I am not going to Halloween Horror Nights this year because I have been getting messages from Universal Orlando as a new annual pass-holder that I am not comfortable with. I am a little freaked out that this year's HHN is based upon The Purge, described as being based upon a 24-hour period during which all crimes are legal. I didn't see the movie, but the idea is very unsettling with me. Brutality is not my idea of entertainment. I am looking into the possibility of attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party because I have never been, and it sounds charming.
That being said, you might like Halloween Horror Nights more than you expect. I went in 2011 because I was working at Universal Studios at the time and could get myself in free and my husband could attend the team members' preview for $10. For that price we decided we had to go see what all of the fuss was about, even though we had been repeatedly warned that it was a very rough event with drunks who were hyped up watching very violent scenes. We had enough fun during the preview that I bought a "Frequent Fear" pass for my husband because I was later attending HHN's alone while my husband was working, and he admitted that he was rather jealous.
Maybe we just got lucky and experienced Halloween Horror Nights during a particularly mild year because I went through many of the haunted houses for the first time alone and then told my husband what he had to see. The one about the Victorian graveyard had me so in awe the first time I went through that the first words out of my mouth as I entered was "Oh, how pretty!" I am sure that the corpses were either very amused or perhaps a little annoyed that I wandered through the haunted houses applauding and telling them good job instead of being the scared easy target they may have expected when they saw me coming down the path alone. Yet the artistry was impressive, and the Victorian hearse with the falling snow was peaceful.
My husband was sorry that he missed the Penn & Teller haunted house at Universal last year, but I was a disabled Disney cast member who had no income so tickets to HHN's were not in the budget. If Penn & Teller were there this year, we would probably be going.
If you do decide to go to Halloween Horror Nights, perhaps pick which of the haunted houses you feel that you can handle. Some of the scare-actors do have good manners and will seek out the people who seem to thrive on the attention. I saw who was being hired for Halloween Horror Nights and watched some of them having their make-up put on before the event. My, God, they are usually just kids. It might help your daughter whom you say is afraid of everything to just keep reminding herself that the scare-actors aren't much older than she is and are probably just trying to earn enough money to buy textbooks for next semester.
I spoke to a former co-worker who has attended both Mickey's Halloween and Halloween Horror Nights and said that the difference was that while Mickey's was "nicer" Halloween Horror Nights was "more exciting". If you want to dress up for Halloween, Disney allows costumes while Universal doesn't. Disney has trick-or-treating, which adults wanting to be a kid again are welcome to participate in.
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