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8/24/2021

Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights Survival Guide 2021

Every year Halloween Horror Nights seems to get bigger and bigger, and so do the crowds.

Below you will find some of our tips for making the most out of your Halloween Horror Nights experience. Some do's and don'ts and most importantly, what should be your "plan of attack" for the night.

You can also check out the HHN site for more information on tickets, hours, etc.

Event Dates

September: 9-12, 16-19, 23-26, 30
October: 1-3, 7-10, 14-17, 21-24, 28-31

If you want a bit more info about this years event, check out a pair of HHN panels from Midsummer Scream's Awaken the Spirits from a few weeks back.

Tips:

BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE!!! The event sells out. Tickets will not be available at the ticket booths. Make sure you print them or use your phone to get in the gates.
GET A FRONT OF THE LINE PASS!!! We can't stress this enough. If your budget can swing it this is truly the best way to have an enjoyable and relaxing night at the event. Click here for Front of the Line Pass info and prices. Front of the Line passes sell out so your best bet is to get them online.
DON'T GO ON A FRIDAY OR SATURDAY NIGHT!!! If you cannot swing the cost of the Front of the Line Pass then you should try to go on a slower night.
DON'T BE LATE!!! You are paying a LOT of $$ to go to HHN. Don't show up at 9:00pm and expect to do everything or expect there to be no lines. The event starts at 7:00pm, you should be lined up by 6:00pm AT THE LATEST. Earlier on Friday and Saturday nights.
USE EARLY ENTRY!!! Basically this is your best way to get into the event easily. Early Entry begins at 6:00.
- This means you need to be at the park and in line for early entry by 5:00!
IGNORE THE RIDES!!! (Unless you have a Front of the Line Pass). You are there for Halloween Horror Nights. You can come back on most days and ride Jurassic World, Mummy, The Simpsons or Transformers: 3D all you want. Especially if you have an Annual Pass. Ride lines are typically longer during HHN than they are during the day.
- If you have visitors from out of town, consider the After 2pm Day/Night Pass so you can ride during the day and get scared at night. These passes are available on the HHN site when you buy tickets.
Get the App!! The Universal Studios Hollywood app is great, even better during HHN. It will allow you to see what has long waits and what you can come back to later in favor of something not so long.
WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES!!! This should pretty much be a no brainer but you'd be surprised. With the return of Terror Tram this year you will still be walking A LOT. You will be taking escalators up and down to the lower lot. Do yourself a favor and be comfortable.
Avoid the busiest nights: HHN is busy every night, some nights are "less busy". Assume that any night not included with the regular Frequent Fear Pass to be the busiest nights. These would be Oct: Oct 9, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30.

Early Entry Attractions

The line-up for this years Early Entry attractions. Early Entry begins at 6:00pm every night.

Recommended Maze Order
We HIGHLY RECOMMEND you get to the park for Early Entry! This gives you your best chance to experience all of the attractions without Front of the Line.

Front of the Line tip: If lines are short when you get to the a particular attraction (or if you are there for Early Entry) DO NOT use your Front of the Line Pass early in the evening. Go through once in the stand-by line and then use your Front of the Line later in the evening. This way you get two trips through each Maze. With no backlot this year, getting back to a favorite maze will be rather easy.

The Exorcist:

Early Entry: As mentioned above, early entry will begin at 6:00pm. Since the Exorcist is available, it's in a soundstage (which means it's dark) you should definitely head here first. This will definitely be one of the more popular mazes of 2021.

No Early Entry: If you do not get there in time for early entry but are there at opening check the wait time for the Lower Lot Mazes. If they are 45 minutes or more, head to the Curious George Mazes first. The line will be there all night. Better to wait in some shorter lines and come back and wait for The Exorcist and Texas Chainsaw Massacre later.

Texas Chainsaw Massare

Early Entry: If you did early Entry, you should be through The Exorcist before 6:30 (we were out at 6:13 our first visit using this guide). This should give you plenty of time for a walk through of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Once you're done, head to the upper lot. If you want to ride Jurassic World, Mummy or Transformers, we recommend coming back down later in the evening once your Haunted attractions are done.

Note: For some reason, the maze in this location is ALWAYS one of the longest waits of the night, no matter what the theme is. That is certainly the case this year. Not sure if it's capacity or what. But depending on what time you get out of Exorcist, you may want to skip this and head upstairs. The wait time always seems longer than the posted time.

Haunting of Hill House and Pandora's Box

If you did early Entry, you should be getting to Hill House and Pandora's around 7:00pm. While the 7:00pm crowd is heading to the lower lot, you should head to the Curious George mazes.

Note: we did reverse the order of these two mazes and Terror Tram after opening night. Terror Tram was about 30-45 minutes consistently all night, while both of these got to be pretty long waits.

Front of the Line Tip: If you happen to get here and the lines or short (30 minutes or less), go through the Stand-By line and then use your Front of the Line so you get to experience each maze twice.

Terror Tram

After Hill House and Pandora you may need to take a break and get a snack. This is a good time to do it. Grab something in Springfield or Wizarding World before heading to the Terror Tram. Also, to note, both Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff were 5 minute waits all night on opening night. This isn't likely to be the case every night, but just a heads up.

Front of the Line Tip: If the line is relatively short, 30 minutes or less, you CAN go through the stand-by line and use your Front of the Line later. But remember, this experience generally takes 30-45 minutes from beginning to end and closes early, so you may not have time to do it twice. Plus, there's a LOT of walking on this one. =)

Halloween

After getting through the Terror Tram, hang a left and head back towards the front of the park and face off against Michael Myers. By this time of the night most of the crowds will be on the lower lot or terror tram.

Front of the Line Tip: Just like before, if the stand-by line is relatively short (30 minutes or less) go through the stand-by line and then you can head to Haddonfield one last time on your way out.

The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and The Walking Dead

It's getting late in the evening, you're tired, but you still have two mazes left to go. But that's ok, they are right next to each other. On Opening Night Bride of Frankenstein was super short after 10:00pm. And this one is NOT to be missed. In fact, you may want to do it more than once. Or 5 times. Walking Dead didn't have anything new, but did have new effects.

Front of the Line Tip: Just like before, if the stand-by line is relatively short (30 minutes or less) go through the stand-by line and then you can visit The Bride again. You can follow the same logic for The Walking Dead if you really missed it and need to go through twice.

Food

This year, the event has some special food offerings both on the Lower Lot and in the Minions Cafe. We will definitely be trying some of these on opening night and will post those pictures on Friday.

Jabbawockeez

Like the last few years, there is only one show at HHN this year. Once we get showtimes we'll update this with recommended times to go.

Once you have completed all the mazes you can hang around the scare zones and watch the talent, check the wait board to see if there are any short maze or ride lines or if you have a Front of the Line Pass use up any trips you haven't already.

Do some shopping, grab a t-shirt, hang out in the scare zones and drive home safely.

Chainsaw Chaseout!

If you are at the event until it closes you may get to experience the amazing "Chainsaw Chase-Out". It's a great HHN tradition, and one of our absolute favorite things at ANY event.

Alright, that'll do it for this years Survival Guide. We will be attending 2 nights over the first weekend (once with Front of the Line and once without) so we'll be updating this for sure early next week.

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8/24/2021

Universal Studios Hollywood Update: Super Nintendo World, HHN and More - August 24, 2021

This past weekend we headed out to Universal Studios Hollywood for a few hours of fun, breakfast in Wizarding World and of course to check out the progress on Super Nintendo World and Halloween Horror Nights prep.

It was an unseasonably cool day in the park (cool for SoCal is in the 70's) but for mid-August, very out of the ordinary. Let's hope the cool weather sticks around for Haunt Season. But we all know another heat wave is coming.

Let's head into the park to see what's going on. We've got pics and/or video for you this week!

Written by Gregg Condon

Usually when you see overcast weather in August, that means humidity. But nope, it was just pleasant.

Scare Zone progress on the upper lot!

Signs like this EVERYWHERE. And I hadn't seen that many masks since opening day of the park back in April.

Before enjoying breakfast at Three Broomsticks, we took a ride on Forbidden Journey. No single rider necessary.

Hogsmeade always looks so much better when it's gloomy.

We LOVE the facade for Bride of Frankenstein Lives

The exit of Bride of Frankenstein Lives

No progress on the Walking Dead sign yet

Believe it or not, we had never ridden this. So we did. It was silly and swirly.

On the Studio Tour, they're getting ready for the Terror Tram. The cars are now behind fences.

Prep outside the Bates Motel

More land clearing going on outside Falls Lake

Oh yeah, Super Nintendo World is still going on too!

Sorry for the super zoom. Hoping the upcoming iPhone 13 will be a bit better at this. :)

Not much change for Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Just more foliage it seems.

They have one of these "The Hundreds" shirts, whatever that is. I want this in adult size, without The Hundreds thing, because I don't know what it is. Seriously. Lol.

Lots of work going on around Pandora's Box and Haunting of Hill House

Most controversial facade ever

We hope you enjoyed! We'll be back at HHN Hollywood for opening night! Can't wait!

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8/10/2021

Universal Studios Hollywood Update: HHN and Super Nintendo World - August 10, 2021

Happy Tuesday everybody and welcome to another update from Universal Studios Hollywood.

Last week they unveiled merchandise for Super Nintendo World, so we figured a quick stop was in order.

Which of course meant checking out the latest HHN prep and Super Nintendo World progress. Enjoy!

Written by Gregg Condon