Yay! The most wonderful time of year is here! Getting scared shitless by terrifying monsters! If you haven't been to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando or Hollywood, You are missing out. Its the scariest, most well done Halloween event out there. I've had the pleasure of working with Universal Studios again to cover Horror Nights and I can't thank the Universal team enough for this opportunity!
Horror Nights runs from mid September till Halloween. They offer a few different ticket options for the event. A day/night combo meaning you can enter the park at 2 pm and enjoy the theme park before Horror Nights begins. Just the event which begins at 7 pm or the Frequent Fear pass which is like a season pass for HHN. It's perfect for locals or if you plan on visiting multiple times. We are annual passholders so we were able to go in early and check out the park before HHN started.
I will recommend the Express pass for HHN. The lines can sometimes reach over an hour leaving the option of not covering everything. Express does cost extra but it's definitely more bang for your buck to enjoy what the event has to offer.
As you walk in, you'll notice all the props and photo ops around the park that guests can enjoy even if you aren't attending Horror Nights. And All the characters are dressed up in their Halloween costumes!
At 7 pm the horror begins! There is an opening ceremony that is 100% worth catching. It's on the upper lot towards the entrance and basically all the monsters come out, do a little skit then chase you down. It's actually terrifying. Here are some of the monsters that roam the area which becomes a scare zone after the ceremony.
Sorry these are blurry, I was trying to capture them while running for my life haha.
Now on to the mazes! This years line up includes:
US
Stranger Things
Ghostbusters
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Frankenstein meets Wolf Man
Creepshow
House of 1000 Corpses
The Curse of Pandora's Box
Holidayz in Hell
I took a few photos from each maze but if you head to the HHN highlight on my Instagram page you can see more photos and videos! My favorite mazes this year were US, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Holidayz in Hell and Frankenstein meets Wolf Man.
If you hate clowns, you are going to HATE this. These clowns don't mess around!
Holidayz in Hell was absolutely MORBID. Basically you walk through the horrors of all the holidays and it's so gruesome...I loved it!
Ghostbusters wasn't scary in the sense of the monsters but there are SO many jump scares that got me good!
I haven't seen Creepshow for a while so I was going in a little blind but this ended up being really creepy. The monsters are terrifying!
US was SO well done! I was a little skeptical on how this would be scary but they did an amazing job, the actors were ON POINT!
I wasn't able to snap any photos from the Stranger Things maze (guess you'll have to go see it for yourself!) But on the lower lot they did have awesome layovers from the series. Scoops Ahoy (obviously) offers ice cream and the employees even dress up in the costume!
The Starcourt Mall serves Stranger Things themed food. We didn't try it, but it looked really delicious!
Not only were the mazes really great but this years merch was actually really cool. It was all 80's themed so it was very colorful and retro.
And last but not least, the drinks and food. The lower lot offers a lot of themed food, drink and dessert stands. One of my favorite things to do is grab a beer and chill in between mazes!
Themed donuts are also sold at Voodoo Donuts in City Walk.
Horror Nights is really the best Halloween event in California. They put so much effort and time into each maze and it really shows! I've been attending HHN for the past few years and I plan on continuing the tradition. Let me know if you go and what your favorite maze was!
Don't hesitate to reach out on Instagram if you have any HHN questions!
-xoxo, Aimee