MERRY ADD-ON EXPERIENCES
The Universal Holiday Tour
Guests can take a guided tour of Universal’s holiday offerings across Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure and enjoy exclusive experiences during the Universal Holiday Tour, including:

• An exclusive meet-and-greet with The Grinch and his faithful dog Max;
• Reserved viewing area for Universal’s Holiday Parade featuring Macy’s;
• Reserved seating area for “The Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular;”
• Cookie decorating, light bites and non-alcoholic beverages;
• An exclusive meet and greet photo opportunity with Santa Claus in Universal Studios Florida;
• And priority access to one pre-determined attraction at Universal Studios Florida.

The Universal Holiday Tour is available on select dates beginning November 21, 2025 through January 3, 2026, and can be booked by visiting www.UniversalOrlando.com/Holidays. Pricing begins at $79.99 per person plus tax and separate theme park admission with a 1-Day 2-Park Park-to-Park ticket is required.

Annual and Seasonal Passholders can get a $10 discount per ticket per Passholder with a valid Annual or Seasonal Pass. Tickets for Passholders can be purchased through the VIP Call Center (1-866-346-9350) or by visiting the UOAP Lounge in Universal Islands of Adventure. Seasonal Passholder blockout dates apply

The Grinch & Friends Character Breakfast at Islands of Adventure
Guests can kick off a day of thrills by indulging in a delectable breakfast alongside beloved characters from Seuss Landing during The Grinch & Friends Character Breakfast at Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous. Guests will enjoy Seussian-themed eats and treats during this plated breakfast that includes menu items like Green Eggs & Ham Quiche, Mrs. Toffee Apple Dapple Cluck Crunch Chicken Sandwich, Betty Lou Who Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes, and more. Guests will also encounter Whos throughout the breakfast and enjoy an exclusive meet-and-great with The Grinch.

This add-on experience is available on select dates beginning November 21, 2025 through January 4, 2026 for $58.99 plus tax per adult and $32.99 plus tax per child (ages 3-9). Guests can book by visiting www.UniversalOrlando.com/Holidays.

HOLIDAY CHEER AT UNIVERSAL CITYWALK & UNIVERSAL ORLANDO HOTELS
Universal CityWalk
At Universal CityWalk, the Red Coconut Club will transform into the Green and Red Coconut Club for the holiday season, complete with festive decorations, live entertainment and holiday cocktails. This year’s theme is the “Mistletoe Pines Ski Lodge,” where guests will enjoy nods to their favorite Holiday songs amidst a vibrant atmosphere of dancing lights. Upstairs, guests will encounter Earl the Squirrel, who has brought his usual chaos and charm to Earl’s Twelve Days of Christmas. Guests can also meet this beloved Universal character on select dates in CityWalk Plaza.

Seasonal food and beverage offerings will also be available at restaurants throughout CityWalk like Bigfire and VIVO Italian Kitchen – and guests can enjoy a seasonal milkshake from The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen.
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Universal Orlando Resort Hotels
Guests can enjoy holiday festivities at all 11 Universal Orlando Resort hotels, which will be decked out with festive décor for the season. Special menus and delicious holiday buffets will be offered for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, and guests can join in on holiday celebrations including Christmas tree lightings, Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremonies, strolling carolers and more.

About Universal Orlando Resort  
Universal Orlando Resort is an award-winning, weeklong vacation destination that welcomes all to truly be themselves while enjoying world-class attractions that redefine theme park experiences. Here, a multitude of authentically thrilling, exciting and spontaneous adventures await – each inviting guests to embark on whatever vacation they crave while igniting their full range of emotions like never before – from the awe of walking the streets of Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to the rush of adrenaline that takes over when coming face-to-face with a Velociraptor in Jurassic Park to the wide-eyed joy of seeing an entire slice of cake atop a delectable milkshake at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen. 

Universal Orlando Resort is home to four exhilarating theme parks that boast some of the most innovative and immersive experiences ever created – Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Volcano Bay, and the all-new Universal Epic Universe. Guests can also relish in exciting dining and entertainment at the Universal CityWalk entertainment complex and enjoy incredible accommodations and magnificent theming across eleven hotels that offer something for every style and budget: Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel, Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Loews Sapphire Falls Resort, Universal Stella Nova Resort, Universal Terra Luna Resort, Universal Aventura Hotel, Universal Cabana Bay Beach Resort, and Universal Endless Summer Resort – Surfside Inn and Suites & Dockside Inn and Suites. 
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Universal Orlando Resort is a part of Universal Destinations & Experiences, a unit of Comcast NBCUniversal. ​

It's time for our yearly blog post outlining the price increases coming to Disney Parks. 

If you've followed us for awhile you'll know that we always like to break down the prices for Disney Parks in the US and also compare them to other theme parks and other things like concerts or ski lift tickets or sporting events. And we'll do that too. 

But this year I just have to ask ... IN THIS ECONOMY!?!?! ​

Seriously Disney. What has been done in your parks to justify this years price increases?

When we were in FL a couple of weeks ago there were at least 10 animatronics broken in the Little Mermaid ride. And apparently they've been broken for a LONG time. 

I see daily updates on the state of Tiana's Bayou Adventure and the broken animatronics there. Your new state of the art attraction that you rushed to get open instead of making sure the animatronics worked, and also apparently didn't spend the time to fix the 35 year old ride system that desperately needed it. 

Don't even get me started on the $40 to park at Disneyland so you can then spend 45 minutes going through security because you're using humans to rummage through everybody's bags. You know better systems exist. You use them at Walt Disney World. You use them at runDisney events in Anaheim. If you were maybe investing that $40 into improving the entry process at your parks then maybe we'd possibly be okay with it. Never mind, parking fees are the biggest scam around. Everywhere. 

And we won't even get started on the new turnstile entry process for the parks in Anaheim. That's a whole other article. 

​Whew, felt good to get that out. Let's dive into the prices. 

Our goal here is to give you all of the information you need in one place and not have separate articles for every increase. Seriously people, do you really need to write a separate article just for the parking increases?

​We see you. 

We're going to start with Disneyland of course. We'll break down the prices and their increase below and I'll share some thoughts once you've had a chance to review them. 

Lightning Lane prices have also gone up at Disneyland $2. Didn't think you needed a table for that. =)

​At the end of the day it's telling that the only ticket/pass type that didn't get an increase are the two lower-tier magic key passes. Remember back before Covid when Disney was desperately trying to get rid of the "undesirable attendance mix". Those lower tier passes are who they were referring to. They had a golden chance to remove those two lower tier passes when the parks reopened, and let's be honest, remove payment plans, but the finance people got involved and here we are. 

The fact that Saturdays during the Summer, Halloween, and the Holidays are now the most lightly attended days at the two Disneyland parks shouldn't be lost on anybody. Finance loves that the parks are full almost every day. They're fine having the lower attendance days full of only the top-tier Magic Key holders who are likely only coming to buy merchandise and sample holiday food and drinks. 

They love that reservations have created a false sense of demand for the parks.

​They love that AP's feel that they need to purchase Lightning Lanes every few visits so they can actually ride the attractions in a timely manner. 

Let's face it, Disney has become a kind of "status symbol" and having access to the parks has become "Disney Adult Chic". Disney knows this. We have Magic Keys too. I'm not saying this as somebody on the outside looking in. All of our algorithms are full of people posting from the parks on Instagram (and I assume Tik Tok).

​We want to be there too. And we're willing to pay through the nose to do it. 

Unlike past years, we have a bit more to say about Walt Disney World tickets. Over the past 18 months we've purchased a Disney Travel package with 7-day park hoppers, upgraded those park hoppers to Annual Passes, used those annual passes for our trip last January and also purchased a special event ticket and 1-day/1-park ticket during our recent trip since we didn't renew our Annual Passes. 

​So I definitely have some thoughts. 

Also note: Unlike Disneyland, Walt Disney World isn't really built for 1-day visits. And they certainly don't want you visiting for only 1-day. There are far too many ticket combination scenarios to outline in this post. But we will outline the One Day Ticket increases as well as Annual Pass, Parking and Lightning Lane increases.

Adding in multiple days, park hopping, waterparks, etc will make your ticket price vary. But your per-day ticket price will come down the more days you add. 

That's how they get you. =) 

The biggest thing here, and as always when it comes to Walt Disney World Annual Passes is the extreme discount provided to Florida Residents. Not only are their Annual Passes much less than their counterparts at Disneyland, but they receive significant discounts for renewing their passes. 

The only WDW AP that is available to non-Florida residents is the Incredi-Pass, which does not have a payment plan option for those without DVC. 

As said at the top, the ticketing options for Walt Disney World are so confusing that you really need to just price it out based on the days you are going, how many days you are going, if you want to park-hop, etc. Couple that with hotel stays and it's just too much to outline here. But there are increases to each of those options. Don't let them fool you. 

And anybody who thought that maybe somebody Lightning Lane would go away, it's not. Disney has found a cash cow that requires very little overhead. 

This is generally the spot where we outline other theme park prices and compare them to Disney. Which we are going to do ... a bit. We've already had extensive updates this year on Six Flags prices. We expect Universal, SeaWorld Parks and others to follow with price increases over the next few weeks. It's just the nature of things. So we'll update this when those prices come out. 

Six Flags

If you think there is a lot of confusion with Disney price increases this year, you haven't tried to figure out what passes and pass types work at Six Flags/Cedar Fair parks this year. It's far too much to outline in this post. 

But you can check it all out here. 

Alright, that's going to wrap it up, for now. We will update this post when we get the expected price increases for the rest of the major theme parks in the weeks to come. 

As always this information is subject to change at any time. 

Let us know your thoughts on these increases below. Do you think they're justified? Even if you don't, is that going to stop you from renewing your pass or taking that next vacation? 

​​If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on BlueSky, Instagram, Threads and YouTube

​[LOS ANGELES, CA, September, 2025] - DrownedOut Productions invites you to experience their halloween show, People In The Dark: An Immersive Ghost Story, this October in Downtown Los Angeles. Join the Lost Legends Ghost Tours on a thrilling face-to-face encounter with Hollywood’s forgotten past. Rooted in premier elements of immersive theater and traditional haunted houses, this is a ghost story like no other!

This all-new Halloween show comes on the heels of DrownedOut’s sold-out run of their immersive horror experience Limos in April. With the scale of this new production, Jackson hopes that People in the Dark will deliver a unique experience that stands out in Los Angeles’ abundant haunt lineup and elevates DrownedOut Productions to become the newest major player in the Los Angeles immersive scene.
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“This show is a huge step up from anything we’ve done before, this show incorporates every tip and trick we know to create a compelling cinematic horror experience” director and owner Jackson comments, “Most of our team has day jobs working as theme park designers, this is our chance to step out and create our own little love letter to all things horror and immersive.”

​People In the Dark will run October 10th to 31st at 1035 S. Olive St, Downtown LA, 90015. Show times vary per evening. Tickets can be purchased for $66.60 at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/drownedoutproductions/1815495

​ABOUT DROWNEDOUT PRODUCTIONS
Based in Los Angeles, DrownedOut Productions is an immersive theater group specializing in elevated horror experiences. With deep expertise and passion in the theme park industry, the team crafts intimate and thematic experiences that will drown out the outside world and leave a lasting feeling of unease, discovery and spectacle.
 
No Proscenium - “An impressive debut from a talented new voice in immersive entertainment”
Midsummer Scream - “You’re in for a treat’
Audience Member - “It felt like I was living a horror movie”
 
Website: https://www.drownedoutproductions.com 
Follow us on Instagram: @DrownedOutProductions

LOS ANGELES, AUGUST 26, 2025 – This fall, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group returns to Griffith Park at the iconic Los Angeles Haunted Hayride for its 17th season, bringing with it an electrifying new partnership with the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira (Cassandra Peterson). Running from September 19 through November 2, tickets start at $38.99 on select nights and with pre-sale live now. Secure your ticket to the Hayride now at losangeleshauntedhayride.com.   

For the first time ever, Elvira has taken up residence in Midnight Falls, transforming the fan-favorite Trick or Treat maze into “Elvira’s Trick or Treat Mayhem”. Guests will also discover Elvira-themed photo ops, exclusive merchandise across all Thirteenth Floor locations nationwide(including limited-edition pins, t-shirts, VHS mystery boxes, advent calendars, and more), and even the sound of her unmistakable voice echoing throughout the event as she takes over Midnight Falls’ radio station. 

The iconic Haunted Hayride will also be blending nostalgic scenes from the original Hayride with all-new soundscapes and eerie encounters, delivering a chilling balance of scares and classic Halloween spirit. New this year, Elvira takes center stage in Elvira’s Trick or Treat Mayhem, a candy-coated labyrinth of chaos brimming with her signature wit, glamour, and wicked mischief, where a bizarre surprise awaits at every turn. The fright continues deep in the backwoods with Hellbilly Halloween, where a cannibalistic family celebrates the season with gruesome tricks and horrifying treats. Guests are invited back to Monáe Manor, for another hauntingly stylish house party hosted by icon, Janelle Monáe.

“We are thrilled to announce LA Haunted Hayride’s collaboration with Elvira this year! We are all ready for her to ‘move in’ and enhance the retro Halloween horror experience throughout LA Haunted Hayride,” said Jen Bendik, General Manager. “We’re excited to bring nostalgic Halloween back to guests with iconic scenes returning to the Hayride and much more. This is a year guests won’t want to miss!”

In addition to the Hayride and mazes, guests can immerse themselves in the cursed community of Midnight Falls, browse the general store for exclusive merchandise, and indulge in Halloween-themed food, mocktails, activities, and attractions. New this year, the Cider Mill Experience lures visitors into a cozy lounge bathed in autumn glow, where warm apple cider and fresh apple cider donuts offer a fleeting comfort amidst the shadows.

This year’s Los Angeles Haunted Hayride will feature the following 2024 add-ons:

• Elvira Pop Up Retail shop – New! Guests can explore the delightfully dark Elvira Pop-Up Retail Shop, showcasing a curated collection of merchandise inspired by the Mistress of the Dark. From witty tees to limited-edition accessories and official collectibles, the spooky storefront offers something for every fan and is open during attraction hours.
• Scary-Go-Round (Elvira Edition) – Reimagined for 2025! The iconic ride has been reskinned in honor of Elvira’s beloved pup, Gonk.
• The Monte Revolta Show – Get ready for the ultimate Theatrical Macabre Experience from beyond the grave. It’s Monte Revolta… the undead irreverent lounge singer who is bringing the dead back to Rock. Join Monte, Rotly & Ms. Muerte as they exhume an ultra shocking musical, comedy revue.
• Mini Escape Games – Step into a chamber where time itself becomes the enemy. In just five fleeting minutes, groups must unravel cryptic riddles and hidden clues before the clock tolls its final second. Failure means being forever trapped in the puzzle’s sinister embrace.
• Madame Aurora’s Seance Show– Within the velvet shadows of her tent, world-famous medium Madame Aurora dares to pierce the veil once again. For ten harrowing minutes, she beckons spirits to cross into our realm, their whispers curling through the dark. Beware: not all who answer her call come bearing peace. This immersive theatrical ritual is not for the faint of heart.
• Midnight Falls Axe Throwing – With the curse of the witch plaguing the city of Midnight Falls, learn to protect yourself from the less-than-friendly ghouls. The Axeperts at Midnight Falls will train you up and you can try your hand at hitting the bullseye 5 times.
• Zombie Splat – The dead refuse to rest in Midnight Falls, and only your aim can hold them back. Armed with a hopper of 700 glowing GellyBalls, guests are thrust into a live-action apocalypse, firing upon relentless actor-driven zombies. Safe yet thrilling, this five-minute battle comes complete with protective eyewear, though nothing will shield you from the terror in their eyes.
• S’mores Stations – At the heart of Midnight Falls lies the Town Square, flickering with the glow of firelight. Here, guests may pause to roast their own s’mores beneath the watchful gaze of roaming townsfolk.

For more information, visit losangeleshauntedhayride.com and follow LA Haunted Hayride on Facebook and Instagram. The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride is located at Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90027. 

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Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group
Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group (“13FEG”) is the world’s largest producer and operator of theme park-quality entertainment events. 13FEG currently operates 30 attractions, including haunted houses, Halloween festivals, and year round location-based entertainment venues. 13FEG continues to set the bar for live horror entertainment, operating in 18 cities across the United States. Thirteenth Floor is headquartered in Denver, CO with offices in Austin, TX and Los Angeles, CA. Learn more at ThirteenthFloor. com.

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