Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights Review

[Imtotallynottribe]

I went last Friday during opening weekend with my wife, sister and some friends, so I thought I'd give a review for the rest of you.

This year there are ten houses which is the most they've ever had, but that's partially because they cut back on other entertainment. There's no Bill & Ted comedy/dance/pop culture lampoon show this year, nor is there a Rocky Horror Tribute show or a magic and dance horror show. The only additional entertainment to the 10 haunted houses is the dance troop Academy of Villains. It is a nice dance show, probably the best I've seen, but for me that's not enough variety. Hopefully they bring back an extra show or two next year.

Now a word of warning, just like the last ten years or so, you can forget about seeing everything if you just get one regular ticket to HHN. The houses wait times for "the Poors" went from 50 minutes to 130 minutes depending on the popularity. With standard HHN hours only being 6.5-7.5 hours, there's no way you can fit in more than half the houses no matter how creative you are in your scheduling. Instead you'll have to come back on a second day (the cheapest but most irritating option), use an Express pass like I did or take a RIP Tour (the best and most expensive option). With the Express Pass, I had 0 to 5 minute waits on most houses, 0 minute waits on rides and on the houses with the biggest wait times the most we waited was 30 minutes.

Before I review the houses on the next post, I figured I'd talk about the overall theme and the food options. This year's biggest house is Stranger Things and the overall theme is both tied to that specifically and the 80s in general. In fact, all of the scarezones and all but two of the houses are tied to the 80s. And that blast of nostalgia and overall tie in works great. We saw plenty of tourists not just employees playing into the 80s theme with big hair, neon colored shirts or graphics, fishnets and parachute pants galore.

As far as food, every restaurant in the park is open EXCEPT the Harry Potter themed spots as Rowling doesn't let The Potterverse interact with HHN. And there's a lot of freestanding little tents with extra food and drinks scattered throughout the park. There's about 7 different waffle options scattered around the park in honour of Eleven as well as some Christmas Light cupcakes and eleven mini donuts covered in fake noseblood icing. All of that is quite cute and looked tasty although I obviously didn't try all (actually any) of the options. As far as the drinks go, there's two nonalcoholic slushies one that is waffles and syrup and another that is candy corn, both were overly sweet and I would not get again. The two alcoholic drinks this year is a sweeter variation of a Long Island Iced Tea and a punch made up of raspberry and blueberry vodkas, triple sec, grenadine and lemon juice. Both were also overly sweet.

If you want more info on the food options, I read this before going.

https://orlandoinformer.com/universal/halloween-horror-nights-exclusive-food-drinks/

 

[12Nole]

Great review. Looking forward to your house reviews. How much were the VIP tickets? 130 min wait is a deal breaker. What was your plan of attack to see all of the houses and have time to enjoy the other activities going on?

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

As far as the Scarezones go, there are five this year. In my order of preference they are:

1) Vamp '85: Vampires straight out of the 80s including some famous ones (we saw a vampire version of Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Cydni Lauper, Run DMC, and Guns N Roses). Every 20 to 30 minutes they have a NYE ball drop in "New York" changing the year from 84 to 85 and triggering both a little ten minute dance show and a change in vampire behaviour (from chillaxed to running around "killing” some bystanders. All and all, very entertaining.

2) Revenge of Chucky: Kind of a bland scarezone honestly although some of the killer toys are quite effective like the killer baby doll. But what makes this great is that they have an interactive (ie he insults the crowd) Chucky doll puppet set up which gathers a crowd. At least while I was there the puppeteer did a great job of both bringing the puppet to life and keeping the crowd laughing.

3) Twisted Tradition: Some nicely done original monsters mainly tied to jack o lanterns. Nothing truly unique or special but very well done.

4) Killer Klownz from Outer Space: lots of costumes taken straight from the movie. You'll either love it or hate it depending on how well you like the cult B-Movie.

5) The Harvest: Just an excuse to have people in costume from the ten houses out and about while they're on break from the houses. Nothing unique of course.

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

Great review. Looking forward to your house reviews. How much were the VIP tickets? 130 min wait is a deal breaker. What was your plan of attack to see all of the houses and have time to enjoy the other activities going on?

I believe the Express Passes vary between $79 and $130 depending on the popularity of the night (cheapest being weekdays not the week of halloween and the most expensive being Fri and Sat around the week of Halloween and the holidays themselves). I believe I paid $89. There are no benefits to the Express pass beyond being placed in the express line but that's a huge deal. With the Express pass you should have no trouble doing all ten houses other than the walking (my iPhone said I walked 10 miles during the event) as you've got to walk past all the Poors standing in line.

The RIP tours vary from $160 to $350 depending on the night. With the Express Passes you go wherever you want but do have to wait SOME (max 30 mins for us, usually nothing or just five to ten mins), with the RIP Tour you are personally escorted around the park and never have to wait you go right in. Plus you have "free" food and alcoholic drinks before and after the tour. I wanted to do the RIP Tour this year, but we had too many friends who were cheap who wanted to hang out with us this year. Next year I'm ditching the cheap friends and doing the RIP Tour.

As far as a touring plan, if you have an Express pass I'd just start with Stranger Things and go counterclockwise around the park. With the Express Pass you should have time to see everything no problem. Without it, I'd bolt to Stranger Things as soon as you're in the park (and show up early to boot), then bolt to Poltergeist and by then all the houses will be at max capacity so maybe catch the show and eat, then try to do 2 or 3 other houses before the end of the night.

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

Now for the houses. Universal as always did a magnificent job and even the two I'd tell you to skip are professionally well done, just not worth the effort when there are eight better houses to see. The most popular house by far was Stranger Things but it wasn't my absolute favourite, so be prepared to wait 30 mins or more with an express pass and 130 mins or more without it.

Btw, before going I'd recommend you watch the original Poltergeist again as well as the surprisingly good Happy Death Day to really get a lot out of the houses (and maybe Trick R Treat and Halloween 4 as well).

My favourite houses in order were:

1) Poltergeist: Just a perfectly themed house. You start in the empty pool looking up at the house before passing zombies and skeletons through the roots to get into the house itself. Once you're inside the house, almost every horror scene of the movie is depicted from the evil tree to entering the staticy TV to midget mediums to giant 12 foot puppets of the main evil poltergeist itself. This very well may be my favourite haunted house of all time. 10/10.

2) Scarytales: This isn't based on a movie but is an original IP based on the premise of the Wicked Witch of the West from Oz taking the characters from already dark fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Humpty Dumpty, The Little Mermaid etc... And twisting them even further to the dark and gory. This is probably the most visually appealing house and just like Poltergeist is one of my favourites of all time. 10/10.

3) Stranger Things: The most popular house and for good reason. It is perfectly themed to the first season (only) of Stranger Things. You enter through the lab where there's some gory scenes of dead and still alive scientists with Demogorgons all around. Then transition to scenes in Winona Ryders house (including obviously the Christmas Lights) and main characters fighting with the Demogorgons. Then you go through the woods with main characters calling out and hunting with flashlights for Will before transitioning back to the lab and entering the Upside Down. Very well done although I didn't see any references to Barb (Justice for Barb!). 9/10.

4) Slaughter Sinema: What seems like a throwaway idea for a house ended up being one of my favourites. Rather than based on real movies, they opened up the Universal Creative Team to make a house based on fake 80's cult movies (think Quentin Tarantinos Grindhouse). Each "movie" is introduced by a poster and a radio and describing the "movie" before you walk into a scene or two from the fake movie, each one funnier and/or gorier than the last. You've got little monsters ripping off gremlins/ghoulies/and especially critters, killer kids, scantily clad "Amazons" escaped from prison, killer clowns, killer barbers, you name it. There's 9 or 10 fake movies featured throughout the house, each one better than the last. 9/10.

5) Halloween 4: Based on the movie. It's actually very accurate just like Poltergeist (my sister pointed out in the hospital waiting room they even had authentic to the date National Geographic magazines), but I've got Michael Meyers Fatigue disease. They've overdone Halloween movie houses here at HHN over the years so for me it wasn't as exciting as the houses I have listed before it. VERY authentic to the movie though. 8/10.

6) The Horrors of Blumhouse: This house only covers two of the Blumhouse movies this year, Happy Death Day and the First Purge. If you haven't seen Happy Death Day I highly recommend doing so both in general and before you see the house. It's an excellent "Groundhog Day" type of film and the house related to this movie is fantastic. The second half of the house related to First Purge is far weaker as is the movie it's based on. 7/10.

7) Dead Exposure - Patient Zero: The premise is excellent, a photographer takes photos during the first zombie outbreak set in 1980s Paris, but for me I've got zombie fatigue. Too many years of Walking Dead Season Whatever Houses has strained my zombie tolerance level. I think people who aren't annual HHN attendees like myself will enjoy this house more than I did. The one caveat I will say is that the best single room of all of the houses is in this one. I won't say anymore and spoil it. 7/10.

8) Trick R Treat: Based on the movie which I have not seen. I didn't get a lot out of this house mainly because the references I didn't get. It seemed well done but it didn't float my boat. 6/10.

9) Carnival Graveyard: Plenty of cannibal carnies, spooky carnival scenes, and barking guard dogs, it was just a little too generic and short for me. There was no real standout set piece either. If you're tired I would say skip this house although it's not bad by any means. 5/10.

10) Seeds of Extinction: A very cool premise they botched as it's the only house I would definitely tell an Express Pass holder to skip. The schtick is that in the near future planet earth has decided to exterminate humanity and plant life has become animated in monstrous forms. Kind of a cool schtick that should have worked, but the monsters blend in with the boring foilage scenery too much so you can't really see all the hard work they put into the costumes. Skip this one. 2/10.

 

[12Nole]

Now for the houses. Universal as always did a magnificent job and even the two I'd tell you to skip are professionally well done, just not worth the effort when there are eight better houses to see. The most popular house by far was Stranger Things but it wasn't my absolute favourite, so be prepared to wait 30 mins or more with an express pass and 130 mins or more without it.

Btw, before going I'd recommend you watch the original Poltergeist again as well as the surprisingly good Happy Death Day to really get a lot out of the houses (and maybe Trick R Treat and Halloween 4 as well).

My favourite houses in order were:

1) Poltergeist: Just a perfectly themed house. You start in the empty pool looking up at the house before passing zombies and skeletons through the roots to get into the house itself. Once you're inside the house, almost every horror scene of the movie is depicted from the evil tree to entering the staticy TV to midget mediums to giant 12 foot puppets of the main evil poltergeist itself. This very well may be my favourite haunted house of all time. 10/10.

2) Scarytales: This isn't based on a movie but is an original IP based on the premise of the Wicked Witch of the West from Oz taking the characters from already dark fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Humpty Dumpty, The Little Mermaid etc... And twisting them even further to the dark and gory. This is probably the most visually appealing house and just like Poltergeist is one of my favourites of all time. 10/10.

3) Stranger Things: The most popular house and for good reason. It is perfectly themed to the first season (only) of Stranger Things. You enter through the lab where there's some gory scenes of dead and still alive scientists with Demogorgons all around. Then transition to scenes in Winona Ryders house (including obviously the Christmas Lights) and main characters fighting with the Demogorgons. Then you go through the woods with main characters calling out and hunting with flashlights for Will before transitioning back to the lab and entering the Upside Down. Very well done although I didn't see any references to Barb (Justice for Barb!). 9/10.

4) Slaughter Sinema: What seems like a throwaway idea for a house ended up being one of my favourites. Rather than based on real movies, they opened up the Universal Creative Team to make a house based on fake 80's cult movies (think Quentin Tarantinos Grindhouse). Each "movie" is introduced by a poster and a radio and describing the "movie" before you walk into a scene or two from the fake movie, each one funnier and/or gorier than the last. You've got little monsters ripping off gremlins/ghoulies/and especially critters, killer kids, scantily clad "Amazons" escaped from prison, killer clowns, killer barbers, you name it. There's 9 or 10 fake movies featured throughout the house, each one better than the last. 9/10.

5) Halloween 4: Based on the movie. It's actually very accurate just like Poltergeist (my sister pointed out in the hospital waiting room they even had authentic to the date National Geographic magazines), but I've got Michael Meyers Fatigue disease. They've overdone Halloween movie houses here at HHN over the years so for me it wasn't as exciting as the houses I have listed before it. VERY authentic to the movie though. 8/10.

6) The Horrors of Blumhouse: This house only covers two of the Blumhouse movies this year, Happy Death Day and the First Purge. If you haven't seen Happy Death Day I highly recommend doing so both in general and before you see the house. It's an excellent "Groundhog Day" type of film and the house related to this movie is fantastic. The second half of the house related to First Purge is far weaker as is the movie it's based on. 7/10.

7) Dead Exposure - Patient Zero: The premise is excellent, a photographer takes photos during the first zombie outbreak set in 1980s Paris, but for me I've got zombie fatigue. Too many years of Walking Dead Season Whatever Houses has strained my zombie tolerance level. I think people who aren't annual HHN attendees like myself will enjoy this house more than I did. The one caveat I will say is that the best single room of all of the houses is in this one. I won't say anymore and spoil it. 7/10.

8) Trick R Treat: Based on the movie which I have not seen. I didn't get a lot out of this house mainly because the references I didn't get. It seemed well done but it didn't float my boat. 6/10.

9) Carnival Graveyard: Plenty of cannibal carnies, spooky carnival scenes, and barking guard dogs, it was just a little too generic and short for me. There was no real standout set piece either. If you're tired I would say skip this house although it's not bad by any means. 5/10.

10) Seeds of Extinction: A very cool premise they botched as it's the only house I would definitely tell an Express Pass holder to skip. The schtick is that in the near future planet earth has decided to exterminate humanity and plant life has become animated in monstrous forms. Kind of a cool schtick that should have worked, but the monsters blend in with the boring foilage scenery too much so you can't really see all the hard work they put into the costumes. Skip this one. 2/10.

What about lodging?

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

What about lodging?

I stayed at Portofino on site. You get a regular use Express pass the following day which I used to do basically everything at Islands of Adventure the next day.

I’ve stayed at all of the on-site hotels except the brand new Aventura which is their new low end hotel that doesn’t have anything interesting about it except good views of the parks as it’s a tower and a supposedly really good sky bar on the roof.

My two favorite hotels onsite are Portofino and Cabana Bay. Cabana Bay is the low end hotel (along with Aventura) but it’s themed to 1950s Florida beach resort and I really find the theming works well. The rooms are nice but you don’t get the express pass like you do at Portofino, Royal Pacific or the HardRock instead you just get a two hour early entry pass where you get in before others. Cabana Bay definitely has the best pool area with two lazy rivers, several pools and a little water park area. There are two nice bars, a daiquiri bar by the pool that’s pretty good and a high end cocktail bar in the main building. The CB restaurants are family friendly and closer to what I would call good rather than excellent. The final difference is that you take a bus from CB to get to the park rather than the river boat taxi which kind of lessens the prestige feel. But the price is right, pool is great, the theming is nice and the bars are excellent.

Portofino is one of the three upscale hotels and my personal favourite. It was designed by Stephen Spielberg and is modelled after the real Italian villa of Portofino. Excellent rooms and some of the best restaurants I’ve had in a resort. Bice is a clone of the 1926 Milan original and has a northern Italian menu that matches the original plus some local specials and all of the pasta is made fresh in house. Mama Della’s is a Universal original theme restaurant where there are character actors matching an Italian family, there are strolling Italian singers and the restaurant Mirrors a Southern Italian house (so you eat in Mama Della’s dining room or kitchen). The Southern Italian (ie standard red sauce “Italian” you see everywhere in America but done well) food is almost a match in quality to Bice although the general rule is that you get better food at Bice and a better experience at Mama Della’s. Sal’s has excellent pizza and calzones and the Trattoria is a great breakfast buffet (make sure you try their charcuterie, it’s the best salami and hot crappy I’ve had). At 7:30 every night they have opera singers singing out into the amphitheater and they really are excellent. The pools are not quite as nice nor are the bars when you compare it to the cheaper Cabana Bay. But the true high end feel of the resort, the five star food and the express pass (not valid for HHN just regular park hour visits) make it my first choice.

As far as the other onsite resorts, Royal Pacific is a really nice high end resort also designed by Spielberg but themed to Polynesian resort/semi Indiana Jones adventure theme. The Luau they have there is great and I actually prefer it to the two I went to in Hawaii including the Polynesian Cultural Center. So Id give the Luaua a 5 out of 5 stars, but you can (and should) do it without staying at the resort. The other more standard restaurants on site are better than CB but not on par with Portofino’s excellent restaurants. In fact they just recently dropped the Emeril-owned Polynesian restaurant due to poor reviews for the price and I haven’t been to the replacement yet but haven’t heard amazing things about it. The other high end resort is the Hard Rock which is just themed to music paraphernalia and is my least favorite of the three high end resorts. The food is on par with CB other than the steak place (the Palm I believe without looking it up) which is supposed to be quite good but I haven’t been. The middle class resort Sapphire Falls I’ve only been to once and I got upgraded from the regular room to their highest end suite just because the check in girl was being friendly. So I’m not sure how the regular rooms were (the suite was huge and amazing) but there’s no interesting theming (it’s theme is generic modern Florida resort) and the food and bar is just okay.

 

[Nole Lou]

Every time we've gone we've stayed at one of the Express Pass hotels, and it was always a good experience. Sticking a family of 4-5 people in a room and all getting express passes for the day you check in and the day you check out is about the best deal in theme parks. Would be worth the extra $100 a night or whatever over staying at some generic joint, but they're really nice, and the staff friendly, on top of it. Only downside is the rooms are pretty small if you're trying to stick a family in them, but it can be done.

We spend almost every minute we can at the park instead of the hotel, so don't take in much of the restaurants or amenities, but it's great to be a short walk or ferry ride away in the morning, and a pleasant environment to come back to every night. Honestly, not sure I'd ever do it any other way, and a couple times we started out thinking about trying Disney, and we just come back to that Universal setup.

 

[SoddyNole]

Restaurants?

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

Every time we've gone we've stayed at one of the Express Pass hotels, and it was always a good experience. Sticking a family of 4-5 people in a room and all getting express passes for the day you check in and the day you check out is about the best deal in theme parks. Would be worth the extra $100 a night or whatever over staying at some generic joint, but they're really nice, and the staff friendly, on top of it. Only downside is the rooms are pretty small if you're trying to stick a family in them, but it can be done.

We spend almost every minute we can at the park instead of the hotel, so don't take in much of the restaurants or amenities, but it's great to be a short walk or ferry ride away in the morning, and a pleasant environment to come back to every night. Honestly, not sure I'd ever do it any other way, and a couple times we started out thinking about trying Disney, and we just come back to that Universal setup.

As far as I’m concerned the only amenities worth taking time out of the day for is 1) the pools, water park and lazy rivers at Cabana Bay especially if you have kids but even if not it’s great to get a couple of good daiquiris and chillax in a lazy river, 2) the really great northern Italian food at Bice in Portofino, 3) the amazingly fun, fully interactive experience with singers and character actors with really good Southern Italian food at Mama Della’s in Portofino, 4) the other cheaper restaurants plus live opera singers at Portofino, 5) the Luau in Royal Pacific, 6) the snacks and alcoholic drinks at Bar 17 in Aventura (I haven’t been to this myself but people I trust have and claim it’s great), and 7) the steaks at the Palm in Hard Rock (another I haven’t been to but I’ve heard nothing but good things from people I trust). The good news is that other than the water area at Cabana Bay, the rest you don’t even have to stay at the hotel in question to attend. The Luau and the “Italian family” experience at Mama Della’s in particular I’d make arrangements to do even if you stay at an offsite hotel.

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

Restaurants?

So for HHN, unless you have the Express Pass and want to leave to head to the better restaurants at CityWalk before coming back in, you’re stuck with the park options. As I mentioned, the good news is that every restaurant in the park is open except for the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. The bad news is that in general the restaurants in Universal Studios proper are nowhere near as good as those in CityWalk (which has several truly great options like Vivo, Cowfish, Toothsome, Red Oven, Antojitos, and Bob Marley’s and some decent ones in NBC Sports Grill, Pat O’Briens, Margaritaville and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company) and not even as good as Islands of Adventure (which has a really great 5 stars restaurant in Mythos as well as some decent options in Confisco Grill, Three Broomsticks, Doc Sugrue’s Desert Kabobs, Fireeaters Grill, Pizza Predatoria, and Wimpys (when it’s open, it’s a “seasonal” burger place only open during the busiest days).

So if you’re stuck with the options only in Universal Studios proper, your best bet imo is Finnegan’s. It’s an ok Irish pub with decent but not amazing versions of all of the Irish pub standards (fish and chips, shepherds pie, corned beef and cabbage, Irish Guiness stew, etc...). That’s where I’ve eaten the last two or three HHNs. The Scotch Egg is an appetiser my sister absolutely loves and the Beef pasty is a small but decent version of the Cornish favorite. They’ve got a passable beer selection although I typically get a snakebite (half cider half stout) there. Although not Irish, the Reuben is pretty good there as well (which is what I got last Friday).

My second favorite option is to eat in Springfield. Of course the Duff Beer is pretty decent but their “secret” Duff Dry is one of my favorite beers period and they also have Dufftoberfest currently. (Sidenote: another “secret” is to ask for the Buzz Cola additive to added to regular coke instead of Coke Zero which is the default if you just order the Buzz Cola. And yes it’s worth it.) The food options are pretty good as well with my favorites being the Korean beef tacos (at the Bumbleeman taco stand outside) and the Clogger burgers at Krusty’s (inside the Food Court connected to Moe’s). My sister loves the chicken and waffle sandwich as well although I’m not a huge fan.

Lombards is the other main sit down, waiter service restaurant that’s open (besides Finnegan’s) but I’ve never been a fan. Very bland, uninteresting frozen seafood. So think Red Lobster or Bubba Gump Shrimp but knock it down a notch in quality. I would tell you to skip it BUT we almost went with it on Friday as the lines were very small compared to the other options.

If you just want some snacks and some decent cocktails, Chez Alcatraz next to the Jaws sculpture is the best bar in Universal Studios proper. And they’ve got decent shrimp cocktail, loaded chips (cheese sauce, bacon and ranch poured over chips) and flatbreads to snack on.

The Monsters Cafe really has nothing worthwhile other than their single slice pizza which is average for pizza which makes it good by normal theme park standards and amazing by Disney standards.

Mel’s has burgers, chicken fingers and other greasy dive staples but none are really that good and the lines are usually huge. Similarly Louie’s Italian has some standard Italian staples but the lines are usually long and the food is a definite “meh”.

Other than that, check out the link I posted on the HHN dining options as there are some tents not normally set up with food specific for HHN (notably the Stranger Things burger place).

 

[Fijimn]

Heading the Ritz Grand Lakes (correct name?) next weekend for our retreat. Trying to schedule some marketing meetings for Tuesday Wednesday for the express purpose to go HHN.