How much are tickets for universal halloween horror nights

September 1, 2022

In this post we discuss one of theme park fandom’s premier holiday events—Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort. I’ll provide some information about the event, as well as detailing my experience and what I thought of this popular Halloween event. Read on to learn all about Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort!

Halloween Horror Nights 2022 Dates

Halloween Horror Nights is being held select nights September 2 through October 31. It is held Wednesday through Sunday, except September 14.

Halloween Horror Nights Basics

If you want to get straight to my experience and thoughts on the event, you can click here or scroll down to “My Halloween Horror Nights (Orlando) Experience.” Otherwise, we’re going to start with the basic information about Halloween Horror Nights.

What is Halloween Horror Nights?

In brief, Halloween Horror Nights is a ticketed event at Universal Studios Florida where the park is transformed with Halloween theming and haunted houses are opened for guests to walk through.

It’s a much more grown up event than, say, Disney After Hours Boo Bash, with the focus really being on the darker side of halloween—think blood, guts, creepiness, and, most important, scares! There are Halloween Horror Nights events at several Universal resorts, but we’re focused just on Universal Orlando in this post.

As for what’s included—rides, haunted houses, Scare Zones, shows, and exclusive food / beverage / merchandise for purchase. I’ll cover all these in more detail below.

When does Halloween Horror Nights start?

In 2022, Halloween Horror Nights begins September 2 and goes through October 31. The hours are usually 6:30PM to 1AM or 2AM.

How To Buy Halloween Horror Nights Tickets

Halloween Horror Nights does occasionally sell out, so it’s best to buy your tickets in advance. In fact, part of what made me pick tonight was that two days later in the week—the cheaper days—were already sold out.

You can buy tickets online. Halloween Horror Nights has its own website, but several links will take you back to the Universal Orlando website, including the ticket purchase links. There is currently not a Florida Resident Discount for Halloween Horror Nights tickets.

You have the option of connecting the tickets to your Universal account as a mobile ticket, printing them at home, or picking up at a will call kiosk.

You can buy Halloween Horror Nights tickets at the gate, but they’ll be more expensive than online tickets, and you’re going to want to buy in advance anyways in case the event sells out.

When do Halloween Horror Nights Tickets Go On Sale?

In 2022, tickets were on sale as of June 23.

How Much Are Halloween Horror Nights Tickets?

The single night ticket for Halloween Horror Nights ranges from $70.99 to $99.99 per person, pre-tax. But there are several other ticket options and add-ons for Halloween Horror Nights.

There are two tours available for purchase. Behind-the-Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour ($79.99) is a daytime your that gives a behind-the-scenes look at a few houses. RIP Tour is a VIP Tour during the event that gets you, among other things, quicker access to houses. This Halloween Horror Nights VIP ticket isn’t cheap, though, costing $299.99 plus tax or more.

There are also four passes—Rush of Fear, Frequent Fear, Frequent Fear Plus, and Ultimate Frequent Fear—that grant you access to multiple nights of Halloween Horror Nights. Starting at only $130 (pre-tax), these passes can be good value if you’re thinking about visiting multiple times, something we’ll discuss more below.

Finally, there are three add-ons. Scream Early ($30) gets you into Universal Studios Florida—the park where the event is held—for two hours before it starts. This serves two purposes. First, it allows you to enjoy the park for two hours. Second, it allows you to get in line for select houses early between the time the park closes and the time the rest of the Halloween Horror Nights guests (i.e. those who didn’t have park access today) are let in.

The Halloween Horror Nights Scareactor Dining Experience is a $55 themed buffet meal with unique photo opportunities.

Last but not least is the Halloween Horror Nights Express Pass. Like the regular ol’ Universal Orlando Resort Express Pass, this pass will get you into a shorter line for select attractions (you can use it once at each attraction). At Halloween Horror Nights, this includes all ten haunted houses and all the operational attractions (six, the night I went). Halloween Horror Nights Express pass starts at $109.99—that’s right, more than your ticket—and (spoiler alert), I’m going to say later on that it’s probably not worth it.

I bought my tickets online, same-day for a Saturday event from 6:30PM to 2AM. I paid $94.99+tax for the ticket and $159.99+tax for the Express Pass, bringing the total cost for my event to $271.56. I opted to pick up the tickets from a will call kiosk (I don’t like using my phone as a ticket, it’s got enough jobs).

I opted for Express Pass because I’d never been the HHN before and wanted to make sure I experienced as much as I could. Usually I write strategy-style posts, so you might expect something like the best order to visit the houses in, but I can’t offer that (nor would I encourage you to think about this event that way, as we’ll see).

Do you need a park ticket for Halloween Horror Nights?

No! If you have a park ticket for the same day, you’ll be able to stay in the park between park close and the event start, which allows you to queue for select houses in advance. Otherwise (unless you buy the aforementioned Scream Early add-on), you’ll just be let into the park near the event start time.

Is Harry Potter World open during Halloween Horror Nights?

Diagon Alley, the part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Florida, is open during the event, as is the Escape from Gringotts Ride. Hogsmeade, located in the other park (Islands of Adventure) is not a part of the event since it’s in the other park, and the Hogwarts Express does not run between the parks during the event.

My Halloween Horror Nights (Orlando) Experience

[NB: This section is based on the 2021 event. While houses / themes change year after year, the basic structure of the experience is the same.]

In case you skipped the above section, I visited on a Saturday event from 6:30PM to 2AM. I paid $94.99+tax for the ticket and $159.99+tax for the Express Pass, bringing the total cost for my event to $271.56.

As a Universal Orlando Resort annual passholder, I had access to the park before 5PM (the time it closed), so I got there about 4:45PM to make sure I could utilize the Stay and Scream area.

Stay and Scream & My First House

The Stay and Scream areas are spaces where HHN guests can hang out, eat some food, and queue for a few houses between the time the park closes and the event officially starts (5PM and 6:30PM, tonight).

I have to confess to not being a total expert on this. I was in the Stay and Scream area in the New York section of the park. They scanned our tickets to enter, and I was able to grab a 21+ wristband once inside. Then…I waited.

There were queues for two haunted houses—Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Bride of Frankenstein, along with a few snack stands. I had the No Chance In Hell PB&J, a deep fried Uncrustable PBJ. It was pretty good.

There was no merchandise for sale inside the Stay and Scream section, which I found odd since I would have loved to shop. Maybe you could walk over to the Tribute Store, but it was technically outside the holding area.

I didn’t realize at the time there were other Stay and Scream areas with queues for other haunted houses. I found this out a few nights later when I wanted to grab a beer at Moe’s and found it had closed early and become a Stay and Scream area. If you’re planning to strategically visit the houses, you might want to look more into which Stay and Scream area is best. Next time, I’d hang out at Moe’s because I like it there.

I didn’t need to queue for the houses because I had express pass, but the blogger in me got the better of things and I decided to walk into the tail end of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre queue as it headed to the house. I got in line at 5:43PM and was inside (not using express pass, remember) my first Haunted Horror Nights house at 6:22PM. I’m going to reflect more on the houses below, right now I want to keep discussing the event.

Now it was almost 6:30PM and the event had officially begun. Here’s a look at what there is to do at Halloween Horror Nights.

What To Do at Halloween Horror Nights

Quickly, I just want you to know (almost) all this information is available in the Universal app, at the Halloween Horror Nights website, and in the guidemap available at the event. You definitely will want to use the app to keep an eye on wait times at the houses.

Haunted Houses. There are ten (10) of these with entrances scattered throughout the park. The houses themselves are mostly backstage and sometimes require long walks (regardless of your wait) to get to and from. They have different themes—Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tooth Fairy’s Revenge, The Haunting of Hill House, and so on—but all follow basically the same model.

The houses are all on the event map. You’ll get in line for the house, which has a posted approximate wait time. If you have Express Pass, you’ll scan that and use a shorter line. It’s pretty easy to spot these entrances. While I was there, waits ranged from about 10 minutes to about 90 minutes. Thrill Data tracks HHN wait times.

When you get to the house, you’re asked to put your phones away (no photos or videos in the houses), and you walk through the house single file. Scare actors try and scare you, and the scenes themselves can be pretty spooky. Then you exit and make your way back to the park.

Rides. There are a few rides that remain open during Halloween Horror Nights. The night I visited, five (5) of these were listed on the map—Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Escape from Gringotts, and MEN IN BLACK. A sixth, The Simpsons Ride, was also running. These remained walk-ons most of the night, though I saw some 20-30 minute waits later in the night.

Scare Zones. The five (5) Scare Zones are small themed sections of the park that are occupied by props and scare actors who will try to scare you as you walk through them. They’re overall fun areas, and they’re much better after sunset. You can walk through these as much as you want, and there’s no lines, they’re just regular sections of the park.

Shows. There are two (2) shows—Marathon of Mayhem: Carnage Factory is a fountain show held at the main fountain show area (I don’t know what it’s called, honestly). Halloween Nightmare Fuel is an acrobatic show (I read it described on twitter as “Cirque du Soleil meets S&M”, and I’d call that accurate) held on the large stage in the rear of the park (between Wizarding World and Men In Black). 

Shopping, Dining, Drinking and Games. And like most theme park events, there’s exclusive shopping, dining, and drinking (all at an added cost). There’s also pay-to-play carnival games near the front of the park.

With Express Pass you won’t have much trouble fitting everything in, though you’ll still need to pay attention to ride and house wait times because Express Pass waits often increase as regular waits increase. Without Express Pass I don’t suspect you’d be able to do everything, but if you stayed the entire night and strategized well, maybe you’d pull it off.

Continuing My Night at HHN

As of 6:30PM my options are somewhat limited. Shows don’t start until around 8PM, Scare Zones are much better well after sunset (so again, probably around 8PM). And it’s probably not the best use of time to be eating, drinking, shopping, or playing games.

This leaves houses and rides, both of which I had Express Pass for. One important thing to remember early on—just because you have Express Pass doesn’t mean you have to use it. You can only use Express Pass once for each house/ride, so if you can walk right onto a ride or into a house without using it, you might save it for later. 

At 6:36PM I saw a sign posted that Transformers would be closing early—11:30PM, so I decide to ride that. I walked right on (without Express Pass). 15 minutes into the event, the wait for the Beetlejuice house was 75 minutes, with two others houses at 45 minutes and 25 minutes and the rest below that. I walked onto one more ride—Men In Black—before starting to use my Express Pass to check of some houses.

• 7:09PM – Puppet Theater (posted 35 minutes, ~no wait with Express Pass)

• 7:21PM – Pumpkin House (posted 35 minutes, 5 with Express Pass)

• 7:35PM – Scarey (posted 35 minutes, 9 with Express Pass)

• 8:00PM – Revenge of the Tooth Fairy (posted 40 minutes, 6 with Express Pass)

Since I’d started the night at Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that was five houses and two rides by 8PM. Not bad for an event that goes until 2AM.

I headed to another ride—The Simpsons Ride—hoping to be off in time for the fountain show at 9PM. I was lucky. Despite getting in the nearly empty line at 8:27PM, the ride takes forever to cycle through guests, and I was just barely off in time to catch the 9PM show.

I found the fountain show—Marathon of Mayhem: Carnage Factory—to be a waste of time. I would have left about 5 minutes in if I didn’t have to stay, for the sake of writing this paragraph, to confirm it was a waste of time. In more detail, it’s just trying too hard to make fountains thrilling / scary.

To be fair—I bet the fountain work is really well done. It’s a show made by professionals, and I don’t mean to disparage their work. But it’s hard to notice that when they’re blasting music and flashing lights at you. Not every medium is perfect for every task, and I just didn’t find the fountain show to work.

From there I headed to the 9:30PM Nightmare Fuel show. This is at the stage in the far rear of the park. Honestly, I walked back there, found myself in a crowd, and sort of hoped I was in line, which I was. It was a really packed area, but I was able to get in arriving about 15 minutes early (the show did fill up though).

Nightmare Fuel was really good, and definitely a must-see at HHN. As I said before, I’ve seen it accurately called “Cirque du Soleil meets S&M.” There’s a lot of acrobatics, leather, and fire.

One thing I’d note is the showtimes. There are four, which is a good number, but keep in mind this event goes until 2AM some nights, so the latter two times are pretty late. The night I was there, the showtimes were 8PM, 9:30PM, 11PM, and 12:30AM.

I assumed I’d be busy with other things at 8PM, and I was. 11PM wouldn’t have been too late, but it maybe would have been cutting it close for me. So I was fortunate to make it to the 9:30PM showtime.

By this point, about 10PM, I was ready to start wrapping things up. I had some houses to finish:

• 10:16PM – Haunting of Hill House (posted 45 minutes, 9 with Express Pass)

• 10:47PM – Beetlejuice (posted 60 minutes, 20 with Express Pass)

• 11:10PM – HHN Icons (posted 50 minutes, 8 with Express Pass)

• 11:25PM – Bride of Frankenstein (posted 25 minutes, walk in with Express Pass)

• 11:45PM – Case Files (posted 15, walk in with Express Pass)

Scare Zones at Halloween Horror Nights

So far, I haven’t talked about Scare Zones. I’d actually passed through these a few times tonight, but I decided to grab a beer (Rogue Dead Guy) and take one last lap around the park starting at 11:57PM.

I’m not a big drinker, but I have to confess that the beer helped with the experience a lot. Honestly, I was semi-startled once the entire night in houses or scare zones. My head is on such a swivel, especially when I’m working, that I just don’t get caught off guard too often (more event commentary below). Mentally slowing down that last lap made it a bit more enjoyable.

I wound up leaving at 12:20AM, with 100 minutes still left in the event. That would have been plenty of time to use my Express Pass for the three rides I’d skipped thus far (assuming they were still running).

Halloween Horror Nights Thoughts 

Express Pass was a waste. Did Express Pass save me time seeing all the houses? Definitely. But I don’t think I needed to see all the houses. While the different themes were pretty cool, the experiences in each of them were basically the same. I’d happily have picked three houses, waited in line for those, and skipped the other seven.

If you look at my night, I started the night with one house, did houses from 7PM to 8PM and from 10:15PM to 11:45PM. That’s easily enough time to wait in three lines, maybe even four, without dropping $100+ on Express Pass.

“Don’t Go Alone.” This is a motto of the event, and I’d agree, but not for the reason you’d expect. Going alone, I found the event a little more boring than if I’d been with other people.

Look, you’re walking through these houses in a very tight single file. It’s a numbers game whether or not you actually get scared. As you’d expect, the groups ahead of me and behind me got scared more than I did because there were more of them. Even if just one person in your group gets a real spook, it’s fun for all of you.

Have a beer. Like I said, the beer helped me slow down mentally, which would have served me better in the Scare Zones and houses. I don’t want to get into specifics—lest I spoil your time in the houses—but there are a few easy ways to predict scares in the houses if you’re alert. So you might have more fun being not alert.

Okay, let’s close with some FAQs, the first few of which also serve as my closing thoughts.

Is Halloween Horror Nights Worth It?

Yes, particularly on the lower end of the price range. This is a cool event. The Nightmare Fuel Show was really cool, the houses are fun, and the overall transformation of the park, particularly the Scare Zones, is worth the price. I’ll plan to do it at least once a year from now on.

Is Express Pass at Halloween Horror Nights Worth It?

As I discussed above, no! I’d happily have just waited in line for 3-5 houses and saved the ridiculous price instead of Express Passing through all ten.

How Scary Is Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights?

Overall I’d say it’s not that scary. The scare zones and haunted houses are well done, especially for the price, but you’re surrounded by thousands of people all out having a good time, and you’re walking through the houses in tight quarters. You might get spooked once or twice, but I doubt many people wander the event in a terrified haze.

Is Halloween Horror Nights bad for kids? 

HHN is officially not recommended for kids under the age of 13. I can’t say what age cutoff I’d use, but I think the recommendation is there for good reason. For starters, not all scare actors—maybe not even most or many—will take it easy on kids. They will run at your child holding a revving chainsaw.

Second, “spooks” aside, the houses are pretty gruesome throughout. There’s a lot of graphic violence.

Third, the Nightmare Fuel show is pretty overtly adult themed. Everyone is wearing just a minimal amount of leather and thrusting pretty much every direction the entire show.

Finally, the overall ambiance is pretty adult. It’s a crowded event with lots of drinking. I didn’t see any bad behavior related to alcohol, but the combinations of factors could take a lot of your kid’s processing power…and then someone with a chainsaw charges right at them.