My girlfriend has wanted to do Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywoodfor years, and honestly, I didn’t need much convincing, I’m always up for a good haunt.
This fall we finally made it happen. We went on Tuesday, October 28, right in the thick of the 2025 season, and the whole day worked out better than I could have planned.
The ticket that made the day work
We booked the After 2 PM Day/Night ticket, which ran $117 per person. This turned out to be the smart move for us. It gets you into the park in the afternoon for regular daytime admission, then rolls straight into full Halloween Horror Nights access at 5:30pm once the sun goes down, no need to buy two separate tickets or leave and come back.
Daytime first: knocking out the rides
Since we had park access from early afternoon, we used those hours to hit some of the big rides before the scare actors even came out:
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Wizarding World of Harry Potter)
Revenge of the Mummy
Jurassic World – The Ride
Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge (Super Nintendo World)
It’s a genuinely good way to structure the day. You get the theme park experience in daylight, then the vibe completely flips once night falls and the fog machines turn on.
Our haunted house strategy
Once the event portion kicked in, our plan was simple: hit the most popular house first, before the lines had a chance to build. We went straight for Terrifier, and it paid off.
Weended up doing five houses total:
- Terrifier — our favorite of the night, hands down
- Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Jason Universe
- Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America
- Poltergeist
We skipped Hellraiser, Fallout, and WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks this time around, just didn’t have room for everything in one night, and we’re not madabout it. Five well-chosen houses beat a rushed eight.Going on a weeknight late in October made a real difference. We barely waited in line for anything and were completely done with the event by 9:30 PM. If you have any flexibility in your schedule, a Tuesday night is the move.
The food (and the photos)
No HHN visit is complete without the specialty desserts, and this year’s lineup did notdisappoint:
Mr. Cupcake (Five Nights at Freddy’s) — a vanilla cupcake with strawberry filling and strawberry buttercream, styled to look like the animatronic Cupcake character.Almost too cute to eat. Almost.
Jason Universe Mask S’more, a toasted, hockey-mask-shaped treat drizzled with a red “blood” syrup, sold right at the Jason Universe Barbecue booth on the Lower Lot.
Both were as fun to photograph as they were to eat.
We also made time for a stop at the gift shop before heading out, because you can’t leave Halloween Horror Nights empty-handed.
