I didn't even know she was at HHN35! I was SO excited to see her at the end of the wet path last year during the Terrifier house, so I am over cloud nine that this character actor indulged me in an interaction where she pointed to my Art earrings/glasses, threw them away, and gestured to fighting Art as he arrived with the Little Girl. My "Good luck girlfriend, you got this!" was met with an exasperated groan - so Sienna.

Literally made my entire trip. Thank you to this actor!!!!

My gf is a HUMONGOUS Art the clown fan! We have been on the lookout for Art the last couple HHNs, and it FINALLY happened!

Perfect ending to another incredible HHN!

(PS Nightmare Fuel was every bit as awesome as the last few years! The countdown to next year begins!!)

We got engaged on the steps of the Psycho house and it was absolutely perfect! Norman Bates came to us in character and told us we can honey moon at the Bates Motel for free 😅 hands down my best HHN experience ever

15/10. Hope they bring it back and keep capacity similar!

Long story short, I have a weird relationship with horror. I won’t sit and watch horror movies or play horror games. Will I watch people play horror games and read about horror movies? Absolutely. Though now I can occasionally watch older films and I think Suspiria is currently my favorite older horror movie, and I played Dead by Daylight until I started getting motion sickness from it.

Back in around 2005/6 I saw the Travel Channel’s documentary about Halloween Horror Nights and was instantly fascinated. I was way too skittish to attend an event like that. I hated people jumping out at me. But I loved the set design and the backstories. When I went to college, every year I started watching video walkthroughs of the HHN haunted houses so I could see the designs.

Well, a year ago when we started making plans for my niece’s very first trip to Disney World, I realized our trip would be in October, and that I could take one evening of the trip to go to HHN in person. I asked my sister if she would go with me. She immediately said no and volunteered her husband, my brother-in-law, who said he’d go. I was thrilled. I wasn’t going to get the necklace to indicate you didn’t want to get scared. I was gonna get the full experience. So on the 15th of October, I put on my Castlevania shirt and my big girl pants and went to Universal with my BIL.

So here’s a little thing about me. When I get scared, I have a knee-jerk response to counteract it with a big smile and being silly. My brother-in-law is the kind of person who just goes along with whatever antics the person with him is up to. So picture two highly-excited, happy, cheerful people strolling through a dilapidated circus and complimenting the killer clowns. We were able to go through Jack VS Oddfellow before the lines got way too long for my liking. We enjoyed the scare zones, took lots of pictures and ate Deathbringer Tempura Shrimp. I shouted “Yes queen, slay!” At many female scare actors, who would often give me a wave or a wink and a devilish smile. I took pictures of all the Killer Klowns props in Downtown Clowntown (One of my longtime friends is a huge fan of the film).

Other interactions I recall:
-In Jack VS Oddfellow, I bowed and said “Doctor.” to every Dr. Oddfellow I saw. Majority of them would give me a grin and tip their hats, save for one in the middle of a villainous speech who just pointed aggressively at me mid-speech. My brother-in-law wasn’t affected by any of the scare actors, but the large puppet snake was the one thing that startled him. (Yes, I put him in front of me to trigger the scare actors. No, he did not care that I did that and had in fact offered to do that earlier.)
-I complimented a chainsaw-wielding clown’s tiny hat, which caused him to stop, grin and do a little “Oh, stop it, you,” gesture.
-I waved at the actor playing the Caretaker, told him how a documentary with him in it was how I started watching HHN, and he did a little hand-over-his-chest motion in an “oh, bless your heart” kind of gesture.
-I looked up at a stilt-wearing clown, looked at my brother-in-law and said, “This is why you don’t skip leg day.” The clown nodded and gestured to his long legs.
-I…accidentally called out to Chance when I didn’t realize she was heading backstage during a performance. “You’re doing amazing, sweetie!” (Sorry, to that actress. But she was pretty far away so I’m pretty sure she didn’t hear me anyway.)
-A Killer Klown girl seeing I was going to take a picture and doing a “cutesy” pose.

I had a ton of fun. I rarely travel, but I already know I want to go back next year, and take two of my best friends and plan things out better. I’m trying to see if one of my horror averse friends will go with me in august to the lights-on tours. She is thinking about it.

I went to Halloween Horror Nights and honestly didn't really smell anything in the mazes or scare zones 😭 I've heard people talk about how amazing the smells are at HHN, and how certain scents make the experience even better, but I didn't notice much of anything.

Am I just missing something, or does it depend on which mazes you go through? What are some of the smells you're supposed to notice, and what do they actually smell like? I'm genuinely curious because I feel like I missed out on a whole part of the experience lol.

Just completed my yearly trip to HHN and its time to compare last years houses vs this years.

Again, I like to compare the houses based on their locations vs last year to see if one year was better than the others. Without further ado, here's the list:

Wyatt Sicks vs Evil Dead Burns

FNAF vs Stranger Things 5

Terrifier vs Ozzy

Grave of Flesh vs Madlands

El Artista vs Jack/Oddfellow

Jason vs Cybergoria

Fallout vs Hellraiser

Galkin vs Sinners

Dolls vs H.R. Bloodengutz

Hatchet and Chains vs Abduction

I won some money in the casino and my girlfriends come from all over the US every year for us to do a HHN reunion and we spend the whole week hanging out and doing halloween things. This year I wanted to treat my friends, so I surprised everyone with express passes. I’ve never been able to typically afford something like this and I have to say, it was SO worth it. We had the BEST time. We went on a Thursday night, got there around 7pm. We waited maybe 10 min max the entire night although most houses and rides were basically a walk on for us. We hit every single house, every ride and even had time to try every food place and bar and just hangout, take pictures, rest and talk in between it all. It was the perfect night and I know it’s extremely overpriced but if you know you’re going next year, just save some extra money for express. So worth it.

Despite Stranger Things being “overdone” at the event and everyone else ready to be done with it, I know ST will hold a special place in my HHN experience.

I remember being a depressed teenager in 2018 and I had a very rough year. One of the only things giving me any kind of joy or purpose was discovering Halloween Horror Nights and convincing my family to go take a trip down there. Universal has been a massive part of my early childhood, but I never did HHN before and for young me, it intrigued the hell out of me. Seeing the houses and scarezones being announced throughout the preseason was such an experience (especially the Chucky and Killer Klowns Scarezone announcement). Eventually it came time to go to the event and the first ever HHN house I did was Stranger Things. Was it the scariest thing ever? No, but holy moly it was incredible. The outfits and sets were like nothing I had seen before in a haunted house and to young me, it was perfect.

Fast forward to 2023, and I just graduated high school and started college. As a sort of rite of passage, I took a solo trip to HHN. I stayed with a friend of someone in my family and would walk through the hotels to get inside the park in a timely manner. Once again, the first house I did was ST4 and my thoughts were similar to the initial one, though I did like how we got more variety in terms of scares.

Now it’s 2026, and I’m graduating college. I took another rite of passage trip by going fully by myself and staying in a nearby hotel (being 21+ has its perks lol). To shake things up, ST5 was the second house I did this season, but even still I had a great time in it.

Looking back, I didn’t realize that Stranger Things was there for some of the most important years (good or bad) in my journey through life. It sorta broke my mind because like most people, I was ready for this property to move on from the event. It’s bittersweet seeing it go, especially since this property not only helped make me the diehard HHN fan I am today, but also left an impact on my young teenage and early adult years.

See you in the upside down ST.

Hello!
I am going to go to HHN for only the second time in my life this year, on October 30th, and I would really like to be properly prepared.

I am hoping to do as much as possible, but I am especially interested in the H.R. Bloodengutz house because he’s a really special favourite to me.
I was really hoping I could get some tips on how to possibly open said house - I have the Scream Early pass that allows me to get in at 2:00, but I have heard people say to get there even earlier, like, I’ve heard some people say to line up to get into the park at NOON.
I would absolutely love to be able to be the first person through that house, if it is at all possible.*

I also was wondering what proper decorum is for doing houses multiple times. Would people be annoyed or weirded out if I did that house several times in a row (getting back in line each time and waiting of course)?
I also know the protocol for gifts tends to be to give things to attendants now, but I want to double check if there’s any special etiquette for that, too. I have some drawings to give to some characters in the Scare Zones which I know is different, but in a house everyone is on timers acting to dialogue so I wouldn’t want to disturb that!

I also was wondering, beyond that house, what the best time to do things like certain houses/scarezones is in general. I heard some horror stories about Fortnitemares being a bottleneck. So I want to know from people who have been this year how it progresses through the night. I am prioritizing original houses over IP ones; the other ones I know I want to for sure do at least once are Jack and Oddfellow and Cybergoria.

*(I am not going to be like, angry or stupid if I don’t, though. I was going to say “obviously I wouldn’t be” but I know that unfortunately some people have been acting out which makes me very sad and honestly a bit afraid)

Thank you for listening! (I made these little H.R.s too!)

The two mvp houses will soon enter the void 😭

Overall Thoughts

I went this year from October 8th-11th, which means I got hit with residual rain from the hurricane making landfall. This ended up putting a pretty major damper on the whole event since I ended up with soaked shoes and some terrible blisters within the first day. I say all this to recognize that it may be coloring my opinion when I say that overall I thought this year was good, but not as good as 34.

To lead with the good, the anniversary vibes were great this year, and I’m happy we got an anniversary that also worked as its own independent thing rather than everything being all in on anniversary. During reveal season I worried that the house lineup was too sci-fi heavy, and the zones were too general in their themes. I am very happy to be wrong on both accounts!

While I do think the overall theme was stellar and Universal nailed it with the variety of queue videos and the new reworked stay n scream, I think the actual house and zone quality this year was a huge mixed bag. Last year almost everything sat at a baseline “pretty solid” with many houses and zones that really stood out as something special. This year, I think the highs are higher with my top 2 favorite houses beating out my previous all time top (El Artista) and my top Zone this year dethroning my previous top (Mutations). But I also felt the lows were lower and this year most houses sat at a B or C tier ranking while last year had 6 houses I would rank as S or A tier. 

This year it did sadly seem like the scares were more concentrated in 2-4 houses (Cybergoria and Hellraiser did the heavy lifting, with Invasion and Madlands having decent scares) rather than being split evenly, and while the scariest house this year was insane, beating out Insidious, Jason, and Grave of Flesh for me in terms of scares, so many houses this year felt lacking in scares, gore, and intensity. Even a house like Evil Dead, which should’ve been nasty and gory, felt like it was aiming for a more general audience. I’m all for having a variety of scare levels at the event, but I think this year they did drop the ball a little in terms of scares and intensity. That or I am getting desensitized.

The last negative to rant about is that this years IP selection wasn’t the best. ST, Evil Dead, and Fortnite all felt like begrudging obligations both during announcement season and as I went through the houses/zone. Thankfully this year also saw the creative team absolutely nailing a long awaited white whale, so not everything IP related was bad this year. 

Houses 

1. Bloodengutz (4 runs)-S Tier

As soon as we got this house’s full title it was pretty much guaranteed to be my favorite, barring any massive fumbles. I love H.R. Bloodengutz, I love comedy houses, I love compilation houses, I love queue videos, and I LOVE classic Halloween vibes. I was even so hyped for this that I bought an unofficial shirt for it (which the Bloodengutz actors reacted to and it was awesome, absolutely an event highlight). Lo and behold, this house gave me everything I wanted. This house was fun, campy, quotable, and the Bloodengutz actors were supremely interactive and perfectly cast. Conjure the Funk and Dr. Pumpkinspice (best smell at the event) were my personal favorites, and Skoolhouse was genuinely scary, but I think all the segments worked really well even if Monster’s Night Out was maybe a little bit of a let down. Could the house have been scarier? Sure. Should it have been longer? Ideally, yes. But this is still such a blast, and such a perfect encapsulation of what I love about the spooky season that there is no way I could not fall in love with this. I really hope we see some spinoff from this (maybe Cindy can be an icon finally and we can return to the Skoolhouse), but more than that I REALLY need more Bloodengutz at the event. He is hands down my favorite HHN character and he needs more time in the spotlight.

2. Cybergoria (4 runs)-S Tier

This house was an absolute nightmare in the best possible way, and not just because of that horrible queue music! This house was a blast, it perfectly combined the best parts of Major Sweets (sensory overload, great original story, and no obvious outdoor section) and Jason Universe (high intensity and the gauntlet) and managed to make me love a house in my least favorite location. This is just such a creative concept for a house and they translated it into the scariest house I have done at HHN to date. This house managed to scare me every single run and on multiple I was out of breath, literally shaking, after exiting. On one run an actor swung out at me out of nowhere and I fully dropped to the ground in a crouch and just screamed "OH FUCK" and then crouch scurried out of the area. To quote one girl exiting the house “that was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. That wasn’t even fun!”. Though I disagree on the fun part, this was absurdly fun, if physically exhausting! The only real issue with the house was it could be a little iffy during the day, but even when that happened the actors made it work. Specifically, the respirator cyborg actor that could be totally seen due to daylight pouring in just played peek-a-boo with us instead of going for the scare. Overall the cast just worked so hard in this house and I really hope this is the house of the year, because this is an all time show stopper. Objectively this is the best house of the year in my eyes, but my number one appeals to me more personally.

3. Hellraiser (6 runs)-A Tier

This was a near perfect adaptation of the Hellraiser films. Gory, nightmarish, and even horny, this house captured all of that fully. It even managed to make Hellraiser 3 cool. Major credit goes to the design team for making the labyrinth feel truly disorienting, without it devolving into a mirror maze. I always knew where to go but I also never got a great grasp on where I was until Deep Throat came leaping out at me. Speaking of which, this house really nailed the scares. For all my complaints about houses lacking intensity in some of this review, this house nailed the scares. Nearly every run I did someone got me good even when I began to fully know the layout. Really the only weakness of the house was the masks. The prosthetics looked amazing but a solid chunk of the masks (especially the Pinhead ones) looked very cheesy. A similar issue as Terrifier last year but these ended up being worse. Still that’s by no means a deal breaker and this is still a stellar house. It was also the best way to escape the rain during stay and scream which is why I have so many runs on it. 

4. Madlands (3 runs)-B Tier

I was hoping this house would play out like Triplets and Grave before it and be the weird under-hyped soundstage original that I end up adoring. I don’t think it fully reached the highs of those houses for me, but this was still a really cool house. I wasn’t ready for this to be the standout scenic house of the event but here we are. The house had such a great amount of detail, with the detailed zoo covered by all that of decay and foliage, and then all the Mad Max-y traps and graffiti were layered on top of that. It just felt so richly fleshed out as a setting. Similarly I loved each faction having a symbol, even as I went through the house and got hit with the jump scares I kept thinking that I wish I had the unmasking the horror tour booked because I needed more time with those sets. The verticality was also very impressive and I think it worked a touch better than Jack and Oddfellow because there usually weren’t too many actors competing for your attention on the ground when you were meant to look up. All that being said I do think the house ended up being a little underwhelming in scares, not bad mind you, but a few areas could’ve been better. But when the scares did work, mostly in the start of the house, they are really fun and through the entire house the casts were bringing their A game. The music was also great for this house, I’m hoping Universal either releases the song at some point or reuses it for a park loop so I can hear it without the wild cannibal yells over it. 

5. Invasion (3 runs)-B Tier

This is just a really solid house. Good scares, fun set design, good storytelling and fun concept. It wasn’t a crazy standout in any particular way, but it also didn’t really fail at anything either. I do think the vibrating floor, finale, and exit queue scare stood out a cut above the other elements, but overall this house was almost a textbook example of “pretty good” for me. Shoutout to the stilt walker at the end who, when we got stuck there, just bent down and did a little Macarena motion with his arms. Moments like that always end up being what sticks with me after the even ends.

6. Sinners (3 runs)-B Tier

On my first run through this house I got the dream run. Every scare hit me, I got the “Sammy” bungee scare from start to finish, and when I started dancing a little to Rocky Road to Dublin I got pinball scared by all the vampires in that room. It was phenomenal. On subsequent runs I think the house lost some luster, but even then this was a very good house. I think this was probably as perfect as you could make a Sinners house (minus not having Hollywood’s incredible looking red eyes). But, in making this the perfect Sinners house that does mean toning down the scares for a house true to the film and something with a wider appeal (see FNAF last year). To me that’s a totally valid, and probably correct, way to tackle this property but it does mean it ranks lower for me since I value those intense rapid fire scares and also generally prefer originals. However, I would absolutely understand another person having this at their number 1. 

7. Ozzy (4 Runs)-C Tier

I have had that single loop from Straight to Hell stuck in my head for days now and this house is entirely to blame! I found this house to be fine, but nothing too special and definitely not living up to the crazy wait times. The sets were great and appropriately grand in scale, but I think the house needed more claustrophobic moments to actually get some solid scares in. The crazy train and blackout hallways worked well but I feel like the rest of the house felt a bit too barren in terms of actors. I also ended up being let down by a lot of the music selection. Some of that comes down to personal taste (man I wanted Over the Mountain) but some also just feels like a missed opportunity (Mr. Crowley or Diary of a Madman). Hollywood seems to have gotten the better and more fleshed out soundtrack.

Maybe it’s because I connect less to Ozzy than I do Bray Wyatt, but as far as tributes go I think the Wyatt Sicks house worked better and did a better job balancing tribute and house. This felt more tribute, less solid house. Also, while I can absolutely see folks loving how much reverence this showed for Ozzy, to me the level this house elevated him didn’t really work. Combine that with stuff like Sharon Osbourne being excited for Ozzy to become an AI and there was just an off vibe for me. But even without that, I think this house just needed a bit more intensity and a few more actors to really elevate it. That and not having that awful static figure for the second facade.

8. Jack and Oddfellow (5 runs)-C Tier

I have tried to avoid reading other folks rankings and reviews until I’ve uploaded my own, but from some initial info and just knowing how hyped this house is, I think I’ll be in the vocal minority for how much I disliked this house.

This was the biggest disappointment of the year for me, my second most hyped house being third from the bottom is pretty crazy. The house started perfectly too, amazing facade, great narration (I love how petty Oddfellow is when insulting Jack), and solid scares with great looking Jack and Oddfellow actors. The spinning tunnel was the first big let down, I was hoping we would get a new physical one, but the reveal of the Oddverse is such a cool moment that I wasn’t too hung up on the tunnel. But from there, aside from getting to return to Shadybrook and a slanted floor coming back to the event, I don’t think I enjoyed anything else the house had to offer. 

The whole house just devolved into a cheap 3D haunt minus the glasses. While that does almost work as an homage to some old Jack houses, that doesn’t excuse how much the potential of a universe shaped by Jack and Oddfellow’s competing wills was wasted. There’s pretty much limitless potential with that concept and what we got was generic and repetitive costumes, vague circus imagery with an occasional reference, and some moments that didn’t even feel fitting for the characters (why is there a spider person room? Is this a reference I’m missing?). This was all capped off by a very lackluster finale, with three slow plodding big head puppet scares one after the other. This house ranks 8th due to how great the Jack and Oddfellow interactions were, the strength of those first few scenes, and the scale of the house, but otherwise the back two thirds of this house felt cheap, generic, and very under-populated with actors. 

TLDR: Lunatics Playground 2-D

9. Evil dead (3 runs)-D Tier

I figured this house wasn’t going to rank too high for me, considering I also didn’t love the movie, but I was at least a bit excited for some intensity and fun gore. It’s a modern evil dead film, there’s gotta be some over the top gore. But for some reason this ended up being more like an all audiences house with a tiny bit of gore here and there. The facade is great with that awesome head animatronic, and the actors did their best to sell the moments that there was actual gore, but this house felt so toothless and basic. Most rooms were single scare rooms, and plenty of the scares involved someone already standing in the room just moving at the guests after a delay. Many of the more memorable moments from the movie were also either missing (silverware scene) or heavily toned down (ear stab scene). All together that ended up making for a very dull book report house that was weirdly too faithful to the movies plot but not faithful enough to its tone. 

10. ST (3 runs)-F Tier

This is about where I expected this house to land, as I had zero knowledge or interest in this. To my credit, I tried to watch Stranger Things. But if seasons 1 didn’t interest me, I highly doubt season 5 would. The first run I had of the house (first of the event) was solid, mostly due to me still being jumpy and some very aggressive Demos. But once I settled into the event, this house ended up just not being particularly engaging. Mostly this is due to me having no clue what I was seeing, but beyond that the house was rather dull to look at with lots of goop and rocks. The big mid-house set piece was cool at first, but after seeing it a few times it became evident how static and empty it felt. The whole house ended up just being confusing and unexciting for me, despite the actors putting in some serious work. 

Zones 

Downtown Clowntown-S Tier

What a fantastic zone. During reveal season I wasn’t very excited for this, it seemed like a generic clown zone with some random IPs injected into it. In practice, yeah it kind of is that, but the sheer scale combined with all the different shows going on really elevated this from generic to iconic. This was basically 3 zones all combined together (KKFS, Art, and the main zone) plus a themed food boot and tribute store, and it made the whole zone feel so much more immersive and alive compared to other HHN zones. Chance and Eddie definitely stole the show (loving the redesigns, especially for Eddie), but Art and the puppet show were also standouts. I hope this zone concept is brought back for next year with a different theme, I think making New York just a massive set of interlocking zones and shops is a really winning concept. 

Sideshow of Decay-A Tier

Was this just a hodgepodge of old costumes and sets? Pretty much. Did I fall for the nostalgia bait hook line and sinker? Absolutely. I had a blast with this zone, it was so fun to try and place all the old costumes and returning at various points to see if new costumes had shown up. Lady Luck was a particularly nice surprise. Cindy stole the show though and I REALLY hope this is indicative of her becoming a proper event icon in the future. Also this zone had a really cool show moment with Oddfellow that I just randomly happened to catch while waiting for the way too hidden Hamikuma meet and greet (Universal seriously needs to make the character meet and greets more advertised). Overall a simple concept but one that tugged at my HHN fueled heartstrings. 

Infernal Carnival if Nightmares-C Tier

As far as entrance zones goes, this is really strong. Jack and Oddfellow elevated this above the usual photo-op zone, and the mini-Ushers and various circus minions put in solid work adding in some scares. On its own merits the zone is still lacking in sets and scares, but compared to the entrances for 33 and 34, this was a big improvement. 

Fortnitmares-Super F Tier

What a disaster of a zone. Do Fortnight fans even like this? Personally I have no love for this IP, and while I am not usually one to rant about HHN becoming too kid friendly, this felt way to kid friendly. When walking around during daytime hours I heard an elementary school child look at the props and ask his mom “Is this Dreamworks?”, and if that doesn’t sum up the vibe of this property being at HHN I don’t know what does. Beyond the issues of this zone just not feeling like it matches the event tone, the zone was also just bad. The people firing guns never seemed to actually be aiming at or reacting to anything, none of the actors had many props to work off of for setting up scares, the photo ops spaces at both entrances clogged up the whole space terribly, and the lighting package, even during the big storm show scenes, was such a downgrade from last year. Also the battlebus is here I guess. If this was your dream come true IP, and the zone worked for you, I am glad. But for me this was an unmitigated disaster and this is coming from someone who really tried to give them the benefit of the doubt when it came to adding this zone to the lineup. 

Food 

Across the 3 years I've been able go go to Orlando and fully attend the event it seems like the food just keeps getting better. 34 had better quality than 33 but lost some of the weirdness. This year the wacky concepts are back but the quality also seems even higher than 34 (though I am not sure the fried carrot cake has been topped yet). I'm also very happy to see more varied flavors and ingredients being added with the Sichuan and Japan inspired items this year.

Rigatoni Ritual Pie- So glad I finally tried the “spaghizza” this year because holy cow this was amazing. The rigatoni was perfectly al dente and it gave such a good texture to the pizza. The pesto was a little overpowered by the other flavors but the cheese, sauce, sausage, and even the crust were all crazy good. This just tasted amazing and had such a stellar texture. This was also the best sized item, very substantial. The only disappointing thing about them now having a rotating spaghizza at Louie’s is we probably won’t get this exact one again.

Deathbringer Shrimp Tempura- This was my most anticipated food item and it roughly matched expectations. I would’ve liked a little more shrimp and maybe a little less of the mayo sauce, but overall this was super tasty.  

Smash Tacos- I wasn’t excepting to get this but I was with someone who wanted something other than the shrimp and this comes from the same booth. Boy am I glad that happened because these are great. Maybe a bit less crazy and inventive compared to other items this year, but this is still a really tasty burger in a fun bun alternative. 

Bread Pudding- This was a little saltier than I expected but otherwise it was very good. Great flavor and a perfect texture, plus it came out piping hot. 

Biria Fries- I was pretty underwhelmed by these despite being very hyped for them once the menus were revealed. The biria was lacking in flavor and seemed pretty under salted. The concept is great but I really didn’t enjoy the execution. At least the portion size was solid. 

Drinks

For both drinks I opted for the non-alcoholic mocktail versions. I really wish the HHN food page made finding who had mocktail options easier to parse. In general I miss the approach they’ve had previous years where mocktails were a separate item rather than an alternate option but maybe this made operations easier.

Bat-Tea- Definitely on the watery side, but the ginger beer flavor did end up coming through. Not the best drink but very refreshing and the black rock candy was a nice touch. Plus the Ozzy bar was a fun little hang out. 

Slide Guitar Smash- This ended up being very lemonade-y in the worst way. It was very Minute Maid-esque, meaning it kind of tasted like battery acid. The mint was a nice touch but this was so chemically tart and cloyingly sweet that it really didn’t work for me. 

Merchandise

Overall I liked the merch this year, especially the large amount of icon merch. I think having multiple zones get their own merch was neat but I did miss having dedicated original house and original zone shirts. I still wish Universal would go outside the box with merch items, this year felt like an improvement with stuff like the unique Sinners merch, but I still think they could be doing a lot more. Tribute store was pretty fun this year,  and I enjoyed that it connected with the outside zone. It was a bit on the narrow and congested side of things, but unlike last year I never had any crowding issues. The actor outside was a great addition. 

Final Thoughts

As always HHN is a highlight of my year, and even the terrible weather couldn't change that. I do think this year is a step down from last year house and scare-wise and I hope we see more consistency and a better IP section for 36. Still I cannot deny that the highs of this year were monumental and I really hope the creative team runs with what worked, especially for the F&F location if it sticks around. Food and merch also seem to be getting better each year, and I think the new approach the NY zone is brilliant. Hopefully all of that sticks around and we end up with a crazy year for 36. Also Cybergoria needs to win house of the year!

Sorry I didn’t get more photos. However. Just wow. All night every house was a walk on basically. I think once we waiting 10 min but it was a cast change. We were able to walk slowly through lines and become a single couple walking alone in the house. Hell without the conga line we actually almost made wrong turns a few times. In Bloodengutz we were able to interact and play around with him in the open and end scene.

The food booths were all walk up and grab. Well we waiting 7min for the radio jerky. Decided to ride Mummy…. Direct walk on. Was able to interact with Chance, Jack, Oddfellow and all the Killer Clowns. Art was able to walk around in the crowds and hung out after his show even.

Harry Potter area…. Was empty and you could enjoy the vibe. The Butterbeer was simply walk up and grab. 🔥

I was just highly impressed. We got lucky and the night fell on your vacation this year. Next year we will be planing our vacation around the night. ✌🏻

So my wife and I are doing both coasts for part of our honeymoon. We did Orlando already and got the refillable souvenir cups. Just wondering if we can continue to use them when we go to the Hollywood event later this evening.

Sinners, Evil Dead and Hellraiser. We have no fast passes. I'm guessing we'll be in line for 2 hours each house. For anyone that's been recently to these, how long have the lines been?

Just in case anybody missed it, there are videos with the stories for the houses on the HHN YouTube channel. I’m putting this here because some of the houses this year seemed, to me, like you needed more backstory to really enjoy them.

I am a social media illiterate boomer. How do I find this dang phrase. I saw a few posts saying “IG stories”.

Are those the short vertical videos on instagram? Do I need to watch them until I come across the phrase embedded in the video? Are they in descriptions? Is it a comment?

Please help.

I blew a kiss at you, you caught it in midair and threw it to the ground before stomping on it. By doing that you gave me the opportunity to hear the most sincere and out loud laugh from my girlfriend this year. She’s had it pretty rough since new year’s eve and I wasn’t sure when I’d hear that explosive laughter again.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space is my all time favorite horror film and you made THE highlight of my night. I flew from abroad specifically for tonight and wanted to visit Downtown Clowntown before leaving the park. Hope this reaches you and makes you know how much I appreciate you, have been replaying the video on my way out and it gets me every time. I treasure it.

I’ve never made stickers a day in my life but decided to give it a try after making a few drawings, they’re super simple and nothing crazy but they were fun to make. Ive also got an art the clown one that is almost finished!

I realize last year Premium Scream was nothing like this year. And we don’t know what next year will bring.
But we went to the event last night. We did every house, both shows, and three rides by midnight. The longest house line we hit was 10 minutes. We then did every house a second time, and headed out right at 2am. For us, even tho it was expensive, it was absolutely worth it. Very few kids, more food than we could possibly eat, and lots of uncrowded scare zone interactions. If anything, by 1am the scare actors seemed a bit bored. And the dance area was totally empty, which felt weird. But overall, no regrets on buying the ticket.

I would rather buy this shirt in person as my memento from the trip but its 35% off on the official website. Do we know if this specific shirt is on sale yet or is it just the other icon shirts? Thanks

Wow is all I can say 110% worth what the price point was. we were able to do pretty much every house twice before 12 am. park felt empty and there were never more then 10-15 min waits for the houses. typically when we had to wait it was because they were pulsing people through the house no conga line so worth it. we were the only ones in ozzy, stranger things, cybergoria pretty much. food lines also weren’t bad at all we literally tried everything and left so stuffed! hope they keep premium scream next year and keep the amount of tickets sold the same!