HHN without express pass near Halloween

[mombrontrent]

This is for next year 2018 but thought it was a good time to ask as we are just now starting to plan our vacation. We have Halloween week Oct 27-November 3 booked at Disneys Fort Wilderness. This will be our first trip for Halloween and we are excited!!

We considered Mickeys Halloween party but this one looks WAY more fun and it's right up my teens alley. They love horror movies and really want to attend this event. We would take an evening away from our Disney trip and come for HNN. We have only been to Universal IOA once in 2011 and never this park so we would love to try out a few of the rides that are open during this event as well as some houses and scare zones ect. We know we wouldn't be able to do it all but would like to at least experience 50-75% of what's available. We would come when the event starts until close, no problem for our group to stay until 1-2 am.

We will be a party of five, me and DH and two 16 year olds and a 12 year old. The trip is already going to cost a lot of money and I'm already buying Disney tickets so to shell out another $500 for HNN will stretch the budget enough. I'm not willing to spend $1000 for us to go for one evening of HHN. So it's either without express pass or not at all. If we are going to be waiting in extremely long lines all night and not get a chance to do much I'd rather just skip it altogether. Also how long do the ride lines typically get?

 

[CAS239]

Could you make universal an all day thing? Do disney on the other days but your HHN day? If so that would greatly benefit you.

I'd strongly recommend getting a Universal ticket and going to universal during the day to ride everything. Then doing HHN at night for all the houses. This way you can do everything and Diagon Alley should really been seen during the day and at night.

I go to HHN every year and usually only 1 or sometimes 2 days with just a regular base ticket. In one night we hit all the houses and scare zones but we don't do the rides. Lines for houses will be long, their long every year. But IMO their worth the wait and I love the event. Of course I wish we didn't have to wait 30-60 min for most of the houses, and then is when I had a pass to skip the lines, but their too much money for me to shell out.

If you can only do HHN and no universal during the day then I'd recommend just seeing what houses have the longest wait. Line up early to be near the front of the crowd, do those top like 3 houses, go ride some rides, then go finish up the houses. Every year there's always those 1 or 2 houses that will have a consistent 1-2 hour wait (last year it was American Horror Story and Walking Dead).. So if you get those top houses knocked out you'll be good.

 

[tony67]

One other thing is you can consider going Halloween night - from what I understand that is slower than other nights - people from the area are involved in trick or treating and there are some events in Downtown Orlando that attract many of the locals (this is according to the bartenders I spoke with in Citywalk)

I cant speak to the Monday night - the 30th - but that may also be a good choice - hard to say

As the PP said - I'd expect to wait 1 hour per house - possibly longer.
Make sure you use the Universal app and check wait times - they can fluctuate greatly over the night
get there at least an hour early - the lines just to get in can be very long

Yes it would be best if you could go during the day as well - then you can hang around in a waiting area and do a few houses before most people even get into the park - but that would cost more than the express pass I think

 

[mombrontrent]

How long do the lines for the rides that are open typically get? I'd be willing to wait maybe 30 minutes but not much more.

 

[tony67]

How long do the lines for the rides that are open typically get? I'd be willing to wait maybe 30 minutes but not much more.

I dont usually do the rides - but I would not expect the ride lines to be very long - people are there to do the HHN stuff for the most part.
I'd expect ride lines to be less than 30 minutes
RRR was running with empty cars many times - MIB was pretty much walk on - during the day these were 30 minutes plus

The houses will be an hour or more for the most part - but that can drop to 30 minutes at times - at opening some of them are 10 to 15 minutes
Everyone rushes to Saw, the Shining and AHS - but dark waters, Evil Dead and the fallen may be a short line of 10 to 15 minutes at least at the opening

 

[mombrontrent]

Could you make universal an all day thing? Do disney on the other days but your HHN day? If so that would greatly benefit you.

I'd strongly recommend getting a Universal ticket and going to universal during the day to ride everything. Then doing HHN at night for all the houses. This way you can do everything and Diagon Alley should really been seen during the day and at night.

I go to HHN every year and usually only 1 or sometimes 2 days with just a regular base ticket. In one night we hit all the houses and scare zones but we don't do the rides. Lines for houses will be long, their long every year. But IMO their worth the wait and I love the event. Of course I wish we didn't have to wait 30-60 min for most of the houses, and then is when I had a pass to skip the lines, but their too much money for me to shell out.

If you can only do HHN and no universal during the day then I'd recommend just seeing what houses have the longest wait. Line up early to be near the front of the crowd, do those top like 3 houses, go ride some rides, then go finish up the houses. Every year there's always those 1 or 2 houses that will have a consistent 1-2 hour wait (last year it was American Horror Story and Walking Dead).. So if you get those top houses knocked out you'll be good.

I dont usually do the rides - but I would not expect the ride lines to be very long - people are there to do the HHN stuff for the most part.
I'd expect ride lines to be less than 30 minutes
RRR was running with empty cars many times - MIB was pretty much walk on - during the day these were 30 minutes plus

The houses will be an hour or more for the most part - but that can drop to 30 minutes at times - at opening some of them are 10 to 15 minutes
Everyone rushes to Saw, the Shining and AHS - but dark waters, Evil Dead and the fallen may be a short line of 10 to 15 minutes at least at the opening

Thanks for the replies, I think we will go just for HHN and take our chances no express pass. I really don't want to shell out more money for day tickets to the park because with my group we'll never make it there in time to make use of the tickets. While I like to get up and get going the rest of my party prefers to get to the park around noon and stay until park closing. There is no way I could get them up and out the door to make use of day tickets. I'll make store to get to the park early for HHN and I'll be happy to get a few rides in and see what we can without express pass.

We won't be going on actual Halloween night as the teens want to do the trick or treating at Fort Wilderness but we could go just before Halloween or right after. After Halloween is HHN typically less crowded? I'm assuming it might be less crowded then the couple HHN just prior to Halloween?

 

[Metro West]

We won't be going on actual Halloween night as the teens want to do the trick or treating at Fort Wilderness but we could go just before Halloween or right after. After Halloween is HHN typically less crowded? I'm assuming it might be less crowded then the couple HHN just prior to Halloween?

Halloween night isn't that busy but the weekend before is slammed. Just keep that in mind and w/o Express Passes you won't see a whole lot. After Halloween it's still pretty busy as us locals try and go as many times as we can. Not as bad as the weekend before but still long lines can be expected.

 

[robl45]

Try to go on an offnight or something, I believe during the week is less crowded. We went one year without express passes about 12 years ago or so and it was just ridiculous. I think we got in two houses in 4 hours. Complete waste of time.

 

[LoveToDisney]

If you want to see all the houses, get the express pass. Otherwise, most of your evening will be spent in line. We bought an express pass for our adult son...he was able to see all the houses and do all the rides while we stood in line for 2 houses and finally just enjoyed the street atmosphere which is terrific in itself.

 

[xStitch]

I can't remember exactly if it was Halloween night, the 30th or the 1st, we've done two years late October and it gets kinda blurry. But the year or two before we didn't do express and saw barely anything so we decided lets spring for express to make it worth it. We didn't even need it. One of the originals, might have been Roanoke, I honestly can't even remember anymore, all the years start to blur together but either way, the stand by line was only 5 minutes. We joked we spent more time walking to the house than we did in line or even in the house lol. We got everything done including the shows, minus one house that we didn't care to see, plus our feet were killing us.

If there's one specific house that everyone wants to see and it's something big like AHS or the Walking Dead, I'd try to knock that one off first, ones like that will get insane. I think I saw AHS hit 4-5 hours last year when we went opening night.

At the same time, I'm the type who enjoyed just standing around watching the chainsaw gang go after people who were scared out of their minds. So we did that for a little bit to pass some of the time.

 

[FSU Girl]

I wouldn't go without the express pass. The first year I went I was only able to do 2 houses and the lines were nuts. To me, without the express pass the night wouldn't be worth it

 

[FrankDIS72]

Last year, Halloween was on a Monday. The longest wait that night was 60 minutes for American Horror Story. Most other houses had waits of 20-30 minutes. If you want to do HHN without Express, I would go on October 30 or October 31 (Monday and Tuesday). Another option: buy the Frequent Fear pass and go two nights (like Monday and Tuesday). That way what you don't see one night you can do the other night (or do your favorites again on the 2nd night).

I would not suggest going to HHN on a Saturday without Express passes. That's wacky nu nu!

 

[Ryan2016]

We just got back from the our trip this year. We did a few nights at Disney and HHN. This year we got the express pass and it was well worth it but last year we didn't.

What i would recommend is looking at the HHN ticket grouping this year because 2016 to 2017 they were actually the same and it will give you an idea of what it will cost.

I would look specifically at the multi-night tickets frequent fear. MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE DATES as each ticket group is for different nights ie rush of fear vs frequent fear. You can buy tickets for multiple nights at a cheaper prices than individual nights.

If you are not doing the express pass I would recommend two nights just so you can see all the houses. If you have park admission you can do the stay and scream which are just holding areas in the parks but they will let you into the houses earlier than the gates so you maybe able to get 2-3 house down before the admission gates open. The houses get slower around 11-12 but it didn't happen every night.

The rides in the park are basically walk ons so don't worry about those.

 

[Miumiu4me]

How long do the lines for the rides that are open typically get? I'd be willing to wait maybe 30 minutes but not much more.

Last night they were 15-30 minutes. Saturday's tend to be busiest.

 

[TornadoTitan]

I just came back from my first HHN trip last Thursday, an offtime, it was a $70 ticket and bargain for how much I squeezed in. The waits for the regular rides still in operation were 5-10 minutes, though I was also a solo traveler so was able to do single rider with basically no waiting at all. I rode Gringotts 2 times, Mummy 6 times, Rockin Rollercoast 6 times, as well as Transformers, Simpsons, and MIB, all walk ons. This was during the first half at night when the lines for the houses were 30-60 min long.

By the time I was done with all the rides the houses were down to 10-25 minute lines. And was about to do 7 of the 9 houses before they closed down.

 

[mombrontrent]

I just came back from my first HHN trip last Thursday, an offtime, it was a $70 ticket and bargain for how much I squeezed in. The waits for the regular rides still in operation were 5-10 minutes, though I was also a solo traveler so was able to do single rider with basically no waiting at all. I rode Gringotts 2 times, Mummy 6 times, Rockin Rollercoast 6 times, as well as Transformers, Simpsons, and MIB, all walk ons. This was during the first half at night when the lines for the houses were 30-60 min long.

By the time I was done with all the rides the houses were down to 10-25 minute lines. And was about to do 7 of the 9 houses before they closed down.

That sounds awesome, if I only I could get so lucky!

 

[FrankDIS72]

Did you decide on what you're going to do? Lots of great info in this thread!

 

[mombrontrent]

Did you decide on what you're going to do? Lots of great info in this thread!

Well I've decided that we definitely want to go to this event! What we will most likely do is have a relaxing day at Fort Wilderness swimming and exploring the Fort then head to Universal early so we can be near the front of the pack heading in. Hopefully bang out some houses before it gets too crazy then check out some scare zones and rides and then see more houses at the end as time permits. We aren't going until next year 2018 but thought that this was the time to start gathering info as obviously there is a lot of info on HHN right now. I appreciate all the insight and info from everyone here

 

[Metro West]

By the time I was done with all the rides the houses were down to 10-25 minute lines. And was about to do 7 of the 9 houses before they closed down.

Which ones did you miss?