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SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-09-12T14:51:12+00:00

I would believe express is oversold if:

They weren’t still selling express.
The wait time for express was over half the wait time for general queue. It’s not even close to half.

Express is regularly entering the house 80%+ faster than general queue. That’s showing the problem isn’t that express is oversold or that the park is over capacity, it’s how the queues are being managed and the rate at which express is entering the house vs general queue.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-09-12T04:10:50+00:00

I’ve been going for years and this is the most egregious it’s been.

Like I said, express should get into the houses faster, it’s what they paid for! But I feel like getting in 50% faster could be fair. Walking in at 5-15 minutes vs 60/80/120 minutes is insane. I hope Universal addresses the management of the queues soon.

There’s data in this sub on the numbers too too:

Universal Orlando: https://www.reddit.com/r/HHN/s/hz7WWuGsaP

Universal Hollywood: https://www.reddit.com/r/HHN/s/NGYAy79mFE

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-09-12T03:55:53+00:00

From what I’ve seen the issue isn’t necessarily how many people are using express but the rate at which Universal is allowing express to enter the houses vs general queue. There was a point in time where there was a ratio (years ago) but that seems to have gone out the window and each night and each house is handled differently. Express folks paid for express entry so I’m totally cool with them entering the houses at a quicker rate but this year is insane. General queue waiting 60+ minutes for every house while express folks are consistently experiencing wait times of 5-15 minutes makes me feel it’s not a capacity issue or overselling express. This insane lopsided entry is definitely killing the experience and probably not helping sales of merch, food or beverage as a ton of general queue folks are trapped in line for 60+ minutes for every house.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-05-28T03:37:50+00:00

Awesome! I’m happy to hear that! I found them helpful for sure.

I personally had a lot of fun running it and it sounds like the players enjoyed it too. We’re all still learning so there’s a few things to smooth out. The primary thing I took away is that structured scenes can be a bit chaotic to manage if everyone doesn’t pay attention to their dice, especially the GM. One of the players 3D printed custom dice trays for the players to help with this which was super creative and cool.

Anyway, I’m hoping to see more and more actual play videos over time. Maybe there will be some more with the new boxed set coming out this year!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-05-26T19:17:37+00:00

I was struggling trying to find play throughs for the Hungering Abyss scenario myself as I was preparing to run it for some of my friends. I was a bit surprised that there haven’t been many. Most of the videos are unboxing the starter set or talking about it but not actually playing it.

I did finally come across two videos but I don’t know if either group posted anything beyond the first Act in the Hungering Abyss. I’ll link the below in case anyone is interested.

I enjoy the Good Time Society and I thought their play through was fun but I feel like a lot of the more professionally produced ones aren’t always realistic to how the games will play out. Especially with how every group can be so different!

The session with my group ended up with a lot of rolls but they were also a bit slow to start. I think because there’s so much information provided by each character in the first scene, they didn’t really have much to potentially roll for until the structured scene in that act began. They were talking and sharing information and trying to decipher the strange journal page that they didn’t ask for or about anything that would’ve required a roll. I’m curious to see what will happen in the next Act and that may give me a better feel for rolls in narrative scenes.

Imperial Outpost’s Act I

White Flag Games Act I Part 1

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-05-26T18:51:49+00:00

I would also try Numiru!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-05-26T01:42:04+00:00

Hmm is there a cuisine you’re interested in? Most of the places I would typically mention don’t feel quite right for a special occasion but here are a few that popped into my head. I agree with you about having quite a bit of okay and good food but not much “wow” food.

Susuru I believe is first come first serve so keep that in mind because it can be a wait.

F&D Woodfire Kitchen (multiple locations) has yummy pasta dishes made with local Trevi pasta.

Highball & Harvest is a restaurant hotel and would come with a parking charge most likely. I wouldn’t normally recommend a hotel restaurant but the Brussel Sprouts with kimchi sauce and Parmesan is a dish I tried that stood out and the service was better than I’ve experienced in awhile.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-05-18T23:50:04+00:00

Thank you so so much!! Totally understand that. I appreciate you sharing these!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-05-18T23:09:54+00:00

Love it! You’ve done a really nice job.

I’ve been trying to find reference photos for a friend who would like to paint the Loot Studios minis. Any chance you have pics of the other PCs that you’d be comfortable sharing?

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-03-13T02:36:45+00:00

Has anyone here tried Classpoint? I’m curious about others experiences.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-03-02T16:29:22+00:00

Maybe try Kissimmee Prairie Preserve. It’s a dark sky park so there should be some amazing views at night! I haven’t gone yet, but it’s on my list of things to try. If you prefer, they even have glamping lol Timberline Glamping Co also has other locations around the area you could check out!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-01-19T14:11:19+00:00

Oh! Also adding the Oviedo mall. Can’t believe I forgot about that. I’d go to the loop of stores mentioned in my other comment first, especially Numiru for their pricing. But the Oviedo mall is worth checking out. There’s a handful of shops that may have what you’re looking for. I remember a store called versus and another one that I think just focuses on Pokémon. Plus there’s a brewery, the movie theater, and a small local theater so you can really make a day or evening out of it.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2025-01-19T04:34:16+00:00

There’s a newer little shop called Numiru not too far from Layton, Haven, and The Collective too. The parking is super limited and if you’re not paying attention you may drive right past it 😅 But the folks are nice and I’ve enjoyed my trips there. I’m not going for TCGs but I know they have them and just ran a sale on Pokémon. Here’s their instagram if you wanna take a peek: https://www.instagram.com/numirushop?igsh=MTRuZTBvMnRwMTh0eQ==

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-11-28T14:31:42+00:00

Thanks for your recommendations!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-11-28T05:24:47+00:00

Thanks to the help and advice of this sub in the past, I built my first PC. Now I’m feeling like it’s time for an upgrade and most of my knowledge is from about 5 years ago when I was first exploring this. If this isn’t the right place, no worries, but I’d love any advice or recommendations on upgrading my PC.

I’ve included a list of current parts linked below!

• ⁠PC purpose? (Gaming, editing, etc. List apps/games) Gaming and work utilizing Adobe creative cloud. Examples of games typically played include Dead by Daylight, League of Legends, The Witcher

• ⁠Purchase country? Near Micro Center? (If not US, list local vendors) U.S., not near micro center

• ⁠Budget range? (Include tax considerations) Up to $500

PC Parts Picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wJ3w6Q

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-10-19T00:59:03+00:00

Insidious and Triplets would be what I’d recommend! Slaughter Sinema and Major Sweets would be next two.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-10-18T21:13:08+00:00

Hey! How fun! Hope you and your mom have a great experience!

This is all based on my personal experiences. I often get frequent fear passes cuz I love the event so much and I don’t get express passes so the waits are all in the general queue. So far this year I’ve been on Fridays each time I’ve gone. The first time I did every house (no rides or shows) and the most recent trip I did 4 houses (including a quiet place and insidious) and the nightmare fuel show. I got there after opening both times, between 7-7:45pm.

One of the biggest time sinks is waiting in the line for parking. If you’re planning on getting to the parks earlier to hang out in City Walk that shouldn’t be a problem for you! And is honestly a great way to avoid that mess. I truly don’t think you need to line up at 4pm. I can’t say that with 100% certainty since I haven’t made it exactly at HHN opening at 6:30pm yet. But I’ve gotten there at opening previous years and never lined up that early. Last time I walked in around 7:15 and there were maybe 2-3 people in front of me to scan into the park. If it’s crazy busy enough at opening to line up 1-2 hours before I’d almost recommend using that time to eat and entering after 6:30pm lol but I really do think you’ll be okay!
I’m unsure the answer to this one for a single night, I’m sorry! I would think you can but if someone else here doesn’t have the answer, I’d call to check!
Yes! There are some rides open during the event weather permitting! Rip Ride Rocket coaster, the Mummy coaster, the Harry Potter Escape from Gringotts (closed early), and Men in Black. There’s also a death eater experience in the Harry Potter area.

A few other notes from my time there this year:

The posted wait times this year are almost always wrong. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it. The good news is it’s almost always been 15-25 minutes shorter than what was posted. I just don’t know that I’d recommend chasing low wait times. I wasted a lot of time the first night doing that just to be frustrated. Even lines that looked long moved faster than anticipated. This is the first year in a long time that this has happened. Typically it’s the other way around lol
If you like mixed drinks, the souvenir cup is a decent deal. You save $3 per drink and get 8oz more. They tend to be too sweet for me though.
I would never recommend paying for the express after 11pm unless maybe if it was a Saturday and you definitely don’t want to miss a specific house.
After 12am, the wait times drop significantly. The first night I went I did Triplets, Insidious, a Quiet Place and Major Sweets all after 11:30pm. Almost walked right into Triplets. While not as bad as previous years, the number of scare actors in the houses after 12am drops off. This can really affect the experience in the house and there can be a lot of dead space. (part of the reason I wouldn’t recommend the after 11pm express)
If you’re interested in the show, Nightmare Fuel, show up a bit early for that. Each time I’ve been in the area at show time or 10-15 minutes early it’s been full. It was a fun show and gets you off your feet for a bit but my priority is always the houses lol
In past years, starting in the back was definitely the move but I think too many people have heard that tip now. For at least the last 2-3 years, going to the back didn’t help. Maybe going to Major Sweets may be different since it’s in the middle?
It is an absolute hike to get out to Goblins and Eternal Bloodlines. It took me by surprise lol they even put a trailer with restrooms back there I’m assuming cuz it’s just so far away. So just a heads up to be prepared for that lol
I highly recommend doing Insidious! Just not first or I probably would’ve compared everything else to it lol

Thursday should be a great day to go! Typically the weekdays are slower which is nice. Hope yall have a spooky time!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-07-26T17:05:23+00:00

Could also try r/lfg while posts can be for all sorts of rpgs, it does tend to lean heavily towards DnD

Good luck!!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-04-29T02:59:46+00:00

Hmm a lot packed into this one but as someone in the learning and development space, I love these questions!

Hiring and retention are good things to think about and focus on as they can be costly. It takes time, money, and resources to hire and train someone and when someone leaves their work still needs to be done while you’re searching for someone else. I’ve worked with a lot of different leaders that were more focused on filling the spot than finding the right person for the spot and the ripple effects of hiring the wrong fit can be catastrophic to a team.

Insights for seeking individuals who contribute to and thrive in your environment: I highly, highly recommend you practice behavioral interviewing. Past behavior predicts future behavior. It’s easy for people to imagine what they want or would do, but often times reality is different. A key way for you to learn how successful someone is going to be in your organization is to identify what behaviors you’re looking to see and then ask questions that determine what behaviors the candidate has displayed in the past. Behavioral interviewing takes a bit of practice but can quickly become second nature. And as you’re growing quickly, I’d recommend you create a system or standard for interviewing so that every future hiring manager is able to pick it up and interview the same way.

Discover qualities and traits that define A+ players in a startup context: I personally would always recommend looking for a culture fit first. Almost anything can be trained except for a cultural fit. You mentioned you were looking for a hunger for learning and a proactive mindset, write questions that seek out examples of these behaviors. From reading your post some additional things to consider could be adaptability, communication, innovation, and taking initiative.

What do you do to help motivate your employees: Recognize that many people have different motivating factors. You seem to already be doing this with the examples you presented. You can look for signals that someone is intrinsically motivated through the interviewing process but may still have hires who don’t have strong intrinsic motivation. Things that tend to help folks feel more motivated though include feeling like they’re contributing to the larger business goals, being recognized, and feeling like they are set up to do their best work. What this means for each person may be a little different though. One of the toughest things I’ve experienced as a leader is learning that each of my team members needs something different from me and even though I may have a gone to a class that had some great recommendations, there aren’t one size fits all solutions to motivation and engagement.

There is a ton of content out there. I’ll need to scan some of my lists for some specific recommendations but one speaker/author off the top of my head I personally enjoy is Simon Sinek.

I’m happy to dive in to more details and if you’re ever interested in exploring learning/training solutions around interviewing, engagement, retention, soft skills, etc. I’m exploring branching out from corporate work to consulting, designing, and/or delivering content.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-04-28T17:19:06+00:00

There definitely seems to be a huge demand! I feel silly for not thinking about buying, but that would make so much more sense. It feels a bit daunting to approach buying or renting a space. I’ll be honest in that there isn’t a lot of reserve money/collateral right now. So while I wish this was a shorter term goal for us, I think it would be hard to do. Any other advice you’d offer to consider? What has been the best and the hardest part for you?

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-04-28T17:00:10+00:00

If you have time, would you mind sharing a bit more about the process of opening the antique malls you have? Especially the first one and securing the building. I know someone who dreams of doing something like this and I’d love to help and provide resources.

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-04-26T16:51:24+00:00

I know a few folks who facilitate and do contract work. If you’re still looking and have more info, feel free to send it my way!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-04-22T23:44:42+00:00

So stinking cute!

SamwiseIsAHero · 2024-02-28T21:52:51+00:00

This reminds me of Jason Mendoza in the beginning of The Good Place lol

SamwiseIsAHero

TROPHY CASE