A Scaredy cat goes to Halloween Horror Nights

I had the opportunity to attend Universal Studios, Orlando  FL.  Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) last Friday. First a little history, I have spent years avoiding anything scary. I figure I have had enough scary things happen in my life that I didn’t need to pay money to be scared. But I can be persuaded to try something new every now and then.

I met Will and Corey outside of Universal Studios. I thought I was going to be late because the lines of cars trying to get into the park were very long. Be prepared that the parking charges are higher for Horror Nights.

The first thing you notice is the fog everywhere. It’s hard to believe this is the same park in the dark. We started down the Path of the Wicked where there were plenty of aliens and creatures. The Wicked Witch of the West was on top of a building taunting the crowd below. I told Corey and Will I didn’t think I wanted to do the haunted houses so we decided to just walk through the six scare zones.

This is Will taking video.

This is Corey.

I kept reminding myself that these were just scareactors enjoying themselves as I walked through the scare zones. I didn’t have anyone jump out in front of me so I didn’t do any screaming. It was fun watching the people that were surprised.

We just kept missing the shows. They did seem very popular. I would suggest if you are going to HHN to visit their website and do a little reading to know when the shows are and the story behind each haunted house. The map is very hard to see in the dark. The lines were long for the Haunted houses so you might want to think about purchasing the HHN Express pass. It allows you to scream past the regular line at the Haunted houses.

I think my favorite part of the event was the people with chainsaws in front of the Disaster attraction. There were plenty of screamers there. When we were in Fractured Tales one of the characters wanted to eat my head. I told him to go right ahead. Corey got a picture. The lady in the glass coffin with the rats was also fun to view.

My only negative is the amount of drinking that goes on in the park. There were drink stations it seemed every 50 yards. They had stands selling blood shots in between them. As the evening went on there were a lot of drunks staggering around. I would leave the kids at home for this one.

So I found out that I could handle Halloween Horror Nights. Maybe next time I will try the haunted houses.

Comments

6 responses to “A Scaredy cat goes to Halloween Horror Nights”

  1. klam_chowder Avatar
    klam_chowder

    Congrats on surviving HHN, Kathy! It’s something I could ever do – I was the only one who screamed during IMAX Batman…LOL!

    I loved seeing your pix. Keep up the great work!

  2. disneybridein2k3 Avatar
    disneybridein2k3

    See? Right there in the beginning it starts off bad for me with the Wicked Witch of the West (really bad childhood nightmares – that movie just really isn’t good for a 3 year old!) The therapist says I should be over it any day now… 🙂
    Thanks for letting me live vicariously through your great pics!

  3. UrsulasShadow Avatar
    UrsulasShadow

    Hmmm….the negatives would be positives to me, I think…

  4. rickinnyc Avatar
    rickinnyc

    Hey there. I spent the evening at HHN this past Saturday (9/27) and I can wholeheartedly say that as a truly huge Disney World fan (20+ trips and counting) AND a strangely twisted, massive lover of all things that go bump in the dork (more gore please), I loved the event!

    The Scare Zones were great and a huge improvement over last year. The houses themselves were extremely creative and either good for a loud scream, a huge belly laugh or both! The scare actors were a lot of fun and for the most part, were very much in character.

    Costuming did a fantastic job following the themes, as did the set designers. Even the sounds and smells were on the money, whether throughout the park, or in the houses and zones themselves.

    As far as the guests throughout the park, I did see a few children, albeit not too many thankfully. I honestly think that most parents do know their own children and what their kid can handle, but there are some parents that just don’t or they simply don’t care. Those were the parents I saw.

    I wanted to ask a few, “Why are you waiting in line for an obviously gory, very scary, pretty intense haunted house attraction while your 7 year old is screaming and crying?” But it was none of my business. I even saw one lovely Mother try to go into a house and was stopped by the staff member at the entrance. She was told that her child was clearly too young to appreciate what was in store, was she truly sure this was a good idea? She had second thoughts and I kid you not, asked the “nice police officer” to watch her children so she could enjoy herself. I was floored that he agreed! I even noted one Dad who was carrying out a hysterically screaming little girl just seconds after they entered one house. He looked royally ticked, either at her for ruining his evening and making a scene or at the scare-actors for being too intense (how dare they?). Hopefully a lesson was learned somewhere in that noggin of his.

    I would take a drunk 25 year old (saw a few of those too) over a terrified 7 year old any day of the week. Drunks throw up, pass out and are basically stupid. Kids get traumatized.

    In any case, I loved the entire evening from the moment we arrived to the last moment when we strolled out the main gate. Halloween Horror Night is most definitely not a good choice for most small children or even some adults who can’t take a good scare. It’s the extreme opposite of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I love both, but each serves a different interest. A VERY different interest.

    Mwaaahahahahaaaaahahahaahahaha!!!

  5. Kathy Werling Avatar
    Kathy Werling

    I am glad to hear you enjoyed HHN. I thankfully didn’t see any children with clueless parents. That would have been upsetting to me.

    I agree with you that I would rather see a drunk that a child being traumatized.

  6. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    If anyone is making a Halloween haunted house and some mannequins to turn into zombie, monsters, ect. please let us know. We also sell used mannequins year round if your just looking to rip them apart anyways.

    Thanks
    lvmannequins.com

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