Monday, October 12, 2015

Universal Halloween Horror Nights...

The Haunting continues!!

Last Sat I joined the crew for what's becoming our annual trip to Universal Studios Horror Nights.

Taylor and I decided to arrive much earlier than need be since Obama was apparently visiting LA, the Dodgers Playoffs were happening and there were news outlets actually warning you that October 10th 2015 was not a good day to drive in LA.  Oh - and it was also 104 degrees!  YAY!

Luckily we got up there not too much longer than a normal nasty LA traffic day would have been, parked in preferred (Thank you Taylor) and headed in!

Most of my pictures here are "selfies" since my camera phone sucks at taking night shots but I'll throw in some fun internet pics as well.

We parked in Frankenstein.   Oh and FYI - Taylor did a glorious trip/dance/almost eat shit moment right before this picture.  Epic.

I also took this so I would remember where we parked

We made it!

I'm not very good at selfies
Rodeo Clown anyone?

We found a photo booth that was free so of course we partook.

We look so nice!

This is my favorite!
Since it was so bloody hot, we decided to just park it in a bar with air conditioning and wait for our meet time with the rest of the group.

Hard Rock Cafe was the winner and boy was it!  The Cubbie game was on and our bartender was fantastic!

Best way to beat the heat
We just snacked and drank there for a while watching the Cubbies kick ass and enjoying this drunk girl harassing other patrons.  The people next to her were also Cub fans.  We would air high five often.

Entertainment

About 4:45 was time to join the crew at Karl Strauss Brewery.  YAY!!!  Jay of course brought us the most darling little gifts.  They came in Muertos bags that you can color!  I'm about half way done coloring it!  The bag was full of little Halloween goodies that have made their way into my current decor at the caboose.

We had decided to do Early Arrival which gets you in the gates a bit earlier.  The only downfall is you miss the Opening Scare-A-Mony.  We didn't realize that, but oh well.  We're here!  Not only did the Shocks join us but our dear friend Eric from NYC is here too!  Yay!!!

Yay!

Love the Shock boys!
We decided to hit the Halloween Maze first.

It was a bit bizzare doing it when it was still light out, but I really got to see the detail they put in!  The house looked straight out of the movie including family pictures on the walls!  It was really well done.  There were also a couple of scenes being acted out rather than having monsters jump out at you.  Very cool!

After this we took a moment to enjoy the view as the sun went down.

So lovely

Sooooo happy Eric was here this year!

Love this man to pieces!

Our crew!  Blurry but happy!
Now I may be out of order, but I'm going to do my best.

I believe our next venture was Insidious.  Very cool.  Lots of black veiled ladies jumping out at ya!

Took of the web
This had put us downstairs.  So since it was a trillion degrees out, we hit the Jurassic Park Ride.  That drop always takes my breath away!

Web
Then everyone went on the The Mummy ride and I was the mom that held everyone's crap.  I love people watching though!

Getting fresh with a mummy

After this the crew wanted to hit Transformers Ride.  Another one I have to skip.  Danny also shares a bit of motion sickies with me, so he and I both skipped that one.  This gave me a chance to buy some light up head things!  You know how much I love my blinky light shit!

I have new blinky headband!
After this we took quite a walk and then a tram out to an area where a few mazes were.  It was super cool!  The tram of course "broke down" and we got out and walked through an area where monsters and soldiers were scaring you.  It was really neat to walk through the huge sets of buildings.  Totally felt like you were in a movie!  I actually would have loved to stay down there a little longer.


Crimson Peak was down here.  This was my favorite!  It was so pretty!!!

Web
Lots of red monsters coming at ya!  The set was just absolutely gorgeous!  Def a favorite!!  I also got my only scare here!!  I totally fell for a mirror trick.  I was looking up close to see the picture that changed shapes and bam - one of the above read gals jumped out at me!  Nicely done!

The Alien vs Predator was down here as well I believe.  Always a favorite.

Universal Studios Pic
When you walk through the "wilderness" the sounds are so creepy!  I love it!!

Sometime around here we also went on This is the End maze.  This was pretty funny!

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This was a lot of fun.  They did it pretty much straight out of the movie.  There were a lot of look a like actors portraying the actors from the film.  I swear the little gal playing Emma Watson was her!  They had a few scenes they acted out which was neat and a little different.  The monsters above were all throughout.  I loved them!  It was in 3-D too, so lots of fun effects.

The Walking Dead maze happened somewhere around here.

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This had a lot of references to the latest season 5.  Terminus folks, the wolves.  Very cool!

Around now I believe is when we caught the Jabbawockeeze 10:30pm show.  I was super excited when I found out they were performing at Horror Nights!  I saw them way back when they won the 1st America's Best Dance Crew show.  It was right when that style of dance was 1st coming out.  What I also love about them is they are really theatrical.  Kind of like super cool hip hop mimes!  We got front row seats and they put on a really great show!  Even got to high five a few of them a few times!!

Ssqqquuueeeaaaa!
After we hit all the mazes all we had left was the Terror Tram!  This year they set it up after The Purge movies.  Super fun!

There was even a super peppy newscaster gal welcoming you to the "Purge Party".  You then walked through the area where the Pyscho house is and all the plane rubble.  So rad!

Universal Studios Pic

Universal Studios Pic
Really well done and lots of fun!  But get ready to walk!

After this the crew hit The Simpsons Ride and Despicable Me which Danny and I sat out.  This is always a nice time for he and I to catch up!

About now I was starting to fade.  It was almost midnight.  A couple of the crew were going to stay and hit a few more mazes again but Taylor and I were done.  We still had to drive all the way home!

This year we got Front of Line passes since they didn't offer the VIP like they did last year, but I have to say - it was still rad!  I missed our little VIP buffet and area, but the front of the line was bomb.  I would never hit this without Front of Line.  The lines are INSANE!  We never waited more than 15-20 minutes at most and usually just walked right in.  The regular lines were so long and it was so hot!  Lord.

We had a fantastic time as always!  A huge thank you to Jay who makes this happen and makes it so special!  It's such a true joy to play around these fun Haunts with people who love them as much as I do!  This is one of my favorite times of year and I wouldn't get to do nearly all the fun stuff I do if it wasn't for Jay! 

Horror Nights was for sure another super fun night filled with great friends, spooks and fun!

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