Erik Johnson

Mine was probably riding Ravine Flyer 2 last summer with TPR while it was pouring rain. I should also add there was a lot of lightning close by as well. I should also note that riding Nitro in the front row while it pouring rain was not one of my brighter ideas. The same goes for riding Batman: The Ride while it is raining, especially if you happen to like your clothes oil/grease free. At least we were warned about that one, but we needed the credit.

I think it is 6' 8".

Zombieland was alot of fun! For one distant shot of the park, since it is supposed to be in California, they used SFMM's skyline and placed a few extra rides from Wild Adventures in it. Bug Out, Double Shot, Aviator, and Rattler were all represented.

Do not forget about Manta at Sea World.

If all you are looking foward to do is to riding Rockit during HHN, why go to HHN in the first place? It is silly to say that HHN this year sucks because Rockit is not open. HHN this year is really good so it would be a shame to not go to the event just because of a closed ride that you can ride during the day. I did get to ride Rockit twice Friday afternoon. This time I got to experience the back row as well as row three on two different trains. The back row was quite smooth. The third row did have some rattle, but nothing worse than what you can expect on a Vekoma.

I had the amazing opportunity to be able to attend this year's media event for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights 19. Myself, along with Adam Roth (jedimaster1227) and the "other" Eric Johnson (live2tell75) were invited to represent ThemeParkReview.com this year. The first thing that comes to mind about this year's event is how impressed we were on how excellent every single house was. Previously when I walked out of HHN, I immediately can tell someone which was my favorite to least favorite house of the evening. I can not do it this year. I want to thank Universal for the wonderful media event that they put on this year. It certainly exceeded my expectations. Now, onto the reviews. Be mindful that there are spoilers involved. I did keep the photo section pretty much spoiler-free. If you do not want to know too much about the event, I would suggest that you move on down to the photo section. Again, Spoilers Ahead: Warning!! Haunted Houses: Silver Screams--(Building behind Kid's area)--What a way to start off the evening. This is located in the warehouse were Scary Tales was last year. You walk into the Universal Palace Theater where you come face to face with quite a few monsters that is associated with Universal as well as this year's HHN icon, The Usher. You get to meet with such classic monster such as The Phantom of the Opera (Which is also named Erik in case you did not know). You also get to meet The Thing, Shaun of the Dead, My Bloody Valentine as well as Ash (Which they used the title Medieval Dead which was the original name for Army of Darkness). I thought the classic style artwork for each movie poster before entering its associated room was a very cool touch. Chucky--(Tent Near Barney)--Friends Til the End: As you enter the toy factory you are shrunk down to Chuck's size via a vortex tunnel. Throughout the maze you are attacked by some very convincing Chucky dolls. Some nice theming throughout this maze which includes a shootout between Chucky and several army men. This maze had quiet a few sudden scares with all of the hidden locations scare actors could hide in through the maze. The Spawning--(Tent near Men In Black)--Does anyone remember C.H.U.D.? Basically it is a carnivorous creatures in the sewer movie. Beware of this one if you have poor sight or are really bothered by strobe lights. It was quite disorienting in several sections of the maze, which is probably the point. The glowing eyes of the creatures was a nice touch. Saw--(Jaws Queue)--This was an excellent maze this year. Well, I thought all the mazes were good this year. Saw really is the perfect licence for a HHN house. If you are the slightest fan of these movies you will love this one. Many of the famous traps are re-created throughout this maze. Jigsaw's assistants continue to terrorize you throughout your journey. Do not be too surprised if you actually see people captured in front of you while you are going through the house. Talk about interaction. Leave It To Cleaver--(Earthquake Queue)--This one gets the award for being most creative this year. Just think if you blended early 1960's Americana with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I really do not want to give too much away on this one but you learn the entire process of meat packing from butcher to the neighborhood store. Amazing theming! Wolfman--(Soundstage)--The movie does not come out until next year which would probably help to explain a few things, but you still understand that the Wolfman wants to eat you. Theming was very detailed, just be careful not to touch the trees in the gypsy camp as well as in the forrest. It is so detailed that you may actually get sap on your hands if you touch the trees. I did get startled several times in the maze. The showstopper would be the final scene that involves the Wolfman and a hunter. Who do you think wins that one? Frankenstein: Creation of the Damned--(Soundstage)--Steampunk meets Body Collectors. I guess that is one way you can explain this one. If anything, I am glad that they made Frankenstein scary again. The theming is top notch for this one. You enter via a huge set of Frankenstein's castle. where you find Frankenstein raging havoc inside. The shadow work was really cool in the front section of the maze. Once inside you will find a group of people decked out in steampunk style costumes gathering up new body parts from unsuspecting victims. Dracula: Legacy In Blood--(Soundstage)--This would probably be my favorite soundstage maze this year. The theming is WAY off the chart. Simply a big Wow! Similar to Frankenstein, you enter through a huge set of Dracula's castle. This one does have some similarities to the 1992 movie in which it is too based off of Vlad the Impaler. Make sure you constantly look above you and you may see a floating bride or two. Scare Zones: We had the opportunity to talk with Kim Grommel who was the lead designer of several of the scare zones this year. He went into detail when it came to the creation of both War of the Living Dead as well as Horrorwood Drive-In. For Horrorwood Drive-In, he noted that you may recognize several things from the original version of the Twister queue (section was removed due to Rip Ride Rockit) such as several vehicles as well as the actual snackbar. Kim is also responsible for the amazing sign for the Rocky Horror Tribute Show as well as my all time favorite section that involves a path lit up with numerous pumpkins right next to Cirque Du Freak (Please keep that every year!) Horrorwood Drive-In. Great Scare Zone, most certainly the best one of the event. It involves a mock up drive-in right next to Mel's Diner in which many famous horror icons come out from the screen to attack unsuspecting HHN visitors. Make sure you check out the snack bar for a surprise. Cirque Du Freak. I have to admit that I kind of rushed through this one a bit too quickly so I did not get to check this one out very well. It did look like many of the characters from the upcoming movie was represented. War Of the Living Dead. Great theming with sound and sets. World War II (America versus Germany) continues on as zombies. It honestly could have used a few more scare actors in this one, but we did do it near closing which could have explained a few things. Lights Camera Hackton. A movie crew tries to film a horror movie with the Chainsaw Brigade....IN 3D! I hope you are not bothered by chainsaws! Containment. Not really too much to this one other than a few contaminated scare actors walking under a huge inflatable archway. This one seemed to be on a tighter budget than the other ones. Apocalypse: City of Cannibals. This one is pretty similar to the other scare zones in this location in the past. Plenty of victims as well as Cannibals roam the streets around here. If you look up in the air you may be blinded by the light from the helicopter. There are many scare actors in this area. Bill and Ted 18: Land of the Lost. This year Bill and Ted take on the ultimate classic Star Trek loving/Twilight hating villain....Fan Boy. I did not get quite as many reference this year as I have in the past, but it was great to see Captain Kirk fight Khan in the flesh. I guess I need to get out more, ride less roller coasters, or watch more MTV. The dance sequences were really top notch this year, especially the Michael Jackson impersonator. Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Tribute: A show really made for Rocky Horror fans. If you love Rocky Horror, you will love this. This version is a full audience participation version, so expect some 'R' rated language as well as getting wet. You have been warned. You can tell that the people that do this show really give it their all. Please keep this one around Universal! Here is a video from the media part of the event which includes a short interview with creative directors T.J. Mannarino and J. Michael Roddy. It also includes a little bit of John C. Riley and the rest of the cast from The Vampire's Assistant, as well as an introduction from Chris Thomas, V.P. of Universal Entertainment. Enjoy! [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=HHN19VideoTPR_dc12[/coastertube] It seems that the only time that I ever park on the roof is for HHN. I knew it would take me to the right place. You can compare this car to the White Rabbit. Just follow it. You can say that I am a real fan of classic monster movies! Let us get a closer look. You are greeted by a ticket booth in front of the main gate. There was still a couple of hours before the event started, so let us check out a few things while the sun is still up. So is Saw. Chucky is here this time. Is this the first time that a house maze actually comes out before the movie? Just like a real movie theater, there were movie posters. I want to see that movie! You are not allowed to buy this until you experience every house. For those that are into event shirts. This would be the one to buy. This would be the logo. It looks like something will be going wrong during a film shoot. This would be found in the Lights, Camera, Hacktion scare zone. While an awesome looking sign, it does look better at night. Just to let you know, at least so far, Rockit is not running during HHN. So make sure you ride it earlier in the day. Hey wait, I know her! Say hello to Renee and her brother. Horrorwood was one of the best scare zones of the evening. This would be over by the War of the Dead scare zone. Random Bus #2 Random Bus #1 During the day you can only find a few props here and there. I think this is a smoke machine. First we have to have an official opening day kick off with the cast of The Vampire's Assistant. It looks like God is. Ok, are you ready for the event to start? If you have a little extra money, you can buy these. The Ushers stand in attention. To keep people entertained before 6:00, there was Cirque Du Freak trivia. People are lining up to get inside. Creative Director, J. Michael Roddy, is here to introduce our special guests. Here they are to talk about The Vampire's Assistant, which opens October 23. There showed us two exculsive clips from the movie, as well as answered questions from the crowd. "Are you ready for HHN19?" Here is War of the Living Dead, but we shall come back to that later. Containment This guys warns you about, or makes fun of you, as you enter the Containment scare zone. Well, maybe it begins after you get through the metal decectors. HHN19 officially begins! First things first, let us go fill up on some food and drink. How often do you see this fire hydrant in the open position? "Grrrrraaargh!" That translates as, "I will eat you, unless you do try some of this wonderful food!" There was plenty of liquor at the open bar. I guess he decided to take this year off. Every HHN park map, except for last year's, was found on this wall. Jack is here, to make sure you do not leave hungry or thristy. Also say thanks to J. Michael Roddy, Creative Director of HHN19. Also mention to him that is was awesome to bring the classic monsters back this year. Say hello to TJ Mannarino, Director of Art and Design for Universal, and thank him how awesome HHN19 is this year. Ok, much better. Something does not seem right. Hmmmm, where to begin? The R.I.P Tour really is the most awesome way to take in the event. Say hello to Ethan. He did an excellent job of showing us around this year. Well, I am not really into beards. This is already turning out to be great. This would be the Cirque Du Freak scare zone. I was very excited that they brought back the lit pumpkin area. Its seriously very cool. So many to choose from. Way too scary! I want to go home! Let us go inside the toy factory. Chucky: Friends Til the End was quite enjoyable. This year's icon house, Silver Screams, was a great way to start off the evening. It is never a complete HHN report without one of these photos. The dance sequences were really top notch this year. The stage is themed to Land of the Lost. They even have their own shirt. Oh yes, I always look foward to the Bill and Ted show. Thank you for not adding any smells to the sewer themed house this year. Fangoria Magazine Presents: The Spawning. Wear can I buy those masks? I found Leave It to Cleaver to be the most creative house of the evening. It should be noted that we never waited more than 3 minutes for a house that evening due to the tour. Saw turned out to be excellent. It really is a perfect fit as a HHN house. Dracula was my favorite soundstage house of the evening. Make sure you look up! Frankenstein was a cross between Body Collectors and Steampunk. Wolfman was quite good, just make sure you do not touch the trees unless you like sap on your fingers. "Feed Me!" "Help Me!" Let us check out the Apocalypse: City of Cannibals scare zone. Just be reminded that this is a full audience participation version. You may get wet among other things. I always need my annual dose of Double Feature. Always a fan favorite. I am glad it is out on Hollywood as well this year. The cast is always really into it. Meet Rocky! Beware of the snack bar next to the drive-in. See, the sign does look cooler at night. Fire? Yes please! Back over to War of the Living Dead were you find American and Nazi zombies. Containment: The nightime version. Looks like the film crew was having a difficult shoot. Back on over to Lights Camera Hacktion. Brian O'Halloran (Clerks 1 and 2) suggested that there should be a Mallrats themed house next year. Just call it, "Maulrats". Michael Roddy was put on the hot seat for a little while. We finished off the evening with the Fangoria radio broadcast. From left to right, Debbie Rochon, Brian O'Halloran, Fangoria editor Tony Timpone. Doug Jones (Hellboy 1 and 2, Pan's Labyrinth, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Voltaire. I am such a movie geek that I have my own poster lightbox. This is what the Vampire's Assistant poster looks like all lit up!

^ The express pass will not work with Rockit for HHN this year, in fact the ride was closed during last night's event. I am not even sure if they are going to try to run it at all during this year's event.

Awwww...sorry for the simply rotten week that you have been having. If it makes you feel any better, I know that quite a few of us always look foward to your updates so thanks for posting.

^ Peter Pan, Small World etc are not represented on the map because the left side of Fantasyland is not represented on it.

I have seen Mindbender get flooded before, but never this bad. Though they can quickly build a cool haunted boat tour now.

I was really amazed how much butt-out-of-the-seat moments Shockwave has at SFoT. It is certainly another high quality Schwarzy. Mindbender will always be my favorite, but I have to give Shockwave a slight edge in the airtime department...especially at the third drop in the back row.

Don't you mean the original Journey Into Imagination was the best Disney attraction ever demolished?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBUMRk-nkdA This was the original idea, so I bet the actual one will be better.

Goodbye Pyrock and Blizzrock.

That would be my Donkey hat taken at Mickey's Not So Scary event in 2005. It would also be in one of the bathroom stalls right next to Space Mountain.

It actually gets quite busy on other days as well so I would still recommend getting Express passes of you want to see everything. It also covers the rides as well, though I am not sure if Rocket will be on it this year.

I take it this will be the end of Mickey's Birthday Land? Or whatever it is called now.

^ They also make good music for park videos as well. [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=IBinternet_l0ez[/coastertube] Ok I digress, back to Texas!

Wow, the Small World ride is actually called Small World. How shameless is that?

I understand that the trains have had some work done on them so they should be running a bit better now.

^ You are correct! It was at Boardwalk and Baseball. Starke, Florida still has its Whataburger, so I get my fix there. When Robb posts the official Trip Report for Texas, he will include a bunch of photos from Schlitterbahn. I know that he has a lot of them.

^ I would go to Whataburger a soon as you can. They recently closed both of the ones in Gainesville as well as in Ocala.

^ I sure did and it was a lot of fun! Anyways, let us go to our next park, Schlitterbahn. I had to admit that I really did not know much about this water park before going on the trip. Sure, I knew about the Master Blaster and a few other attractions, but I simply did not know much else about the park. Boy was the park really great! I think many of us would agree that it was the highlight park of the trip. First off, Robb and Elissa arranged for us to have early morning ERT. We had ERT on the Master Blaster and the Flow Rider ride. We also had early entry for both the Dragon Blaster as well as the brand new Congo River Expedition Lazy River/Rapids ride. Without these early morning perks, there would have been no way to be able to do all these attractions. The parks get VERY crowded once it is open. Schlitterbahn is seperated into three different sections. The newer sections are Blastenhoff and Surfenburg which are right next to each other. The older section, which you have to take a tram to, is simply called the original Schlitterbahn section. I spent most of the time in the original section on this visit. This section really reminded me of Knoebel's atmosphere for some reason. Maybe it was all the trees. Most of the attractions in this area are tube chutes which are a combination of a lazy river and an older style waterslide built for tubes. Many of them are interconnected with each other. One of them is over 45 minutes long. They are all feed with natural water as many of these slides actually do end up in the river than runs alongside the park. I do not have many photos from this section due to the fact I do not have a waterproof camera. Also this will be the last posting of this trip. I did continue on to Oklahoma and Missouri for Frontier City, Silver Dollar City, Worlds of Fun, and Six Flags St. Louis which you can find a trip report located here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51873 A little later I will post my reviews of all the coasters on this trip. I give the Elissa Bingo 2009 Prize CD thumbs up! None of it melted my Ipod this year. Thanks Dave! Hey this stuff is actually quite good. This one was quite good. Almost too pretty for Dave Music. OK, there it is. Ok, let us put this thing on my Ipod. Back home we see that the shark has found his place of honor along with the dinosaur from last year. We finished our trip at the oldest restaurant in Austin. Oh yes, this would be the CD music of "Dave Music" this year. How many can you name Paul? Wes also won the Canadian Prime Minister place mat. These would be my prizes this year. It paid off though, beccause I won! I needed help to get my final Elissa Bingo square. "Someone gets the Robb Credit" Sorry Robb! Around Master Blaster there is this insane lazy river water of death attraction. Many of us spend most of our time in the tube chutes. This one lasted over 45 minutes. Some people ended up on the otherside. This guy looks like he is doing it right. While I was able to stay on my board, I did not stay in the flow rider section very long. Flow Rider time! I think everyone got on the ride at least two or three times. Master Blaster awaits TPR. First off, let us geat some food. We will need it for the day. Schlitterbahn welcomes TPR! Schlitterbahn is great by the way.

^ Believe.

The back row on Shockwave is a must. The airtime is quite amazing on it. But if you want less G-force, sit in the front row. For Flashback, I do not think it really matters where you sit, maybe the middle is a little less intense.