Halloween Horror Nights 32

Hello my spooky friends! This year we decided to go to Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 32 on opening weekend, and let me tell you it was an experience. We usually make our trip to Florida during the second to third week of the event but wanted to try something new this year. My one take away from it was I would prefer not to do opening weekend again. From the weather, to not enough actives to pull in crowds aside from houses and lines for food feeling like they were as long as the house lines it was a lot to take in, so let’s dive right into our time in Orlando.

We knew that it was going to be busy and crowded and it was but I think there were a few things that added to the craziness that was opening weekend. Friday around 4:30pm we were waiting to make our way to a stay n scream holding area when a terrible storm hit the area. Not only was is a downpour the lightning was intense and the winds were getting up to 40mph. We saw videos of the umbrellas over the food stand registers being blown away, in the place we were waiting the furniture was being blown all over the place as well. They were struggling to get the park cleared for the event because this storm lasted an hour and people didn’t want to run in the rain or our in the lightning and I couldn’t blame them. This storm obviously made getting HHN started difficult and it was just downhill from there. We didn’t have express this night but we were able to get into two houses and then we just walked around the park. There weren’t scareactors out in the scarezones at that time because of all the rain, we were going to try some of the different food but that was short lived. There were not enough food booths this year, this caused all the lines to be super long. I heard that some people were waiting 45 mins to get a corndog from of the booths. We just decided call it an early night and left around 8pm. On our way out though we did stop in The Dead Coconut Club (some pictures of the decor below) to checkout the theming before heading to the hotel to rest up in hopes that Saturday would be a better night.

Saturday the weather was nicer, no rain just your typical Florida heat and humidity. The line to get into the New York stay n scream was ridiculously long so we choose the Richter’s area instead. Once we were let out we backtracked to Stranger Things 4 and used our express passes before the wait time got too crazy. We had heard that a good amount of the wait times on Friday night with express pass were longer and not really accurate. You should be waiting half of the time of the standby line but it seemed that wasn’t the case for Friday night. I will say though the longest we waited in express was about 35 minutes for The Last of Us, but that wasn’t terrible at all. We ended up doing all the houses Saturday except Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count because it wasn’t high on our list and its express line did seemed backed up every time we walked by. Again we weren’t able to try any of the food from the food booths because the lines were just way too long. We did go to the Peacock bar but that was a disaster. The way in was the same as the way out, they had 4 bars and the lines were getting to be a mess because of the location they couldn’t stretch very far, it was very confusing. We ordered two and the person got the order wrong, when I tried to have them fix it they said they couldn’t sell me two drinks, even though I had just been charged for two drinks and handed two drinks. We finally got it figured out and immediately left the area it was so disorganized. We called it a night at midnight and made our way back to the hotel.

Sunday we were able to get into the New York stay n scream area and got a table at Finnegan’s to have a few drinks and some food while we waited to them to clear the park. I really wanted to try Left Behind Ravioli from The Last of Us food booth, but every time the line was super long. So Sunday after we got done at Finnegan’s we headed to Sting Alley to wait for the booth to open to try and beat the crowd when they let us out of the holding area. We were told that the booth would open at 7pm but while we were standing there at 6pm a manager came over and they moved the barricades over and opened the booth up for people in the stay n scream area. I was first in line and was very excited to be able to try them, I was nervous though because they had a truffle cream on them and I am not a fan of truffles. Surprisingly they didn’t have a strong truffle taste to them and for being $10 you did get a lot of raviolis, I thought it was a good dish. After the food we started doing houses, we started with Stranger Things 4 and then did Chucky just to get it out of the way and then did all the back houses before making our way back to the front. We finished the last house around 11pm and decide to head back to the hotel since we would be driving back home the next morning and wanted to be able to get as much rest as possible.

We had fun at the event but some of the negatives this year I feel were the shows, food and the scarezones. They only had the Nightmare Fuel show this year, they lagoon show didn’t happen that would help to eat up some of the crowds. Yes they had the Deathereaters out but many people would walk in and see them then leave. It wasn’t something that would hold people for 30 minutes or more like the lagoon show would. Next food as I mentioned earlier there were not enough food booths so the lines for the ones that they did have were long and most people didn’t want to stand in them. The little street across from were the Tribute Store is in New York was lined with them last year and this year there was just one booth there and two on the street beside that area. Waiting for food took up a good chunk of your time if you didn’t get in the line early so I feel like a lot of people would skip them so that they could just get in line for the houses. The houses this year were great but the scarezones just seemed to be lacking.In past years I have loved to just sit in them and watch people get scared but this year I didn’t have that feeling. There also weren’t big moments in the zones and many of them felt empty weather it be not a lot of scareactors or props, they just felt like they were all missing something. Again we understood that it was opening weekend and somethings needed to be ironed out but in my opinion having less food booths and only the one show put a damper on the event.

We enjoyed all the houses except Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count, it just didn’t have a good flow to it. Bloodmoon Dark Offerings which I thought wasn’t going to be good was one of my favorites! The scares were alright (the scareactors were amazing) but it wasn’t a scary house. It was however a beautiful house, all the different vantage points and the depth of the house was really cool. The Last of Us was a good the sets were cool and all the Clickers and Bloaters were scary. There were a lot a double and triple scares in the houses this year which was amazing. The Tribute Store was really cool and I was happy to see it back in its original location in the New York area. The concept was a comic shop and it was like you stepped into the pages of the comics themselves.

The creative team and all the team members that make the event happened are amazing. Everyone will find their groove as the event goes on and I can’t wait to see videos from later in the event. Overall we had a great weekend and look forward to next years event, we’ll just be going later in the season next time.

Halloween Horror Nights 32 Preview

Welcome back ghouls & ghoulets! It’s been a while I know, I really dropped the ball with keeping up with posts. We were able to squeeze in a quick trip last year but it was a bit of a rough year if I’m being honest. But we’re not going to bring you down that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to be happy, haunted and spooky! This year Halloween Horror Nights seems to really be leaning into the lore of the entire event. We had teaser videos talking about “the signs are hidden in plan sight,” you can check that video out here. Universal Studios Orlando Florida Halloween Horror Nights 32 is right around the corner, so let’s dive right in and talk all things haunted houses, scarezones, food and merchandise.

Yesterday Universal Orlando dropped all of the houses and scarezones on us at one time, with the exception of 3 of the houses which had found out before yesterdays massive announcement. Let’s talk about the 3 houses we already knew about. Before HHN31 even ended last year we were hit with our first announcement, on October 31^st the last night of the even HHN announced that the fowl mouth, murderous doll Chucky would have his own house at the event. You can have a look at the announcement video here. Now Chucky has had some kind of representation at the event the past few years. HHN28 had the Revenge of Chucky scarezone, demented toys and Good Guy employees roamed around the zone while Chuck was stuck in a Good Guys box and would insult guests brave enough to step up and talk with him. HHN30 and HHN31 there was a photo op set up where guests could stand in a Good Guys box and a silhouette of Chucky with a knife would appear behind them. But HHN32 Chucky will have his own house and it will follow the SYFY television series. We haven’t watched the series but I’m excited to see how the house turns out. The house will be called Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count, from the sounds of it guests must try and survive and not become another casualty of Chukys Kill Count.

On June 15^th HHN announced that The Last of Us was announced and like last year we were introduced to a Scream Squad if you will. We are introduced to Jordan, Drew and Sofia, they are on a video chat together. Jordan is at home playing The Last of Us, Drew is walking outside and Sofia appears to be at school. They are talking about the video mentioned earlier talking about the lore and conspiracy theories of HHN, you can see the announcement video here. Now this version will be based on the video game (which we haven’t played) but from what I have heard from those that have played the game and watched the HBO series that they are very close. We watched the tv series and we loved it and I am can’t wait to see how this translates into a house, the noises that the Clickers make send shivers down my spine and I know that they are going to be terrifying.

On July 13th Stranger Things 4 was announced, sticking with the video chat this one is from Sofia’s point of view. As she is chatting with Jordan and Drew when she hears the chime of a grandfather clock, or as Stranger Things fans know it is the sound when Vecna is about to take his next victim. This house will take guests through season 4 of Stranger Things, can you and your scream squad escape Vecna’s curse? I am excited for this house, season 4 was one of the darkest, scariest and emotional of the seasons. I can’t wait to see which scenes the creative team picked to bring to life! I already have all my outfits picked out, you might say I have a slight obsession with Stranger Things.

On July 28th before the massive announcement we were give the last video from our Scream Squad, Drew is outside running when he comes across a very creepy looking doll. When he picks it up images flash before his eyes, check out the video here. Now I will say I am surprised by this announcement because this movie doesn’t come out until after the event starts. The Exorcist: Believer from Blumhouse, now this movie doesn’t come out until October, Friday the 13th to be exact. This will be like a immersive trailer for the movie. I am not excited for this one, the original Exorcist terrified my as a kid and I still haven’t seen it to this day. I can already say that this will be the scariest house at the event for me.

For the rest of the houses we didn’t get any video but we did get some imagery and descriptions of each one. Lets start with Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins, now if you aren’t super familiar with HHN Lore Dr. Oddfellow is the guy who ran the circus Jack the Clown worked and he was ultimately the one who imprisoned Jack in the Jack ‘n the box. Dr. Oddfellow will serve as this years Icon and he has a hand in all the houses and scarezones this year which is cool to have an interwoven storyline with everything.

Next up my most anticipated house of the event Universal Monsters: Unmasked. They knock it out of the park every year with the Classic Monster houses, they are always so beautifully eerie. We are getting 4 monsters who don’t always get shown a lot of love, guests will be transported to Paris where they will not only explore what is above ground but what is below in the catacombs as well. We will come face to face with The Phantom of the Opera, The Invisible Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde!

Now if you have been a fan of the parks and rides then you will be excited for this next house, Dueling Dragons Choose Thy Fate. Dueling Dragons used to be a ride at Islands of Adventures but was closed and replaced with Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure. While attempting to take Merlyn’s spell book, two warlocks are turned into dragons and you the guest is stuck in the middle of these two dueling dragons. The cool things about this house is it seems that there will be two different paths to choose from in the house, which is another callback to the ride where guests could choose between fire or ice as their dragon of choice.

Next we have Yeti Campground Kills, set in the 1950s you and your squad find an old campground that has been taken over by Yeti and you must try and make it to the ranger tower and to safety. This is the 3rd time we have seen yeti at the event so I am interested to see what this installment has in store for us.

The next house is The Darkest Deal Universals take on the Crossroads deal of a Blues player who sold his soul. The story will follow Pinestraw Spruce who sells his soul for fame to the Collector. I am excited for this house I know of the Crossroads myth and I am excited to see Universals take on this story.

The last house is Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings, you and your scream squad stumble into a village of moon-worshippers during the blood moon. During this time the worshippers take it upon themselves to track drown any who do not follow the blood moon, can you make it out before they get you?

Now time for the scarezones, this year they are Dr. Oddfellow’s Collection of Horror, Dark Zodiac, Jungle of Doom: Expedition HorrorVamp ’69: Summer of Blood and Shipyard 32: Horros Unhinged. As I mentioned before Dr. Oddfellow has his hands in everything this year he is the reason for all the creatures guest will encounter in all the scarezones. You can read more about them below. I am excited to see how they are all connected and I am excited to get another variation of the Vamp scarezone. The last one we got was Vamp ’85 and the theming and music was great, I am very much looking forward to this Woodstock type of Vamp scarezone located in the New York area of the park. Dark Zodiac will be located in the Hollywood area of the park and I am very interested in seeing the Zodiacs brought to life. Jungle of Doom will be located in the Central Park area of the park and this is the perfect spot for it, with the overhang of trees and the closeness of the area it’s sure to be one where the scareactors can blend in and scare guests. Shipyard 32 will be located in the San Fransisco area of the park and usually when they do anything with a ship or the water they turn out beautifully so I can’t wait to see what this scarezone holds. Lastly Dr. Oddfellows Collection of Horror will great guest as soon as they come through the gates, in the main drag of the park guests will have to make their way through whatever Dr. Oddfellow has planned for them.

If you want to learn more and go a little deeper into the houses, scarezones and the overall event I recommend to listen to the Discover Universal podcast, they have a 3 part series on the overall reveal of the event where they talk to members of the creative team. And it also appears that they may do what they did last year which was release short episodes that touch on the original houses and scarezones of the event which help layout the story for guest. The first one is already up and it is about Dr. Oddfellow, if you would also like to learn more about Dr. Oddfellow I suggest checking out Christoper Ripley’s Halloween Horror Nights Unofficial: The Story & Guide. These books not only go over HHN from the very beginning but he also talks about the different characters over the years and their backstories as well, you kind find all his books here.

Other things we learned about the event is that the Tribute Store will be moving back to the New York section of the park and will be called Tribute of Terror and be themed to a NYC comic book shop. The Red Coconut Club in City Walk will once again be transformed into the Dead Coconut Club but with a new menu and theming, below are some picture from last years Dead Coconut Club.

Again Cabana Bay Swizzle Stick lounge will be turned into a themed bar feature Lil Boo and the Pumpkin Lord guests 21 and older can try different themed adult beverages. Again this year any Universal Resort guest with their valid room key will be able to experience Chucky’s Twisted Playground. Open Daily from 2pm-10pm at Cabana Bay Resort guests can pose will different photo ops in an immersive experience based on the Chucky tv series. A new thing added this year is the Universal Monsters Gallery of Legends, guests can take part in a photo hunt for 7 different Universal Monsters at 7 different Universal Orlando Resort lobbies. Also the Endless Summer Resort will also have a Spooky Sunset Lounge where guests 21 and older can try themed Halloween drinks. Nightmare Fuel will be back with a show in the old Fear Factor stage, there is a rumor that there will be a Death Eater show in Diagon Alley but nothing has been released about that at this time. We are also still waiting to hear if there will be a lagoon show as well.

There is going to be so much to see and do at this years event and I can’t wait to experience it all! If you haven’t already you can buy your tickets for the event here all ticket packages including multi-night, single night, tours and express passes are on sale. We can’t wait to be back in the fog!

Halloween Horror Nights 31: Never Go Alone.

It’s that time again, Universal Orlando Resorts Halloween Horror Nights is near! I can already smell the fog & hear the people screaming. The event runs from September 2^nd to October 31^st, if you still needs tickets you can get them here. You can also grab your Express Passes, Multi-night tickers, Tours & Scareactor dinning, that’s right it’s back this year!

HHN31 tagline is “Never Go Alone”, now some people are annoyed that they are reusing this tagline. If I’m honest I felt like last year’s tagline was “30 Years 30 Fears”, truly it doesn’t matter but some people like to have something to complain about. Like last year when dropping the houses HHN made teasers trailers. With each teaser we got a movie character, the first we’re introduced to is “The Snacker”. While leaving the movies the Snacker is attacked when the Mummy, Dracula & the Wolfman tear through the movie posters outside the theater. On May 17^th Universals Monsters: Legends Collide was announced, you can watch the trailer here. Guests will be caught in the middle of a fight between the 3 monsters as they fight over the magical amulet that can break their curses.

The second house announcement we got came on June 8^th, and we are introduced to “The Skeptic. While at home watching a scary movie the power goes out and we see The Shape in the hallway. But this isn’t any shape it’s The Shape, Michael Myers the Boogeyman. You can check out the teaser for the house here, now to my surprise it isn’t based off the new Blumhouse movies but the original ’78 version. I was hoping that we might see the 2018 version of the movie at the event but with them going back to where it all started means that we won’t have to walkthrough the terribly awful Halloween Kills movie. If I would have had to hear “Halloween dies tonight” every time I went through a house, I would have lost it. In the years that we have gone we have only experience one other Halloween house and that was at HHN28 when they did Halloween 4the Return of Michael Myers. I will say that was a fun house, not the scariest but it was enjoyable. I feel like this will be comparable to Texas Chainsaw Massacre at last year’s event, was it a super scary house no but it was fun and felt like you had stepped into the movie. You can never go wrong with a classic and I can’t wait to step foot into the Myers house.

The third house announcement came on June 23^rd and is a 2 for one house, gracing the event with its presents again, The Horrors of Blumhouse. This year featuring Freaky and The Black Phone. Following the same format as the others we are introduced to “The Cringe Couple”. While walking through a parking garage a couple is chased by The Butcher from Freaky, they try to get into an elevator but when the doors open The Graber from The Black phone is waiting for them. I am trying not to judge too soon but I find this an odd pairing, I wish they would have let either of these titles stand-alone but regardless I will hold off until we actually get to experience it.

On Friday July 22^nd we got another teaser GIF of a girl in a bathroom taking a selfie (you can see it here) , We would have to wait until July 26^th to get the house announcement. But before we got the house announcement, they dropped multi-night tickets for the event as well as Scareactors Dinning to the website. Now I will say I was very surprised to see Scareactor Dinning come back, mostly because the restaurant that they used to have it at The Monsters Café was closed a couple months back. This year it will be held at Louie’s Italian Restaurant which is located in the New York area of the park. You can find the multi-night tickets as well as the Scareactor Dinning experience here.

If you are not familiar with the Scareactors Dinning Experience, it is an add on ticket, you must have a ticket for that night of HHN as well. Guests will enjoy a themed dinner buffet while Scareactors running around and interacting with guests while they eat. You can take photos with them as well as get a digital download of a photo taken while there. Tickets are $54.99+ tax, we have never done it but I have seen videos and it looks like a good time.

Now to the house, we are introduced to “The Selfie Queen”. We knew this house was coming, a few months back The Weekend tweeted about YouTube pulling one of his videos and he much said that it wasn’t too much for HHN. The Weekend: After Hours Nightmare will be the last house that is shared on both coasts. Even though I am not well versed in The Weekends work from what I have seen and from the teaser they dropped I do feel like this house will be very creepy. If you would like to read about the concept of the house you can do so here. This article from Entertainment Weekly dropped right before the trailer, it almost seems like they had to announce the house because of this article being posted but I’m not mad about it. And if you are like me and not as well versed on The Weekend this YouTube video is a compilation is the storyline of the house.

As mentioned all four of the previous mentioned houses will be at Universal Orlando as well as Universal Hollywood. I look forward to seeing the walkthrough videos because even though both coasts share these houses, they won’t be identical, which is nice because there are some people who will go to both events. Moving forward the houses we talk about will only be at HHN Universal Orlando.

This year the Original Concept houses outnumber the Intellectual Property (IP) houses. On August 16^thHHN dropped another video, this one longer than the four previous videos. It had the four people we previously mentioned and then it introduced the rest of the “Scream Squad”. We see a group of friends attending HHN but they are all slowly separated and run into a character from one of the houses or scarezones, you can check it out here. Let’s take a closer look at the 6 OG houses.

The first one is at the top of my list, Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake. Guests will enter a New England fishing village and come face to face with undead fishermen. This house got the Trick ‘r Treatment, going from a scarezone to a house. At HHN26 Dead Man’s Wharf was a scarezone in the San Francisco area of the park. Snowy or water houses are usually really pretty and you can guarantee that this house will be blasting the A/C, which is a nice break from those hot Florida nights.

Spirit of the Coven is set in a 1920s speakeasy, I am interested to see how this house turns out. In the description they describe the witches as flappers and that is a new take on witches for me. Now this next house already makes my skin crawl and we haven’t even seen anything from it yet. Bugs Eatin Alive”, bugs why did it have to be bugs! The description of the house is a bit confusing to; guests will be “touring a 1950s house of the future”. I don’t really know that means but I doubt I’ll be able to focus on that detail too much as we are walking through it. Universal released a podcast talking with some of the creative team behind HHN and while they were describing this house I was screaming “nope, don’t like that” repeatedly in my car as I listened. You can find the podcast where ever you listen, it’s the Discover Universal Podcast and it is an official podcast from Universal Orlando.

Our next original house is Fiesta De Chupacabras, if you are unfamiliar with the Chupacabra it is a cryptid that drinks the blood of animals, it translates to goat sucker. Depending on where you are located the description varies, according to the HHN description guest are visiting a Latin American village were a fiesta is being held to celebrate the chupacabras. According to the internet in Latin America it is described as a reptilian alien like creature. Can you escape the fiesta before the chupacabras get you?

Hellblock Horrors is our next house, the description of this house makes me think of the scene in Cabin in The Woods where Dana and Marty see all the different monsters in their holding cells. Guests enter a prison holding “savage inmates and monstrous creatures”. Will you get out before they break free of their cells? The last original house is Descendants of Destruction. While traveling through the subway of New York, mutated creatures have taken up residence and they are looking for their next meal and it may just be you and your scream squad if you’re not careful.

This is a strong year for originals and I am very excited for them! Many of my favorite houses have been the originals; Slaughter Sinema, Carnival Graveyard, Dead Waters, Wicked Growth just to name a few. The creative team has a lot more free range when it comes to the originals so I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with.

On to the scarezones, again these are all original concepts. Sometimes the scarezones are based on Ips but not this year. Going counterclockwise around the park because I want to save the best for last in my opinion (as of right now, this might change after the event). Up first to the right if the Today Show Café in the Hollywood Blvd section we have Graveyard Deadly Unrest. Tread lightly as you make your way through Nettlewood Cemetery, spirits of those laid to rest awaken on All Hallows Eve. Can you make it out or will you be trapped for all eternity?

Guests will then come upon Scarecrow: Cursed Soil, this scarezone is a continuation from a house that was at HHN21 Scarecrow the Reaping. Located in the Central Park area of the park, make your way through an abandoned farm where scarecrows have come to life and looking to harvest any who they come across. I am excited to see this scarezone in person, usually this is one of the pretty areas when it comes to scarezone. Continuing around the park to the San Francisco area, we have Conjure the Dark. A sorceress is conjuring creatures from the dark dimension to feed on unlucky guests.

In the New York area Sweet Revenge, arriving at The Bicentennial Hometown Fall Halloween Festival Parade, sponsored by the candy company Major Sweets. Think of this as a horror Willy Wonka, candy from Major Sweets has started to turn the children of the town into killers. Listening to the Discover Universal Podcast the creative team says that they reached out to the company that makes the Universal Mardi Gras floats, throughout the scarezone will be parade floats from the Halloween Festival Parade.

The final scarezone is located in the Plaza od the Stars at the front of the park and its Horrors of Halloween. Like Scarecrow: Cursed Soil this scarezone is also based off of a house, Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin. The Pumpkin Lord has returned! This character from last year was amazing, he is Halloween. The Pumpkin Lord is summoning terrifying creatures to terrorize unsuspecting guests. The carved pumpkin from the façade of last year’s house are back along with fan favorite Lil Boo! Lil Boo became an unofficial icon last year and Universal heard the people and how much they loved this little pumpkin that they brought him back and put him on some the merch for the event.

This brings us to the shows, the Nightmare Fuel team is back with a new show. Located in the old Fear Factor stage, this show is full of pyro, dancing and aerial work. We enjoyed last years show it was different than anything we had previously seen. It is also a nice break from all the walking you will be doing around the event. The second show is the lagoon show. This year it’s Ghoulish! A Halloween Tale. The description says it’s a ghost tale. Using fog, fountains and laser effects the show is projected onto a water screen over the Universal Lagoon. Usually, the show is about 10-15 minutes long, you will have to stand compared to the other show but I still say check it out. We’ve enjoyed the past shows the past 2 years and look forward to checking this one out. It seems like this year it will be more of a story whereas the Marathon of Mayhem shows mostly showed scenes from the IPs that were at the event that year.

The last two things to mention are the Cabana Bay themed bar and the merch. Like last year when Cabana Bay turned the Swizzle Lounge into the Icons bar and had the Jack’d Up Experience that are once again going to offer a spooky good time. This year they are offering Universal Monsters Gallery of Legends. There will be a Universal Monsters themed photo gallery experience, Universal Monsters Gallery of Legends. Now this part is exclusive to Universal Orlando Hotel guests (you will have to show a Universal Resort hotel key). But anyone can check out the Swizzle Lounge, last year they had themed decorations and specialty cocktail drinks. This will be open daily from 5pm-12am. I say if you have a chance and can check it out, I highly recommend it, we had a nice time to hanging out at the bar and trying the different drinks. If you are staying at one of the Universal Orlando Resorts, head up stairs and next to the Galaxy Bowling there is an immersive photo ops set up. This will be open daily from 2pm-10pm but again you must be staying at one of the resorts and be able to show a room key. The merch this year is great! It has a vintage Halloween feel. If you don’t want to wait to get your merch you can find some of it on the Universal website. You might have to keep checking because it does sell out, but don’t fret you can contact customer services and if you provide the skew number and size, they can ship it to you if it is in the park. If you are in the parks, you kind find it at the 5 and Dime at Universal and The All Hallows Eve Boutique in Islands of Adventure. The HHN Tribute store should be opening up any day now and there will a good selection there as well.

All and all I’m very excited for the event, I love the traditional Halloween feel. I especially love the original concepts! Don’t get me wrong I like the IPs but I can’t wait to see what the creative team has cooked up this year. We look forward to this event each year and we’re so close I can practically smell the fog. Keep an eye on our social media channels, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok.

Credit for all the pictures used for the Houses and Scarezone goes to Universal Orlando Resort. Cover photo by me.

Fun Quick Trip to Our Favorite Place!

Hello! I know it has been a looong time since I have put out a blog, and I always say it won’t happen again but here we are. You know how it is work, life but that is not what you are here to read about. Let’s dive into the meat and potatoes! It had been 6 months since we had been to Universal Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights. We figured we have the annual passes might as well use them! We had a long weekend from work and decided to head down for Mardi Gras and to check out Jurassic World VelociCoaster since we hadn’t been on it yet.with So we packed our bags and headed down to Florida.

We got to Aventura (this was our first time staying there) around 12:30am-1am. I will say that the hotel is very nice, very modern. I mean they even have a little robot that will deliver things to your room. I will say though that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the room. Sadly I forgot to take a photo of ours but will describe it. Now I will start off saying the room was very nice and we were only there for a short time so it worked. But if we were staying for a week or longer I wouldn’t want to be in that room. You walked in and there was a sleeper couch, 1 king bed and the bathroom. The thing that put me off was the bed was very close to the window, there was no room for a bedside time on the one side of the bed. You either and to crab walk along the window or awkwardly crawl across the bed to get to the one side.

Also not a big deal but of the hotels we have stayed out the shampoo and conditioner that is in the room did not feel like it really did the job. I know that most hotel products seem that way but this is the first time that I was sad I didn’t bring my own travel size toiletries. Things I did like about the room, I did like that there was an iPad that controlled the lights, tv and you could order room service through it. That is the first time I have ever experienced something like that in a hotel room. Also another nice feature was Bar Bistro 17, the cocktails were great, there was a nice breeze and the view was really nice. The perfect place to unwind after a day at the parks with some food, drinks and a sunset.

Since we had gotten in to late Friday we didn’t get up as early as we had plan too to get early entry. We started walking to the park around 7am and ran into a bit of a line for the hotel security checkpoint beside Margaritaville. By the time we got through that Hagrid’s was already at a 180 minute wait and that was just a bit too much for us. We wondered around Islands for a bit and then headed to All Hallows’ Eve Boutique.

I must say that I really like that they have continued to make it, a smaller version of the tribute store. The theming is great and it always smells good in there with the candles that they sell. After spending sometime in the store we made our way to Jurassic Park, when we got to the VelociCoaster it was only a 65 minute wait. We decided that that wasn’t an unreasonable amount of time and we didn’t have much else to do until more of the park opened up so why not. I will say that we only waited about 30 minutes, I was really surprised how fast the line seemed to move. That was great for me cause I was very nervous about riding it and thought I might sike myself out if we waited too long. We ended up in the 2nd row and let me tell you what, I was terrified lol. Don’t get me wrong it was a fun ride but it was scary, I am embarrassed to say that I screamed the whole time.

After the thrilling ride we stopped into the Hog’s Head and grabbed a quick pint. By this time more of the parks had opened and we made our way over to Universal to checkout the food and drink options at the Mardi Gras booths. It was the 2nd to last weekend of the event while we were there. I will say that I will take that into consideration but I felt like compared to when we went in 2020 there wasn’t as much offered. Again it could have been because it was so late in the event compared to when we went 2 years ago on the opening day of the event. I missed all the booths that they had in the courtyard across from Jimmy Fallon Race Through New York. It felt like a party in that area the last time while this time there was just 2 booths.

Our first stop was Brazil and we grabbed an order of the Chicken Coxing and Beef Rissole as well as theStrawberry Caipirinha and Pineapple Caipirinha Punches. Everything was really good, the items were a bit heavy for a hot Florida day but were very enjoyable. We also tried the Tomato Basil Arancini in the New York area, the Shrimp and Avocado Ceviche, Conch Fritters, along with the Cape Guayaba and Goombay Smash in the San Francisco area. The shrimp and avocado ceviche was so light and refreshing, it was definitely high on the list of items we tried. I wish we would of had more time because we truly didn’t try enough of the items, but like I said being so late in the event somethings seems sparse.

The parade as always was a lot of fun, we like to stand in the alley way behind the Starbucks there is a good amount of space (if you don’t want to be right on the curb) and it is a good place to get a lot of beads.

We did also check out the Tribute Store, I love that they are doing them more for the different events. This time the store was themed to a Mardi Gras float factory. They had little Easter eggs to HHN and to the Holiday Event, eagle eye park goers could find HHN Bear as well as Earl the Squirrel. We didn’t try any of the treats from this one but they all looked so good. I will say though compared to how much they have at HHN and during the Holiday Tribute Store there weren’t as many treats or as merchandise it seemed to me.

We also got to checkout the Limited Time Universal Studios Monsters: A Tribute to The Creatures of The Night (phew that was a mouth full). Since The Mummy ride is under refurbishment until later this summer they transformed the gift shop to the ride into a Universal Studios Monster store. They had statues of the Classic Monsters as well as Monster merchandise. I love that the Classic Monsters seem to be coming back to the park and getting love, I can’t wait to see what they do for them when Epic Universe opens. Fingers crossed we will get a bigger and permanent version of this store when the new park opens.

On Saturday we again missed early entry so we took our time getting ready, again we ran into a bit of a line at the security check point but it wasn’t as long as the day before. This was more of our relax and see where the day takes us. We played around of Mini Golf at the Hollywood Drive-in. Then we head to the Lone Palm Airport Bar to grab some drinks with our favorite bartender Joe. Joe is the best, he has great stories. We also got to see a photo album that he keeps behind the bar, it’s a lot of pictures from the different Jimmy Buffett concerts. The next time you’re at City Walk stop by and see if Joe is working, you won’t be disappointed. Have some great drinks and listen to great stories, Joe even told us the story behind the airplane that sits behind the bar. I know there is plaque that tells the story but trust me it’s better to hear it from Joe (it’s blurry what Joe is in the background of the photo below). We wondered around the parks a bit, finally got on Hagrid’s, we spent about an hour in line, but then called it an early night to go back to the hotel. Even though we were only there for 2 days it was still a really fun trip.

With Mardi Gras ending the next big event is Halloween Horror Nights. Now as of the writing of this besides a the tagline “Never Go Alone”, single night tickets, R.I.P. Tour tickets and Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tickets (all of which you can find here) we haven’t had any other announcements. There have been 2 speculation maps released from Horror Night Nightmares, you can check out the 2.0 version of the map here. Won’t get too much into here but I will say if the majority of this map stayed I wouldn’t be upset about it, I think it is a pretty decent lineup. Hopefully we will get more announcements soon, when we do we will be sure to have a post about them and what are thoughts are.

Until next time!

Some other pictures from the trip

HHN30 : 30 Years 30 Fears

We’re back from our jam packed vacation! This year treated ourselves to the Hard Rock Hotel and 6 nights of HHN, 4 with Express Pass and 2 without. We drove down on a Saturday and arrived at the hotel around 1:30pm. Since we had been on the road since 6am we decided that we would save our BOGO HHN ticket and we decided to go and check out the Icon Bar at Cabana Bay. When we arrived at the bar it was a bit packed but as we were ordering two spot opened up at the bar and we were able to snag them. We tried the Black Magic (360 vanilla vodka, grand mariner, fanta orange & edible black glitter), The Skeleton Key (marker’s mark whiskey, st. germain elderflower liquor, agave nectar, fresh lemon juice, q ginger beer & angostura aromatic bitters), The Grinder (deep eddy ruby red vodka, barrows intense ginger liquor, grapefruit juice, agave nectar, lime & edible black glitter) and The Jack (jack daniels whiskey & coke with lime). They weren’t bad, they were interesting flavors. The bartenders were great, funny & entertaining. We decided to skip the Jack’d Up Experience, after watching videos on it we realized it was mainly photo ops. The decorations were cool, they had a banner with the Icons it. They also had costumes and props from some of the Icons with little cards with information about the Icon. If you would like to check out the menu you can do so here.

Our first night we had express & we made it through 5 of the houses before calling it a night. Now I know what you’re thinking “how did you only make it through 5 houses with express?”. We I’ll tell you, as we were in line for Beetlejuice (our 4th house of the night) it began to down pour. Water was up to our ankles in some parts of the par. When we looked at the radar it was going to continue raining for the next 2 hours, so we decided to call it a night. As we made our way to the front of the park to leave we passed a house entrance & decided to go through it to get out of the rain for a quick moment. It sucked to call it an early night but we knew our feet would be wrecked if we stayed, I HATE WET SHOES & SOCKS!!

On Wednesday we started our morning with a 3 house Unmasking Tour. The 3 houses was Universal Monster: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives, Revenge of The Tooth Fairy & Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth, we also got to see the facades for Texas Chainsaw Massacre & HHN Icons. It was crazy to see that two houses share one soundstage but you can’t hear the other house because of the soundproof curtains. Well there was one acceptation, the curtains separated between Tooth Fairy and HHN Icons, so you could hear the music from Icons along with the narration of Tooth Fairy when you first entered Tooth Fairy. This was the first year we had done an Unmasking Tour, it’s really cool getting to see the houses with the lights one because there are so many tiny details you don’t see when you’re going through the house during the event. One of my favorite details was in the Bride house, in one of the rooms they had a skeleton hand from The Creature (this can be seen in the bottom left picture above), Draculas ring and the Wolfman’s cane. You also learn more of the stories of the house. Bride & Tooth Fairy are pretty understandable but Legendary Truth not so much. Now if you’re an HHN “super” fan & know about the Collective & where there the year Legendary Truth was a big part of the event you understood this house. As someone who had only read about the house & group I didn’t understand the story when we went through before our tour. It was definitely a house built for the fans of the event who have been coming for awhile. Below are some more photos from our tour.

This year is like a love letter to the fans, a lot of past elements were brought back & it was cool to experience things from before we started going. Wednesday was our first full night at the event, it rained for a bit but we were able to get a table at Finnegan’s to wait it out. We were able to hit all 10 houses since we had express passes again. All the houses were really good, I was disappointed with Beetlejuice because we never got a good run through of the house. The best thing about the house was our first night I wore a Beetlejuice themed outfit and the scareactor at the entrance of the house commented on my outfit. We did get caught in a cast change for Texas Chainsaw Massacre we were trapped between two Leatherfaces. Which was pretty funny because the group behind us were scared so the scareactors just kept starring out them and they kept freaking out.

The scarezones this year were alright, there felt more like photo ops & were more congested than usual. Two of the zones; Seek & Destroy & Lights, Camera, Hacktion seemed unnecessarily loud. There is nothing wrong with lots of noise in the zones but these two almost made it less enjoyable with the amount of sound effects that were being pumped in. We did both of the shows; Marathon of Mayhem : Carnage Factory & Halloween Nightmare Fuel. This years Marathon of Mayhem wasn’t as good as HHN29, the stage show Halloween Nightmare Fuel was fun. The magic tricks & fire dancing was really cool. It was also a nice touch that Jack was walking around the event, you never knew where he was going to show up. We saw him while we were in line for houses and outside the Tribute Store.

I do wish we had tried more food & treats (totally forgot to get any at the Tribute Store) but again this year there weren’t a lot of options that jumped out at us. Most of it seemed too heavy & that is not food you want to eat in muggy FL. We did try the Pumpkin Guts (vegan; zucchini & squash ring with toasted hazelnuts & pumpkin seeds, the Field of Screams Gyoza (spicy ground turkey & butternut squash filled dumplings) as well as the Bag O’ Donuts with powdered sugar. The Pumpkin Guts didn’t really have any flavor, they also got cold pretty fast, the Field of Screams Gyoza was really good though. The first time we had the gyoza they had been sitting under the heating lamp for a bit and weren’t the best but the second time we tried them they were fresh and tasted much better. They filled you up without making you feel heavy and gross. The Bag O’ Donuts were alright, you got 6 mini donuts with your choice of powdered or cinnamon sugar. I didn’t think they were worth the price, they were really light and fluffy which was nice but they were just bland. I really hope that they bring back the mini pumpkin donuts they had at HHN28 they were AMAZING! We tried 3 of the cocktails; The Bog Slime (gin, lime juice & house made matcha-cardamon syrup), Poison Tea Party (iced tea & lemonade rum punch with huckleberry & allspice) & the Ghoul Juice (mango rum with cherry lime & allspice). Of the 3 the Bog Slime had the best flavor but the only downside to it was the matcha-cardamon residue that formed at the bottom. Poison Tea Party was the next best while the Ghoul Juice was the least, it was just too sweet.

Over all it was a great event, the vinyl & masks on the characters didn’t bother me or take away from the experience. After 2 years I was just happy to be back at the event and in the fog. And there is still a month left of the event so you have time to check out the event. You can find all the information & tickets here. Make sure you’re following us in Instagram @themeparkcorner & on Twitter @CornerTheme & be on the look out for our next blog that covers our time at Disney.

HHN is Back Baby!

We’re 14 days away from Opening Scaremonies which means it’s almost SHOWTIME (said in Beetlejuice voice). It’s been a crazy couple year, with last year’s event being cancelled it seems like Universal and the Creative Team are going all out. There are themed booths popping up everywhere in the park. Past icons are coming back, there will be a themed Icon bar and we have not one but TWO stores!!

Now I know none of this information will be new and I know it’s a tad late to be putting this out but oh well. As you know Dan and I work in the Film Industry so we’re pretty busy but this year we’re going to attempt to do some videos for our trip. Which I am very excited for, we usually are only there for a few days but this year we’re taking an entire week and we’re doing Universal and Disney. You can hear all about it here, but I’ll also touch on it in this blog. I’m going to cover the event, some of the merch we’ve seen and also talk about our plans and out house rankings before we experience them. Without further ado let’s get to the fun stuff.

Houses

No surprise we’re getting 10 houses again this year (pretty sure that will be consistent unless they throw in a surprise house one year) but this year the Original Concept (OG) houses outnumber the Intellectual Property (IP) houses, 6 to 4. The first house announcement we got came all the way back on March 5^th and it was Beetlejuice. Fans have been asking for this house for a while and they’re prayers have finally been answered. Now some lucky guests did get to experience this house last year. It was one of 3 houses that Universal opened up to daytime guests, you can see it for yourself here. Last year the 3 house that were opened up did have plexiglass throughout the to keep the scareactors and the guests safe, so far we haven’t heard if the plexiglass will be back this year but as or right now it seems like it won’t. If you’re a fan of Beetlejuice I think you’ll really enjoy this house. If it’s anything like Ghostbusters last year it will be an entertaining house and feel like you stepped right into the movie.

Artwork for the House from HalloweenHorrorNights.com

The next house announcement we got arrived on July 8^th and was Netflix Haunting of Hill House. It’s no surprise that we are getting another Netflix property this year, at HHN28 they had Stranger Things season 1, HHN29 we got Stranger Things seasons 2 & 3. With everything being delayed with season 4 of Stranger Things you knew they wouldn’t be making a return at this years event. But there is no shortage of spooky things on Netflix and Haunting of Hill House fits perfectly with the event. I am very interested to see how they do some of the scares in this house, we know that the Tall Man, Bent Neck Lady and the Ghost in the basement will all be making an appearance. The latter of the two aren’t that hard to pull off but if you’ve seen the show or if you haven’t the Tall Man floats instead of walking. I am very interested in seeing how they pull that off. I have seen some pictures of the façade as well as some of the rooms in the house and it looks hauntingly beautiful.

The third announcement from Halloween Horror Nights came on July 18^th was a double feature; Universal Monsters The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM). I am very excited for the Bride house, HHN29 did Universal Classic Monsters house and it was amazing! So I expect this one to be on that same level. The story is that the Bride is trying to bring her love back to life and she is using blood from Dracula’s wives to make it happen. Like Beetlejuice this house was also opened to daytime guests last year and you can watch a walkthrough of it here.

Now I will be honest with you I am not looking forward to TCM house one bit, I can deal with chainsaws in the streets of the event but in the houses is another story. I will most likely go through this house the way I went through House of 1000 Corpses the first time, with my eyes closed! I know I know that is no way to experience the house but, that is the only way I (Eden) will be able to make it through lol. I have only seen one of the remakes of TCM and it is not my favorite but because I want to be able to make it through all 10 houses I am hoping I can work up the courage to get through this one.

After these four house announcements things were pretty quiet after that, they had released Single Night Tickets and the R.I.P & Unmasking Tours. But it wasn’t until August 5^th that they dropped all the Rush of Fear Passes, they are multi-night tickets for the event, all of which you can purchase here. Also on August 5^th they announced HHN Icons Captured house. This being the 30^th year they are bringing back a lot of fan favorites, and the biggest way is with Icons. This house is pretty much a love letter if you will to the HHN Icons, guests will get to come face to face with these demented, twisted fiends. In ready the description of the house, which can be found here (insert link to website) one Icon will reign supreme at the end of the house and it will change, so you will defiantly want to make sure that you do multiple walkthroughs of this house.

And then the following week on August 12^th HHN dropped one massive announcement on us…EVERYTHING! The remaining houses and scarezones were all dropped at one time! You and check out the announcement video here. With 3 weeks till the event, it was one hell of a way to get everything out there. The remaining 5 houses were; Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland, Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin, Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience, Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth & Revenge of the Tooth Fairy.

I am very much looking forward to experiencing Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland. Throughout the events history many of the scarezones and houses have been set in Carey, Ohio. Which is a real place, one of the event designers of HHN is actually from Carey. Houses such as Slaughter Sinema, The Hive, Leave it to Cleaver & scarezones like Twisted Tradition have all been set in the Town of Carey. This house will be a way if bringing them all together I believe and can’t wait to see what they do! If you would like to learn more about Carey you can read up on it here or you can also check out this video from Expedition Theme Park.

Speaking of Carey, our next house I believe will be is supposed to take place in Carey, OH but I’m not 100% sure, it just feels that way to me. According to the HHN website an evil rot has infested the land and this brings the Pumpkin Lord back. His minions bring sacrifices to help the Pumpkin Lord rise. This house reminds me of the scarezone from HHN28 called Twisted Tradition. It was full of rotting pumpkins and pumpkin creatures roaming the streets. (insert pictures from the scarezone). Dan brought a good point for this house, it might not be full of jump scares like the others, instead the scareactors will be more camouflaged into the sets. Like they were in the Seeds of Extinction house, the house was full of over grown plants and the scareactors would be right next to you but you had no clue because they blended in with the foliage.

Now people had been saying for a while that this next house was confirmed, when it actually hadn’t yet (okay technically it had but not officially yet for this season), but last year Peacock release a video from inside the house. Senior Director of Creative Development, Michael Aiello took a news anchor around and showed them the house, without any scareactors in it, you can check it out here. This house is set in an abandoned theatre where a puppeteer and ballet troupe have been trapped. Will you make it out alive or will you become part of the captive audience stuck there?

Now this next house neither myself or Dan are familiar with; Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth.On the HHN website they don’t have much on this house, so I had to do some sleuthing but Legendary Truth is a paranormal investigative team that was formed by Boris Shuster to investigate the disappearance of patience of Dr. Mary Agana aka Bloody Mary and 2008 event. You can read about them in any of Christopher Ripley’s HHN guides or this website here. Again, this is just another way for HHN to pay homage to past events and also to fans of the event who have been going for a while.

The last house Revenge of the Tooth Fairy was the third house that was opened to daytime guests last year, you can see the walkthrough of it here. Now from what I’ve heard on from people who got to experience the house it was just alright. One of the issues was that you could tell where the scareactor was because of the plexiglass that was placed in the house. The story of this house is a young boy refuses to give his tooth to the tooth fairy so he comes and pretty much kills the boy’s family. This house right now is on closer to the bottom of my list. I won’t complete rule it out until we go through it but it just seems kind of meh to me.

Scarezones

Time for the Scarezones! There will be 5 scarezones again this year and 3 out of the 5 are paying homage to past events. When guests enter the gates of the park, they will be greeted by the 30 Years 30 Fears scarezone. According to the website past creatures will once again be roaming the streets to scare guests. The imagery is a little confusing because at first, I thought this was going to be a zone with the past icons in it but after reading the description I realized that wasn’t so. But I still think every so often we may just catch a glimpse of an Icon, keep your eyes peeled!

The next zone guests will encounter in the New York streets will be Seek & Destroy, an alien cyborg regime has taken over and are using people as fuel. All under the watchful eye of the Controller. Not too sure what to make of this scarezone but again I won’t completely rule it out until we experience it. As guests enter the San Francisco area of the park they will come upon the CryptTV scarezone. There are little stages set up throughout the area for different creatures from this YouTube Channel, if you want to know what to expect you can check out the HHN Prep Playlist that they put together on their YouTube Channel. We have watched these and they are very creepy, they range in length but are all still considered shorts.

As guests enter the Central Park area of the park, they will come to Gorewood Forest, this zone is a call back to a past Icon of the event, the Terra Queen. The year she appeared she vowed to return in 15 years. One year late but whose counting! The Terra Queen and other creature from Terra Cruentus will be roaming the street looking for more sacrifices. If you are lucky enough to make it out of the Gorewood forest you will land yourself in; Lights, Camera, Hacktion: Eddie’s Revenge. I feel fans of the event are very excited for this scarezone. Some backstory in case you don’t know, Eddie was supposed to be the Icon of the event for HHN XI but after the attacks on the World Trade Center they pulled Eddie from the event and brough back Jack. Eddie has appeared in houses at the event but this year they are giving Eddie his due and giving him his own scarezone. I am probably most excited for this scarezone, we have seen pictures and there are mini stages set up throughout the area and they are either from past houses or past scarezones. Again, they are playing off the 30 Years 30 Fears theme and bringing back some of fans favorite things of past events.

Shows

Now some things came out during quarantine and Universal rightfully cut ties with the dance troupe Academy of Villains. But we are still getting 2 shows this year; they have made a new lagoon show, Marathon of Mayhem: Carnage Factory. HHN29 they premiered the first lagoon show for the event and it was cool. They projected clips on water, there were lasers and music that went along with the houses of the event that year. I am excited to see how they change it up and it ties in with the event. The second show will take place at the Fear Factory stage and is called Halloween Nightmare Fuel. Not much is known about it but according to the website guests will experience fire, pyro and ariel performers. Sounds like it will be entertaining, we will defiantly check it out at least once.

They haven’t released food and drinks yet, there are plenty of themed booths set up though. Which I am pretty excited about there seem to be more booths this year and they are themed to match the houses which I have never seen them do before. There have been some merch previews with each of the house announcements but there is still more to come but I think we won’t see it until the event opens. The façade of the Tribute Store is up and I have seen online that Team Members will get a sneak peak of it Thursday, August 26^th. But if you’re at the parks you can make your way over to the Lost Continent in Islands of Adventure and shop some of the merch at the All Hallows Eve Store that they opened up, it’s pretty much a mini–Tribute Store. They don’t have all the merch but they have some and they are also selling coffee and art from local artists which is really cool. You can see a walkthrough of the store here from Tim Tracker.

Now that we have covered everything that is coming to the event let’s talk about out trip! Like I said this is the first year we’re going for a full week, will arrive on the 18^th and be there until the 26^th. I am very excited we will both have wrapped on our current shows the day before we head out. This is also the first year that we’re going to do an Unmasking the Horror Tour, which for those who don’t know is a daytime/lights on tour of the houses. You can choose either a 3-house tour or a 6-house tour, you don’t get to pick which houses but that doesn’t really matter. I think it’s awesome that they do these because it gives guests the opportunity to see the amazing amount of work that goes into making these houses. We will also be sprinkling in some days at Disney as well as checking out their Halloween After Hours Event Boo Bash. Like I said we’re going to try our hand at making vlogs of this trip but also take the time to really enjoy out time there.

Let’s do our house rankings for before!

House Rankings (before)

Dan’s House Rankings:

Puppet Theatre
Welcome to SCarey
Beetlejuice
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
HHN Icons
Haunting of Hill House
Wicked Growth
Bride of Frankenstein
Revenge of the Tooth Fairy
Case Files Unearthed

Eden’s House Rankings:

Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland
The Bride of Frankenstein Lives
Beetlejuice
Haunting of Hill House
The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin
HHN Icons Captured
Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience
Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth
Revenge of The Tooth Fairy
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Don’t forget to check back for a breakdown of how are trip went and how we rank the houses after experiencing the. So crazy that the event is just around the corner, I can almost smell the fog!

Fog rolling in as we waited to be released from our Stay & Scream holding area.

Universal is opening back up!

After 2 long months Universal is opening back up! Back on March 15^th Universal announced that it would be closing both parks, Volcano Bay, CityWalk and all the resorts due to COVID-19. I don’t know about you but I got through the time looking at old pictures from trips and from the awesome #UniversalAtHome videos people were posting on Twitter, and let me tell you what there were some really good ones. This one here is probably my favorite one that I saw; they did an amazing job recreating the E.T. ride.

Then on May 14^th CityWalk re-opened in a limited capacity with only some restaurants and stores opening that day, since then more things have opened up to guests. New guidelines were put in place to keep people and team members safe. A limited amount of guests were allowed in, there were six-foot social distancing markers and “Do Not Stand Here” stickers, as well as warnings for face masks to be worn at all times by anyone three years or older. The only time guests are allowed to take off their mask is for when you’re sitting at a restaurant and eating. I do believe that if you have a drink and are walking around you can have your mask down but they do have team members monitoring people.

When guests arrive in the parking garage right before going through security there are temperature check stations. If a guest registers a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher they will not be permitted into CityWalk. Universal was also encouraging guests to use the Universal App to order and pay for food. Some places at CityWalk were also only accepting credit card payments instead of cash. Things have seemed to be going well at CityWalk and it looks as if people are complying with all the new procedures.

On May 21^st Universal proposed their re-opening plan, procedures and dates; June 1^st and 2^nd for team members, June 3^rd and 4^th for Annual Passholders and June 5^th for the general public. Earlier today Universal sent out emails to Annual Passholders to register and reserve a date and time to enter the parks. Guests can expect to see the same safety procedures from CityWalk carried over to the parks as well. Now not all attractions, entertainment, food and merchandise venues will be available. Universal has yet to say what will be open but I would say we’ll have that information sometime this coming week after their Team Member preview.

If you’re an Annual Passholder you can go here to see if there are any spots open to get a reserved time to visit the parks. You will need your Annual Passholder number and your last name, you may have to check back throughout the day. The site was having some glitches most likely from everyone trying to get a spot. When I first tried I got an error message but a few hours later we were able to get in and see options. Also time slots will open back up if people cancel their reservation so don’t give up.

Annual Passholder Email to get Reservation

Now when it comes to rides; we’ve seen other parks that have begun to open to guests are seating people every other row to keep social distancing on rides. Universal has said that Single Rider line will not be open at this time. This is very understandable they want to only seat parties together and not risk putting someone not in your party in your row. We will also see an increased use of Virtual queue lines, that way people aren’t stuck in the lines too long with a bunch of other people. I am very interested in seeing how everything is going to work, it is definitely going to take some getting-used-to but I am just happy to see the parks opening back up.

The parks aren’t the only things opening up, Volcano Bay water park and H20 live are both opening up as well. I read that all rafts will be single parties only and that the life vests will be in holders that have extra disinfectant solution in it. Masks will be required, I am not sure if you will be required to wear them on the water rides and lazy rivers but we will update when we find out. Guests will also be required to have their temperatures checked before being allowed to enter. Below you will find the new hours of operation for all the parks and CityWalk.

On June 2^nd all Universal hotel resorts, with the exception of Portofino Bay Hotel and Endless Summer and Dockside Inn (which were supposed to open in March but have been pushed back to later in the Summer), will open back up. Like everywhere else guests will have their temperatures checked before entering the hotel. If you register a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher you will have two opportunities to have it rechecked but if it doesn’t go down then you will not be permitted into the hotel. I did read that if your temperature is normal you will receive a wristband for that day and that if you go to the Parks or a Waterpark you won’t need to be checked again that day.

Guests will be required to wear face coverings whenever they are not in their rooms, so that means in any common spaces and going to and from the pool. I have read that once at the pool and you’re properly social distanced from others you can take your face covering off and they are not permitted on water slides.

Like I said all these new procedures are going to take a lot of adjusting to, so please be nice and patient with the team members who are working. This is all new to them as well and they are doing everything they can to still try and make your visit as great as it would be if this hadn’t happened. It’s a new normal for all of us and slowly but surely we will figure out how to navigate. Be sure to check back as things open and as we get new information we will post it and share with you all! Stay safe!

Universal Orlando’s Inaugural Epic Character Race

Last year Universal Orlando announced that they would hold inaugural Epic Character Race happening February of this year. Well the race actually took place last weekend and happy to say that we were there for it. Having lived in Florida for 2 years and always saying how cool it would be if Universal did something like this, we knew we couldn’t pass up being apart of it. Universal held the event over 2 days; Saturday February 1^st they held the 5K and on Sunday February 2^nd they held the 10K.

Now this race was a bit pricey compared to most but it was significantly cheaper than the races held at Disney. But below is a table with a breakdown of each tier, pricing and what is included with that ticket. They also offered options that you could bundle park tickets into your race ticket, as well as offering hotel packages for racers as well. Should also be noted that race participants were allowed to dress up and wear costumes. Not too many people dressed up but the ones that did were pretty good. Think my favorite was the runners dressed Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons carrying other Universal characters.

TICKET TYPE	PRICE	WHAT’S INCUDED
5K STANDARD	$82+tax	Themed finisher medal, race bib with timing tag, dry-fit t-shirt, drawstring bag, downloadable finisher certificate and complimentary parking
5K VIP	$142+tax	All that is listed above plus a post race breakfast, excusive character meet & great with photo op and a commemorative reusable water bottle
5K STANDARD PASSHOLDER	$76+tax	Same as 5K Standard
5K VIP PASSHOLDER	$136+tax	Same as 5K VIP
10K STANDARD	$121+tax	Same as 5K Standard
10K VIP	$184+tax	Same as 5K VIP
10K STANDARS PASSHOLDER	$115+tax	Same as 5K Standard
10K VIP PASSHOLDER	$178+tx	Same as 5K VIP
EPIC FAN PASSHOLDER	$49+TAX	Reserved seating area at finish line, themed gear, refreshments & complimentary parking

Pricing breakdown for this race

The morning of the race Universal opened up the parking garage at 4:30am. After parking we made our way to the starting line. Now this part was a bit tricky, they didn’t have great signage in the garage we parked in or anyone really pointing us in the right direction. Eventually we did find our way to the starting line. They had you park in one garage and then you went as if you were going to City Walk but instead you went to the lower level of the other garage. If you’re familiar with where the ticketing booth is for Volcano Bay that is where we went through security to get to the starting line. By the time we got through security and a pit stop at the restroom it was a little after 5am. In hindsight we could have stayed in the car a little longer and stayed warmed and dry but c’est la vie.

The starting line was split into 3 different sections; A/Elite section, B section, and C section. The A/Elite section was for the more experienced runners while B and C sections were for everyone else. We started in B but after awhile we moved to C to be under the overhang to stay dry. At 6:15am they let the A/Elite runners off followed shortly by B and C. By the time we actually crossed the start line the first runners from A/Elite group had already crossed the finish line. According to the finisher times the first runner crossed the line after 15 minutes.

To the left is the 5K course. We started in the bus lane that brought us to a back entrance of Islands of Adventure. We entered into Islands next to Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls, went through Toon Lagoon, to Marvel Super Hero Island, to Seuss Landing and then to a backstage area of the park. Now because it had and was still kind of raining they didn’t have as many characters out as they had planned but there were some characters in Toon Lagoon and Seuss Landing. Once we entered mile 2 we had entered into Universal Studios at the San Francisco area. We continued through London where they had a photo op with the Knight Bus from Harry Potter. Next we passed through Springfield and down Boulevard of the Stars to the front of the park and then down between Shrek and Transformers. The only characters I saw on this leg of the race were Shrek, Donkey, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Later I did see that some of the Simpsons charters came out. There were Team Members located with each character op. Runners who wanted to meet the characters just needed to line up and they would be able to get a photo. The last leg of the race took us through the New York area where Hashtag the Panda Bear was meeting people and taking photos. The finish line was backstage behind Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rocket. Right before crossing the line was the seating area for those who had bought the Epic Fan tickets, which was nice to see and hear people cheering you on as you finished the race. After crossing the finish line there were cast members there handing out the finisher medals, bottled water, bananas and snack boxes. The snack boxes were pretty nice they had squeezable applesauce, mini pretzels, trail mix and a koshi bar. Since it had rained making it pretty wet through out the course they had more character photo ops here since they were protected from the rain.

Even though the weather wasn’t great it was still a ton of fun! This was the first 5K I had done and felt really good, I was able to run more than I usually do which was a nice feeling. I would highly recommend taking part in the next race that they have. My only suggestion would be to have people stationed through out the course reminding walkers to stay to the right so that it is easier for those who are running to pass on the left. It was tricky and downright impossible to pass walkers at certain points in the course.

All in all we had a great time and I cannot wait for them to announce their next race. It should also be noted that if you live closer to California that Universal Hollywood also hold Running Universal events. They actually have one coming up in April and it is Dreamworks Animation Trolls themed. You can find out more information about that race and sign up to get notifications or Orlando’s as well here at the Running Universal website.

We sleepily made our way to our room and took hot showers because we had been in the cold rain all day. After that we took a nap and once we woke up we headed back to the park for Mardi Gras (which I will cover in the next post). Other than the rain the race was a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to them announcing when the next one will be and the theme of it. If you’re in the Florida area or a lover of Universal I would highly recommend keeping your eyes peeled when they release info on the next race. As stated before the pricing wasn’t terrible for this race especially when you take into consideration where you are running through and all that is included.

Shirt & Finisher Medal (included in the price of you race registration)

Incase you were wondering below is what the 10K course looked like, it is the same as the 5K but you go through City Walk and then into Jurassic Park and Hogsmeade. And then when you get into Universal you get to go into Diagon Alley. Hoping by the time they announce the next race (and we can go) that we can also take part in the 10K.

Be on the look out for our next blog post at Universal’s 25th Mardi Gras event.

ScareZones, Shows and House Rankings!

We’re 21 days away from Opening Scaremonies and we’ve been bombarded with announcements recently. Let me tell you what it’s been AMAZING!! All the houses have been announced (you can read about them here). We also have all the scarezones and shows, which I’ll cover in this post. I’ll also touch on how Dan and I rank the houses. We are still waiting on food and merchandise to be announced but I fell like that is right around the corner.

Let’s dive right into the scarezones shall we! When guests enter the park they will experience Anarch-cade,this scarezone will be themed after an 80’s arcade. T’m actually very interested to see how this turns out, it will be cool to see all the vintage arcade games.

As guest continue through the park towards the Mummy ride they will step foot into the United States of Zombieland. Zombieland : Double Tap will showcase scenes from the first movie and the sequel which hits theaters on October 18^th. Make sure you remember the rules for survival and keep your eyes peeled for twinkies.

Will be located in front of The Revenge of the Mummy

Will be located in San Fransisco (near Fast & the Furious)

If you’re lucky enough to escape Zombieland : Double Tap you will enter into a different Zombie land, Rob Zombie that is. Welcome to Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe, this may be a pretty PG-13 or mature scarezone. I feel like it’s going to be if you walked into a Rob Zombie music video. If you’re not familiar with Rob Zombies work I suggest you check out the album the scarezone is named after and his movies. Just so you have an idea as to what you’ll be walking into.

Once you’ve made your way to the Central Park section of Universal prepare to come face to face with the undead, Vikings Undead that is! I’m a little skeptical about this scarezone, the idea seems awesome but it’s located in one of the smaller sections. It will still be scary and well done but I just don’t know to what scale. This location usually does have the prettiest scarezones so we will just have to wait and see.

Will be located in the streets of Hollywood

As you leave the undead you will head into the last scarezone (or second scarezone depending on how you maneuver through the park). Located in the streets of Hollywood is the Vanity Ball. I’m picturing the Met Gala meets Nip Tuck/Botched. When I saw this on the speculation map it had the name holder Plastic Surgery and I wasn’t thrilled about it. But after reading the description of the Halloween Horror Nightswebsite I feel a little better about it. I think we’ll see scareactors walking around with surgical equipment coming out of their skin and possibly body parts replaced with enhanced or non-body parts (picture people from the Capital in Hunger Games). This scarezone will defiantly be an interesting sight.

Image Courtesy of AOV Instagram https://www.instagram.com/academyofvillains/

Along with the scarezones, the Academy of Villains show was announced, as well as a never before seen show. AOV will be returning to the Fear Factor Live Show Stage with a brand new show titled Altered States. It seems like it is going to be a battle of man against himself. The websitesays “Man’s true nature is dragged out into the dark, gothic streets of anarchy”. You can expect high energy, high intensity, good music, lasers and amazing dancing. Along with AOV we’re getting a never before lagoon show for HHN. The show is called Halloween Marathon of Mayhem; I am SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS!!!! Using water, lights and music scenes from Stranger Things, Ghostbusters, Universal Monsters and Killer Klowns From Outer Spacewill be projected onto the lagoon. As the water dances be prepared to be memorized by these icon movie and show scenes. The show will run only on HHN event nighrs at 10pm, 11pm and 12am. You can find more information about it on the Universal App.

There is a lot to look forward to this year and I can only imagine what HHN30 is going to be! As you know (or may not if you’re new to the blog) we have a podcast called Theme Park Corner: Halloween Corner Nights, you can stream it on SoundCloud and Spotify. In our last episode Dan and I ranked the houses, I’ll leave our lists below. We would love to know how you rank the houses, leave a comment here, on our Instagramor on our Twitter.

DAN	EDEN
1. Classic Monsters	1. Classic Monsters
2. Killer Klowns From Outer Space	2. Yeti: Terror of the Yukon
3. House of 1000 Corpses	3. Killer Klowns From Outer Space
4. Stranger Things	4. Stranger Things
5. Yeti: Terror of the Yukon	5. Graveyard Games
6. Depths of Fear	6. Ghostbusters
7. Ghostbusters	7. Depths of Fear
8. Graveyard Games	8. House of 1000 Corpses
9. US	9. Us
10. Nightingale: Blood Pit	10. Nightingale: Blood Pit