Halloween Horror Nights Blog

On the drive over to the park on Sunday, it started sprinkling but the weather radar said it would mostly disperse so we kept on going. That was kind of a mistake, as the sky totally opened up as soon as we got inside the park and we ended up just kinda waiting it out under a covering outside the Today Cafe. We haven't been playing as much Delta emulator on my phone lately because at this point we have the strategy down to only hit houses with low waits, nothing over an hour, but we got well reacquainted on this evening lol. Waiting out rain at Universal can be pretty un-fun but distractions do help :)

Eventually it did lighten up enough after like an hour or so to head out. We did debate leaving but if you can manage to wait out a big storm like that, you'll see the park empty out and have a beautiful night! But, that's only if the storm will pass. Wyatt Sicks was close to there and maintains being one of the less popular IP houses, so we hit that (posted around 10-20 mins, when we got inside the queue was completely empty) and then Grave of Flesh (around 5 min. wait). As luck would have it, park capacity had definitely lowered as we were able to go to FNaF from there and get that done in 25 minutes (100 posted). After that, we saw El Artista was low so we did that twice - first with a single switchback, then a walk-on for the second time. That second run was our 10th run of the house!

There have been better nights but at least we were pretty successful in the front of the park, which is normally a challenge!

On Saturday we came back early enough to enjoy a snack from the event, so we got the Witches Demise cookie & the Sins of the Gourd tart from the San Francisco shop again, still 10/10! I still wish they were sold elsewhere like further away from all the foot traffic & the Club Horror zone over there (it's not even the concept that I have issue with even though I do think it's pretty lazy, it's just the inescapably loud mix of 2010s hits are not my thing while I'm trying to chill). Maybe they could've opened up that area of tables outside Lombard's but it seems reserved for the RIP tours.

Since we were already halfway to the back of the park at that point, we went over to MiB for two more rounds of galaxy defending. :) While we were there, we managed to hit up Hatchet & Chains, but then after that we decided we REALLY needed to get in a run of FNaF since the season is sadly winding down and we haven't seen it enough. I might've not really explained this before, but we try our best to hit a minimum of 10 runs of each house across every season, with reducing that number for more popular houses down to 5. We feel that's a solid amount of time spent in each house to really commit most details to memory, and catch every scare directly. Plus, I feel good about that for the value of the ticket + it takes away some disappointment about having no express pass.

When we got over to the front area of the park where FNaF is, we saw Wyatt Sicks had a walk-on wait so we decided to do that one first because it would let us better gauge the FNaF queue - plus at five minutes, it really wouldn't make that much of a difference for the Freddy's wait. The Wyatt Sicks queue room was empty, so that worked out well! For Freddy's we only waited 25 at a posted 100 min. wait so that was convenient too. It was a good run of the house but I'm finding that most runs of this house are kinda the same, since it has a much higher focus on animatronics than actors - I think just being able to time their actions right is the only thing that makes a huge difference. Credit given where its due though, the few actors in this house usually give it their all! We were able to hit El Artista on the way out again at a short wait - with this one, again it's really easy to tell what the deal is with the line because so much of it is visible from the outer street.

That was pretty much all that happened Saturday except one more quick story - this happened while we were waiting for FNaF close to the end in the final rows of switchbacks outside the front door. A couple started pushing through the line, as is the standard strategy for all line-skippers (I don't even bother to mention it anymore because I just can't give it the energy but it happens every visit, still some lines are worse than others) - these two weren't even really trying though. No "I'm meeting with my friends up there!" or any other excuse, just glaring at everyone as if we were all in their way. But then, one of the line attendants - for the first time I have EVER witnessed in all my years - noticed them and called out for a ticket check! The couple tried to stop somewhere inthe line all casually like they'd been there the whole time but nope they were escorted out. They even had tickets with them, but they looked super old and beat up lol. If you're not familiar, the tickets are issued at the entrance of the line for this kind of thing + some other reasons. I'm sure this sounds ridiculous like why would I even care so much but unless you've been to a theme park or anything like this, you don't know how irritating this can be in the moment! Anyway hope that employee gets a raise.

For the most recent Thursdays we've been showing up pretty late to miss the peak crowds + also I do still have a little bit of a life outside of HHN lol, and that's mostly been working in our favor! I think around 11PM was our arrival time for this night. We started off the night with the weekly journey to track down the check-in towers required to pick up the latest trading card, in this case the subject being the Cat Lady from the Cat Lady of Crooked Lane scare zone! This is the second to last card of the season, so just one more to go.

We took a break in the Masquerade zone for a bit after because the Five & Dime store (where you go to collect the card) had a long line - plus we were pretty exhausted because once again, the card required all three towers scattered around the park to be scanned, meaning it was a pretty decent journey around the property! After that, we wanted to make up for the previous week's MiB ride closure but it unfortunately wasn't meant to be as the ride was closed when we got to its entrance.

That's alright though because we were close to Fallout at that point, which I really wanted to hit because 10/23 is Fallout Day (officially declared by Bethesda, it's the date the bombs drop in 2077) and I wanted to celebrate that by visiting the house! The line was disproportionately long when we got there though, so we hit Galkn first (at a nice 8 minute wait) because like how can you not go to that area of the event and not do both houses, when they are literally next door to eachother! Fallout's line was still holding strong after that, so I just played Fallout: New Vegas on my phone (cloud streaming) for the 20 mins. we waited in line to pass the time and because you know, what better way to celebrate Fallout Day? :) Pretty great run of the house, too!

While walking out of there, we stopped to figure out our next and final move for the night and saw on the app that Jason was posted at 50 min, so we said screw it and headed that way. We ended up only waiting 25, and it was also a great run so it was a beautiful end to the evening. For such a short amount of time in the park, it was really a successful night!

We sorta realized that we had gone the whole season without trying one last dessert we were interested in, so we started our Sunday by taking a trip to the little bakery in the San Francisco area of the park (where this year's Club Horror zone is located, which I don't have nearly as much love for as I do for Masquerade & Cat Lady). We were looking for the Witches Demise cookie but were delighted to find they also had the Sins of the Gourd tart! The cookie was supposed to be limited to Islands of Adventure, so this was a nice surprise and of course we got both :) They were wonderful! We are only disappointed we waited so long to discover these but personally I choose to blame the less-than-stellar scare zone, since we usually take a route that doesn't involve it! We ate just outside the shop, nowhere really convenient to sit & snack like at Masquerade.

Based on where we were at that point we chose to hit up MiB for our nightly visit there, but unfortunately just as we showed up the ride broke down - literally like I even got up to the point of being assigned a row and then the announcement came. :( My personal strategy for most ride delays (barring obvious exceptional factors) is wait somewhere between 5-10 minutes, because anything small can be fixed in that time-frame but if it exceeds that, bail because it's likely something more involved and who knows where that might go. In this case, we overheard the nearest TM mention to another guest they thought it would be a really long time so the next choice was obvious lol.

We left a lil disappointed but thankfully the ride is really close to several houses, so we were able to hit both Hatchet and Dolls while we were over there. We decided to make it a kind of hybrid-focus night and went to the front of the park, where we visited Grave of Flesh for the 10th time this season (!!!). On the way out from there we saw El Artista's line was really short as it has been at the end of the night recently, so we did that as well.

It was 2AM after that, so time to head home! Kind of a mixed bag of a night but that's just fine!

Pretty straightforward Saturday, not going to go too overboard in the descriptions just because for a night like this you pretty much have heard the story already! We showed up and grabbed a couple snacks (graveyard brownie + ube cheesecake, listen they won't be here forever ok?), visited with our blood-sucking friends at the vampire masquerade, and strolled to the back of the park by way of Old Crooked Lane (inhabited by the Cat Lady and her cats) to run through MiB twice. Was it still busy as hell after? You know it. But, we were still able to spend the rest of the night hanging out and having a great time in the back of the park by hitting Hatchet, Dolls, Galkn, and Fallout - which would be all of the houses in that half of the park, minus Jason which I consider to be more in kind of a gray area. This pattern is the most convenient path we've found so far, which does make it a little easier to plan the flow of the evening and what to hit when. Nothing to complain about here, just another lovely night to enjoy at Halloween Horror Nights!

We arrived pretty late like sometime after 11, maybe 11:30. First off to start the evening, we went to the Monster Make-up show theatre area to scan in for the new trading card release but unfortunately it gave us the same error that we got last week, in front of the Mummy - sending us off on yet another actual scavenger hunt! It's so weird to us that they introduced this randomness element this far into the program, but alright then lol. We ended up kinda running around the whole park - next walking all the way over to Men in Black/Simpsons to scan that tower to no avail, and then finally back to the Mummy where the scan was successful. It was onward to Five & Dime, where we did retrieve the latest character card - the "Potbelly Stove Demon" from Hatchet & Chains!

Of course the streets and lines were packed, but Grave had a 10 min. wait so we made our way there after a rest from that huge trip around the park. We got to Grave and the line was out the door, but we said let's do it anyway because there weren't any other convenient houses (wait times + distance), and thankfully the line inside was actually really short but all the middle switchbacks were blocked off as if there had maybe been some kind of mess/incident or something. After that, we headed back to Gramercy Park to rest and plan the next move. In the app we saw that Jason was down to 50, which is impressively low for that one and it was already 1:20/30 at that point so we know there was no way it would be the full 50. Sure enough, it was only 25 minutes and a decent run! Maybe some missing actors but otherwise another great chance to observe the details of this house. It was of course 2AM after that, so we headed out! Only two houses accomplished for this evening, but one was one of the more challenging ones so I'm calling it a decently successful night. I think we would've got into at least another house or two without the card confusion though.

We showed up on this Sunday to another busy October night, even after arriving late like we have been... at this point it's just a given, but for my own archival purposes I like to note the vibe of the night anyway. So since the previous night (Saturday) had gone so well, we ended up just pulling kind of a repeat (cheesecake + chill @ the Masquerade), grabbed some water (are you drinking enough today?) and checked the app to plan our first house.

Wyatt Sicks was posted at 25 minutes, so we went there and waited a little over that at about 35 minutes but as I've said before this house really grew on us throughout the season (Rob and I now quote it at eachother throughout the week - "Huskus, let the pigs feed") so all good & worth it. After that, we went over to Grave of Flesh which was posted at a decent wait but once we got inside we saw the entire room of switchbacks was completely full, so we weighed our options and decided to bail on it. On the walk out from Grave, we saw the line for El Artista was pretty short - posted 35, but we waited 20! Pretty excellent for a house that is usually busy.

After El Artista, we saw Grave had dropped down to 20 again so we finally said alright, let's do it - however, the path to get over there was totally blocked off (a TM said something about a busted pipe?), meaning access to Terrifier and Grave of Flesh were off limits. We even tried an alternate path, but no luck. Wyatt Sicks was a total walk-on though, so we did that again! After that second run of Wyatt Sicks, we took a quick rest and debated waiting for Jason next but we decided it wasn't worth suffering through the terrible queue but we weren't ready to go home yet so we actually managed to fit in two more houses - Fallout & Galkn in the back!

It was about 2 and we were definitely tired after all of that so it was time to head home. I'm surprised how much we were able to fit in this Sunday despite crowds & park issues!

You might've noticed (or I've probably already mentioned, I forget) that we always skip Fridays now because they're usually the busiest nights, so the schedule tends to be Thurs/Sat/Sun for our weekly HHN trips. You're seeing Saturday here following the previous Sunday because the Thursday for this week was a total wash out with torrential rain! So we decided to stay home. Been there done that, not worth it! Lol

On this night, we started off by trying to pick up the new trading card with the usual process of heading to the Mummy ride area for the scan-in tower, but instead of the screen telling us that we were good to head to Five & Dime it said we were not, and that we'd have to scan in elsewhere. It turns out the new tower was in front of the Horror Make-up show theatre (closed for HHN), so we went that way and got the card without issue - the character for this one was the Galkn beast! After that, we got a snack at the Today Cafe (ube cheesecake - the finally decided #1) since we were closeby and had another chill time watching peeps get scared in the Masquerade zone. This has definitely become one of my favorite ways to spend time at the event this season, outside of the houses of course!

We hadn't really spent much time in the back of the park in a few visits, so we traveled that way but of course all the house wait times were busy busy busy so we hit up the Men in Black ride for two runs through the single rider queue. Dolls and Hatchet were still not ideal times when we came out of there, so we went over to the far back and did Galkn (10 min. wait) and Fallout (20-ish). Thankfully after that Dolls did dip, and we really had wanted to land a tenth run on that for this evening, so we hit that and then Hatchet on the way out because it too had dropped.

This was a pretty decent back-of-the-park Saturday night!

Another early night, showed up around 10ish to be greeted by some rain! And also some undercover cops in the parking garage, lol (no no not like that we weren't stopped, we've just been noticing them a lot more lately, like every time - I wouldn't bother with a second look anywhere else but the fit choices are kinda funny in this context, it's like if Spirit Halloween released a line of "average theme park goer" costumes. Results vary - sometimes they're accurate, sometimes not).

We decided to make it a treat night again, so we switched it up and got our personal favorites the graveyard brownie and the ube cheesecake again. :) You may be tired of hearing about the same four-ish treats but trust me when I say we have exhausted the options of the park this season, and this is the best we have found! Masquerade zone is still the easiest zone to get to that has some accessible seating far enough away that you can observe the street, so we grabbed an umbrella table over there. Unfortunately the vamps had gone away because of the rain, but it was still a very nice setting to have a rest and it was interesting to listen to the soundtrack without the added actor-activated sounds. I noticed there's a lot of layered noises going on, just kind of a constant overlapping of vampiric hisses, subtle sounds of destruction like crashing/scraping/breaking - it's interesting to think about how these random sounds might inadvertently play into a scare!

I guess the weather actually did drive some people out, because El Artista was a reasonable wait. The rain was light enough that we were able to make our way there and thankfully most of the actors were present this time! To make it even better, we only waited around a half hour - which is wonderful for that time of night, and especially that house.

Scoping out what else was reasonable and nearby, we chose to hit up Wyatt Sicks next. Unlike Artista, Wyatt was missing some actors again but it's worth noting how much effort those who were there were putting in! They really got in our faces, especially Rob who was ahead of me (thankfully). I love when it's at this point in the season where the actors have become so familiar with their surroundings, so locked in on spatial awareness and timing that they can go absolutely wild with it and bring their own creativity to the role! The one downside on this run was that the fog in the Huskus room was SO THICK we could barely see anything. It was the thickest fog I've ever seen in an HHN house, to the point I feel like it might've been not intentional? The Huskus actor in the middle cage was missing, probably had fled from the massive cloud lol. Anyway the point of this is that there's a pig in this room that's munching on some bloody guts and it's one of our favorite scenes from the house, so we always make an effort to point it out to each other but alas that pig was not visible unless you were maybe an inch from it!

After that we hit up Grave of Flesh, which had a very short wait time of 10 minutes. Man, you just cannot beat a light-rain night. Grave of Flesh even felt weirdly lonely, I was in front and nobody was ahead so I could really appreciate the concept now that I've gone and read more about it. Even Terrifier was low (for itself) - posted at around an hour or slightly under but most importantly, we could see with our eyes that it was about four entire switchbacks less than normal. We chose the dry path to even out the number of times we've gone through both sides. Still probably the best house of the year, I think.

We had actually done all of the front of the park houses at that point except for FNaF which was pretty high, and it wasn't even too late yet, so it was finally time to see Mr. Voorhees!!! The house had a 60 minute posted wait, which was again very decent compared to how it's been the rest of this season so far. The actual wait was around 25, even better! Especially since the queue is so miserable. The side of the Fast & Furious building in the outdoor part of the queue can get really unbearably hot, even with water and fans. Regarding the house - we definitely have some thoughts this time, and not all were positive. Outside Pamela was missing from this run, but that's not like a design flaw or anything. Just to give a quick summary - some major issues include no linear story, random scenes and costumes just kinda thrown around, weak set design... Yet somehow, I still feel it should rank highly for the year? Stick with me, I'll get those more in-depth house reviews up soon like within the next couple days!

On Thursday / Night 15, we arrived pretty late compared to usual (busy day) which usually means some nice low wait times but unfortunately it looks like it took no time for the October rush to kick in. We were starting to debate coming at this time going forward, just to really take advantage of the after-midnight lines but of course, there's some negative downside to that too (less time in the park.. but also less time when it's most un-fun... tricky!). I think almost every one of these posts has mentioned high crowd levels so I sound like a broken record, but somehow even after 100+ visits over the years I'm still like: OMG I can't believe how many people are here?!

Anyway, we started the night off by heading straight to the Mummy ride area once again to scan in for the latest trading card: The Galkn beast! (Not enough time for snacks + zone chilling on this night) We did run over to the Men in Black ride at the back of the park for two runs, followed up by a visit to the Dolls house because it had a surprisingly reasonable 10-ish minute wait. We had wanted to do Hatchet first, but that wait was long and never came down. After that we went off to the further back and hit up Galkn because Fallout had an exceptionally longer line at that point for some reason (I guess because it's an IP, but typically both lines are about the same length). Fallout did drop by the time we were out of Galkn so luckily we were able to go through that too, with a little line but it went quick. Nothing out of the ordinary on these house runs. I have been taking notes on more specific scenes to better share my thoughts with you all, but I think that's all going to end up as a separate list outside of this journal!

If you've been following along, you know we are dying to get to see Jason again, but it wasn't meant to be for this night. I can't recall what the posted time was but it seems like it never drops under 120 anymore, which is pretty funny to me considering the seemingly greater popularities of FNaF & Terrifier. I would've thought most casual horror fans were over or had forgotten about Jason at this point, since he hasn't shown up on screen in 15-ish years, so I guess I'm glad to see there's still some love and respect for the classics! I just wish that didn't translate to such long times, haha.

Like I said we had got there pretty late so by that point it was time to head home. Not bad at all for a couple hours! I totally dropped the ball on pictures for this one, but you can at least still enjoy this overkill Black Phone 2 marketing from CityWalk.

Got another round of daylight photos for you all! We happened to be in the park during the day this week, so I took the chance to grab some much-needed photos of the Toxic Twenties zone and some other things I happened to catch throughout the visit.

The night ended with dinner at the Hard Rock cafe, which Rob and I have never dined at before (we've been to shows at the venue part, just never ate at the restaraunt) so our minds were totally blown by all the cool music history and memorabilia! We were seated in the CBGB tribute room, which couldn't have been more perfect for us since that meant it was mostly punk themed. There were even slabs of wall taken from the real CBGB's you could get up close to, which I missed taking a pic of but found very neat as someone who has been to the real-life location only AFTER it became a clothing store. BTW, if you're in NYC and care about punk history I still recommend visiting the clothing store. I wish I could've attended a show there when it was still a venue of course but it still felt really cool to walk where so many influential artists have in the past, and to have a better picture of what it might've been like back then.

Wow that got SO off-topic. I totally need to make a separate Universal blog after the event's over. For now, back to the HORROR!

Last night we arrived at the park around 11, and it was definitely busy again! We've been meaning to pick up the souvenir coins for this year because we usually do, and you know I had to have the Fallout one, so we started off the night by heading over to the Tribute Store once again. No new merch or restocks to share this time. It took a little bit of searching, but we did find the coin machine in the back right of the room. I grabbed some pics of the surrounding area while we were there - not a ton to work with, but hey, it's documented anyway now. The coins are very nice! Love the Fallout design - cool to have something different from the general Vault 33 motif they've used a lot. Kinda surprised they didn't have a FNaF one.

After the Tribute Store, it was time for the nightly realization of "these house wait times are insane, let's go do MiB," so we hustled over to the back of the park. It's always tough to navigate over there when the show is letting out, which it was, but thankfully that seems to have little impact on the ride times (for the single-rider line at least). I've been scoring pretty high lately - managed to pull out 997K last night with no ride stopping this time!

All done with MiB but still not seeing worthwhile times, we decided to grab a snack but didn't want to head all the way back to the front for the Today Cafe, so we did something a little different and got the donut sundae from Springfield! We had it once before a long time ago, like over 5 years back during a passholder appreciation night, so it was sweet reliving the past a bit - we even sat outside near Moe's like we did the first time. The weather has been slowly calming down over the last couple of weeks. It's still super warm at times, and we're still bringing the mini-fans, but it's not bad at all to rest or take a break outside! A cold treat definitely hit the spot (we would've gotten fudge as the topping, but they were out - turns out Reese's Pieces are a very fine substitution).

The entrance to Hatchet & Chains was close to there and had a short wait (posted 35-40, but only waited 10), so we hit that and then Dolls afterward at a similar wait. Decent runs, great timing in Hatchet, but the Dolls actors seemed a little sleepy. Can't blame them, I was too, lol. I think I like the western theming of Hatchet better (have I mentioned how much I wish they gave the same level of detail to Fallout? They literally prove right here they can do a great dark western theme!), but as far as "scary" goes, Dolls is much creepier (but it's also got a silly factor, which sounds contradictory but I promise it works). I said before that Wyatt gave me an old-school HHN vibe, but Dolls needs to join that list because it has lots of staples - super colorful/strong lighting, interactive elements, blood & gore, some dark humor/not being so serious. Like, I think that one character that's a doll head with another doll head on each shoulder (three total) that walks out at you from total darkness is so funny - it's just so unexpected and weird. I'm not describing it well, but maybe when the event is over, I'd like to try and see what images are out there from inside the houses and compile them for looking back on.

Like I mentioned in the previous entry, we were really looking forward to visiting Jason, which was at a pretty great time of 60 minutes (good for that house, at least), but by the time we got over there, it had shot up to 100, and the line looked super backed up, so alas, another time it will have to be. After that, we made our way to the front of the park and were very surprised to see El Artista had a very light line of only a couple of switchbacks (can't recall what the posted time was, but it was inflated; we only waited 15), so we finally got to visit that house again! I'll give more thoughts on this house in another post because this one is getting quite long, but I didn't have any particular new revelations with this run.

We also managed to hit up Grave of Flesh and Wyatt Sicks afterward, both at walk-on wait times for our final houses of the night. One last thing - I did go search online for the plot of Grave of Flesh, and found it on the HHN Wiki. Now I think the house makes a lot more sense, but my observations were definitely off on a few things. First off, I mentioned in my last entry that there's a giant heart - I don't know what I was on about because that was totally in Galkn and not Grave of Flesh. Forgive me, please, because the endings are both kind of similar! More on the Grave of Flesh plot another time.

For this week's Thursday night, we came in later but not as late as the last couple of trips - we arrived sometime between 10 and 11. It was much busier than anticipated (I was hoping for a big drop-off after the Rush of Fear ended), so it was more of a wandering-around kind of night!

When we first walked in, we noticed right away that two of the Fallout loot candies had been restocked in the Studios Sweets store, much to my surprise!!! I didn't think there would be any restock until the rumored drop on the 1st. There were actually a ton of boxes available, so it was nice to have my pick of them and choose some that weren't damaged at all. I was most excited about these two, the Sugar Bombs and the Yum Yum gummy eggs, because they closely resemble the snack boxes you can loot from various places in the games, so I really wanted to have them for my Fallout collection shelf at home! I haven't tried the Sugar Bombs cereal yet, but I'm happy to report the gummy eggs are quite tasty and super sweet (very vanilla-y, maybe a little butterscotch). Just keep in mind the portions are quite small, but these items are all about the boxes for me! I wouldn't be surprised if these sell out again soon, as they've been gone for weeks now. There wasn't really anything else restocked that I could tell, outside of one laser-cut(?) wall art piece that I think is cool but I will try to wait for a discount on it because I think those wall arts are always overpriced.

After that, we got some water (this is your reminder to hydrate!) and went to the Mummy ride area in New York to scan for the latest trading card. The new card art features Lyla, the main character from the Doll's House (I learned her name thanks to this card!). We also visited the Tribute Store to see what the merchandise deal was in there, but it was a similar situation (just a handful of things restocked, nothing too interesting).

Wait times were still way too high at this point (and by that I mean, I'm not willing to wait 90 minutes for houses I've waited 10 for), so we settled on ol' reliable - the Men in Black ride! Wait times continue to be walk-ons, and most of the time when we go the single rider route, Rob and I still end up in the same car, so that's been quite a lot of fun! Afterward, the wait times were still pretty bad, so we made the decision to abandon the back of the park and try to hit some lower-wait houses up front - mostly since there wasn't really anything else to do, but also because we had spent a lot of time in the back of the park the previous two trips anyway.

We actually really wanted to hit Jason since it's one of the ones we've done least, but it stayed solidly between 90-140 minutes all night, unfortunately. Maybe tonight we'll finally get to do it again! We had kinda been running around a bit at this point so we took a break over in the Masquerade zone with another very tasty graveyard brownie from the Today Cafe while we decided what house to hit next (I'm gonna miss these seasonal treats when they're gone! The food kinda sucks this year but the desserts are so good!). Wyatt Sicks was a decent wait, as it usually is toward the end of the night, which is cool because historically the IP houses are the ones that sustain wait times through the roof - but this one and Fallout are definitely the least popular this year, even compared to some originals. There were several actors missing from the Wyatt Sicks house, unfortunately, but it was still a good run since the ones who were there went all out (there's one scare they do so well now - it's a hallway with TVs all around playing WWE footage, and in the middle, two actors pop out at you, one on each side! Very effective).

After Wyatt, we hit up Grave of Flesh, which was the only other house with an appealing wait time. Grave of Flesh is still a cool house, but not the best of the year. I don't think much has changed with it, but I do love that giant bone grinder animatronic thing and the weird, surrealist scenes. It's a confusing house to me - if there's a podcast, I guess I'll have to give it a listen because really, with this one, I have no idea. Like I've said before, it starts off with a classic graveyard/haunted house vibe (complete with rain effect), and then it just gets... weird? Like, forced perspective illusions, giant fleshy wall pieces, the bone grinder, and there's a giant heart at the end, so I guess maybe they're trying to show us that the house is alive? Is this like a Monster House (2006) thing? I'll report back.

After Grave, we went home, as it was late and there was simply nothing else doable. We did hit the main Universal store on the way out to check for more restocked merchandise, but nothing else new. Phew, not sure how this one got so long, especially considering we only did the two houses - but I had some thoughts and wanted to get them down before I forget, as that tends to happen! Excited to return tonight!

This post will be a little shorter, sadly, since I kind of slacked on writing it - I keep meaning to write these the day after, but I'm always so zonked from the night before, and this week got away from me (why did I sit down to write this one after nights 11 & 13?!). So I don't remember as many details from this past Sunday as I usually do when I'm quicker about writing my entries, but that's okay because really it was quite similar to the night before and wasn't anything too nuts. Oh, how lucky I feel that I can say, “It was just another regular night at HHN”!

We came in very late compared to usual again, like around midnight. I was a little apprehensive about this the first time (the night before, Saturday) because, like, how much can you really do in a couple of hours? Apparently, quite a lot! Midnight really is when things start to finally take a dip, it seems.

We started out with two runs of MiB again, which was extra fun because our car got stalled on the second run, near the end. All the cars on the opposite track were still cruising along as normal, so I was able to farm each fusion exhaust port as it passed and ended up maxing out my score (see pic gallery)! It wasn't the first time, and it didn't feel like a huge win because it was technically cheating (I wouldn't have landed it if we hadn't been stopped for a minute or two, but it's certainly been a long time since I've seen that 999,999. And just to put it out there, I did max out organically just once years ago… and have been chasing that feeling of victory ever since, lol.)

After that, we followed the same path from the night before and went to the Simpsons area for Hatchet & Chains, which had a decently low wait. We hit up Dolls afterward, which was not as low and certainly not as chill - there was some significant line-cutting, but I'll take that over violence, I guess. We finished the night by heading to the far back of the park for two runs of Fallout and one visit to Galkn, mostly alone like it has been lately with those houses. Overall, from what I can recall, it was a pretty decent Sunday!

We didn't attend Thursday this week because the event was closed to the public (fairly certain a corporation rented it out for the night, as that tends to happen at least once a year), but we did end up going for the weekend. On Saturday, we headed in even later than usual and walked in sometime between 11 and 12. This is pretty funny to do, as it feels like everyone is leaving the park, so there's some foot-traffic fighting, but it's worth it for those sweet low wait times. The only problem with this weekend is that it was the last valid one for Rush of Fear ticket holders (a multi-night season pass that only includes the first half-ish of the event), so the large number of HHN fans who hold those tickets were all in attendance - making what would've been a slow night a much heavier one!

That's okay, though, of course, since we've decided to just go straight for the Men in Black ride if houses are too high when we get in, and that's worked out really nicely so far. By the time we fit in two runs, the back-of-park houses start to see some noticeable dips. The wait times for the ride this season have been actually really great compared to the past; usually, it's pretty empty inside the ride building. It's been really fun to dust off my skills and get back into landing high scores, which I notice happens a bit less in the off-season, lol. Either way, that ride is just a blast every time, and I'll never get tired of it!

After MiB, we walked to Simpsons to hit Hatchet once, which I should mention has not had any major changes, but I'm glad to see one scare return that had previously gone missing - scareactor riding an animatronic demon/zombie horse, high up above on a ledge like they might leap off it at you. It's sort of an illusion but looks very cool. Btw, pretty sure the horse on its side outside the house facade is the same one from outside of Nightingales: Blood Pit (HHN 29)!

After that, we hit up Fallout twice, as we had kind of missed it earlier in the week since we were focusing more on the front of the park. There have been some major changes to this house. First off, the ghouls in the Super Duper Mart scene now “break out” of their glass containers (they cut out holes in the tinted glass so you can see the actors better, plus they can now reach their arms and heads out outside of it for more close-up scares). There was also a new ghoul scareactor in the wasteland area, earlier in the house (he was posted by the Radroach animatronic, looked a little cramped back there, like it wasn't intended to be a boo hole/scare spot, but he made it work). They also significantly turned down the lighting in that scene, so the fake landscape tapestry isn't so in your face (it still is, but I guess the dimmed blue lighting now made a little difference). Pretty sure that's it, but I'll let you all know if there's anything else I notice!

Galkn, however, seems pretty much unchanged. Every time I visit this house, I like it a little more, but I still feel it doesn't have the most cohesive plot. Also, I wish it was much colder inside! Every year, there is at least one “cold” themed house, and Galkn is definitely it for this year, but it's not nearly as icy as some others have been in the past. After Galkn, it was past 2, so we headed home!

Last night was fantastic! It was the only Tuesday event night of this year, which has always been pretty decent in terms of crowds in the past. I believe the night was offered because the Thursday event night this week is closed to the general public (park rented out by some corporation, presumably). We started the night by picking up the third and latest free trading card, this time based on the Toxic 20s zone. The booth where you go to scan in to collect it was moved (now in front of the Mummy ride), so it was a little confusing at first but still quite simple in the end. The cards are really nice - I'll have to be sure to upload a picture of them all!

After that, we linked up with our friends again, and since they hadn't been able to hit the front houses yet, we jumped straight into the queue for Terrifier. The wait was about 40 minutes, another long one like El Artista but again not so bad with good company. We all chose the wet path and agreed that the house is a hit! I think the water might've been toned down a little from last time, but it's hard to say. I love the length of this house and how varied the scenes are - it seems a lot directly references the movies, but as I've said before, it's still plenty enjoyable on its own and offers a ton of detail to notice. The gore is EVERYWHERE - truly, this has to be one of the bloodiest houses they've ever done! I appreciate how expressive and improvisational the Art the Clown actors get with their scares and how the character feels pretty consistent even when you're looking at 20 of them in a row - the common denominator being they all seem to be having fun with the role, which always makes for a good time!

FNAF was posted around 50 minutes after that, which is actually a pretty low wait time for that house, so we headed there next. Surprisingly, the wait was much shorter, and we got in under 20 minutes! The beginning room with the animatronics is still pretty mesmerizing in its quality and scale - I know Hollywood got a lesser version of this, so I'm thankful we have this, even if I'm not the biggest FNAF fan anymore (played and loved the first game when I was in high school, completely forgot about it afterward). Jim Henson's studio killed it with this work! I also recently learned they worked on the animatronics for the 2023 movie as well, so we're getting the real deal here in comparison to what's used on screen. Besides that opening shot of the stage, I also love any time the animatronics have a walking track in this house - they move unnaturally and are pretty big. It's not super scary but definitely a unique type of scare you wouldn't find anywhere else.

After FNAF, it was getting late, but the popular houses at the front remained relatively low (hell yeah, Tuesday!), so we hit up Wyatt Sicks - not too long of a wait. Since our friends would be coming back one more night, we all decided to stay hanging out up front and take advantage of these rare wait times, then went back to FNAF for a second run of the night. The wait was a little longer than expected but ended just in time for us to join the Terrifier queue around 1:55, making us some of the last guests through the house! Rob and I chose the dry path this time since we hadn't done it before - it actually had some unique elements compared to the wet path, including some hanging bodies (shaking and making noise, I think) and a shadowy silhouette projection on a wall at the end showing Art killing someone. I think I still prefer the wet path for its novelty, but you can't go wrong with either!

And that was the end of Tuesday - we went hard until the very end, and I think we made a good choice experiencing those popular houses up front, since an opportunity like that might not happen again or only once or twice, if at all. It was another great night, made even better by hitting some of the best houses and hanging out again with our new friends!

Sunday night was extra fun, since we got to meet up with two new friends we met on Neocities! We started out by linking up in the back of the park around the usual time; they had been there for a little bit at that point, so we wanted to hit houses with them that they hadn't done yet. Everything was pretty high, so we kicked off the night together with the Men in Black ride, which was a lot of fun as always (especially when we completely smoked the other car)!

Afterward, the lines hadn't come down a whole lot, but Galkn was the most reasonable and nearby, so we hit that next. The wait wasn't too bad, just a couple of switchbacks, and it was a great run of the house - lately, we've been visiting it after 1, so it was nice to experience it without the TMs constantly waving, lol. My favorite parts of this house are the couple of wolf props, the large simulated-burning effigy that can be viewed throughout the house at different lines of sight, and the GWAR-esque otherworldly costuming. What it lacks in a cohesive story, it at least seems to make up for in vibes!

Following Galkn, we made our way to the front of the park for El Artista, which Rob and I had only done once before. The wait for this house is always heavy, with the longest rows of switchbacks probably in the park, which I fully believe can make waiting kind of stressful at times (seeing everything left to go through is intimidating). Plus, it's fully outside - but waiting with friends makes a wonderful difference! Nothing beats a long queue line like great conversation. I still think this house is really cool looking - there's (mild spoiler) a flying gargoyle scene (kind of similar to the witch from Scary Tales, way up above in the air) that's super fun! The outdoor scenes look especially nice and expansive, and I always love a water element, even if it's subtle (it's a little fountain this year; of course, I like blood, but that's still neat as an environment prop).

It was about midnight at that point, and we all parted ways since our friends needed to head out, and Rob and I were actually way more tired than we thought we'd be from Thursday and Saturday. All in all, a very nice evening! Cheers to new friendships!

Sorry about the lack of pictures! On nights we hit a lot of houses, there isn't too much to take photos of now that I think I've grabbed all the queue signs and facades that exist. There is a little lack of exterior facade creativity this year compared to last and previous years, but the Dolls house has a very nice one (as that location usually does). I know soundstages have more limitations with that kind of thing, but still! Anyway.

We started off Saturday with an ambitious goal of securing some merch I finally decided I was ready to pick up. I'm mainly looking for the Fallout boxed candies (the gummy eggs and the Sugar Bombs cereal) and the Fallout Pip-Boy bag, all of which I've previously held in my hands and set down with the promise of returning to purchase them all another time. Well, that was a mistake haha because the scalpers have cleaned the park totally out of all the specialized IP merch! There are some shirts left and some enamel pins, but for the most part, much is sold out. We tried every store we could: front entrance stores, tribute store, San Francisco, etc.. Not all was a loss, though - we were still able to pick up the second free trading card, which we've been enjoying so far!

Since our scavenger hunt was such a bust and kind of tiring, we grabbed some treats and took a rest (very pleasant, of course). Thankfully, our two favorites were in stock! After observing and appreciating the foggy Masquerade zone, we stayed in the front of the park and hit up Wyatt Sicks since the wait was reasonable. Afterwards, we headed to the back of the park and did two runs of Men in Black, one visit to Hatchet & Chains, and two visits to the Wasteland via the Fallout house.

Saturday nights at HHN are always lovely. There are many factors: some multi-night tickets don't include it, people assume it will be busier and opt to stay home, and the individual ticket price is higher. There hasn't been a "slow" day this season in the traditional sense, but I think I'm getting used to the new upper and lower limits of crowd levels and considering any night with several houses under an hour wait to be a win.

This week has been going so much better! Started Thursday as usual; we were going to get the Ube Bat again, but they were out, so we ended up trying the fried carrot cake from the Wyatt Sicks booth instead! I heard it was a fan favorite this year. I thought it was pretty decent but not worth a repeat. Way more of a warm cinnamon bread vibe than anything else - the cotton candy on the side was super stale, though. Not sure if you're supposed to eat it on top of the cake, but that part was sad lol. 5/10 for me.

Fittingly, only the Wyatt Sicks house had a reasonable wait time at that point, so we headed over and got in after an accurately posted 40 minutes. After that, it was still the lowest and even lower, so we did it again with only a 10-minute wait. Not bad at all! The queue for this house is one of the most comfortable this year, as it's located in a temperature-controlled soundstage, so even when it's busy, it's not too bad to wait for. The house has grown on me a lot. I think parts of it are very cheesy, but that's a staple of HHN to me, and I really don't mind when some things get unserious. I'm still not joining the wrestling fandom, but I've enjoyed getting to know these characters so far and think their individual rooms are super fun! Rob also noticed a reference to the Undertaker - it's an urn with his name on it in a corner of the house.

After that, we decided to abandon the heavy wait times in the front and headed to the back, where we hit Hatchet x2, Dolls, Galkn, and Fallout. Totally alone for the last two! The end of the night really can be fun, but the house attendants do get kind of at the end of their rope and will try to rush you through even when there's nobody in front of or behind you. I just try to be understanding and know that the job is not fun and that they're probably just really bored, but it can definitely kill the vibe of a run. This happens every night, so I usually don't mention it, but during this run of Fallout, a house attendant left her post from the room ahead to come find us and started walking in front of me, waving really dramatically - I guess thinking that we were holding up the line (there was nobody else in the house, and it wasn't 2 a.m. yet; it was like 1:45). We weren't even moving slowly lol. Compared to every other house and previous runs of all of them, the Fallout house attendants seem the most jumpy about getting people through, for some reason!

And that was Thursday - overall, not too busy, but not slow either.

Saturday, September 06, 2025

It's taken me a little bit to write this update because honestly the last couple of nights at Horror Nights were not great, so I'm just going to combine them into this one post here and start off with the good! We decided to skip Friday because wait times and crowds were intense last Friday (it was opening night, but this has been the case in previous years as well), so we headed in late on Saturday.

The ube cheesecake was in stock, so we decided to give it a try while we had the opportunity, and I know I say all the desserts are amazing, but really this was so delightful! It kinda reminded me of sweet potato pie, which I very much love, and the bat cookie was cute :) Very nice way to start the evening!

We also came across an access point for the new trading card event. It was really easy and probably took about five minutes total - from finding it to getting to a TM who was handing out the cards. Apparently there will be a new one released periodically, weekly or something like that. Free souvenirs are the best kind! I forgot to take a picture, so I'll share it next time.

Next, we headed to Grave of Flesh since we had only done it once before and had a decently low wait time compared to everything else. I don't want to get into the details of what killed the vibe of the night because I don't want to stain this space with negativity, so all I'll say is I think the park really should have more staff watching the queues! Anyway. I still need to put together a ranking, but this house might end up midway or lower, no fault of the actors as they were definitely giving it their best.

Following that, we decided to get out of the chaos at the front of the park and headed to the back, where we hit two rounds of Men in Black (first ride of the season). Nice low wait times, which was appreciated. On one run, the other car was empty, so I was able to farm its fusion exhaust and almost hit max (with bonus)! All the houses in the back at that point had pretty low wait times/walk-ons, so we ended up with two visits to Dolls, two visits to Hatchet, two visits to Fallout, one visit to Galkn, and one long walk back to CityWalk.

Sunday, September 07, 2025

Sunday was just like... not really a thing, haha. We came back, ready to try to have a better night at the front of the park. Just as we walked in, the clouds opened up and it began to pour! Foolishly influenced by cognitive dissonance, we continued further in, with ideas like maybe we'll go grab dinner inside somewhere and wait it out (every restaurant was full of guests seeking shelter), or let's go hit a house in the back; it should be a walk-on (they were not walk-ons - enough people are absolutely willing to stand in torrential downpour to fill two full-length switchbacks), until eventually we just gave up and called it a night (after visiting MiB 2x just so we could like, at least not have wasted the entire trip).

This second weekend at HHN was a bit disappointing, but that's the way it goes - not all nights are perfect, and I feel fortunate to be going again tonight, hopefully to have a better time!

Our first Thursday of the season was decently successful! Still rolling with the 10 PM arrival, we showed up and checked out what was in the new location of the Studio Sweets shop, which seems to have some pretty great treats this year in addition to the Today Cafe. We got hype about getting the Graveyard Brownie again, but it was sold out, so we got the Terrifier Cherry Brownie instead, and honestly I'm not even disappointed; it was very tasty! Especially nice to enjoy in the Vampire Masquerade zone once again.

At Night 4, we decided it was more than time to have completed all 10 houses, so we started with Terrifier after a whopping 80-minute queue (at least). Feeling very thankful for mini-fans and the Delta emulator on my phone, lol, because that was a tough one. But I gotta say, if you're going to wait that long for a house, let it be one as excellent as Terrifier, because wow - that is how they should ALL be done. Detailed, intense, and passionate from every level - production to live actors. I say this as someone who has no love for these movies - I watched them all in prep for HHN this year, and really they're just not for me. If you love them, that's cool, and I hope you get to visit the event this year because you're in for a freaking time. I'll address a couple of things I've heard mixed accounts on from others and set the record straight (mild Terrifier house spoilers): Is the bathroom scene THAT nasty? It's definitely foul-looking! I knew beforehand that it was supposed to smell too, so honestly I just kinda didn't breathe, and it was fine. Just imagine the worst gas station bathroom you've ever seen, x100 to a comical level, and you'll be sufficiently prepared. Next, the wet path: Is it THAT wet? I think it's as wet as you want it to be. You know how, like in a Lazy River, there are water spouts you can go under, but you don't HAVE to? It's a little like that. You will not walk through the wet path and exit completely dry, and for that I would suggest throwing your phone in your bag (I didn't, and it was completely fine, but I wish I had so I could've felt more comfortable going under the water). But, at the same time... you have the majority of control over the situation. It's not super long, either.

After we finally checked off all 10 (yay!), it was pretty late, so we headed to the back of the park to see what we could do, as wait times all over were pretty low at this point. We paid Jason a visit, which was a 25-minute wait on a posted 50-minute wait time (awesome). I enjoyed the house a lot more this time with expectations in check, and I have a new appreciation for the section of the house I've seen referred to online as "the gauntlet." I won't describe that in detail until later in the season, but it's way fun. The only issue was that this queue sucks, even when the line isn't long, and there just aren't enough TM's staffed throughout because multiple parties were cutting through the entire line (just pushing past everyone all the way to the front, where the TM doesn't notice what they just did or doesn't care). This is tricky for me because I always want to be like "no, I don't think so," but then I consider the potential altercation and decide it's just not worth it - especially since I know I'll be back. But blatant disrespect for others really irks me. Anyway, that's not Jason's fault - I've just never liked the F&F queue since they first introduced it to HHN, and last night did no favors.

Lastly, we headed around the way to the furthest back of the park and hit up Fallout, then Galkn, then Fallout again (all walk-ons, no wait, so we got to walk through alone each time!). As a diehard major Fallout fan, I can't help but feel a little left out. The Fallout house is fun, but when you measure it up to the effort put into Terrifier and FNAF, they sadly just can't be compared. I want to go to the alternate universe where Fallout has a bigger floorplan and three times the love, lol. I do feel bad to complain at all, though, since I know I'm probably in like the 1% of the fandom who has the opportunity to do this multiple times, but I just can't get over how, of course, it would be my favorite thing that would be the most low-effort of the IPs.

For all my criticism, this Thursday night was excellent and a good time - it's just as the event goes on, I feel more confident in my opinions and have had more time to think about them. Not too many photos this time, as I don't want to take a lot of repeats, but I'll try to grab some more of the active scarezones! Excited to see what tomorrow night (Saturday) brings!

Sunday night was a lot more like opening night than Saturday, in that it was much busier with larger crowds on the streets and in the queues. We switched up the plan from the previous two days (still arrived around 10) and skipped snacks first, instead deciding to hit up one of the busier houses we hadn't done yet - El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. It had the lowest wait time of the most popular front-of-park houses, at an intimidating 80 minutes! We decided this year that we weren't willing to wait over an hour for anything (since we're local and have season passes), but there really was nothing else doable. The house was quite nice - it had some really impressive sets with a lot of height, detail, and "wow factor." Not very scary, but houses with that level of detail usually aren't (for me, anyway). As grand as Artista is, I don't think it was worth the full 80 minutes - but I'm definitely at a point in life where NO house is, so that's not Artista's fault!

After the house, we decided to hit up the Friday the 13th food booth, as it was one of the few we really wanted to check out this season (for actual food, not just desserts/sweets). The Camp Crystal Lake theming is fun, and I like that the menu actually features unique items not regularly found in the park! The sausage portion was good but really could've used a little side like some style of potato (fries, chips, I don't know). The heat level is pretty medium - less hot than Wendy's spicy nuggets. The sauce was pretty tasty too! The s'mores... hmm. Hollywood's HHN has a different version of this item that's more traditional, while ours was a twist on the ingredients with chocolate bread, marshmallow spread, cereal, and some raspberry sauce? It was good in the sense that those ingredients are tasty on their own, but all together it was a little underwhelming. Not sure if we'll get these again, but I feel lucky to have been able to try some stuff special to the event this year!

Since we were already toward the back of the park and the front houses were still 60+, we made up for Fallout being down the night before and were able to hit it three times as nearly a walk-on! I was able to catch some more show references, and even finally realized "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" plays as you exit. Galkn next door was also super low, so we did that - it's a house I appreciate more for the sets and design now, but something just isn't clicking for me yet with it... Not sure why, it's really a fine house! Maybe the story is a little hard to understand?

And that was opening weekend! The party resumes tomorrow for HHN, but I think we're going to take another night off and maybe go back Thursday. Hoping to hit the last two houses we haven't tried yet (Terrifier and FNAF) then!

Night 2 in the books, with night 3 coming up in just a couple of hours - but first, blog update! Warning, essay incoming... Tl;dr, pretty chill and successful night! We approached it similarly to the first, starting off at the Today Cafe and trying some seasonal treats while waiting for lines to start coming down from their peak (around 10 PM again). Went with the pumpkin mousse and the caramel grave brownie, and omg... These were GREAT, and especially together. The brownie might be the best thing we've had so far, for both bomb flavor and creative presentation, but I gotta say, that pumpkin mousse is still on my mind. It was lovely to enjoy these with the backdrop of the masquerade vampire zone again! It feels a bit like dinner theatre, in the best way haha.

For the houses, we decided to try and work through some of the front houses after neglecting them during opening night. I won't go on about it too much because you'll only notice if you've been to the event before this year, but the layout is SO different from usual. This is probably because of the closure of Rip Ride Rockit and the construction related to that, so it's hard to say whether or not this is the new format going forward. Basically, the houses are just not located where they usually are, which has led to some confusion. Anyway, we started off with The Wyatt Sicks WWE house, which was better than I expected as someone out of the loop on wrestling outside of watching the Bray Wyatt documentary. So, to me, it had the vibe of a great original HHN house but with some WWE flavoring thrown in. Grave of Flesh was up next, which I thought would be another atmospheric graveyard house (not a bad thing), but it did bring something fresh to the table with some body horror elements.

Something worth noting - we learned many years ago that the best way to stay hydrated & save money is to bring a reusable water bottle to the event and refill it for free from the freestyle machines. Well, we finally had the idea this year to bring flavor packets, and honestly this is a complete game-changer (the free water kinda tastes bad if it's not cold, sometimes - this prevents that). However, as we were mixing it up last night, we failed to realize we were standing in front of the Christmas store, and Art the Clown dressed in his Santa costume was close by. He had a swarm of adoring fans, and it was a little chaotic. We think he was trying to 'break into' the store? They all showed up so quick!

After that eventful encounter, we headed to the back of the park where, to our surprise, the wait times were pretty reasonable at around 30-45 minutes! We hit Hatchet & Chains, Dolls, and wanted to follow up with Fallout, but it was delayed at that point (1:30 AM) and stayed that way. We ended up doing Hatchet and Dolls again instead, which was a nice bonus. Rob and I both love these two houses, and they exceeded our expectations, which were admittedly low on these (didn't really love Hatched and Chains when it was part of Slaughter Sinema 2 last year). Hatchet is a great spooky western, with huge immersive set pieces and cool animatronics. Have to note, however, that the theme playing outside is REALLY reminiscent of the Dead by Daylight theme to me - anyone else agree or am I way off? Dolls was a lot of fun too - it has interactive elements, specifically big red buttons that make certain scares happen when pressed, which is always an appreciated element. Creative concept, too - the house is designed to give you a toy's perspective, think like Toy Story - everything around you is larger than it should be.

It was time to head home after that. Overall, this was a much more successful and less stressful night than opening. Let's go, last night of the weekend!

Super exhausted but still hyped from last night - we're back from Night 1 of HHN 34! In the past, we've done Stay and Scream for opening night (early event admission for everyone already inside the park), but based on other opening night experiences in recent years and some other factors, we went in much later, like around 10.

The only problem was that wait times were peaking then, but that was okay since there were some snacks we really wanted to try, and those tend to sell out later on anyway. Started out with the Fallout booth, specifically the RadAway and the deviled eggs (not actually eggs, just a dessert shaped that way), which were pretty bomb! I have criticism about the rest of the menu, but this isn't a Fallout blog, so I'll just leave it at that. The RadAway bag is awesome though, and for my fellow HHN nerds - I feel it's worth noting that it's labeled as a "blood bag" on the receipt (a drink option that hasn't been been seen in a decade but was served in a similarly shaped pouch). Lastly, we got the toxic cake slice from the Today Cafe, and oh MAN was that thing ridiculous (complimentary). Perfect birthday weekend treat, 10/10, no notes!

After exploring the early scare zones, it was time to just bite the bullet and get into one of these long lines, so we decided to go with my most hyped and hit Fallout. There was so much to look at and absorb I really need to hit it again, but it was pretty freaking cool! My jaw dropped at the first set of power armor - just so cool to see IRL along with an actual terminal, (green-screened and all). There were some sets I felt needed a little love, but we'll see if anything gets tweaked through the season. We hit up Galkn next door after, which was a pretty northern occult themed house. It was a lot to absorb, so I'm looking forward to hitting it again as well.

We ended the night with the Jason Universe house, since at that point, we were realizing the time for it would never come down. First impression - it's wonderful to have Mr. Voorhees back at the event, since he hasn't been seen here since the 2015 Freddy vs. Jason house! A classic slasher icon is a necessary staple to me, and there were certainly no lack of Jasons here. There were several movie references, but not nearly to the level I was hoping for. This was more like a fan interpretation, with heavy use of the new "Jason Un1v3rse" mask. I did find the soundtrack to be really fitting, though, and it helped fill in some Friday the 13th movie vibes, which is something I feel the Fallout house could have done better (soundtrack).

And that was opening night! I definitely have some more thoughts on things, but for the sake of not letting this entry get novel-length, I'll save them for when they're next relevant. And who knows, my opinion always changes throughout the season!

It's already that time of year again?! Believe it or not, Halloween Horror Nights 34 will begin in just a few short days! I always take lots of photos, but I wanted to try something different this year by documenting the season here on this blog.

What to expect: I'll post stories + photos here, and will highlight my favorite pics on the side. I'm most looking forward to Fallout and Jason, so you can expect the most details on those properties! The photos below were taken in the weeks leading up to the event, so you can get a glimpse of some things in the daylight.