Limping. Soaked. Unsure what day it was. It might sound like I’m describing a final girl escaping the woods at the end of a horror movie, but it was actually just me… after Halloween Horror Nights last year. We were among the first to enter the park when the gates opened around 6:30 p.m., with Express Passes in hand, and still only made it through nine of the 10 houses (taking only minimal breaks for pesky human needs like eating and peeing). We didn’t roll out until the park closed at 2 a.m., waited what seemed like forever for our shuttle, and collapsed into bed around 3 a.m. after loading up on ibuprofen.
It took days to feel like a person again.
Earlier this year, I wrote a whole piece about what I wish someone had told me before my first HHN as a 40+ woman, and I stand by every word. After returning from this year’s event, though, I need to amend the record. There’s one tip that deserves to be bumped to the top of the list (and bolded and underlined): Buy the Scream Early ticket.
Is it a splurge? Yes. But dear reader, I was tucked back in my hotel bed before midnight. Showered and horizontal. Snug and smug. And we were able to hit every single house and then some.
What is Scream Early?
This “extra” is an add-on to your regular HHN ticket that lets you into the park at 2 p.m., before the gates open to the general crowd (officially 6:30 p.m., though sometimes a bit earlier, around 6 p.m.). That means you get a head start of hours to hit the handful of houses that open early. This year, three houses opened right at 2 p.m., followed by two at 5:15 p.m., three more at 5:45 p.m., and the final two at 6 p.m.
We paired Scream Early with Express Passes (more on that particular financial decision in a minute) and knocked out four houses before the regular crowd so much as scanned a ticket. Four! That’s nearly half the lineup, and the sun hadn’t even gone down yet.
For context, we hadn’t hit that many houses last year until, like, 10 p.m.
Is Scream Early worth it?
Obviously, we anticipated being able to get through houses earlier with the ticket, but what we didn’t realize was how much it would shift the vibe of the night. It just sort of evaporated all the pressure we felt the year before.
Doing regular entry, we knew the math just wasn’t in our favor. You’ve got 10 houses, multiple scare zones, a show if you want to see it, snack carts to hit, and the lines for all of it only get longer as the night wears on. You end up spending the night speed-walking from one end of the park to the other, crisscrossing when the wait times app alerts you to a shorter wait at a house in a totally different part of the park, only to end up waiting in another line anyway (yes, even with Express).
This year, with four houses — including the two big draws: Ozzy Osbourne and Sinners — already in the bag before the night technically began, we didn’t feel the need to rush so much. For the first time, I managed to procure the highly anticipated Death by Cheesestick instead of abandoning the snack queue halfway through. We sat down multiple times to eat or drink or, honestly, just rest our old bones. We knew we had the time, so we didn’t feel guilty about it.
Being able to move at a slightly slower pace also makes the heat more bearable. It doesn’t matter that it was mid-October; Orlando weather does not care about your fall dreams. It’s still very hot and humid, meaning you’re going to sweat buckets no matter what time you walk in. And when you’re in your 30s or 40s, that kind of heat hits ya a little harder. We needed the ability to make frequent hydration and cooldown pit stops.
I’m OK with the youth having the after-midnight run.
One thing we’d been told going into this year, and it remains to be seen if this pattern will hold in the future, is that way more young people seemed to be attending HHN. As in teens and early 20-somethings, roaming around in packs, with their numbers appearing to multiply as the night wore on. And you know what? Good for them. They’ve still got the knees for it. I’m cool with them taking the 1 a.m. scare zones and last-call house sprints.
Since we frontloaded the night, we didn’t need those hours and could leave while we were still having fun and our bodies were still cooperating.
Let’s talk about the money.
The cost of a Scream Early ticket depends on the night you go, but they start at $70 + tax per person. We paid $85 + tax per person for the Saturday we went. If you factor in Express Passes ($200+ per person, depending on the night) stacked on top of the event ticket itself, that is a real chunk of change. I know it’s not in the cards for everyone, *especially* in this economy.
If you can only swing one, I’d make the case for Scream Early on its own. It’s the cheapest add-on and gets you a few low-crowd hours and a head start on the houses. Once the gates open, yes, you’ll wait longer than if you also had Express, but you’ll already be ahead of schedule so you’ll have the buffer built in.
As for splurging on both, here’s how I’ve made peace with it.
Being older means more aches and pains and, yes, our middle-aged asses hobbled through City Walk all hunched over and stiff on the way out of the park. But being older also means we have grown-up money and the free will to spend it on things that bring us joy, something we desperately needed a dose of right now. Some people drop their hard-earned dollars on handbags; we dropped ours to be terrified by a bunch of scare actors dressed as demagorgons. 🤷♀️
Midlife is the ideal time for the early shift.
I used to feel like the only way to do HHN “right” was to close the place down. But you know what? I’m not as young as I once was, and I’m fine with that. My 20s were fun. My 30s were a blast. My 40s are pretty f*cking awesome too, though, and with them comes leaning into what feels good to me.
I still packed the ibuprofen. I still definitely needed it. The big difference: I woke up the next morning feeling like I’d had a great night out… instead of feeling like I’d barely survived one. I didn’t lose three days of my life to recovery.
So, if you’re a fellow 40-something horror girlie eyeballing next year’s tickets, this is me grabbing you by the shoulders once more: Go early. Leave early. The scares are just as good when you get them before midnight, I promise.
