Happy Wednesday, Wanderlusters! We came back from our trip to Los Angeles last week and wanted to share one of the highlights of our trip – attending the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Hollywood. The main reason we visited California was to surprise my brother for his birthday. He loves anything that scares him, making Universal Studios the perfect place to celebrate his birthday!

Halloween Horror Nights is held every year which starts at 5PM. This year (2017), it was from September 15th to November 4th. This attraction is at all of the Universal Studios parks such as Orlando, FL, Hollywood, CA, Singapore and Japan.

It was our first time going to a Halloween Horror Nights and we had the most amazing, dramatic, horrific experience! The makeup, costumes, sound effect, everything was just brilliant! If you don’t know what Halloween Horror Nights is – it brings together the sickest minds in horror to immerse you in a living, breathing, three-dimensional world of terror. Universal Studios prepares scariest and most intense experience for everyone. General admission to the Park starts at $91.99 and depending on what you want to add-on, the price gets higher per person.

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

• Costumes, masks, or face paint are NOT allowed.
• They allow photography and filming as long as the flash is off.
• Highly recommend purchasing tickets in advance! Most times, this attraction is sold out!
• Once your tickets are purchased, print them out! This way, you can skip the line at the gate and head straight to the entrance where they can scan your printed tickets with a mobile device.
• Plan ahead with the HHN 2017 Park Map.

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We got the After 2PM Day/Night Combo with Front of the Line for Halloween Horror Nights. This is different from just the Front of the Line since this allowed us to enter the Park at 2PM (as oppose to 5PM for HHN) to enjoy everything at Universal Studios including The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the world-famous Studio Tour featuring Fast & Furious – Supercharged, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and more! Having the Front of the Line pass during our visit was very helpful since you can skip the lines and head straight to all the rides and attractions.

After 2PM Day/Night Combo with Front of the Line privileges include:

• 2PM entrance to Universal Studios and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Admission to Halloween Horror Nights
• Includes one-time Front of the Line access at each maze and ride.
• Priority seating area at Jabbawockeez live show.

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During the normal hours for the park, they serve regular food at restaurants and food stands. Once the clock turns 5PM, the menu changes to go with the Halloween Horror Nights theme. How cool right?! You can drink “blood” punch from a blood bag or drink “blood” punch from a Syringe. They even have some awesome sandwiches that look like Vampire teeth! They really go all out for Halloween Horror Nights – down to the food!

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS PARK

Since we had the “After 2PM Day/Night Combo with Front of the Line” pass, we arrived at Universal Studios at 1pm to explore the City Walk first before heading inside the park. City Walk is filled with restaurants and shops! Great for before and after visit at the park. Then at 2pm, we got our “Front of the Line” badge and enjoyed Universal Studios rides and attractions, Studio Tour, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We were able to finish everything within 3 hours with the Front of the Line pass.

HAUNTED MAZES

Finally at 5PM, we started the Halloween Horror Nights! To summarize it: a series of themed mazes in consecutive order to scare the heck out of you!

While waiting in line for our first maze, the horror music, fog machine, and strobe lights were making doing as intended; making us anxious to go inside! The lines formed quick at the mazes but thankfully, we had the Front of the Line pass to skip the lines and head straight in. For every maze, they let in a certain amount of people so it won’t be too crowded inside the maze allowing each person that full experience of the scare they need. There are many jump scare parts so be warned! Elderly and younger children may not be too accepting of these.

Here’s how we planned out our Halloween Horror Nights by visiting all of the Mazes and Rides:

• Start off at the LOWER LOT – This is where most of the mazes are located such as The Shining, Insidious, American Horror Story, Saw, and Starz’s Ash vs Evil Dead.
• Then, head to the UPPER LOT – Where you can find The Walking Dead and The Horrors of Blum House.
• Lastly, ride the TERROR TRAM – This is a must and located in the Upper Lot as well. I would save this for last since it’s scary but also very fun for the whole family!

Without spoiling the maze, let’s just say that every maze was outstanding and each one had a different setting which really convinced you were trapped in an alternate reality. My favorite was American Horror Story: Roanoke, followed by The Shining, and lastly, The Walking Dead. As for the whole group, we all agreed that the Titans of Terror Tram hosted by Chucky was beyond the most incredible experience and fun for the night! Again, save this for last since it’s so good!

The Walking Dead is the only attraction that is not just for Halloween Horror Nights. This is actually a permanent attraction offered at Universal Studios. Enter the post-apocalyptic world, if you dare! Beware of the hungry walkers! 

TERROR TRAM

The Terror Tram was our absolute favorite of the night! Titans of Terror Tram was hosted by Chucky. He drove us to the world-famous backlot of Universal Studios and transported us into a nightmare of carnage pitting us against the four modern horror icons: Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and of course the infamous serial killer doll, Chucky!

While you find the maze and attractions scary, walking through Universal Studios during Halloween Horror Nights is even an experience on its own. Because of Burnt Lost Souls, Half-Goat Executioners, Mad Monks, Blacksmiths, Demons, Witches, ghosts, vampires, werewolves and undead children roam around in the scare zones.

Need more scare? Check out Horror Nights on Instagram!

 

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