WDWCP: Losing My HHN Virginity

Before we even REALLY got into the heart
of the park. I have that t-shirt with the eyeball.

It should be no secret that I love Halloween. I go to the Spirit Halloween store as often as I can. I have thrown a demented fairy tail Halloween party. I always create awesome haunted houses in my head when I see a spooky looking building. Part of my desire to always create something scary is because of this one single night back in 1997. Three of us roomies loaded into Sarah's car and popped our HHN cherry!

HHN? What does that mean? Halloween Horror Nights. In 1997 Islands of Adventure and City Walk didn't exist, so Universal Orlando was nonexistent as well. It was just Universal Studios. HHN VII was themed Frightmares and I had NO idea what I was getting myself into!

Sarah and I about to enter our first maze.
So young, so naive!

HHN in 2017 is so very different than 1997. We paid $40 plus tax for our ticket and we had no problem experiencing everything in one night. Now the ticket thing is just out of control. And the crowd size is so big. It really loses some of the charm that it had in the early days, but it has also gotten bigger overall and has more to offer. 

So what is it you still want to know! It's an after hours separate ticket event that happens at the Universal Resort. The main draw, at least for me, would be the haunted mazes. Crazy themes, props, sounds, smells, scareactors. If you are scared easily this might make you need an adult diaper!

There are shows, which are never a huge draw for me. Bill & Ted has been a standard and I only ever watched it when forced. I just hate waiting for shows and then I feel I'm wasting time watching when I could be in houses. Some attractions are open as well, and to get to those you'll have to navigate through Scare Zones. 

I could do a whole series of posts just on HHN from all the years I have visited. We have some epic memories in our Kali River Rapids crew! But this will be all about my first, naive visit back when it was a more manageable event. 

We entered the park and grabbed some maps. After walking down the main entrance path we paused for Sarah to buy herself a drink. Meanwhile, Marcy and I tried to figure out where we were and where we could find the 3 haunted mazes. 

Dang it before we could even figure out what we were looking at we were screaming at the top of our lungs and grabbing each other. We just had our first encounter with a scareactor! Oh yeah, they roam the streets waiting for the right moment to scare you. We had no idea that was a thing!! Did everybody know this and not us? Sarah missed out, but I'm sure saw and/or heard. It was a scary/bloody medical student that was after us by the way. A common thing to watch for are the chainsaw guys, FYI! If you hear a chainsaw, well, good luck!

Soon we gathered our composure and went to get in line for our first house, Universal's Museum of Horror. This should be cool, I thought. Probably a wax museum type of thing, but with real people. That will be fun! Back in 1997 they would let only small groups in at a time, whereas now it is a nonstop line of people, which I find can sometimes ruin some scares. We were stopped before entering. This meant I would be the group leader for the next back of victims. Psh, no sweat. 

The hot clown - or so we thought
based on his voice and hands!?!

As soon as we entered my guard for up. It was so dark we could hardly see. I found the wall and decided if I walk with my back against it then nothing can scare me from behind. I accidentally discovered a hidden door and came face to face with Jason from Friday the 13th. In a gravelly voice he ushered me back to the right path. So there went that plan. We continued on and things got blurry. Wax museum my ass!! There weren't people just posing in a costume like scary movie characters. Oh no! They were popping out at us, making scary sounds, chasing us. Leatherface, from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, accidentally stepped on Marcy's foot, so that was funny to hear him try to stay in character and apologize. I think that was around the time we lost it. People would jump out. We would scream while clutching onto each other. Marcy was one to freeze, I was one to run. So it was freeze together and then I drag her along as we run. Where to? Into Sarah. She was keeping fairly normal and continued on like a sane person would. With my running we ended up catching the group ahead of us. 

Perhaps my biggest scare EVER in all of my countless visits to HHN over the years was in this house. Suddenly things felt calm and we entered a room. It felt so familiar. I saw bathroom stalls. It was a high school bathroom. Why did I know this? I looked to my right and saw the sinks and mirrors. And him. The crazy killer from Scream. He wasn't moving. He focused in on me, our eyes locked. I was slowly moving, unsure of what was going on. And then he did it. He tilted his head slowly and lifted his knife. That tiny, subtle move freaked me out. I screamed and started moving and he started lunging after me. From then on I just kept going. Scareactor after scareactor .... coming out at me from every direction. I wasn't even comprehending who was darting at me. I was in full blown run mode until I exited the sound stage!

Omg. Seriously. It was terrifying. And so awesome!

Midway of the Bizarre was fun and a lot less terrifying. It wasn't called a Scare Zone back then, but that's essentially what it was. It was a pathway through the park filled with insane amounts of smoke and fog. Demented circus folk were hiding and jumping out to scare us. We freaking loved it!

We watched Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue. It was ok but just like the show you could see any time so really I wouldn't have needed to do it. A cool thing we liked was the Festival of the Dead parade. Awesome costumes, really unique things happening, Marie Gras beads and coins. It was definitely worth it and I know we saw pass by it more than once. Compared to my standard daily Disney parade, this was just crazy - in a good way!

We still had two houses left to experience. Our second one was Tombs of Terror. Getting in line made us nervous because we saw scareactors trying to get people in line to jump. Oh no. What are we in for? This had a Louisiana bayou setting if I recall correctly. And I had a moment of pure terror in this one. Okay so I KNOW this is all fake, but having never experienced anything like this, once you are in the heat of the moment, well it feels really damn real!

I remember walking into a living room. It was such a rundown house and just gross. The television was an old box tv like I had in my dorm room, the screen flickering black and white. Sarah was the lead person and safely out of the room. Marcy was behind me. It felt like we had almost paused and things were in slow motion. I turned behind me and saw Marcy standing there innocently. It was almost like we were trying to figure out why nobody was scaring us. Behind her was this scary couple coming for her. One had a huge, dirty knife in their hand, raising it over their head, about to come down on Marcy. But Marcy didn't know!! I was watching this happened and screamed for her to ruuuuunnnnnn!!! We were chased out of the house and happily free and reunited with Sarah. That last scene was so intense that I can't even remember the rest of the house. And these aren't short mazes you walk through either! These last for minutes!

By the time we got to Hotel Hell, our final maze, I wasn't sure I could do it. I was exhausted, mentally. It had been so intense all night! PLUS, I had shin splints from my awful choice in shoes at work ... so running in fear was painful! BUT I couldn't stay outside alone!!! I would be easy prey if I was left unattended. So we checked in and entered Hotel Hell.

Oh Lordy live. This was a doozy! It was just nonstop from the moment we stepped foot inside. At one point, again Sarah was ahead of us, Marcy and I were completely holding each other with all of our arms. We entered a white room with a strobe light flashing. It seemed full body bags were hanging and we had to manage our way through. But we couldn't even see with the crazy lights. I closed my eyes, stuck my hand out to move the bags and I just drug the two of us running through there. What the heck was that???

Soon we emptied into a kitchen. Slabs of beef were hanging, completely exposed. A large, bald butcher was scowling and chased my friends out of the room. He blocked the door, turned and looked at me and started laughing. I was alone. Little Ronda and Scary Butcher. I backed up until I hit a wall. I was in between two dead, skinned cows. I slid to the floor and was pleading with him. "Please, let me go. I'm a vegetarian! You scared me. You win!" He leaned into me with his tongue out. I ducked my head down even more and darted out from under him. 

He chased me out of the room but it didn't stop there. Immediately a creepy man in a suit came from behind me and was whispering and breathing on my neck. When is it going to end???

I caught up to my friends and eventually we did go outside. We were free! We came out in this alleyway that looked like New York in movies. I relaxed. But then was curious when it started raining??? What?? It wasn't done! Out came someone from the dumpster. And here I go, running again. I didn't stop until I hit the rail boarding the big pond of water in the middle of the theme park.

I survived it!! It was such an unforgettable evening. Pure terror!!

Heading home - survivors!!

See ya real soon!