If you are ready to level up your spooky season fun to something a little scarier, it's hard to beat Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights.
Last year, I thought I'd be far too nervous to have fun in the movie-set-quality haunted houses with professional 'scare actors,' but I still tentatively tried it for the first time. Turns out, I loved it so much that I immediately started counting down until I could go again this year.
Last year, I was on a hosted private tour (or RIP tour, if you will), but since I was on my dime this year, that wasn't in the budget.
Since I was also taking my teen and sister, the Express Passes that advertise cutting waits for the houses by 50% were not in the (credit) cards; the Express Passes were more than $200 per person on the night we went. The Halloween Horror Nights tickets were just $104 each, so it would've been a massive increase in the night's cost if we went that route.
That said, no one wants to spend all night in lines — and lines for the haunted houses are often an hour or two on weekend nights. Enter: a $40 solution to many of our problems.
Related: These are the best haunted houses at Halloween Horror Nights in 2023
My strategy to avoid some lines at Halloween Horror Nights (without spending hundreds of dollars on a tour or Express Pass) was a $40 per person add-on 'Stay and Scream' ticket.
Normally, with a Halloween Horror Nights ticket, you can begin to enter between 6 and 6:30 p.m. with the hordes of other spook-seeking guests. However, with a 'Stay and Scream' ticket, you can enter Universal at 2:45 p.m., and do a quick regular ride or two before beginning to line up for your first haunted house of the night.
The park closes to regular daytime guests at 5 p.m., but your 'Stay and Scream' ticket allows you to stay inside the park while it prepares for that evening's event. If you don't make it in by 5 p.m., you'll be stuck waiting in line at the front gates with the other attendees.
You do have to commit to a certain 'zone' of houses where you will wait in essentially a holding line as the afternoon hours tick by. But since you're now already in the park, you are physically ahead of all those who will enter from the front gates.
Related: Is a Universal Express Pass worth it?
On top of that, some — but not all — of the houses open around 5 p.m. for those at 'Stay and Scream.' The official event doesn't actually start until 6:30 p.m.
Since the houses that open first each evening vary a bit from year to year, I recommend doing some prior online research or asking some of the Universal team members when you arrive so you'll know which ones you can get in earliest. This ultimately gives you a jump on your second and third house.
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