Halloween Horror Nights 34 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[CaretakerBajaBlast]

The hardest of the hardcore were audibly down on last year. Just speculation on my part. By any metric, the streets and icons were lackluster. And quite frankly, it was all over the place. Couple that with rising costs across the board. Recipe for disaster.

I felt like I was getting ripped off left and right. Let my AP lapse and haven’t booked a trip for this year.

I told this story recently, but I did not invest in my usual Frequent Fear Plus with express this year due to last year’s event. I know it doesn’t matter to the bean counters, but when I paid over $900 for my pass and I went just enough to reach my break even, I couldn’t justify throwing that chunk of change at them again. Last year was a startling decline in quality compared to the previous, and that year was already showing declining returns in the streets.

I’m not a Scarezone guy, and I’ll maybe spend 6 hours in the zones total over the event (usually attending between 15-20 nights). But their effect on the mood and effectiveness of the event can’t be understated- they are essential to the feel of everything.

I compared last year to a bad movie in a beloved franchise: it really tanks your enjoyment and excitement going forward. They seem to be on the right path, but they have a lot to make up for before I’m fully back on the HHN train. Some of it is getting older and more jaded, I’m sure. But I know last year really shook a lot of people up.

 

[Tereglith]

I just don’t see how we get “good” zones back without crowds majorly dropping off to pre-2012 levels. There’s only so much Universal can do to make a good street (outside of NY) when the arteries of the park are constantly clogged.

I only started attending in 2021 so I never experienced "the good old days" but I felt like last year's zones were a pronounced drop-off even from the other years I've experienced. I haven't yet been to an event where every scare zone was good (31 and 32 are close but Conjure the Dark and Zodiac didn't do it for me, respectively). But 33 was the first one I've been to where none of them were very good.

SF and Central Park are obviously constrained by the crowd issue but I've seen them work okay (Shipyard, Scarecrow). Hollywood isn't really congested at all because there's no house portals anywhere near it anymore, so it should be able to work just as well as NY. I've only seen it live up to its full potential with Deadly Unrest but I'm very hopeful for Masquerade.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I felt like I was getting ripped off left and right. Let my AP lapse and haven’t booked a trip for this year.

Is that the only reason?

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

I’m all in on these zones being the best in recent years. I would even say that though it’s still early, Cat lady may end up being the best Central Park zone I’ve seen.

 

[RGMick77]

There is a review thread on here from last year’s event and l remember the sentiment was a lot of “this year felt off” and “I left feeling unsatisfied”.

I have to imagine the surveys Universal got back had a lot of similar responses.

While there were good things about last year, it just didn’t rise to the level of quality we know Universal is capable of. And that’s a big problem when the prices for almost everything have gotten so much more expensive in such a short time.