Let's Travel: Universal Studios Florida Halloween Horror Nights

October 2023

Hello Friends!

Let's catch up. After my two hit Egypt posts, my #1 requested topic was to write more about my travels. While I don't always continent hop, I do like to pop over to various locations to experience new sights, cultures, & everything else that goes with traveling. So without further ado, get cozy & please enjoy my review of a Halloween-themed trip!

Disclaimer: I, of course, am in no way affiliated with Universal Studios. I was in no way asked to write this, & it is purely for my own enjoyment.

Background on HHN:

Each autumn Universal Studios in Florida & California have what is called "Halloween Horror Nights" (abbreviated to HHN). This takes place from early September through early November, & is open 7 days a week, rain or shine. This holiday-specific event takes place after the park closes at 7:00 PM, and goes until 2:00 AM. This was its 32nd year, & the event continues to grow in popularity.

I personally have never been to Halloween Horror Nights before, but as a former Disney Cast Member, I was very familiar with the two major Halloween events in Florida: Disney's "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" & Univeral's "Halloween Horror Nights". I have many cast member friends who have done both, & everyone raves about HHN. I've experienced Mickey's Not So Scary a few times, so this year felt like the right time to change things up.

Not knowing anything about this event, my fiancé & I went on Universal Studio's website, only to find it was the most confusing & unhelpful space on the internet (this was also confirmed by Florida locals & big fans of Universal). We got our normal daytime park tickets for Universal & then decided to upgrade our Halloween Horror Nights tickets to Express Passes.

Express Passes mean that you can cut to the front of the line once for all 10 haunted houses (it's basically a fast pass). Each Express Pass was roughly $200.

Now here's where we went wrong! We thought that Express Passes included a general ticket into Halloween Horror Nights. It did not. (And the disclosures for Express Passes did not mention needing any additional tickets for entry). We were in line early for a "Scare Zone" & had to leave the line to find a kiosk to purchase separate tickets, which was another $100 each. So it totaled just over $600 for two of us to do Halloween Horror Nights with the Express Passes. (Again, this cost did not include our daytime passes).

That being said, we absolutely needed the Express Passes to be able to experience everything all in one night. If you do general admission, there is simply no way to get through all haunted houses & scare zones, due to wait times standing in queues.

HHN Tips:

I mentioned having to leave a "Scare Zone" in a previous paragraph, so let me explain. While in the parks, we found out that we needed to be in line for 1 of the 5 designated Scare Zones before 5:00 PM or else we would be kicked out of the park & would have to wait until 6:30 PM for re-entry into Halloween Horror Nights. Around 3:40 PM we spotted the line for the haunted house I was most excited for (Stranger Things), & at that point, the line snaked back hundreds of people. So we decided to camp out to make sure we got into the Scare Zone to wait for HHN to officially start.

The line for the scare zones never budged forward until suddenly everyone was at a run. My tip on this is to always have a way to communicate with your group if you need to step away from the line for bathrooms or food.

At the front of this line is where they scan your regular HHN park ticket (not the Express Passes). So here is where we had to step out to find a new kiosk. Which, suprisingly, most Universal Cast Members could not locate for us. After some aimless wandering for 15 minutes we found our way to a kiosk to buy tickets.

These ticket kiosks are also the only place where you can pick up a HHN specific park map, other than at the park entrance. The HHN park maps is definitely a must! The signage and directions posted throughout HHN are few & far between, poorly marked, & have little detail.

Once you're scanned through, you wait in a general area until they open the queues for the 10 haunted houses. This is a good time to grab food or drinks, as HHN-specific food trucks appear. Although fair warning, most of the food is weird to fit with certain themes. Don't expect very many classic food options.

It's also a great time to pick up HHN park-only souvenirs, like their fancy souvenir HHN drink glasses. Some souvenirs you can only get inside the parks during HHN, so make sure to purchase what you want while you are there! You can always ask a store clerk to ship the packages to their Universal Store on City Walk for you to pick up once you leave the parks.

Finally, and this should be very self-explanatory, wear comfy shoes! My fiancé & I wore our comfiest sneakers, but we were limping along at the end. Although by the time we left we had spent 15 hours in the parks that day. Oof. Talk about a night of horror.

Halloween Horror Nights:

Now I put a lot of thought into going through haunted houses. I wasn't sure if creatures were able to follow us through the haunted house or sneak up behind us, so I always had my fiancé walk behind me. Turns out no one can follow you, so there's no need to worry about that. Oh well, it just made me look all the more brave going in first. (Although we were holding hands the entirety of our time walking through).

Another habit that works well for me is that 1. I'm rarely startled, & 2. if I do jump, it's usually only physically. 99% of the time I am totally quiet going through these. On the 3 occasions I was startled enough to make a sound it was more of an "ooh" as in "ooh nice job scaring me," or "ooh, nice shoes". Definitely no sound of terror coming out of me. Which was quite handy, because some regulars pay attention to the people behind them, & will purposely camp out in a spot so that when they finally do move through the haunted house, the creatures will be targeting the loud, scared screamers. Cruel, but effective.

However, you are told when going through these haunted houses to keep up with the group ahead of you, so usually you can see what's coming ahead of time. There are also un-costumed staff spread out throughout every haunted house in case there is some issue.

Enough about me, onto the main event--this year's 10 haunted houses. I'll start by naming each Haunted House, followed by my thoughts on it. Once we've made it out alive, I'll cover the Scare Zones.

The Haunted Houses

1. Stranger Things 4

This haunted house was the one we waited in the Scare Zone for. By the time we had finished with our ticket snafu, we were moving through this queue fairly fast. I told my fiancé we should save our Express Pass for this one so we can do it a second time. Bad idea. We waited over an hour in the normal queue for this when we could've gone through a lot quicker with our passes. And spoiler alert, we were too dead-tired to come back.

This ended up being our favorite haunted house. While it did focus mostly on season 4 of Stranger Things, there was enough there that people only familiar with the 1st season could still enjoy it. The scare actors actually looked a lot like the real actors, which really enhanced it. And some of the spaces were amazingly designed.

Part of the experience was entering Eddie Munson's trailer, which was where the Upside Down had broken through the trailer roof. The characters of Stranger Things had knotted sheets together to make a rope to drop through the trailer roof into the other side. So as you are looking up through this hole in the roof, you see Dustin looking back down at you from where he's standing inside the Upside Down. Amazing effects.

There was also an "open air" section as well, which gave the illusion of you being outside with Eddie as he fought off those flying demons with screaming guitar & homemade weapons.

Then of course you saw Eleven in her hospital gown, nosebleed & all, fighting the big bad, Henry Creel aka Vecna. Now these real actors were reaching out & honestly their hands were just inches away from each other. I almost got hit in the face because I didn't realize how close they'd get. It was one of those 'do I duck, do I pause & let them finish the scene, or do I just walk through?' moments, but it was very effective nonetheless.

The other thing I really liked was that throughout this house, the characters would suddenly move out & loudly say their line before moving back, but it was as if we weren't in the house with them. It was the only haunted house where creatures or characters didn't try to directly engage with you. A nice haunted house to ease into the fray with.

2. Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate

This was a take on classic games/storylines where Merlin was in trouble & needed help. It was a campy haunted house with the theme of fire & ice fighting each other. Apparently those elements were supposed to be the dragons, but they were humanoid creatures whose bodies glowed. Very hard for hiding & surprising everyone coming through.

Halfway through, it did section off between a fire tunnel & an ice tunnel. You were at a crossroads & had to figure out which way to go. I asked my fiancé which one to choose, & he annoyingly told me to pick. I was going to pick ice but I lost sight of the people ahead of me, & I'll be damned if I'm going to walk through a haunted house without knowing what's happening up ahead. So I chose fire so I could tag along with the people ahead & know who would jump out and from where.

3. YETI: Campground Kills

Now for this, I was expecting a whiteout blizzard condition haunted house. Boy was I wrong. This was more of a national park theme, with a hillbilly family fighting an entire Yeti tribe. Nothing outstanding in terms of characters or scares, but I will say that this had the most original character out of all of the haunted houses.

There was this lady wearing a bathrobe with her hair in curlers. She was brandishing a frying pan & telling a Yeti to back off & leave the little hillbilly boy alone. But she wasn't threatening the Yeti as you'd expect--oh no. She was dancing with the frying pan. She was having a sassy frying pan dance off to intimidate this guy. It was amazing. So kudos to that scare actor for making a strong character choice.

4. The Exorcist: Believer

I've only seen the 1st exorcist movie, so there were some scenes I wasn't familiar with, since this was about the newest Exorcist movie. That being said, it was pretty standard stuff. Girls were posessed & at times would be quiet & calm & other times they'd scream & dart out at you. One interesting scene was a woman splashing holy water at the girl. We watched the woman flick the holy water, then felt actual water hit us on the other side of the face. Apparently holy water surrounds you & hits you from all angles when applied. (There are 2 other haunted houses that will spritz you with water at a certain section).

5. Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count

This was my least favorite haunted house. I'm not familiar with the Chucky films, but various tv screens placed throughout the waiting queue showed snippets of Chucky's violent encounters with others. There was just excess blood & gore, which I'm not a fan of. I breezed through this by trailing the people ahead of me & not really looking at any of the scare actors. Showing way more gore than actually necessary seemed to be a recurring theme for most of the Universal haunted houses.

6. Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings

This was another original Universal haunted house. It was about a cult that was murdering people in original yet extremely gory ways. I have to give credit--this was the best designed & creepiest original haunted house there was. Plus the older couple ahead of us was very entertaining to watch. Instead of sticking to the main path, the lady would walk around the spaces, examing all sorts of props & set dressings. She'd then make offhand comments to her husband about them. This intrigued me enough that my guard was down, & as we were walking through a room filled with cult members (with no way to tell who was real vs. fake) I was actually startled by a scare actor. Well played.

7. Dr. Oddfellow's Twisted Origins

This was based on 1920's-1930's circuses. The costumes & hair & makeup of some circus performers were great. Lots of clowns & lots of classic circus ways to die. Nothing memorable. A character did make me jump, that was it.

8. The Darkest Deal

A classic tale of some unknown musician who sold his soul to the devil. It had a great concept but was poorly executed. The first scene showed the performer on stage with the devil standing off to the side. Then we walked through a corn field, so I thought, oh, very unique, we're in the midwest. Then in the next room we were walking through a bayou, & I thought, oh dear, corn doesn't grow in swamps. This was poor design execution. More scenes of the musician with the devil watching. Nothing exciting or scary.

My fiancé & I discussed this one afterwards. We definitely had issues with the location discrepancy. I also had a thought for this: it would've been way more effective for us to watch the musician decend into madness. First scene is just what they had. Then we see the musician writing sheet music furiously. He could explode with the papers & become unhinged in his obsession. And so on, & so forth. But I'm more of a psychological thriller person, so that would've been the route I would've taken. (If any Universal HHN designers are reading this, I'll make myself available to discuss more haunted house ideas/improvements with you).

9. Universal Monsters: Unmasked

This was the original haunted house we were most excited for. It featured the Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, & the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The first section was the Phantom, & I must give them credit--they had this section smell like lady's perfume. A very nice reprise after smelling smog in so many other haunted houses. However, when we encountered the Phantom, he was carving Raoul's skin off of his face. Then he was stabbing a lady in the audience. Then he was jumping out to scare us with his stabby stab needle. Very unfortunate that they chose to make this all about the blood & gore. If Universal had done their research they would've known that the Phantom only hangs people. It would've been more refreshing to see a rope instead of more blood.

Next was Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde & he was aggressively stabby stabbing as well. It does fit his character better, so I let that slide. In one scene he is disemboweling a woman & that lovely spray of water hit our faces again. Effective.

Finally was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, & guess what! He had a stabby stab tool too. God, the lack of creativity here. I mean, the Hunchback is known for his strength--why couldn't he have crushed someone to death with boulders? I would've preferred anything to the much overused stabbing devices found at the majority of the haunted houses in Universal.

10. The Last of Us

We were looking forward to Stranger Things & The Last of Us the most, so it seemed fitting to have these two bookend our haunted houses. My fiancé is a big fan of the HBO show, & I am a fan of both the show & the video game. This house was based off of the video game, so I was in my element. This was also the only haunted house where I did not keep up with those ahead of me. I'm very familiar with the premise of the game & the knowledge that the monsters only detect people by sound. So I slowly wandered through without making a sound, savoring it all.

The first two scenes have people shooting the infected & becoming infected. In the 3rd scene, Joel shows up. I was leaving that room right as he appeared, so I only saw the back of his head. I strongly considered retracing to actually get a look at the actor, but I didn't want to disrupt the people behind me, so I reluctantly continued on.

Clickers & Bloaters shambled out of different corners to shriek at me, but I was unphased. As we walked through a quiet bathroom area, I looked up & could see the spores falling gently down through the air. Taking a moment to make sure no creatures were around, I explained to my fiancé that the spores were how people in the video game became infected--by breathing those in. It was a lovely touch that most people would've missed.

The next scene had Ellie appear, & I stood still right in front of where she was to get a good look at her. She had nice blood & dirt smears on her face, but she was suddenly a redhead in this. An interesting choice, considering Ellie is brunette. But hey, I'm all for adding more badass redheads in the mix.

In the last scene we saw Joel & Ellie's backs as they surveyed the land ahead, about to set off in their quest. As we were exiting the haunted house I had already spied a Clicker hiding in the exit area. I walked by quickly, while the Clicker gave my fiancé a good scare.

The other special thing to note with this house was that it was the only haunted house to have music playing in the wait queue outside. The speakers blasted The Last of Us theme by genius composer Gustavo Santaolalla over & over again. This was the 15 hour mark for me, so that music is what gave me the stamina to keep going. If only they had done the same thing with the other 9 haunted houses.

The Scare Zones

1. Dr. Oddfellow's Collection of Horrors

It had general scare actors but no real theme; the only memorable thing was that chainsaws were used. This was located at the park entrance to welcome you in; we ended up doing it last as we were leaving.

2. Vamp '69: Summer of Blood

This was the best & largest Scare Zone they had. It's a murderous music fest where hippies are carrying various limbs of people they've torn to shreds. This was the only area throughout HHN that had music playing constantly (outside of The Last Of Us). They played "Get Back" by the Beetles, "Sweet Caroline", "Proud Mary", & "Let The Sunshine In". It was a groovy atmosphere, especially when everyone started singing along.

My fiancé was very popular at this zone. He must've been approached 10 times. Only one hippie tried to approach me, but I threw the peace sign in her face.

3. Shipyard 32: Horrors Unhinged

This was supposed to be themed as a 1940's San Francisco shipping yard, but there really wasn't any strong design to show the time period or location. Yes, it did look like a shipyard, but they also had Jaws in the background, which helped tremendously. I was expecting nautical creatures roaming this area, but it was more like exotic jungle creatures. Weird design choices.

4. Jungle of Doom: Expedition Horror

This was a 1920's airplane crash/jungle expedition where Dr. Oddfellow experimented on creatures. Design-wise, this was well done, as they had a thick tree canopy overhead with bats hanging above, their eyes glowing red. It did feel like we were in a dark jungle, but the creature designs were lacking that scare factor; the creatures were very similar to those in the Shipyard Scare Zone.

5. Dark Zodiac

I think this was tied to the cult haunted house--Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings. They had pentagons projected on the ground, as well as mystical creatures, gypsy wagons, & fortune teller stalls. This section also had the coolest creature of all of the Scare Zones--a giant spider creature on stilts. I was just ready to get a photo of this when the spider decided to chase someone the other way. Just my luck the one time I'm excited to see a spider it's scared to see me.

Well, that wraps it up for my Halloween Horror Nights experience. I'm glad I was able to experience it, & to enjoy 3 haunted houses that I was incredibly familiar with (Stranger Things, Last of Us, Universal Monsters: Unmasked). Would I go back and do it again? No I wouldn't. But I am inspired to see what Halloween events my fiancé & I can create back home.

Thanks for reading, friends! Until next time, happy haunting!

Kathleen 💛

[ Photos taken by me. ]