Every year, one of our top tips for getting a hop on crowds at Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando is to take advantage of early entry. In fact, aside from purchasing Halloween Horror Nights Express Passes or doing a private R.I.P. Tour, using Halloween Horror Nights early entry is the best way to see and do more at the nation's premier scare event. While we have a full guide dedicated to this annual event, we wanted to spend more time explaining the ins and outs of early entry and how to get it. Taking advantage of Halloween Horror Nights early entry requires some planning and a few decisions. Luckily for you, we're here to outline everything you need to know, including how to get it!
How Halloween Horror Nights Early Entry Works
Halloween Horror Nights is a separately ticketed event. This means if you have a ticket for the Universal Orlando Resort theme parks during the day but want to attend Horror Nights, you will need separate event admission. But on the other hand, you don't need daytime admission if you just want to go to Halloween Horror Nights.
However, in order to take advantage of early entry, which allows you to enter Universal Studios Florida during regular park hours and remain in the park until it officially reopens at 6:30 p.m. for Halloween Horror Nights, you'll need both regular park admission (whether it's a ticket or annual pass) and a Halloween Horror Nights ticket.
To take advantage of this, we recommend you spend the day at Universal Studios Florida (and Universal Islands of Adventure if you have a park-to-park ticket) experiencing the best the park has to offer. If you want a little downtime, and for the best jump on daytime crowds, we recommend you arrive at the parks ahead of the official opening, tour for a few hours and then take a break in the afternoon when crowds hit their peak. You just need to be back inside Universal Studios Florida by 5 p.m. which is when the park closes to daytime guests (you can see park hours on our Orlando Crowd Calendar).
Scream Early Ticket
If you don't have a regular daytime admission ticket or an annual pass, you can add on a Scream Early Ticket (available directly through Universal) for $55+ tax. This will allow access to Universal Studios Florida, starting at 3 p.m. Then at 5 p.m., you can proceed to a Stay and Scream holding area.
Halloween Horror Nights Holding Areas
For Halloween Horror Nights early entry at Universal Orlando, you'll be ushered into one of the park's "holding" areas. These are designated places for you to wait until the park reopens for the event. Your Halloween Horror Nights ticket will be scanned for entry into the holding area when you enter. While you don't have to enter until 5 p.m. (once the park closes), the two main holding areas open at 3 p.m. to start queuing.
The advantage of the holding areas is that they put you in a prime location for a number of houses! Plus, your specific holding area allows you early access to at least one house, sometimes two or even three, before the event officially starts at 6:30 p.m. With up to three holding areas open, it can be tough to make a decision based on which houses are your top priorities. Keep in mind that the houses farther back typically maintain short wait times within the first hour of the event since a lot of people flock to the first one they see. This year, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, A Quiet Place and Insidious: The Further were consistently the top three busiest houses on Opening Night, and they were all located near the front of the park.
These holding areas are subject to change at any time, so please be aware that they may not all be in operation during your visit ... or may open to different houses than those listed. Always verify with a team member before committing. Our best advice is to check when you get to the park to confirm which holding areas are open. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the early opening time may be different at each holding area. Ghostbusters and Insidious open up at 5:15 p.m., while the Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines and Goblin's Feast lines start moving at 5:45 p.m.
We highly recommend you use the restroom and purchase any desired food and beverages before getting in line and enjoying them while you wait! (Both holding areas have food and drink booths open.)
These are the Halloween Horror Nights early entry holding locations in 2024:
New York
While New York has been a staple Stay & Scream area in past years, there are some new changes for Halloween Horror Nights 33. Instead of entering by Louie's and Starbucks, you'll scan into the holding area right by Minions Cafe. This year, the early entry houses include Ghostbusters and Insidious, which open at 5:15 p.m. as we mentioned before, as well as A Quiet Place (opens at 5:30 p.m.) and Major Sweets Candy Factory (opens at 5:45 p.m.).
On Opening Night, we did not choose this holding area, as it looked like the lines were already too long by the time we entered the park around 4:30 p.m. However, the exception was Major Sweets, which had very little crowds when we walked by at 4:40 p.m., likely because it was tucked in the very back of the holding area at Fast & Furious. We would've hopped in, but there were barricades as we didn't realize until then that we had to enter by Minion Cafe.
World Expo
This is a brand-new holding area for the houses in the back of the park. You enter by San Francisco Pastry Company and Lombard's Seafood Grille, but it was a little confusing at first. When you initially enter the holding area, there's a bar located on the back patio of Lombard's, which had a long line, and lots of people were waiting around and sitting at the outdoor tables and chairs. However, you could continue and walk past London. The actual line for the houses started on the left side of the Nightmare Fuel stadium, and additional food and drink booths were open over in this area. There was only one big line (including standard and Express) for both houses at first — it wasn't until we walked to where the sprung tents were that we split into the respective house queues (and that's where you'd enter the Express queue if using Express Passes).
The TODAY Show
The TODAY Show restaurant at the front of the park is used as an overflow location. It usually only opens if the other holding areas reach maximum capacity. If you're directed to this holding area, you'll be released after the others are released, but it was closest to Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America.
The main catch for this holding area is that you can't necessarily plan on being here, since it depends on if and when the other areas fill up — which is more likely on Friday and Saturday nights.
Universal Hotel Guest Entrance
While not technically an early entry holding area, if you're staying at a Universal Orlando hotel, there is a special entrance for hotel guests each night from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. A valid hotel key card and admission are required.
Our Halloween Horror Nights Early Entry Experience
In 2024, we checked out the Halloween Horror Nights early entry procedures on opening night. We arrived at the park around 4:30 p.m. and headed toward the New York holding area, but we could already see that the lines were very long.
So, we pivoted and walked toward the new World Expo holding area, as Central Park is no longer a holding area. As we said before, Major Sweets had the shortest line in the New York holding area, but we didn't want to retrace our steps to enter by Minion Cafe.
Once we scanned into the World Expo holding area and figured out exactly where the line for the houses was (to the left of Nightmare Fuel stadium), we waited there until about 5:25 p.m. Then the team members brought us back to where the standard and Express queues started for each house. We picked Goblin's Feast, which looked slightly shorter. We noticed the first people entered the house at 5:37 p.m., a little earlier than scheduled, and we were inside at 5:47 p.m. and out of the house by 5:51 p.m. From there, we wanted to explore the scare zones and meet the rest of our scream squad at the park entrance. But we could've easily jumped back in line for Universal Monsters or hopped over to Slaughter Sinema 2 or The Museum: Deadly Exhibits, both of which opened at 5:45 p.m. — making it potentially possible to hit two or three houses before 6:30 p.m.
By the way, it can be very difficult to walk through a house when it's still light outside because your eyes don't adjust right away, making it seem much darker. Mommy Frog was in front of me leading the way (ladies first, right?). She went in the opposite direction because she couldn't see and ran into the wall. I thought it was hoppin' hilarious, but she thought it was just as bad as a jump scare and made me go first for the rest of the night.
If you've purchased Express Passes, we don't recommend using them during the early entry timeframe since the wait times are relatively short (depending on which one you go to). Save them for later when the lines are longer and you can go through those houses twice if you have the time! We did not use our Express Pass for Goblin's Feast during early entry, as we wanted to save our Express Pass in case we wanted to come back later.
Halloween Horror Nights Early Entry Strategic Advice for 2024
Go to the New York holding area if ... Insidious, Ghostbusters or A Quiet Place is at the top of your list. Based on our data from Opening Night when we looked at the wait times in the app, Insidious had the longest initial wait time (60 minutes), while A Quiet Place had a 50-minute wait and Ghostbusters opened at 25 minutes (jumping up to 40 minutes by 5:53 p.m.). Major Sweets had a 5-minute wait that turned into 55 minutes by 6:06 p.m. (which we think happened after people were done with their first New York house and started migrating toward the back). Insidious dropped to 45 minutes between 6 and 6:30 p.m. before jumping back up to 60 minutes by 6:51 p.m. A potential strategy could be jumping in line for Ghostbusters, then immediately getting in line for Insidious.
Go to the World Expo holding area if ... you want to get through as many houses as possible first. It has the most potential to knock out at least two houses, maybe three or even four before the crowds get to the back of the park.
Of course, wait times can vary by night, especially as it gets busier throughout the season and on Fridays and Saturdays (which tend to be the busiest nights).
If you end up in the TODAY Show area ... you'll be closest to Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America, which opens at 6 p.m.
Overall, we think early entry inside the holding areas is the best way to get the most out of Halloween Horror Nights for the least amount of money! If you can't use Halloween Horror Nights early entry, definitely be at the gate by 5:45 p.m. (We even saw a small crowd already camped outside the gate when we arrived at 4:30 p.m.) Sometimes, guests are allowed in before the 6:30 p.m. start time.
Have a question about Halloween Horror Nights' early entry? Share it in the comments below! Do you have a favorite holding area for Halloween Horror Nights? Share the location and tell us why you like it!
Related: Guide to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando
Keep hopping!
