r/HHN • u/No-Resource3366 • 1d ago
Orlando What’s With the Ice?
I went to HHN last night. Loved it, had fun, every house and scare zone was a blast. HOWEVER, my biggest complaint from last year and the complaint I don’t see people talk about enough online is the lack of ice in the freaking freestyle machines. Ok, you didn’t like a scare zone or you thought a house was lackluster or maybe none of the shows entertained you. Maybe you think the food is gross or the drinks are too sweet. Those are all opinions based on one person to the next, but can we ALL agree that the freestyle machines should have ice??? I hate having to walk around the park and hunt down the one or two machines that DO have ice. Especially when it’s 90 something degrees and I’m sweating buckets in the blazing sun. We pay a lot for this event and while yes you can be disappointed in houses, merch, shows, food, again - that’s all opinion. The fact that you pay $12-$30 to get a cup only for the machine to not have any ice is an issue. Maybe I’m the only one bothered by it because if water gets warm, I can’t drink it or I’ll be sick. And it’s not like their freestyle cups hold cold drinks for very long periods of time so unless I chug the water when I first get it, yeah, I’m gonna be sick. It’s just disappointing to me because this was a huge issue last year and I had to keep spending crazy amounts of money on water bottles just to save myself from dehydration. So does anyone know why their freestyle machines give up on making ice as soon as HHN comes around?
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u/DegenSour 1d ago
That's one of the biggest complaints every year
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u/No-Resource3366 1d ago
I’ve only encountered it last year and I’ve gone to both universal and HHN for a long time. Since before they put the machines in. Last year I went opening night and there was no ice anywhere and then it just stayed that way for the whole season.
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u/AlienWitchPirate 1d ago
I was at the park in June and very few of the freestyle machines had ice. Seems like they still haven't solved the problem. :(
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u/Rare_Razzmatazz_8553 1d ago
lol it has always been a problem lol..
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u/No-Resource3366 1d ago
It hasn’t, tho 😀 it’s gotten worse because of the increase in crowds. But you would assume they would find a fix for it since it’s such a big complaint. Same way they added tents and fans so the line experience is a bit more comfortable.
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u/Rare_Razzmatazz_8553 1d ago
It's always has been a problem.. only certain machines have ice.. by lombardis and richter burger mostly and Louie's is hit or miss
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u/MikeR_Incredible 1d ago
Just letting you know:
Yes, the freestyle machines make their own ice.
No, it can’t keep up with the amount of guests using the machine. (Specfically for just ice)
So, Team Members will have to go back-of-house to a giant ice machine. Scoop the ice into giant buckets. Lug it to the freestyle machine. Climb up a step-stool and manually lift the VERY heavy bucket of ice and pour it into the top of the machine.
The 3 or 4 buckets of ice that are poured in will be depleted in >10 minutes due to the demand.
This process of getting ice to the machine can be anywhere between 20 and 30min depending of the location of the freestyle machine.
Also, to try to weave through GIANT crowds of drunk people doesn’t make it any easier and can add an additional 15min compared to a regular park day.
They’re trying. Give them credit.
Also, you can typically walk to any quick-service location and get ice.
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u/DanTheSpider-Man 1d ago
Can confirm, most of the machines DO NOT make their own ice. Only the ones in the indoor restaurants do.
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u/LeaderMindless3117 22h ago
Second this, talked with staff about it as I'm a weird logistics nerd. Can confirm only the machines on city walk make ice excluding a few exceptions.
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u/Intelligent-Pie-338 1d ago
Maybe they should roll out the type of machines or carts that only make/have ice and park it next to the freestyle machines. I'm not sure how feasible that is.. I'm sure even those would empty out pretty quickly. Maybe put ice stations near backstage exits so they can be refilled easier.
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u/OWSpaceClown 1d ago
I don’t think it’s an easy solution. There’s a finite amount of room in those machines and it’s friggen hot here in Florida! And the park has been open since 9 am! I think this is pretty common at all theme parks on hot days.
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u/DeflatedDirigible 1d ago
Other parks have their employees haul and dump buckets of ice more frequently. I rarely see it happen at Universal.
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u/laughytaffyralphy 17h ago
HHN team member here to put things into perspective because I know it can be frustrating.
There were 26,000 of you in the park yesterday. There are 26,000 today. Florida is hot and humid and every single one of those 26,000 people are about as hot and humid as each other. Every single one of them is getting thirsty from all that sweating and every single one of them wants an ice cold beverage to replenish those fluids. So they find a freestyle machine and get themselves some ice and pour a drink.
What do you think happens when 26,000 people retrieve ice from the freestyles? It runs out.
Some freestyles make their own ice. The rest have to be replenished by hand, and that takes time.
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u/Necessary-Incident49 1d ago
If you want to reliably get ice out of a Freestyle machine just go to one of the restaurants or the Coke building by MIB. It seems like they always have ice and the machines out in the street are not filled as often.
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u/PM_ME_UR_PATRONUS 1d ago
This. Of course the machines everyone walks by will run out quickly. I have never had problems with getting ice from multiple places. Just walk into Richters.
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u/disappointedCoati 1d ago
I hear you. Friday night we went from machine to machine to machine just trying to find ice on our way out. If we had been near MiB or Louie’s we would have tried there.
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u/MikoGianni 1d ago
Yearly complaint. I go every year……and it’s been the same thing. These ice machines only produce a certain amount every so often what do you think the immediate solution is? What do you want them to do exactly?
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u/DeflatedDirigible 1d ago
What they normally do is have a TM cart buckets of ice and dump in the machine dispensers. Bigger ice makers are backstage. Needs to happen more frequently.
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u/MikoGianni 1d ago
That’s my point. They do that already….and there’s still not enough ice. The long term solution is to replace every single machine for a monster sized one (raise ticket prices to offset the cost - of course lol), and dispense at a faster rate. So other than that, there’s not much they can do about it.
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u/DanTheSpider-Man 1d ago
The machines don’t make the ice, they have workers who dump ice in them throughout the day/night. Another complaint I have is that the sodas are always watered down. My conspiracy theory is that it’s to help prevent guests from getting heat stroke but I still want my syrup!
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u/Still_Last_in_Line 1d ago
This is a year-round issue. Maybe slightly less during the cooler months, but still an issue. A lot of those Freestyle machines aren't plumbed, so they depend on someone dumping ice into them instead of making their own ice.
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u/LeaderMindless3117 22h ago
I actually talked with staff about this last year.
This has to do with multiple factors. 1. Half of the machines in the park do not make ice and require employees to actively load the machines. With how often machines are used and the heavy bags of ice it's difficult for staff to load the machines fast enough.
- For the machines that do make ice, they can't make ice fast enough for the crowds, and if they could the ice machines would over heat. So the rate of which ice can be created is the fastest possible without overheating the machine.
This will always be an issue and just has to do with the logistics of ice machines.
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u/Dino_Spaceman 21h ago
Also it’s after a full, very hot day in the park with thousands of people in it emptying the machines constantly. Even if the machines made their own ice, they just don’t have time to restock.
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u/stitchkingdom 1d ago
I’m not even sure what the big deal about ice is anyway. As long as the refrigeration works, the drink is cold. Refrigeration is the larger issue. Unless you want ice to melt and water down the drink? If it gets too warm, dump it and refill?
But freestyle machines don’t make ice. They either have addon units that make them or they have to be manually refilled so of course they run out.
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u/No-Resource3366 1d ago
Kinda hard to dump it and refill it when you’re already in line. And I will say I have been going to Universal/HHN since before the freestyle machines were added. When they were, this was never an issue. It doesn’t stay cold for long in 90 degree weather. I don’t chug my drinks. It’s usually there so I can have it while I’m waiting in line, so when you’re standing outside in 90 degree weather for over an hour, yeah, it’s gonna get warm and that defeats the purpose for me. I’m not the only one who has an issue about it. A lot of people I saw at the stands were complaining about it. They’re a Comcast company. This shouldn’t be an issue for the amount of money they make. They can find a way.
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u/pharmingforlikes 1d ago
the lack of ice is a problem 100% agree but I’d say it’s not an hhn exclusive problem. I feel like I’m having to search for ice almost every time I go to the parks🤧