SATURDAY SIX Presents: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of Universal’s HHN Premium Scream Night

This week’s SATURDAY SIX looks back at the recent Premium Scream Night at Universal Studios Florida, a hard ticket event held one night before the official opening of Halloween Horror Nights. Here are the promised amenities for ticket holders…

 

The event itself had dynamic pricing. It had originally started at $375 a ticket and went up to the $390 price that is in the screen shot above. Ultimately, the price went over $400 per person before the event sold out. We were able to use an Annual Passholder discount to get a ticket for $365 (plus tax.)

# 6 – Checking In

The Premium Scream Night ticket came with Free Self Parking, allowing ticket holders to park with the rest of the crowd in general parking in the Citywalk garages. We used a benefit of our Premier Annual Pass to park in the Prime parking area that is closer to the Citywalk security hub.

The Premium Scream Night experience made its debut last year and did NOT offer a Stay & Scream option. For those who don’t know, Stay & Scream allows anyone already inside the park to stay as it transitions over to the hard ticket event, as long as you have tickets for both. So in 2024, ALL ticket holders had to wait outside the front gates of USF until the day guests were swept out of the park.  The PDF that came with our Premium Scream Night ticket only listed that the event begins at 6:30 PM.

We had asked Guest Relations during the week several times if Stay & Scream would be available for the Premium Scream Night and were repeatedly told “No.”

However, you ever get a feeling in your gut that something didn’t feel right? Universal had already released details that it would be completely changing the Stay & Scream experience for this year’s regular Halloween Horror Nights event and it made sense – at least to me – that they would try to “soft open” (for lack of a better term) the new Stay & Scream for Premium Scream Night.

So on the day of the event we went to the parks in the early afternoon and lo-and-behold, Stay & Scream was going to be offered for the Premium Scream Night event. Beginning at 3PM, Premium Scream Night ticketholders inside the park could pick up their wristband, souvenir lanyard and credential at Lombard’s Seafood Grill, Minion Café, and Villain-Con. This was very similar to what we experienced at USF when checking-in for the Rock the Universe hard ticket event back in January.

Premium Scream Night wristband distribution signage at Minion Café.

At Villain-Con, Premium Scream Night ticketholders would walk in the door on the left, pick up their wristband, lanyard and credentials inside, and then exit on the door to the right. The process was quick and easy.

The QR code gave relatively easy access to event information. I personally would have preferred a printed park map like we received at the Orlando Informer Meet Up hard ticket event earlier this year, but there’s only so many hills you can die on.

For hard ticket events like Premium Scream Night, the wristband is the most important item you will get. This is what security is looking for when they sweep the park.

This next part of the story is great. At 4:36 PM the official Universal Orlando App sent out a text alert letting people know that guests inside the park before 5 PM would be eligible for Stay & Scream. Its very rare I get to use the term chutzpah in this fine blog series, but that there is some serious chutzpah.

So, if you had done your research and discovered that last year there was no Stay & Scream at Premium Scream Night…did your due diligence and asked Universal Guest Services if Stay & Scream was going to be offered only to be told no… followed the directions on your Premium Scream Night ticket that the event started at 6:30 PM… and weren’t able to get inside the park during a 24 minute window… you had to wait outside the front gates for the event to begin.

The new Stay & Scream protocol is actually pretty great. In previous years, people at Stay & Scream would be huddled in various corrals around the park until released en masse. This year, as long as you had an event wristband, you could roam the park at your will. The difference between this and being crammed in like sardines at the USF front gates is night and day.

The good news, at least for those standing outside, is that Universal started sweeping the park earlier than expected and was letting guests in by 6 PM.

# 5 – The Merchandise

Major respect to Universal for having a pretty cool t-shirt available for Premium Scream Night. The “First Into The Fog” design not only looks great, but also has a fun and appropriate tagline for an event like this.

The sleeve also had Premium Scream Night branding on it.  No notes, this is just a top notch offering and right up there with the next level bonkers shirt I got at Rock the Universe in terms of a piece of theme park merchandise that is immediately going to bring back memories when I see it in the closet in the coming months/years.

THAT SAID, Universal started selling this shirt hours before the park was swept of day guests and was selling them to anyone, whether you had a Premium Scream Night wristband or not. They were flying off the racks and I imagine by the time the people standing outside the front gates were let in the shirt was either sold out or only had sizes S and XXXL available.

# 4 – The Food

For me personally, the main draw to Premium Scream Night was the unlimited food options available because that is one of the biggest changes to Halloween Horror Nights during the decade I have been going. When I first started going to HHN there were sporadic un-themed kiosks set up selling Twisted Taters, pretzels, pizza slices and not much else. Now the event is like a horror-themed Food & Wine Festival. Not only are the outdoor kitchens fully themed themselves, but the menus of each are unique and loaded with some incredible options (to see some examples, check out our HHN Snack Hall of Fame.)

Looking at Premium Scream Night reviews from last year, the food offerings were served as “sample” sizes and many of the outdoor kitchens shut down early because they had run out of the menu items. This was not the case for this years event. NAY NAY. Every item at all the outdoor kitchens was a full size serving.

One of the big IPs for HHN this year is Terrifier. In general, I’m not a big fan of horror films and I would consider the three Terrifier movies to be unwatchable. However, I have to give major thumbs up to the presentation of the food items themed to that property and reminded me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre BBQ stand from a couple HHNs back. The Bloody Popcorn gets high marks just for being a fun idea executed brilliantly while the Sunflower cookies tasted fantastic.

Now, I’m not a mozzarella stick guy, but everyone seems to love the Death By Cheesestick option. It’s absolutely huge.

I was a much bigger fan of the Freakishly Long Corndog. Actually, when we were in line for the corn dog, Art the clown came by, reached right into the line and honked his horn in my face. He got me, I jumped, and we all laughed.

I’m a HUGE fan of Twisted Taters, but turns out The Twisted Tater Chips might actually be a better option. Both are great items to snack on while walking the park, but it’s much easier with the chips. Hopefully these stay on the regular HHN menu like pizza fries.

Another item I generally love is The Walking Taco, and the event had two versions. A beef version with Tostitos as the base and a vegan version with Fritos as the base. Both were fine, but they also could have used more toppings like sour cream or guacamole. The beef one definitely could have used cheese as well.

The Flamin’ Hot Birria Ramen was a “that’s a no from me dawg.” I appreciated using Flaming Hot Cheetos in the dish, but the one we got had undercooked Ramen, which I’ve honestly never seen before.

The “Mom, Cut The Crust Off” PB&J is always a favorite of mine and I love the name. Reminds me of the humor used throughout Fast Food Blvd.

However, this year’s fried Uncrustable seemed to be so soaked in so much oil that I imagine every time one is served the price of gas in Florida goes up a quarter.

Can’t go wrong with chicken tendies.

For many, a huge draw to HHN this year is the inclusion of Five Nights at Freddy’s. There is a haunted house dedicated to the brand along with Louie’s Italian Restaurant being converted over to a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza (as seen in the popular video game/movie franchise.) I tried watching Five Nights at Freddy’s because I loved the concept of a Chuck E. Cheese-themed horror movie, but my overall review was along the lines of “maybe I’m too old for this stuff” because I didn’t get the appeal at all. However, I can understand why others love it and I’m definitely glad Universal got the franchise for HHN.

A slice of Why Not Have Both Pizza & Pasta is going straight into the HHN Snack Hall of Fame. Just incredible in every possible way (name of item, presentation and taste.)

If you like Egg McMuffins from McDonald’s you’re going to enjoy the Mike…Eggs Benedict.

I also enjoyed the cuteness of the Mr. Cupcake snack, however it wasn’t that great as a snack. Like with many cupcakes at Universal, it was just too dense and didn’t bring the flavor you’d want.

Regular churros at the Universal parks are nothing to write home about, but the smaller churros that a part of the “Artist’s Palette” snack were very good with some straight up fantastic dipping sauces.

One of the houses for this year’s HHN is based on the character Jason from the Friday the 13th series of movies. In several of those films Jason is terrorizing people at Camp Crystal Lake. The outdoor kitchen for this house is themed towards that fictional summer camp and features items you would have outside on the grill or over a campfire, including  this Spiral Sausage.

During the summer time I’m a huge fan of corn on the cob, and thanks to HHN I can now say I had corn on the cob covered in Flaming Hot Cheeto’s dust.

The Camp Blood S’mores was good, but not great. Needed more marshmallow, but I certainly appreciate incorporating Cinammon Toast Crunch into more desserts.

One of the major IPs for HHN this year is Fallout, an extremely popular video game series that was also turned into a television show for Amazon. Never played the game, but was a big fan of the show. Maybe the following foods were straight from the video game because I don’t remember anything like them in the show, including this gimmick of fried pickle spears sitting in a tub of Buffalo chicken dip.

I’m only a minor fan of pickles in general, but fried pickles? PASS. That said, everyone else seemed to love them.

Another item from the world of Fallout was this “Cram Tots and More” which was billed as Thumbs Up chili-glazed spam with cheddar tater tot kegs and scallions. 

I had never heard of Tator Tot Kegs before. Essentially giant size tater tots with cheesy mashed potatoes consistency inside.

The Spam fries weren’t that bad at all, although I am fond of sweet chili glaze in general.

The third item at the Fallout booth was the Yum Yum Deviled “Eggs” billed as coconut panna cotta “eggs” with pineapple whipped ganache and Tajin,

This was EXCELLENT. Very delicate pudding like texture with creamy inside. Wasn’t very sweet and was very satisfying and refreshing.

As a theme park and pro-wrestling fan, you knew I’d be drawn to the Firefly Funhouse outdoor kitchen. The Huskus’ Muscle Man Slop was billed as a “beef sloppy joe with jalapeño bacon, LAY’S Dill Pickle Flavored Potato Chips, and cheese sauce on a chocolate almond bun.” Very few potato chips in ours and the bun was awful.

However the Ramblin’ Rabbit Fried Carrot Cake was worth going back for seconds.

Warm carrot cake, tasty icing drizzled on top, and some cotton candy on the side. S-tier snack.

So, not only are all the HHN outdoor kitchens available to pick up whatever you want, but several of the USF quick service locations are open and offering a limited menu as well. As a reminder, all food and non-alcoholic drinks are included with your Premium Scream Night ticket.

The biggest selling point of these venues is that there is plenty of air conditioned seating inside.

A digital billboard in Springfield USA lists the items available in Fast Food Blvd.

# 3 – The Food LINES

Now, earlier this year at the Orlando Informer Meet Up, another after hours hard ticket event at Universal that included unlimited food, we encountered one food line the entire night, and that was when the event first started. After that, lines for food were non-existent across the park, which I think is something that is a little expected when you are paying a premium price.

This was not the case at the Premium Scream Night. NAY NAY. The food cart lines during this event were straight up bonkers throughout the night.

It’s not that the lines took forever to get through, but it was just bananas how long they were. It was also a bit confusing at times because the venues would have separate lines for those wanting food items and those wanting drinks.

Reminder that every person in these played probably about $400 to be at this event. The last time I encountered lines like this for outdoor kitchens/snacks was when I went to one of those DVC Moonlight Magic gimmicks at Animal Kingdom. The biggest difference is that those tickets were free to all guests.

I have been blessed over the years to experience the parks in multiple ways in terms of a premium experience. I’ve mentioned the OI Meet Up several times (because it was the best of all of them), but I’ve also done various VIP tours at Universal and Disney, along with Club 33 tickets at WDW. These food lines during Premium Scream Night felt more like Caddy Day at the Bushwood Country Club rather than something that feels “premium.”

# 2 – The Houses

Now while I have been looking forward to the HHN themed snacks more than anything, I would imagine the vast majority of people going to a Premium Scream Night event are interested in low waits for the various haunted houses. Last year, the reviews were off the charts, with pretty much no waits across the board and “pulsing” that allowed guests to the skip the usual conga line experience and instead get a more personalized one.

I went into the Premium Scream Night thinking this year would be similar, but that’s not exactly what happened. Now it definitely started off strong…

Within the first hour, the wait times for many of the houses skyrocket. Again, this is relative to a “walk on” experience. These wait times compared to a regular HHN night are shockingly great.

Like many theme park rides, it seemed that the wait times were a bit misleading on the high end. You’d see a wait of 45 minutes and then later it would be down to 35 or 25.

In theory, it’s great that a person seeing a near hour long wait only has to wait a half hour, but you can’t go into a queue expecting that. For an event which has several shows with set times (Gholish and Nightmare Fuel) guests have to make decisions on what they are going to do (we ended up not being able to see the shows.)

Several years back I got a VIP ticket to Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa. For that, the pulsing was everything a haunt fan could ever want. There was a huge gap in between guests entering the house allowing you to experience pretty much every scare. This was NOT the experience we had at Premium Scream Night. There was a staggered entry, but the gap was so small that we pretty much always caught up to the guest in front of us while inside the house. This is a tough problem to fix because to do the staggering right, the wait times people are already complaining about are only going to get much longer.

What was definitely fun about the Premium Scream Night is that is was a completely different demographic of guests than what you see during the rest of the HHN season. Many people were dressed up in costume as various HHN Icons like Jack the Clown and Chance. During any other HHN experience you’ll always see other guests rudely try to jump scare strangers, but I didn’t see a single example of that during Premium Scream Night.

I saw these fans earlier this year in a Cool Zone over at Epic Universe. They are awesome and really help in the Florida heat and stale air when you are trapped in these lines.

Overall, when it comes to house wait times, Premium Scream Night is the ultimate First World Problem. Compared to almost any other night at HHN, the house wait times are a dream. However, at the price point Universal is charging, I’m guessing many people were like me and thinking they’d have a relaxed night and be able to see everything. This was not the case in my experience or several others I talked to who were there. The night was hectic and you had to put in the work to get as much done as possible. We focused on the food and were able to hit every single venue, but only got to 6 of the houses and weren’t able to see any of the shows. I think for most normal people, a private RIP tour makes much more sense as you’ll get walked to the front of every line for the houses and have reserved seating for the shows.

 # 1 – Behind The Screams Panel

Similar to the unannounced Stay & Scream option for Premium Scream Night, Universal had another surprise up their sleeve with a Behind the Screams Panel that was exclusive to guests at the event.

Tickets were distributed outside the Horror Make-Up Show. I was not able to get one, but luckily a SAT SIX Special Investigative reporter was on the scene.

There was a STRICT no photos or videos policy for the panel.

The panel was hosted by the always delightful Jason Perry and featured: Dan Shaw (Assistant Director Entertainment Production,) Kelly Malik (Show Director,) and Chef Christian Markussen.

There was mostly general questions pitched to the panel, including “how long does the event take to plan” and “how do you all work together” but it led to a lot of great discussion among the creative team. Kelly talked about the story behind Grave of Flesh haunted house and how they really ramped up the scarezones this year (including the return of the Chainsaw Clowns.) She also delved into the idea of the Origins of Fear/vines that are growing through everything around HHN 34. It was also great hearing about the fictional company Bzzzcon becoming an in-universe baddie for HHN. I remember being a huge fan of the Bugs Eating Alive house back at HHN 31, where the company of Bzzzcon was introduced. Turns out that shady company is also behind the toxic chemicals in the Mutations scarezone this year along with the batteries in the Dolls: Let’s Play Dead house.

Chef Markussen talked about how the culinary team works with Universal Creative to balance the themes, presentation, and taste for themed foods. Dan Shaw talked about how this years Nightmare Fuel is truly the most FIRE they’ve ever included in a show (which is certainly saying something for Universal, especially for anyone who saw last year’s Nightmare Fuel show.)

The panel experience ran out of time so no questions were able to be asked by the audience, but it felt like they are dancing around the idea of Sergio Navarro (protagonist of the El Artista house) being an HHN Icon, probably because they know how obsessively weird people in the HHN community can get when it comes to Icons. It’s worth noting that the roots/vines present in his house are also around the event. Sergio’s voice is also heard sporadically in the park with the background music (similar to Chance’s year). He also leads the opening Scareamonies. Overall the panel was fantastic and a great addition to the event.

Honorable Mention: The Rides

There are several rides open during Premium Scream Night and the waits were pretty much non-existent throughout the entire event.

At some point and time during the event, Revenge of the Mummy closed. Trying to picture the thought process of someone paying $400 to ride Transformers: The Ride 3-D. Besides, if you want to do an after hours event with no wait for rides, just go to an OI Meetup which will forever change your life.

So there you have it: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of Universal’s PREMIUM SCREAM NIGHT! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on BlueSky (@derekburgan).

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Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHide and you Potterheads will enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.

The “It Is What It Is Dept.”

The rain during Premium Scream Night sucked. Period. It made several hours miserable and we were wondering if it continued how many guests were going to ask for a refund. The scarezones were empty for a long time.

It would rain, stop raining, and then all of a sudden a torrential downpour. We were able to duck in places like the Tribute Store and Springfield USA to wait it out. At times the amount of lightning and thunder were downright scary and I imagine it would have felt even worse for anyone in a line for a house at the time. All of that was out of Universal’s hands, but it definitely impacted the event and how much everyone could do.