I spent 2 weeks in Orlando at the start of the season, just for HHN.  I live near USH and went there several times as well for HHN. I felt it was a so-so year for Orlando and another poor year for Hollywood, which is stuck on a terrible downward trajectory.   My end of season rankings are (Best to Worst):   Slaughter Sinema 2 Goblin’s Feast Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Legacy of Leatherface (HOLLYWOOD) Insidious: The Further (ORLANDO)   SMALL BUT DISTINCT GAP   Monstruos 2: The Nightmares of Latin America (HOLLYWOOD) Major Sweets Candy Factory  Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (ORLANDO) Dead Exposure: Death Valley (HOLLYWOOD) Terror Tram (HOLLYWOOD) A Quiet Place (ORLANDO) A Quiet Place (HOLLYWOOD) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines (ORLANDO)   MASSIVE QUALITY CHASM   Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America (ORLANDO) Triplets of Terror Insidious: The Further (HOLLYWOOD) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (HOLLYWOOD) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines (HOLLYWOOD) The Museum: Deadly Exhibits The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy (HOLLYWOOD)     The top 4 were outstanding I went into the event feeling Slaughter Sinema would be a no-brainer, and it was. The fact that next 3 are on top really surprised me. Goblins was the setpiece showstopper, and just blew me away.  I could not visit without doing it once or twice. Not a fan of IP, but Hollywood knocked it out of the park with TCM.  Totally unique presentation.  Unique story.  Relentless actors.  Copious detail throughout the house.  You'd think you were in Orlando. Orlando's Insidious was perfect for what it was trying to do.  Its intensity matched TCM beat for beat.  It was this year's Poltergeist.   Monstrous is a Hollywood thing.  Orlando just doesn't get it.  This house brought back El Cucuy and introduced two more nightmares.  Great job - another Orlando quality presentation. Major sweets - best use of F&F, and a really fun house Ghostbusters in Orlando had massive sets and paced the movie very well.  I had not seen the movie going in and it made me want to see it. Dead Exposure was Hollywood's foray into the franchise and I think they did it justice.  It had a Patient Zero feel to it, but they did not do a Black and White presentation.  It was full color throughout.   Terror Tram in Hollywood was much better than prior years.  Think Orlando's Blumhouse zone, but each booth being a whole set where an act was performed (each of the quality of the Brazen Bull at Torture Faire). Both coasts did a decent job with Quiet Place.  Now mid-way through Dec, they get mixed in my mind.  I liked Orlando's more, but each had their moments.  Biggest problem was no way to hide the scares of the monsters. Universal Monsters was a disappointment, but less so in Orlando.  One thing that bugged the hell out of me was that Orlando made Bride Black.  Why?  Do that anywhere else (Darkest Deal was one of my faves; Oddfellow cast as Black was perfectly fine as we had not met him before).  But don't change an IP character just because you want to be progressive...   From here on out the events hit the skids... Orlando mucked up Monstrous by rearranging the order of the monsters, and by making seemingly reskinning the Chupacabra house.   Triplets of Terror was an overcomplicated mess of a story.  We are to believe three 9-year olds are able to go into hiding in the sewers for 10 years and survive on their own?  And successfully repeat it five more times?  The killers we finally meet in present day are 49 year olds?  Gimme a break... Hollywood's Insidious house was very small and cramped yet very long.  Only a few "rooms".  Mostly black hallways.  Unlike Orlando which presented each part of the story in succession, this was a mish mash throughout.   Hollywood's Ghostbusters was relegated to a tent, and it showed.  Mostly consisted of largish rooms connected by black hallways.  None of the rooms were nearly as grand as Orlando's.  Hollywood's Universal Monsters had nice sets, but tons of black hallways.  Voice lines were repeated on 5 second loops, so conga lines meant hearing the same lines repeated throughout the house.  House was notoriously under-staffed. The Museum should never have opened.  The only good part was the fact it had the "From Egypt" box in front of the house, mentioned in the Slaughter Sinema preview...   It felt like it was supposed to be an IP house that fell through and got quickly re-dressed.   The Museum was by far the worst house of the year....until I went to The Weeknd house.  The 2022 house was really good.  This was dismal.  Also notoriously under-staffed, it relied on static figures in all but the first room, so if it was under-staffed, there were zero scares.  Black hallways were everywhere.  Lazy John Murdy.     Hollywood has got serious issues.  Crowds this year were not big.   Yes, there were 2 hour waits at times, but only at certain times and for certain houses.   The houses were clumped into three regions, so you would see big waits at one clump and small waits in the others, then the crowd would move to another clump.  Here is the reality for ANY night of that event: Insidious wait time was always well over an hour, any time of the night; Ghostbusters (directly next to Insidious) was usually a 5 minute wait. TCM wait time was always over an hour; Weeknd (same clump) was usually a 5 minute wait Dead Exposure/Monsters clump was always between 10 and 40 min. Quiet Place/Monstrous2 clump was always between 10 and 50 min They had a Purge show - which was utterly unchanged from 2023...   No other entertainment - not even Death Eaters this year. Oh God...they DID have a "Late Night with Chucky" show...  A tame version of the Insult show of long ago or even the Chucky show at Orlando.  This was "presented by SyFy" (SyFy canceled the TV show a week into the event).  Ouch! Go ahead and watch one of the Chucky HHN shows on YouTube.  I DARE YOU to make it to the end.,..  People tried to leave mid show and couldn't because it was in a theater.  It made Jabbawockeez look like Shakespeare...    Hollywood's food offerings for HHN are dismal.  Regular items with a themed name.  Orlando's HHN food item offerings are legendary.   The best park haunt of 2024 for me was Knotts Scary Farm - I should be a bucket list item for anyone living in Orlando.   More affordable than HHN, more houses than HHN Hollywood, each one nearly HHN Orlando quality.  Every one an original story.   So here's the thing - We all know Orlando throws a shit-ton of cash behind it's event (well, except in the same years they are spending $4 billion on a new park).  They have all new houses every year.  Visit a house or miss it forever. Hollywood does pretty much the same thing, except on a shoestring budget.  So you may have 8 "new themes" but very little budget behind each one.   You therefore have crap houses for the most part. They have been living on what used to be a good reputation, and used to sell out almost every night.  Not amymore.   Knotts on the other hand... They used to have a crappy reputation. They had at least 10 mazes a year, each of which were pretty much like HHN Hollywood houses today.  Lots of plywood and dark hallways.   They kept those houses up for 5-6 years and brought like 3 new ones per year. They have tweaked this business model in the past seven years - to great success. Today, they have 10 houses. They retire 2 hours per year and add 2 new ones per year.  BUT they throw all the money into those two new houses. The result is that they have rotated out all low budget stuff and now have uber quality houses. So in 2024 you have 10 Orlando-quality houses (one is a stinker that they are retiring at the end of this year). In fact, in 2022 and 2023 they retired 2 quality houses at end of those years, and replaced them with even better houses. The result is Knotts at the top of its game now, offers better rides and excellent quality shows at a very good price point.  If you buy their equivalent of an Express Pass, you can use it unlimited times to get into the houses, and each entry is truly a walk-on. They have so much to do, it's really hard to do it all in one night - not because of the waits, but because of the sheer amount of stuff. If you went to Knotts once every 4-5 years it would be all-new to you. They are definitely stealing business from HHN Hollywood - and rightly so.   I am looking forward to Hollywood's response.  If I was in charge there I would let John Murdy go, and try to bring in Patrick Braillard or Jon Cooke to fill the massive void that is HHN Creative.  The mindset in Hollywood is stagnant, and needs fresh blood.  I mean, the HHN lead doesn't even live in the country and the quality has not been affected by his remote leadership.  While that sounds positive I suggest that the quality was so low it couldn't get worse even with no resident leadership. Sorry, but Universal needs to wake up and deal with this.  John, it's time to hang it up, and head into that long black endless hallway you built.   So my final ranking is: 1. Knotts - best overall event (this year) 2. Universal Orlando - Only lower because it was a "meh" year.  2019, 2021 or 2022 would have ranked #1 3. ANY mall haunt 4. Universal Hollywood - Overpriced, overhyped dreck            

That’s one of the things I love about this event is the fact that rankings are very different among everyone. I agree with the scarezones being lackluster and this is my least favourite year I’ve attended. Overall, I enjoyed it but it could’ve been better. 

This is telling to how off this year was for people, lol. My list below is much different than yours.   For background, I've been attending HHN in Orlando each year since 2016, only missing HHN Lite. I don't live in Florida but love the event so much that I take two trips each HHN season, one in early September and one in early/mid October. I've always gotten FFP+, and starting in HHN 30, I added express. This year, I only attended closing week on 10/27 and 10/30-11/3 & I got the FFP+ without express. If I was able to go in September, I likely wouldn't of returned in October.   I am glad I attended HHN 33. There were bright spots to the event. However, this was my least favorite year attending for a multitude of reasons: Weak scare zones See my comments below on scare zones. Next to no HHN vibe/atmosphere, specifically from a music standpoint Music is one of the most important aspects of HHN. It brings an ambience to the park that is needed for the overall experience and theme of the event. The parkwide loop was utter garbage this year. Every year, I look forward to what songs I'll be adding to my library based on what Universal plays in the houses, zones, shows, etc. I added two songs to my Apple Music this year. For reference, I added 24 songs to my library based off music from HHN 32. Since 2016, I think I've added over 200 songs that were used at HHN. Because of the mediocre music, the event lacked the usual vibe it has and it suffered because of it.  Lack of offerings outside the houses & insane wait times Nightmare Fuel 4 was the only entertainment offering at HHN 33. It was also one of their weaker shows, especially in comparison to last year which was, imo, the best theme park show I've ever experienced. There was no lagoon show, even though it was fully functional unlike previous years. There is so much empty space that could have been utilized throughout Studios. It hasn't returned in a bit but there was no Simpsons hoard/ HHN presence from the entrance of Museum all the way to Central Park. I don't think they were playing HHN music near Dreamworks & the lights were turned on in that area. This was probably due to there being no parade houses this year, but I can't recall an event year where there was an HHN free zone outside at the park.  In past years, The Simpsons Ride would be open on busier nights but it was never utilized. This year Transformers wasn't open at all, only leaving four attractions to experience (Gringotts closes at midnight every night, so there's only three rides to go on from 12-2am).  A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters, and Insidious were the only IPs at the event this year (I don't count Universal Monsters because it is an original concept houses just with the use of IP characters). None of these are at the popularity level of Stranger Things, American Horror Story, etc. from years past, so there was crazy wait times spread between all the houses & rides (although, Rip Ride Rockit had shockingly low waits this year every time I looked). Meh food & specialty drinks I did enjoy food at the Monstrous booth, Triplets booth, & the Ghostbusters s'more was certainly a hit for Universal. Nothing really stood out, though, that I hope they bring back. This year, I didn't even bother with drinks at any booths. The drinks at the event since HHN 30 are just sugar bombs or thick in consistency, which is f'ing gross. Word of advice, just go to Finnegans, Chez, or leave for CityWalk if you're looking for a good cocktail. Even if the lines are long, the drinks are a million times better & stronger. I also love beer and they haven't changed the offerings since HHN 30. They added one new pumpkin beer this year that didn't taste like pumpkin at all. The canned cocktail actually wasn't bad. Still, the beverage team needs to give the offerings a major facelift for next year.  Not being spoiled with express Not having express is awful haha. I understand why this event is not everyone's cup of tea. To go from open to close and not accomplish everything would leave a terrible taste in my mouth if I were a first time visitor or casual guest. Being able to speed run the event makes it a million times more enjoyable. It gives you more time to relax, enjoy the zones, grab a nice meal on CityWalk, not have to get to a stay and scream holding area by 5pm or stay till close, show up early for a show and get a good seat, enjoy the rides, not have to stand for so long. I could keep going... My group and I caved on closing night and we bought the after 11pm express. Was $117 after tax each. We ran all 10 houses while also stopping for food, drinks, bathroom breaks, and doing a ride or two before the event ended. If you are a diehard HHN fan & can swing it, get whichever FFP suits you best + express. It's so very worth it. Based on how quickly it sold out this year, make sure to purchase it as soon as it becomes available in 2025.    I firmly believe the creative team, scare actors, service workers, etc. really give it their all and deserve praise for the event this year, even with it being below average in comparison to other years. It's not for a lack of effort or care, HHN 33 just didn't hit for me, as it didn't with the majority of fans.     With that being said, the following are my rankings. None of the houses were strong enough to enter my top 10 all time. Usually each year, there's a standout house that makes the list, but that didn't happen for HHN 33:   House Rankings - A Quiet Place One of the coolest houses I've ever done. Sound design/how they somehow made the house low volume, puppets, and large room scenes were all awesome. Surprised with how longtime HHN fans don't view this in a brighter light. Universal tried something new with this one and, I believe, delivered on a difficult concept. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Very fun and had some awesome rooms. Always love a cold house, even though some rooms weren't as cold as others. Stilt walkers were great and it was a much better house than I expected. The movie was one of the worst pieces of dog shit I've ever seen, so I had no expectations this would be enjoyable at all going in.  Slaughter Sinema 2 Good ode to the original which is one of my favorite houses ever. Enjoyed all my runs of this and loved the movie ideas.  Major Sweets Candy Factory  Best F&F house we've gotten yet. Incredible detail and delivered a fun factor with a lot of quotable lines. Goblin’s Feast Same comments as Sweets. Also enjoyed the location of this and the easy access to Bloodlines.  The Museum: Deadly Exhibits I don't think this wasn't as bad as people said it was, but this is where the events houses went into meh territory for me. Cool costumes & big scare actors in the last few rooms. Clearly repurposed Bloater outfits from Last of Us from HHN 32.  Triplets of Terror Cool it got a soundstage & the concept is good. The one scare I really liked was the one in the kitchen where the beep from the oven goes off and the huge dude pops out on the left side. Other than those things, this was a whatever house.   Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines Great sets & rooms. Always happy to see any of the Universal Monsters represented at the event, and I was hyped for this one based on the story/concept of all female characters. That being said, the dialogue was hard to follow. The audio may of just been low in the five or so times I ran this. There was also too much empty space in the house. Insidious: The Further Definitely scary, detailed, and long, but I think people thought this was so good because nothing else was scarier or strong enough to say it wasn't #1 overall. Because of the waits, I only ran this twice, and one was during stay and scream so I couldn't see anything.  Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America First run through was easily the worst I've ever had in any house across the eight event years I've attended. It was around 1030pm on 10/27 and there was like two scare actors in the whole house. It was better my other four or five runs, but I still thought this was the weakest house at the event. The huge animatronic bird was cool. Scare zone Rankings - Torture Faire  Well themed and the scare actors were having fun. The only true enjoyable zone this year. Swamp of the Undead Central Park always has a great zone. They must've had a humidifier running at the entrance and exit of this zone because I would leave wet every time I walked through. It was a cool touch I hadn't seen before. Also, cool to learn a prodigy scare actor in Mike Aiello's son was working this zone.   Demon Queens Props were fine. I liked that Surr3al was interactive and had a show of sorts. Nothing special about this, though. Enter the Blumhouse Whatever. Duality of Fear Moving forward, they shouldn't even call this a zone.