Pumpkin Lords, S'mores Fries & Cosmic Rewind-An HHN 31 TR-Completed 11/5

[schumigirl]

Those Cinderella Pumpkins are so cute!

Love the pictures again, it looks such a lovely hotel.

Halloween party does look cute, I would enjoy seeing the headless horseman, and Capt Jack of course…….I’m sorry to read it was a little disappointing this year for you.

Yes, maybe the Christmas one will be better……

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I think you might have been there one of the nights my friend was there. He and his family got stuck on pirates for over an hour!


My family and I loved boo bash more than MNSSHP but I’m happy reading all these reports that they seemed to take certain operational things from boo bash (like actually checking people were supposed to be at the party which was a problem in years past) and incorporating it and it’s working!

 

[Raeven]

Those Cinderella Pumpkins are so cute!​

They are! ​

Love the pictures again, it looks such a lovely hotel.​

It really was! ​

Yes, maybe the Christmas one will be better……​

I can't wait for that! ​

I think you might have been there one of the nights my friend was there. He and his family got stuck on pirates for over an hour!


My family and I loved boo bash more than MNSSHP but I’m happy reading all these reports that they seemed to take certain operational things from boo bash (like actually checking people were supposed to be at the party which was a problem in years past) and incorporating it and it’s working!​

It was down our entire night.

I missed the Halloween theming at Boo Bash but think it worked as an afterhours. I think MNSSHP definitely has that theming. But I was disappointed in how many rides were down and that snacks were sold out etc. It felt like they oversold the event this year. ​

 

[Raeven]

Surf's Up!

This morning we checked out and headed to Epcot.

Goodbye to this view!



We were doing some last minute shopping and Food & Wine eating.

Food & Wine Pt 2 Review



After this we decided to go back to YC to grab our bags and head over to Universal.

Goodbye Disney!



We had arrived at Surfside!



We got there around 3pm, but for some reason Surfside's check in was at 4 pm vs most the other resorts being 3pm as far as I know. I had requested a high floor and they seemed oddly concerned with fulfilling that request. I told them we didn't care what floor if we could get into the room sooner, so we ended up with one on the first floor; but we still had to wait in the lobby about a half hour for the room to be ready.

Here's our suite:











This hotel is obviously very similar to Dockside aside from the color scheme, but we actually liked Dockside a lot better. We liked the suites in both hotels as there weren't any differences there. There's a lot of room in the suites, and we like having the little kitchen area. We don't really use the second bedroom, but it's nice to have it if I sleep in and Josh wants to watch something. The resort was also very compact which I like, and we were close to the gift shop and everything being on the first floor. I will say being on the first floor there was a lot of noise outside the room, but again nothing earplugs couldn't fix. We seemed to have very noisy rooms in all of our hotels this time. Individual things about this room I didn't like was the hair dryer (attached to the wall and barely any settings), and we were able to connect our Firestick to the TV but it was very hard to get it to work with the wifi for some reason. Surfside transportation was fine the times we used it, but seemed to have a bit more of a wait than Dockside did, and the stop at Citywalk was a further walk.

There was no HHN tonight so we dedcied to go to NBC Grill and see a movie.

NBC Grill Review

On the way to Citywalk we saw a rainbow:



We ended the night going to see Bullet Train which we both really liked, and then headed back to the room.



Next Up
Our last HHN!
​

 

[Raeven]

Our Final Trip to HHN 31

We slept in on this day, and caught up with 101 Scariest Movie Moments which had started while we were on vacation. We had some trouble getting the Firestick to work, but once we did it worked fine for the rest of our trip. This day wasn't supposed to be rainy at all according to the forecast, but ended up being the most rainy day of them all.

This was our last night at HHN, and we really wanted to go despite the weather. We made a dinner reservation at The Kitchen, and hoped we could wait out the rain there.

I decided on my final HHN shirt and it was this one:


We had a really nice meal at The Kitchen.

The Kitchen Review

When we finished it was still pouring so we spent some time in the lobby,

I saw this in the Rock Shop and thought it was really cool.



I wished the picture was on the front instead of the back, but I ended up getting this too.

Shortly afterwards the rain slowed down a bit so we grabbed the umbrella and headed over.



We've mostly avoided going to HHN in the rain so we haven't really had to carry an umbrella around the event before. The umbrella helped, but it was annoying to have to open and close it constantly (when going in and out of houses). For some reason this umbrella opens with a ridiculous amount of force so one time Josh pressed the button and it went flying out of his hands. (There was no one in front of us when this happened and it was pretty funny but at the time we thought one of the spokes in it had broken and I was afraid I'd spent the rest of the night getting soaked. Luckily, we managed to fix it).

We went to Halloween first, and had a great run. Then we went to Dead Man's Pier which was also great. Since we were doing all our favorites we also decided to visit the Black Phone/Freaky house one more time. The Freaky part seemed to have gotten better since the week before, and we saw a lot more scare actors in there this time. The Black Phone was creepy as always.



At this point I stepped in a rather large puddle and soaked one of my socks. I'd been trying to avoid puddles and had mostly done a good job, but they were everywhere from when it had been raining really hard earlier. We stopped by one of the QS restaurants to try to dry off a little.

Finally we decided that even though the rain had slowed to a drizzle/mist that it wasn't going to stop that night, and we were satisfied with what we had gotten down. We'd visited some favorites, and due to the rain there wasn't a lot going on in the scare zones. We decided we'd go to Men In Black on the way out, stop by some shops in Citywalk, and then watch Scream back in the room.

MIB time!



I won!

Goodbye HHN 31!
I'm sorry I just can't get behind the term "Scream Squad".




(Or Scream Squad)

I ended up getting this sign:


I liked a lot of the decor, but the signs were pretty pricey, and I couldn't carry too much home so I settled on this one. (I liked the vintage Halloween/Lil Boo one too, but really liked the skeleton/Grim Reaper design). I was afraid something would happen to it in our luggage, but I packed a lot of stuff around it and it survived the trip home and we hung it above the bed when we decorated for Halloween.

We grabbed some donuts too:



Last Day

On our last day we had to leave right after check out so we didn't really get to do much.

I grabbed this glass on the way out:



Once we got to the airport they kept delaying our flight, and it felt like we spent forever in the airport. It ended up being delayed an hour and a half, but finally made it there. On the way back Southwest TV didn't work, and the episodes of the show I thought I downloaded didn't download so I didn't have as much entertainment as I'd hoped and I took a nap most of the way back. We still got back early enough that we had time to unpack and get some stuff done around the house, and then I also had the next day off before I had to go back to work which was nice.

My final HHN rankings!
​

Houses:

1. Halloween​
2. Dead Man’s Pier​
3. Blumhouse​
4. Bugs​
5. Weeknd​
6. Fiesta De Chupcabras​
7. Universal Monsters​
8. Descendants of Destruction​
9. Hellblock Horror​
10. Spirits of the Coven​

​

Scare zones:

1. Sweet Revenge​
2. Graveyard​
3. Horrors of Halloween​
4. Scarecrow​
5. Conjure the Dark​

Next Up
Wrap Up Post! ​

 

[schumigirl]

Scream Squad needs to leave and never return!!! Whoever came up with that, massive fail.

I`m sorry you had your last night ruined by rain....it was certainly an issue this year for the earlier part of the month. But, you were a trooper although getting socks soaked would have sent me home too.

I have an umbrella like that too.....it opens like an Exocet Missile........lol......

Loved you pictures, reviews and descriptions....although.....shock horror.....we disagree on the best house and SZ.......lol....that`s unusual!!!

You had some lovely hotels too, Surfside does look nice and yes, spacious too....

Look forward to your wrap up and final thoughts, but loved your report as always!!!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Rain at HHN is always no fun but I love your wrap up and rankings!

 

[amalone1013]

Nooooo I bought us all Scream Squad shirts to wear next year

 

[Raeven]

Scream Squad needs to leave and never return!!! Whoever came up with that, massive fail.​

It's terrible! ​

I`m sorry you had your last night ruined by rain....it was certainly an issue this year for the earlier part of the month. But, you were a trooper although getting socks soaked would have sent me home too.​

We were lucky enough to miss or wait out the rain most other days so I guess we were bound to run into it once. But soaked socks are where I draw the line. ​

I have an umbrella like that too.....it opens like an Exocet Missile........lol......​

It's terrifying. ​

Loved you pictures, reviews and descriptions....although.....shock horror.....we disagree on the best house and SZ.......lol....that`s unusual!!!​

That is weird! We're very opposite this year. ​

You had some lovely hotels too, Surfside does look nice and yes, spacious too....​

We really did this time! ​

Nooooo I bought us all Scream Squad shirts to wear next year ​

They're on sale right now ​

 

[Raeven]

Wrap Up

Thanks for joining along on our HHN 31 trip report! We had such a good time on this trip and it was really great to be able to stay in 3 amazing hotels, see our friends, and get to go to HHN for 5 nights.

(Also for some reason I can't change the font from bold to regular so I guess this post will all be in bold ).

Here's some highlights from the trip:

This year had so much amazing merch that I wanted to buy it all! I loved that they brought back the Pumpkin Lord, and that a lot of the designs on things had that vintage Halloween look to them.



I love that we ran into Carole and Tom again at the same tables as last time in Strongwater Tavern.



It was also great to see Alyssa and Zack again for 2 nights!



This year had a ton of food, and I love that they keep expanding the choices! I wish we got to try more of it, but we had some really delicious things.



We spent a lot of time near/in the Major Sweets scare zone every night we were at the event because it was near so many of the houses and food booths, and I'm glad because it was my favorite one. The scare actors were all amazing, and I loved the parade floats.



Off property we had an amazing brunch at Cocktails & Screams! We had a great time and great food.



Our deluxe room at Aventura was so cool. The layout was a little non traditional, but I loved the view and it was definitely very spacious.

While this wasn't my absolute favorite year of the event house-wise, there were still many that I enjoyed and I felt they did a really good job on. My favorite IP ones were Halloween, Black Phone/Freaky, & The Weeknd. And my favorite originals were Dead Man's Pier and Bugs.

One of the coolest things that happened on our trip was being upgraded to club level at the Yacht Club. This ended up being our favorite room of the trip and it was fun to check out the club lounge.



We also got to ride Cosmic Rewind for the first time, and while it did make me a bit dizzy; it was still so much fun to finally see the ride.



We also had some good food at Food & Wine. And realized we could see fireworks from our balcony!



We didn't have the best time at MNSSHP, but I am glad the parties are back. At least we got on some rides with a short wait, and I got to see Boo To You.



I also enjoyed how relaxing our final 2 days were for the most part. We went to the movies, hung out in the room a bit, and had some nice meals; before venturing out to HHN one last time. The rain that night was not a highlight, but it was nice to be able to do our 3 favorite houses one more time.

So that wraps this trip up! I'll be going back again soon with my friend Kayleigh for a short Christmas trip. I'm not sure which board I'll post it on, but we'll be doing the Orlando Informer event in Universal, Festival of the Holidays at Epcot, & MVMCP.

A Quick Christmas Trip​

 

[saskdw]

How did the club level upgrade come about?

Edit: I decided not to be lazy and re-read that part for myself.

What an awesome upgrade!

 

[Raeven]

How did the club level upgrade come about?

Edit: I decided not to be lazy and re-read that part for myself.

What an awesome upgrade!​

We checked in on the app and it was just there! It said club level water view but I did confirm it wasn’t a glitch by going to the floor.​