Tips for getting the most out of Halloween Horror Nights

Halloween Horror Nights is one of the largest, scariest and most popular Halloween events in the country.

The annual monster mash is held at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort, so you can attend Halloween Horror Nights on either coast (or both, if you love HHN as much as I do). The event runs at both parks for about two months leading up to Halloween (and sometimes pushes into early November), so you still have plenty of time to plan a terrifying trip.

Each year, Halloween Horror Nights transforms what is typically a family-friendly theme park filled with laughter and smiling faces into a creepy haven for screams and monstrous, decaying countenances. The event includes a mix of indoor haunted houses, outdoor scare zones, live entertainment and lots of tasty treats.

To maximize the fearful fun, visitors should learn about the available ticket types and line management strategies to see as many houses as possible in one night. And for HHN super fans like me, there are opportunities to see “behind the scares” and brush up on the event’s history and deep lore. Yes, I am going to assign you Halloween Horror Nights homework, but I promise it’ll be more fun than high school math.

Whether you are on a budget or money is no object, here’s how to make the most of a visit to Halloween Horror Nights.

If you’re on a budget

Because Halloween Horror Nights is a separately ticketed event, a daytime ticket does not grant you access to the park during HHN (and vice versa). The park closes before the event, and daytime guests are required to leave.

Halloween Horror Nights tickets use a date-based pricing model at both parks. Generally, it’s cheaper to avoid Friday and Saturday nights, which are also the busiest nights with the longest lines. Wednesday is the least expensive day to visit.

You’ll also pay less if you go closer to the beginning of the event (late August through September) versus visiting in October as Halloween approaches. Keep in mind that Halloween Horror Nights only takes place on select nights, so check the event calendar before you book flights or reserve a hotel room.

You can also save money by purchasing your tickets ahead of time instead of waiting until the day of your visit and getting them at the gate.

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Even if you are trying to save, there is one add-on you will want to purchase with your ticket to ensure you aren’t waiting in lines for one to two hours all night. This add-on goes by different names at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort, but it essentially lets you inside the park before the event starts each evening so you can line up early for the haunted houses.

In Universal Studios Hollywood, this add-on is called the Early Access Ticket and gets you into the park at 5:30 p.m. so you can get a head start on select houses before the event officially begins at 7 p.m. The price varies per date but only adds between $10 and $25 to your ticket price.

In Orlando, this add-on is called a Scream Early Ticket. With a Scream Early Ticket, you can enter Universal Studios Florida between 3 and 5 p.m. to enjoy a few rides before the park closes to daytime guests. Once the clock strikes 5 p.m., you can line up at one of a few “Stay & Scream” zones.

These are essentially holding areas where you can queue up for your first haunted house of the evening. Before you choose a Stay & Scream area, do some online research or speak with a staff member to find out which houses are opening earliest on that particular night and get in line for one of those.

This add-on will increase your ticket by $50, but you can knock out two to three houses before the event officially opens for the night.

If you really want to save money, you can forgo these add-ons and plan to stay until the end of the night. After midnight, the wait times can drop significantly. Just be prepared for some longer lines early in the evening.

If you don’t mind paying to skip the line

If you are willing to shell out a bit more to skip the long lines for the haunted houses and the rides that stay open during Halloween Horror Nights, your best bet is a Halloween Horror Nights Express Pass. The HHN Express Pass works similarly to a daytime Universal Express Pass, allowing you to skip the standby line and use a much shorter Express entrance.

This pass works differently at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort, so let’s take a look at each.

In Orlando, the Halloween Horror Nights Express Pass is an add-on to your HHN ticket. It can more than double the cost of your ticket, but it also ensures you can skip the standby line for all 10 houses and select rides once per night. If you want to visit any of the houses a second time, you’ll have to wait in the standby line.

At Universal Studios Hollywood, you can purchase a Halloween Horror Nights admission ticket that includes Express access. There is one version that includes one-time Express access and another that includes unlimited Express access to the haunted houses and select attractions. Both versions also include nighttime access to Super Nintendo World.

Universal Studios Hollywood has another ticket option that lets you enter the park early to enjoy some rides and begin queuing for select haunted houses before the event officially kicks off. The Halloween Horror Nights After 2 p.m. Day/Night ticket lets you enter the park as early as 2 p.m. to experience rides and attractions (including Super Nintendo World), with access to select houses beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Even though you can’t skip the standby line with the After 2 p.m. Day/Night ticket, you can still get into the event early enough and be able to get through all the houses. Then, you should still have time left over for some live entertainment or a ride on the Terror Tram.

If money is no object

If budget is not a concern, an R.I.P Tour (Universal’s clever play on a VIP tour) is the way to go.

When you book an R.I.P. Tour, a Universal tour guide will accompany your group throughout the event. Not only will they usher you to an exclusive entrance at each of the haunted houses, but also they will tell you interesting details about each of the houses. Think of it as getting a crash course on the storyline of each house before you walk through.

In Orlando, the cost of your tour also includes valet parking, an exclusive park entrance, a pretour reception, unlimited Express ride access and reserved seating for select shows. You can book a group R.I.P. Tour where you will be paired with other guests or a private R.I.P. Tour exclusively for your party. For group or private R.I.P. Tours, Halloween Horror Nights admission is not included and will need to be purchased separately.

Hollywood’s R.I.P. Tour works a bit differently. You can purchase an R.I.P. Tour ticket that includes admission to Halloween Horror Nights, plus a guided walking tour of the event. You’ll get one-time R.I.P. entry to each house (which means you cut the standby line and the Express line), VIP seating for one live show and access to Super Nintendo World.

You also get an exclusive Universal Backlot Halloween experience, dinner before the event, themed photo ops and complimentary valet parking. After your tour, you can use your event credential to get unlimited Universal Express access to walk through your favorite houses as many times as you like. Basically, you’ll be treated like Halloween royalty. This year, R.I.P. Tour tickets start at $329.

If you want to sleep as close as humanly possible to the demons that lurk inside Universal’s gates, you can book a hotel package that includes Halloween Horror Nights admission and overnight accommodations.

Related: The best hotels near Universal Studios Hollywood

This applies more to Universal Orlando Resort because Universal Studios Hollywood doesn’t currently have any on-site hotels, though there are two hotels within walking distance — the Hilton Los Angeles Universal City and the Sheraton Universal Hotel.

But, if you are visiting Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort, the creepy crawly fun extends to the hotels as well. Each of Universal Orlando’s hotels decorates for Halloween and offers specialty food and drink menu items at their on-site dining locations. They even offer late-night food options so you can grab a bite to eat before you retire to your room and try to avoid having nightmares about what you just witnessed inside the park.

Universal Orlando offers hotel and ticket package discounts to help you save a bit of money on your Halloween Horror Nights vacation. If there is no limit on how much you are willing to spend to be close to the scares, you can stay at one of Universal’s Signature Collection hotels — Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando, Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando, Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando or Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando.

These are the closest hotels to the parks and have convenient boat transportation and walking paths to the parks. If you opt for one of these transportation methods, you can use an exclusive security entrance with a much shorter wait than the standard security line.

If you want all the gory behind-the-scenes details

One of my favorite things about Halloween Horror Nights is the rich history and lore. The event began in Orlando in 1991. Thirty-three years and more than 200 haunted houses later, the event has a deep well of stories and characters to serve as inspiration.

I was but a mere child in 1991, so I haven’t been going to the event since its inception, but there are other ways to dig deep into the treasure trove of callbacks and Easter eggs that are intrinsically linked to the event.

For example, Halloween Horror Nights has several “icons” — original characters who are central to the plot of many haunted houses and scare zones. These characters have detailed histories and intertwining storylines. Take Jack the Clown (pictured above). Probably the most recognizable and often used icon, Jack first appeared at HHN in 2000. The murderous circus clown is now involved in several houses and scare zones, making him a mainstay of the event.

The Discover Universal Blog regularly posts content related to Halloween Horror Nights, including a detailed origin story of Jack the Clown. Each year, the blog features behind-the-scenes looks at houses and tips for visiting the event.

In 2022, Universal also launched the Discover Universal Podcast. This year, there is an “Echoes from the Fog” series that uses voice actors to tell the story that you’ll see played out in the houses. It’s a great way to get excited about the event and gain a better understanding of what you’ll see in the houses.

Another way to immerse yourself in the event and learn more of those fun little details that are easy to miss when monsters scream in your face is by taking a “Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour.”

This tour is only available at Universal Orlando Resort. This year, you can choose from a three- or six-house tour. Each tour covers different houses, so you can theoretically see nine of the 10 houses if you take both tours.

These tours take place during the day. The lights in the houses are on (so you can see all the gory details), and there are no scare actors waiting to jump out at you. Instead, you’ll get a guided tour of the houses that delves into the storyline of each one. You’ll also be able to see details you wouldn’t otherwise notice with the lights out.

For example, this year, the house designers hid small snails in each house. They are very hard to find, and you would never see them at night, but our tour guide pointed them out to us.

We also learned that each house was given a dessert code name so that guests wouldn’t guess what the houses would be before they were announced. Universal cleverly hid each dessert in its respective house. The Museum: Deadly Exhibit was given the code name “Baklava,” and there’s a plate of the dessert sitting behind the reception desk when you enter the house.

If you are a scaredy cat (raises hand), I recommend scheduling your Unmasking the Horror tour before you visit Halloween Horror Nights in the evening. I had a better idea of the house’s layout and where some of the scares would be. I didn’t scream any less, but at least I knew the screams were coming.

If you prefer the element of surprise, I would do your lights on tour the day after you visit HHN at night. This way, you’ll get all the scares, and then you can go back through the house to see the details you missed.

This year, Unmasking the Horror tours start at around $100 per person.

Bottom line

Over the years, I’ve splurged and saved at Halloween Horror Nights. Both can be fun ways to experience the event if you know which ticket type to buy and you have a solid plan in place.

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