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The End of Spooky Season (for now...)
43 Plays1 month ago
Halloween Horror Nights 34 is officially over and we're wrapping up the season with our final rankings and reviews! Plus recaps from Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Sea World Orlando Howl-O-Scream and Kings Dominion's Haunt. Listeners sent in tons of great questions and we dive in - including our all time top 10 HHN houses! #stayspooky
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Premise
00:00:00
Speaker
i
00:00:09
Speaker
We're going to play little game we call Spill the Tea. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Thrills, Chills, and Spills, where we spill the tea on all things theme parks, special events, and, of course, the spooky season, which is now over.
00:00:26
Speaker
Very sad.
Host Introductions and Initial Spills Discussion
00:00:28
Speaker
But, as always, I'm Rafa. I'm Joey. I'm Kelly. I'm Tyler. I'm Tyler. All right. And yeah and this week we're going to start off, of course, with some spills. I don't have anything and I don't think Joey does, but Kelly, Tyler, but we got?
00:00:46
Speaker
Go ahead, Kelly. I guess I'll go.
Universal Pass Activation Issues
00:00:48
Speaker
I think I may have talked about this before in the past when I talked about repurchasing Universal Pass back in April when I was trying to get tickets to Epic Universe when they were only available to Passholders for Passholder Previews.
00:01:04
Speaker
I just think there's got to be a better way for parks, universal included, like for you to activate your pass without using it for the first time. Like if you want to do it that way and have it be active for a year from the first time you visit, great.
00:01:20
Speaker
But if there are pass holder benefits or perks that you can get by holding a season pass that you can't partake in because you haven't physically been to a park, maybe because it's in a different state or maybe because it's not open at the time of year that you purchased the pass.
00:01:36
Speaker
I get so frustrated about that. And it reminded me when I was there this weekend. um It's just... It's just silly. I think there should be a way to activate your pass upon purchase if you choose to.
00:01:51
Speaker
I don't know if you guys have thoughts.
Express Line Frustrations and Solutions
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like they probably don't want you to do it like outside of the parks because of the pictures. But then again, like they can have you just take a picture like when you're like purchasing the pass and you could still input all the information that you need to put in there and it'll just it'll be just as effective as doing it in person.
00:02:13
Speaker
So i don't know. but I do feel like there should be easier. There should be an easier process to that, but not surprised that it's not the other way. Yeah, you're just not getting the benefits that you pay for. Like the upper tiers of the universal passes include the free parking.
00:02:29
Speaker
And it says in there, the fine print that you have to pay for parking the first time you go if you're driving a car because you have not activated your pass yet. Like it specifically says that, which don't know, that seems very frustrating to me.
00:02:44
Speaker
And then same with like, I'm pretty sure hotel discounts, right? You would have to activate it first to book a hotel discount. Nobody's going to make it all the way to the park and then book their hotel. That's crazy. So you end up just not being able to use that perk for a while.
00:03:01
Speaker
Yeah. A whole lot of back and forth. Yeah. Just feels like it's catering to locals. It's like you should want people from all over buying your season pass.
00:03:13
Speaker
making it incredibly difficult for them. Like say a family is going to Universal for a week and they decide to purchase a season pass just for their vacation because they're going to be there enough days to make it worth it. And they can't reap the benefits, just like you said, of what they just paid a ton of money for. It just infuriates me.
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's no secret that they cater to locals though. I mean, just look at all the Florida resident passes. yeah I get it. They want the locals to come over and over and go to all the special events and buy the food and the drinks and stuff. when you know If you come once on a week-long vacation, it's still cost-effective to buy a season and pass, but also you're not going to be spending money throughout the whole year.
00:03:56
Speaker
yeah I get it from a financial standpoint, but it's definitely frustrating from a consumer standpoint. yeah That's why I didn't renew mine. Which I didn't renew mine, but I'm going to get it back in a couple of months. But yeah, I was going to say you will.
00:04:11
Speaker
you I'll get it back. Yeah, and it's just for now. Like it's I was doing like the flex pay thing and I'm like, I'm not about to pay this every single month. Like I'd rather just pay it in full, make it a whole lot easier for myself.
00:04:23
Speaker
But but yeah, definitely understand where you guys are coming from with that. Yeah.
Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) Experiences
00:04:28
Speaker
My spill is, I think we talked about this a little bit, but it's something I really noticed on the last day of HHN, which was Sunday.
00:04:38
Speaker
By the way, busiest day of the entire season, according to Thrill Data. and The final day? Yeah, the final day. And it wasn't even close either. like Everything was over an hour by like 7.30. It was insane.
00:04:53
Speaker
Oh, no. I went to Jason at... um About 640-ish, like not that much later than we normally get there based on our plan. 90 minutes was the posted. And I looked at the line. It looked like 90 minutes for sure.
00:05:09
Speaker
I was blown away. But anyways, express ratio. I feel like it's been off or not off for Universal. I'm sure they're doing it on purpose. But it seemed off from what I was used to.
00:05:24
Speaker
um just letting so many express in while the standby just absolutely sits there. I noticed it worse on Galkin on Sunday. um We sat at the very front of the line. Me and Mark from the Netherlands met up with him.
00:05:40
Speaker
Great guy. But anyways, we sat at the front of Galkin for five-plus minutes, did not move in the standby line while we watched them dump the entire express line through.
00:05:52
Speaker
There were people that were just getting in line and express had it scanned and went straight into the house, which is just crazy to me. They advertise at worst half of the line, right?
00:06:04
Speaker
And when this line is over an hour, that means express should be able to wait up to 30 minutes. I get they want to get that down a little bit, but when it's a 60 minute wait, a zero minute wait for express is crazy.
00:06:18
Speaker
I don't think the express people mind if it's 10 or 15 minutes on an hour wait. And that would move the standby so much quicker. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, with what the two nights that I had expressed this this year, um those two houses in the back, I feel like they just don't know how to manage it when it comes to express.
00:06:39
Speaker
Like all the other ones, it felt like I waited ah pretty normal amount of time with Express. But over there, I was either going really fast because like you said, they were dumping all of the Express people straight into the house or they would have Express waiting for a very long time.
00:06:54
Speaker
Like I think on the first night that I had Express or no, the second night that I had Express, Those two lines for Galkin and for Fallout, those are probably the longest waits that we had. they were We probably waited there about 30 to almost 40 minutes for each of them.
00:07:10
Speaker
And I don't know why that is. I don't know if they just don't know how to manage like you know how many people to let in you know from each line. um But it seems like there's just a lot of like inconsistencies with those two houses in the back specifically. And I don't know why.
00:07:26
Speaker
I feel like there's got to be some standardized process, right? Where like they have a table that says, you know, the wait at this point that we're publishing is this long. This is how many people from each line we're going to let in because they're counting.
00:07:38
Speaker
I don't understand how it yeah how it's so variable. I don't get it. I mean, I guess on busy nights, there's just way more express. Yeah. I mean, maybe they're just overselling it and they obviously want to make that worth their while when somebody is paying 200 plus dollars for it. But I know it's very frustrating as the peasant without Express.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, you you feel it when you're like, you're like, what's going on? you know, trying to get through. It did seem worse this year than in years past, in my opinion. Especially like at house open.
00:08:15
Speaker
Like that is rough when you've already been sitting in that line for like two hours and then it opens and there's the whole entire express line gets dumped. It's like, Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, like they're waiting and express like, and stay in scream. Like, i'm like, what are you doing here? Like you should be coming into the park like afterwards, like go have a drink. You're going to cut all the lines later anyway.
00:08:38
Speaker
Right. Or wait in the regular line and don't waste your express and anything exactly later when it's actually busier. but Exactly. All right.
Review of Halloween Events at Busch Gardens and King's Dominion
00:08:48
Speaker
Well, moving on to some recent travels, I have had nothing happen besides HHN, but Tyler, what you got?
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, I went to ah both Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion for their Halloween events. um Honestly, it's a little fuzzy because i feel like I've done a lot since then with our Orlando trip this weekend, but did take some notes.
00:09:14
Speaker
Kings Dominion beats Busch Gardens as it normally does for Halloween haunt. There are some people that would disagree with me, but that is my opinion most every year, but...
00:09:26
Speaker
Anyways, Busch Gardens, um they have a few new houses or at least houses that they call new. But we started off with a Bloodshot. This was the best one. This was actually the only one that I would say was good in quality.
00:09:42
Speaker
It's like a vampire dive bar. Lots of actors in there. When we went through at the very beginning, this was a Thursday. completely alone inside like the only group in there it was great and they had like a cool bar scene um basically like a bartender and then a couple patrons kind of sitting around the bar in the seating area was very cool I love the set in there um death water by you it's like a New Orleans voodoo type of theme they call it revamped
00:10:16
Speaker
and call it like a new house this year, I'm pretty sure, but it seemed the same as before. Very few actors in here. and don't know, just not the greatest house. The set's fine.
00:10:27
Speaker
um They used to have that one at BGT, right?
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah, very similar. I'm not sure if it's the exact same, but definitely very similar premise. um I think since they called this one revamped or something, it was supposed be slightly different than what they had at BGT. But yeah, very similar concept.
00:10:48
Speaker
um Went to Werewolves. This was... Basically like a werewolf containment center. So the premise is they found the werewolf and brought him back to their lab or whatever. And we're, I guess, doing experiments on him.
00:11:05
Speaker
Guys, this is the worst haunted house I've ever done in my entire life. I wish I was joking. It was so bad. It was just so well lit in there. It felt like I was walking through an office building.
00:11:20
Speaker
And it was just hardly any decorations on the wall. I'm just walking through a plain corridor of like the, like the faux fake wall on the side, no decorations.
00:11:33
Speaker
Scares were pretty bad because I'm just walking through a hallway, very little sets, very few things for them to even hide behind. So they're just kind of standing there with blood on their faces, like wearing normal clothes in some circumstances, but yeah,
00:11:50
Speaker
This was so bad. I even did it again because I was like, there's no way and it can possibly be this bad. And I did it again. it was just as bad. was so disappointing.
00:12:01
Speaker
Next one was Clown Town. Pretty much just clowns. I think it's the clowns are like banished from Busch Gardens. So they have to go and form their own town basically. But just sort of normal clowns walking through circus tents type of thing.
00:12:20
Speaker
I counted five actors in here the first time I went through, and the scares weren't even good. Scenery was decent, just not a good house.
00:12:32
Speaker
ah One scare zone that i really liked and I wanted to shout out, it was called Disc Grotesque. So thank Club Horror But the music was like, I wrote down trap EDM.
00:12:48
Speaker
That's the best way I can describe it. But it was the entire scare zone. And it was pretty empty when I went through. And all the scare actors are just like standing around dancing. It was very bizarre, but honestly, pretty fun.
00:13:01
Speaker
I like the vibe there. I think it'd be really fun if it was like a crowded Saturday night or something. You know, they had the bar and the DJ set up also. So I liked it.
00:13:12
Speaker
um Last house was Killarney Diner. This was not the best house, but I did have the best scare. They had a like a giant bug with um I call it like an action pedal.
00:13:25
Speaker
But, you know, when they hit the pedal and then a sound effect happens, some people just call it triggers or whatever. I don't know what the proper term is. um But yeah, this is just a ah diner that's kind of closed and been overrun by bugs and gross things. But yeah, it was fine.
00:13:43
Speaker
And probably the highlight of the night is the Fiends show. Has everybody seen Fiends except for Kelly? I've seen the one in BGT.
00:13:54
Speaker
Yeah, you've seen BGT. Joey, you've seen the BGW, right? Yeah. Yeah, I've seen various versions over the years at BGDAD. Yeah, they've had many different versions. They update it every year, but I pop culture TikTok brain rot is my description on there. um I would have loved that.
00:14:12
Speaker
What did you say, Rafa? I said, I would have loved that. well no You would have loved it. That's right up your alley. but Kelly, it's like... um I mean, it's different every year, but it's basically Dr. Freakenstein instead of Frankenstein. And he's like bringing his creation to life. But it's just ridiculous, like pop culture references and songs and everything.
00:14:38
Speaker
um it's It's really funny, actually. And it's pretty raunchy, honestly. There's always like a couple families in there that leave a little bit early because they did not know what they were getting into.
00:14:50
Speaker
Then you have the naughty nurses. They have like push-up bras and like these short skirts and they're shaking their butt and everything. So it's pretty intense for Busch Gardens Williamsburg as a family park. But I think it's probably the highlight of how I scream.
00:15:08
Speaker
But yeah, that's kind of the summary. um Like I said, it was a Thursday night. It was very dead in there. Not the greatest atmosphere, but I kind of chalk that up to just lack of crowds. i always think the atmosphere is a little bit better when you have some more people milling about.
00:15:24
Speaker
But yeah, it was a good time. Went to King's Dominion for like three hours on the Saturday before how i mean before Halloween.
00:15:35
Speaker
I was expecting it to be absolutely slammed, and it was busy, but house lines were not that bad. I think the most I waited was about 20 minutes. um Not much to say. The houses really have not changed much.
00:15:49
Speaker
I'm pretty sure they're the exact same as last year. um But yeah, always always quality, pleasantly surprised by the lack of people. But yeah, just don't have any much to say.
00:16:02
Speaker
Listen to my episode last year where I give a better description and it's pretty much the same thing. So I feel like our description
SeaWorld Orlando's Hallowscream Review
00:16:11
Speaker
a hollow screen might be very similar to that in the sense that we don't have much to say. I mean, i don't know Joey, do you remember anything? I mean...
00:16:21
Speaker
I know the rest of us weren't doing too well. I can't remember if you were doing well. um Yeah, I was pretty fine, comparatively speaking. um One of the houses that we did was, oh, I can't remember. Oh, the Widow's Nest, which was a new for this year house.
00:16:39
Speaker
um Also, i believe a new for SeaWorld Orlando Hallowscream house location. I think they built that tent back there just for that yeah for this year for the first time.
00:16:51
Speaker
um I enjoyed it. It had a cool facade, um kind of like the way that HHN puts a facade on their outdoor tents. um I like was surprised by some of the level of detail on the theming inside.
00:17:09
Speaker
I mean, I'm not expecting HHN level sets and it's not that, but... it was you know i'm ah i'm always i guess surprised when i go anywhere else but hhn and i see like and good details in houses um and i don't think like i got a few decent scares like maybe one or two um but i know that some people in front of and behind me in our group got wrecked in that house yeah for sure. like i think think this is the one where Shay kept getting hit like every single time by every scare actor, which was hilarious.
00:17:47
Speaker
um So I don't know. its It seemed to me like they were successful with the scares in there. um Another thing that I always appreciated about it versus HHN is that it's all... um like They don't do the triggers. Well, I think they had a couple triggers, but that it's really mostly... like acting essentially it's more vocal than anything it's the actual actor's voices so they'll like be like doing storytelling because like when you first walked in um i guess there was like an initial scene and you know they're kind of setting it up and then from there they actually you shout different things at you and they kind of have some freedom to play around and and do different things which is which is kind of fun
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's it's not. ah To be honest with you, I like maybe enjoyed that a little bit more than some of my lowest tier HHN houses, just from the lack of scares in some of the HHN houses.
00:18:41
Speaker
um But like from a production design standpoint, it's never, and never going to beat it. Yeah, it did seem pretty short to me. Um, and maybe, i don't know. It felt about the same length as like a ah tent house to me.
00:18:56
Speaker
Okay. And then the second one we did was the, um, water's edge, something, something. Um, it's kind of themed to like a, ah mental health,
00:19:08
Speaker
a clinic type thing where you go there for a long-term stay because you're having mental health issues, I guess. um And obviously everything goes wrong. So um this is a house that was there last year that we did again.
00:19:21
Speaker
um i couldn't tell that there was anything different in there. This one, the set design is was a little more basic, I think. um But there were still some effective things happening in there. There was some there were some parts of the house that were darker than what HHN usually does, which was interesting.
00:19:38
Speaker
um Although there was one section which was literally just a bunch of white sheets hung up with a strobe light. So that's, you know, that's SeaWorld. Was this like the really short house? I remember there being a house that was super short.
00:19:50
Speaker
ah I don't know. We only did two. They were both about the same length to me. but oh that okay so i just don't remember. Okay. I thought Black Widow was really short. Yeah, maybe it was the other one. Yeah,
00:20:02
Speaker
um yeah I mean, I thought like it has different scenes. Like it it has a flow to it. You're going through the different rooms like in the institution and then you go through the morgue.
00:20:14
Speaker
um There was a pretty hilarious scare at the end because you go back outside and they had somebody jumping out at people out there. So you like think you're safe. And then they got somebody from, our oh, they got Scott real bad.
00:20:26
Speaker
that number That was pretty funny. um Yeah, no, I mean, we didn't get to do there were five houses. We only did two. um it was so crowded. We greatly underestimated the crowds.
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think because it was the last night that was kind of contributory to that. um Same thing. No, that was the last event.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah that was that was part of it, I think. um I will say that, like, in the last hour, I was sneaking glances at some of the queues that we didn't go through and they shortened up considerably. So um probably could have gotten some more done, but just didn't end up happening.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah. What about the scare zones? Yeah, like the scare zones. I really don't remember much. I mean, I remember there was like that red light one, um which is over by the stadium seating, I think. Right. I think it's right underneath there. Yeah, it's like built into the stadium.
00:21:22
Speaker
The old stadium. old The old, yeah, the yeah right water ski, whatever. I remember that um that area, but i really don't remember anything else. Yeah.
00:21:33
Speaker
Well, that was a hilarious, I mean, We saw a sign at the park that literally said keeping it trashy at SeaWorld Orlando or SeaWorld Hallowscream. And I was like, that is so hilariously accurate because the first thing that you do when you enter the event is immediately hit a jello shot cart and they are talking them.
00:21:52
Speaker
A jello shot cart and then the red light district. Oh yeah. So that's, it's definitely a different vibe than HHN. It's, a little more adult, I guess, a little more unserious.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah. Definitely more of a party vibe. For sure. Yeah, they definitely have more party vibes. But also, I mean, i I don't know if that's entirely accurate because they have a lot of good scare zones, at least in my opinion. Like, i always like their scare zones um because they actually...
00:22:23
Speaker
are pretty aggressive in them and they're pretty dark usually. And,
Comparing Hallowscream and HHN
00:22:27
Speaker
and I don't know, they seem effective to me. I especially like the one that's in the law. I call it the long walk because it's just this long ah pathway in front of one of the stadiums. I think the main Shamu stadium or something, and it's just dark and the pair of pathways a little bit narrower and they had some pretty good stuff going on in there.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think their scare zones are typically better than their houses just because really just the landscape of the the sidewalks and the bushes and everything, it just lends to a creepier vibe when it's narrower and you don't have 50,000 people going through at one time.
00:23:05
Speaker
yeah have You have small groups and it's very dark and Just leads to a scary atmosphere, in my opinion. Yeah. yeah They also have so many. I want to say there's like seven or something like that.
00:23:17
Speaker
All scattered around the park. um yeah So it's hard. Like you can't go from any one place to another without walking through one, which is fun. Yeah. But to add on to this, Dex did have a question about HOS. So he's asking, is there anything from Holostream that you'd bring over or apply to HHN?
00:23:37
Speaker
Have more scare zones like that? and I don't know. i mean I feel like for me, like to keep it short, no, i wouldn't want to want to bring anything over. I feel like hollow scream.
00:23:49
Speaker
They're very aware of what they are and they're, you know, the whole trashiness, but like, I don't know. i just feel like it's very like risque compared to like HHN. I feel like HHN is on like a professional side and they're not going to want to do anything like that.
00:24:04
Speaker
um Hence the reason why they probably got rid of the Jell-O shots a while ago when they had them with like the nurses and stuff like that. um So i don't I don't know. I feel like they're both... I feel like Hollow Scream, that's their identity. And I feel like it makes sense for that to be their thing.
00:24:21
Speaker
I don't really think it would translate well in HHN. You don't want mystery shots at HHN? Really? Oh, God, no. I didn't take any of those, by the way. I saw how discussed. I was like, no, no, no, no. I was like, I'm not doing that.
00:24:35
Speaker
Yeah. i don't think there's anything I would bring over. it They're very distinct events, and I think that's why they work five miles from each other.
00:24:47
Speaker
is you go to one park for one thing and you go to the other park for another. And they yeah they need to be separate and distinct to really function separately, in my opinion. Agreed.
Final HHN Reflections and Rankings
00:24:59
Speaker
But anything else you want to add? I know we don't have much to say about Hollow Scream, but anything else? It was just, it was so crowded. and Yeah, it was just a lot going on.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah. think that's it on Hollow Scream. All right. Well, to close out on HHN 34, unfortunately, which is so crazy to think, I feel like the season just started and it's already over.
00:25:24
Speaker
um But we decided to do our final rankings on the street experiences slash scare zones and then also the houses. So I guess I'll go first. So for the scare zones, for number one, I still have Cat Lady.
00:25:41
Speaker
Number two, I have Masquerade. number three mutations, uh, number four club horror, number five origins and number six Mel's Diane.
00:25:55
Speaker
Did that switch at all for you? um a little bit mutations went up a bit and club horror went down one, but masquerade, i think that's a pretty solid zone.
00:26:08
Speaker
um, I think that one, wait, did i I can't remember if that one went up or down. but I know for sure mutations went up just because I got a very good scare in there on the, our last night there.
00:26:20
Speaker
um there was one of those, you know, where they have those like random, curtain scares, or like you won't know that anybody's like behind it, but then they'll run right out of it.
00:26:31
Speaker
Yeah. It was one of those scares. Some guy ran out of there and it scared the crap out of me. So just for that, that went up because that's probably the only scare that I got in a scare zone this year. Nice.
00:26:41
Speaker
I can remember. um But yeah, besides that, everything else kind of stays the same. Mel's still is in the bottom. I don't think there's much to Mel's. I like the vibe of it, but there really isn't much to it.
00:26:55
Speaker
So mine were the same as yours, except for i have Masquerade at the top and then Cat Lady second. So that did change.
00:27:06
Speaker
And it's no fault on Cat Lady. I still love that zone. But the more time I spent in Masquerade, the more I loved it. It was just the music is like hauntingly beautiful.
00:27:17
Speaker
all the, there's at least like two or three stilt actors in there at a time. There's multiple stages set up with scare actors on it, um as opposed to just the one in Cat Lady.
00:27:31
Speaker
um I think I just, before I didn't spend a lot of time in there because it is so tucked back. And unless I make it a point to walk through there, I don't actually go through there because it's not leading to anywhere essentially but yeah yeah i spent like probably 20 minutes in masquerade on the last night and i just loved every second of it i love the scare actors energy in there so i moved it up um mine is relatively similar to my initial list i have cat lady first masquerade second club horror third origins fourth mutations fifth and mel's sixth um
00:28:10
Speaker
Masquerade and Origins moved up one each and Club Horror and Mutations moved down one each. I agree with you about Masquerade and I'm glad that we walked through from like the opposite end, like the counterclockwise end when we were there this time.
00:28:30
Speaker
um That zone has just a really good vibe. It's like really pretty. And yeah, um I feel like I got a couple of decent scares in there. The only thing that keeps Cat Lady above is just like that classic Halloween with the pumpkins and like the oranges. Like it just feels nostalgic to me, but it's really close for me actually between those two.
00:28:51
Speaker
I still love Club Horror. was very excited when we went on Saturday night for a little bit that they were playing K-pop Demon Hunters in there. um And then mutations went down a little bit. I just like, I really thought I would like this zone. I thought the 20s would be like a vibe that I was into.
00:29:09
Speaker
And I like the idea of of the story. I just like felt like every time I was in there, I was ready to get out kind of. I don't know. Just wasn't my favorite. And I would argue that the Chainsaw Clowns
HHN Incident and Changes Discussion
00:29:22
Speaker
over by like Men in Black corner, that area is better than, was better than Mel's. And that wasn't even an official like experience or zone or anything.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah, now thinking about it, they got me pretty good. I think, I think on the night that we went together, they got me really good. and um so that's a pretty solid group. Yeah. Little side note there. This could have been a spill, but I just now remembered it.
00:29:46
Speaker
um Apparently, think the next to last weekend, something happened with some celebrity that walked through there and one of the clowns, you know, they're supposed to like banter with you and be funny, but they said something that that person took offense to.
00:30:02
Speaker
the management made the clowns silent. They cannot talk to you anymore for the last few days of the event. Yeah. Really? No. no Yeah, I saw that on social media as well.
00:30:13
Speaker
um I don't know if it was 100% confirmed, but people did seem to be reporting that there were less interactions after whatever this event was. Yeah, which I think that's really disappointing because that's one of the better parts of the zone is them talking to you in their clown voice and, you know, making fun of you where it's needed lightheartedly, of course, but.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's not the only thing that got modified towards
Ranking of HHN Haunted Houses
00:30:37
Speaker
the end of the event, but we can talk about that later. ah oh yeah. um Mine is very similar to Rafa's. I just have Club Horror and Origins switched.
00:30:48
Speaker
um I don't know. I just prefer like the the spooky vibe stuff. So I still have Origins over horror. um And in terms of what changed, I think this is exactly the same as the last one I had, except I switched Masquerade over Mutations.
00:31:04
Speaker
because having spent more time there, I just grew to appreciate what Masquerade was. And it feels more cohesive as a scare zone than mutations did. um Maybe that's the way it's lit and like the setting of mutations kind of being a little difficult, in my opinion, for for having a scare zone. So um but I will say that, like like you pointed out, Masquerade,
00:31:29
Speaker
is a bit of a tough location because if you're navigating the houses, there's really no reason to walk through there. So you have to make a concerted effort to do so, which is, can be frustrating.
00:31:43
Speaker
All right. And now the houses. 10, have fallout. 10, I have dolls. i have five nights at Freddy's.
00:31:54
Speaker
Five nights. So even I will say, so I did have some like solid runs. Well, runs one run through ah fallout on that last night. So I do think it has improved a lot since the beginning of the season, but i still don't think it was, I don't think it's as great as it could have been. I don't think they did all that much justice to this IP, unfortunately, it was still, it was still a good run, but um okay. So number nine, I have five nights,
00:32:25
Speaker
Five nights. Dolls. Dolls. I have dolls as my number eight. My eight is Fallout.
00:32:37
Speaker
My eight is Grave of Flesh. Fallout. All right. Next, I have Grave. Fallout. I have Fallout.
00:32:49
Speaker
And Grave of Flesh. So do all of us have the same bottom four? Yeah, those are the same four. Yeah. Slightly different orders. a Different orders, but all those four houses are in the Maybe we should talk about them a little bit.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah. Since we all just kind of like had them very similarly in the bottom four. Let's start with Fallout. We all have that kind of in different spots. yeah I feel like the general consensus from other ehn goers is also that fallout was toward the bottom of their list.
00:33:22
Speaker
And for me, there were some really good set pieces and good like acting that portrayed the show well, but like it wasn't scary and some of it felt...
00:33:39
Speaker
I know it was kind of chronological to the show, but I feel like the storytelling of what actually happened didn't make sense, even though I watched the show, because some of the pieces of the story were just like one scare.
00:33:51
Speaker
Like I felt like there needed to be a little bit more introduction of like, what is the vault? Like we spent such little time in the vault and then you go out into like the wasteland in Philly and you're like, why am I here? Like there was no story of what Lucy was going out of the vault for that I could like ascertain from the way that the house was set up.
00:34:12
Speaker
I don't know. I think it just felt overly contrived. Like it just didn't tell the story properly. And some of the scares felt forced. Like, sure. There's like the, like the robot shooting at you and you're like, okay, but I was expecting more from that too. I think, I think if this house were, had been put in a soundstage and had more length to it, it would have been much better. Yeah.
00:34:35
Speaker
Five nights at Freddy's. All of us had nine or 10 for that. And I think we've kind of belabored the problem with this house. I don't know if you guys have anything new to add.
00:34:46
Speaker
Nope. I think, I think it's the same. Um, and I think what I don't like about this house is that to add on to what we've already spoken about. um I feel like once you've done five nights, once I don't think another visit is going to change anything. I feel like you're going to get the same house every single time.
00:35:08
Speaker
I don't think there's anything that could be improved in the sense of like, more scares or anything like that. I just feel like it's kind of just there. it It feels very robotic, which is funny because you have the robot, you know, characters or whatever, but that kind of like, you get that vibe throughout the entire house. Like there's nothing that you can really make new with that house, in my opinion.
00:35:31
Speaker
I have as much to add as the amount of scares I got in that house. So let's move on. none Well, there's a rumor we should say there I guess there's rumor that this is going to become a permanent attraction for daytime guests, which yeah I've heard that it was better suited for the very beginning.
00:35:54
Speaker
it makes sense. so it makes sense I mean, I could have seen it be much more appropriate for the event that Universal Hollywood had. um I can't remember the exact name of that event, but they're like fan nights.
00:36:06
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. This seems much more in that vein, like not necessarily trying to be scary, but trying to immerse you in a world. Yeah. Mm hmm. But ah they did not put any Five Nights merchandise on sale when they put the rest of the HHN stuff on sale at 50 or 70% off.
00:36:26
Speaker
That was probably some kind of contract thing. Yeah. I mean, it could be. Or it could be they're going to have the daytime house they're going to continue selling it throughout the year. Could That would be wild if they do that, to be honest.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah. Like operationally to have a small staff of people running that and to have that like the construction of or the deconstruction of Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket is still going on. And that's kind of interrupts the flow of that construction. I have people walking through there.
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I ah did see people mention that it doesn't necessarily have to be in there. Some people were saying like in the Fast and Furious building or something, and they're not going to reopen Fast and Furious.
00:37:09
Speaker
So I have no idea if there's any credence to that rumor, but that sounds like Dippin' Dots. Let's talk about dolls. Yeah. Yeah. let's talk about dolls yeah I annoyed because I had this house so far up on my hype list because I think the concept is good.
00:37:30
Speaker
And I was just hoping every single time I went in there, which I think was probably six or seven times, that I would get some good scares and I would like it more. But all that happened is they turned up the nasty smell that comes out of that house. And I had to walk through sniffing the hand sanitizer off my hands to not be nauseous.
00:37:51
Speaker
I don't like it. Nothing about that house is what I expected it to be. I feel like the rooms are so wide open because they're trying to achieve that larger than life feel that there's nowhere for these toy actors to hide.
00:38:09
Speaker
They can't scare me. If I walk into the room and I see them as the only thing in the room, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Our group, um like, Caleb, Bethany, that was the first time that they went through that house. And Zach even. I think that was his second time walking through it.
00:38:26
Speaker
And they all loved it. And I was like, i like it's it's fun. i mean, it's cool, I guess. Kind of cool. But it's not like, I don't know. i just I didn't see what people were loving about it since it does have such a following. I don't get It totally does.
00:38:41
Speaker
People do love it. I really don't get it. I don't. Like, I get the charm. Like, it's fun being but being able to push all these buttons or whatever, but it still didn't make up for the scares or anything like that. Like, it just, I don't know. It just seemed a little too corny for me.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah, I probably got five or six runs in it over the season and they were all kind of the same. It was consistent the entire time, but it was consistently just giving nothing.
00:39:09
Speaker
don't know. I just don't get it. I actually had it at nine and then I switched Five Nights to nine and Dolls to ten just because i wasn't getting anything in either, but at least Five Nights has the awesome animatronic.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yeah. That's basically the only reason. Yeah. And I'm not saying it's a bad house. There were no bad houses this year, but it just did not live up to expectations at all.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like overall this year, I'm very content with this year's event. I feel like even though some of these houses, like dolls, weren't all that great, I feel like this is definitely a step up to last year's event, for sure. but Brave. Should we talk about 40 slash? This one blew on me.
00:39:55
Speaker
You still don't like it? I really wanted it to grow on me. I felt like it was one of the houses that i was in the least. So I definitely wanted to make it a priority to get there and get there earlier than like last house of the night, which we did.
00:40:08
Speaker
And I read more about the story, hoping I would understand it more. I did see the cool scene for the first time where I was looking at my own grave. I just, after that, it's like all of the walls are the exact same to me, except for the room with the green spinning stuff that's supposed to be crushing my bones.
00:40:26
Speaker
And then the scare actors are either like the roadie people or like women in white dresses. Why? Who are you? i don't understand what you're doing here. And yeah the whole thing just feels so samey. Yeah. Just didn't make much sense. I love the the conceit of it. And like the opening facade is super cool. And like yeah you start walking and you're like, okay. And then it just kind of does more the same. And that's where it loses me. um And then halfway through you,
00:40:56
Speaker
go through those spinning barrel things and then the rest of it is like completely different and you're like what just happened i don't know um i mean that being said i still got some decent scares so that's why i had this like the highest out of these four houses but same um like i didn't think it was bad either i enjoyed parts of it i just wish that it was a little more like fully baked it felt like Somebody came up with a concept and like built the first half and then somebody else came in and did the rest so with a completely different mindset.
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. This one grew on me
Appreciated Elements in HHN Houses
00:41:30
Speaker
a little bit. the The facade in the first room where you're looking up at your grave with the water dripping on you, that's top tier. That's the best part of the house, honestly.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's just the story is so hard to follow. I still don't know after reading the description exactly what part is supposed to be what. I mean, I guess the spinning thing is supposed to be the bone crusher or whatever. That's just some lights in a barrel.
00:41:56
Speaker
I don't really get it. And then what's the toilet paper monster? What is he doing up there? and those Also, the ending feels so abrupt. You're like just in the dirt and you're done.
00:42:08
Speaker
Like, just I and don't know. don't get it. Yeah. Good scares in the house. so I will say that it has some good stories. Yeah. feel like it was just a solid scares that made me want to put it a little bit higher up.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah. but think that's that's what that's that's fair That's seven through 10. I will say there's for me at least a fun, a very like thick line between six and then seven through 10. Yeah.
00:42:35
Speaker
There's a divide there. Yeah. i Yeah. So what are we on seven now or six? Okay. So six, I have terrifier.
00:42:49
Speaker
Six. I have artista. I also have our TSA six. No. And I have Jason. Yeah. All right. So next I have WWE.
00:43:02
Speaker
For five, I have Jason. I also have Jason. I have Terrifier. right. Next, Jason. Four, I have WWE. I have Terrifier.
00:43:14
Speaker
WWE. w All right. Top three. I got Galkin. Galkin. w WWE. Artista. ah sorry That went down for you. We'll talk we'll talk about that in a sec. But um number two, I have Artista.
00:43:33
Speaker
Terrifier. Galkin. Hatchet and Chains. And then number Hatchet and Chains. Hatchet and Chains. Hatchet and Chains.
00:43:44
Speaker
And Galkin. Not mad about that, Joey. Yeah. It's a great house. It's a great house. But we'll we'll start with below. Okay, so you guys have Artista so low. i mean, it's it's still great, but it's... This is one of the biggest changes for me. I think initially I had it, the highest I had it was four. So not like a huge drop off, but I think I suffered the whole season from the opening weekend, like...
00:44:15
Speaker
massive cult following of stuff. And even like all of the preseason hype around this house, do not get me wrong. This set was beautiful. I love the vibe. i love the smell. I love the idea.
00:44:29
Speaker
This house was not scary. There were always missing boo holes that I remembered from previous runs. There were always tricks that weren't working and rarely did I ever get scared. So I finally just accepted the fact that all of the other houses were better for me.
00:44:47
Speaker
Yeah, I agree this. I wanted to love this house so much and it is a beautiful house, but the scares were just not there. they were either missing or seemed like a lazy scare.
00:45:02
Speaker
I don't really know. And I kept it in, i think I had it three or four for so long. And after like five runs of just not getting good scares, I finally had to drop it down.
00:45:14
Speaker
The last run, i saw the gargoyle up there and he was just standing there and there was a backup, right? So I was in that room for probably 30 seconds. He never did anything. He was just standing there.
00:45:28
Speaker
i just Yeah, don't know what's going on. i mean i have it I mean, I still have it pretty high up because I had great runs prior to this past weekend. um The one run that I had on our last visit, they i did notice that there were so many actors missing from their spots.
00:45:44
Speaker
And there wasn't much going on. So for me, it was just more of a scenic walk with this one. I love the set and everything. So that's why it still stays up. There for me. And also this was just one out of, i think, four or five runs that I had in that house that were on the weaker end.
00:46:00
Speaker
um But, but I did notice what you guys dealt with the entire time. And this last visit. Yeah, I mean, i for me, it dropped down from one to three, i guess, because of that. um But I did not get the bad runs that um Tyler and Kelly got. I definitely got some runs with some good scares. I just didn't get as many and some of the other houses. So that's why it it dropped a little bit.
00:46:26
Speaker
um But i I can tell like the way that things were timing out. Yeah. that it's easy to miss them in there the way that a lot of it is set up. So that's probably a contributory factor.
00:46:38
Speaker
If, if it hit as hard as like some of the other houses with scares, it would be number one easily. Yeah. And I wanted it to be number one, but it was just not hitting. And then what do we have here? um Terrifiers.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah. Terrifier stayed at number six for me. um I think the each time i think first weekend that I went through it, I loved it. And I still think it's a phenomenal house.
00:47:05
Speaker
It's still great. I just feel like after that first weekend, I started to remember why I don't care for the movies. um And I think it's just all the gore. And this is this ranking is strictly just because of my preference on like the style of it, because it's a great house, like everything about it.
00:47:23
Speaker
Like
Reviews of Specific HHN Houses
00:47:24
Speaker
art's energy transcending throughout the entire house is incredible. And I'll give them that. But just the gore and just, I don't know, after some time, i was kind of like, okay, like, i I don't care to go back into this house just for that reason alone.
00:47:37
Speaker
um But it's still a very solid house. But it stayed at number six for me. That's what I had it at last time. I've got it at two and it was honestly flirting with the number one spot going out and yeah going into this last weekend. I was ready to move it up.
00:47:54
Speaker
But on that, on the Friday on Halloween, when we went, we got a not great run through Terrifier and a good run through Hatchet. I was like, ah I can't move it. I just can't.
00:48:06
Speaker
But I just love Art so much. It's a great IP. He's just such a fun, whimsical character. um Yeah, it's a great house.
00:48:17
Speaker
For me? Yes, I know. About Art at the Clown, I love that throughout, like, ah later in the season, they improved on the whole um roaming Art the Clown experience. I feel like that was a mess at first.
00:48:29
Speaker
And each time that I saw him on the second weekend that I went, and then this past weekend, it didn't look like there were too many people following him around. So it looks like they they figured that out.
00:48:41
Speaker
Guys, did you see the videos of the actor meeting the arts? Yes. I love it so much. Yeah. I saw that the other day. I was like, that's so cool. and it was on the final night too.
00:48:53
Speaker
Yeah. And the girl that was with him, I didn't even recognize who she was at first, but it was the girl who plays little pale girl was also there with Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know That's awesome. That was really cool. Yeah.
00:49:06
Speaker
I have Terrifier at four. It's been there pretty much only because the other three I just like better. Like there's really nothing wrong with this house, I would say. As the season went on, my runs did get weaker and weaker, but i still was hyped to go in that house every time. i love the music when you're like waiting to go into the facade. I have a great time every time like interacting with the arts. I feel like they're there to interact with you more than just scare you.
00:49:34
Speaker
The gore doesn't bother me at all. Like almost don't even recognize it. Like I'm just like looking for the arts. Yeah. I don't know. Really solid house. Like I really enjoyed it. I just preferred the others over it.
00:49:47
Speaker
Yeah. This, this dropped for me. I think I had it. I don't know. Top two maybe before um because of recency bias. That's all. I did not get to do it this last weekend. So the last one was in September. It won House of the Year, apparently. It did, yeah. Firefire?
00:50:03
Speaker
Yeah. Which has a combination of like internal universal metrics. So it it doesn't really have to do with what people liked the best. But yeah we good for them. Cat Lady was best.
00:50:14
Speaker
Scare Zone. zone Nice. nice What else? Let's talk about Jason next. Because this one jumped up. I mean, I still have it at five, but it it impressed me the most um in a positive way throughout the season. Like initially, I felt like I was so bummed about how there was like, what I thought very minimal scenic design.
00:50:40
Speaker
And it was just like about the repetitive scares, which was really dependent on timing, which is still true. But I think because I had been through it so many times, I did really like pay a little bit more attention to the scenic design this time. And there definitely are seams. It's just kind of samey because you're going from like cabin to cabin.
00:50:59
Speaker
You do get that nice outside part. There's really no scenic design at the end. It's about the scares, which is fine. That's like what they were going for. But if you get a good run in there, like I had on Friday night, like that house is really good. It's really fun and enjoyable. It's very um I still think like the whole premise of just having it about the different versions of Jason and not having a storyline fell little bit flat in some aspects because it's kind of the same way they set up Insidious the further last year where there was like no storyline. It was just like the different demons.
00:51:33
Speaker
I feel like there was at least a little bit more differentiation of what we were looking at in Insidious. And in this house, it was just, you know, was like, all the different Jasons and very similar scenes.
00:51:46
Speaker
um But if you get good timing in there, it can be really good. So I ended up moving it up. Yeah. And i think think, like, um you guys were watching...
00:51:57
Speaker
the first original Friday the 13th in the Verbo. And I was, and as I was watching, cause I hadn't seen it in so long, like, and then going into the house, I was like, this house really had no business having any kind of scenery. I mean, they, they had some, but it's just, it's going to be a very like,
00:52:16
Speaker
basic I mean, there's not gonna be much to it. Like, you're just gonna get the same campy kind of, like vibe, like the camp, like campground kind of, you know, setting and all that. Besides that, you really don't need anything else.
00:52:28
Speaker
And then a bunch of Jason's. And I haven't seen really many of the other movies. I know that the the scenes like got really out there. like They have like the space one and like the New York one. It's like, obviously, they didn't represent all of that. But I see why they couldn't. That would be a little bit crazy.
00:52:44
Speaker
The one thing that I realized when we were watching Friday the 13th at the Verbo was that they they lied to us. They do not have every version of Jason in that house because they don't have water Jason.
00:52:58
Speaker
Lake Jason. Arguably best Jason. Yeah. I remember when I saw that, like with you guys, I totally forgot about that happening. that You guys were just laughing and I was kind of like, whoa, like I totally forgot about that. We were cracking up. It's just so ridiculous.
00:53:15
Speaker
It is. It's very ridiculous. but The first time we watched it in the summer, we literally rewound it to watch that part again because we were like, wait, what? Yeah.
00:53:26
Speaker
This house grew on me a lot. Honestly, my run Friday might be run of the year for any house. I don't remember where you guys were in line with me, like if you were close to me, but I feel like I got 15 scares in Jason.
00:53:41
Speaker
It was incredible. These actors were on a next level. So shout out to them on Halloween night. um But that did make me bring it up at least one or two. I can only bring it so...
00:53:52
Speaker
so high because I still don't love the set, but the scares were absolutely on point this year. And the actors in there were aggressive. Like there was definitely an an uptick in their energy level.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. They got better as the year went. Yeah. For sure. But, um but how about WWE? I know I have that at number five.
00:54:18
Speaker
You guys have it higher for sure. yeah Joe, you have it at four. Kelly, three. Tyler, four.
Overall Impressions and Standout Moments at HHN
00:54:26
Speaker
So have it at five. I love this house. Like, I've always had it very high. And...
00:54:31
Speaker
and you guys were kind of skeptical of me at first. I felt, or at least Tyler was our first trip, but i you were like, what are you talking about? i just grew I mean, I couldn't move it above the other two, which is not as good, but I just like continued to love it. I understand what this house means to people and seeing, um,
00:54:57
Speaker
Bray's brother there with some of the other w wwe wrestlers like getting so emotional. like Made me emotional. Because obviously they...
00:55:09
Speaker
they met their goal of what they were trying to do. i think, you know, at first, the one thing that bothered me about this house was just like how much w WWE there was. Like, it's like, this is wwe WWE. It's like, yes, we get it. But kind of the more times I went through and recognize the sequence of events was like, okay, this is how the Wyatt Six were introduced. Then this is kind of the transition into the realms of like the different characters and then it finishing with like that tribute Wyndham or Bray.
00:55:39
Speaker
i just think it was put together really well. And as the season went on, the scares were definitely stronger in there. I would say like this most recent trip, they maybe weren't the strongest because I was kind of anticipating. I think this house, actually ran more than any other house because ah the wait times were generally short, but like,
00:55:58
Speaker
for example, in the TV screen hallway, like that double scare where they come out of the middle of the screens. Like I knew it was there, but it still got me like it didn't get me bad, but it's like, you know, I, I appreciated how close the actors were getting to you. I feel like the energy in there was really good as well. And I, I just, I enjoyed this house the whole season, the whole season. I think it was really interesting.
00:56:23
Speaker
um how this story came to be and how the house came to be. And I hope there's something similar to that in the future, kind of like a, an emotional driven house.
00:56:35
Speaker
I don't know. I was so skeptical. I don't watch wrestling and it ended up being just so great. Love it. It's a, I love that. I love the house. Like it isn't any higher just cause I liked the other ones more, yeah,
00:56:50
Speaker
It's very solid. And I think like you were saying, like, I think that the connection that it has to so many fans is awesome. Like there is a huge following for this house.
00:57:00
Speaker
And I love that. And I think it's well-deserved. um And definitely after seeing the documentary that made me see everything totally differently. But um yeah, it's a, it's a very good house. I can't complain about that house at all.
00:57:16
Speaker
This is the one that went up the furthest in my rankings. I remember, i think it was after the first night, Kelly looked at me and she was like, I think that might be my number one. And I'm like, what are you talking about?
00:57:29
Speaker
There's no way. But slowly getting more runs in this throughout the whole season, I began to really understand the plot and understand what it means to people, not just WWE w fans, but also seeing, like you said, the actors coming in and sort of reliving what they what they built and then seeing what – um you know Basically just remembering their their friend that passed away and seeing the emotion that this house brought um was pretty moving. But the scares were always consistent from the beginning.
00:58:05
Speaker
I just i didn't understand the plot or what it was representing. So once I really understood that, it jumped up in my rankings. This is actually Shay's number one.
00:58:17
Speaker
Really? Yeah, it's her favorite house. I asked her, I was like, what's your, like, we talked about it. And she was, I was like, is Hatchet and Chains your favorite still? Because we had agreed on that. And then she was like, I don't know. She's like, i really love WWE. I'm like, really? I'm like, okay she's She's been stuck on that one since I think her second run. So yeah, that's her number one.
00:58:37
Speaker
Joey, what are your thoughts on WWE? Yeah. I don't really have anything to add. I just the second and third runs I got were more aggressive than the first one. I don't even know if it moved. um I think it maybe moved up one spot for me.
00:58:49
Speaker
um But yeah, it was really good. The actors were great. um i got flung with hair multiple times because they were getting so close, which is hilarious. um And yeah, just like going through it more, as you said, you start to appreciate the set and the way that the story is built out. And it's it was really cool.
00:59:07
Speaker
Yeah. Galkin. Let's talk about that. That's Joey's number one now. so I guess I'll have to start then. um i so and I guess we'll talk about that too. but my My second Hatchet and Chains run just wasn't as good as the first one I had. and so That's the reason why Galkin is here over it. um because I got good scares both times I went through Galkin.
00:59:31
Speaker
Galkin, I think it has a really solid set design, like a fun, unique concept, um especially like I enjoyed looking up going through this house. There was a lot of set decoration that was elevated, a lot of fun details to look for. And that definitely helped me get distracted and then get scared because I was like looking around at the fun things to see in there.
00:59:57
Speaker
um It had a lot of fog. Like I enjoyed the the wicker man fire aspect to it. And then that finale, like obviously because of the way that HHN works, it doesn't hit every time.
01:00:10
Speaker
um And like I actually my second run got good scares everywhere else except for there. So it didn't time out for me. um But it's just really, really like even without having the scares in there, the way that it's set up in the set design that is so cool.
01:00:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's so good. I love that that finale. It is so cool looking. um But yeah, this this remains at top three for me. It is such a good house. I i don't know. I have nothing bad to say about it. It's just very good.
01:00:42
Speaker
Solid theming, great scares, great set. um One of the best puppets of any house ever. Yeah. um Yeah, I love it. Yeah. I don't have much to add other than like earlier in the season, this, I considered this house to potentially move up to number one between it and hatched and chains.
01:01:04
Speaker
I think this visit, I just didn't have like the best runs. Like my timing was off. Like I didn't get as scared, but I still really appreciate the design and um the ending is, is truly top notch. It's like,
01:01:20
Speaker
I can't think of a better ending or a more like climactic ending to a house, to be honest. um And it's just one of those houses where I i keep thinking about it after the fact.
01:01:32
Speaker
Like every time I've gone to HHN, I've left and I'm like, oh, I wonder like if I would get ah stronger run in there, like would it move up? Like it's just one of those ones that I think I'll always miss doing.
01:01:43
Speaker
really enjoyed it. And then hatchet and chains never moved for me. That stayed at number one the entire time. I i had a solid run every single time.
01:01:55
Speaker
Nothing beats that first scare that I got the night that I went with you guys where i almost fell and ate it. um But yeah, that, that, that house is just, I just love everything about it. I think the theme is so cool. Like it's such an original concept.
01:02:09
Speaker
um I feel like one thing that I can't remember if I've mentioned this on the show before, but like, um um there There are so many houses where like, you know, after going so many years, you start to recognize some of the costumes like they kind of look similar and they start that you can kind of like see it it's like the same one, but they just like recycled it.
01:02:30
Speaker
I feel like this one was just so different. We didn't get much of that. um Like Grave of Flesh, like that house, I've noticed so many of those costumes in years past. Yeah. um But the theming in Hatchet and Chains and then that cool train room and the cool like hand scare.
01:02:46
Speaker
i love that scare. um Yeah, I don't know everything about it. I just I love it. It was it was the like the full package for me. That's what really sets it apart is the variety of scares.
01:02:58
Speaker
You have the hand coming through the mouth. You have the bullet holes with the smoke coming out of them. You have the train scene. You have the eye on stilts. You have hatchet and chains on the elevated platforms.
01:03:10
Speaker
You have the the horse puppet. You have the coffins that look empty and then they're like jumping through the coffins just So many varied scares in here.
01:03:21
Speaker
good. So great with the smoky facade with the actor outside. I mean, this is truly a top house of all time. I've seen rankings of people putting this at seven, eight or nine.
01:03:33
Speaker
What are you talking about? So many
Favorite HHN Food and Drink Items
01:03:36
Speaker
people are going through your mind. going through your mind I don't get it. Like, even if you get a run where you don't get the most scares, which to be honest happened to me this time. Like, I think maybe it was our Friday night. I don't know about Saturday night. I know we did it, but I don't know how that run was, but I...
01:03:57
Speaker
Just every time I'm so impressed with every aspect of the house, like they don't do anything wrong. Just like you said, it's like, this is a proper facade. They need to do this more. yeah They need to have a scare actor outside. This scare actor I follow on Twitter and I've loved following her all season. Like, so she is so like proud of her role in the house. And like, that makes me like it more. I'm like, this woman loves her job and she's like,
01:04:24
Speaker
wants to be out there scaring people every night and the the whole rest of the scare actors in the house give that same energy like even if you don't run into the scare if you see somebody else getting a scare like it's it's just a fun time every single time you go in there the one thing i could do without is the smell that's another house where the smell bothers me the lava room but it smells like pottery i don't i don't like it it's very weird smell yeah I think this year has realized has made me realize that I can't smell very well.
01:04:56
Speaker
You need to get that checked out. The smell here, the smell here. I'm like, what are you talking about? It smells fine. so All right. Well, we'll go
Stay and Scream Feature Review and Suggestions
01:05:05
Speaker
straight to questions. um Zach, we're going skip your question.
01:05:09
Speaker
You asked about our rankings. I mean, we can talk about the specific jump if we had any big jumps in our rankings. We kind of talked about it as we went through it, I think. Yeah, right? That's what i was thinking.
01:05:21
Speaker
yeah i would say in general, and this kind of is relates to another question too I think Simon's my list overall did not change that much and I have been to the event much much much much more this year than I've ever been in the past I think I went six seven one two three four seven different nights So in the past, the most I had done is two.
01:05:47
Speaker
So I was kind of surprised. Like when I go to parks and re-ride roller coasters, my rankings often change pretty substantially. And I'm surprised with how many runs I got that there was really overall like pretty minimal movement for me.
01:06:03
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it really depends. I mean, I don't know for me, like I've, then again, you did, that's a lot of visits though. Seven visits is is a lot. um So I don't know for me, like I've had, i mean I think I've gotten up to six in one season. and i mean There are years where you know your rankings will vary. like you'll have ah but You'll have a totally different experience you know each night.
01:06:26
Speaker
um but i think this year, i mean just everything was consistent. and It wasn't a bad year with the houses overall. It stayed pretty consistent. i mean I did have a pretty big drop with Terrifier. I think I had Terrifier at three and that went down to six but i'm still not taking anything away from it like it's still a solid house and yeah i don't know i think that's my biggest drop um but on to okay so scott's question um what is the best scare of the year at hhn i think mine was i can't remember if it was the first like
01:07:08
Speaker
week The last night of the first weekend I was there or that when I was there with my mom, I had such good scare and gulking that I fell over, like not fell onto the floor, but I like I like hunched over because it scared me so much. And that like is so rare for me.
01:07:22
Speaker
and don't remember where it was. It was in like the first third of the house. Mm hmm. I think it was the first time I got got by the um hand reaching through the the head. that's in That's the one I was going to say. yeah yeah um mine And then my other one is hatchet too. Cause I like the one you mentioned Tyler with the coffin that looks empty. And then all of a sudden they break through. i that got me the last time.
01:07:44
Speaker
yeah It does not look like that is anything other than a solid piece of wood. So that one's there. um I think mine's in Hatchet, the stilt guy that's in the graveyard part that kind of comes around the corner.
01:07:59
Speaker
you guys know what i'm talking about? From which one? In Hatchet. He's in a graveyard. Oh, I don't know why think you were talking about the though the guy on stilts in Artista.
01:08:10
Speaker
No, I don't remember that one. That's a good one too. That one's up there. That's like top three. When he was there, at least. right yeah Yeah, I don't think I ever got that scare. I don't think so either i don't remember it. being on Yeah, definitely the hand for me. I think i'm I'm going to go with the hand and the coffin. All right. and then Simon, wait, we went over this one, right? or Kind of. He said if we basically, if we would go more times, do you think our rankings would stay similar or change?
01:08:39
Speaker
Mine would definitely change. I feel like once you get three solid runs in you kind of have... a good idea and they won't change very much you cannot rank them after one run you honestly can't there's just so many variables but once you get three or four runs you really get a good feel for it yeah i think if you don't have that then yes and that's why i'm going to keep changing because i didn't get more than three except in like no i didn't get more than three in any of them um i just got three and like go some of them but i think it's more like
01:09:13
Speaker
my bottom four and my top six would have stayed the same, but they would have shifted all around because frankly, at any time, I think one of those top six could have been my favorite. All right. And then show wants to know what food or drinks from this year's HHN would you like to see offered year round at universal and which park slash area would you place it at?
01:09:35
Speaker
Fried PB and J in the same place. Oh my God. It is so good. I, okay. So I didn't have it this year until the, that last night. Cause had it, I had it before a couple years ago and I really liked it, but i didn't care to get it again, but it it is so good.
01:09:50
Speaker
um my God. I was like, wow, that's really freaking good. I'm glad I ended up, Shane ended up getting it this time and I got to have some of that, but it is so good. Yeah. I would, I would definitely keep that in the, in the parks.
01:10:04
Speaker
I don't know if there's anything that I would keep. I think overall the food was good, not great this year. There's nothing super memorable for me. I'm not on the fried PB&J train like you guys are.
01:10:16
Speaker
I just wanted to steal it from Kelly last week in our ah draft, but I don't love it. and when i had I liked it the first time, but when I had it this weekend, it was super greasy. and I get what people were saying. it was the worst one. There was so much grease. It was pretty greasy.
01:10:31
Speaker
And it just like gets caught in the bread basically and soaked in and it kind of gave me the ick a little bit. But there's nothing that really stood out enough where I would want to see it year round.
01:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like it's just appropriate for HHN. I don't think it like like much of the food needs to be brought over to the the regular parks. And that's kind of the allure of it is you can only get it for two months.
01:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, sure. I definitely feel that way about the drinks. Like I don't see any point in having specialty drinks day for the main season. I can guarantee you I'm not going to get a foot long mozzarella stick outside of this event, but somehow every time I went, i did get one.
01:11:15
Speaker
have like five of of them now. Oh my gosh. Yeah. All right. So next fits Ryan fits would like to know final thoughts.
01:11:26
Speaker
Final thoughts on how Universal ran their stay in Scream this year with giving people the freedom to go wherever they wanted when the park was still open for the day. And anything you tweak for 35. I think it worked out pretty well. i was kind of worried about the that whole process, but it was a lot better.
01:11:44
Speaker
You weren't stuck. Yeah. You weren't stuck in a specific spot where you were like sweating your ass off because like you're in the sun, like you can go wherever you want around the park and go eat something or you can start queuing up for, you know, a house.
01:11:58
Speaker
I just feel like it was a lot better. I don't know how it goes in those last couple of minutes where they have to like make sure there's nobody hanging around. i don't know how that is, but I mean, I'm assuming there's nothing for them to do if they're not staying for horror nights, they got to go.
01:12:14
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean, overall, I think that the process was pretty smooth. I think it works, but my tweak... Well, they the security just does a sweep, I'm pretty sure.
01:12:25
Speaker
But part of the part of what helps is that so many people get in queues. And once you're in the queue, you're not out in the park anymore. um Yeah, that's what was wondering, though. i was like, how like how are you going to get every single person? like Trust me, that security team has to do it every night regardless because there are people that try to stow away and in parks, especially like that, all the time.
01:12:43
Speaker
And they know where to look. They go in every bathroom. They look in every stall. like it's I'm sure time goes. Yeah. Yeah, so I worked security before park security. So I was this was running through my mind on ah Sunday night when I went because I got there.
01:12:58
Speaker
i had to hustle a little bit to get in for stay and scream. I got in like 455. And so the park was closing. And then I walked all the way back to Falcon and Galkin and I passed three security checkpoints where they're checking for your wristband.
01:13:12
Speaker
Which is good, but then I was thinking, what if you get in line for Men in Black or Simpsons or something at 4.59, right before the park closes? The line's going to be however long it is.
01:13:26
Speaker
then I feel like you can get out and you can hide in a bathroom or something, just go in a stall and sit in there until 630. Yeah. Whenever they open the front gate and you can come out. I really don't think it would be that hard because, yeah, security is doing their sweep, but it's not a normal sweep with where they're looking for anybody. They're looking for people without a wristband.
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah. You're in a stall or something. They're not going to peek into the stall. Hey, show me your wristband. I feel like it will be that hard. Yeah, but I mean, in the grand scheme of things, do they really care if five people per night don't pay for their HHN pass? Like, is that a big deal where they need to change in the entire...
01:14:10
Speaker
No, because they make it up with Express in 30 seconds. yeah exactly Exactly. but Overall, I loved it. I hope they continue it next year. Some people said they only did it because of um like Rip Ride Rocket and stuff, all the lines back there being all messed up. But I hope they keep that area the same, and I hope they keep Stay and Scream the same because everything seems so much smoother.
01:14:34
Speaker
yeah I think it depends on how far along they are with construction on the new coaster. Yeah. How well things will look next year and actually
Queue Management and Food Options Discussion
01:14:41
Speaker
what the coaster looks like. Who knows? Because the footers could get in the way. It'll be really interesting to see how that works.
01:14:47
Speaker
ah My biggest tweak was I think it works really well. um But my biggest tweak would be I would love and appreciate if they didn't open the queues until 430 so you don't have to sit in the queues forever. But.
01:14:58
Speaker
I agree. Or like open the food and beverage booths a little bit earlier. that was my other comment. You like walk around, you get, you get in there thinking i'm going to get my wristband at three and get stuff before I get in this queue. But like all that was open was the mozzarella stick Like before the four o'clock mark where the queues open, like you couldn't get anything else if you wanted to. So you had to pick and choose like what you wanted to do. I feel like if they're if they're selling these stay in screen tickets, like people that don't have passes are buying these tickets. I'd be pretty pissed if I'm like trying to get in these houses. But I also want to experience what they're offering.
01:15:34
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like it was. because it Because in previous years, I guess it was easier for food and beverage to handle that because it was only the specific corrals that were open. And they always were. They were always all open and you could pick whatever you wanted.
01:15:47
Speaker
But this year, like, I don't know, they did not open those as quickly, it seemed. Yeah. But also when they were open, like, you only have the cheese stick one open and there wasn't a line. So maybe there's just not demand that early.
01:16:02
Speaker
and Oh, I saw a long line for that thing. and Like ah four? Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, every time I saw it Maybe it's because it was the only option, but yeah, I saw pretty. Two or three people in line.
01:16:13
Speaker
I saw a pretty good and pretty good length line during the stay-inscroom period, but that might have just been, again, availability. I don't know. I'm sure that's what it is, though. Like the sales just don't justify because you don't have everybody, like not all of the 630, like the general audience is out there yet to for the food.
01:16:30
Speaker
I just wish they had a little more available or just pushed push the queue opening a little bit later. Yeah, agree.
Rumors and Future of Nightmare Fuel Show
01:16:37
Speaker
Also, but before we move on to the next little section, can we talk about nightmare fuel?
01:16:43
Speaker
Oh my gosh, yeah. I didn't even know that that it might be over. i don't... Yeah. So there's all kinds of rumors. I know there's all kinds of rumors about nightmare fuel. So the fuel girls only had a five-year contract, which is now up. there was some controversy about like firing of some local dancers during the course of the season. There were injuries this season.
01:17:08
Speaker
I am ready for nightmare fuel to be over. And it does seem like the story has been wrapped up, but I hope that they keep that similar show with the same type of performers, like just different story.
01:17:21
Speaker
But like, I love the fuel girls and I love the dancers and I love the contortionists. so I hope they just come up with a new way to utilize them. I hope it's not like completely over forever. i agree. They need some sort of,
01:17:35
Speaker
Sort of variety show like that with all tor all types of different talents showcased. um I think I said this in a previous episode, they also need a second stage show somewhere just for crowd dispersion purposes, at least.
01:17:53
Speaker
um Yeah, we didn't talk much about Nightmare Fuel, though, and the changes. though i guess it all happened after the last episode. But apparently two of the performers got injured.
01:18:05
Speaker
in that final stunt. Cause I know when we saw it on Friday, they didn't have the final stunt and it kind of ruined the plot of it because yeah she goes in the, or they go in the saw and then like the saw goes in and kills them or whatever. Like, Oh wait, no, she's fine.
01:18:23
Speaker
Curtain raised, whatever. But then the curtain never raised. Nobody dropped that whole part just didn't happen. And you're like, wait, what, what even happened with the plot here? So now I will say I saw it on Sunday the last night and they had fixed that. That part was back in, which was good. I really appreciated that.
01:18:43
Speaker
um But they still did not have the second acrobatic person. Yeah, you had posted. You were like, oh, I'm watching it for the last time.
01:18:54
Speaker
Like, possibly watching it for the last time. I'm like, what is he talking about? I had no idea about any of this. Yeah, I know it's still a rumor, but I could definitely see it. It is kind of played out. And like Kelly said, the the storyline's over. Yeah.
01:19:10
Speaker
I don't know what a variation of that would be. Yeah, and I know that next year being like an anniversary year, um they... They always have like a, well, not always, but sometimes they'll have like a show for Jack.
01:19:24
Speaker
And if he comes back for next year, which I'm sure he will, that might be what they have there. If they don't bring back nightmare fuel. Yeah. I hope
Top 10 Favorite HHN Houses Discussion
01:19:33
Speaker
it's something else, but I hope it's similar. I loved it so much this year. I made sure I saw it every time I went.
01:19:39
Speaker
So. Yeah, it was really good. Sad. All right. And Caleb. um would like to know um HHN season ends. So I need an all time HHN top 10 house rankings from each of you.
01:19:58
Speaker
What houses from this year made the list? Let's start at the bottom again and go up. That's fun. Let me get my little written list. Also, thank you to the people who asked about our opinions on HHN for next year. We're going to save those questions for future episodes as we speculate and continue spooky season for the entirety of forever.
01:20:20
Speaker
Yes. All right. so we're going to start with number 10. yep Yeah. All right. So I have, um i have the weekend from HHN 31.
01:20:33
Speaker
Before I get into mine, I'm going to say mine is heavily influenced by IPs that I like and also recency bias because feel like the first few seasons I went, I was very casual and don't remember a lot.
01:20:47
Speaker
So that being said, number 10, Dueling Dragons. My number 10 is Major Sweets from 33.
01:20:56
Speaker
My list is literally only from the last three seasons, so there's not much going on there. But my number 10 is Universal Monsters Eternal Bloodlines. That was a really good one. Solid. Good house.
01:21:08
Speaker
Yes. um Number nine, I have one that you guys definitely don't have from HHN19. um ah have Silver Screams, which just to give you a little description of it. So basically this was like,
01:21:24
Speaker
I kind of like to call it like the OG slaughter cinema. um But this was like the icon house for um the for the Usher when he had his first year.
01:21:34
Speaker
um So in that house, like he would like, you know, he would get you into like this really cool facade, which was like a huge like like like a whole like old school like cinema that you would walk in through and then you would go and you would step into like different movies. So like you would go in through Phantom of the Opera and then there was like a stranger's room.
01:21:53
Speaker
And then there was like a Shaun of the Dead room. Like it was just like, it was like very slaughter cinema-like, but you would go into like different horror movies, like in the universal world. um And I think that one is in my top 10, just cause that was my first year and it scared the crap out of me.
01:22:09
Speaker
um And that's the only one I remember from my first year. So that that had to go in there. So that's number nine. Nice. Yeah, I definitely don't have any from that far back, but um number nine, I have Seeds of Extinction.
01:22:23
Speaker
My number nine is from this year. It's Terrifier. And my number nine is Slaughter Cinema 2. Branching off from the original.
01:22:34
Speaker
All right. Number eight, I have El Artista. The Haunting of Hill House. My eight is Yeti Campground Kills from 32.
01:22:46
Speaker
Mine is Terrifier. All right. And then number seven, i have Hatchet and Chains. I've got stranger things. I know they did it like three or four times. I'm just going to go with the, the original one.
01:23:00
Speaker
My number seven is w WWE from this year. Nice. And mine is the darkest deal. Love. i I really wish I loved that one as much as you guys do. I did not care for that house at all.
01:23:17
Speaker
I really wish I liked it, but whatever. So number six or number six or yeah, number six. a Cabin in the Woods from HHN 23. Number six, I have Terrifier.
01:23:28
Speaker
I have The Weeknd. And I have WWE from this year. All right, number five, I have Wicked Growth from HHN 30. Insidious.
01:23:42
Speaker
I have Galkin. And I'm copying Kelly now. I have Yeti Campground Kills. I just thought it was so fun and silly. Loved it. All right. Number four, I have Scarecrow the Reaping from 27.
01:23:58
Speaker
The Darkest Deal. i also have The Darkest Deal. And I have El Artista. right. Number three, Dead Man's Pier. Hatchet and Chains.
01:24:11
Speaker
Dead Man's Pier. hatching and chains oh wow all right number two i have poltergeist from 28 blood moon i have hatched and chains and i have gulkin and number one i have insidious dead man's pier also have insidious and i have blood moon Blood Moon is so good, and didn't even think about that as I was doing the rankings today. That could probably be up here.
01:24:46
Speaker
It should be. It should be. I love that house. I love the church scene. Yeah, the church scene incredible. But I couldn't get over the kids killing their parents and that stuff.
01:25:03
Speaker
Rafa, let's talk about your darkest deal hate. I don't know, guys. It really didn't do it for me. Like I got I remember getting no scares, you know, that like I'm the biggest chicken shit in there.
01:25:13
Speaker
And um yeah, it didn't get me all that much. Like the story, I feel like I had a very bad run. I think I only got one run through that house that year that I went.
01:25:24
Speaker
um And I just I didn't care for it. I didn't like it that one time. So I didn't give it another try um So I feel like maybe if I would have given it another chance, it you know probably would be higher in my rankings.
01:25:36
Speaker
But i've heard that like it was I've heard from a lot of people that went that year that they if they went early in the season and went back, that it got better throughout the season. So maybe I just didn't get it at a good time. But I remember going, I think it was like opening weekend. So I don't know.
01:25:53
Speaker
Maybe it got better over time. Sorry. Loved it. Loved the vibe. Loved the music. Loved the colors. Loved the scares. Yeah. I'm surprised that Dueling Dragons isn't a top 10, to be honest.
01:26:06
Speaker
It had a cool set, Tyler, but like, I don't know. Yeah. I think just really like the set. Yeah. Very interesting concept. I don't really remember I wish I did.
01:26:18
Speaker
And honestly, if I put more thought into this, it would probably be different, but I did not have this list until like 20 minutes before we did this episode. So if I sat down and really thought about stuff, but I was looking at like 2018 houses, there's stuff I don't even remember, even though I know I did it. So I think if I was as meticulous about it back then as I am now, it'd be different.
01:26:44
Speaker
Yeah. But to answer the question, I had the most of the years that I've gone, the most appeared from this year in my top 10.
01:26:55
Speaker
There's four them in there. Five of 10 are from this year. Do you think that's recency bias at all? Probably not because...
Transitioning from Halloween to Christmas Season
01:27:04
Speaker
don't know if it's recency bias as much as it is like I cared most about the event this year.
01:27:11
Speaker
Like i did the most research. I went the most times. I think last year was just kind of weak. Last year was kind of weak. Yeah. The year before was like had some good ones. I liked that year a lot.
01:27:24
Speaker
I liked the two years ago a lot. The odd fellow I think its bottom houses were more bottom than this year. Yeah, agree. But its top were good. hu Yeah.
01:27:35
Speaker
What else we got here? And then the last question. Brayden asks, very unrelated, but how do you guys transition into holiday season from spooky season?
01:27:47
Speaker
By going to Christmas now. Yes. Literally in one week, we are forcing ourselves into a Christmas event. I was joking in Discord and said that I cry, but also I'm not really joking because I had some serious post-event blues after this one.
01:28:03
Speaker
like into just... i'm just sad i love this movie between spooky season being over and it being pitch black at 6 p.m yeah it does not make for good mental health in the week following this i feel like we love seasonal affective disorder so no stupid daylight savings yeah but it was pretty it's pretty sad and it kind of sucks that it's over but Now we wait to speculate.
01:28:34
Speaker
Now when the first spec map comes out on Christmas or, you know, but anytime, we're going to talk about it and it's going exciting. Last year, you guys were not on board with me and this year it's going to be different. I feel it.
01:28:48
Speaker
We're all going to be excited. I know, but I will. And we will discuss. Yes. There are already some rumors out there that we will discuss maybe next time.
01:29:01
Speaker
Yes. We will discuss all future HHN stuff then, but we just wanted to wrap up this season. It's, it's sad that it's over, but spec season will be here before we know it.
01:29:14
Speaker
So it's going
Social Media Mentions and Future Episode Plans
01:29:15
Speaker
to be very exciting, but anything else before we let go of this spooky season? We'll be at Christmastown at BGW little over a week.
01:29:28
Speaker
So look out for that on probably the next episode, I would think. I don't know what I have going on, but I'm excited to talk about it with you guys. Do something Christmassy.
01:29:39
Speaker
I'll find something Christmas, Christmasy to do her around here. Or Thanksgiving. Santa Claus meet and greet.
01:29:49
Speaker
All right. Well, of course, as always, Give us a follow on Instagram at thrills, chills, and spills. And you can find us on X slash Twitter, which is T underscore S underscore.
01:30:03
Speaker
Wait, T underscore C underscore S spills. Wait, what pod? Whatever. Just find us. Don't follow us on Twitter. It's fine. don follow us Yeah. after You can just go on our Instagram and then you can find it through there.
01:30:17
Speaker
Perfect. All right. But of course, thank you for listening. And stay spooky. Yeah. yeah Bye. That's tea, actually.
01:30:30
Speaker
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