How Does Halloween Horror Nights Stay and Scream Work in 2025?

You can start your night at HHN early by adding Universal Studios Florida after 3pm admission to your Halloween Horror Nights event admission for the same day.

Have a daytime admission ticket or a Scream Early Ticket, and be inside the Universal Studios before closing at 5:00 p.m.

Starting at 2:50ish pm, you can make your way to one of the designated Scream Early check-in locations.

Starting at 3:00 pm, HHN event Team Members will start scanning your tickets and putting on Scream Early wrist bands at Minion Cafe, Villain-Con, and Lombards across from Fast & Furious Supercharged.

You can then roam the park past the 5:00 pm park close and before the HHN34 event officially starts at 6:30 pm. This means you’re free to ride attractions, watch shows, people watch, grab food, or even shop for merchandise.

Starting at 4:00 PM, guests with their Scream Early wristband can start entering select haunted house queues before the event officially opens. Select Haunted Houses often include Terrifier, FNAF, and Fallout. Make sure you check the haunted house wait time signs or Universal Orlando App to see when the haunted houses will open. (Note: Some haunted houses may open later than antiquated due to unforeseen circumstances.)

Once the park closes for daytime guests at 5:00PM, you’ll notice wristband checkpoints where you’ll just flash your wristband showing you have checked in for Stay and Scream.

Event Opens: The official event and the rest of the haunted houses open at 6:30 PM.

Scream Early Ticket

If you don't have an annual pass or regular daytime admission ticket, you can buy a Scream Early Ticket (available online through Universal) for $55+ tax. The Scream Early Ticket allows access to Universal Studios Florida, starting at 3 p.m. until the regular scheduled daytime park closing.

Noteworthy:

You don’t need a special ticket to use HHN Scream Early. When you’re checking in, as long as your ticket is valid for that night, you will be good to go. Universal Orlando TM’s won’t be concerned with how you got into Universal Studios Florida earlier in the day. You could be an annual passholder or you could have a one-day ticket. The kind of Halloween Horror Nights ticket you have won’t matter either.

Halloween Horror Nights 2025 Stay and Scream– Check-in Areas

New for 2025, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando has a different way to start your night of fun. Once you arrive at Universal Studios Florida on your event night at 3 p.m., you can pick up a Scream Early wristband at a designated check-in location. Afterwards, instead of going into a designated holding area, you're FREE to explore the park!

Universal Orlando has 4 Scream Early Check-in Stations:

```
Lombard’s Seafood Grill 
```

Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast

```
Illumination Theater
```
```
Minion Café 
```

Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast

Illumination’s Minion Cafe

Illumination Theater

Lombard’s Seafood Grill

Stay and Scream Opening Times for Haunted Houses in 2025

For 2025. the haunted house queues have typically started opening in waves beginning at 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, and 6:00 PM. This is why I strongly recommend you check the Universal Orlando Resort app on the day of your visit. This way, you'll know for sure what the opening house times are and what haunted house you should knock out first.

Houses at the Front of Universal Studios Florida

```
Five Nights at Freddy's - 5:15 p.m.
```

WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks - 5:15 p.m.

```
Terrifier - 5:30 p.m. 
```
```
Grave of Flesh - 6 p.m. 
```
```
El Artista: A Spanish Haunting - 6 p.m.
```

Houses at the Back of Universal Studios Florida

```
Jason Universe - 6 p.m.
```
```
Fallout - 5:15 p.m. 
```

Gálkn: Monsters of the North - 5:45 p.m.

```
Dolls: Let's Play Dead - 6 p.m.
```

Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters - 5:45 p.m.

Noteworthy:

For 2025, there are two pathways to access four houses in the soundstages. This is due to the closure of Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit.

Use the Path A entrance directly across from Despicable Me Minion Mayhem to get to WWE and Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF).  Path B is next to the bathrooms by the Jimmy Fallon gift shop. This is the easiest path to get to Terrifier and Grave of Flesh. Yes, you can take Path A for Terrifier and Grave of Flesh (and vice versa for Path B to WWE and FNAF, it's going to be a longer walk.

Is Diagon Alley Opening during Halloween Horror Nights Stay and Scream 2025?

Yes! Diagon Alley stays opening during Halloween Horror Nights stay and scream. Once Universal Studios Florida closes for regular daytime guests at 5:00 PM, security will start to sweep Diagon Alley. You won't have to leave, you'll just show them your wristband if you plan to hang around in there.

 I've noticed the Death Eaters start coming out roughly between 6:00 - 6:15 PM.

Universal's Attraction Assistance Pass (AAP) During HHN34

If you're using AAP, there are several booths where you can get return times for any house or rides open during HHN. Note, they do not open until the houses open.

Ride entrance of Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast

Right outside next to Five Nights at Freddy's

```
Outside next to Men in Black
```
```
Illumination Theater
```

2025 Halloween Horror Nights Stay and Scream Tips

Prepare for the sun and possible rain if you plan to join the one of the house queue lines that open at 4:00 PM – bring an umbrella, and hydrate since most of the queues are outside.

Five Nights at Freddy's is hands down THE most popular house almost every event night. It’s not unusual for the queue line to reach capacity during Stay & Scream. It has been hitting a 180-minute wait time early in the night.

While more of the houses in the back open up later, I always like to start in the back and work my way up front. This is because it takes a little while for the crowds to make their way towards the back of Universal Studios Florida. Fallout is a an awesome house to start with because it opens the earliest at 5:15 p.m. After that house, you can knock out the other haunted houses that open at 5:45 - 6:00 p.m.

If you HHN Express Pass, I suggest you wait in a standby line during Stay & Scream (particularly if you're close the front of the queue line). This way, you can save your one time Express Pass use, and come back for a second house run when the wait time is higher.

Both Terrifier and Jason Universe have had lower crowds during Stay & Scream and the highest wait times later in the night.

If you don’t knock out as many houses as you want the first couple of hours, wait to finish the haunted houses within the last two hours the Universal Studios Florida is open. Haunted house wait times really drop within the last hour of the event.

Is the Scream Early Ticket Worth if for Halloween Horror Nights 2025?

YES! By utilizing Stay and Scream, you can start entering select haunted house queues at 4:00 PM — a complete two hours before general admission. In that time frame you can realistically knock out two to three haunted houses with little to no wait before the event “officially” begins, and the main HHN crowd enters the park.

By the time HHN34 general admission opens at 6ish PM, you’re already way inside Universal Studios Florida and can continue toward knocking out the less-popular haunted houses. This can help you keep the amount of time waiting in lines low as the night goes on, which is awesome for those without HHN Express Passes.

With a flexible plan of attack ahead of time, I’ve been able to knock out 4-5 houses by 7:00 PM. Using the HHN Scream Early Ticket is a GAME CHANGER!

Halloween Horror Nights Stay and Scream Guide 2025