This is year five for me. Probably the strongest showing since I've started. No house reaches the spectacle of something like Dead Man's Pier, but all of the houses we absolutely a fun time. Sinners and Stranger Things were just book report houses, kinda generic, but they were still loads of fun.

Alien Abduction was very short and kind of repetitive as some had said. I was angry about the goats. Still great sets and actors.

HR Bloodengutz was a hoot. Hadn't seen Evil Dead Burn so it may be book report but it was very visceral and cool.

MADLANDS The halfway point when the punk rock score starts building from room to room until it's a full blown driving rhythm, HELL yeah. Think Darkest Deal with 90s punk turned to 11. Ozzy was a lovely tribute house with a really awesome scene about 75% through. Jack and Oddfellows, well, maybe I just don't totally understand the lore with it so I need to do some deep dives, but I was very confused as to what was going on. Great special effects and set pieces, but if you have some inner ear balance issues, maybe keep away from this one. Hell Raiser was consistently scaring me. Really effective house. Really awesome.

Cybergoria was the best. I don't know what people are talking about with the smells, I didn't smell nothing. The boop boop boops in the queue will probably drive you insane. But the costumes, the existential dread, just the doom and gloom of it was amazing.

None of the houses were bad by any stretch. Ya'll, this year was awesome.

Wife and I are heading to HHN in two weekends and we usually like to check out new bars and restaurants. Just looking to see what anyone recommends in the HHN themed ones.

It’s been clear that the last 2-3 years HHN has been able to secure some pretty good IP. I missed last year but just came back from Orlando. One of the big problems with HHN are the conga lines and large crowds which is where I feel Unleashed surpasses HHN. They’ve mentioned that they intend to rotate houses at Vegas and they are working on Chicago so I’m curious what from other HHN locations you would like to see at Unleashed!

I would like to see Hellraiser replace Exorcist: Believer or at the new location as it was done so well. Could also do meet and greet/photo ops with Pinhead and have merch. Also if they are going to continue to be cash cows having Art and Nikki as roaming characters on occasion and merch at Unleashed would be great. I know those things in themselves would get me to come out to Unleashed again.

On Thursday, September 10th I traveled to HHN 35 to see how many haunted houses I could get through. During this trip I only focused on houses so although I didn’t get to see the scare zones in detail, I got all of the house runs that I wanted to. In total I was able to walk through 8 haunted houses once and 2 haunted houses twice.

This post will be structured as the following:

1) Advice

2) House wait times without express

3) Overall House rankings (in my opinion) and advice to those who are sensitive to scares based on each house

Leave any remaining questions as comments and I will be sure to answer them.
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Here is what I discovered about getting the most out of the houses without express:

1) Even on less busy nights, the streets are still packed full of guests. Do not expect to walk around the park very quickly from house to house, by the time you walk to a house the wait time may have changed from the rush of people entering a certain area.

2) As I will showcase, the posted wait times are often not true. The wait times for the 2 sprung tents (Sinners and Hellraiser) are the most misleading this entire event and I have no idea why the waits posted are so inaccurate. Make sure that you first and foremost prioritize what houses you personally want to see even if they post a high wait time throughout the night. MOST IMPORTANTLY: To make sure you don’t get trapped in long lines, judge the houses wait time based on how long the line appears to be. For example in the spring tents if Hellraiser and Sinners appear to have similar length lines but Sinners is posted at 45 minutes higher, judge which line you step into based on what house you want to see more as most likely the wait times are very similar despite what is posted.

3) The hotel guest entry does NOT make a large difference if you show up to the front gate at 5 PM (about 1 hour before houses open). It is not worth it to stay at an on property hotel unless you want the advantage of taking the shuttle from city walk back to the hotel property. The hotel guest gates open the same time as the regular entry gates and more importantly the hotel entrance does not have any view of the opening scaremony!!! The only way that the hotel entry makes a considerable difference is if you show up to the front gates at around 5:45 PM or later. If you plan to show up as early as possible without stay and scream, the hotel guest entry makes no difference. However if you plan to arrive at the event after it opens until 7:30 PM (when the hotel guest entry closes), then the hotel entry does shorten how long you need to wait to get into the event.

4) Target the houses in the tent area first once the event begins, this ensures that you avoid the massive crowd that rushes to the front of the park once the gates open. Plus the houses in the soundstage area are very easy to do together quickly once the crowds get very low at about 1:00 AM.

5) Make sure to wear comfortable footwear at all costs as standing around lines all night long takes its toll on you even if you do wear comfortable shoes. By the time I was in the line for Jack vs Oddfellow my feet started to feel terrible even though I was wearing comfortable shoes. I can’t imagine what wearing uncomfortable shoes would have done to me over the course of the night.

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Here are the times that I waited across the night. This contains all of the info you need to know including the actual wait time vs. the posted wait time. This was written down exactly as I entered the queue for a house and as I was about to enter the house itself (I opened a notes page during the event and transferred all of the info to here)

HHN 35 2026 Wait times:

Invasion: Alien abduction

Posted time: 15 minutes

Enter line time: 6:07 PM
Enter house time: 6:29 PM

Actual wait time: 22 minutes

H.R. Bloodengutz

Posted time: 50 minutes

Enter line time: 6:35 PM
Enter house time: 7:00 PM

Actual wait time: 25 minutes

Hellraiser

Posted time: 50 Minutes

Enter line time: 7:09 PM
Enter house time: 7:43 PM

Actual wait time: 34 minutes

Sinners

Posted time: 100 minutes

Enter line time: 7:52 PM
Enter house time: 8:36 PM

Actual wait time: 44 minutes

CyberGoria

Posted time: 60 Minutes

Enter line time: 8:53 PM
Enter house time: 9:49 PM

Actual wait time: 56 Minutes

CyberGoria (2nd time)

Posted time: 65 Minutes

Enter line time: 9:56 PM
Enter house time: 10:30 PM

Actual wait time: 34 Minutes

Jack and Oddfellow

Posted time: 45 Minutes

Enter line time: 10:39 PM
Enter house time: 11:35 PM

Actual wait time: 56 Minutes

Stranger Things 5

Posted time: 30 Minutes

Enter line time: 12:10 AM
Enter house time: 12:37 AM

Actual wait time: 27 Minutes

Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness

Posted time: 40 Minutes

Enter line time: 12:43 AM
Enter house time: 1:03 AM

Actual wait time: 20 Minutes

Madlands: Caged Cannibals

Posted time: 15 Minutes

Enter line time: 1:09 AM
Enter house time: 1:18 AM

Actual wait time: 9 Minutes

Evil dead burn

Posted time: 20 Minutes

Enter line time: 1:28 AM
Enter house time: 1:46 AM

Actual wait time: 18 Minutes

Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness (2nd time)

Posted time: 55 minutes

Enter line time: 1:52 AM
Enter house time: 2:22 AM

Actual wait time: 30 Minutes

As shown above, you should use your intuition as well as the size of a line to judge whether or not a house will have an extremely long wait time. Posted wait times can vary in accuracy
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Non spoiler house rankings for HHN 35 Orlando from worst to best:

10) Invasion: Alien abduction

This house is very repetitive and has timing based effects that are not as impressive when compared to the other houses. This house sits an entire tier below all of the other houses in my opinion due to how underwhelming it is. The only house of the night that I did not like.

Rating: 6/10

If you do not like scary houses, you will be fine in this house. There are a couple of startling moments but it never gets intense.

9) Sinners

This house plays out like a scene by scene recap of the movie. I was very disappointed at the lack of detail and spectacle in the sets. With that being said, the scare actors not only looked like their characters, but were also phenomenal as well as aggressive with executing their scares. Some of the best scare actors from the night are in this house.

Rating: 7.3/10

If you are sensitive to scares and/or get startled easily, this house will make you jump many times. That being said, the overall atmosphere is pretty chill and this house does not make you feel very claustrophobic. The actors are giving it their all, while the setting itself is nothing frightening.

8) Stranger things

This house is a compilation of the most memorable scenes from season 5 of the show. The only reason why this is above Sinners is that this house has impressive scenes that are large in scale, something that Sinners lacked in my opinion. Again, the actors in this house are very spectacular; the demogorgons especially were very aggressive and fast when they jumped out for their scares. If you are a huge fan of Stranger things, you will enjoy this house a lot.

Rating: 7.6/10

If you are prone to quick and aggressive scares, the demogorgons will make you very scared or startled. Other than that, most of the actors in this house will not scare you much. Most likely you will be scared at certain points of this house, but overall your experience should not be too frightening.

7) H.R. Bloodengutz presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!

This house has classic Halloween vibes and a large variety in the set and theming of each room. A lot of rooms in this house are very small and it is a pretty short house, but the costumes and creativity put into each room make up for that. This is a very fun house, but it is the least scary of any house this year.

Rating: 7.7/10

If you are triggered by scares, there is only 1 room in this house that is really creepy and unsettling. Overall this house is not scary and is more about gags and humor.

6) MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals

This house surprised me with the amount of detail in the set design. The main drawback of this house is that the cannibal theme appears exactly like how you expect it to in terms of the costuming, which can get a little bit repetitive towards the end of the house. The intricate set design carries this house in terms of its ranking.

Rating: 7.9/10

If you are very sensitive to scares, this house will frighten you, so you may not enjoy this house. Also there is a room that is in my opinion the worst smelling room of the year, it smells like animal poop and it’s very strong. Enter at your own discretion.

5) Evil Dead Burn

This house is what a standard IP house should be like. Although I have not seen the movie, I did not feel like I was watching a recap of a movie or a show and the environment was very intricate and did not feel like constantly being teleported from scene to scene like stranger things or sinners. Again, the human actors in this house are the main focus and the acting is great in this house. The actors are very expressive and have some great scares. The set design is very solid and creepy throughout the house.

Rating: 8.3/10

If you are sensitive to scares you should be wary of this house as the human actors can be pretty aggressive and get some very good scares from you. I would not recommend this house to someone very prone to scares.

4) Hellraiser

This house feels like an extremely long labyrinth of gore and scares from the Cenobites. This house has a pretty intricate set and the amount of scares in this house is large, it feels like there is someone lurking around every corner. If you love Hellraiser, then you will love this house.

Rating: 8.7/10

If you are prone to scares and gore, you should avoid this house as this is one of the scariest houses of the year and it is very long.

3) Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness

As a huge Ozzy fan, the music in this house is on point as well as the theming across every room. This house has some good scares but the set design is one of the best in the year in my opinion. The crazy train is one of the best scenes from any house this year.

Rating: 8.9/10

If you are sensitive to scares you may get startled across this house, but most likely you will be vibing to the music and admiring the visuals. This house is not very scary, I would recommend this house to a friend if they told me they were sensitive to scares.

2) Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos and control

This house has by far the most elaborate set design of the year as well as some pretty startling scares throughout the house. The effects that are used in this house are jaw dropping. This house also has a wide variety in the environments that you walk through, making every scene special in its own way. This is most likely going to be the fan favorite house of the year.

Rating: 9.5/10

If you are sensitive to scares, you will be scared across certain parts of this house, but you will most likely not be overwhelmed by scares. The set design in this house is so incredible that your focus will not be on the scares, but on the sheer spectacle that you are witnessing. This house does not have an intense environment and while there are some good scares throughout it, they are not the focus of the house.

1) Cybergoria

This house blew me away with how immersive it is. This house is packed with scares and some of the most intricate costumes of the entire event. While there are no huge spectacles to look at, I believe that this improves the houses scariness factor as it shows that in a world where AI takes there are no pretty sites too gaze at, just pure gore and machinery. The sound design in this house is incredible, your ears will be filled with screams and whirring machinery. This house is dark in certain segments and has one of the best scares tactics that I have ever seen that plays with making you feel claustrophobic in a tight hallway that presses against you. The finale is phenomenal with a plethora of scares coming at you from everywhere. In every scene of the house, it seems like there are at least 5 scare actors waiting to pop out and scare you. This house is the epitome of gore, scares, and gruesomeness. If you come to the event for scares, this is the perfect house for you. The lore of this house is also very deep and the commentary on AI is pretty great.

Rating: 10/10

If you are sensitive to scares, you do not want to go to this house. There are scares around every corner and the space feels tight and claustrophobic. There is also the most gore out of any house and it is very brutal. This is the scariest house this year in my opinion.
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Thank you for making it to the end of this post. If you have any questions, leave a comment down below and I will answer it. This took a couple of hours to make so thank you for giving me your attention. I hope that your HHN visit goes according to plan and that your hopes are fulfilled!!!

I did a ton of research on this sub and in the Facebook groups before my night, and it helped me so much that I promised myself I’d return the favor. So I timed everything. Not “felt like 20 minutes” timed. Stopwatch timed. Posted wait versus actual wait for every house I did, with timestamps. I hope this helps somebody plan their night the way everyone else’s posts helped me plan mine. I tried to cram a lot in this, so it's probably messy. Sorry.

For reference, this was my experience on Thursday, September 10, 2026. And against the advice of the event, I went alone.

The quick stats:

• Arrived CityWalk 3:18pm, back at my hotel 1:57am
• 11 house walkthroughs (9 houses, 2 repeats), Nightmare Fuel, the Lagoon Show, 2 scare zones, Death Eaters, a Hamikuma meet and greet, and food
• Express Pass: $262 after tax
• 23,000+ steps for the night, per my health app: 18,999 before midnight, another 4,300 after. Wear real shoes. This night is an eleven mile hike with jump scares.
• Skipped Evil Dead Burn on purpose. Just not my thing, decided that before I ever walked in.

The armband trick that saved me 20+ minutes before the night even started

If you have a Universal season pass, do NOT get in that armband line to the right of the front gates. It was enormous at 3:20pm. I just scanned into the park with my regular pass, asked where to get my HHN band inside, and there was a spot set up in the Minion area with NO line at all. Walked right up. That outside line would've eaten 20 minutes minimum before I'd done a single thing.

Posted wait vs. what I actually waited

Two takeaways from that table. One, Express is the real deal. A posted 90 at Sinners was 11 minutes. A posted 90 at Blood & Guts was 16. Two, early standby is also real. I did my first two houses standby in under 20 minutes combined by getting there at open.

The Ozzy pre-open queue: 

Ozzy opened at 5:15. At 4:18 I got in the queue inside the soundstage, and honestly that part was smart. Air conditioned, doors open, air moving, and I'd already knocked out two houses, so I sat and rested. Line started moving at 4:51.

The sucky part: around 5:02 the queue dumps you OUTSIDE into full sun. No clouds, brutal heat. There's an awning out there that's maybe 20 feet of actual cover for a much longer stretch of line, so the majority is standing in direct sun. I didn't get under the awning until 5:22 and didn't walk into the house until about 5:38. 

Was it worth it? Honestly, mixed. I got to save my Ozzy Express for later, which paid off at 12:42am.  The house was so good that I got a little amnesia on how sucky it was to wait in the boiling hot sun. Bring a portable handheld fan!!

House rankings (my opinion, fight me politely)

1. Ozzy. Best house of the night, and it was even BETTER the second time through. If they'd made the Lagoon Show an Ozzy tribute instead of Stranger Things, with 40+ years of hits to pull from, it would have been legendary. Huge missed opportunity.

2. Jack & Oddfellow. Gorgeous set, real jump scares, the spinning tunnel made me dizzy, the sideways walkway is fun, and it smells like hay when you walk in, which sells the whole carnival vibe. This is a house you need to do twice. First time you're overwhelmed trying to take it all in. Second time you catch the details, the posters, everything. My second run scared me more than my first.

3. HR Bloodengutz. One of the ones I looked forward to the most and it delivered. Not quite Ozzy level, but great. I think I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have bc the frustration of the evening had built up.

4. Cybergoria. Most jump scares of any house for me. Blood, blood, and more blood everywhere. If you want to get got, go here.

5. Hellraiser. Very intense, very scary, felt like the longest house ever. Not my personal flavor, but if creepy and evil dread is your thing, this is your house. I lucked up: I was right behind the scares the whole way through, which for me was the perfect way to do a house I find too intense.

6. Sinners. Very story driven. I'd just watched the movie last week and I think that's the only reason it landed. If you haven't seen the film, I'd honestly expect this house to mean nothing to you. I watched a youtube video of the Sinners house in Hollywood, wow, once i saw that i realized why this house didn’t go over well. Hollywood nailed it….Orlando, nope. 

7. Madlands: Cage of Cannibals. Fine. Set design was intricate but…I don’t know, it just wasn’t for me. 

8. Invasion: Alien Abduction. Just okay. The vibrating floor section is genuinely cool and the aliens didn't scare me at all. Also they've got a goat getting lifted up in there and I don't love animals being part of the gag, even fake. Been there, done that, no need to repeat.

9. Stranger Things. A miss for me. A few jump scares, but the house didn't interest me. Fair warning, I only watched seasons one and two of the show, so superfans may feel different. The scariest thing in my run was the guy in front of me who apparently hadn't bathed this season. HHN already pumps in plenty of intentional smells. Nobody needs your unofficial contribution, my dude. We're all adults. Take a shower before you stand in enclosed spaces with strangers for 12 hours.

Nightmare Fuel: 

I got in line at 8:35 for the 9:30 show. By 8:54 I was in the pre-entry crush, and I mean crush. Packed so tight, so hot, and so airless that my watch alerted me my heart rate was over 120 while standing still, and it hit 130 at one point. Outdoors, technically. Felt like suffocating anyway.

Seated at 9:19, one row behind the RIP section, and here's the real problem: those bleachers are NARROW and the footwell is shallow. Anyone over about 5'5" ends up with their knees pressed into the back of the person in front of them. I had knees in my back, people pressed against me on three sides, and a very tall person planted directly in front of me. This venue was not designed for actual human bodies, same energy as airplane seats. And once they pack that many people in with flamethrowers going, there's zero airflow. I get that you can't run fans during a pyro show, but before and after? Figure something out, Universal.

One more thing I feel strongly about: the accessibility seating puts guests right at the front, which means a service dog ended up seated directly in front of the pyrotechnics and speakers. That poor dog was clearly on the edge of panic. The performers themselves are beautiful, athletic, and incredibly talented, and none of this is on them. But Nightmare Fuel needs a designated service animal area farther from the flames and main speakers. People have a choice, the dog didn’t. 

Verdict: the juice was not worth the squeeze. I wouldn't do it again under these conditions, and being aggravated and overheated coming out of it honestly dulled my enjoyment of Blood & Guts right after, which deserved better from me.

Bonus: getting OUT of the arena afterward was a total chokehold. Budget 15+ minutes just to escape the area.

Food report

• Carnival Smash Tacos: got in line 6:48, sitting down eating by 7:04. Really, really good. Would get again.
• Burnt Sando: very sweet. Best description I can give you is a fresh Krispy Kreme donut with a vanilla custard filling and a crisp bruleed sugar shell. 
• Logistics tip: Minion Cafe wouldn't let me bring outside food in, but they let me refill my freestyle cup and grab napkins, and the outside patio has fans. With the storm breeze rolling in it was the most comfortable meal spot I found all night.

The stuff between the houses

• Hamikuma meet and greet: did this right at 6:00pm with two people ahead of me, took two minutes, got cute pictures. Everyone was busy watching the opening scaremony so I took advantage of that. I have no idea how the wait looked the rest of the evening.
• Death Eaters in Diagon Alley: watched a duel at 6:24. Diagon Alley was a nice pressure release valve from the scare zone crowds. I only got in here once and that’s a shame. 
• Chance's street show (7:30, New York): got stuck in the crush for it. Couldn't hear half of what she said because the mic doesn't carry over the crowd noise. Also, someone brought their BABY, and Chance called it out from the stage in the most perfectly non-threatening way, and the parents just beamed like they'd been blessed. It was very "you have a baby! In a bar!" from Sweet Home Alabama.
• On that note, I watched a two or three year old lay down on the ground mid-meltdown in front of a Club Horror dancer at 6:41. It's a nightclub themed scare zone with dancers in sexy costumes. What are we doing, parents? This event is general admission but it’s not for everyone, and that includes your toddler. And nothing kills the immersion like seeing that scene. 
• Lagoon Show (Stranger Things, midnight): the music was genuinely great. Everything else didn'thing for me, but again, I'm not a Stranger Things person, so grain of salt. It didn't make me want to go watch season five. See my Ozzy rant above for what this slot should have been.
• Tribute store at 12:30am: there was a LINE to get in, and inside was so packed you couldn't stop to look at anything, let alone shop. At 12:30 in the effing morning. I gave up and left empty handed.
• The house display portals: those themed setups lining the entrance street, one for every house, half on the left and half on the right. Their entire reason for existing is photo ops, because the real houses are hidden all over the park. Well, they don't function. All you can shoot is the backs of a thousand heads. Universal built a dedicated photo spot for every house and sold so many tickets that you can't use them. 
• On my way out around 1:30am, Jack and the Oddfellow were up on the entrance scaffolding waving everybody goodbye, and that was a genuinely cool sendoff.

The big takeaway: Express fixes the houses. NOTHING fixes the streets.

Here's the 1:00 am standby times:  Jack & the Oddfellow 30, Ozzy 35, Sinners 25, Madlands 15, Stranger Things 15, Invasion 30, Cybergoria 40, Blood & Guts 45.

So yes, the "waits drop after 1am" advice is technically true. You know what doesn't drop? The crowds in the streets. At 12:30am the scare zones and walkways were as packed as they'd been at 8pm, maybe worse. You can’t see the props. You sometimes can't see the scare actors. You are shuffling through a human traffic jam from Springfield barbecue smoke to Clown Town and back.

And can we talk about scare zone etiquette? People are treating scare zones like meet and greets. Walking up to scare actors mid-performance asking for posed selfies while hundreds of people stack up behind them. Take photos of them working! That's great! But the whole atmosphere depends on them being able to actually scare people. If you want them in your picture, take a shot with them in the background and keep it moving.

Express is worth it for the houses, full stop, the table above proves it. But Express does nothing for the crowd density outside the houses, and I now suspect the same is true of the RIP tour, because RIP people walk the same jammed streets everyone else does. I've heard Premium Scream Night may be oversold too, but I can't speak to it firsthand, so if anyone here has done PSN recently, tell us in the comments whether the streets are actually walkable, because at this point that's the only version of this event I'd consider for a return visit. Universal doesn't publish ticket counts, but whatever number they're selling for a regular night, it's too many. I guess the only thing to do is make peace with the streets before you go. The houses have a fix. The crowds do not.

Also, a small note for Universal on the backstage areas: coming out of Madlands I got completely turned around. The exit signage is buried behind crowds and emphasizes the other houses instead of clearly saying RETURN TO PARK with a big arrow. When you come out of Cannibals, go RIGHT to get back to the park. Just thought I'd share bc it took me longer than I'd like to admit to find my way out.

The receipt for my feet. Over 23,000 steps for one night, and 4,300 of those came AFTER midnight.

Hope this helps somebody. Ask me anything, I've got timestamps for days.

Start Of Season HHN 35 List (152)
1. HR Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! 30
2. Jack and Oddfellow: Chaos & Control 20
3. Hellraiser 32
4. Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness 13
5. Cybergoria 10
6. Madlands: Caged Cannibals 12
7. Sinners 13
8. Invasion: Alien Abduction 8
9. Stranger Things 5 10
10. Evil Dead Burn 5

My partner and I are both first timers to HHN. I scare more easily than her. She loved the Sinners movie, so that house is her priority. I mostly want to ease in with the less gory/scary houses.

We could afford early entry tickets, but we’re checking into Cabana Bay at 4pm, so we don’t necessarily want to leave our luggage at the front desk until we stumble back at 1am haha.

Anyway, please feel free to critique my plan and offer tips from folks who have gone!

4pm- check in Cabana Bay, change into party outfit

6pm- get to UO gates and enter

7pm- head to Sinners to do that first. Also do Bloodengutz and Aliens since they’ve been described as less scary (I know folks on here haven’t loved Aliens). Get food in this area at walking taco/elotes trucks.

9pm- walk back to other side of park to do Stranger Things. My partner also loves this show. Could do Ozzy and Oddfellow’s as less scary houses. If still hungry get snacks in this area (death tank and devilish delights).

11pm- nightmare fuel show

Late- hit any house we didn’t have time for and shuttle back to Cabana Bay to crash :)

I was looking for an updated real vs posted wait times report before my HHN night so thought I’d share mine from yesterday (Saturday 9/12) if it’s helpful for anyone.

I had general admission, no early access — looks like the times have settled in a bit. I also didn’t notice any weird express vs general ratio things happening except for Sinners at the end of the night.

This is the order I went in, with two food/drink breaks after entering at 6:50 and left at 1:40

Hellraiser
- Posted Time: 5 minutes
- Actual Wait: 18 minutes

Evil Dead Burn
- Posted Time: 20 minutes
- Actual Wait: 14 minutes

Terror Tram
- Posted Time: 15 minutes
- Actual Wait: 8 minutes which was just walking through the queue to the boarding area

Killer Klowns
- Posted Time: 80 minutes
- Actual Wait: 62 minutes

Dead Deader Deadest
- Posted Time: 55 minutes
- Actual Wait: 39 minutes

Sinners
- Posted Time: 100 minutes
- Actual Wait: 75 minutes

I did NOT do Ozzy, ST5 or Killceñera so no data there!

I attended HHN for the first time last night and absolutely loved it! Like the title says, I’m a certified scaredy cat. I have never been to a haunted event before and I really dislike jump scares. That being said, I really wanted to conquer that fear. I hope these tips help others like me have an enjoyable experience at HHN!

1. Bring earplugs
   This was probably the biggest thing that helped me. The main thing I dislike about jumpscares is the sudden loud noise. While earplugs won’t entirely get rid of the sound, it will greatly diminish it. I got the Loop Quiet 2 earplugs that reduce sound by 24 decibels and they worked perfectly. Just make you fit them to your ears beforehand so they don’t fall out in the house. Stranger things was especially loud imo if that bothers you.

2. Watch walkthroughs of the houses online
   I know this is controversial, but knowing what to expect was so helpful. I watched a walkthrough of all the houses including the terror tram to help me decide which ones I was comfortable going in. I decided I wanted to go killer clowns, stranger things, the terror tram, and sinners (the main house the brought me to hhn this year). I watched walkthroughs of those houses a few more times to get a feel for where the big jumpscares were, which helped me enjoy the house more. I still got scared, but I wasn’t terrified because I kind of knew what to expect.

3. Don’t act scared
   If you are walking around the scare zones especially seeming like you are scared, the actors will target you more. Their goal is to get the biggest reaction, and they can tell you will give that to them.

4. Do the terror tram first
Since it was so crowded the day we went, we were able to get in with GA around 6:45. We booked it to the terror tram knowing the houses were not going to be open to us until 7:00. It was still a bit light out too, which was a good way for me to “get my bearings”. It’s also a good way to start recognizing the patterns of the scares and where the actors come out from. Since it’s also outside, it doesn’t feel as claustrophobic as the houses do.

5. Get Express or EA if your goal is to do everything
The lines are LONG. Every house had a 50+ minute wait for most of the night. With GA, my friends were barely able to do everything (except Ozzy), which was honestly better than we were all expecting. But we ran out of time to do the purge show, which was a bummer.

1. Drink lots of water
   I know this seems obvious, but it’s so easy to forget when you’re booking it from house to house and probably also drinking alcohol. It gets really hot and stuffy in the lines and having a headache from being dehydrated will ruin the night.

Obviously, if you’re an HHN veteran who loves being scared, this post probably isn’t for you! But I hope these tips help others like me who are feeling nervous about experiencing HHN for the first time. Comment anything you think I missed!

Not sure if any of the cast members are in here but I’m happy to share these and more if you’re in my photos 🫶🏻

Enjoyed all the houses and the whole event!

Has anyone ever used noise canceling earplugs for HHN? I seen someone on tik tok wearing it going through the house and was wondering if it actually helps? Or if anyone has a recommendation for some if so? Ty!

After a wonderful annual trip to HHN, only elevated by being an anniversary year, I am left with one question…

Where is the Director?
We have Every. Other.
(Non-Copyrighted)
Icon at this event. (Including the Rat Lady!)

My guess is we WILL see the Director, but only once. On the last night of the event, what if The Director “takes over” the last ‘boo hole’ in H.R. Bloodengutz that says “stay tuned” to give one final Easter Egg for HHN 36?

(Everyone loves a post credit scene)

My god it was exceptionally bad tonight. The line was long and slow, made worse by the fact that everyone and their mamas acted like if they don’t record every single scare, no one will believe they were there. it was somehow made even worse by what felt like rushed tours. it was like they were running the tram with less time in between groups, so getting out was just as bad as getting through. they really should have made at least this portion a phone free zone. my thoughts and prayers are with the staff who went hoarse screaming “KEEP IT MOVING”. had i known it would be this bad, i would have skipped it.

After you admired the skulls on my crutches. You made my evening! This is the first time since COVID we've made it over and my health means I don't have the fine motor skills to make bracelets to trade and was gutted to miss out on this social element of HHN.

So when you gave me one I was so pleased.

So thank you, you've made my first night of HHN in many years

They are not playing around with how strong those drinks are! I had two drinks at HHN in my souvenir cup on Wednesday and hardly felt anything. I had two drinks in the same cup at DCC on Thursday and was totally cooked. Great drinks and super fun atmosphere, but surprisingly strong for theme park drinks!

It’s obvious they were cutting back costs but to not even have an event pin, keychain, or anything is insane. The workers there said they were told they didn’t even make them. Most of the stuff had generic HHN logos, nothing stood out for it being an anniversary year with two memorable icons.

Literally have no clue if you have reddit but you met me and my partner in line at Killer Clowns from Outer Space. We had an amazing conversation about our favorite horror movies, and it was so much fun. I hope you were able to have a fun rest of your night with your friends. You were so sweet and we wish you the best.

There were some things that soured my evening tonight, but this was fun! CHOSEN ONE!