BB1's Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Review

[BB1]

Halloween Horror Nights, arguably the best halloween event I've ever been to and a perennial favorite to come back year after year. I always do two trips before I give my true rankings. Why you may ask? September is arguably when most haunts are pumping on full cylinders, the scareactors are typically accustomed to the scares by weeks 2-3 when I typically go. October is typically about when you will see changes to the houses occur, with additions or subtractions being made. That being said, I was able to go the 12th-15th of September, and just this past weekend from the 3rd-5th. My rankings aren't exactly a hey this was 1 2 etc, rather I gave serious thought to the level of scares, theming, quality, story telling and overall guest interactivity. I'll be giving each review 1-5 Lil Boo's, with some context to support and some analysis based on my experience and understanding of house logistics for 2024. 

Starting out, I wanted to first just talk about this year's theme, which made sense but didn't at the same time. For those unbeknownst to HHN lore, we typically get an icon, then a sub theme for merch that correlates to said theme or scarezone/house. This year we got SIN3STER and SURR3AL, which arguably were brilliant icons, duality of 33, giving each of them a solid scarezone, I feel like this was a very well thought out theme for 2024. The punk rock aspect, it's somewhat highlighted in Slaughter Sinema 2, but I feel like we missed out on a scrapped scare zone as Blumhouse just felt last minute. That being said, I'd give the icons 5/5 Lil Boo's, they were out, they had plots in their scarezones and I felt like this was an excellent reflection of what Oddfellow was last year. As for the punk rock edge I love the idea, I wanted more, but we only got one room in SS2 and that's practically it, which I feel like it was a letdown for what we could have gotten.

The merch this year was honestly bizarre. In years past I spent hundreds on merch as HHN has really solid merchandise. This year just felt a bit off. The Ghostbusters Frozen Empire button up shirt and glass were amazing, the Stay Puft and Lil Boo shoulder sitters were excellent and have gotten a lot of positive feedback from other guests at HHN and KI. The battlevest was solid, but everything else just felt really tacky. The Major Sweets bumper sticker is beautiful, but I feel like we could have gotten shirts and glassware with the actual logo, not the artist design. I can't really complain though, I bought the shirt, loved it, I bought the bumper sticker which I finally got on my car today. The flannel was solid this year as in years past, but everything else with the hoodies to the shirts just felt like it was not on the same value line as years past. 3/5 Lil Boo's. 

The food quality this year honestly wasn't that terrible. The Stay Puft smore was honestly enjoyable, I did have one that was somewhat cold but it was still warm where it mattered most. The charring actually exalted more of the chocolate flavor coming from the hersheys bar but it was definitely a must. The Goblin Hand Pie felt very similar to a raspberry Mcdonalds pie. The Fish and Chips was absolutely immaculate. The cod nuggets were just the right size to dip into the sauce. The sauce, that sauce was so delicious, for something I found unappealing to see, it was absolutely delicious. You had just enough to dip your fish, and your fries and still have some left over. The Pizza Skulls however were lacking the sauce as they did in years past which was upsetting but still pretty good, same could be said for the pizza fries which were amazing. Ghoul Juice, well, it's Ghoul Juice, it's still an amazing drink. 5/5 Lil Boo's, seriously if you aren't eating the event food you're missing out.

Next section I'll dive into the houses and scare zones, coming tomorrow night!