Review- Terrified at Halloween Horror Nights 26

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Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando is a can’t miss event for horror fans. If you live in Florida, like we do, it’s easy to get to and can be done inexpensively. Universal Studios closes down for Horror Nights featuring 9 haunted houses, five scare zones with a limited number of open rides. This year they’ve added a few new houses including American Horror Story FX, The Exorcist and Krampus. You get a lot for your buck and you can make a vacation out of it so it’s definitely worth attending. We were there for the second weekend and this is how it all went down.

We are Premiere Annual Pass holders includes a Halloween Horror Nights ticket. The annual pass is the best way to go if enjoy going to Universal and Islands of Adventure multiple times during the year. Universal treats their annual pass holders very well, better than Disney I would say. They offer pass holder discounts and perks throughout the year. The ticket is preloaded into your pass card so you can go straight to the entrance. In the past, one would have to go to customer service to get the Horror Nights ticket. Early entry to horror nights is offered to pass holders for the first two weekends of the event.

Getting into Halloween Horror Nights

We arrived at Horror Nights around 5:45 for early entry-there was no line. Check-in was easy at the pass holder RSVP desk by the entrance. It seems like the entrances to the houses were moved further out into the park whereas last year they were situated in the backlot area. When we got to the Tomb of Ancients and Halloween houses they both had about a 35-50 minute wait so we decided to get fast passes. We don’t like to wait and you may not be able to see everything if you do. Yes, they are pricey about $80 pp and the price goes up the closer to Halloween you go. I actually overheard someone on the regular line complaining. Yes if you pay you can get in faster, sorry.

Halloween Horror Nights haunted houses

Wait Times

When we got to the express pass purchase area by the Men in Black ride we saw the Halloween, Hell Comes to Haddonfield house only had a 10 minute wait. We still got the express passes to avoid waits at other houses like Walking Dead and Exorcist- these had 90 minute waits at around 8:30pm. We entered the Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is always quite scary. Next we hit the Tomb of Ancients, I don’t really remember it. Finally Halloween- Hell Comes to Haddonfield, there was a Halloween house last year. The only difference is that this one addresses the movie Halloween II. It was scary although I’ve never been too afraid of Michael Myers. If you’re an avid Horror fan, as I am, you may not scare so easily. My advice is to pretend it’s real and immerse yourself so that you get a good scare.

Entering the Exorcist House

Walking through a scare zone is fun!

A snippet inside The Walking Dead house

Drinks and Food

We had the signature drink right as we walked in. The light-up, signature souvenir cup is awesome and super morbid this year. The drink itself, um too sweet for me. We had a mix of Chance’s Kiss and Chance’s Curse called Mayhem Madness. It tastes like the old school red, white and blue Firecracker popsicle from the ice cream truck. You get a huge pour but its good for like 6 sips and not very strong.

Halloween Horror Nights cocktails

Blood transfusion shot girl

Transfusion Shots

HHN26 Commemorative drink cup

The other side of the cup

There are several other drink options, of course, the Pumpkin ale is one. I tried it and it was tasty if you like a heavier beer. The pumpkin flavor is not as strong as it should be. Maybe I couldn’t taste it because the Mayhem cocktail killed my taste buds. I do recommend the blood transfusion shots they are the best! And if all else fails there are full bars everywhere. It’s not hard to catch a buzz at this event! I like that. As for the food, it’s good. The subs are always a good way to go. This year we tried the meatball sub. It was filling and tasty.

Scare Zones

Let me just begin by saying that I was a little disappointed with the scare zones this year. They are not as good as the ones of previous years. The best one is “Survive or Die Apocalypse”. This one is located where “The Purge” scare zone was last year. There were some scare zones where I didn’t even spot a “scarer” like at Vamp ’55. Maybe the actors were not warmed-up yet because it was only the second weekend, not sure. It’s possible they were having an off night. Anyhow, I wasn’t scared or impressed with the execution this year. Usually, there are actors on stilts which makes them seem larger and scarier. There weren’t any of these in the scares zones this year.

Halloween Horror Nights scare zone