As the summer months wind down and the fall season starts to kick in, it only means one thing when it comes to theme parks: Halloween is here. Beginning as early as mid-September, the theme parks in Orlando bring out the pumpkins, skeletons and more to put their guests in the Halloween spirit. Halloween at the theme parks is more than just decorations, it’s full-fledged events as well.

If you’re new to the Orlando area, or you’re planning on taking a trip to The City Beautiful during the fall season, you’ll definitely want to take advantage of some of the Halloween fun at the theme parks. Here is our guide to celebrating Halloween at the theme parks:

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida

Universal has always had the reputation of skewing a bit older than Disney, and their Halloween event definitely follows that trend. Just as the name suggests, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida is not for the faint of heart.

The night consists of anywhere from 6-11 haunted houses and three “scare zones”. If you’re a fan of being legitimately scared, this is the party for you. Be warned, however, this is a separate, hard-ticketed event.

Haunted Houses

The main draw of Halloween Horror Nights is themed haunted houses or mazes. These fully-immersive houses are full of horrors, scares and all things terrifying. Be prepared to see blood and guts and have plenty of jump scares.

The themes of the houses vary from year-to-year, but they’ll be a mix of IP (intellectual property) houses and originals. IP houses are always something based on existing content. The Halloween movies, The Exorcist, American Horror Story…these are all some of the horrors that await you in an IP house. Original houses are ones created by the Universal Studios Creative Team. These themes are much harder to predict, but they’re always an awesome concept that’s extremely well done.

When your planning your Halloween Horror Nights trip, make sure you think of the houses like rides during the day. They will have waits that can often be multiple hours long. If there is a specific house you want to see, make sure you’re there early.

Universal does offer a jump the line pass for their houses, just like their Express Pass during the day. But, just like Express Pass, it is yet another added cost on top of your ticket.

Scare Zones

Scare zones are designated areas of the park where actors are walking about freely looking to scare unsuspecting party goers. Each scare zone is located in the path between houses, so there is no getting around them.

The best advice we have is when entering a scare zone? Keep your head up and keep walking to your destination. There’s nothing the scare actors like better than someone whose nose is buried in their phone.

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is a hard-ticketed event that, as its name suggests, isn’t so much scary as it is playful and spooky. If you’re not a fan of being scared or have kids that aren’t adult enough for Horror Nights, Mickey’s Not So Scary is the way to go.

We went into detail about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party here on the blog.

SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular

Unlike the previous two parks which have their parties locked behind a separately-ticketed event, SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular is free with park admission. It’s biggest draw is its free-flowing candy. Kids of all ages can go through multiple trick-or-treat locations throughout the park and load their bags full of (free!) candy. And believe us, you’ll walk away with A LOT of candy.

In addition to trick-or-treating, SeaWorld decorates the party section of their park in blacklight paint and brings out some fun, unique characters. Kids can meet mermaids, jellyfish and a host of undersea friends. Lastly, some of SeaWorld’s shows have a Halloween theme to them, specifically the Sesame Street one.

SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular is right up with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party as being the most kid-friendly of Orlando’s Halloween parties. In fact, we would argue that it’s the friendliest to young kids (3-5 years old) because it isn’t a hard ticketed event and it’s centered mostly around candy and cute characters.

Busch Garden’s Howl-O-Scream

While it’s not exactly in Orlando, Busch Garden’s Howl-O-Scream is close enough to be worth mentioning. Busch Gardens models their Halloween party off of the Halloween Horror Nights model Universal uses. The event is hard-ticketed and consists of haunted houses and scare zones.

The biggest difference between Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal is that all the houses at Busch Gardens are original, there isn’t an IP house to be found.

Fans of horror and being scared would do well to visit both parks because you’ll be able to see the differences between a horror experience that relies on IPs and one which relies solely on original concepts.

The Verdict

Halloween at the theme parks provides plenty of opportunities for fun regardless of age and fear factor. The biggest questions you’ll need to ask yourself is how much are you willing to pay for your night (if at all) and how much you enjoy being scared. Suffice it to say, Orlando has something for everyone when it comes to Halloween.