Universal Studios Florida Report: Halloween Horror Lite
Following our morning at Islands of Adventure, we took the Hogwarts Express train to Universal Studios Florida for lunch, afternoon touring, and Halloween Horror Lite. In this photo report, we’ll share a look at crowds, actual v. posted wait times, and a quiet early evening in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Before we get going, I want to thank everyone for their feedback on the Islands of Adventure Photo Report. It’s been a couple of busy news days, so I fell behind responding to comments, but I did read them all. There was a ton of useful and greatly-appreciated feedback. It’s nice to see that so many of you also enjoy Universal, which is a pleasant change of pace from the faux rivalry or sense of superiority that Walt Disney World fans often champion.
Most of what you requested is doable, and what I had in mind. Two things are unlikely in the near-term: individual restaurant reviews and Harry Potter tips. The former requires a few meals at each location, so that’ll take time. The latter is entirely outside my wheelhouse. Back when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened, I attempted to watch the movies to better appreciate the lands. I made it through 2 or 3 before giving up. The first time hearing about USF’s new land, I thought it was called Dragon Alley. The first time riding Hagrid’s, I thought that character was Dumbledore. That’s not an exhaustive list of my Harry Potter confusion. I love the lands, attractions, restaurants, and shops, but I’m not the one to write about WWoHP hidden details, easter eggs, etc.
Moving along to the substance of this Universal Studios Florida photo report, one of the big motivations of this visit was experiencing the haunted houses for Halloween Horror Nights/Day Lite. We were looking forward to Halloween Horror Nights 30, planning to get Frequent Fear Passes again. Not because we’re hardcore fans of the event, but because it’s an anniversary year and the lower tiers of those passes are cheap–the breakeven point is only a couple of visits.
This year, Universal Orlando proceeded with plans for HHN and it seemed like the event might actually happen. Then, things worsened in Florida and it got cancelled along with every other fall and winter special event at Central Florida theme parks. Like the killer in a slasher film, a portion of Halloween Horror Nights then rose from the presumed death for one quick scare, with two houses during the day to regular ticket holders.
Universal deserves a ton of kudos for this–with large numbers of actors and staff, these houses are not cheap to operate. Halloween Horror Nights is usually a hard ticket event and one that is viable largely due to alcohol sales. To offer even a portion of the experience to day guests is a great, guest-friendly move that’ll also hopefully tide fans over until Halloween Horror Nights 30 next year.
The two houses are Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy. Posted wait times were 15 minutes each, and actual waits were in that neighborhood. (I forgot to time them, sorry.)
I hesitate to “review” these houses because I know HHN has an ardent fanbase that is (to put it charitably) “skeptical” of anyone who hasn’t attended the event multiple nights for at least the last 15 years, has extensive knowledge of the icons, can recite decade-old Bill & Ted’s in-jokes from memory, etc.
By contrast, we are much more casual–downright “basic” by HHN standards. We often favor the popular IP houses over the original ones, and have different barometers of what’s good or bad. Essentially, HHN fandom makes us understand how normal guests must feel when hearing obsessive EPCOT Center fans like us yammer on about Horizons or whatever.
Anyway, I thought Revenge of the Tooth Fairy was excellent–it alone made the whole trek out to Universal “worth it.” I’m a total sucker for folklore, and the backstory here offers an engaging premise that then plays out pretty well throughout the house. Some of the staging (scenes v. wall text placement) is amiss, but all in all, it’s very good and repeatable.
On the other hand, Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives felt sloppy and the premise fell flat for us after the initial scene or two. Maybe it’s just me, but it became redundant about halfway through.
We also hit up the Halloween Horror Nights Tribute Store, waiting in line about 5 minutes to enter. This is incredibly well done, with a lot of cool visuals to check out and a wide range of merchandise. The limited entry makes it easy to get ‘clean’ photos with the backdrops and displays, which is appreciated.
My only comments on the souvenir selection is that Universal overuses busy designs and dark colors. Same goes for the (excellent) Universal Studios Florida 30th Anniversary items. I love all of those attractions and the old marquee, but as someone who lives in the Sunshine State and owns a light-colored cat, there’s no way I’m buying a black shirt. The latter is a “me problem” but I still don’t get why a theme park in Florida is making so much dark clothing.
We did lunch at Today Show Cafe, mostly out of convenience. It was the location with the most abundant outdoor dining, shortest line, and healthy-ish options.
The plan was to get something light as we were having dinner at Pizza Bruno (highly recommended) afterwards, but I can never resist a ridiculous looking dessert. Zero regrets.
Outside of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley) “feels like” crowd levels at Universal Orlando were surprisingly low.
Granted, Saturday and Sunday are significantly busier–but this was a Friday, which is the third busiest day of the week.
As much as I enjoyed Back to the Future: The Ride, I think Springfield USA is a worthy replacement.
My biggest complaint, if anything, is that Universal doesn’t give sufficient space to two properties (Jurassic Park and the Simpsons) that are the perfect fodder for theme park lands. Both are well done, but leave me wanting more.
Speaking of the Simpsons, I thought it was amusing that Homer appears to be watching the Minions cavalcade.
Lots of characters were out and about in Universal Studios Florida for socially-distanced selfies. SpongeBob and his pink friend were the only ones with a line. (If there’s any IP about which I know less than Harry Potter, it’s SpongeBob.)
Back in my day, Barney & Friends were what all the cool kids watched. (Not really–I’m a few years too old for that.) Dinosaurs > sponges.
Barney may seem outdated, but keep in mind that a live action Barney film is in the works. Recently, we learned from an EW interview that it’ll be a darker film with a “heartbreaking premise.” I hope that means the live dinosaur Barney eats someone. (That’s how live action works here–they’ll have real dinosaurs a la Jurassic Park, right?)
Speaking of the coolest IP, our top priority in Universal Studios Florida was obviously E.T. Adventure.
The posted wait time here was 15 minutes, and our actual wait was around 10 minutes.
The attraction is excellent as ever, but there were definitely some noticeable maintenance issues. E.T. and several of his homies had wonky eyes, arms, or other features.
Not to put too fine of a point on it, but the attraction broke down while we were on it. Given that E.T. Adventure is undeniably (UNDENIABLY!) the flagship attraction at Universal Studios Florida and why most guests book vacation packages, it would behoove Universal to give this the TLC it deserves.
On weekdays, Universal’s Virtual Line system is only in use at Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon.
We didn’t do that because…well, you’ll understand once we publish attraction reviews for every attraction at Universal Orlando.
Outside of the attractions with 15-20 minute posted wait times, we found that numbers were inflated pretty much across the board.
My strong belief is that both Universal and Disney are doing this primarily to discourage people from getting into line, which can make some queues unmanageable. This actually works (up until a point) because the guest-base is disproportionately locals and Annual Passholders, many of whom have done everything multiple times. As such, their “balking point” is lower than that of an average tourist.
For example, almost all of Revenge of the Mummy’s extended outdoor queue was in use and the posted wait time was 45 minutes when we got in line.
The actual wait was 11 minutes. Given the physical space available and distancing requirements, I’m not sure a 45 minute wait is even possible here without more extended queue outside. (Please feel free to correct me if you’ve waited longer since reopening for Revenge of the Mummy with this much outdoor queue in use!)
We also noticed wait times “magically” grow towards the end of the day. While hanging out in a very quiet Diagon Alley during the last hour the park was open, the wait time for Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts grew from 60 minutes to 90 minutes to 115 minutes.
There was not a sudden influx of guests jumping into line during that time. We received one-time Express Passes due to the breakdown on E.T. Adventure, so our minimal wait time experience here is not particularly relevant, but I didn’t see a ton of people in the standby queue. The more likely scenario is that wait time was being pumped up to discourage people from doing one last ride. This is something we’ve also seen at Walt Disney World since reopening, albeit not to this extreme.
The final hour of the afternoon/early evening was the perfect time to do Diagon Alley, as its midday crowds had subsided entirely. There was plenty of space to walk, explore the quiet corners, pore over the details, etc.
I may not “get” everything (or almost anything) about this land, but I still appreciate it as an exemplar of themed design. This is on par with the best of what Imagineering has done in the last decade, and is something every theme park fan–regardless of Harry Potter interest–should experience.
After Universal Studios Florida closed, we bounced back over to Islands of Adventure for the last hour of the day. Far and away our biggest mistakes of the day were made there. Rather than jumping into line for something popular at the last minute, we went to a gift shop to buy a 30th Anniversary coffee mug (mistake #1 as the line to checkout was huge).
Our second mistake was leaving right at park closing, along with a huge wave of other guests. Obviously, we know better (but pizza!). We didn’t expect it to be quite this bad, but being a Friday night, a lot of people were arriving to CityWalk and leaving the parks at precisely the same time. Physical distancing and mask compliance weren’t always perfect throughout our day but this was the only point when things got a bit dicey. Even then, we just moved through the crowd quickly–fleeting encounters, outdoors, with masked crowds are not the end of the world. (This one is already long, so we’ll cover health & safety more thoroughly in a future post.)
Speaking of which, we should have another Universal report sooner rather than later. After the overwhelming enthusiasm, my tentative plan was to start doing one Universal post per week, probably on Sundays. Timing-wise, that should work out about perfectly, because Universal Studios Florida just extended its Saturday hours to 10 pm and added their lagoon nighttime spectacular, Universal Orlando’s Cinematic Celebration, back to the schedule for 9:45 pm that night.
It feels serendipitous that Universal would announce this right after so many of you expressed interest in more coverage of these parks due to frustrations with Walt Disney World for, among other things, the cuts to entertainment. Obviously, the executives at Comcast aren’t sitting around reading blog post comments (no offense to you all) plotting their next move. It is interesting how Universal has approached this differently from Disney, and it does feel like there has been a concerted effort to peel away visitors from Disney and foster brand loyalty towards Universal. As always, competition is a great thing that only serves to benefit consumers as both companies step up their game and enhance their theme park offerings…I just hope Disney gets that memo!
Need trip planning tips and comprehensive advice for your visit to Central Florida? Make sure to read our Universal Orlando Planning Guide for everything about Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Also check out our Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Guide for everything about those parks, resorts, restaurants, and so much more. For regular updates, news & rumors, a heads up when discounts are released, and much more, sign up for our FREE email newsletter!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Universal Studios Florida in the last couple of months? What did you think of HHN Lite? What was your experience with crowds and wait times? If you’ve visited both Disney and Universal post-reopening, which do you think is doing better? Thoughts on anything else covered here? Do you have any questions about the current modified Universal experience? Will you be attempting to visit Central Florida this holiday season, or are you waiting until 2021 or beyond? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Hi Tom,
Did not know you guys were Florida residents. I guess I need to pay more attention to your site. Always fun to read your posts!
I’m so glad you will be giving us Universal coverage! We are planning our first Universal visit next year and we would be flying blind without some help! Thank you!
“E.T. and several of his homies…”
I definitely laughed harder at that than I should have!
We will be at Universal at the start of the Christmas season. Will you be reviewing Universal at the holidays? Also, recommend any good itineraries for Universal? Everything I find is pre-Covid and may not pertain.
We will have Christmas coverage and itineraries by mid-November!
Knowing you don’t understand Harry Potter just makes me want to see your opinions even more! If Galaxy’s edge is “space morocco”, surely Diagonal Alley is magical London?
“Diagonal Alley is magical London?”
Yeah, pretty much. I’d also probably like real London a lot more if it had a dragon or two.
Thank you for this TR on Universal! I, too, have been a BIG fan of WDW over the years, starting in l976. I have had many trips with small kids to grandkids and by ourselves each year!
I have been gradually shifting towards Universal over the past year or so. We went one time a few years ago, after going many years ago. We loved it! We then have been adding Universal trips onto our WDW trips ever since. Now, I would like to do exclusively Universal with their AP’s. We love their attractions. It feels like a “real” vacation without FP’s, scheduling food and rides months out, and then rushing around to get to all these things. Not to mention the ever rising costs of everything ($5.00 for a Mickey Bar!) Their attitude seems to be raise everything and people will come anyway, afterall We are disney. I don’t think that approach works anymore, at least for us. Don’t get me wrong we will always have a soft spot for disney, but are shifting allegiance to Universal . We can’t wait to get back to Universal and experience the new Bourne Adventure. The previews look even better than ROTR to me. So, thanks for covering Universal for all the Universal fans:)
Tom: You are really missing out by not reading and then watching the films as others have stated previously. Although my be prejudiced. I thoroughly enjoyed our visits to HP lands at Universal and almost didn’t do the Warners Bros. Studio tour of HP outside of London. What a mistake that would have been. If you are HP fans and are going to be in London, once things are back to normal, consider doing this. Well worth the $ and hassle (had to take the tube, then train, then shuttle). Spent the entire day there. So much more than HP lands, and they have added since I was there last year.
Look at the guy below the City Walk sign in above photo–mask below his chin. This is why I am staying home.
One thing that Disney does better than Universal is when you get in line for a ride, doesn’t matter if it’s only one minute until closing, you still get to ride that ride. At Universal, I got in line 30 minutes before closing and was told “no.” Just not right.
‘Really looking forward to the Universal posts — thank you! And as for Harry Potter, there’s a marked difference in the pre- versus post-9/11 books. Book Five is the first one published after then and I can really see a difference in maturity and theme (but still keeping all the clever magic and humor from the earlier books). They’re definitely worth another go if you can make the time.
We are HUGE Disney fans but we absolutely LOVE Universal parks as well. You just can’t beat the rides! I’ve always wanted you all to share the love. I will say that I’m 40 and I HAD to watch Harry Potter with my son. The first 2 or 3 movies were a little eh for me. I will say after you get past those it takes a more interesting turn and gets much better. I would go as far and even say that they’re really actually good. I tend to like movies like Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, The Avengers, The Hobbit, as well as all the Disney films. (Yes I’m all over the place) I actually really do enjoy a good film and tend to think beyond the movie and into all that actually goes into it. The depth of characters, costumes, setting, and how much work it actually is. My point to this long ramble is that I think you should finish Harry Potter. It would definitely give you more knowledge (obviously) and I think you might enjoy it once you get past those first few movies, which you seem to have done the hard part. It will give you a new appreciation for it all. Thank You again for all you do. One more thing Three Broomsticks is much MUCH better than The Leaky Cauldron. Better quality food IMO, and The Three Broomsticks is much bigger. At The Leaky Cauldron there just isn’t enough of a wow factor to me. It just seems like a small stuffy old tavern that smells heavily of Oily Fish. There’s not much to write home about especially in the decor. However I will say The Leaky Cauldron has the amazing dessert Sticky Toffee Pudding… OMG!!! It’s to DIE FOR!!! It’s a sticky cake that’s baked with toffee pieces, topped with vanilla ice cream, and drizzled with a sticky toffee and or butterscotch caramel. It is sweet but the ice cream cuts the sweetness immensely. It’s almost like a take on butterbeer in a cake form. That alone made it worth the wait when we were there a few weeks ago. So much so I’m attempting a recipe for the holidays. I do hope you decide to watch the movies. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised. Take care!
Chavone Jeffries
Hello Chavone. I couldn’t help but enjoy your appreciation for sticky toffee pudding. For us Brits it is an absolute classic. We like our hot and hearty puddings, might have something to do with the weather in all but summer months, lol.
Anyway there are plenty of excellent recipes. A good quality vanilla ice cream is a winner, but then again so it custard! Yum!
I posted this in the other Universal Post but it’s worth posting again here to help people deciding on where to stay and the benefits/difference of Express passes vs Disney’s Fast passes.
I was there last November. I lucked out and had a work conference at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort. I managed to schedule an off day on Wednesday which meant we had to fit BOTH parks into just one day. I had read online it would be possible, but you needed to follow a plan had have an Express Pass Unlimited (see details below). We contemplated staying an extra day but that would have put us in the parks the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we decided to try the one day option (benefit you get to ride the Hogwarts Express a cool experience)!
I will say this if you plan on hitting the parks and want to stay on property, if you stay at a Premier level hotel (think Disney Deluxe Level) your hotel stay INCLUDES the Express Pass Unlimited (EPU)! NOTE: The cheapest starting hotel at this level is the Loews Royal Pacific Resort. The EPU is something like Disney’s fast pass but you must pay for it unlike the fast pass. There are tons of comparisons of the two on the web (I recommended you Google it), but it is worth it in some circumstances which I’ll cover below and run some numbers so you can decide.
You may ask what does the EPU cover … the EPU allows you to skip the lines unlimited times with no time limits on when you visit the ride or cap on how many times it can be used per hour/day. That is the biggest difference to me than Disney’s Fast-Pass. Of course there are restrictions (like Disney’s FP), there are two rides it does not work on (Hagrid’s Motorbike & Pteranodon Flyers) but if you are at the park when it opens you can hustle to Hagrid’s and ride it first thing in the day, which is what we did, with almost no wait. Be prepared to “fast walk” (you will get yelled at if you run) to Hagrid’s when the park opens! The Pteranodon Flyers ride had small waits multiple times and is not a must ride anyhow (IMHO). You can also get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter an hour earlier (like Disney’s resorts but this benefit is for any Universal property). We went on a Wednesday and with the extra hour on the front end and our EPU it worked like a charm and we experienced no wait times save a few 5 minute waits all day!
Your room key doubles as your EPU pass so everyone in your room needs one and must bring it to the parks. Like I said I had a conference which was at Loews Royal Pacific Resort, so we pulled our kids from school for the week and my wife & kids came with me. My family swum in the pool all week and we hit Universal city walk for dinners and fun nightly. I had a break on Wednesday from the week long conference, so we only had ONE day to do both parks. My kids were 12 and 9 at the time so it was easy to hustle through both parks. We hit almost EVERY ride we wanted to in both parks. But without the EPU it would have never been possible. All the resorts are an easy walk to the parks (15 minutes), or a boat ride/shuttle is provided as well if you don’t feel like walking.
We did walk to all the properties one night since the Christmas stuff was up (sort of like Tom’s Disney Hotel Christmas Tour) and every hotel was decked out and beautiful.
If you love Chocolate, you must visit/dine at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium on the City walk … Heaven!
I am a number guy so let us run some numbers and see if it is worth staying on property:
(NOTE: I grabbed these numbers off Universal’s site this morning they may vary but let us assume the numbers are for a 5-night stay for a family of four that plans on visiting two parks, one per day):
Universal’s Value Hotels start at $116/night
Universal’s Preferred Hotels start at $165/night
Universal’s Premier Hotels start at $225/night (which is still cheaper than most Disney Deluxe Hotels).
Now the math:
If you stay at the Royal Pacific for 5 nights, it would be $1,125 dollars.
If you stay at a value resort for five nights, it would be $580 dollars.
If you do not stay at a Premier level hotel you have to pay for the EPU. The prices are $90/person per park visit, or $360 per day for a family of four. Now let us factor in the EPU to visit both parks (on separate days), $360 * 2 days = $720 dollars.
Now looking back at the hotel costs if you factor in $580 + 720 the Value Hotel w/EPU now costs $1,300 total, which is $175 dollars HIGHER than the Premier Resort.
It really comes down to what you plan to do during your visit. If you’re a person that likes to hit one park or you do not mind waiting in HUGE lines, then staying at a value resort would be for you. If you hate lines and plan on visiting multiple parks then upgrading your hotel is definitely worth it dollar wise. Remember even if you buy the Hogwarts Express pass (which allows you to travel between parks) and visit both parks in one day without some time of Express Pass, you will NEVER be able to hit most rides because of wait times. The Express Pass lite is still $70/person per park and limits you to skip the line only once per ride. Factoring in those numbers it would still be a better deal to stay at the Premier Hotel.
And of course NONE of these numbers include the actual park admission prices, although for a five night stay you can always find deals at Universal like buy two days get 3 days free (which would make your EPU even MORE valuable for staying at the Premier level)!
I hope all this helps and apologize it turned into a small novel!
Just re-read must post, few typos for which I apologize.
Here are some more ways to save some money. So if you didn’t drive to Florida and flew in I would recommend you do not rent a car for a week (unless you really need one) because like Disney, Universal will charge you to park it.
Even if you’re not staying at the Loews Royal Pacific you can still walk/shuttle there from any of the resorts. The Royal Pacific has an Avis counter right in the hotel. So what we did was rent a car one way from the Orlando airport from Avis ($33 for the day) and went and did a mini-food shop for things like milk, breads, lunch meat, pop tarts, cream cheese, bagels and munchies! My wife ended up making sandwiches for the kids all week which helped save us tons of food money. We waited to get the text that our room was ready and time our food shop to our check-in. We ran our food right up to our room and I turned in the Avis car right there at the counter to avoid paying for parking all week. We then had an Avis car booked for the day we checked out (again, $33 for the day), picked it up right there at our hotel and drove it right back to Orlando’s airport.
Of course this only works if you fly in but it’s a great way to save money on transportation & food! Remember you should probably reserve the rental cars way in advance.
Dragon Alley. That made me laugh. So I’m 68. I’m still a big Harry Potter fan. You either are or you are not. But that’s OK. We still love you Tom.
It’s an alley with a dragon at the end of it! Don’t bury the (awesome) lede to go for some lame pun! 😉
I think Universal has DEFINITELY stepped up their game. I got the AP for 15 months with water park for $434 pp, plus the unlimited express passes for staying on property, monthly pins for APs, I believe? Now compare that to I cannot even buy our DVC gold pass for less than $600 — Disney is looking crazy expensive and money gouging, IMO, and not providing much to reward DVC, APs, and guests in general. I’m very excited to not have to plan every second of our trip and just wander with the kids. Not paying for hard ticketed EVERYTHING is also a perk.
Bring on the competition! I’m here for it.
I’ll be at Universal next weekend and seeing these reviews are great. I appreciate the info for inflated times later in the day. Did you experience any issues with food/drink lines? I’ve heard that lines can long. How about mobile ordering vs. asking for a menu?
As for Harry Potter, if you can’t get into the movies, consider listening to the books on tape (Audible, CD, etc… LOL). Jim Dale is the narrator and he’s amazing to listen to!
There have been some issues with mobile order and lines, which is why we opted for the walk-up Today Show Cafe. Being near the front of the park, I suspect it gets a lot less foot traffic by noon, making it far less busy. (Plus they have covered tables outside.)
We waited in line around 5-10 minutes. Much better than other spots we saw around the park.
Great reports, Tom. I’m flipped on the houses myself, I prefer Brides. Of the complaints I had was staffing, sometimes I’d get sets of scares but not them all.
As for more Universal posts I think the resort is under covered by local blogs, which with you and All Ears doing more coverage seems to indicate that’ll change. Of course I’m a little biased to say just leave it all to me 😉
Keep up the good work, let me know if you need anything.
“Of the complaints I had was staffing, sometimes I’d get sets of scares but not them all.”
We definitely experienced that as well. While I appreciate good ‘flow’ to the experience (via scares) they don’t factor into my house enjoyment or lack thereof. I appreciate the fun of being startled, but it gets old quickly for me. I’m much more interested in the unsettling atmosphere created via design, lighting, the actors within scenes, the extent a narrative or motifs are effectively conveyed, etc.
Thanks for the feedback!
HP requires reading through the series first, then watching the films, then visiting the land to truly appreciate it. sincerely, a potter-head.
I am totally fine only partially appreciating Wizarding World of Harry Potter if that’s the time commitment involved in totally appreciating it! 😉
i see, you’re afraid of the re-read effect, lol.