So now that is is over this is how I ranked the houses. I wrote this when I got back in September but waited to share as I did not want to spoil
HHN for anyone. Sounds like my experiences was not all that different than others - and mine was before the storms.
I went for 10 nights of HHN with express and did Stay and scream several times - so I did most of the houses at least 10 times.
Would love to get others onions now that its done.
1 - Insidious - well done house - the house design itself in nothing special and reuses much from the previous insidious house from what I can recall - still 90% good walkthroughs - even the mediocre walkthroughs were fun. (I think this was not all that different than a previous Insidious house though - just it was the best of what we had this year)
2 - Ghostbusters - its just fun - a couple of good scenes - unfortunately there are often missing key SAs - for example Slimer (Since replaced with a prop of some sort) - when the house is 100% its really good. Still have not seen the movie.
3 - Goblins Feast - great house - way too short - also so many walkthroughs with missing SAs. When its running at full its great - but even at 100% its way too short.
4 - Slaughter Sinema 2 - Lots of good stuff here - its a lot of fun - but more than once I had an entire scene with no SAs at all - I can see a few of these being houses in the next few years. I had no SAs in the Mardi Gras scene one time. Only Mr or Mrs Clause in the Christmas scene a couple of times - the elf was missing multiple times as well. Missing characters in the Heavy Metal scene......
5 - Triplets of Terror - much better than I was expecting - You need to understand the backstory though. There may be a podcast out there - but I guess Spotify said it was too disturbing to post. That came from the guide on the Behind the scenes tour. Oh and the dog it back - both parts this time.
6 - Eternal Bloodlines - way overhyped - it was just OK - a couple of good scenes if you are lucky enough to catch them - I did this house at least 12 times and only got the wolf scene once - and I was always walking slow through that scene as it takes time to reset. the other problem is the Bride was missing from multiple places multiple times so you don't even get the story - just all of a sudden at the end is the bride - without the behind the scenes tour you want get much of the story IMO. Even more annoying she would not be in the scenes but then she would be at the end as you exit.
7 - Major Sweets - Its Ok - but missing SAs are again a big problem. Miss treats was missing a few times from the beginning and almost always from the middle. It also feels very short - when you come out I am expecting a second half like other houses in that location. Also the banging was a bit much - especially if you get stuck in that hallway - which seems to happen regularly
8 - Monstrous - was expecting so more from this - one issue yet again was missing SAs - when the main character in a scene is missing more than once and in multiple scenes it really stinks. Yeah the puppets were pretty cool.
9 - The Museum - just does not work at all - even after the behind the scenes tour - its just not quite right. I still put it ahead of a quite place as it was a good attempt and there are a few cool scenes. I skipped this most nights - but tried again on busy nights just in case it got better. I really wanted to give this one a chance as I was really looking forward to it.
10 - A quite Place - well they tried something different and it just does not work - I skipped this many nights - but tried it again on busy nights just to be sure. Too many animatronics and or puppets - if you want to call them that. Did not enjoy it at all.
So in general pretty disappointing as I already stated many times missing SAs was a big factor.
Personally I would recommend against stay and scream - yeah you can get the houses done quickly - but the SAs are much more likely to be missing from the house early as they are still getting makeup on or running late or whatever.
If you do it and have express don't waste your express pass during stay and scream - come back and do the house later with express when its full.
If you just want to say you did all 10 houses and don't really care then its fine - and there are a lot of folks who are fine with that
Scare zones - I'm not even going to bother - I know I've said this too many times they are just selfie zones for the most part. Did not spend much time in any of them as they were lame - in the past I would spend hours in them.
Didn't do the show - I know its meant to be good and I watched it on
YouTube - I'd just like something different.
I'd much prefer something like the Beetlejuice Review or a show with the classic monsters or instead of the Blumehouse selfie zone maybe a Blumhouse show.
