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Published: November 18th 2014
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Any Walking Dead fans?
This was the entrance to the scare zone, it was awesome! First of all I’d just like to say
BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!
Now I can begin.
As I have already mentioned in my ‘Cannabis Doctor’ blog My Halloween started off very well. I got to meet one of my childhood heroes and in less than ten words he managed to insult my current workplace lol.
During the rest of the day we went to Universal Studios, I’m not sure if it was because it was Halloween or not but it was a lot quieter than I expected. The longest queue for a ride was 30 minutes, most other rides we just walked on to.
There were lots of signs up warning guests about some of the Halloween decorations up around the studios. Universal studios is family friendly, therefore welcoming to kids. But the Halloween decorations were for Fright Night, the same Fright Night we were going to!
During the day the decorations look cool, not scary, but cool. At night that is completely different.
As we finished our last ride at Universal during the day it was roughly 6pm, Universal shuts
at 6pm on Fright Night and reopens at 7pm. As we walked out we just joined the already formed queue to go back inside, it wasn’t until we were in the queue that we found out we had early entry. Thirty minutes extra inside before anyone else and believe me you need it.
As we stood in the queue the sun set, turning those cool decorations into eerie, human like monsters. The sound of playful music in the daytime turned to panic alarms and screaming at night. Smoke machines made it hard to see where you were going or WHAT was coming to get you.
We had a map of the things to see and do and as it was rammed packed full of people we decided to formulate a plan. Start as far away from the exit as possible and work our way back, it was a pretty awesome plan!
Let me break down the attractions for you.
You have:
Scare zones-
These are quite literally zones where people/zombies/monsters scare you. There were 5 or 6 zones, the best was the
Terror Tram
The set from the film War of the Worlds was turned into a zombie hunting ground zone based on the TV show Walking Dead. You are trying to make your way to ‘Terminus’ to reach a safe haven but zombies keep getting in your way stopping you. A scare zone is just an area of the studios that they have tried to make a bit more interesting rather than you just walking to the next attraction. The thing that made this particular scare zone so good was the actors were dressed like normal people so as you are walking to the next attraction you think you have got another guest walking with you until one turns rapidly towards you and you see their zombified face.
Mazes-
I thought this would just be loads of people getting lost but it isn’t mazes that you get lost in, they have a very distinct route with lots of twists and turns and most have some form of plastic or cloth hanging between different parts, this makes things even scarier as you don’t know what is coming next. My favourite maze was the 3D clown’s maze. It is the only one that isn’t in the dark, in fact it is lit up with bright
fluorescent lights. Before you enter you put 3D glasses on and it alters your depth and distance perception. This makes it very difficult to tell what is real and what is a prop, I learned this the hard way when something I thought was a wall jumped at me causing me to shout “FUCK”. There were about 5 or 6 mazes, each with its own theme and to be honest all of them were excellent.
Rides-
Not all of the same rides were open as in the day but the best ones were. The only ride we didn’t have time to go on during the day we went on a night after visiting all of the scary attractions. Our favourite was the Transformers ride. If you have never been on a 3D ride I’d highly recommend it, you barely move but feel like you have been catapulted through space.
Lastly, the terror tram-
During the day you can go on a tram ride through the sets of different films and TV shows but at night that tram ride is very different. After a very short stint on the
tram you are told it is no longer safe to be on the tram and you are made to walk through what is essentially another scare zone. What makes this even cooler is this scare zone is made up of the sets of ‘Desperate Housewives’, the Bates Motel from the film ‘Psycho’ and the set from the film ‘War of The Worlds’ where the plane has crashed. You are literally walking through a plane crash site with zombies walking around scaring you!
Nikki couldn’t understand why, during the day, we were actually quite cold as we walked around the theme park, but at night we seemed to be sweating. If I had to guess I’d say it was the zombies chasing us and us racing to get to the next attraction before a huge crowd formed lol.
The early entry was fantastic and helped us massively. We had been on the three main attraction mazes and through the biggest attraction scare zone by 7:15pm, 15 minutes after the official opening time. It took us about 3 hours to visit all of the scare zones, mazes, the terror tram and the last of the rides
we hadn’t been on during the day. Once we had been on everything we looked at the board of waiting times for attractions. When we went on we pretty much went straight on everything without queuing, by the time we were leaving we looked at the board and some rides had a 70 minute wait time.
Halloween summed up.
In the morning I trained at bodybuilding’s mecca, Gold’s gym, got my photo with the original incredible hulk and had one of the funniest conversations with him ever (read my Cannabis Doctor blog)
The rest of my day was spent going on rides at Universal Studios.
My night was spent getting scared shitless at Fight Night, Universal Studios.
I would say Halloween was probably the most fun I’ve had in a single day all year!!!
Brits have got A LOT to learn from Americans about how to do Halloween.
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denidax
Deni, Dax and Ella
The zombies would have freaked me out!
I've never watched The Walking Dead or any zombie movie/series as they seriously scare me! I was even afraid by the Michael Jackson's Thriller video! Correction: I still am! But what you did looks like an awesome way to spend Halloween if you're not a chicken like I am. I went trick or treating with my one and a half year old daughter who was in awe by all the sweets she got, she didn't even want to put them in her bag, just hold them in her hand (I guess she was afraid I will take them away), so I can also say we enjoy Halloween... without the zombies! :)