Halloween Horror Nights 2019 at USF

[s***@aol.com]

Finally got to experience all the houses as of last night. I wasn’t able to stay the entire night either night last weekend (and wasn’t able to go Sunday at all). This year, like last, I only got the Frequent Fear since there’s no longer a Bill & Ted Show. Graveyard Games is my favorite- advice: do this one after dark- it’ll make more sense since the projections while on the line set up the house. All the houses this year are decent for HHN- Ghostbusters, Us, Depths Of Fear, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Yeti, and Stranger Things are all great. The projection show Halloween: Marathon Of Mayhem is decent. Skipped Academy Of Villains again this year, have never been a fan of the show. Scare zones are decent- the Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe one and the Vanity Ball one are especially good.
The holding area for Stay and Scream by Finnegins has been expanded greatly to include Louie’s and Starbucks, as well as the restroom outside Louie’s. A good move. They also have pre-queues set up for Ghostbusters and Stranger Things as well. If you don’t have a day ticket, they do offer an after 3pm Scream Early ticket for $25, which gets you into USF after 3 and an opportunity for Stay and Scream. I did this at USH back in 2016 (theirs is/was good after 2pm) and worked well to get a ride or two in before HHN.
The event seems much better and creative than the past 2 years. Still will never be as good as the days when there were icons and Bill & Ted. No bad houses this year though, and the inclusion of the water projection show is a great idea and well made. Will be heading back several more times throughout the season.

[Ansley]

We went to HHN from Sept 12-15. We had a great time, but contrary to what I've heard, the crowds were not really much lighter than in late Oct. last year. Ironically Saturday had the shorteset lines, also contrary to all advice I have received online. My son Ben managed to do the houses an average of 4 times each, for a total of 40 houses in 4 nights (but not full nights except for once) with 1 night of Express passeses. We like the shows, Acadamy of Villans was very good, much different then last year.

House reviews... I liked Stranger Things, it was longer then the other major houses, but IMHO wasn't as good as last year's Stranger Things. I thought Us and Ghostbusters were well themed, but too short, and not all that scary. I think last year's Poltergeist was better, and maybe the Halloween house last year was better too. However, many of the other houses this year were very good. A favorite was Graveyard Games, very good themeing, long, and scary! Ironically one of my favorites last year, Trick or Treat, was in the same location. I also really liked the Yeti house. Also very long, with great theming. House of Thousand Corpses was campy, but good and long as well. My kids really liked Depths of Fear, I only did it once, and it was pretty good. Universl Monsters was also good, great classic monsters in a good house with decent scares. The weekest one, by most accounts, was Nightingales: Blood Pit. I like the theming but not as good as the rest IMHO. The Killer Clowns house was a bit short, and funny IMHO. Clowns don't really bother me, but apparantly a lot of people are scared of them. It was ok, but not great IMHO.

This was our 2nd consecutive year, we might go again next year, but not sure right now. Expensive to make a special trip down earh year.

Ted

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Saturday’s are typically slowest contrary to popular belief. Multi night passes are mostly blocked on Saturdays (and some on Fridays as well), also comp passes included with the higher annual passes are blocked on Saturdays. Additionally, for one day tickets, Saturday’s are the most expensive, followed by Fridays, followed by weekdays. If everything was even price wise and availability wise, then I’m sure Saturday would be the busiest. Been like this for years now.