Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights, also known as HHN is the most popular Halloween event in all of Southern California. The event runs from the second week of September to the last week of October. Every year HHN sets up a theme for the scares that season, along with scare zones that consist of 'scare actors' whose responsibility is to scare people who are walking in and past that zone.
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The main attraction of Halloween Horror Nights are the scare mazes. There is so much hype around what these scare mazes will consist of, and so many people on social media even put out conspiracies on the future theme of the mazes. For the year of 2023, HHN had the following haunted mazes:
1. Stranger Things
2. The Exorcist Believer
3. The Last Of Us
4. Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count
5. Universal Monsters: Unmasked
6. Evil Dead Rise
7. Monsters of Latin America
8. Holidayz In Hell
9. Terror Tram - The Exterminatorz
Sounds pretty scary, right?
Well, I attended HHN this year on September 16. The TRUE horror of HHN was how horrendously long the wait times were for the haunted houses, rides, entrance, and quick service food!
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| Long lines for Haunted Mazes |
My partner and I got in line for security at 7 p.m. and did not get into the park until 8 p.m. We waited about one to two hours for every maze and only had the chance to get on 4 mazes the entire night.
One of the most popular mazes was 'The Last Of Us' and the line for that maze was INSANE!! It stretched twice around the backlot area with a whopping wait time of four hours. At almost $100 per ticket, you would expect to not wait four hours for a haunted experience.
Overall, Halloween Horror Nights 2023 is almost exhausting and a waste of money if you do not invest almost $300 for a fast lane ticket. The real terror of Horror Nights were the wait times.
I just also went to Halloween Horror Nights for the first time and it was so crowded it was genuinely hard to enjoy my time there. Since I did not opt into paying for the Fast Pass, the lines made my experience less enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! I went to my first one last year and it just wasn't worth it since all the lines were painfully long!
ReplyDeleteEeek, on those wait times! I read an LA Times story about The Monsters of Latin America. Too scary for me! (whispers: La Llorona.)
ReplyDeleteI have never been to Halloween Horror Nights, but have always wanted to go. I feel like I am missing out each year, but now I am thinking maybe my money will be better spent on other Halloween festivities!
ReplyDeleteI get scared walking around Party City in October, so I'd never go to HHN, but my sister goes and sends me pictures. She shared the same thoughts as you though -- way too crowded to really make it worth it.
ReplyDeleteI have not gone to HHN for that exact reason. It gets so packed the time for the lines are ridiculous. I've heard it is only worth it if you get the ticket to cut lines but even then that can be pricey for some.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of going this year, but once I started to see videos on Instagram and TikTok about how long the lines were, I decided not to go. I was sad because I wanted to see The Stanger Things Maze, The Last of Us, and Monsters of Latin America, but I ended up just staying home and watching them on YouTube. I was also excited to see Terror Tram, which happened to be The Exterminatorz, but after watching videos on it, I thought it was kind of a letdown.
ReplyDeleteI went this year with my friend and I personally thought the Stranger Things Maze was very underdeveloped and very lazy. Onto of that it was the longest line of them all. My friends and I share the opinion that Monsters of Latin America maze was the best
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