Halloween Horror Nights is a hard-ticket occasion held at Common Studios Florida in September & October. This information covers dates & ticket costs, suggestions for maximizing your time at HHN, whether or not it’s well worth the cash, haunted home data, and images from our experiences attending Orlando’s occasion.
This 12 months, Halloween Horror Nights will likely be held on choose nights from September 1 till October 31, 2023. The after hours get together runs from 6:30 p.m. till 2 a.m. on most nights. For many of its run, Halloween Horror Nights is held Wednesday by Sunday. Solely Mondays and Tuesdays are secure from the carnage!
Single evening tickets, multi-night passes, and Categorical Move are all bought for Halloween Horror Nights. Costs for HHN fluctuate dramatically, beginning at round $80 if bought prematurely on-line (which you completely ought to do, as costs could be $50 costlier day of on the gates). This will likely appear steep, nevertheless it’s cheaper than Walt Disney World’s Halloween events–plus, multi-night HHN passes are significantly extra reasonably priced per go to.
Halloween Horror Nights isn’t included in regular daytime park admission, which means when you solely purchase a daily ticket to Common Studios Florida, you’ll have to depart as soon as HHN begins (so plan accordingly when you don’t need to do HHN and go to on a day it’s not occurring).
Along with single evening tickets and multi-night passes, there are additionally lodge packages that embrace common admission tickets and admission to Halloween Horror Nights. Past that, there are a bunch of add-on choices, from eating packages to R.I.P. (get it?!) excursions.
Halloween Horror Nights will likely be held on the next dates in 2023:
- September 1-3, 2023
- September 6-10, 2023
- September 13-17, 2023
- September 20-24, 2023
- September 27-30, 2023
- October 1, 2023
- October 4-8, 2023
- October 11-15, 2023
- October 18-22, 2023
- October 25-29, 2023
- October 31, 2023
Tickets at the moment are on sale for the 2023 Halloween Horror Nights at Common Studios Florida. Above and under are date-by-date costs for September and October 2023. As you possibly can see, the occasion begins out cheaper on September weeknights, and will increase on weekends and nearer to Halloween. That is all in line with prior years; early season weeknights are sometimes least common (and vice-versa).
As in comparison with final 12 months, ticket costs for 2023 Halloween Horror Nights have elevated by $5 to $15 per evening. That’s up about 8-10% as in comparison with final 12 months, which–anecdotally, at the least–appeared to be the busiest 12 months ever at HHN. Together with the ‘expanded’ costs, the occasion itself can be rising for HHN 32–there will likely be 44 occasion dates for the 2023 Halloween Horror Nights, probably the most ever.
If in any respect doable, we suggest avoiding Friday and Saturday nights. Not solely are these extra common, however they’re costlier. Extra on this within the technique part under.
You also needs to bear in mind that a number of evening passes sometimes supply significantly extra bang for buck. Listed here are the main points for passes as of final 12 months (these haven’t but been launched for HHN 32, however our guess is that move costs enhance by 15-20% throughout the board):
- Rush of Concern Move ($129.99): Legitimate for admission the primary 4 weeks of the occasion (September 2-4, 7-11, 15-18, and 21-25), however no dates in October. Rush of Concern with Categorical Move prices $429.99.
- Frequent Concern Move ($179.99): Legitimate for admission for each occasion evening Sunday by Thursday plus the primary weekend of the occasion. Frequent Concern with Categorical Move prices $509.99.
- Frequent Concern Plus Move ($219.99): Legitimate for admission each occasion evening Sunday by Friday plus the primary and final Saturday occasion nights. Frequent Concern Plus with Categorical Move prices $599.99.
- Final Frequent Concern Move ($329.99): Legitimate for admission each evening of the occasion. Final Frequent Concern Move with Categorical Move prices $819.99.
Along with the discharge of dates and tickets, the HHN hypothesis season has additionally began in full power. That is all the time a scorching subject amongst hang-out season lovers, and Horror Night time Nightmares has launched their first hypothesis map.
Their early predictions for 2023 Halloween Horror Nights homes embrace the next:
- Chucky
- The Exorcist: Believer
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Pentagram (unique)
- Dragon (unique)
- Prime Secret (IP)
- Carnival (unique)
- Common Studios Monsters: Paris
- The Final of Us
- Satan Canine (unique)
If this seems to be even half-accurate, I will likely be ecstatic. Particularly, the Final of Us video games are two of my all-time favorites and the HBO collection was implausible. With that and the opposite IP homes all being very energetic properties, they might obtain advertising budgets from their streaming companies or studios and find yourself being extremely elaborate. Plenty of different nice choices on there, too.
To this point, the one home that’s formally confirmed for the 2023 Halloween Horror Nights is Chucky. That is primarily based on the hit collection on USA and SyFy (additionally out there on Peacock, for these below 50). This present is shockingly good, and the home will function advertising for the upcoming season 3, which airs beginning in late 2023.
What follows is common info for the Halloween Horror Nights, technique, suggestions, and so forth. primarily based upon our experiences doing HHN through the years. Let’s cowl some fundamental data…
Halloween Horror Nights Information
First, let’s begin with what it’s. Mainly, Halloween Horror Nights is Common’s “model” of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering over in Magic Kingdom. Besides, as a substitute of family-friendly enjoyable trick-or-treating carrying costumes with Mickey and his friends, a parade, and fireworks, it has none of these issues. (In reality, costumes are usually not even allowed.) As an alternative, there’s a way more gory and scary vibe. It truly is so scary.
In different phrases, when you get previous the “Halloween” theme that the 2 occasions that the 2 occasions share, they’ve actually nothing in widespread. Halloween Horror Nights is aimed squarely at adults who need the bejesus scared out of them, with an edgy, virtually express vibe that caters to the younger ‘bro’ set (extra on this later). To reiterate: it’s positively not for teenagers. (The excellent news, if in case you have children, is that there are nearly no indicators of the occasion within the park throughout the day, so it’s “secure” to go to then.)
Common Orlando doesn’t supply any kid-friendly Halloween occasions. Halloween Horror Nights takes place in Common Studios Florida, not in Islands of Journey. In the event you don’t need your fall go to to Common Orlando Resort to be impacted by Halloween Horror Nights, it’s so simple as visiting Common Studios Florida on a Monday or Tuesday (or Wednesday if the occasion isn’t occurring then), and visiting Islands of Journey any evening of the week.
HHN Haunted Homes
The first draw of Halloween Horror Nights is the walk-through haunted home “mazes.” There are sometimes round 10 mazes, half of that are primarily based on horror franchises. The others are normally unique creations, distinctive to HHN.
Right here’s the lineup of Halloween Horror Nights homes:
The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare – Enter the macabre thoughts of musician The Weeknd on this haunted home as he stalks you thru the surreal nightmare of his After Hours music.
Hellblock Horror – Enter a jail whose savage inmates are monstrous creatures. In the event that they break away from their cells, it’s a dying sentence for everybody.
Horrors of Blumhouse – Enter the worlds of two horror masterpieces from Blumhouse as you face probably the most terrifying moments of Freaky and The Black Telephone.
Spirits of the Coven – A coven of gorgeous flapper witches will lure you into their Twenties speakeasy, reveal their haggish true kind and switch your scream squad right into a witch’s brew. They’ll be cackling; you’ll be screaming.
Halloween – Come head to head with Michael Myers and return to the place all of it started. Step into terrifying moments from the 1978 horror basic, Halloween.
Common Monsters: Legends Collide – You’re about to get caught in the course of an epic battle between The Wolf Man, Dracula and The Mummy, collectively for the primary time ever.
Useless Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake – In a New England fishing village, undead fishermen emerge from the waves to hunt their revenge. You and your scream squad might have escaped their hooks within the scare zone. Now they’ll reel you in and drag you below.
Bugs: Eaten Alive – Whereas touring a Fifties house of the long run, you’ll be surrounded by the slime of bugs in all places as hordes of many-legged terrors descend upon you and your scream squad. You’ll be dropping like flies.
Descendants of Destruction – Cautious to not depart any of your scream squad behind as you descend the subway tunnels of a abandoned New York. Lurking at midnight are hungry mutants seeking to feast on the final remnants of humanity.
Fiesta de Chupacabras – Go to a Latin American village the place the legend of the creature Chupacabras is well known with a colourful fiesta. And the streets are lined with the crimson blood of vacationers such as you and your amigos.
Every haunted home is an elaborately-designed indoors walk-through (they’re known as mazes, however this can be a misnomer since there’s just one method to go, and you can not probably get misplaced), lasting about 3-5 minutes. A relentless trickle of friends is shipped by, so that you’re by no means alone at midnight. The homes are normally arrange past the conventional bounds of the theme park (barely backstage) in sound levels or in unused queue space. Images isn’t allowed inside the homes.
Past the intricate design–which actually is kind of spectacular for momentary constructions–the haunted homes rely closely on actors seemingly come out of nowhere to startle friends. Moreover, there are sound & lighting results, music, slender passages & tight corners, air bursts, mirror results, and ugly particulars to attain an eerie and suspenseful expertise. Mainly, these are conventional haunted homes, however with lavish budgets and areas drawn from common horror franchises.
HHN Scare Zones
There are additionally 5 scare zones crammed with hordes of ‘scare-actors. For Halloween Horror Nights 31, the scare zones had been as follows:
Horrors of Halloween – The Pumpkin Lord, the spirit of Halloween, has taken over this 12 months’s occasion, summoning hordes of fiendish creatures. Terror has taken root.
Scarecrow: Cursed Soil – At an deserted farm, scarecrows have risen from the crust of the earth to hunt you and search revenge. They’ll harvest your screams.
Candy Revenge – The sweets from Main Sweets’ sweet firm have turned kids into crazed killers. This Halloween’s all trick, no deal with and whole mayhem.
Graveyard: Lethal Unrest – On All Hallow’s Eve, a darkish storm descends upon a cemetery and awakens long-dead spirits. Nobody residing can escape them
Conjure the Darkish – On the primary All Hallow’s Eve, an evil sorceress known as forth monstrosities from darkish dimensions. Now your blood will gas them.
A few of these scare zones are narrowly-themed with a really particular horror motif, whereas others are extra open-ended with a variety of mutants. These are nice locations to simply wander round and see the monsters/scare-actors work together with friends. Nice for people-watching.
As smartphone cameras have improved and social media has risen in reputation, scare zones have grow to be extra of ‘selfie spots.’ That is unlucky, though some scareactors nonetheless try to terrify unwitting friends quite than stopping for images.
HHN Leisure
Along with these homes/mazes, there’s different leisure together with stage exhibits that change from 12 months to 12 months. We discovered that each of those present could be hit and miss, however there are sufficient ‘hits’ that they’re value watching. The newest present is Halloween Nightmare Gas. The gang went wild for this, and we had been typically impressed by the performers–particularly the pyro performers. The story, to the extent there’s one, is meh.
There’s additionally the superb lagoon present Marathon of Mayhem: Carnage Manufacturing facility, which options water fountains, movie projections, lighting, and projection-mapping. It’s also very, very loud. (I do know I would sound previous there, however we’ve seen a number of different friends plugging their ears throughout this.)
So far as sights go, that is truly fairly an enormous slate. Quite a few rides are additionally open (all with minimal waits); we don’t suggest doing them. You can’t probably see and do all the Halloween leisure and not using a good plan of assault for Halloween Horror Nights.
Halloween Horror Nights Ideas
During the last a number of years, we’ve gained plenty of expertise with Halloween Horror Nights. It helped that the primary 12 months we did HHN, we visited with a buddy in Operations at Common Orlando who was principally an HHN-ninja, and we gleaned fairly a bit from that have. Moreover, lots of the similar ideas that apply when it comes to crowds, and so forth., to MNSSHP additionally apply to Halloween Horror Nights.
First, if in any respect doable, you need to attend on the least busy evening you possibly can. This implies as early within the season as doable, and avoiding Fridays and Saturdays. Happening a weeknight in September would be the best choice as a result of locals have work the subsequent morning and Halloween isn’t but on folks’s minds.
Arrive with a full abdomen earlier than Halloween Horror Nights begins. You don’t need to waste time consuming as soon as the occasion begins, as strains are shortest on the outset of the evening, and time is efficacious. You’ll additionally need one thing to take in the booze, when you plan on ingesting.
Talking of booze, it’s costly, so that you would possibly need to responsibly pregame when you’re going to go that route. We can not emphasize the “responsibly” a part of that sufficient, as we’ve been advised that Common safety recurrently turns away friends who present as much as the occasion too drunk.
Talking of safety, they’re in all places. Plain garments and uniformed, and Orlando police have a big presence. Halloween Horror Nights has a repute as a raucous occasion, and that’s positively deserved. That doesn’t imply you might have carte blanche to behave like a drunken buffoon. I’m unsure this qualifies as a “tip” however one necessary factor to recollect is that simply since you’re in a theme park doesn’t imply you possibly can’t be arrested or kicked out. Even in fantasy land, drunk & disorderly conduct can nonetheless get you thrown within the drunk tank.
When it comes to touring plans and technique, we extremely suggest doing Halloween Horror Nights on the identical evening as you attend Common Studios Florida. It’s because you’ll have a 15-minute head begin on the homes earlier than HHN-only friends. It won’t look like a lot, however that first Quarter-hour is vital to avoiding strains.
To benefit from this, you head to HHN check-in areas in Common Studios Florida round 5 p.m. Then, you head to one of many holding areas, getting in line by round 5:15 p.m. (We suggest grabbing beer and the wonderful Mind Freezin’ D’oh-Nut Sundaes above in Springfield after which headed to that holding space.) At round 5:45 p.m., you’re launched. In the event you’re on the entrance of one among these holding areas, you’ll exit your first home earlier than 6 p.m.
In contrast, friends on the very entrance of the road exterior the turnstiles will enter the park at round 6 p.m. (official begin time of HHN is 6:30 p.m.) and people entrance of line friends have in all probability waited 90 minutes for that place. They gained’t arrive at their first home till 6:10 p.m. Company who arrive at 6 p.m. are farther again in line to get in gained’t hit a home till perhaps 6:30 p.m. By 6:30 p.m., you’ll be on home #3 or #4.
You can begin in Springfield or the entrance of the park, which is healthier all relies upon upon the place the favored IP homes are positioned. Though homes on the entrance of the park lure friends as they enter, these common IPs positioned deeper within the park are larger attracts, so we opted to knock them out first. We accomplished 3 homes briefly order, and had been onto home #4 earlier than 6:30–nonetheless forward of the crowds.
Following this, we had a dilemma: head deeper into the park and knock out a few less-popular homes with no waits, or head ahead and expertise homes on the entrance with reasonable waits. We opted for the previous technique, with the concept in thoughts that we’d hit these homes, after which do different leisure for some time.
We’d then do the entrance of park homes after midnight, in the direction of the top of the occasion when the hordes began stumbling house. This technique labored flawlessly, and we suggest it. Our longest wait of the evening ended up being 45 minutes. In any other case, I don’t assume we waited greater than 10-Quarter-hour for something.
Alternatively, when you’re going a busy evening or simply don’t need to trouble with technique, the HHN Categorical Move is out there for buy (it’s not included with lodge stays) for $100+ per particular person. That’s some huge cash, nevertheless it is likely to be value it when you solely have one evening for HHN and also you’re happening an evening when waits would possibly peak at 120 minutes for a single home.
Apart from the homes, we spent the center of the night strolling the scare zones and watching the 2 stage exhibits. In the event you’re into images, the scare zones are an incredible choice, and I’d suggest making an attempt for images at nightfall whereas there’s nonetheless a bit of sunshine. The scare-actors will ham it up for images to some extent, however they’re nonetheless shifting, making nighttime images of them a problem. (I want I targeted extra on images, because the occasion has nice potential for that–if in case you have the persistence.)
That’s actually it in the way in which of technique. With the plan described above, we had been capable of walk-through every of the homes one time, see each stage exhibits, and spend round an hour (collectively) within the scare zones by staying till the bitter finish. We didn’t eat throughout the occasion and restroom utilization was minimal.
With that stated, I nonetheless felt like we had inadequate time at Halloween Horror Nights. I wished to spend extra time within the scare zones to folks watch, and in addition hit a few the homes a second time to discover all the particulars. Though the homes are the primary draw when it comes to wait instances, I discovered the eerie vibe of the occasion to be an even bigger draw, and wouldn’t have minded a second evening to decelerate and take within the ambiance.
Halloween Horror Nights Assessment
Let’s choose up on that be aware about ambiance and get the dangerous out of the way in which. You would possibly recall my ‘bro’ remark above. That’s as a result of there’s an plain frat-bro vibe to Halloween Horror Nights. (Some would possibly take {that a} step additional and contend the occasion is misogynistic and sexist.)
From my perspective, it’s extra a case of the previous than the latter, however I’m additionally a person who has by no means skilled the detrimental facet of sexism firsthand. There have been a pair situations of one-dimensional ‘intercourse object’ feminine characters in Halloween Horror Nights, however apart from that, I didn’t discover something overt.
To me, friends are the larger problem than the occasion itself. This has been one thing of an elephant within the room, nevertheless it boiled over as stories of scare-actors being groped had been made public. It stays to be seen what measures Common will take to deal with the environment of HHN, or if there’s actually something that may be carried out. Actually, the free stream of alcohol doesn’t assist, nevertheless it’s additionally true that alcohol alone isn’t a kiss that turns princes into douchey frogs.
Neither is this to say that everybody who attends or enjoys Halloween Horror Nights is a douchey frat bro. Whereas the viewers is decidedly completely different from Disney’s Halloween occasions, by and huge, the occasion is not douchey nor are its attendees.
I get pleasure from Halloween Horror Nights and revel in most components of the occasion sufficient to make it an annual draw. Simply as I don’t have problem conceding (what I view as) Disney’s flaws, I don’t have an issue confronting the identical with Halloween Horror Nights. I don’t assume there’s any approach of skirting the problem: HHN attracts an viewers that skews in the direction of the raucous facet. I imply, it’s no Insane Clown Posse live performance, nevertheless it’s an adult-oriented Halloween occasion…what do you count on?
I point out this so you recognize what you’re getting your self into. This isn’t in the identical ballpark–or league…or sport–as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering. Every are good on their very own respective deserves, however there’s little to no Venn overlap.
There’s a lot to get pleasure from about Halloween Horror Nights, and its issues (I believe) are comparatively minor as in comparison with its strengths. The massive power, I believe, is the design of the mazes/homes. These could be hit and miss, however the very best of them do a tremendous job re-creating environments from movies, or simply creating environments from the bottom up.
The largest misses for me when it comes to the homes had been these primarily based on trendy IP–together with these I acknowledge. In recent times, the Strolling Useless and Stranger Issues homes have been among the many worst on this regard, resting on their laurels with recognizable visuals from the movie. The issue was that past the “oh, I acknowledge that from my favourite [not for me, but maybe for someone] TV collection!” moments, the entire thing was uninteresting and monotonous.
I’d hazard a guess that opinions on the homes will fluctuate primarily based largely on private desire, however as a complete, the designs are rather well carried out. Onerous to consider a few of these are momentary.
The scare zones had been additionally very nicely carried out, significantly the icons one which featured levels with temporary exhibits all through the evening. My private desire is extra in the direction of the narrowly targeted scare zones with a single idea than the ‘obscure assortment’ ones, however each work. These had been plenty of enjoyable to go to and revisit.
Criticism apart, I had an absolute blast at Halloween Horror Nights final 12 months, and plan to attend once more in 2023. In the event you get pleasure from horror movies or the grownup facet of Halloween and don’t have children in tow, I extremely suggest dedicating a night to Halloween Horror Nights. If I had been an area, I’d in all probability go for a decrease degree Annual Move and attend 2-3 nights.
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Your Ideas
Have you ever attended a Halloween Horror Nights occasion? What did you consider it? Any suggestions of your individual so as to add? Does HHN curiosity you, or are you extra a MNSSHP form of particular person? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation of Halloween Horror Nights? Any questions we may also help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!