kingdom has Skipper Canteen at least.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 16:48
|
|
|
Aphrodite posted:, so are there any interesting 100th special foods out right now?
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 17:37
|
|
|
Aphrodite posted:So, despite thinking my March trip was going to be my last time at WDW for a while, a friend is playing a show in town early July and I'm thinking I'll make ~a week out of the trip. End of July can be surprisingly slow. Heat + end of summer + hurricane season ramping up scares away a lot of folks. If you can tolerate the absolutely miserable weather, you can get a lot done
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 18:32
|
|
|
It would be the week of the 10th, so not quite the end of July. The show is on the 8th, and I think I’m better off staying later than going early since the week before is the 4th. I have a Pixie Pass (don’t tell the mouse I don’t live there) so better for blackouts too. WithoutTheFezOn posted:I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any anniversary foods. drat, that sucks. I was just at DLR last week and they're all over like they were for the 50th at WDW. Aphrodite fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Jun 11, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 18:36
|
|
|
Upsidads posted:As a vegetarian my list is largely the same except you story bbq is top tier as well. Wow, a top tier vegetarian bbq place?
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 18:47
|
|
|
As far as Studios, I'm okay with Prime Time, and the Italian place is okay. Never been to the new lands as my knowledge of the parks continues to fossilize into an older time, so no opinion there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 18:53
|
|
|
smackfu posted:Wow, a top tier vegetarian bbq place? The Toy Story Round Up BBQ place is apparently absolutely amazing for vegetarians
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 20:01
|
|
|
Has anyone made a website with queue diagrams so you can see how far along in a queue you are? I feel that’d be super helpful. Particularly for Disney world.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 22:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 07:12 |
|
|
Wouldn't work as most of them are a dynamic system of ropes and gates that can be changed on the fly to accommodate the line as needed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2023 23:30
|
|