Missing Halloween Horror Nights this year? The Universal Orlando Resort will open two mazes from its canceled after-hours Halloween event to park visitors this weekend.
Universal Orlando announced in July that it would not stage its Halloween Horror Nights event this year, due to the pandemic. The hard-ticket event typically features shoulder-to-shoulder crowds packing haunted houses and scare zones throughout Universal Studios Florida, making safe physical distancing impossible without a massive redesign.
But Universal had completed (or nearly completed) work on two original-IP Halloween Horror Nights houses in its sound stages: Revenge of the Tooth Fairy and Universal Monsters - The Bride of Frankenstein Lives. Those houses will be available, without additional charge, to Universal Studios Florida theme park visitors this weekend.
Don't expect the usual HHN conga lines, though. Parties will be spaced throughout the walkthrough experience in order to maintain that safe physical distancing. With capacity limited, Universal will offer admission to the houses through its Virtual Line service on the Universal Orlando app.
For kids, Universal Orlando will be offering trick or treating this weekend for visitors ages 12 and under, accompanied by an adult, over at Islands of Adventure.
Universal Orlando has been getting slammed with crowds during the weekends, thanks to aggressive discounts for local visitors and limited operating hours during the work week. The addition of these Halloween events should provide more attractions for fans in the parks on their busiest days... though they likely will draw quite a few additional local HHN fans to the park, as well.
Universal is calling this Halloween Seasonal Experience Testing, so forgive us for suspecting that this "test" might lead to these Halloween attractions continuing beyond this weekend. Stay tuned.
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I feel like I got robbed. I made reservations at Royal Pacific about a year ago, planning to attend the 1st night of HHN this year for the 30th anniversary. After HHN was canceled, I decided to keep the reservation anyway and just visit the parks. That was last week. So now, they decide to set up a modified, smaller scale version which I won't be able to attend, because I used my reservation and time off last week. I really do hope it works out and they can continue it beyond just this weekend because I'm sure many people will be there to enjoy it. I have a Magic Kingdom visit planned in October so maybe I'll try to sneak over to Universal for a few hours, if they do extend it. By the way Robert, thanks for the signed copy of Stories from a Theme Park Insider. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned a LOT and I laughed all the way through!!
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Yikes. If they’re only committing to this weekend so far, then lots of people will make the pilgrimage. Expect another weekend at capacity.