It might sound like I’m describing a final girl escaping the woods at the end of a horror movie, but it was actually just me… after Halloween Horror Nights last year. We were among the first to enter the park when the gates opened around 6:30 p.m., with Express Passes in hand, and still only made it through nine of the 10 houses (taking only minimal breaks for pesky human needs like eating and peeing). We didn’t roll out until the park closed at 2 a.m., waited what seemed like forever for our shuttle, and collapsed into bed around 3 a.m. after loading up on ibuprofen.
It took days to feel like a person again. Earlier this year, I wrote a whole piece about what I wish someone had told me before my first HHN as a 40+ woman, and I stand by every word. After returning from this year’s event, though, I need to amend the record.
There’s one tip that deserves to be bumped to the top of the list (and bolded and underlined): Buy the Scream Early ticket. Is it a splurge? But dear reader, I was tucked back in my hotel bed before midnight. And we were able to hit every single house and then some.
This “extra” is an add-on to your regular HHN ticket that lets you into the park at 2 p.m., before the gates open to the general crowd (officially 6:30 p.m., though sometimes a bit earlier, around 6 p.m.). That means you get a head start of hours to hit the handful of houses that open early. This year, three houses opened right at 2 p.m., followed by two at 5:15 p.m., three more at 5:45 p.m., and the final two at 6 p.m.
We paired Scream Early with Express Passes (more on that particular financial decision in a minute) and knocked out four houses before the regular crowd so much as scanned a ticket. That’s nearly half the lineup, and the sun hadn’t even gone down yet. For context, we hadn’t hit that many houses last year until, like, 10 p.m.
Obviously, we anticipated being able to get through houses earlier with the ticket, but what we didn’t realize was how much it would shift the vibe of the night. It just sort of evaporated all the pressure we felt the year before. Doing regular entry, we knew the math just wasn’t in our favor.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
