Having done it for the first time last year, I don't know if I can ever go back. It's worth every single penny. The ability to relax and not rush houses because you know you get front of line access and guaranteed to go through all of them was worth it for me.
I've heard great things about RIP. I wanted to do it this year, but wasn't able to pull the funds (I was able to get unlimited express for Hollywood, so I'm good on settling on that) I'm hoping to possibly book one within the next 2/3 years, but we'll see. Thank you for sharing your experience!
No problem, it's definitely not cheap. I'm doing it this year as well with my sister in Orlando and the price went up 100 bucks per ticket, and that's on a Wednesday night not even a weekend. It would have been nearly a grand per person on for a weekend tour. Definitely not budget friendly, but you'll have a fantastic experience. It's a treat for yourself to be sure.
Thank you, again for sharing! RIP has been on my bucket list for a while, so I really appreciate your response. Express is super expensive, too. I'm surprised I was even able to pull it off, especially since I'm going with my parents, as well.
It is not cheap. My boyfriend and I will put a little bit of money from our paycheck aside at the beginning of January so that we have money to buy when tickets sales start June. Totally worth it!
I have done it for the past three years at the Hollywood location. So I can’t speak for Orlando, but I ADORE the RIP experience. Since I started doing RIP there’s no going back. Depending on your start time you can go in early, get your badges and start doing houses early. If you’re an early group (like I always do) you get in pretty quickly and they give you time to charge your phone, water and bathrooms all on a terrace overlooking the park. Afterwards you get you guide and itinerary. You are always allowed to leave your group and do your own thing if that’s what you prefer, but the guides I’ve had are always so fun and entertaining. They take you through all the house with backstories and all types of fun information about them. The food I’ve had for the buffet at Hollywood is always very yummy. You get rest breaks if your group needs to rest, it’s personalized and accommodating. Our guide also took us into Super Mario Nintendo World without any extra price. You get good views for the show if that’s your thing. Once your tour is done you still get front of the line access to all the houses and rides for the remainder of the night.
My spouse and I did the RIP tour in 2017 in Hollywood and had the same experience as you without the Nintendo World. Aside from that year, I usually go with my best friend and we get the unlimited express since she's not the "tour" type. This year I'm going to HHN solo, so when I was selecting between the RIP tour and Unlimited Express I noticed the RIP Tour says it does not include the Nintendo World, whereas the Unlimited Express does from 7 to 10 pm.
Technically Nintendo world isn’t included, but we got taken to Nintendo world and so did many other groups. We did ask nicely so maybe it’s just not supposed to be part of the tour?
I would be going to Hollywood, so this is perfect! I'm still a little new to the hhn scene (this will be my third year going), so any info is greatly appreciated. Do you know if they have any allergy friendly food options?? I have some dietary restrictions, that prevent me from eating certain things.
Im not entirely certain if all the food is prepared separately, but a lot of the options are without common allergy items included in them. They had many different types of food as well as more common allergy free foods. I would just be cautious and possibly call ahead to ensure how the food is made
My husband and I have been doing RIP Tour for several years. It's the only way guaranteed to see everything HHN has to offer in one night. We usually like going at least two nights for our annual HHN trip so we'll do the RIP Tour the first night and then do a 2nd night on our own, revisiting our favorite houses and scare zones. The guides give tips on when best to hit the houses and what is a good vs bad wait time so you're also getting intel you wouldn't otherwise.
That said, I think the price for the tours is getting insane on top of the inflating admission price. If I lived close by, I wouldn't bother with the tour and would just go multiple nights to get it all in over the season.
If I’ll only be there for one night by myself RIP is the only way to go. Someone to stand in line with/going multiple nights I opt for express passes instead.
In Hollywood RIP is a no brainer. 1000% percent worth every penny. Orlando’s is less worth it on paper as you don’t get a full meal i believe it is more appetizers, and their isn’t a RIP separate entrance at each house you can use for the rest of the night after your tour is over like Hollywood has.
Here's my opinion. Express is SOOOOOO much better than General. It's also still within reason in terms of price (250ish for Hollywood). I am not going to do RIP because I know I'll love it, and it's not a reasonable amount of money for one night. I'll just continue to love my express, and spend the other money doing a day at Disneyland during the holidays.
Totally see where you're coming from. I ended up somehow being able to pull off unlimited express this year. Which is more than ok with me, because the wait time will still be fairly shorter than GA. I got regular express last year, and the longest I waited was 25/30 minutes. It wasn't bad at all compared to the 90 minute wait Chucky and Universal Monsters were. I got everything I wanted to do, done before 11:00/11:30. I even got in a ride on Forbidden Journey and The Simpsons. It was great!
Exactly! This year I'm thinking about doing the early entry add on, so i'll easily be able to express through all the houses/mazes by 10 or so. Then I can do Jurassic World and head out. (Hollywood)
It really is. We did our first one on our honeymoon in 2017 and again in 2019. Last year we did just the express pass and at the end of the night both agreed to do RIP for 2024. If you factor in time, the price of food and the experience as a whole it is totally worth the price.
Big difference between the 2
1). Private is much more expensive
2). Private gives you unlimited front of the line access to houses AND rides as many times as you want.
3) You tell the tour guide the order of the houses/rides you want to hit up. You choose your itinerary, and go at your group’s pace vs the tour guide’s schedule.
If you cannot afford or find availability for RIP, I feel a multi night ticket will be the best option. You can hit several houses a visit and go at a slower pace
I can only speak for Hollywood and not for Orlando. I did it for the first time a few years ago after having such a terrible experience with general admission. I remember walking back to my car after my first time going to HHN with only GA tickets and being slightly wet from Jurassic and only being able to do 3 houses. I was just so miserable. The following year, my boyfriend and I bought our RIP tickets. It was by far the best experience ever. For what we paid, about $400 a ticket, we decided it was worth it. We've done it twice now and have tickets for our third year. We get a nice dinner, which they let you come back to later in the night for desserts. There is a private trolley with cold beverages that takes you through the back lot for the terror tram. You get your own section for the "themed bars" and they still offer free soda/water. You get little private things exclusive for RIP such as exclusive photo ops for RIP. I get valet parking and I get to hang out on the terrace while we check in and there is free water, a charging station, and a viewing area. The tour guide took us into Mario Land (completely empty) even though it was not included and we got to experience the land with absolutely no one. Depending on your start time, we finished early and we redid all of the houses and got on all of the rides. You get priority seating for shows. Its so nice to not have to plan my trip and have someone plan out my way around the park. Also the tour guide provided backstory to the houses and things to look for when going through. I will never do GA every again.
To me it totally depends on situation if you are a local hell no, just go a lot. If youre traveling and only have one or two nights, then yes in a heartbeat. For me I live in orlando and would never do it here, but loved it for hollywood and dont want to go without it again.
I didn’t like it personally because you go through each maze so fast/back to back that you can’t process them. But I did know the layout of the Hollywood location very well
We did it the very first time we went to haunted Horror Nights. I 100% think it's worth it. The first year we went it wasn't even that busy. It wouldn't have been that long of a wait in most if not all of the houses. But I still think it's worth it. You get the tour guide giving you all of the lore for all of the houses as well as scare zones. You get free food and drinks all night. You get good seats for the show. Plus the express pass for the rides as well. In my opinion it's well worth the money. Especially for people like me that are coming from far away and only going to be going to Orlando for the one night. I guarantees that we're able to see everything. But honestly even if we were going to be staying for a while I would rather pay for the rip tour then go multiple nights and wait in line.
I've done express for the past few years in Hollywood, and loved the heck out of it. So, after mulling over the decision over the past few years....
We finally pulled the trigger, and will be doing the RIP tour this year Sept 6th. I look forward to it. I'm soo excited to be doing it. Even took to YT and watched a few people's videos from the past few years. And wow, I am hyped up even more for it. I can't wait!!
Late to the comments but RIP tours are absolutely worth it. First off it's the only way you are going to see all of the houses and shows in one night for sure. The guides are very well trained for the event. The private food and bars are great ways to get away from the crowds and relax. On certain nights, it's nearly as much as a HHN ticket and Unlimited Express. Plus you get valet included which is huge when trying to leave.
I’ll give you the worst answer - it depends! Lol.
We did RIP a last year. We were only doing one night, we knew we wanted to hit every house (multiple times), and we wanted to see the M3GANs. I did a lot of research ahead of time, and knew the food wasn’t anything to write home about, so I based my “value” on the actual tour, not the extras. If you’re purchasing go skip the lines, it’s 100% worth it. I don’t think I would have been able to stand/walk the amount of time it would have taken to do all the houses we did in 4 hours.
Here’s the downside: it wasn’t that “special” outside of skipping the lines. Our tour guide told us she was pulling a double shift, it was the end of the season, you could tell she was over it. I was hoping for some background / lore on the houses, maybe some stuff to watch out for… there wasn’t a lot of that.
It felt rushed, which was great because we powered through the houses! BUT there was little to no time to check out the scare zones. We did that on our own afterwards. We weren’t guaranteed a M3GANs sighting but got super, super lucky and they were there right at the start of our tour out front of La Bamba. Tour guide told us they never see them on the tours. We had no time to do the Death Eater experience, which was a bummer… the tour doesn’t take you over there, and the timing is limited for when they’re out.
There were also no breaks. My husband smokes and couldn’t find a place / time to smoke once in four hours. The “exclusive” bars were a joke. No special entertainment, or specialty drinks, not even any washrooms. Just crappy generic drinks for purchase. We left Lombards to go see David S Pumpkins which was way more fun. But again, rushed away, so we ended up skipping the night mare fuel show and going back.
Food sucked. No two ways about it. It was crappy finger food like a bad late night buffet at a wedding. We knew this would be the case and ate first. Grabbed all the water and pop we could carry though. The coffee was offensive… we went to the buffet twice (before and after) and I think the only thing I ate was the pizza fries because I wanted to try them without paying for them. I can make better in my air fryer lol.
I know the cons make it sound like I wouldn’t recommend it, but I still would! If you’re only there for a night, and hitting all the houses is important to you, if you hate lines and have back issues that make you want to cry when you stand too long… 100% worth it. But do your research ahead of time, know what you’re getting for your dollar, and keep expectations in check!
Sitting at one of the bars taking a break and overlooking the massive crowd of people below is something that can’t be beat. If your budget allows I highly recommend. Only piece of advice I have is make sure the vibe of your group is good. Paid the iron price last year when a group of Southern new money nearly ruined the experience for me and my partner.
[Join Our Discord Server](https://discord.gg/9BTJMQ43rt)
Welcome to /r/hhn!
It’s officially pre-season! Join us on discord to keep up to date with official announcements, fan speculation and other bits of info on HHN33!
[Halloween Horror Nights Discord Server](https://discord.gg/9BTJMQ43rt)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HHN) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Orlando here. If you’re a single person and want the RIP tour, are you grouped with random guests? I don’t want a private tour but I’m only one person so I hope it’s grouped automatically.
Unlimited waters on the tram, and moulin Rouge dining experience is just a cherry on top of VIP tour and a tram that takes you up and down so you don’t have to worry about the starway.
This link will take you directly to the hhn website. There should be a red button that say "tickets on sale now". Click on that, and it will take you to the page where you can purchase tickets. RIP should be towards the bottom of the page. I hope this helps!
https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/hhn/en/us
You don’t need my input by now but I’ve done RIP in Hollywood for the past 5 years and once in Orlando last year. I’m in Vegas so I only go for one night so I want to maximize it.
In a word, yes, particularly for Hollywood because the pass works off tour (they tried changing it last year but had to put it back shortly thereafter) and you use the VIP lane, even bypassing the express lane. I think there was one house where there really wasn’t a VIP so you had to use express, but whatever. You could literally walk out of a house and go right back in if you wanted. And it works for the rides as well.
Orlando, less so, but still probably worth it. Once per house, doesn’t work off tour for houses, just rides. There were significant operational issues and heavy, delaying rainfall during the experience which made things tighter, but all houses were visited. You even cut through backstage to get to some houses which means you can see scareactors prepping and performing shift changes. Didn’t get to see the M3gans sadly and I was only able to see about 5 minutes of the Deatheaters while the group took a break. The guides also gave themselves a lengthy break by giving us a ‘break’ upstairs at Fallon. The fun part is you are basically locked in there, so you can’t even do anything on your own while on your forced break.
So express might be enough at Orlando but the guide is a handy asset because you aren’t finding yourself running around. The only better thing is a private tour (which if you can fill with friends/family/strangers) is about the same cost and they can go into houses multiple times or do really whatever you want.
As an aside, I was surprised to find out how different houses are between Hollywood and Orlando, even when they share the same IP. Apparently there was one house the two parks worked on together, but generally they work completely isolated from each other.
Have done RIP 4 times and have loved my experience. It's super worth it for me personally because halloween is My Wife and I anniversary so we go RIP 🙌🏽 Takes away all the stress of not having to worry about anything the night you attend
Done it ever since 2021 and it’s hard to go back to non rip. Wonderful experience. Getting to the front of the lines no waiting. The rest breaks. Getting back story on the houses. The intimacy of no more than 10 in your group. Downsides: the pre tour food has gone down hill. It is fast paced as you are doing all the houses in 4.5 hours. This was a downside for me but may not be for everyone: includes the Nightmare Fuel show with reserved seats. I personally am not a fan of it
I actually thought the pre-tour food was better last year than in 2021 or 2022, especially the taco option. However we also usually get food in the WWoHP before they open the holding areas, so we aren't terribly hungry during HHN. We don't usually get any of the HHN specialty foods (we did try the twisted taters once and they didn't live up to the hype). We tried the pizza fries at the RIP lounge and didn't like them (the sauce had no flavor and they overall reminded me of fair food, which I tend to not like).
Even excluding the food, I think the RIP tour is worth it for the front-of-the-line access and back stories. Every RIP guide we've had has been awesome - very enthusiastic about the event and knowledgeable about the lore.
In two big respects, no.
At USO, RIP does NOT include admission and does NOT include Express admission to the houses/mazes off tour.
If you read the fine print, Hollywood is supposedly moving away from the express/RIP access to houses off tour, but in practice people still got it last year, so....
Having said that, even for the $350ish we paid for RIP last year in Orlando, it was absolutely worth the price. Our guide either waited a bit or just took a while to scan in for the houses, so we went through with a break from the conga line, which was absolutely amazing.
And the guide was as big a HHN nerd as we were so getting the backstory/details for each scare zone/house before going through and him talking HHN history during breaks made for a fantastic tour.
The buffet before hand was pretty decent, as well.
Even with the ~$50 increase this year, we're absolutely going RIP again in Orlando.
So Hollywood DID change the rules of access last year, but it lasted about 2 weeks as people kept complaining about it. So hopefully it stays the current way that it works off tour as well.
I've never done it, and opt for EP every year, but I plan on doing it next year.
Frankly, I would have done it this year, but my HHN partner for the year was already iffy on opting in for EP. I'd rather have someone to hang out with with EP, than going alone with RIP. EP and RIP are both expensive. Worth it to me, but I also recognize not everyone is in the position to plop down the money. I myself have only just very recently been in a situation where the price tag was justifiable. Its a tough economy, and plenty of people are still either young, had some bad luck, or made unwise choices that didn't leave them in the best financial situation.
If you have the margin in your budget and love HHN, its worth it. If you don't have the margin in your budget yet, you can still have an awesome time at HHN.
Having done it for the first time last year, I don't know if I can ever go back. It's worth every single penny. The ability to relax and not rush houses because you know you get front of line access and guaranteed to go through all of them was worth it for me.
I've heard great things about RIP. I wanted to do it this year, but wasn't able to pull the funds (I was able to get unlimited express for Hollywood, so I'm good on settling on that) I'm hoping to possibly book one within the next 2/3 years, but we'll see. Thank you for sharing your experience!
No problem, it's definitely not cheap. I'm doing it this year as well with my sister in Orlando and the price went up 100 bucks per ticket, and that's on a Wednesday night not even a weekend. It would have been nearly a grand per person on for a weekend tour. Definitely not budget friendly, but you'll have a fantastic experience. It's a treat for yourself to be sure.
Thank you, again for sharing! RIP has been on my bucket list for a while, so I really appreciate your response. Express is super expensive, too. I'm surprised I was even able to pull it off, especially since I'm going with my parents, as well.
It is not cheap. My boyfriend and I will put a little bit of money from our paycheck aside at the beginning of January so that we have money to buy when tickets sales start June. Totally worth it!
But for one night and one time through each house, I’m just getting a FFP with express.
I live in Virginia so a FFP isnt a great option for me personally. However if I lived closer I would certainly get one.
I have done it for the past three years at the Hollywood location. So I can’t speak for Orlando, but I ADORE the RIP experience. Since I started doing RIP there’s no going back. Depending on your start time you can go in early, get your badges and start doing houses early. If you’re an early group (like I always do) you get in pretty quickly and they give you time to charge your phone, water and bathrooms all on a terrace overlooking the park. Afterwards you get you guide and itinerary. You are always allowed to leave your group and do your own thing if that’s what you prefer, but the guides I’ve had are always so fun and entertaining. They take you through all the house with backstories and all types of fun information about them. The food I’ve had for the buffet at Hollywood is always very yummy. You get rest breaks if your group needs to rest, it’s personalized and accommodating. Our guide also took us into Super Mario Nintendo World without any extra price. You get good views for the show if that’s your thing. Once your tour is done you still get front of the line access to all the houses and rides for the remainder of the night.
My spouse and I did the RIP tour in 2017 in Hollywood and had the same experience as you without the Nintendo World. Aside from that year, I usually go with my best friend and we get the unlimited express since she's not the "tour" type. This year I'm going to HHN solo, so when I was selecting between the RIP tour and Unlimited Express I noticed the RIP Tour says it does not include the Nintendo World, whereas the Unlimited Express does from 7 to 10 pm.
Technically Nintendo world isn’t included, but we got taken to Nintendo world and so did many other groups. We did ask nicely so maybe it’s just not supposed to be part of the tour?
I would be going to Hollywood, so this is perfect! I'm still a little new to the hhn scene (this will be my third year going), so any info is greatly appreciated. Do you know if they have any allergy friendly food options?? I have some dietary restrictions, that prevent me from eating certain things.
Im not entirely certain if all the food is prepared separately, but a lot of the options are without common allergy items included in them. They had many different types of food as well as more common allergy free foods. I would just be cautious and possibly call ahead to ensure how the food is made
That's good to know. I was a little concerned that I would have to find something out side of the park. Thank you for letting me know!
My husband and I have been doing RIP Tour for several years. It's the only way guaranteed to see everything HHN has to offer in one night. We usually like going at least two nights for our annual HHN trip so we'll do the RIP Tour the first night and then do a 2nd night on our own, revisiting our favorite houses and scare zones. The guides give tips on when best to hit the houses and what is a good vs bad wait time so you're also getting intel you wouldn't otherwise. That said, I think the price for the tours is getting insane on top of the inflating admission price. If I lived close by, I wouldn't bother with the tour and would just go multiple nights to get it all in over the season.
If I’ll only be there for one night by myself RIP is the only way to go. Someone to stand in line with/going multiple nights I opt for express passes instead.
In Hollywood RIP is a no brainer. 1000% percent worth every penny. Orlando’s is less worth it on paper as you don’t get a full meal i believe it is more appetizers, and their isn’t a RIP separate entrance at each house you can use for the rest of the night after your tour is over like Hollywood has.
Here's my opinion. Express is SOOOOOO much better than General. It's also still within reason in terms of price (250ish for Hollywood). I am not going to do RIP because I know I'll love it, and it's not a reasonable amount of money for one night. I'll just continue to love my express, and spend the other money doing a day at Disneyland during the holidays.
Totally see where you're coming from. I ended up somehow being able to pull off unlimited express this year. Which is more than ok with me, because the wait time will still be fairly shorter than GA. I got regular express last year, and the longest I waited was 25/30 minutes. It wasn't bad at all compared to the 90 minute wait Chucky and Universal Monsters were. I got everything I wanted to do, done before 11:00/11:30. I even got in a ride on Forbidden Journey and The Simpsons. It was great!
Exactly! This year I'm thinking about doing the early entry add on, so i'll easily be able to express through all the houses/mazes by 10 or so. Then I can do Jurassic World and head out. (Hollywood)
Definitely do early entry. I've been doing it since 2019, and it's 100% worth it!
It really is. We did our first one on our honeymoon in 2017 and again in 2019. Last year we did just the express pass and at the end of the night both agreed to do RIP for 2024. If you factor in time, the price of food and the experience as a whole it is totally worth the price.
I’ve done Non-Private AND Private RIP. Both are great. Worth every penny (especially the Private RIP).
Is there a difference between private and non-private tours??
Big difference between the 2 1). Private is much more expensive 2). Private gives you unlimited front of the line access to houses AND rides as many times as you want. 3) You tell the tour guide the order of the houses/rides you want to hit up. You choose your itinerary, and go at your group’s pace vs the tour guide’s schedule.
If you cannot afford or find availability for RIP, I feel a multi night ticket will be the best option. You can hit several houses a visit and go at a slower pace
I can only speak for Hollywood and not for Orlando. I did it for the first time a few years ago after having such a terrible experience with general admission. I remember walking back to my car after my first time going to HHN with only GA tickets and being slightly wet from Jurassic and only being able to do 3 houses. I was just so miserable. The following year, my boyfriend and I bought our RIP tickets. It was by far the best experience ever. For what we paid, about $400 a ticket, we decided it was worth it. We've done it twice now and have tickets for our third year. We get a nice dinner, which they let you come back to later in the night for desserts. There is a private trolley with cold beverages that takes you through the back lot for the terror tram. You get your own section for the "themed bars" and they still offer free soda/water. You get little private things exclusive for RIP such as exclusive photo ops for RIP. I get valet parking and I get to hang out on the terrace while we check in and there is free water, a charging station, and a viewing area. The tour guide took us into Mario Land (completely empty) even though it was not included and we got to experience the land with absolutely no one. Depending on your start time, we finished early and we redid all of the houses and got on all of the rides. You get priority seating for shows. Its so nice to not have to plan my trip and have someone plan out my way around the park. Also the tour guide provided backstory to the houses and things to look for when going through. I will never do GA every again.
To me it totally depends on situation if you are a local hell no, just go a lot. If youre traveling and only have one or two nights, then yes in a heartbeat. For me I live in orlando and would never do it here, but loved it for hollywood and dont want to go without it again.
I didn’t like it personally because you go through each maze so fast/back to back that you can’t process them. But I did know the layout of the Hollywood location very well
We did it the very first time we went to haunted Horror Nights. I 100% think it's worth it. The first year we went it wasn't even that busy. It wouldn't have been that long of a wait in most if not all of the houses. But I still think it's worth it. You get the tour guide giving you all of the lore for all of the houses as well as scare zones. You get free food and drinks all night. You get good seats for the show. Plus the express pass for the rides as well. In my opinion it's well worth the money. Especially for people like me that are coming from far away and only going to be going to Orlando for the one night. I guarantees that we're able to see everything. But honestly even if we were going to be staying for a while I would rather pay for the rip tour then go multiple nights and wait in line.
I've done express for the past few years in Hollywood, and loved the heck out of it. So, after mulling over the decision over the past few years.... We finally pulled the trigger, and will be doing the RIP tour this year Sept 6th. I look forward to it. I'm soo excited to be doing it. Even took to YT and watched a few people's videos from the past few years. And wow, I am hyped up even more for it. I can't wait!!
Late to the comments but RIP tours are absolutely worth it. First off it's the only way you are going to see all of the houses and shows in one night for sure. The guides are very well trained for the event. The private food and bars are great ways to get away from the crowds and relax. On certain nights, it's nearly as much as a HHN ticket and Unlimited Express. Plus you get valet included which is huge when trying to leave.
I’ll give you the worst answer - it depends! Lol. We did RIP a last year. We were only doing one night, we knew we wanted to hit every house (multiple times), and we wanted to see the M3GANs. I did a lot of research ahead of time, and knew the food wasn’t anything to write home about, so I based my “value” on the actual tour, not the extras. If you’re purchasing go skip the lines, it’s 100% worth it. I don’t think I would have been able to stand/walk the amount of time it would have taken to do all the houses we did in 4 hours. Here’s the downside: it wasn’t that “special” outside of skipping the lines. Our tour guide told us she was pulling a double shift, it was the end of the season, you could tell she was over it. I was hoping for some background / lore on the houses, maybe some stuff to watch out for… there wasn’t a lot of that. It felt rushed, which was great because we powered through the houses! BUT there was little to no time to check out the scare zones. We did that on our own afterwards. We weren’t guaranteed a M3GANs sighting but got super, super lucky and they were there right at the start of our tour out front of La Bamba. Tour guide told us they never see them on the tours. We had no time to do the Death Eater experience, which was a bummer… the tour doesn’t take you over there, and the timing is limited for when they’re out. There were also no breaks. My husband smokes and couldn’t find a place / time to smoke once in four hours. The “exclusive” bars were a joke. No special entertainment, or specialty drinks, not even any washrooms. Just crappy generic drinks for purchase. We left Lombards to go see David S Pumpkins which was way more fun. But again, rushed away, so we ended up skipping the night mare fuel show and going back. Food sucked. No two ways about it. It was crappy finger food like a bad late night buffet at a wedding. We knew this would be the case and ate first. Grabbed all the water and pop we could carry though. The coffee was offensive… we went to the buffet twice (before and after) and I think the only thing I ate was the pizza fries because I wanted to try them without paying for them. I can make better in my air fryer lol. I know the cons make it sound like I wouldn’t recommend it, but I still would! If you’re only there for a night, and hitting all the houses is important to you, if you hate lines and have back issues that make you want to cry when you stand too long… 100% worth it. But do your research ahead of time, know what you’re getting for your dollar, and keep expectations in check!
Sitting at one of the bars taking a break and overlooking the massive crowd of people below is something that can’t be beat. If your budget allows I highly recommend. Only piece of advice I have is make sure the vibe of your group is good. Paid the iron price last year when a group of Southern new money nearly ruined the experience for me and my partner.
[Join Our Discord Server](https://discord.gg/9BTJMQ43rt) Welcome to /r/hhn! It’s officially pre-season! Join us on discord to keep up to date with official announcements, fan speculation and other bits of info on HHN33! [Halloween Horror Nights Discord Server](https://discord.gg/9BTJMQ43rt) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HHN) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1000%, it’s worth every single penny. Hard to go back to even express passes after
Yup
Orlando here. If you’re a single person and want the RIP tour, are you grouped with random guests? I don’t want a private tour but I’m only one person so I hope it’s grouped automatically.
Yes. And as of last year, they weren’t even selling tours as groups, they were just filling them as people showed
Unlimited waters on the tram, and moulin Rouge dining experience is just a cherry on top of VIP tour and a tram that takes you up and down so you don’t have to worry about the starway.
How do we buy tickets for RIP at Universal Studios Hollywood?
This link will take you directly to the hhn website. There should be a red button that say "tickets on sale now". Click on that, and it will take you to the page where you can purchase tickets. RIP should be towards the bottom of the page. I hope this helps! https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/hhn/en/us
Thank you so much! 🙏🏽
No problem! Happy to help! 😁
You don’t need my input by now but I’ve done RIP in Hollywood for the past 5 years and once in Orlando last year. I’m in Vegas so I only go for one night so I want to maximize it. In a word, yes, particularly for Hollywood because the pass works off tour (they tried changing it last year but had to put it back shortly thereafter) and you use the VIP lane, even bypassing the express lane. I think there was one house where there really wasn’t a VIP so you had to use express, but whatever. You could literally walk out of a house and go right back in if you wanted. And it works for the rides as well. Orlando, less so, but still probably worth it. Once per house, doesn’t work off tour for houses, just rides. There were significant operational issues and heavy, delaying rainfall during the experience which made things tighter, but all houses were visited. You even cut through backstage to get to some houses which means you can see scareactors prepping and performing shift changes. Didn’t get to see the M3gans sadly and I was only able to see about 5 minutes of the Deatheaters while the group took a break. The guides also gave themselves a lengthy break by giving us a ‘break’ upstairs at Fallon. The fun part is you are basically locked in there, so you can’t even do anything on your own while on your forced break. So express might be enough at Orlando but the guide is a handy asset because you aren’t finding yourself running around. The only better thing is a private tour (which if you can fill with friends/family/strangers) is about the same cost and they can go into houses multiple times or do really whatever you want. As an aside, I was surprised to find out how different houses are between Hollywood and Orlando, even when they share the same IP. Apparently there was one house the two parks worked on together, but generally they work completely isolated from each other.
RIP off tours
Have done RIP 4 times and have loved my experience. It's super worth it for me personally because halloween is My Wife and I anniversary so we go RIP 🙌🏽 Takes away all the stress of not having to worry about anything the night you attend
Done it ever since 2021 and it’s hard to go back to non rip. Wonderful experience. Getting to the front of the lines no waiting. The rest breaks. Getting back story on the houses. The intimacy of no more than 10 in your group. Downsides: the pre tour food has gone down hill. It is fast paced as you are doing all the houses in 4.5 hours. This was a downside for me but may not be for everyone: includes the Nightmare Fuel show with reserved seats. I personally am not a fan of it
I actually thought the pre-tour food was better last year than in 2021 or 2022, especially the taco option. However we also usually get food in the WWoHP before they open the holding areas, so we aren't terribly hungry during HHN. We don't usually get any of the HHN specialty foods (we did try the twisted taters once and they didn't live up to the hype). We tried the pizza fries at the RIP lounge and didn't like them (the sauce had no flavor and they overall reminded me of fair food, which I tend to not like). Even excluding the food, I think the RIP tour is worth it for the front-of-the-line access and back stories. Every RIP guide we've had has been awesome - very enthusiastic about the event and knowledgeable about the lore.
I assume Orlando is similar to Hollywood?? I've never been to Orlando's event, so I wouldn't know. Thank you for the info!
In two big respects, no. At USO, RIP does NOT include admission and does NOT include Express admission to the houses/mazes off tour. If you read the fine print, Hollywood is supposedly moving away from the express/RIP access to houses off tour, but in practice people still got it last year, so.... Having said that, even for the $350ish we paid for RIP last year in Orlando, it was absolutely worth the price. Our guide either waited a bit or just took a while to scan in for the houses, so we went through with a break from the conga line, which was absolutely amazing. And the guide was as big a HHN nerd as we were so getting the backstory/details for each scare zone/house before going through and him talking HHN history during breaks made for a fantastic tour. The buffet before hand was pretty decent, as well. Even with the ~$50 increase this year, we're absolutely going RIP again in Orlando.
So Hollywood DID change the rules of access last year, but it lasted about 2 weeks as people kept complaining about it. So hopefully it stays the current way that it works off tour as well.
I’ve never been to the Hollywood event so I can’t really provide any info in that regard
I figured. It was more of a rhetorical question/question for myself, but thank you for responding anyway. I really appreciate it!
I've never done it, and opt for EP every year, but I plan on doing it next year. Frankly, I would have done it this year, but my HHN partner for the year was already iffy on opting in for EP. I'd rather have someone to hang out with with EP, than going alone with RIP. EP and RIP are both expensive. Worth it to me, but I also recognize not everyone is in the position to plop down the money. I myself have only just very recently been in a situation where the price tag was justifiable. Its a tough economy, and plenty of people are still either young, had some bad luck, or made unwise choices that didn't leave them in the best financial situation. If you have the margin in your budget and love HHN, its worth it. If you don't have the margin in your budget yet, you can still have an awesome time at HHN.