"I'm leaving due to the physical sexual and verbal assault that I experience every single night," one wrote.
"There were psycho guests who went out of their way to intentionally attack and sexually harass me," another wrote. "My last couple weeks I was often scared to take pictures, so sorry if I turned you away."
The women said that they portrayed Carrie, the Camp Crystal Lake camp counselor, and the Insidious house's Iron Lady. Universal employs hundreds of scare actors at Halloween Horror Nights — performers who portray characters in the event's haunted houses and scare zones.
A Universal Orlando spokesperson said, "The safety of our team members and our guests is our most important priority. We have a zero-tolerance policy that can include prosecution of anyone suspected of compromising the safety of our team members. Our scare actors receive special safety training and we staff our event with uniformed law enforcement officers and team members whose role is to keep everyone safe."
Two of the women did note that Universal tried to respond to their situations. "Security and coordinators were great at being there for me, the assaults were drive-by attacks," one wrote.
"Although my coordinators did everything they could to keep me safe, some guests just don't know how to behave," wrote another.
Let's say it again: There is no reason why a theme park visitor should initiate physical contact with any park employee. Even with the park's cartoon characters, guests should wait for the characters to show that they are open for contact, whether it be for a hug, a handshake or even a high five.
Yes, Halloween Horror Nights creates a more intimate and personal experience than a normal day in the parks. HHN and Halloween events at other parks rely on the performance of live actors who jump out, cut off, and chase park visitors in their houses and scare zones. It is an "up close" event, that's a large part of its appeal.
But "up close" does not mean "in contact." If you want to hug the guy with the chainsaw when you take that selfie, ask first. And anyone with a shred of decency ought to know that permission to come close for a hug or a photo does not include permission to touch or grope "sensitive" parts of the body. (And, gimme a break, everyone knows what those are.)
From reading these posts, it becomes clear that these women know the difference between inadvertent contact at a crowded event and attacks from people looking to take advantage. The people who attacked these women knew what they were doing. No matter how frustrated, angry, thrilled, or exuberant a theme park guest might feel, there is never an excuse for grabbing or groping any park employee.
In the Facebook group, several fans wrote that alcohol helps fuel an "anything goes" attitude among some guests, and they suggested that Universal cut back alcohol sales in order to improve safety at the event. Universal Studios Hollywood suspended its Halloween Horror Nights event for several years in the early 2000s, in part due to unruly guest behavior. Today, USH's HHN does not serve alcohol, even though beer and other alcoholic beverages are available in that park during normal operating hours.
Whatever one thinks about alcohol in the parks, every fan ought to agree that physical harassment has no place in the parks. Let's amend the ubiquitous safety spiel: Keep your hands inside the ride vehicle — and off the park employees — at all times.
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I Respond: No. Universal Orlando could stop selling alcohol. They choose not to.
Food & Wine at Epcot can get really REALLY bad on good weather friday/saturday evenings and holiday weekends as well. We witnessed someone jump into the lagoon once there.
I don’t foresee Universal cutting back on alcohol anytime soon. It is too much of a revenue generator for the event. Sadly the only thing that would force a change is for something severe to happen to a scareactor or guest. Having read some of the posts from the HHN facebook group it is incredibly disappointing to find out that some guests have treated cast members so poorly who are there to entertain them to begin with.
From what I’ve seen, the number of obnoxious, intoxicated people at both Epcot and Universal appears to be more of a “locals” problem than guests that are traveling from elsewhere. Perhaps the laws and enforcement in Florida are a bit lax?
The problem with HHN this year is that the scare zones have turned into free for all photo ops. When they had the Lady Luck photo op in 2011, the team member said "you touch, you go leave with the police"
There is no way they are going to have as many actors in the streets next year, specially with how many people are talking about the abuse they got.
I do think something will be done just because of the amount of people getting angry over this, but they will never stop the alcohol.
universal should at least ban selfies. ban posing with actors in general
1: There was a night (a couple years ago) where the HHN event sold no liqueur and limited beer and wine sales. There was no significant drop in the number of incidents addressed by law enforcement. Revenue operations returned to normal the next event night. (I'm assuming it was a costly test)
2. As a scareactor, you are more likely to be attacked (or ambushed) by a sober person. The stereo type for men AND women who assault is in their teens or early 20's and they "are looking to prove something."
Special events draw interesting crowds. Everyone seems to have their horror stories (no pun intended). Disney has been the first to cancel a well attended event. Was Night of Joy more hassle than it's worth?
Maybe the HHN crowd was better behaved....
So now..I stay home or I go to Mickey's No So Scary party or Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa which has much less of a problem.
Oh and Epcot at F& Wine..I stay away on the weekends, too many drunk locals acting like morons. One cast member told me that Sat nights are the worse with people falling down drunk and/or puking in the bushes.
I would also like to see a Universal try out the no posing rule again for scare actors. I remember a few years ago characters were told they weren't allowed to stop for photos which curved a lot of the psycho fans stalking and hoarding of talent.
I also think social media and marketing teams play a little bit of a part pushing guests to get closer to the talent when they shouldn't be doing that. They need to find alternative to fan photo contest of everyone trying to get the best interaction and forcing more photos.
End rant/ 2cents
Yeah, I was one of them.
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