For those how haven’t heard, Universal Studios, Orlando (USO) is kind of becoming the big thing these days – creeping up on Disney big time. While Disney may have 50 million guests in the past year compared to USO and their 15 million, in the past 4 years USO has gained about 5 million customers while Disney has only grown about 2 million in the same time period. USO has been very focused on opening new attractions to entice others that might not normally make the journey down to their Florida location. This does of course include the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the new Simpsons Ride and the Cabana Bay Beach Resort.
Going all the way to Orlando to visit a theme park can seem like a real out of the way adventure, especially if you live almost a 1000 miles away like I do in NYC. You should know that it honestly worth the journey down to check out Universal Studios and what they have going on down there.
Last October, my theme park obsessed best friend Justin and my boyfriend at the time Jake, headed on down to Universal Studios, Orlando to yet again to enjoy the Florida sun, enjoy the parks and have the absolute hell scared out of us.
The trip was great, we lucked out, got upgraded to First Class on the way down, got a CHEAP hotel (note: you do get what you pay for) and the weather even cooperated with us. We did a full day in both parks and then were able to stay in the park while the big change over occurred to Halloween Horror Nights. It was interesting because there were pieces you would see out during the day that were obvious for the HHN later, they seemed like they wouldn’t be very interesting but I was very wrong.
The two things that I really wanted to see were Harry Potter Town as I kept calling it, and the Simpsons, Springfield. Neither would disapoint whatsoever.
I grew up with the Simpsons and remember watching the first show with my sister when it aired. It was different and I liked it. As I grew older the characters didn’t. As I watched reruns at later ages I began to realize how much adult humor was actually in the show that I missed. So, getting to physically walk into Moe’s Bar and have a Duff Beer was pretty neat. It did kind of feel like walking into my childhood.
I’m a train fan at heart so having the transportation between the two parks being the train from Harry Potter complete with station and all, I was kind of in heaven (I love trains, #justcallmeSheldon). Arriving into Harry Potter town was pretty rad as well. While I’m not the hugest Harry Potter Fan, they left no detail out. There is even interactive stuff if you purchase a wand, all done with modern technology… pretty neat, but I don’t want to give all the details away, you should go check it out for yourself.
If a little fear and few true screams will make your vacation all the better, you’ll be happy to know that Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) for 2015 has finally been announced. It looks like it’s going to be the longest running so far since its inception 25 years ago. It’ll start on September 18th and operate on 30 different days through Nov 1st.
HHN 2014 theme was from the movie “The Purge” which was creepy enough. There were a number of other themed attractions, mainly like the haunted walk through areas. The worst for me was the jumbo nursery because it had so many creepy clowns, NOT my cup of tea. Those freak me out more than monsters. Add in people walking around as characters from The Purge carrying real chainsaws (who lovingly start them up while unknowningly standing behind you) and other weapons of death or destruction, it was totally worth the ticket price and then some. Let’s just say we slept with the light on after we got back to the hotel and I’ll leave it at that.
Word on the street is that this year is going to be huge for HHN as it’s their 25th anniversary so they’re really doing it up. We found an image of what this year’s HHN map might look like and it really looks like a blast.
While Disney is aimed more at families with younger family members, Universal Studios seems to really be going to for the adolescent and young adult market and they seem to be doing a really good job at is as well!
Universal Studios does offer all in one vacation packages, something you should certainly check out. You can find all the info you need at https://www.universalorlando.com/
Have you been to Universal Studios Orlando, OR Halloween Horror Nights? What was your experience?
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