Is Halloween Horror Nights Worth The Price?
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights is celebrating their 26th year of operations. 26 years of being a huge hit to horror seekers around Florida that is. But as they continuously get better and better each year, their ticket prices continuously get higher and higher as well. There is good news and bad news to that though, lets start with the good news.
Universal lived up to the expectations of this year’s HHN26. Featuring American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the haunted houses were point on and kept guests on their toes through each room.
Along with the haunted houses, the cast was excellent. Cast members stayed in character all night scaring guests in the streets and using props to really add to the terrifying level. Universal also kept select rides open to help keep line lengths down.
But now for the bad.
The lines were a problem and tickets are expensive. Weekend tickets ranged from $104.99 for general admission to $82.99 for a Florida resident ticket. Now those are just admission prices. It is $149.99 (varies per day) for an express pass to bypass all the lines, and that doesn’t include admission.
Of course week days are cheaper for Florida resident tickets only, $55.99 with express passes priced at $119.99. But let me give you a little heads up, if you purchase an express pass there at the park it’s only $100 or $50 for passes starting at 10 p.m.
Okay so obviously the prices are going to be high as Universal continuously outdoes themselves each year on the scare factor, but like mentioned before the lines were a problem. I went on a Wednesday night and the wait time for the American Horror Story and the Walking Dead houses were two hours for each. Not bad right? Wrong. Here’s the problem with two hour wait times, HHN is only open from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday-Wednesday and 6:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Thursday-Sunday. That seems like a long time until you waste four hours of your six and a half hours in lines for just two out nine houses. Now keep in mind that two hour wait was on a weekday, imagine what a weekend wait time would be.
So here is a word to the wise if you plan on experiencing HHN, which I do highly recommend, then do yourself the favor of spending the money and buying an express pass. Without that express pass you miss out on so many houses, shows and rides.
Let’s do a little comparison. Scream-a-geddon is a new horror park in Dade City, Florida and has been getting really good reviews. The park has six attractions for one relatively cheap (compared to HHN) price.
Tickets to Scream-A-Geddon are as low as $21.95 for a weekday and $25.95 for a weekend. People also commented on the fact that lines are a lot shorter than at HHN or Howl-O-Scream suggesting you get more for your money.
Regardless, if you want a real scare factor any of these two parks will do the trick, it just comes down to how you want to pay and how long you want to wait.