Went tonight for Night #2. Thanks to a heads-up from
@Freak, the night turned out near perfect.
We
didn't have Early Access, but got in the park right before 5:30 with our APs (and having FFPs). Employee gave us wristbands so we could stay in the park, and then we took a chance on seeing if they'd let us into
Terrifier... which they did! Got in line around 5:40, waited about 10-15 minutes, and we were out. The house was an absolute blast! The Art actors are ALL absolutely spot-on in their mannerisms and body language, and you can tell they're just having so much fun.
After that, we popped over to
Poltergeist, waited another 10ish minutes, and were out. I loved when the house was here the first time, so this was fun to see it again, with the coffin hallway still being my favorite part. Lots of black walls compared to the rest of the event, which was disappointing just cause I'd hoped they'd do a little more with round two of the house, but still charming.
About 6:15, we went to the lower lot because
Jason was only 30 minutes, and that employee wouldn't let us in (which is okay). We got a drink instead, then decided to go to Jurassic World, but an employee convinced us to just... keep walking to
WWE? That whole line is an awful mess, because it looked like people were both being held in a containment pen for it over by the raptor meet-and-greet while others were just going into it just fine. Either way, employee(s) definitely didn't care. Had NO CLUE what anything going on in this house meant (who was who, what the story was, whatever) but there was a lot of fun energy with the cast, so I'll give it that! Not something that was really on my priority list, but considering it took all of ten minutes to both walk to it, get through the line, and get out of it, I can't complain.
(Also of note, a parent with his small kids was ahead of us, and after the third scare, the youngest child started crying -- the actor actually crouched down and high-fived her to calm her down, which she returned. It was a nice thing to see an actor realize in that moment that the kid was struggling, in the dark, no less, and make a snap judgment in how to handle it, and it
worked.)
Hit up Jurassic World to kill time til 7:00, then hit up
Jason, with a posted wait of about 45 minutes; ended up being about 25 minutes. Had a blast! Again, the Jason actors were clearly having fun (albeit less expressive). Afterwards, since we had the dining package, we got the mac & cheese and Jason s'mores, ate, then popped up and did
Chainsaw Man, which... was not for me. And based on the reactions we heard when exiting, people just had no clue what was going on, why it was there, what it even
was, and my personal opinion is that this works at Fan Fest Nights, but not HHN, at least here in Hollywood, which is just a different crowd than Japan. I'm sure others disagree, and that's fine, but I honestly regret having wasted about 40 minutes on this between standing in line, standing in the preshow, and the show itself.
From there, I got tacos, we went back down to the lower lot and got the FNAF cupcakes to take home, and then popped back up and hit up
Monstruos on the way out, with a 15-minute posted wait at 10:40 that ended up being about a half hour. Always a good time, but definitely felt like "seen it before," particularly with La Llorona being recycled.
Went home after that, so between our trip last weekend and tonight, we've done everything except for FNAF, which I just can't muster up the energy to stand two to three hours for. We'll probably buy EA at some point in October and go just to get it done, but otherwise, this year had a great line-up.
I won't go over the Express issue again, BUT one thing I have to absolutely acknowledge this year is that I'm so, so, SO thankful that employees in the houses have stopped yelling
constantly at guests to keep moving. Didn't hear it happen once either night I've been. Same with the light wands, which have been annoying in the houses the past few years, now being almost nonexistent within the houses; I loved the moment in Terrifier where Art was posed as a robed employee with the light wand, too, since it felt like an acknowledgment of how distracting it can be.