Last week I had the horror pleasure of attending Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. I consider myself the biggest scaredy-cat when it comes to scary movies, haunted houses, and the like, and I have never had the desire to attend. But when the opportunity to experience it fell in my lap, it felt like an omen. I mean, a great opportunity. Here lies a Scaredy-Cat’s guide to Halloween Horror Nights.
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1. Buy the Express Pass
There are 8 houses, 3 scare zones, the Terror Tram, and two shows to experience. Without the Express Pass, you could be waiting upwards of 70 minutes for some of the more popular houses. (Insidious, I’m looking at you.) If you’re like me, waiting around and hearing screams, shrieks, and spooky music would totally psych me out. Not having the opportunity to stand around and lose my confidence was a great thing.
2. Pack earplugs
These houses are IMMERSIVE. The storytelling, sound effects, props, and Scare Actors are incredibly realistic, and with that (and the sounds of my own screams), it’s enough to induce a headache by the end of the night. I had every intention of grabbing my ear plugs before I left my hotel room, but completely forgot. By the fourth or fifth house, my head was beginning to hurt. Thankfully I was able to take some ibuprofen and keep it from becoming a full-fledged headache, but I could have avoided that with my earplugs.
3. Adopt my new technique of “Sweep and Peek”
When you walk through the scare houses at Halloween Horror Nights, you are closely following the person or party in front of you. You’re very unlikely to ever truly be alone, thankfully, and each room is separated by fabric strips hanging in the doorways. I developed a technique (I fully realize how ridiculous this is) to help lessen the surprise factor. As the person in front of me was going through the fabric strips, I’d catch them off of their shoulders and sweep them fully open to the sides and peek my head into the room. This allowed me to catch any would-be jump scares before they were able to get me. This worked approximately 65%* of the time to make the jump scare less intense.
*This is a purely dramatic, non-scientific estimate 🙂
4. Don’t Go Alone
If you’re a Scaredy-Cat, this is obvious for many reasons. Going with friends or loved ones will not only make this more bearable, but it will make it FUN! There’s nothing like getting scared alongside your friends, and hearing the silly sounds they make when something catches them off guard.
5. Lean Into It
Sure, I don’t particularly enjoy being afraid all the time, but once I fully leaned into the fact that being slightly scared was going to be a part of my evening, I had a lot of fun. Keep in mind that not one single Scare Actor is going to touch you. In fact, the vast majority of them were behind some kind of wall, fence, partition, etc, and had no way to actually touch me. That gave me a lot of comfort and allowed me to relax knowing that ultimately, I was safe. When I felt safe, I had a lot of fun. All of my screams were quickly followed by tons of laughter, and it was all in good fun.
If you identify as a Scaredy-Cat like I do, I hope you’ll at least consider experiencing Halloween Horror Nights. It really wasn’t as scary as I had built it up in my mind, and I feel so proud of myself for facing my fears and having a lot of fun in the process.
Are you interested in visiting Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood or Orlando? Contact me or one of the knowledgeable travel advisors at Kingdom and Cruise Travel to learn more!
- By Kingdom and Cruise Travel Advisor, Katie Gabbard