Going to Halloween Horror nights in Orlando Florida (HHN) has become a tradition with me and my daughter Allison. Does it become a tradition if you have done it 3 or more times?
The trip to Orlando from Delray Beach is about 3 hours or less if I drive like Mario Andretti. For all those who know the drive on the turnpike to Orlando, it is a boring one. Nothing to really look at one the road but sawgrass, flatlands and road kill. Always have to keep an eye above for the cops in the SKY in fear of a TICKET sent in the mail by the sky rangers. Yes, they do that in Florida, I know someone who got a ticket from sky patrol cop. How they can peg your speed limit, and read your license plate from the sky is a “wonder of technology”.
Lets get real here, Orlando is all about theme parks. They are every where. You have Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Universal Island of Adventure, Universal Studios, Disneys Hollywood Studios, Seaworld, Epcot and many others. As a general rule I HATE theme parks. Firstly, you pay oodles of money for travel, tolls, parking, tickets to the park. Once you are in the park, it is normally extremely HOT, HUMID and you wait in lines for 1+ hour per ride in the scolding HUMID heat. Everyone is sweaty, stinky, kids are crying and miserable. Finally you get on the ride, and it is over in 2-5 minutes. On to the next ride. Worse yet, with my motion sickness and slight vertigo problems I get very sick after even the first ride. FUN, FUN, FUN. Also I must mention the price and quality of the food in the parks is mind boggling. $12 slice of pizza? $15 hamburger? these are not gourmet offerings they are bland, tasteless and hurt every $2 bite. This is why in the past I dropped the family off at the parks and played golf on the glorious golf courses of Orlando.
HHN, was massively crowded and the scenario I just painted was pretty much the same, but because it was at night time the climate was totally tolerable and almost NICE. So as a good DAD, Grandpa, OLD FART as I am, I sat on the sidelines as Allison went on her favorite rides. In the mean time I took pictures of the cast of characters at HHN. I also attended a fantastic show as well as my climax of the evening was going to the STRANGER THINGS haunted house. I am a Stranger Things fan, watched every episode of every season. Hated it when the last season ended! This place was awesome. The character actors looked just like the real ones on the show. The coolest room was the room with the lights on the wall and the mother hacking away at the wall with an AXE. Was very realistic and very much like the real show.
Allison insisted we stay till the bitter end; 2:00 am. So we did. The final picture of me in front of the Universal Studios Globe was taken on our way out of the park.
So do I recommend HHN? A thumbs up for me. My recommendation is to go on OFF nights and early in the season so it is not so crowded.
Now, to establish more traditions….
Tom