Theme Park HD's Ultimate Guide To Halloween Horror Nights Houses 2018 So you're looking to head to the nation's premiere Halloween event, but want
Theme Park HD’s Ultimate Guide To Halloween Horror Nights Houses 2018
So you’re looking to head to the nation’s premiere Halloween event, but want to make the best use of your time and spend more time getting scared; rather than in line? Then you have come to the right place. I will be breaking down exactly the best ways to hit all the houses, and get the most out of Halloween Horror Nights.
Let’s get started:
Step 1: Picking the right time to visit
So first off if you want to make the most of your time I would say don’t visit on any peak nights. If you’re an Orlando local than you probably know about peak nights.. and how bad they suck. These are every Saturday night of the event, and select Fridays. The event is packed and not even that much fun when you are waiting 130 plus minutes for a 4-5 minute walkthrough. So the most important thing to do is plan to visit during the non-peak days. Thursdays are the days that normally have the least crowds, and the early you visit in the season; the less crowds as well. The best nights are always Thursdays in September, and early October. The later into October you get even Thursday nights start to get busy. For example I visited this Thursday and ( Sept 20 ) and only saw the longest wait time for a house be around 60 minutes. ( For Stranger Things, everything else was 5-30 minutes ) Compared to when I visited last night ( Saturday Sept 22 ) I saw wait times exceed 130 minutes, and everything was over an hour wait. If you are not a local and plan to travel, consider doing a Thursday- Sunday trip to Orlando. Visit HHN Thursday, Volcano Bay Friday and do the local Orlando attractions at night. You will save time in lines at the event and still get to do more the city has to offer. Plus the locals all are at HHN or Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party on peak nights which means a lot of the other attractions in town are dead.
Step 2: Arriving to the park early
After you have picked your date to visit plan on getting to the park as early as possible. They close the Studios side of the park one hour early before the event starts.I always will go to Islands of Adventure first, eat an early dinner at City Walk, and can use the Stay And Scream to get an early start. Stay and scream is only offered if you have both an HHN event ticket and a day ticket to the park. You do not have to leave the park and can queue for the mazes early, and skip the long admission lines at the front gate. Parking will be a mess and complimentary valet parking for pass holders will not be valid during the events. Plan ahead and come early for the best parking spots in the garage, use an uber/taxi service, or shell out a little cash and do valet. I always do valet, and if you ask them to leave the car, they will leave it up at the top lot. Pay before you go in the park to avoid long pay lines at valet later. It is worth it during busy nights, but if you come early you can always get a good spot in the garage; you just will have very long traffic lines leaving at night.
Step 3: Working against the flow of foot traffic
So once you picked a date, and you got in the park, now what do you do? You work your way to the very back of the park. Trust me, if you want to do all the houses with out a fast pass, this is the way to do it. Start with Trick Or Treat and Seeds of Extinction; they are both located by the ET ride. The mass of the crowds will all rush to stranger things, poltergeist, and the mazes at the front of the park. This leaves 5-10 minutes waits for the 5 houses in the back half of the park. Once you get those two done, they will exit you out by Simpsons. Walk towards MIB to get the other three houses done while crowds are all still working on the front 5 houses. By the time you get all of the back houses done with, catch the all new AOV show in the old fear factor live venue. By the time you get out of that, the main crowds will have made their way to the back half… leaving the front houses lines shorter than normal.
Spet 4: Picking the right houses
IP Houses
- The Horrors of Blumhouse
- Strangerthings
- Poltergeist
- Halloween 4
- Trick Or Treat
OC Houses
- Seeds Of Extinction
- Scary Tales
- Carnival Graveyard
- Dead Exposure
- Slaughter Sinema
Watch the maze walkthroughs before hand to decide what is on your to-do list when you attend.
We are going to start with the parks original content mazes. These are houses that the creative team comes up with in entirety, and are normally different each year.
The events ‘comedic’ house this year was “Slaughter Sinema”. It is all of your favorite B horror films brought to life in this totally twisted gore fest.
Slaughter Sinema
Sitting directly next to Slaughter Sinema is “Dead Exposure, Patient Zero”, another new OC house. WARNING this house video contains a lot of flashing lights, and is not directed to be seen with anyone prone to seizures. This house is set in London as a zombie outbreak is going on, the maze is all in the dark and has flashes of strobes and backlights to create a very disorienting effect.
Dead Exposure, Patient Zero
Now after you get your eyes messed with, head over to the other new nearby maze; “Seeds of Extinction”.
This is an all new location to be housing a horror nights maze. Due to filming of a show in one of the soundstage, this house was built in a new never before used location on site.
Seeds of Extinction
Did you see our tour guides get spooked? This maze was VERY scary, and had some of the best scares of the event. Ok, moving on. Trick or treat is actually right next door to us, but thats not an OC house, so see that video later on.
Work your way up to the front of the park for “Carnival Graveyard”, another new maze for 2018. The name pretty much sums this up. Don’t get caught trespassin’..
Carnival Graveyard
The detail in the maze is crazy.. and if you’re a big theme park fan you’ll find many Easter eggs inside. The last of the original content houses is “Scary Tales”. Scary Tales is a twist on your favorite childhood stories.
Scary Tales
That does it for this years Original content houses. They are some of the best we have seen in years, with details unmatched by any other haunt event in the world. I would suggest doing the Carnival Graveyard, and the Dead Exposure out of all of these. They have the best “Scare factor” that keeps on going throughout the whole house. Obviously these are not real movies and based on the creative minds of the Universal Creative team. So if you are going here for houses based on your favorite horror films; these aren’t it, but they are amazing and worth a walkthrough. Now that you can see them and have time to look over all the OC mazes, you can get a better idea of what ones you want to tackle once you’re at the event.
Now lets have a look at the IP houses, the ones you’ve been waiting for. Or maybe you’re a Universal fan die hard, so maybe the ones you’ve been waiting for are above… Either way. check out the intellectual property maze videos:
Im going to start with “Strangerthings” because…. well… it is what the event is themed to this year. No further comments, just check out this amazing maze!
Stranger Things
Halloween Horror Nights takes you on a journey inside the haunting world of Netflix Original Series Stranger Things . The Demogorgon is hunting in our world now, can you escape? This house was absolutely amazing, from the scare-actors, to the little details in the different rooms made you feel like you were really there. The best part in my opinion is when you enter the upside down, let us know what you think.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Guess who’s back, back again ? Michael’s Back… not a friend. Evil has returned in an all-new house. This masked maniac is unstoppable, and there’s nowhere to hide.
Poltergeist
Restless spirits have overrun the infamous house atop a cemetery and will lure you into a place between life and death. Don’t get lost in the light. “Where are you mommy” plays, and sends chills as strategically planned gusts of wind blow across your back. This house was really good!
Trick R’ Treat
This maze is based off the movie “Trick R’ Treat” (2009). This is my wife’s favorite, she thinks she thinks Jack is adorable, although, looks can be deceiving… She got scared around every corner.
The Horrors of Blumhouse
The haunted minds behind Happy Death Day and The First Purge have spawned another horror house. Will you live to see tomorrow? I have never seen either of those movies, so I didn’t get all the references. You can still go through without knowing what the movies are, it is still a good scare and the theming is great!
Step 5: I don’t want to wait, where are the fast passes?
Option Number ONE (Which honestly this is the BEST way to do tickets – Should be the only way…)
ONLINE- https://orlando.halloweenhorrornights.com/site/hhn/products/event-tickets
Purchasing Tickets online is great because it saves you time, saves you money, and you don’t have to wait in that awful, awful line to purchase tickets. Usually halloween horror nights is pretty packed.. so its best to buy a fast pass, all you do is add it on when you buy your ticket from the link above. ^
BUT
Option number two
There are kiosks throughout the park near these following areas: The Universal Studios Entrance, Next to the minions ride, by the Jimmy Fallon ride, and I think by the men in black ride (don’t quote me on that one)
Either way Fast passes really are a great investment because you get to do all the houses with little to no wait, and you have time to eat, drink and ride rides!
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