The Firehouse Travel Blog: Halloween Horror Nights 22 at Universal Studios Orlando

Halloween is upon us and that means there is no better time to share with you our adventure and tips from Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. Universal Orlando Halloween Horror nights is by far the best Halloween Party and Haunt in this country. Yes not only can you get scared, startled, shocked, and get a good laugh; it is definitely a party/nightclub atmosphere. This year at Halloween Horror Nights(HHN), Universal went a couple of different directions and moved away from some of the "safe" tried and proven elements they have had for the last 21 years. One of the biggest changes was that there was no Iconic Figure or theme for this year's event. Last Year's Icon was Lady Luck.I believe this was a good call by Universal because it didn't over shadow some of the bigger Icons that came with the Haunted Houses this year. So let's get down to it and tell you about the good, mediocre, and the fantastic of this event. Make sure you read all way to the end to find out some tips that will help you if you should decide to go to HHN in the future.

The Stage Shows:

It's time for Bill &Ted's Election Adventure

A staple of HHN has been The Bill and Ted's Stage show. Each year the theme changes giving Bill and Ted chances takes jabs at Pop Culture for the past year. This year was no exception and this year controversy arose over the show and caused a change in the show half way through its HHN run. The show, which was in the old west stunt show/Fear Factor Live show arena, started out with a bunch of YouTube clips of people getting themselves Darwin Awards for doing stupid things. It keep the crowd groaning in sympathetic pains and laughing at the misfortunes of the not so bright. Showtime started out with a nice, seductive dance montage celebrating the end of the world and the Mayan Calendar. ( I had to explain it to the guy next to me that the dancer were Mayans, he was still too drunk to get it.) After some nice blindingly but fun pyrotechnics, we are then introduced to the stars of the show Bill and Ted. This year's show had Bill and Ted competing against each other and trying to earn peoples votes to become Class President. Que the jabs at Pop Culture. This year's show took jabs at everything from Katnis (from the Hunger Games) who kept "Volunteering" throughout the show, to Honey Boo Boo child(the actress did great job spoofing her), Mad Men, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer, The Avengers( the high school years), and in my opinion the best jab all being aimed at the Snow White characters that emerged from this year movies and TV Shows. All of the Snow Whites that we have known and come to love recently were fair game.They jabbed at Kristin Stewart from the Huntsmen noting that all her facial expression and acting were the same for every character she has ever played. Of course they also took a jab at Disney's Snow White with the Classic line" My name is Snow White, I live with seven men and my safe word is EPCOT."

As I did mention there was controversy with this year's Bill and Ted's show and it came in the form of an Epic Rap Battle between The President and Mitt & Ann Romney. I really didn't pay much attention to this part of the show because it was the weakest, most uninteresting part of the show. The controversy goes that some people saw the skit too Pro-Obama and degrading towards Mitt Romney and the Mormon religion. To me it was just poorly paced and not funny.

The show's final dance number was great and so were the pyrotechnics. If find yourself at HHN, do not miss this show. Be forewarned this show is not for children and don't count on taking Pictures or Video of the show, they are very strict about allowing photography of any type during the show.

This year's new addition to the stage show line up was 20Penny Circus. Not much info was given out about this show before HHN or even on the park maps that were given out. I truly didn't know what to expect. We caught a glimpse of the show while waiting in line for The Walking Dead House on the big screen. From what we saw, we decided it wasn't worth going to see. It was basically an extreme side show attraction with comedy that most of the audience wasn't laughing at . We saw someone eating glass, putting a nail up their nose and couple of other not interesting magic tricks taken to the extreme.

mmm Peanut Butter

The Haunted Houses:

The amount of detail that Universal put into these haunts or haunted houses was amazing. Most of the houses were either built in former Soundstages or in storage areas. Some of the house were movie production quality and one just seemed like it was a last minute addition. (It may have been a last minute addition because of the construction happening that will TRANSFORM part of the studios.) I will list the houses in the order from Mediocre to the Best.(in my opinion)

7) Welcome to Silent Hill

I have never played the game and have never seen the Silent Hill movies , so this house left me confused. To me it seemed like someone was on a bad acid drip and tried to re-create their trippy nightmare. This house did nothing for me. No Scares and since I didn't play the games or see the movies, their attention to details were lost on me. I have no clue what the pink rabbit or pyramid headed stilt walker were suppose to be. Never got startled or scared in this house, very few screams from anyone were coming from this house. I give this one 4 out of 10.

6) Universal's House of Horrors
This house was based on classic horror movies and monsters with characters like the Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Frankenstein to name a few. There was really interesting lighting in this house to make you feel like you were in a Black and White movie. That is about all that worked for this house. There weren't many scares here. The make-up on some of the Characters was top notch and some of the props were outstanding. There was an awkward section where you had to duck low to get under something(this was the only haunted house to do this) and made no sense. There was no gore factor in this house at all and had the shortest line. I would rate this house a 5 out of 10, but still better than any other haunted house I have been in outside of Universal.

5) Dead End

This house had lot of detail but really no story to go with it. This was a full blown house built in a soundstage. I am not sure how long this took to build but I think house had everything but working plumbing when it came to the time and detail they put in this. The only drawback to this house was since there was a continuous line of people going through, it didn't allow the actors in the house an opportunity to reset and actually scare people.( Yes, there were people that got freaked out, just not me because I saw it coming.) There really wasn't any gore factor in this house and it seemed like a classic haunted house done very well. I would give this house a 6 out of 10

4) Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare

This was an interesting house as it was themed to the music and imagery of Alice Cooper's music. It was like walking through a 3D demented music video and it was great how the music changed from room to room. The gore factor was kicked up a notch in here and was a house you could go through more than a few times and have different experiences each time. This house had areas that allowed the actors time to re-hide or blend into the scenery to get the scare factor up and surprise people. Having seen Alice Cooper themed haunted house before at Six Flags FrieghtFests, this house by far made Six Flags houses look like child's play. I give this house a 7 out of 10 for gore, scares, and detail.

3) AMC's The Walking Dead, Dead Inside

This is the Haunted House I was most looking forward to. If you are a fan of the show this is a haunt you would want to go through over and over again to pick out the details from the Iconic Scenes they chose from Seasons 1&2. You start out in the hospital and see the boarded door letting you know that there are dead inside. You then begin to snake your way though the hospital encountering Walkers. Then you transition(poorly) from the hospital to the Department store in Atlanta. From there you come to the RV and appear to be on the farm and enter the Barn. There are a lot of walkers in the barn, even the well-walker from Season 2. After surviving the Walkers in the Barn you exit into Walkers in the Highway Scene from season 2 and see a message for Sophia.(Sadly I don't think Sophia will ever get the message). The only drawback to this maze was the transitions from scene to scene, which is understandable . This had a decent gore factor to it and the Walkers were great. I Give this maze a 8.5 out of 10. Well done Universal!

2) Penn& Teller's Newkd Las Vegas

This house was a mixture of Illusions, laughter, and gore. It was nearly perfect and in 3D. This house should be rated R at the bare minimum. Las Vegas has been Nuked and Penn&Teller do a wonderful job of spoofing what Vegas would look like after it has been mutated by radiation. As you enter near the Iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign you encounter a vomiting animatronic and it only gets more interesting from there. There is everything from a mutated buffet, three breasted lady, and a great Christmas light type room that words can't describe, especially with people in the room that reach for you that blend in because they are covered with lights. There are some things that didn't work well in this house and that is because of the constant line of people being pushed through. One such thing was the mutated buffet because you had the opportunity on the back side to press buttons to add special surprise to people at the buffet, but the inability to stop didn't allow it work. One thing that I missed was that on Select nights Penn& Teller were actually part of the House and took the time to meet fans. Nice touch! I give this house a solid 9 out of 10.

1) Gothic

Gothic was by far my favorite house. It had surprise elements, no gore, and stunning scenes. In this house, Gargoyles came to life and even at times flying down at or over people. The scenes had a lot of great detail and you were actually made to feel as if you were climbing to the roof a gothic style church. If you are afraid of heights the final scene would be sure to get you because it was of looking down on a city from high above. It was extremely convincing and detailed, while you were mesmerized by the final scene, occasionally a surprise would catch you off guard and make you scream. I give this house a 9.5 out of 10.

The atmosphere:

Universal this year went away from the safe Scare Zone where Creatures of the night would conjugate and scare the living daylights out of people that dare walk through. Instead this year they made it clear that ENTIRE studios was going to be the Scare Zone. Some of the fans of HHN didn't like this, I on the other hand loved it and enjoyed the freedom that the creatures had. I witnessed them chase people into the Locker areas, scare people while they were eating dinner, follow people into gift shops, and show up in unexpected places. For me this really worked well! To add to the ambience there of course was plenty of Fog, special lighting, Flame throwers(yes Flame throwers),and mood music. There was also plenty of opportunity for those who wished to get drunk to partake in their beverage of choice, and boy did some people seize that chance. To add to the experience this year as well, Universal took advantage of using the Cinema Spectacular show in the lagoon to pay tribute to Classic Horror Movies and Monsters. This was really a cool idea and nice added piece of entertainment.

The pictures that I and many others have taken really don't do this event justice. Adam TheWoo on other was able to capture this video that does a pretty good job of capturing the entire experience. Check it out.

This is an event that I am going to try to make a tradition to come to and have learned a lot from my experience here. I have many tips but will limit them here to 10 very important ones.

1) Plan now for HHN 23 in 2013, save your pennies to get here!

2) This event is not kid friendly. I saw many parents( and drunk parents) that had brought their young children (maybe around 5 years of age) and the kids were traumatized. Also there is a big Night Club Atmosphere here. In the end, it is up to you if you think your kids can handle this and if they can't if you can afford the years of therapy they will need after this.

3) If you want to drink, stay on site, don't overindulge, and bring plenty of money cause the drinks are expensive. Again know when to stay when, Stay on Site so you don't drive drunk or at least bring a Designated Driver. BE RESPONSIBLE

4) Buy the Express Pass and buy it in advance! This year really had no "slow" nights and line were quickly over 90 Minutes long. While in past years the express pass got you front of the line access, this year it was only guaranteed to cut your wait in half. If you want to see all the Haunted Houses in one night, you will need the express pass.

5) Be patient, you are going to have to wait in line.

6) Show up to the stage shows at least A half hour before show time, even if you have an express pass. If you can, sit the back row, these are the only seats that have a "back rest".

7) Take your time on the streets of Universal Studios and look for all the detail that has been put into the event.

8) Contact a Travel agent like myself to plan your trip, the ticket options and packages can be confusing. A Travel Agent like myself will help you find the best deal for you and make your trip nearly stress free.

9) Bring your wallet, HHN can be expensive but is worth every penny.

10) I can't emphasize these two enough, This is not an event for children and if you drink be responsible!

Enjoy some of our other pictures and thanks for reading .Click on the pictures for larger Images! Tell us about your adventures at HHN!