I went yesterday (a Friday).
If you have purchased tickets from
Undercover Tourist, you have to change them at the ticket booth for a real ticket. What you receive is just a "reservation" and it's not accepted at the event gate
The entrance is not the park main gate. It's on the side of the park, almost in front of Discovery Cove. A 5 minutes walk from the main gate.
The event entrance opens at 6:15pm and they scan the tickets and let into a "pre-show" area where there is a bar (no food), one shop and there are a few scareactors.
You can line up for the real event entrance, near the restrooms.
You are let in the park at 7. It's cool to be among the first in line. Some scare actors "welcome" visitors in a fun way.
You enter behind the Shamu arena, turn right and you find 2 houses, in the area where Icebreaker is. The exist of house number 1 is in the same plaza you entered from, so it's another longhish walk back to house 2. So the best order would be house 2, then house 1.
I'd leave house 5 as the last, because I think it's nearer where people who stay from the day in the park start, so it might have a line immediately.
The other houses are at the other 2 opposite sides of the park, a lot of walking involved (not as much as Universal).
At 7pm when the event officially opened, the park was dead (no pun intended).
House number 2 didn't open in time and they told us the delay would be significant. Otherwise I could have done the first 4 houses with zero wait.
Later a few more people arrived, but the park was never congested. Shows were only 1/4 full, plenty of space for everyone.
I did 3 houses with no wait, waited 40 minutes for house number 1 (longest wait, I think because of the delay) and 25 for house number 5.
The scare zones were very poor, little details (better the circus one), some props I could have done myself at home. But they were brought alive by the scareactors, they were very good. And they talk! They taunt you and they're both scary and funny.
The houses were good, enough details and scares; but in no way they compare to Universal. Some are very short, others are are longer but also with a lot of empty corridors.
They're not even in the same league. But a couple of scares got me, so not bad at all.
I didn't do any attraction, but I saw they had short lines. The longest I've seen was 20 minutes, but I've also seen many 5s. But I haven't kept tab on everything.
The Monster Stomp show is very good. Sirens song is fun but more average. Cursed lagoon exists.
There is an acrobat at Waterway grill doing some circus numbers which was fun to watch while eating.
All in all it was a very pleasant evening. I got to do everything with minimal wait before 11. I could have repeated easily some or all the houses.
I'm glad I didn't buy the Express, it wouldn't have been very useful. $100 to skip one hour in line is not good value for money. Or maybe buy it to repeat houses later in the night.
I don't know if it's always like this or not. Maybe later in the season it gets busier.
I spent around $35 for the ticket and I though they were money well spent. A complete change of pace from Universal.
HHN are better in everything, except cost and crowds. If you can brave the latter or afford a line skipping option, then there is no comparison, HHN is on a other planet. But for $35 it's a very fun event.