Friday the 19th, Matt and I had finally got a chance to go to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights with his cousins. I was wary of it, because from that Friday to the following Wednesday we were going to be non-stop busy (HHN, Howl-O-Scream, then a NC trip), but now that it’s all over it was all a blast!
Café Tu Tu Tango
Before heading to the park, Matt and I went out to eat beforehand, just to get something other than theme park food. We tried ages ago going to Café Tu Tu Tango, but for the two of us the wait was going to be over an hour so we ended up leaving. This was a great opportunity to try again, and I am so glad we did!
Walking in, the building is an artist’s dream! There is literally art everywhere you look, ranging from everything that you could imagine! They had some Halloween themed pieces at the entrance, but they also had some art of animals, some that fit the Florida vibe, they even had different rubber ducks! It was so beautiful, and honestly I didn’t get enough time looking at all of the art! The other cool thing is that every piece is for sale, which I adore!
We got there for their Happy Hour, which included discounted food and drinks. We ended up just getting a glass of sangria (which Matt thought his homemade sangria was better), although we didn’t get too much food off of the Happy Hour menu. With this place, the plates are small so you can pick and share, which is such a fun style! The food also comes out as soon as it is ready, and isn’t served all together. We ended up getting the Chilled Mediterranean Spinach Dip, Jamon Serrano Croquetas, Duck Confit Sliders, Garlic-Maple Chicken Wings, Sesame Steak Skewers, and Cuban Slider. I thought literally everything was fantastic, although Matt didn’t like the Duck Sliders. The things that came with bread were super heavy, though, so I do know that prevented me from eating as much as I should have, but everything was so good!
We didn’t know what to expect, so we ordered a little too much, but we would love to go back with friends just to hang out and pick at some food. It was a little bit pricy, so that is also something to take into consideration, but it was a fun dinner before our Halloween event!
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights
We got to Universal early enough to walk in when gates opened, because originally we had a gameplan as to where we were going to be heading. The IP houses (besides The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks, which was the WWE house) were at the top of our list, so once we got in we walked straight back to Terrifier. The wait time wasn’t bad at all at around 45 minutes, and so our group grabbed a drink and jumped in line. The line honestly was pretty steady, and we got in pretty much exact. The house was well done, and Art was packed within the house, and it was just as gory as I expected! I don’t have a fear of clowns, so the jumps I did get from here were due to not expecting someone to jump out, but there was one Art that I walked by who I gave a heart with my hands and he did it right back! Towards the end of the maze was where the wet and dry path that everyone was hyping. Our group did the wet path, and honestly that portion was a letdown. It was just misters dripping water, with no decorations. It was more annoying having condensation dripping than anything with no payoff at the end, so I kind of wish we did the dry path. Overall, this was a great house!
After Terrifier, we went to Grave of Flesh due to it only being a 30 minute wait time. This was a wonderful line to wait in because I want to say the majority of this was inside and air conditioned. The house wasn’t my favorite, even thinking the concept wasn’t bad. I thought the monsters (which I thought were more plant looking than anything) weren’t scary, and the zombies were very mediocre. I don’t know if we just had a bad run, but this was one of my least favorite houses that we did. I wish I could give a positive for the house, but nothing really stood out to me.
After Grave of Flesh, we headed around The Origins of Horror Scare Zone to find a location to wait for the rest of the group. I ended up going back around to actually see the area, and it was so funny that once the scare actors saw the video camera I was trying to hold close to me they worked it! I was trying to keep it close to my body so it didn’t get in the way of anyone, and they still noticed it and gave a great time! This area wasn’t scary at all, especially during the day, but it was cool to see the statues of the different icons of the event this year.
We met up with our group, so we decided to wait for Fallout. This was in the middle of the park, so we ended up walking on the outskirts of the New York area of Studios, completely missing Mutations: Toxic Twenties Scare Zone. We went through the Club Horror area, which I thought was kind of goofy since Universal has Dead Coconut Club at CityWalk, which has so much better of a vibe! This area was a little sparse, with no scare actors walking around and just loud music. It had girls in masks dancing on platforms, which I feel like could have been done a little bit better. They had Rob Zombie in this same area a few years ago with music and dancers and it was done so much better than what they were trying to achieve this year.
We got to Fallout and I want to say it said it was 45 minutes, but this line was a bit rough. This and Gálkn’s lines are side by side under a hanging, and there is no air circulation whatsoever. The lines are pretty much single file and cramped, and it was so loud. The whole line was uncomfortable, and on top of it the line ended up being around an hour long instead. Thankfully the positive was we had a great group to hang out with, I just wish we didn’t have to shout at each other to talk.
The Fallout house was cool, although I wouldn’t say it was scary at all! This was a house that was just placing you in the show and filling it with references (which I’ll probably just call out the ones I saw). I thought walking through the vault door was cool, although it looked funny because of them having to scale it down for a haunted house size. There was a raider near some jell-o cake, although it didn’t look the same as the show. Outside of the vault, there was a wheelbarrow with “Dog Meat” on it, filled with meat, which I thought was a funny nod to the games. I think there was a squirrel on a stick and stimpaks, as well as a Handyman. I almost had missed The Ghoul because he came out right after I walked by, but Matt got my attention and I saw him and he looked awesome! I thought having the power armor was cool, but it was odd that it just stood there. The addition of the Gulper I though was also kind of silly, but I also didn’t think he was the greatest enemy for the show, either. They had an easter egg of a Deathclaw shadow as well, but just like the show it was just a teaser and didn’t actually show anything.
After Fallout, our group split up with some people going to Diagon Alley. We ended up heading over through Mutations, which I wasn’t crazy about. There was something about it that was kind of cheesy, with the radioactive green. We decided to stop by the Fallout food booth to get a Radaway drink and some food. This was a mistake because both the drinks and food were terrible. The Radaway was lemonade with chipotle pineapple and spiced brown sugar syrup, and it kind of reminded me of a Christmas drink, but I couldn’t even get through it. Matt got the Quantum, which was Sūpāsawā, blue curaçao syrup, exotic citrus syrup, simple syrup and tonic water, and it tasted just like sugar. The food we got were the Pickle Bucket Baked Chicken, which was fried pickles and buffalo chicken dip and Yum Yum Deviled “Eggs”, which were coconut panna cotta “eggs” with pineapple whipped ganache and Tajin. The eggs were terrible, and I took a bite and couldn’t even finish it because the whole thing was so bizarre. Even the pickles were such a weird combination. I was actually super disappointed in the food for this booth.
After having some disappointing food, we walked over to El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. The wait I want to say was around 45 minutes, so we jumped in line to wait. This line probably felt worse than it was because it had already been a long night, but the time did end up going up. I will say it was probably my favorite house, though! There were people on stilts, there were gargoyles flying, there was so much going on I loved it so much! It was dark, there were a good amount of jump scares. I thought this was an absolutely beautiful house!
After El Artista, we went to try and find the rest of our group because they were all planning on leaving. We walked through Mel’s Die-In, which they had zombie waiters and waitresses walking around outside, and then through The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane Scare Zone. This was my favorite area with how much they put in it. There were children looking scare actors running around, there was apparently cat people. Once we got through it near the show one of the cat people ended up coming behind me to scare me, which was awesome! I really wish we took more time in the different areas, but it is what it is. There was also way too many people for the show, so we couldn’t even see what was going on.
After parting ways with our group that left for the night, Matt and I decided to try and do one more house. We decided on going to Gálkn: Monsters of the North since the wait was saying 45 minutes. It was getting close to closing, and I honestly don’t even think we waited 30 minutes for this house. I thought this was a really cool theme, and thought they did a great job decorating it! I didn’t entirely find this one scary, either, but I really enjoyed the Nordic theming, and both Matt and I agreed that going through the skeleton creature and walking through what was supposed to be the inside (or maybe hell) was really cool!
Once we were done with Gálkn, we decided it was time to go because it was 12:30 and we were exhausted. We left through Masquerade: Dance with Death, which was an okay Scare Zone. I feel like the costumes were cool, but it wasn’t scary. It was more of a gothic vampire dance, so it had more of a regal feeling than anything.
I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get more done this year, but going on a Friday night we knew the event was going to be crowded. It wasn’t my favorite year, but I am happy we were finally able to kick off Halloween season!