How to Get the MOST Done at Halloween Horror Nights
Entrance Archway for Universal Studios Florida During Halloween Horror Nights 30
Is it possible to get everything done at HHN in ONE NIGHT? Halloween Horror Nights is a staple of Universal Orlando Resort, and each year the event grows in both size and popularity. Because of its constant growth, the event continues to push itself into a multiple-day type of event because there’s so much to do and experience. This is great for us fans that live locally because it gives us all an excuse to come back and visit time and time again; however, it also makes the event seem daunting to guests that can only visit for one night. But with these tips, tricks, and strategies, you’ll be able to accomplish everything that’s on your must-do list, and hopefully a bit more as well.
Choosing the right ticket
It goes without saying that time is the number one factor working against you. So our first tip and suggestion starts before you even get to Universal Studios Florida. When buying your ticket, it's important to figure out which days work best for you and your group. Throughout the event, different nights have different operating hours. It’s important to choose a night that both has the most hours of operation, but ideally also isn’t a Saturday. As you can imagine, Saturdays are by far the busiest nights of the event. The ideal move is to visit the event as early on in the calendar as possible without visiting on a Saturday. To decide which ticket is best for you, visit our HHN Ticket and Season Pass Buyer’s Guide.
Starting the night off right
Now that you have your ticket and you’re on your way to the event, there are several options available to you. If you have an annual pass or are spending the day in the parks prior to HHN beginning, be sure to take advantage of Stay n Scream. Stay n Scream is where Universal allows guests to stay in designated holding areas inside the park while security closes down the park and escorts out the day guests before Halloween Horror Nights begins for the evening. The advantage of doing Stay n Scream is that it gives you first access to the houses before anyone else. Each designated holding area has a select number of houses that it releases to early, so before entering into one make sure that it lets out to the house that you’re most excited for. We recommend choosing one of the Stay n Scream locations close to the front of the park. These houses always have the longest waits, so if you can knock out one or two of them before the lines build up, that will help you accomplish more with your evening. However, not everyone has the option or ability to utilize Stay n Scream. In that case, we recommend that you get to the gates an hour or more before entry. If you’re able to get to the front of the line, then you might have a shot at experiencing one of the houses at the front before the lines build up. Unfortunately though, even then the lines might have already extended past 30 mins. In that case, go ahead and jump into our next tip.
Our next tip is one that we cover in our article about how to get the most done in one day at any theme park. Plenty of those tips also work for Halloween Horror Nights, so after reading this article we highly recommend looking over this one as well. In that article we discuss the benefits of skipping past all of the most popular attractions and heading straight for the very back of the park. This couldn’t be more true and beneficial than at Halloween Horror Nights. At HHN, you’ll waste the most important hours of your time in one or two lines if you go straight for the first few or most popular houses right off the bat. Instead, if you head to the very back you’ll find several houses that have little to no wait time. Typically, you’ll be able to knock out three to five houses within an hour if you use this method. The reason why this is the most important tip to follow is because of crowd flow and capacity. The crowds slowly trickle in over the first few hours of the event. While the crowds are low in the back of the park during the first hour or two, they won’t stay that way. Waits will spike to similar times as that of the larger houses in an hour or two of the event opening, so if you waste the first hour of the event up front at the high profile houses, by the time you get out those lines in the back will be full as well. It’s best to check the houses in the back off the list first before anything else. Don’t worry though, we have a plan for the most popular houses at the end of this article!
Entertainment and Food
After you’ve completed all the houses in the back, it’s time to get used to long waits because the crowds have officially shown up. Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about that except for buying express pass, but even then wait times are only reduced to about half at HHN. In other words, if a house has a 90 minute wait, you’ll still have to wait close to 45 minutes with an express pass. So at this point, different plans of attack are fair game. We highly recommend to still be strategic about working your way to the front of the park slowly; however, if there’s a crazy dip in wait time at some other house, be quick to take advantage of it.
The middle of the event night is always a wild card. During the middle of the night is when we recommend for you to take a look at live entertainment and the food and drink offerings. Since the middle of the event is always going to be the busiest, take this time to watch one of the shows or grab something to eat. At this point you’ll probably be needing a short break, and there’s no better time or excuse to indulge in some of the other offerings than now. Halloween Horror Nights always has a killer (pun intended) live show, and their lagoon show has quickly become a staple of the event. HHN has also become a mini food festival of sorts in recent years as well. Their unique food and beverage options are definitely worth taking some time to explore in-between scarezones, houses, and shows!
Ending the Night Strong
Now that you’ve made it through the middle of the event night, the crowds will slowly begin to ease up. As it gets later, more and more people will begin to leave the park causing some of the houses to slow down. Hopefully at this point you will have completed all the houses in the back of the park, the majority of the ones in the middle, and have seen most of (if not all) the scarezones. It’s at this point you can begin to strategize about how to get the most popular houses in the front of the park done. Each night will look different, but typically we recommend choosing to end your night on a high note with your most anticipated house or the most busy house (if they’re not one and the same). Be sure to keep an eye on the time because it can be tricky to budget enough time to get the last house in at the last minute. To get the most time out of the night, try to enter the line for your last house as close to the park closing time as possible. Don’t worry about getting kicked out of the line when the park closes. As long as you enter the line at least one minute before closing, you’ll be allowed to go through the house (even if there’s still a long wait. So if the park closes at 1am, you’ll still be able to enter the line at 12:59am, even if the wait is still posted as 45 minutes.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to visit Halloween Horror Nights more than once during the season but you’re not sure what the best season pass is to buy, be sure to check out our buyers guide to Halloween Horror Nights season passes! And if you have any other tips, tricks, or suggestions for getting the most out of your evening, please leave a comment down below! If you enjoyed this article and it helped you plan your evening better, let us know! Be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter to be kept up-to-date with all of the latest theme park news and guides!
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