Surviving Universal's Halloween Horror Nights 2024 (UPDATED)
Rankings, food complaints and tips for disabled attendees included
I hate that we start celebrating spooky season in October. Part of this is because my birthday is on the first and, apparently, that’s also now the day we immediately slam on the door on summer and welcome in our pumpkin overlords. But, also, I identify Halloween with a chill in the air (however slight it is living in Southern California) and a closeness to the fall and….I ain’t feeling that after we just ended a 110 degree heatwave.
But even I’ve fallen victim to it, as I did my first drop-in to Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights, a yearly tradition in my family. This year we bought the Frequent Fear Pass in the hopes of taking a more leisurely trip through the mountain of fear and not having to feel obligated to stay till 1am just to see everything. So I wanted to spend this newsletter giving some tips for those visiting the theme park (in Hollywood) for Horror Nights, particularly those with disabilities, as well as my overall thoughts on this year and the mazes I saw.
Let’s start with disability access in the park. If you can’t wait in lines you will need to set up an appointment to get Universal’s access pass. This does require a few days of prep and a doctor’s note. I’m not sure how this works if you forget and attend HHN, as I don’t use the system, but it’s worth planning out ahead of time. That being said, if you are a standard wheelchair or disabled person who can wait in the lines, they are all accessible (for the most part).
This is actually a long-time coming for Universal as, in previous years, they had a complicated and annoying system in place to make disabled patrons return at a given time because the lines weren’t accessible. (I’ve always doubted this because, having done the Express lines there never seemed to be access impediments.) So, as someone who isn’t tall enough to ride the thrill rides, this generally required my party and I to sit for however many minutes, sometimes hours, and wait to return. They’ve done away with that, particularly on the Upper Lot, and now all the lines are accessible for wheelchair users to wait in.
However, there are 2 tips I feel could save you a lot of time and aggravation.
Start at Harry Potter and the Upper Lot
My plan is always the same: start on the lower lot and work your way up. If you have any type of mobility issues you’ll be spending a lot of time riding (and waiting) for various small shuttles to take you from A to B. So, in years past, it’s been better to just knock all the mazes down there out because you’ll end up waiting at least 45 minutes each way as the night goes on.
But because of changes to the Lower Lot process it benefits disabled patrons to start with the 2 mazes near Harry Potter land, Insidious and Ghostbusters. This is a VERY long walk — there is a shuttle but you’ll have to wait for it — over various pavements. Since there’s nothing else over there it’s best to just get it out of the way. After that, snag the elevator by the escalators and hop onto the shuttle to get to the Lower Lot. No doubt to deal with the small space of the Lower Lot and not have disabled people waiting in an area they can’t leave the theme park has implemented a return time system.
Now, this isn’t like how it used to be where you’d go to a maze, run back to the podium, and the worker would calculate a time — based on the current wait time — for you to visit the maze. That could be as brief as 30 minutes or as long as 90 minutes in the past. Instead, they give you cards for all 4 mazes on the lot with times in 10 minute increments. You’ll exit one maze and then hit up the next. No running back and forth. You’ll be in the Express line, so there is often a wait the later it gets, but it’s not nearly as cardio heavy as it used to be. So, once the shuttle drops you off by Jurassic Park, immediately go through the line to the escalators and get your passes.
(I am gonna cite one little safety thing here. The tram drops the disabled patrons near the Jurassic World ride and requires them to walk through the entire queue out to the park. This can get very scary and congested as patrons trying to ride the water ride AND access the maze in the area are all coming in the opposite direction. Not sure how this can be fixed but if you’re someone who is small-statured, be ready to duck and dodge, or have someone tall walk ahead.)
Terror Tram and the Shuttle Conundrum
I love the Terror Tram, although this year’s was probably the weakest presentation of it; I’ll get into that in a second. But every year it’s an issue if you’re a wheelchair user (it’s a different process if you’re using a motorized scooter). This year the employees really tried to push me into taking, say it with me now, the shuttle they offer to transport you down. But said shuttle doesn’t have any of the video elements and the tram experience. It’s just riding in a van and that’s not exactly the point of the terror tram to me. So I always push to just take the tram down and come back on the shuttle. In year’s past this was the only option as the tram, upon return to the Upper Lot, doesn’t load on the side where the wheelchairs can be placed. Also to note, they don’t use the wheelchair ramps for the trams during HHN so you’ll need to be able to step up onto the tram and be able to lift your chair in.
This year, I was told unless my wheelchair folded I would not be able to take the tram. I asked why and when the process had changed — I’ve done it successfully for 8 years — and was told they didn’t have anyone able to physically tie my wheelchair down. I understand why, they want to keep turnover high. I was able to explain that I was more than happy to hold onto my wheelchair from the seat I’d be transferred into and it was okay so, again, you might have to do some advocating here. That being said, the return shuttle back up is a nightmare process still that will take forever so plan accordingly. (Seriously, in the 40 minutes we waited for a shuttle that carries 10 people I saw 15 trams full of people go by. Just load on the other side, Universal. Please!)
Overall Thoughts on This Year’s HHN
Again, I have a Frequent Fear pass and will be returning several times throughout this month and October. And they’re still working out a lot of kinks here and there. As far as the artistry of the mazes go, this year was utterly beautiful. So many mazes were exquisite to just stand and look at, when you weren’t being scared out of your wits, particularly the Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines one. But it did feel like the Scareactors felt more limited, just one or two in certain scenes. Multiple scares in one location were a rarity.
Probably the biggest disappointment to me was the Stay-Puft Marshmallow S’more they’re advertising. It’s presented as a torched marshmallow to make a hot s’more which, in theory, I am here for! Social media was lit up with influencers buying this and saying how it was the best thing ever. Now, maybe it was an off night, but expectations versus reality led to disappointment. This was a Stay-Puft marshmallow of lies! I was presented a completely cold s’more. Just a slab of cold graham cracker with a cold, hard slab of (unmelted) Hershey’s chocolate. And on top was a slimy, gelatinous (and cold!) marshmallow man. And that torched coloring you see? Pretty sure we’re looking at food coloring. There was no toasted marshmallow taste, just bland marshmallow. Seriously, what did I miss?
Maze Rankings
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
I’m an Old Hollywood nerd, as you know, so it’s not surprising this year’s Universal Monsters maze was my favorite. More than anything it was because it was housed in Soundstage 12, where Universal monster movies like Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein were filmed. Stepping into that history was fantastic. On top of that, this maze is just beautiful. There’s so much attention to detail and seeing a warrior Bride of Frankenstein was epic!
Dead Exposure: Death Valley
This one was downright creepy! For every scare I could plan for there was at least one I didn’t. I also love mazes that utilize every element of an environment, even the floor! I spend a lot of time looking down to make sure I don’t run into any uneven ground, and I was so happy to see blood trails and other things on the floor here to both create an immersive environment and also for people who might not always be looking up.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre and any maze focused on it had to bring the terror. This one combines all the various incarnations of Leatherface for a truly shocking and creepy maze. If you are a person that likes to look up, there are are some great moments in a makeshift stockyard with Leatherface above you that will definitely make you feel like cattle.
Late Night With Chucky (Show)
I’m a HUGE Chucky fan so the minute I heard a show was coming to HHN it became a top priority for me. This 10-minute show plays like the killer doll has his own show. The problem is he keeps killing everyone. The audience can ask questions that Chucky — with an actor hidden somewhere — will answer. The animatronic doll is limited in movement and the voice actor definitely doesn’t sound like Brad Dourif, but the jokes all hit and there’s a lot of fun packed into just 10 minutes. (Sit in the front row if you can to get a great look at everything.) I want to see this come back next year.
Insidious: Into the Further
This is a relentlessly scary maze. Multiple scares around every corner. This one also have a ton of queasy smells! It feels like one of the longest mazes — no doubt because of how many twists and turns are packed in — which only keeps your head on a swivel. One room, shrouded in darkness, also have a really fun bit of misdirection that led to a truly great scare.
Monstruos 2: The Nightmares of Latin America
Honestly, this and The Weeknd are probably tied. They’re fairly interchangeable, in my opinion. I gave the edge to Monstruos 2 for at least having a coherent narrative I could follow. The various monster masks are highly inventive and the atmosphere is so immersive.
The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy
I had a lot of fun with the last Weeknd maze that happened. This year Universal went even bigger with a Weeknd-esque DJ spinning the artist’s tracks throughout the night a prelude to the maze. But I felt the story just wasn’t there this year. Also, there was a lot of dead space (pun intended), and while it was a beautiful maze to look at, scares were limited.
A Quiet Place
This one was interesting to me as the theme park advertised the first use of ASL in a maze. I’d be interested to know how it was utilized though because, outside of the Scareactor playing Reagan doing a few gestures, it didn’t seem integrated into things. This one was also pretty dull. All the alien effects are large-scale animatronics, not actors. I’d have loved some contortionist skittering around or something. Lot of loud noises but little else to recommend it.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
This definitely was one of the more narratively compelling mazes, albeit devoid of scares. The special effects are fantastic, though you’re moving so quickly through the maze it’s easy to miss them. Your mileage on this will vary greatly depending on if you enjoy the Ghostbusters franchise (I generally don’t) and saw Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (which I didn’t).
Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse
The Terror Tram works best when it has a story to play off of. The year they did Koodles the Clown, a deranged clown/former Universal actor who haunts the lot, is still my favorite HHN thing. But this year was a glorified advertisement for the Blumhouse movies which, fine. However, once you get on the tram the tour guide does a little preamble and then is completely silent the rest of the way down. Part of why the Terror Tram works is usually the guide freaking you out and hyping you up for what’s to come. That’s absent here.
And once you get to the haunted house there’s zero cohesion. It’s just a series of theme rooms, like an art gallery, where presentations of scenes are played out. The M3gan room, the one I was most excited for, saw her barricaded behind a fence playing out quick scenes. No actors wandering around or interaction. When you get to the section devoted to The Purge the more traditional interaction returns but it’s too little too late. By that point the maze is over thanks to the Jupiter’s Claim set from Nope being presented as an “exclusive” perk for those taking the expensive RIP tours.
What are your tips for surviving Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights? How does access differ in the Florida park? Leave your comments below or subscribe to discuss it in our personal chat.