Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights Tips for First-Timers (2025)
I don’t know if I was scared or just didn’t know what to expect, but it took me years to finally make it to Halloween Horror Nights. While its been a couple years now, I remember vividly what it was like that first time. As a first-timer, there were a lot of tips that I wish I had known ahead of time — things that I didn’t read about anywhere and to be honest, kind of surprised me. But don’t worry, there’s no gatekeeping here.
Now that I’ve returned for successive years and have a number of nights under my belt, I know exactly what you need to know to make the most of the evening! So, if you’re going to Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights for the first time or the 100th time, I know these Halloween Horror Nights tips will come in handy!
Understanding the Basics of Halloween Horror Nights
Which park is Halloween Horror Nights in?
Halloween Horror Nights takes over Universal Studios of Florida NOT Islands of Adventure or Epic Universe. That means Universal Studios closes at 5 pm each Halloween Horror Nights night to the general ticket holders.
Is park hopping possible?
No, it is not. Your Halloween Horror Nights ticket is only good in Universal Studios and the Hogwarts Express that travels between both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure is not operating.
Park hopping also isn’t a thing between Epic Universe and the other parks because it’s 4.5 miles away from them and there’s no in-park direct transit (like the Hogwarts Express).
When is it?
Halloween Horror Nights is happening on select nights from August 39 to November 2 in 2025. Typically that’s Wednesday through Sunday each week.
What are the hours of HHN?
You can enjoy Halloween Horror Nights from 6:30 pm to 2 am each night. If you have a Scream Early ticket, you can enter Universal Studios early at 3 pm, although the haunted houses don’t open until 5 – 5:30 pm, if not later.
What kind of ticket can you use?
You need a separate ticket for Halloween Horror Nights as it’s considered an event ticket. Regular park tickets do not work for HHN.
If you have a Premier Annual Pass, it includes a free Halloween Horror Nights ticket that you can use any night as an annual passholder perk. You just show up and have them scan your pass and you’re in.
You can also add on an Express ticket, which works the same as a regular park day Express ticket in that it gives you access to queues with faster wait times. In my opinion, you don’t need an Express Pass, especially if you do the Scream Early ticket. The prices for Express are typically more than the regular HHN ticket, so if you’re willing to double your ticket price, then by all means.
What is there to do during Halloween Horror Nights?
Each year, there are 10 haunted houses that you can walk through. They are a mixture of themes including TV, movies, and video games you’ll recognize as well as some original stories.
In 2025, the houses are:
- Five Nights at Freddy’s
- The Horrors of Wyatt Sicks
- Terrifier
- Jason Un1v3rse
- Fallout
- Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters (original)
- Dolls Let’s Play Dead (original)
- Grave of Flesh (original)
- Gálkan: Monsters of the North (original)
- El Artista: A Spanish Haunting (original)
Aside from the houses, there are numerous scarezones, which are themed areas with scare actors that roam around. For 2025, they are The Origins of Horror, Masquerade: Dance with Death, The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane, and Mutations: Toxic Twenties.
In 2023, they introduced the Death Eaters in Diagon Alley and they’re now a yearly staple! They perform a (super short) show every half hour until 11 pm and then immediately after roam Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. If you’re lucky, they might just duel you!
Every year there are themed food and drinks to try as well as a show that is an adults-only cirque-du-soleil-esque performance. This year, it’s Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay, a dark circus performance set to rock music.
New in 2025, there’s also a fountain show where clips from horror and Halloween movies are projected onto walls of water from the fountain in the center of the park.
Finally, some rides are open including Gringotts, Transformers, Men in Black, and The Mummy, where the former two close at 12 am and the latter two close at 2am.
Tips for Planning Your Trip
The Best Place to Stay and Why
Before you even get tickets, I recommend booking your hotel because they can fill up FAST, especially during weekends in October. But where should you stay?
To keep up with your Halloween Horror Nights vibes, I recommend Cabana Bay. It’s one of the nicer budget hotels, has lots to do on site, and is very close to the parks, so you’ll spend less time traveling to and from Halloween Horror Nights.
Note that they used to host “Stay in Horror”, a special themed horror-inspired walkthrough only accessible to hotel guests, but this is no longer offered. Instead, now all hotels are decorated for Halloween Horror Nights with an overlay.
For example, Swizzle Lounge (their bar) gets a spooky backdrop complete with light up jack-o-lanterns.
I stayed at Universal’s Endless Summer: Dockside this year and it was also decorated very nicely for the event. Honestly, all the Universal hotels are great and won’t do you wrong.
Just note that Stella Nova, Terra Luna, and Helios are farther from Universal Studios (where HHN is) so it’ll take you 15 minutes on the shuttle to get to/from the event, unlike the 5 minutes from the other hotels.
Are there Halloween Horror Nights ticket discounts?
Unfortunately, not really unless you are a passholder. Universal Orlando Annual Passholders (UOAP) get discounts when buying tickets for others.
One way to get a discount is to use one of my favorite travel saving tips, use Groupon paired with Rakuten. You can shop for Halloween Horror Nights tickets on Groupon, but with the Rakuten browser extension, you will get cash back. You can either receive that cash back via PayPal or transfer it to AMEX points!
The Best Nights to Go
The actual dates of Halloween Horror Nights varies each year, so it’s important to check the full range of dates once they’re released. Typically the first couple weekends are madness because everyone wants to experience HHN as soon as they can. Weekends in October are also extremely popular, and naturally so is Halloweekend.
For the fewest crowds, I recommend weekdays in September or early-mid October.
For the best weather (less heat), the later the better. And let me tell you, the heat can be quite unbearable if you get a “Scream Early” ticket. More on that in the next section.
Is Scream Early worth it?
First of all, what even is Scream Early? This is a $55 ticket add on that allows you to enter Universal Studios of Florida (where HHN takes place) at 3 pm, which is 3.5 hours before the event’s official start time (6:30 pm).
When you get in early, you can either roam around the park to do some rides that may not be open during the event, or more than likely, you’ll be getting in line for your first haunted house.
The way that works is that around 3 pm, you’ll pick up a wristband that tells team members you’re there for Scream Early (not a regular park guest). You can pick up your wristband from VillainCon, Minion Cafe, or Lombards Seafood Grille.
Once you have your wristband, you can roam around the park and start lining up for the haunted houses at 4 pm.
Once you’re in line, you’re pretty much stuck there until 5 pm when they start allowing people into the haunted houses.
In 2025, there are a couple areas to access the houses during Scream Early:
- Despicable Me Minion Mayhem: Five Nights at Freddy’s, Wyatt Sicks
- Jimmy Fallon: Terrifier, Grave of Flesh, El Artista
- World Expo (to the left of Men in Black): Fallout and Galkn: Monsters of the North
The other houses are individually accessed, meaning there’s no common area, you just go straight up to them. Those are Jason Universe, Dolls Let’s Play Dead, and Hatchet and Chains.
I recommend checking the Universal app for the opening times for each individual house. Some open as soon as 5:15pm, but others don’t open until 5:45pm or 6pm. Get in line for one that opens at 5:15pm!
So, is it worth it? Yes, and here’s why.
Once you get that first house done, you’ll have early access to all the houses, which means you can tackle them and get many of them done before the general ticket holders even enter the park! That’s worth $55 to me, especially if you only have one night!
Tips for What to Bring
Water Bottle
I cannot stress this enough. It is so unbearably hot, especially in the uncovered lines, so you need an insulated water bottle.
To add to that, there’s weirdly not a lot of accessible water once you’re in line. Yes, there are refill stations, but you have to leave the line to go to them. And, the event’s food/beverage stations aren’t open yet, so you can’t easily purchase water.
All that to say, bring a bottle and have it full of ice water. You will need it.
A note that if you do Stay and Scream and enter early, you can have your water bottle already filled when you go through security. But, if you enter closer to HHN’s actual start time of 6:30pm or later, your bottle will need to be empty when going through security.
They are more strict with the security rules for Halloween Horror Nights to prevent people from bringing alcohol in.
Cool Towel
More heat management. I swear by my cool towel. If you’ve never used one, this is a towel that once you get it wet, it stays cool. It really helps you cool down in the heat. If it gets warm from your body heat, you can either wet it again, or even just fan it out in the air and it’ll get colder. Magic!
Fan
Whatever your FAN-cy, you need a fan. Whether that’s a hand paper fan, a misting fan, a plug-in phone fan, or the kind that goes around your neck.
Please don’t pass out waiting in line before you even get the opportunity to be attacked by Art the Clown.
Sunscreen
This one is a no-brainer. Don’t pass out, don’t overheat, and….don’t get burned. Here’s a compact sunscreen stick that’s easy to bring with you.
Loop Earplugs
This was my savior during Halloween Horror Nights as an introvert. I was very worried going into this event that I wouldn’t make it to the 2 am end time because I’d simply be overstimulated and want some dang peace and quiet. HHN is quite loud to distract you from the scares and cover up the sounds of scares so you’re taken by surprise more.
Luckily, I had these Loop earplugs designed for concerts. They lower all sound equally so you can still hear everything but it’s a bit muted.
Not only did this help me with endurance for the event, but it made the haunted houses more manageable as a scaredy cat. Loud sounds always make me jump, but with these, I wasn’t worried and I could actually look around to appreciate the incredible sets.
Interactive Wand
If you’ve ever been in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and wanted desperately to do all the interactive spells, well Halloween Horror Nights is the perfect time. By about 11 pm-12 am, crowds start dying down, especially in Diagon Alley. That means no waits for interactive wand spots!
If you have an interactive wand, bring it, or purchase one by 12 am (that’s when Ollivander’s closes during HHN) to use throughout the night.
Related read >> The best Wizarding World souvenirs
The Best Time to Arrive
If you have purchased a Scream Early ticket like I’ve advised, you’ll want to enter the park at 3 pm. That means you’ll want to arrive to the security area outside CityWalk around 2:15 – 2:30 pm. Security can take a solid minute to get through during HHN, so factor that in.
You can even grab a later lunch from CityWalk in the 1 pm hour to fuel up before entering the park.
Where to Go Once You’ve Entered
Once inside the park, first take a minute to get prepared to stand in line. Don’t just go straight there.
Be sure your water bottle is filled and purchase extra if you need. If you need a locker, grab one at the front of the park just to the right of the entrance. If you haven’t eaten yet, now is a good time.
I recommend hopping on a ride or two before standing in line. This is because no matter how early you stand in line, they don’t start letting people into the houses until 5-5:30 pm. That means you’ll be in that line outside in the heat until then. So, there’s really no need to get in line right at 3 pm.
In fact, I think it’s better to ease into the haunted house lines. Not to mention that this is your one opportunity to ride any rides or see any shows that may not be open during HHN. For rides, that includes any of the Simpsons rides, ET, the Minions, and Jimmy Fallon. For shows, that’s the Bourne Stuntacular or Horror Makeup Show.
Alternatively, ride Gringotts and The Mummy, which get especially crowded during Halloween Horror Nights.
Once you’ve gotten settled, then it’s time to decide where to go.
Like I mentioned in the Scream Early section above, there are different areas where you access various houses. The key is to head to the one that will give you access to the house you want and need based on which ones are most popular.
In 2025, the most popular hands down is Five Nights at Freddy’s, followed by Jason Universe and Terrifier. That means the wait times for those are highest, so if you have interest in any of them, choose your highest priority house to tackle for Scream Early.
How to do all the houses in one night
This is tricky, but not impossible. The challenge comes from the fact that there’s so much more to do than the houses and waiting in line for 10 houses can suck up your precious time.
First, Scream Early is a necessity if you want to do all the houses in one night. Not only can you conquer one of the more popular houses, but you’ll likely have time before the official event starts (6:30 pm) and after you’ve done that first house to knock out a couple more.
For example, in 2025, I waited for Fallout as my Scream Early house of choice. Once I was out, I went straight to Galkn (next door), and Hatchet and Chains.
Next, I recommend hitting the houses in a clockwise (or counterclockwise) order to be sure you aren’t wasting time walking the park back and forth.
The other tip is to be checking wait times on the Universal Parks app constantly. It can be worth it to skip around when the wait times are low and when you’re in clusters of the houses.
For example, El Artista, Terrifier, and Grave of Flesh are all pretty close together as are Hatchet and Chains and Dolls Let’s Play Dead. If you see a short wait time for one of those while you’re in that area, go ahead a skip to that house.
My final tip is to keep yourself busy with everything BUT the haunted houses during the peak hours of the event and then return to the houses late at night when the crowd levels die down. By 12:30 am, you can knock out many of the houses when the wait times drop.
When to see the death eaters
The Death Eaters perform every half hour from 4 pm to 11 pm. Yes, that means you could can catch their first show even without a Halloween Horror Nights ticket.
If you are there for HHN, I recommend knocking out a few houses for Scream Early, then making your way to them.
The other option is to wait until dark to see them because the ambiance is just right, if you know what I mean.
Finally, after their (super short) performance, they roam Diagon Alley, Carkitt Market, Knockturn Alley, and sometimes London. They’ll pose for photos and even duel you (or in my case straight up Avada Kedavra me after 30 seconds of chasing me down).
It’s super fun and honestly brings some life (or should I say death?) to Diagon Alley!
When to see the Nightmare Fuel Circus of Decay show
The showtimes for Nightmare Fuel are 8:00 pm, 9:30 pm, 11:00 pm, and 12:30 am. You can really choose any showtime, but given it’s location, in the top right corner of the park right between Diagon Alley and Men in Black, I recommend planning to see the show when you’re near those areas.
We saw the Death Eaters then headed straight to Nightmare Fuel.
Another tip is to plan to get in line for the show around 20 minutes early (or even earlier) because it can fill up! We actually tried for the 9:30 pm show but didn’t make it early enough and had to return for the 11:00 pm showing. We got in line at 10:30 pm without a hitch! Crowds are lowest earliest in the night for the show.
Best Food to Try
There’s are lots of fun themed foods to try at themed food carts scattered around the event that match the houses.
One of the most popular this year are the fried carrot cake from Wyatt Sicks booth in Gramercy Park (outside the Mummy ride), elote from Jason booth in World Expo, and sunflower cookies from Clown Cafe also in Gramercy Park.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s foods are also popular and can be found at Louie’s, which is overlaid this year as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Try the Why Not Have Both Pizza and Pasta (a pizza slice topped with spaghetti) and the Cupcake.
I also really appreciated that they had some great vegetarian and vegan options!
Best Drinks to Try
Halloween Horror Nights is a party and what’s a party without drinks? Again, there are lots of themed options!
For drinks, try Rad Away from the Fallout booth, which is a pineapple mocktail served in an IV bag, Crystal Lake Coffee from Jason Un1v3rse, the PB & J Mixtape beer from Dolls booth outside the Simpsons area (as a Knoxville local, you’ll love this sour beer from our local brewery, Xul).
Other Miscellaneous Tips
Locker rentals
As a first-timer to Halloween Horror Nights, locker rentals were the biggest miscommunication in my opinion. Did we make a mistake? Yes. Could it have been prevented had there been a single sign displayed? Also, yes.
Here’s what happened and here’s how you can avoid your belongings disappearing in the middle of the evening.
When my mom and I entered the park, we had some stuff with us that we wanted to put in lockers. We decided to go on The Mummy and use those lockers. I thought since the ride was open during Halloween Horror Nights that we could use those lockers as we needed. Wrong.
Even though the ride was open all night, they still emptied ALL ride lockers at the park’s official closing time (5 pm). So when we returned to our locker at 6 pm after we finished our first couple haunted houses, our belongings were just gone. We had no idea that they had been moved and it caused some legit panic.
Luckily, all belongings were moved to the lost and found office at the front of the park. We got them back easily and were able to rent a locker at the front of the park, which are available to all guests during the evening event.
All this to say, if you need a locker, use the ones at the front of the park, not a ride locker. This is not advertised and frankly, I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a sign that said “all lockers will be emptied at park closing” for the ride lockers. Learn from me!
Which rides are open and when they close
The rides that are open during the event are Gringotts and Transformers, which close at 12 am, and Men in Black and The Mummy, which close at 2 am.
Can you bring a camera?
I was really looking forward to taking photos of the event with my DSLR camera, but was worried that I wouldn’t be able to bring my camera into the haunted houses, because no photos/videos are allowed inside.
I brought a mini backpack to stow my camera in. Turns out, that was completely unnecessary. After the first house, I wore my camera around my neck but had it turned off and no one stopped me from entering the houses or made me put it away.
That said, you’re all good to bring cameras to the event, just don’t take photos or videos inside the haunted houses. If you want to, you can book a “lights on” tour called Unmasking the Horror.
How to prepare for Halloween Horror Nights
Reading this guide is a good start! I recommend looking up the map for HHN and downloading it as a photo so you can review it whenever you need on your phone.
Go in with a game plan based on the map. Know which house you’re starting at and where to go from there. Make sure you have a couple houses picked out as your must-do’s so if the wait times get too long or you can’t fit in all the houses, you still are able to hit the ones you really want.
How to be less scared at Halloween Horror Nights
New in 2025, you can purchase a Deathly Afraid Necklace for $20. These can be worn through the scarezones and the actors will leave you alone. However, they only work in scarezones, not the haunted houses, likely because the scare actors can’t really see you when you’re in a dense line going through the house.
You can purchase them at most stores including those in CityWalk and each person needs their own.
However, if you’re looking for the unfiltered experience, but want some tips to reduce the scares on your own here are my thoughts.
I’m sure you know that when you react, you become a target. If you want to be less scared, nonchalance is your best bet, especially in the scare zones.
I recommend watching the shows/movies ahead of time that the houses are based on, so you can recognize the scenes and characters. That way the scenes won’t be as scary. For example, in the Stranger Things house, if you hadn’t seen Season 4, Max’s fate and the characters present in that room may have scared you.
In the houses, everyone goes in in a line, not by group, so stick close to the person in front of you to reduce the scares. When there’s a big gap in front of you, the actors have time to reset and wait to jump out at you.
You can also easily look ahead to watch the scare actors jump out at other people in front of you. That way you know where they are.
I also swear by my earplugs. They’ll reduce the noise so the loud sounds don’t startle you every 2 seconds.
In scarezones, if there’s a sidewalk, you’re safer up there. The scare actors stick to the main road in the center and don’t venture up on the sidewalk!
Finally, I recommend researching the stories of the original houses and what to expect that way you can determine if there’s something that may be triggering to you so you can avoid it. For example, the 2024 Insidious house had 2 mannequin rooms. If that’s a sore spot for you, it’s best to know that ahead of time. Similarly, the Major Sweets house had fake vomit and sprayed water to mimic being thrown up on. In 2025, the Terrifier house utilizes smells and water spray to mimic fake blood.
Can you bring in food and water?
The policy is that you cannot bring in any outside food or beverages to the event. However, if you do Scream Early, you’ll enter during regular park hours where this policy is not in effect. Therefore, if you enter early, you CAN bring in food and water.
Regardless of the time, you can always bring in an empty bottle to refill in the park though, so don’t come empty handed.
Looking for more Universal Orlando resources? Check out these posts:
- How many days do you need for Universal Orlando?
- Wizarding World tips and itinerary
- Closest beaches to Universal Orlando
- The best souvenirs from Harry Potter world
- Top snacks from Universal Orlando
- Most magical things to do in Harry Potter World
- How to spend a day at Universal Orlando (Studios and Islands of Adventure)
- Tips for visiting Epic Universe
- 1 day Epic Universe itinerary
- Rainy day guide to Epic Universe
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