Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. I thought it would be a good time to talk about my experiences at Universal’s and Disney’s Halloween events. So I recently had my second trip in Orlando ever and I still didn’t get the chance to check out the city outside of the theme parks. I don’t know why but Disney has always been a little underwhelming for me. I never got to go as a child so I think for years and years, I really hyped it up and I ended up making it way more glittery and magical in my head. Maybe I would have appreciated it a lot more as a child but for my adult self, it was just a lot of waiting in line for rides that were just okay. I don’t think I’d consider going back to Disney World unless it was for one of their marathon runs, which is something on my bucket list.
There were two unique events that were going on this particular visit that were pretty fun. The first event I got to check out was their Halloween event held at night called the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. It was a night filled with Halloween-themed performances, people dressed up, and candy! I don’t know what it is about Halloween but it’s always been my favourite time of the year so having the opportunity to trick-or-treat without being judged with how old I am is such an amazing thing. I got to dress up, so witchy and bitchy, I amassed a ton of sweets for myself. There was one particular thing that kind of sucked about this event and it was, as the name makes it clear, not so scary. Actually, it wasn’t scary at all. The “scariest” thing that happened was them playing the This is Halloween song from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nothing eerie, nothing spooky, at least to my standards. The vibe was so toned down that it didn’t even feel like a Halloween celebration anymore. There was cherry Halloween music… How is that even a thing? It makes sense though; they do it to accommodate all the young children and to possibly avoid a lawsuit in their hands. I’m not sure if it was worth it. Not-So-Scary required it’s own ticket, close to $100USD on top of the day pass. So if you wanted to spend the morning at Magic Kingdom and experience the Halloween event at night, you’d be spending at least $200USD just in one park.
Now, the Halloween event at Universal was a completely different story. They hold Horror Nights on the weeks leading to Halloween. (This is also an evening event with a separate price tag, around $65, depending on what tickets are available). Now, I don’t get scared by these sort of things; it’s really hard to get me to jump or react in a haunted house but I have to say that the haunted houses at Universal are CRAZY. I’ve been to the Horror Night event in Singapore but it has no comparison. The ones in Orlando are all based on horror movies like The Shining, American Horror Story and Saw so it was really cool to see these and kind of be within them. One of the most memorable things was being about to see The Purge enacted in person, with an auctioneer selling people off. A cool thing about the houses was that the actors had recorded sound effects or recordings from the movies that they would jump out at you with, at an extremely large volume. I guess that’s bad news for people who are bad with jump scares. My favourite part of this event were these scare-zones where actors would just wander within or stake out to scare you. I’m like the only small Asian girl in all of the park so of course, I was everyone’s target. I kind of felt like I got the full experience because of it, haha. But I also felt a little guilty that I couldn’t give the actor’s a reaction that they wanted to get out of me. So between the two Halloween events, Universal definitely takes the cake unless you’re like four.
The other unique Disney event I got to go to was Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival. You pay the regular day-pass ticket price for the event but all the food and wine needs to be purchased. So like the other parks, it’s a day of lining up but this time it’s to spend money food. The lines weren’t bad but being in line is definitely the majority of the experience. Still, I’d say it’s a pretty cute event and definitely meant for adults. They gave us a little passport to keep track of what food you’ve tried and from what country. Epcot normally has eleven pavilions for countries including Japan, Canada, and Germany, but for the Food and Wine Festival, they added way more countries and had a total of 39 different themed food areas that you could purchase from. Completed the passport, of course. Not only because I’m a glutton but mostly because I’m kiasu (afraid to lose in Singlish), and I don’t like to lose a challenge. The dishes averaged around $6-8USD which is not bad but when you’re trying to try something from each kiosk, it adds up. But they were impressively pretty yummy and I’d say it was worth it to check out.
The thing about Orlando parks and their events is that they’re so expensive. If it’s not spending money just for getting in, it’s spending money on overpriced food, a Fast Pass because the lines are unbearably long and you can’t see everything otherwise, or another ticket to allow you to check out another area of the park on the same day. Fortunately I had some friend-perks but it still ate up lots of cash and a lot of time waiting in line. If I had to choose on picking a vacation for myself, I would definitely choose going to an exotic city over going to Orlando parks. It’d be cheaper, less tourist-y and more exciting in general. I do have to say that I haven’t been to either Universal or DisneySea in Japan so I’d like to check those out.