Halloween Horror Nights: A Disney Fan's Review

Happy Halloween! Before your doorbell starts ringing from all those adorable trick-or-treaters, why not sit down a while and read a little more about Universal Studios' very scary Halloween Horror Nights?

As many of you know, I much prefer Disney over any other park. One of the things that Universal does VERY well though, is Halloween. 21 years ago, they began Halloween Horror Nights. This is no family-friendly event though, this is where scareactors (get it? "scare" actors?) fill the park, and if you're in past the allotted time, you're fair game for some fright. I was incredibly impressed with the theming this year. In honor of their 21st "birthday", they made the icon this year "Lady Luck". She can be beautiful, but as we all know, luck isn't always pretty. So, since I'm too much of a chicken to go myself, I enlisted my good friend, Dawn, to share her experiences this year. Kick back, grab some candy corn and read on about her awesome time!

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Welcome Foolish Mortals….Oh…wait a second. Wrong theme park. You see…when the family and I, or in this case, the husband and I, head down to Orlando, our theme park of choice is always Disney. It’s our happy place…I feel my spirits lifting the moment I step on property. However, this tour isn’t about Disney, it’s about going to what I refer to as “the anti-Disney”…Universal Studios Orlando. My husband, Marty, and I try to take an adults only trip once a year to reconnect. This time around, after booking and then cancelling a Disney cruise, we decided to go completely against our modus operandi….and head to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. We had a few reasons for going: first off, we would like to take our kids there in the future and we wanted to check it out, and second…Halloween Horror Nights. Halloween Horror Nights is a 13 and up (although, younger kids are welcome, but don’t blame Universal for the nightmares that may occur), Halloween event. There are blood, guts, chainsaws and scarezones. 8 haunted houses, and alcohol. This is NOT Disney. What follows is the impression of two tried and true Disney fanatics, who decided to step out of their comfort zone and try something new.

Having been to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in the past (and, going there our last day in Orlando this time as well), the way they do things at Universal Is much different than Disney’s methods. There are no wristbands, but there are hard tickets, just like Disney parties. Marty and I purchased what they term “Stay n Scream” tickets. To do this, you have to have a one day park ticket, preferable to Universal Studios, and they corral you in an area and set you free about a half hour before the general public. We got to Universal roughly around noon, and began our tour. We hit a few rides…and yes…Universal’s rides are of the thrill variety. And you are not allowed to take bags or large cameras on rides that throw you around…so you have to place these items in lockers that are free for the duration of the ride. We took our time exploring, riding The Revenge of the Mummy, Men in Black Alien Attack, checking out the Twister soundstage (basically like a Backlot Tour with tornadoes and Bill Paxton), and the Simpsons Ride. We walked the whole circuit of the park, and ate at a few restaurants (they have a meal deal as well) and doing a little shopping for my mom, who was graciously babysitting for us (Universal has a Betty Boop store…my mom is a BIG Betty Boop fan). Around 4:15, the day crowd started to dwindle, and the Universal Team Members were moving items around to prepare for Halloween Horror Nights to begin. Marty and I decided to go to the Horror Make Up show before heading into the holding area. It was funny, and quite entertaining, but not what you would really expect from the name. A bit more gag related, and not so much make up related, but still, fun. The funniest line from the show was “This isn’t Disney, we don’t have to be nice to you!”. When we left the theater, we headed to the New York area. We handed the Team Member our tickets, they scanned them, and we headed inside to wait. We took a seat and chatted with a few guests who had done HHN before, and who hailed from the UK. Around 6:15, people started to congregate by the roped off opening of our holding area in anticipation of being set free to explore the haunted houses. The nearest to us was Winter’s Night; The Haunting of Hawthorne Cemetery, and that was the first one that everyone headed to once we were let loose. At a few minutes before 6:30, they let us go to our doom.

The queue’s are the same at any theme park, I think. And if anyone has experienced the running of the bulls for fastpasses to Toy Story Midway Mania or Soarin’, you will get my meaning when I tell you how the crowd reacted to being allowed to head to the haunted houses. It was a rush to get to the line, to be one of the first let in. We weren’t too far back in the queue and it took perhaps 10 minutes to reach the opening. I had hopes of being brave, looking around, soaking up the interiors of the haunted houses like a seasoned pro, but alas, my girly side came out and that was not to be. I made my husband go ahead in EVERY house. Yes, I’m a wuss. Ahem. Anyway, we approached the door to the soundstage and walked in. The first thing you noticed was the temperature. It was about 40 degrees in the building, and it was snowing. The area to the left was taken up by a stagecoach seen in Van Helsing. You entered a broken down cemetery, with statues….or were they? This is not the Haunted Mansion folks. They had a diversion…and when you were looking over there…something came from OVER THERE..and scared you. I knew what was coming, but couldn’t help but still jump and shriek. The theming…the temperature….the props. THIS is what you might expect from a theme park such as Universal. It was all and all…pretty awesome! We headed out of the haunted house and back into the daylight, laughing (while Marty snuck looks at the half moon depressions in his palms from my fingernails).

Let me take a moment and revisit the fast pass reference. Universal has something similar..but you must pay for that privilege. For Halloween Horror nights, they offer Express Pass Plus. On top of your ticket, they were charging $69.95. This is not front of the line, this is similar to fast pass, where you have a different line, that gets you there a little bit faster, but not ahead of everyone. We kicked around the idea, because we wanted to see all we could, but discarded that idea pretty quickly. They did offer something called a RIP tour…that does get you front of line, and guaranteed to see every house and every show, but it was about $150 on top of your HHN ticket. Maybe someday, but not this trip. With the Stay n Scream, you are ahead of the curve by a half an hour, which may not seem like much, but if you go on a week day, as we did, it does make a difference in how much you can see.

After we left Winter’s Night, we headed to the Forsaken. The background of the Forsaken was a cursed ship, the 4th of Columbus’ fleet. The ship was sunk, and a hundred years later, during a squall, it was tossed into a Spanish fort. The forsaken came back for revenge. You do get wet in this house…you are immersed in a squall, it rains on you, you hear lightening and some of the floors are pitched in such a way to throw you off balance. The forsaken were creepy…green glowing eyes clued you in to their approach, but they still managed to startle and scare. Again, we were pleasantly surprised. We headed from cursed pirates to something I’ve never done before – a 3d haunted house. The next one we went to was the In Between. They hand you 3d glasses and in you go. This was one of the coolest experiences. Having scareactors come at you while you were distracted by 3d effects was startling, but very cool at the same time. 3 for 3, we headed out of the house and into our next line. Right next door to The In Between stood Nevermore – the madness of Edgar Allen Poe. Every room of this house was pulled from a story of Poe’s – The tell tale heart, the pit and the pendulum, the raven, etc. This is where the differences from Disney started to become a bit more apparent. Yes, they sell alcohol at 3 of the 4 Disney Parks. And yes, you can end up dealing with someone who has had too much to drink. However, at HHN, they throw alcohol at you at every turn…er…every queue. They had zombie-fied nurses with iv poles…and they had jello shots and blood bags full of “sex on the beach”. The alcohol stands were plentiful and the drunks…even more so. We had the pleasure of standing in line for Nevermore in front of two very inebriated young men for about a half hour (Marty says it felt longer than a half hour). If it was possible to get tipsy from someone’s breath, it very well could have happened in this line. I have to say, in multiple trips to Disney, this was a new experience for us. We ignored them as best we could, and continued on into Nevermore. Again, very well done, lots of scares, and very immersive. The world is shut out when you step into these houses. It’s as if every sense is taken over, and the experience is very rich. We left this house feeling the madness of the author, and headed out to the next house.

If you are keeping count, we have done 4 houses of the 8, and it’s only about 8 pm or so. Not bad for not having express passes! We headed to the next line, which was for a house called Saws and Steam. This queue ended up being a VERY long wait. It’s not that the line was horrible long, it’s just that it came to a dead stop right before we were getting ready to get through the last bit of it. We started to see the crowd become rowdy, demanding and crabby. No one told anyone what was happening, the queue was not emptied. We just…stood there (or sat there…there was a ledge and I used it). About a half hour of no news, no movement and two stoic police officers/security guards standing watch. You couldn’t go anywhere, and we were so close to the entrance we didn’t want to leave the line. But it was frustrating to have no idea. Universal has a text message offer while you are on property for HHN…you get text updates on the wait times for the houses. While we stood there, Marty got an update, and Saws and Steam didn’t have a listing at all. Huh? Eventually, we went in and it was creepy. This was the gory house. Blood, guts, body parts, warm water being sprayed on you, making you think blood was being dropped on you….creepy scareactors (one told me I had pretty skin…ewwwww). It was more industrial like, organs being squashed and squeezed…nothing made you realize more that this was totally NOT Disney. Freed from the line and the creepy house, we decided we should go eat. And take a few minutes to rest. At this point, I’d been up for 17 hours with only about 3 hours of sleep…I needed a break.

We headed to HR Bloodengutz when we finished dinner. This was a comedy/horror house. With the longest line. Just when you thought you were done, the line kept going. It took FOREVER. This was a house based on a horror show host who was taken off the air and he’s back for one last hurrah. It was called Holidays of Horror, and once we got inside it took you through all the holidays (even Arbor Day) with a creepy, bloody twist. It was funny, and I still jumped. Marty laughed at me. Seriously…he never startled ONCE during this whole trip. He just laughed at my reactions. If you are keeping count (and you are still with me), we have done 6 of 8 haunted houses. The last two – The Thing and Nightengales – had long lines and we were exhausted. On top of the houses, they had scare zones – open air haunts with scareactors. We went through a maze, a nature based one and one called the 7. The 7 was cool…basically the 7 deadly sins in the forms of 7 women, temptresses by day and evil by night. I got snuck up on by a few scareactors, and they were good at their jobs. We also had a picture taken with Lady Luck, the symbol of this year’s HHN 21.

So, what did two tried and true Disney fans have to say about Univeral’s Halloween Horror Nights? Fun for adults, NOT for kids (especially some of the small ones we saw). It’s a good time for the older teen set, and the grown ups. I think that Universal (and Islands of Adventure) have a lot of charm, and you really have to approach them with an open mind and not compared to Disney. NOTHING compares to Disney and the way they completely immerse you in a fantasy. You don’t get that at US/IOA. We really enjoyed ourselves and are quite happy we stepped outside the Disney box for at least a portion of this trip. If you enjoy Halloween, being scared for fun, and maybe a few drinks, give HHN a try…..and happy haunting everyone!

Hallowishes: Halloween Fireworks...Disney style!

Happy almost-Halloween, friends!

It's finally feeling like Halloween here in Carolina. Leaves are changing, it's cool outside, and tomorrow the trick-or-treaters will be out asking for us to put sweets into their bags! Honestly, who doesn't absolutely ADORE this time of year?!

As many of you know, Disney remains family-friendly, even on the scariest night of the year. Instead of the many faces of horror you'll see at Universal Studios (and thanks to my friend Dawn, you'll be hearing LOTS more about the amazing themes at Halloween Horror Nights soon!), Disney keeps things nice and tame for the many children (and let's face it, adults!) who just don't have it in them to keep getting scared all night. One of the great things you can find in the Magic Kingdom this time of year is a spin on the nightly fireworks spectaculer: Wishes. Instead, you'll be treated to Hallowishes, which puts a fun twist on the show. Watch below as the skies over the Magic Kingdom light up during Halloween season 2011!




I also wanted to take a moment to say a very special thank you. Friday marked the 1 year anniversary of my time blogging in my little corner of the intertubes here at the Disney Hippy. I know I don't have many readers, but the ones I do have are amazing. Your comments, posts, questions and suggestions really help drive this for me. Selfishly, I do this for me. I truly love writing, and I love being able to bring the magic of Disney, in any capacity I can, to the homes of my friends and families, and even strangers. Thank you for allowing me to do that!

So, Happy 1 year anniversary, Disney Hippy!!

The Story of Phantom Manor

Hi there, Mousekateers! Since Halloween is only a week away (SQUEE!) I figured it was time to enjoy the slightly darker side of Disney. Our first topic? Phantom Manor! Many of us will not get a chance to see the delapadated house sitting atop Thunder Mesa in Frontierland in Disneyland Paris. This house, also known as Phantom Manor, houses some of Disney's darkest themes: curses, murder, and even a ride into hell itself.

The story of Phantom Manor was inspired by the never-built Western River Expedition, which was a Pirates of the Caribbean-style attraction designed by Marc Davis.

Henry Ravenswood (born 1795) was a Western settler who struck gold in Big Thunder Mountain and founded the Thunder Mesa Mining Company, thus creating the city of Thunder Mesa (Frontierland as a whole). Ravenswood became rich and built himself a Victorian manor high on Boot Hill overlooking Big Thunder Mountain, where he raised a family and had a daughter, Melanie Ravenswood (born 1842).

Big Thunder mountain was rumored by Natives to be home to the Thunder Bird, a powerful spirit possessing a treasure. According to the legend, its wrath could be materialized into a terrible earthquake. However, Ravenswood would not believe such stories. Time went by, and the gold in Big Thunder Mountain ran out, making miners dig deeper into the Mountain.

Melanie grew from a young girl into a beautiful young woman, and became engaged to a train engineer who planned to take her far away from Thunder Mesa, much to the dismay of Henry. Henry did everything he could to stop the wedding, but his useless attempts were put to a stop when a terrible earthquake killed him and his wife Martha (born 1802). It seemed the Thunder Bird had been awoken, and the family was never heard of again. After several years, the story of what really happened came out from underneath the rubble : On Melanie's wedding day, a mysterious Phantom unknown to anyone appeared at the manor. While Melanie was preparing in her room, the Phantom lured her suitor up to the attic where he hanged him by the neck from the rafters.

In the ballroom, the bride sat alone. Hours went by with no sign of the groom. Guests slowly filed away, leaving Melanie alone in the house with the staff of maids and butlers. "Some day", she told herself, "he will come". And so, having never taken off her wedding dress or dropped her bouquet, in preparation for her loved one's return, she wandered the house aimlessly, singing melancholy songs of lost love.

The Phantom was still in the house, laughing at her human devotion to her intended husband. One after one, he invited his dead, demonic friends from the afterlife to fill the house in an eternal party. The shape of the house was slowly transformed by the evil forces. Years passed.

Inside and outside, the house was decaying. Dusty cobwebs covered every inch, the disheartened staff not caring, for it was rumored that Melanie had lost her mind. She wandered the house for years and years, singing softly to her groom, while all around her demons and ghosts reveled and danced. Everywhere she went she was reminded of the wedding. The Phantom's eternal laughter still carried through the walls of the house. Outside, the once beautiful grounds were falling apart and crumbling. The gilded staircase and structure were dotted with mold and trees and every plant on the grounds died. As if sensing the evil inherent in the house, nothing living ever trod there. Melanie even so kept her hopes, waiting for her love's return, and never figured why he had left.

The earthquake that killed her parents cut a huge gouge in the west half of the property and in the crumbling ghost town of the old Thunder Mesa. The deserted buildings were rumored to be called Phantom Canyon, the dark supernatural version of the town, and anyone who entered the ghastly old town at night never came back.

Today, no one knows if Melanie Ravenswood is still alive in that old house on the hill. If she is, then she is well over 100 years old. Her beautiful voice still carries over the town at night though, through the walls and night air. And sometimes, people still see lights in the house. Some nights, when the moon is full and the sky is clear of clouds, you can still hear the lonely mourning of the bride, the maniacal laughter of the Phantom, and the faint tinkle of glass and laughter of party guests. Whether she is alive or not, what is well known is that poor Melanie never really left the crumbling mansion. She waits for her groom until Judgment Day.

Many fans of the ride believe the Phantom to be Melanie's father, Henry Ravenswood, seeking vengeance from beyond the grave. Others believe that it is the pure spirit of evil, and that a curse was upon the young girl.

Check out this ride-through of the Ravenswood home. What do you think? Who is the Phantom of Phantom Manor?

Also, be sure to check out what Disneyland Paris did during a Halloween event at the park back in 2004!

Greatest DIY Disney Costumes

Well, autumn is here and that means it's officially my favorite time of year. There's a nip in the air, football on TV, beef stew and chili, and of course, Halloween decorations.

While I love me some Christmas (our tree goes up immediately after Halloween, though I keep asking Hubby to put it up sooner and sooner each year), there's just something about Halloween. Maybe it's the colors, maybe it's the costumes. Maybe it's the insanely awesome pumpkin carving. Either way, it's just awesome.

So, since I'm a little too far north (well, technically 10 hours North...but who's counting) and can't make it to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, I'm bringing the party to you! Let's check out some of the best Disney costumes out there!

These costumes are Incredible!

Ursula and Ariel

Disney Characters...as zombies!

Who doesn't love a little Hocus Pocus?

This Giselle costume is Enchanting!

Okay, it's not Disney, but these Corpse Bride costumes are to die for!

Jim Henson would be so proud. Yip yips!

You know I love this one!

What do you think? Have you found some other Disney costumes you love? Send them over and I'll be sure to post them for the world to see! :)

Halloweens Past

Welcome, foolish mortals, to my haunted Halloween post. I am your host, your Ghost host. Kindly step all the way in please and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now...

Well folks, it's arguably one of my favorite holidays all year- Halloween! I love virtually everything about it- the fall leaves, the nip in the air, carving pumpkins, costumes, and the awesome shows on the Travel Channel highlighting the most haunted places in the country and the scariest commercial haunted houses. Ah, it makes me smile just thinking about it.

It's always fun to stop and think about what you were doing last year during Halloween. Let me tell you a little about what we were doing.

Mostly, we were waiting outside. Weird, right? Well, there's a reason. We had been experiencing some, uh, "otherworldly" activity around the house. Footsteps upstairs, our closet doors shaking violently in the middle of the night, and a woman singing upstairs in what was affectionally known as "the purple room". So, we figured it needed to stop. We called in Mad City Paranormal Team to do some investigation. Sounds pretty simple, right? Oh there's more...

About 2 days before I made the call, the team met in the home of one of their own to regroup and find out more about a new piece of their equipment called the Ovilus FX. To anyone unfamiliar with what this particular piece of equipment does, I'll elaborate a bit. It's affectionately known as "the phone of the dead." Apparently it takes the energy of the spirits or the location that it happens to be in and turns them into a wide spectrum of words. While the words are somewhat limited, they can be pretty dang specific, too.

So, as their team sat around a table, they turned on the box to see what they could gather. The first thing it said was "Mandy. Sacred. Help." They were all a bit puzzled by this since none of them knew someone named Mandy, but they recorded and and figured that in time it would make sense. Boy did it. That was Sunday night. That night in our house our closet doors shook so violently that it woke Chad and I out of a dead (no pun intended) sleep. We sat there in bed watching the doors shake in shock. There was nothing there- no fan, no animals. Nothing should be making it happen, and yet there it was. Monday was the same. The loud racket was keeping us up all night, so we decided something needed to happen. We needed to call someone. Tuesday morning at work, I found the number for Mad City and gave them a call. As soon as I said my name, the girl on the phone went silent. At this point, I hadn't heard the story of the Ovilus box.

A few weeks later, they came out to our house to check everything out. Chad and I took the dogs and waited outside while the team walked around the home, got base readings, did EVP (electronic voice phenomena) sessions, and took photos. After about an hour, they asked us to come back in. We spoke with them a little bit and they asked if they could come back on Halloween night to do an overnight investigation.

A few weeks later, after all 8 trick or treaters had come and gone, the team showed back up and conducted another investigation. Only a few hours later, we were asked to come back in for the home cleansing. We learned more about the previous investigation and heard one of the creepiest EVPs I had ever heard of. Upstairs, the Ovilus box had said "Mandy. Mandy. Amanda. Giraffe. Squeeze." They had also captured an EVP. It wasn't one of those 'yeah, I guess that could be a word or something" type EVPs. It was clear as day. They played the tape back a bit so I could hear what each member of the team sounded like on tape. In the middle of one of them speaking about something else, there was a very deep male's voice that said "What are you doing here?". It gave me shivers.

We learned more about our home and who had lived in it previously. Apparently we have 2 spirits here inside the home. It's a man and his wife. The man died in the home many many years ago. His wife died sometime after. Apparently when the man was alive he has cheated on his wife with a prostitute once. He felt horribly guilty for the remainder of his days- he truly loved his wife and he was horribly ashamed of his actions. He was so ashamed, in fact, that he refused to pass over because he feared the judgment that was awaiting him. When his wife passed, she too refused to pass over because she did not want to go without her husband. So, they stayed here in the home they built together, going about their lives. We also have a pretty awful poltergeist who likes to cause mayhem. He normally hangs out down in the basement, but occasionally, he likes to come in here and make his presence known.

That's pretty much the Cliff Notes version of the whole thing. Let's hope this year is a little more quiet :).

In honor of this glorious holiday, I think it's only fitting to end with some fun Disney Halloween videos. What do you think?







I don't like caramel apples, but this looks like a blast to make!



The Disneyland Haunted Mansion ride-through...enjoy!

Hurray Baaaack....hurry baaaack. Be sure to bring your DEATH certificate..

My First Costumeless Halloween

Well, Halloween is right around the corner and I find myself in a bit of a pickle. I had originally intended to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween, but it ended up not working out. I've been so concentrated on the passing of Chad's grandma that I had almost completely forgotten that Halloween is this Sunday! So, no Minnie Mouse costume for me. A few years ago I had gone Snow White and I have this absolutely beautiful costume I told myself I could wear. I got it out of the closet tonight and it doesn't fit anymore (remember me mentioning that damn ice cream?). So, I'm costumeless. Usually this isn't a problem. While I absolutely LOVE Halloween, it's kinda depressing here. We got 8 trick or treaters last year. We had an entire bucket of candy so the 8 kids we did have got handfuls! The strangest part is that we live on one of the busiest streets! Anyway, it's a tradition at work that everyone dresses up and the photos are put on the National website. So, my co-workers came up with a creative idea: we're dressing up as our Regional team from MN. It should be good for a few laughs. As for my street clothes, I'll be wearing my absolutely awesome vintage Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion t-shirt that my bestie brought back for me from her Disney honeymoon last month. Hey- it says "haunted" on it- that should count as a costume, right?

Speaking of my love for the Haunted Mansion, I wanted to pass along a really cool photo from the Disney Parks blog about everyone's favorite Disney mansion. It's a "GigaPan" image where you can zoom in to see even the smallest of details. For anyone with a keen eye, try finding the pin in the picture! It took Riki and I awhile to find it the other night!

Check out the Haunted Mansion GigaPan here!

So what are your plans for All Hallow's Eve? Will you be attending a costume party? Taking little ones trick-or-treating? We'll be having a very low-key evening since we've been running around lately (and because I'm sick as heck). Scary movies and popcorn! I'm determined to get a pumpkin though so I can feel like I've celebrated somehow. Any suggestions for movies?

PS- This is completely unrelated to the rest of the post, but be sure to go to the blog home page and scroll down to the bottom to my virtual fish tank. If you click your mouse, you'll drop some food in for my fishies. They get hungry ya know.... ;)