Welcome And Spooky Season Setup

Alicea 0:03

Hello everyone, I'm Alicea.

Nathan 0:25

And I'm Nathan.

Alicea 0:26

Welcome to episode 252 of Adventures and Mouse Capades. This week, Nathan is going to grill me about my recent trip to Hollywood to go see Universal's Halloween horror nights in Hollywood.

Nathan 0:43

All about Hollywood.

Alicea 0:44

All about Hollywood.

Nathan 0:45

Your night with the stars.

Alicea 0:47

Exactly.

Nathan 0:48

This was the night before we all met up down in Anaheim and had an evening, an afternoon, an evening in Disneyland. And then we did Oogie Boogie Bash, which you heard about last week. This completes our grand tour of all of the Halloween things here in 2026.

Alicea 1:06

So many.

Nathan 1:07

Happy Halloween to everybody. I know this will come out a couple days early, but 'tis the season to be

Alicea 1:15

spooky.

Nathan 1:17

Spooky.

Alicea 1:18

Yes.

Nathan 1:19

It is Alicea's favorite time of the year. The most magical time of the year for you?

Alicea 1:26

Maniacal?

Nathan 1:27

Oh, the most maniacal time of the year. Oh, I love it. I love it. Well, let's start at the beginning. Who made up your Hollywood horror nights crew this year? And what was everybody most excited about before arriving

Alicea 1:45

The crew this year was myself, Kaitlyn, and her bestie Sanae, who happens to live down there. She surprised Kaitlyn the last time we went to this. Like Sanae and I had it all set up. We knew she was coming, but Kaitlyn did not. And so I asked Sanae again if she wanted to come this year. And Kaitlyn knew she was coming, so it wasn't a surprise again. But yeah, it was all three of us. It was quite nice.

Nathan 2:08

And for the record, for those of you who may be just joining us for the first time or haven't heard, Kaitlyn is our daughter. She is off in college. She is 21. She is starting to live her own life. Although, as we record this, we just saw her this morning because she came home for a nice dinner and a movie and breakfast

Voting And Trip Crew Basics

Nathan 2:28

out this morning, and now she's back off to college.

Alicea 2:30

Very important thing voting.

Nathan 2:32

That's right.

Alicea 2:33

Her ballot was here. So Washington is a mail-in ballot only state.

Nathan 2:39

Well, it's vote by mail. We get our ballots in the mail. You can mail them back or you can do them in a drop box.

Alicea 2:45

Yeah. Washington is a vote-by-mail state. So we had her ballot and uh we all voted.

Nathan 2:51

Yes.

Alicea 2:51

Do your duty, people.

Nathan 2:53

Absolutely. Go live. Please, please, please, please do your duty and vote. Yep. Well, so you have done Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando this year. It was about a month prior to going into Hollywood. You also did Halloween horror nights there in Hollywood a couple years ago. Obviously, you had to take a year off last year due to some uh medical fun that

Alicea 3:18

I had my own Halloween horror nights going on.

Nathan 3:20

Exactly. Exactly. So before you even walk through the gates, what expectations did you have for Hollywood versus Orlando?

Why The RIP Tour Matters

Alicea 3:30

Okay. So Hollywood, I don't think I'll ever do this without doing an R.IP tour, which is their version of the VIP tour. And it's RIP because, you know, Halloween, scary. Woohoo. The Universal Hollywood lot is on a hill. It is on a pretty steep hill.

Speaker 2 3:51

Yeah.

Alicea 3:51

And when I did the RIP tour before them toting you around in a in a tram and everything and having a guide is just, it's so helpful. It is more expensive, but in my opinion, it is worth it. So expectation-wise, I knew it'd be a little easier. We wouldn't have to wait in the lines and we'd have somebody showing us through everything. House-wise, I was very interested in seeing how the different coasts did the same houses. So expectation-wise, I knew it would be a romp.

Nathan 4:29

Yeah. And there are five houses that are duplicates. And we'll we'll get to that here in a little bit. But okay, so let's focus in on the RIP tour experience. Walk us through that check-in process. What happens when you arrive for the tour?

Alicea 4:44

The entrance for the VIP slash RIP is before you even get into the park. It is off to the right. You check in where the VIP check-in is. And it's, I mean, it's very easy. You scan the QR code on your phone or have a paper printed out. Just use your phone, people. And it's very seamless and easy. And yeah, we checked in, we got our little lanyards, we got our little wristbands, and you get to go upstairs into the VIP lounge area and you just wait for your person. When you check in, they assign you your guide, your person. And we had Andrew H was our guide. And like everybody was saying, Oh my gosh, he's so awesome. He's really good. We got upstairs and there was an Andrew. It was a different Andrew. He's like, I'm not your Andrew. You're going to talk with the other Andrew, and he's amazing. He's the better Andrew. Oh, wow.

Nathan 5:42

Yeah.

Alicea 5:42

Yeah. So we find out who our guide is. We go upstairs, chill out for a little bit till like five minutes before our meeting time. And then we get in our group of people. It is a maximum of 12 people for the RIP tour.

Nathan 5:57

Oh, that's not too bad.

Alicea 5:58

You can also do a private tour that is obviously a lot more.

Nathan 6:03

Yeah.

Alicea 6:04

We just do the group one because it's still a small group of people. Everybody gets introduced and then we go.

Nathan 6:12

So what are some of the biggest perks that made you immediately say, like, yeah, we're absolutely doing an RIP tour above even an express pass if they have them there or just general admission?

Alicea 6:24

They do have express pass. The RIP tour I like because you are guaranteed to get into every single one of the houses. You also get valet parking if you drive and park there. You get food. There is a buffet area just for those that are on the RIP tour. You get a guided tour. So your guide will tell you a little bit about each house, a little bit about the lot itself, and give you kind of the lowdown of stuff. You also get a private vehicle tram to drive you from place to place, which is quite helpful on the Hollywood lot. And Hollywood has something a little different than Orlando. It has the tram tour. Sorry, they call it the terror tram here in Hollywood.

Nathan 7:14

It's important to get the naming right.

Alicea 7:15

Yes. Yeah. And it's just another little area that they zhuzh up for Halloween. It’s got characters and lots of stuff. And in the terror tram area, there are specific areas just for those on the RIP tour. Nobody else gets to go into those. They are special for RIP only. There's like a little more, I guess, meet and greet type thing. And yeah, a couple other areas that nobody else gets to go through. Lots of fun.

Nathan 7:42

That's cool. Do you think the tram tour kind of does it change the pace of the night? Like when does it when do you do the tram tour? I guess is what I want to ask versus the houses. Is it in the middle? Is it the beginning?

Alicea 7:56

So I think it may be different every year. And it may be different depending on what time you have your check-in time for the RIP tour.

Nathan 8:03

Okay.

Alicea 8:03

I learned last time that I wanted kind of an earlier check-in that gives you time at the end to do what you want. And you get dinner right off the bat. And last time we did this, I think the tram was more in the middle of the tour. Okay. This time it was a little more towards the beginning. I think we did maybe two houses and then the tram. And I think last time it was four houses than the tram.

Nathan 8:28

Okay. For someone who hasn't been to Hollywood, obviously it is, it's kind of a famous theme park. It has these huge escalators because, like you said, it's in the Hollywood Hills. It is built kind of like multi-level into the landscape. What is that tram experience like from a haunted house kind of uh a Halloween Horror Nights

Terror Tram And Backlot Horror

Nathan 8:50

perspective?

Alicea 8:51

Are you talking about the Terror tram or the transportation tram?

Nathan 8:55

Oh. Are they two different things?

Alicea 8:58

Yes.

Nathan 8:59

Okay. So do you have like a golf cart kind of thing to take you around?

Alicea 9:02

Or is it like a trolley.

Nathan 9:03

Okay.

Alicea 9:04

It's designed to look like a trolley type thing. So the Terror tram, if you've ever been to Universal Hollywood, there's the tram, you can do the tram tour, and it takes you through the back lot and they tell you about the back lot and all sorts of stuff. Yeah. And they just kind of update it to be the Terror Tram. It'll bring you to where they have the uh backstage, I guess, or whatever you want to call it, area where all the props from other movies are, and then they have it all designed as scary stuff. There's like a it's like an outdoor kind of haunted house with a theme.

Nathan 9:38

Oh, okay, that makes sense.

Alicea 9:39

Yeah.

Nathan 9:40

So speaking of the theme, according to Universal Hollywood's website, this year's theme for the Terror Tram is Art the Clown arrives on the Universal Studios back lot with his blood-soaked bag of presents in tow. But when he realizes he's too early for Christmas, he hijacks the Terror Tram to start a ho-ho horrific holiday tradition, all his own. Encounter shocking twists on Christmas classics. And remember, the best gift is the screams you have along the way.

Alicea 10:18

Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah. So the Terror Tram for many years has been Blumhouse themed. Blumhouse is a a studio that does horror things like they've done The Purge, they've done Megan, and there's a bunch of other stuff. Blackphone, there's a bunch of other movies that they've had. So it's always it's been Blumhouse for a long time. And they switched it up a little this year, which is nice. And I know a lot of people are happy that they switched it up because it's always good to have new things. And Art the Clown was there. Art the Clown is from the movie Terrifier, the series Terrifier. And Art loves Christmas.

Nathan 10:57

Oh.

Alicea 10:58

Very much. He really loves Christmas. So you better not tell him it's not Christmas time because he'll get angry. I think Art is silly. He was actually at the buffet dinner.

Nathan 11:10

Oh,

Alicea 11:10

it's we had a special guest. We had Art. Got a couple pictures with him, and I asked him about his beard, which he ripped directly off of Santa and put on himself. So there's a little extra color in the beard.

Nathan 11:23

Oh, yeah. How wonderful. Yes. Yes. So a family-friendly atmosphere.

Alicea 11:29

Oh, very much no. Universal does recommend the minimum age for participants to be 13 years old.

Nathan 11:38

Of course. That that makes a lot of sense.

Alicea 11:41

So the Terror Tram is fun. I like it a lot. And it's always extremely gory. Like there's a lot of gory stuff in there. And there definitely was this one as well.

Nathan 11:51

Are any particular scenes that stick out to you?

Alicea 11:54

There are a couple that stuck out just because they're really gross, I guess. Like cooking dinner for Christmas time and what happens to the family that happened to be there when Art showed up. You know, like nasty stuff. One thing I do love about the TerrorTram tour, though, is you get to go through the Bates Hotel area, like the actual hotel thing itself. They decorate that for the Terror Tram and everything. You also get to go by the Hollywood sign, which during spooky season looks like somebody dumped blood all over the top of it.

Samantha 12:30

I don't understand why she sounds so giddy talking about this stuff. Nathan, do you feel safe?

Alicea 12:36

And you also get to go to the Psycho house, the actual Psycho house that they used in the movie. It's there. And you can, if you want, get your picture taken with Mr. Norman Bates. And if you look closely, you can see his mother up on the second floor.

Nathan 12:53

Oh, very cool.

Alicea 12:54

Yeah. One more thing about the RIP tour that was super special this

Fast And Furious Coaster Surprise

Alicea 12:59

year.

Nathan 12:59

Yeah.

Alicea 13:00

The Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift roller coaster just opened up like a couple of weeks before we went on this.

Nathan 13:08

Yeah.

Alicea 13:09

And we got to go on that as part of our tour. We did this before dinner. So this was the very first thing that we did was we went on the Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift roller coaster. And for this coaster, you cannot have anything on you. No glasses, no hats, no phone.

Nathan 13:29

Wow.

Alicea 13:30

Nothing. They recommend if you have a necklace on to take it off. So we took everything off, put it in the lockers, and got to go to the front of the line.

Nathan 13:38

That's awesome. What did you think of the new coaster?

Alicea 13:41

So I was actually a little freaked out to go on this.

Nathan 13:45

Really?

Alicea 13:46

The Stardust Racers coaster in Epic absolutely terrified me. Which is very different for me. Like it's a different feeling because I love roller coasters.

Nathan 13:58

Welcome to how the rest of us mortals feel.

Alicea 14:01

The out of your seat feeling, I didn't feel safe on the on Stardust Racers. I don't know what it was. Like lizard brain, whatever, just really totally went the other direction.

Nathan 14:15

Yeah.

Alicea 14:16

So I was kind of a bit hesitant to get on this, and I was trying to talk myself into it. I'm like, no, you can go on it. This is safe. You know it's safe. So I did go on it. I loved it. I was slightly scared. This coaster goes upside down and stays upside down for quite some time. And this is the first time I closed my eyes on a roller coaster. Like I didn't want to, I didn't want to see it. I don't know why. I think if I do this again, I would not close my eyes. There's just something about it that for some reason was terrifying to me. But it was a lot of fun. Oh, I think I know what it is. It's because there's no over-the-shoulder holders.

Nathan 14:59

And you're going upside down.

Alicea 15:00

And you're going upside down. So it's the like the Velocicoaster has this as well. There's a lot of coasters that have this. And not having that feeling, I guess, of safety, I did not like.

Nathan 15:16

Well, I can't wait to not go on this coaster in the future.

Alicea 15:21

No, you won't go on it?

Nathan 15:22

No, because it spins.

Alicea 15:25

Oh, yeah.

Nathan 15:26

It It it spins like on the left-right axis.

Alicea 15:30

It does, but it's not as it's actually, I don't I didn't feel it as much as I do on Guardians of the Galaxy uh Cosmic Rewind. Because I do feel the spinning on Cosmic Rewind. I did not really notice it on this one.

Nathan 15:45

Okay.

Alicea 15:45

And I think it's because it goes so fast.

Nathan 15:48

Got it.

Alicea 15:49

Like you were launched, I think it's like 85 miles an hour or something like that. My goodness.

Samantha 15:54

The fast and furious Hollywood Drift roller coaster hits a top speed of 72 miles per hour with a max force of 3.6 Gs.

Alicea 16:01

It's not when you're going upside down or anything. It's it's really fun.

Nathan 16:04

Yeah. All right. Well. Maybe. Maybe.

Alicea 16:08

If we ever go there. You can never go there with me, so it's okay.

Nathan 16:10

Well, I don't really want to go to Horror Night. So wow.

Alicea 16:17

But this was fun. I was hoping to get on it again, but it closes at 10 o'clock. I think every night because of noise ordinance. Um and the screams from the people kind of drifts down to the neighborhoods below, and they don't like that. So

Nathan 16:35

that's fair.

Alicea 16:36

They closed it at 10, and we were just finishing up at 10.

Nathan 16:40

Uh-huh. Yeah. That's actually a good question. Is like last ride at 10? So you need to be in line by like

Alicea 16:49

Yeah, I think they totally shut it down and close it at 10 o'clock.

Nathan 16:52

Okay. So you've got to be in line by whatever that wait time is. Probably an hour or more.

Alicea 16:58

Yeah.

Nathan 16:58

Got it. Okay. Okay.

Headliner Houses Hit Or Miss

Nathan 17:00

Well, speaking of other things that are scary, let's hop back into the meat, if you will, of Halloween horror nights.

Alicea 17:09

All right.

Nathan 17:09

Let's talk about the haunted houses. Here in California, there are eight houses this year. There were 10 in Orlando, so two fewer. But of those eight, five are, if not duplicates, they're at least the same story, the same theme. Right. The same intellectual property, the same theming from a show or a movie. Let's dive into these. The first one that we'll talk about is probably one of the headliners this year. It is Stranger Things 5, the final chapter. The upside down is invading Hawkins, and this time no one's safe. In this haunted house, based on the final season of Stranger Things, join the gang and Hawkins for one last adventure as you try to survive Demogorgons and the Mind Flare. Will you defeat Vecna once and for all? Well, after all that, uh Did the actual experience live up to that description? What stood out most to you?

Alicea 18:17

It's hard because I'm comparing this to the Orlando one.

Nathan 18:20

Yeah.

Alicea 18:21

Honestly, I'm going to be very honest here.

Nathan 18:24

Yeah.

Alicea 18:24

This house disappointed all three of us.

Nathan 18:26

Whoa.

Alicea 18:28

Yeah.

Nathan 18:29

Huh.

Alicea 18:30

It was. It was okay. Orlando had a lot bigger sets on this one and different scenes that they didn't even show at all in this one.

Nathan 18:44

Got it.

Alicea 18:45

There were characters that existed in Orlando that did not exist in Hollywood. This one kind of seemed a little lackluster.

Nathan 18:56

Whoa.

Alicea 18:57

And I thought maybe it was because I'd seen the other one.

Nathan 19:02

Right.

Alicea 19:02

But when we got out of it, Both Sanae and I and Katilyn were like, wow. Um, no, didn't really enjoy that one.

Nathan 19:10

Huh.

Alicea 19:11

There were, I mean, it it went through stuff from the final season.

Nathan 19:16

Yeah.

Alicea 19:16

But it just it wasn't near as big of a production as it was in Orlando. The one in Orlando is phenomenal.

Nathan 19:23

Huh. So Hollywood phoned it in.

Alicea 19:26

For this, yeah.

Nathan 19:27

Unfortunate. Unfortunate. Well, let's talk about another big name house from this year. This one is Sinners. Get ready to dance with the devil. This juke joint's opening night might be your last. Pierce the veil and experience the horror of the film Sinners as the Smokestack twins defend Club Juke from a hive mind of bloodthirsty vampires. So lots of hype around this movie and another repeat from Orlando. How did this one stack up?

Alicea 20:04

I really liked the one in Orlando. I thought they did a great job. This one blew it out of the water.

Nathan 20:10

Whoa, awesome. So the opposite of Stranger Things.

Alicea 20:12

Yes, yes, yes. Um, and this is the house that we went into again afterwards.

Nathan 20:17

Nice.

Alicea 20:18

The setup for this was amazing. You walk in, you're going into the juke joint, and you basically are walking into like a concert type thing. And if you've seen the movie, one of the things about it is really good music can pierce the veil. And so you have Preacher Boy playing his guitar and singing. And while he's doing that, you have a DJ from the future show up. And then there's, oh, what was the other one? I think it was, oh, hip-hop or something. Another singer comes in as well. And that was really neat to have that right at the very beginning. There were more scaractors involved in this house than the one in Orlando. There's a lot more live actors there. And some really cool scenes where it was just a walkthrough with mannequins in Orlando, and this was like fully acted out by scaracters here. And there's also somebody on a harness that basically came from out of nowhere from the ceiling and down to the floor and scared the bejesus out of us and then went right back up into the air.

Nathan 21:26

Wow.

Alicea 21:26

So this was a really cool house. I very much enjoyed this one. And I like the one on Orlando too.

Nathan 21:31

That's awesome.

Alicea 21:32

Yeah.

Nathan 21:33

For you, not for me. All right, moving on. We have Hellraiser Raise Some Hell. Enter a realm of pure pain in a haunted house based on the original Hellraiser trilogy. You'll journey through the depths of hell and bear witness to Pinhead and the Cenobites nightmarish rituals. Then hope you don't get trapped in your own. Well, that sounds downright delightful now, doesn't it? How was your tour?

Alicea 22:06

This one was okay. Another one where the Orlando one was better, but going into this house was really cool because they have, I don't know what it's called, the box. The box, the puzzle box.

Samantha 22:19

The puzzle box in the Hellraiser franchise is primarily known as the Lament configuration.

Alicea 22:24

Right at the beginning, but it's humongous. You're walking past it and it's like 12 feet tall or something like that. Uh that that was kind of cool. Now, I only watched the first Hellraiser movie. So there's a couple things in here that that I didn't equate, like I didn't know what it was from. Obviously, it's from one of the trilogies. So this one is all right. There's a couple of really good jump scares. This is a really pr a pretty gory movie and a very horny movie as well. Oh. Um yeah. I think maybe one of the things that took me out of this was we had somebody in our group who was recording everything through his metaglasses. Oh. And he made sure he was first in line every single time.

Nathan 23:14

Uh-huh.

Alicea 23:14

And I happened to be behind him on this one. And he would slow down. And I don't know, there's just something about it. It got on my nerves. I didn't say anything to him, but it it kind of slowed everything down a little bit. And he made sure he got all the scares.

Nathan 23:33

Oh, that's not cool.

Alicea 23:34

Yeah.

Nathan 23:35

That's not cool. It's actually worth mentioning. I don't think we we've talked about this yet. That is a big difference between Orlando and Hollywood, where in Orlando, you are not allowed to photograph or record on Halloween horror nights at all, except for there's an opening media night that a lot of influencers and social media folks uh get to go to. They can film on those evenings, but not on any of the others. Versus here in Hollywood, everybody can take pictures and video and all the rest of that stuff.

Alicea 24:06

So through the houses.

Nathan 24:08

Right.

Alicea 24:08

Like you can take pictures outside the houses and videos outside the houses in Orlando, no problem. But through the houses is where this counts. Yeah.

Nathan 24:16

Yeah. Well, that's that's unfortunate. That's people being selfish. Yep. Oh well. Oh well. Oh well.

Alicea 24:24

Do it for the views, whatever. I did try to record through a couple of houses and watching the footage again, I'm like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't do that again. Uh or if I'm gonna do it, it needs to be like I need to put the phone like rested on my chin. So when I turn my head to look at stuff, the phone follows me.

Nathan 24:43

Oh.

Alicea 24:44

I just had it up against my chest. I wanted to make sure that the screen wasn't visible to anybody because I didn't want to, you know, have lights where you're not supposed to have lights and stuff like that.

Nathan 24:54

So but look at you thinking of others.

Alicea 24:57

So if I do this again, I think I'd I'd like to put the phone on my chin. Got it.

Nathan 25:03

Well, let's move on to our fourth house.

Hollywood Exclusive Houses Breakdown

Nathan 25:06

This one is another Orlando copycat, or or at least borrowing the theme again. This one is Ozzy Osborne, Prince of Darkness, Let the Madness Begin. Ozzy Osborne's shocking image was as haunting as his heavy metal hits. Now you'll enter the Prince of Darkness' kingdom where music and mayhem collide, and everything's gone off the rails. Veer through a decaying world ripped straight from Ozzy's lyrics in this haunted house, inspired by one of Rock and Roll's greatest legends. Let the Madness Begin. So, did this house rock or what?

Alicea 25:51

It did. It definitely did. I mean, it's Ozzy's music. Yes, it rocked.

Nathan 25:56

I think I remember you really liked this one in Orlando, too. I think it was one of your favorite houses there.

Alicea 26:01

It was one of my favorite houses here, too. And I don't know that one was better over the other. They were both equally pretty awesome.

Nathan 26:08

Yeah.

Alicea 26:09

The crazy train scene on this was a little different, and I I liked that. And there were a couple things that were similar. Like they have a huge bat holding Ozzy's head. You know, because he bit the head off of a bat.

Nathan 26:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alicea 26:28

And just, I don't know, some of the the characters that they had in this, they had in in Orlando as well, really scared me. Like the jump scares. Like I was not expecting his character to come out where they did. And yeah, I got got a couple of times on this one.

Nathan 26:42

It's interesting that they they seem to develop these houses, you know, around similar themes. And maybe they're sharing some ideas, but it really feels like, at least based on your descriptions, that they're very independently created and probably molded to the spaces that they have to a certain degree. But like there's a lot of individual creative freedom on the local teams.

Alicea 27:08

Yeah, that's actually that's a good question that I will keep in my head for next year.

Nathan 27:15

Stay tuned, everyone. Yeah like and subscribe. We'll be back in a year.

Alicea 27:20

Just with Hollywood, though. I don't think I'm hitting Orlando again.

Nathan 27:23

Yeah, yeah. Well, let's move on. Next up, we have Evil Dead Burn. Fan the flames of evil. The Book of the Dead has been reopened, and now an infernal force consumes a family home. In this haunted house, based on the new film Evil Dead Burn, Dodge possessed Deadites hellbent on bloodshed, encounter not just the root of evil, but the whole family tree. Well, that sounds like a family romp. How did it go?

Alicea 27:59

It was pretty good. This house was, again, different than the Orlando one, but I thought this was a good house. The Orlando one was better. But this was still scary in its own right. This film itself is very scary and extremely gory, and a lot of that still shown through in this as well. There are a couple of scenes that were quite different and a little disappointing from what I had seen in the other one. Not near as gory. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But this was, I think Kaitlyn and Sanae were like, not doing that one again. Nope.

Nathan 28:40

Well, let's move on to the Hollywood exclusives, if you will, to throw around an industry phrase. Next up, let's talk about Killer Klowns from Outer Space, they're back, and the jokes on you. Yes, that is the whole name of this thing. That's long. Anyway. If ever there's a reason to be afraid of clowns, this is it. The killer clowns from outer space have landed in this haunted house. And the jokes on you if you get trapped in their cotton candy cocoons, becoming a gooey, gruesome stack. Um, what? Uh yeah, anyhow, I don't even know what that means. So, how was this Hollywood exclusive house?

Alicea 29:30

This one was fun. If you've ever seen the movie Killer Clowns from Outer Space, you know it's just weird. It's crazy. It's like you're going into a fun house. The colors were extremely bright, neon, and you know, they had the black lights on, so it was even brighter type stuff. Neither Kaitlyn nor Sanae have seen this. Kaitlyn does not like clowns, and this was a great wonderfully themed horror nights for her to not like clowns because there's clowns everywhere. There was a room where you're going through the cotton candy area, basically. So the cotton candy in Killer Clowns is people.

Nathan 30:10

Oh, yay.

Alicea 30:11

It's people. They're put into

Nathan 30:14

they're soylent?

Alicea 30:15

Yes. And the, I don't know, that they're like wrapped up like spiders and it looks like cotton candy, but they're people.

Nathan 30:22

Just lovely.

Alicea 30:23

We went through this area and they were like punching the cotton candy bags, like, yay, cotton candy. And we got it, and I'm like, those are people. They're like, ew. The clowns look weird and creepy in this. It was fun to see them jumping out. Um, I've seen the movie, but it was quite some time ago. I thought it was really fun.

Nathan 30:44

That's awesome.

Alicea 30:44

And scary. It was scary too, but yes.

Nathan 30:47

Yeah, and cotton candy people cocoons, just lovely.

Alicea 30:52

Oh, and they were soft too.

Nathan 30:54

Oh, glorious. That's just what I wanted. No, thank you. Well, let's move on. House number seven on our list is I think taking the crown for longest house title. This is Kilsenera, music by slash, quince anjos, quince velas, quince monstruos. All the 15s. In this haunted house featuring music by slash, a vengeful birthday girl summons malevolent spirits to her quinceera to exact monstrous vengeance on school bullies. Uh, well, I'm guessing this one at least had a killer soundtrack.

Alicea 31:37

I loved this house. Um, honestly, I wasn't paying attention to the music. I really should have been. I know. I'll have to go through and listen to it. This was based on, I guess, the Monsters of Latin America. There have been a couple of years where they have done Latin America houses, Monsters of Latin America. And I think those were like Kaitlyn and I, our favorite ones. Like the first year they went, they did the very first house. And then the next year we went with Sterling was the second house. And I think they skipped a year. And everybody's like, Where are a lot of Latin monsters? So they came back with this. This was a lot of fun. This house was really cool. I enjoyed seeing all the Latin monsters. And I forgot her name, but yes, she was very unhappy at her quinceniera and kind of scary too.

Nathan 32:31

Well, let's conclude with Dead Deader Deadist, a miracle of modern deadicen.

Alicea 32:39

Uh-huh.

Nathan 32:40

When a miracle embalming drug backfires, the Deville family funeral home's permanent residents rise from their graves, dead set on terrorizing the living in this haunted house. I I didn't know we needed miracle embalming drugs as like a society.

Alicea 33:02

Yeah, I don't remember what exactly this one was about. Like what the miracle was with the embalming drugs. It was explained to me. I just I just don't remember it. This was an interesting house. It was it was kind of cool to to see and go through. There are a couple of really gross scenes. I mean, there usually is. But just yeah, this was another fun one. Cool.

Nathan 33:25

Let's move on because there's other stuff we do want to cover a

Food Drinks And Night Timeline

Nathan 33:29

little bit. Let's talk food and drinks. I know you've got a dinner as part of your RIP tour. Yep. What did you get to eat and drink during the evening? Uh, was there anything that was unexpectedly good that sticks out in your mind?

Alicea 33:42

We didn't really have a lot of time to do snacks.

Nathan 33:45

Okay.

Alicea 33:46

We got, I mean, we had plenty of water. They they were always able to give us more water if we needed water, but there wasn't a lot of time to stop for snacks. We had one time where we did get to go stop and we went to a lounge area. It had an exclusive RIP area, so we could go sit down if we wanted to. It was the Ozzy Osborne bar.

Nathan 34:05

Oh, cool.

Alicea 34:06

And we did get a drink. I didn't like it. It tastes like grape cough syrup. It was the one that Kaitlyn wanted to try. She didn't like it either. So I think we only had a couple of sips, but got it. There were some snacks there, but nothing we really had.

Nathan 34:22

Okay.

Alicea 34:22

So

Nathan 34:23

or nothing that was really calling out to you to go back and seek out.

Alicea 34:29

There was a lot of people here this evening. It was pretty full.

Nathan 34:33

Not just at the bar, but the whole thing.

Alicea 34:35

The whole thing. Just yeah, there's a lot of people here. And even if we did see some snacks that we were interested in, there was a long line.

Nathan 34:43

Got it.

Alicea 34:44

I know last time we were here, we wanted to do the Ghostbusters Marshmallow Man s’mores treat. And we did that. Like we found time to go grab one of those.

Nathan 34:54

Right.

Alicea 34:55

Um, there I don't think there was any specific snack this year that we wanted to really get our hands on.

Nathan 35:00

Now you're we're talking about kind of doubling back and going finding things after the tour is over. I don't know if we covered it. Can you remind me like what time y'all got there? And I know there was a little bit of a dinner. You went through a bunch of houses and things like that. And then what time was the tour done? And then again, what time did the park close? Did the whole thing end?

Alicea 35:23

Those are good questions.

Speaker 2 35:26

A few moments later.

Alicea 35:28

Our tour time started at 6 p.m.

Nathan 35:32

Okay.

Alicea 35:32

That was we had to be checked in and ready at that time. And I think we left to do everything around 6 15. Went on Hollywood Drift, Fast and Furious ride, then went to dinner. Got it. And I think we started our tour of all the houses and everything at around 7:30 or 7:45.

Nathan 35:57

Got it. And then how long did the tour take? And then when was everything done?

Alicea 36:01

I think we were done around 10:30 or so.

Nathan 36:05

Okay.

Alicea 36:05

There was an option to go see the show. They have, I don't know what to call this. It's like a water show. It's based on Waterworld.

Nathan 36:14

Uh huh.

Alicea 36:14

They have a whole arena where they do like jet skis and all sorts of stuff over there. And they change it to purge for the Halloween horror nights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's been the same for quite some time. We've seen Kaitlyn and I have seen it twice. Sterling saw it with us last time. We didn't need to go see it again because it was exactly the same.

Nathan 36:34

Got it. Okay.

Alicea 36:36

Yeah. Our guide was like, if you want to go see this, we'll meet at like 10 45 and head over there. I didn't want to see it again.

Nathan 36:41

Got it.

Alicea 36:42

I believe this was open until one or two in the morning. Okay. We were done by midnight. I was I was tired. My legs were hurting. We did another house. We did Sinners Again. And Kaitlyn wanted to get a one-wish churro from the movie Obsession, The One Wish Willow. They had a churro. She got that. And we watched the Fortnightmares show and then headed out.

Nathan 37:10

Fortnightmare show.

Scare Zones And Harry Potter Sights

Nathan 37:12

What's that?

Alicea 37:12

There are scare zones. Do you talk about the scare zones at all?

Nathan 37:15

No, we didn't talk about the scare zones.

Alicea 37:17

There are scare zones here. Both parks have this. They're just areas that have a specific theme and they're spooky. So on both sides, they had a Fortnite-themed scare zone.

Nathan 37:31

Oh, wow.

Alicea 37:32

I think is very silly. Um, it was called Fortnightmares. Uh, not really scary, but I mean, maybe for some people it was scary. I don't know. They had a little show right around there. It was kind of neat. And they had the battle bus. If anybody plays Fortnite, you know what that is.

Nathan 37:51

I don't know what that is, but that's okay. I'm okay with that.

Alicea 37:54

It's a huge bus. It's like four bus lengths long or something like that.

Nathan 37:58

It's the night bus.

Alicea 38:00

I guess. No, no, no. The night bus is small.

Nathan 38:02

It's bigger on the inside. It's like TARDIS.

Alicea 38:04

Oh, speaking of the night bus, we did go through Hogsmead, the Harry Potter area.

Nathan 38:11

Yeah.

Alicea 38:11

And the Death Eaters were out, and that was kind of fun. And they had the dark mark projected up on Hogwarts Castle.

Nathan 38:19

Oh no.

Alicea 38:20

It was spooky. Really cool. Scare zones. Other scare zones. There was murder of crows. They've had this multiple years. I love it. They have crows on stilts, I guess. I don't know what. Short. I don't know how to call it. It's really fun. I mean, it's it's scary and spooky, and you have murderous crows after you. Another one was the blood bog. And this one, it's it was a very short, small scare area. But I just remember walking through it and Kaitlyn got terrified of something. I don't know what it was. So like one of the scaractors came up and just scared the bejesus out of her. Um, one of them, I don't remember the name of all of them, but one of them was kind of a carnival circus theme. And that actually had a little walkthrough sideshow area that you could go in. That was kind of cool. And I'm trying to remember what the last one was. There's there's one more.

Samantha 39:14

There were actually six scare zones at Hollywood HHN this year. Fort Nightmares, El Circo de la Muerte, Hackers, Blood Bog, Murder of Crows, and Shriek of the Banshee. I'm glad I wasn't invited.

Alicea 39:25

I don't know if we hit all of them, but yeah, there's scare zones all over the place. They're a lot of fun.

Nathan 39:29

Oh, cool. That does sound like fun for you. Not for me.

Hollywood Versus Orlando Showdown

Nathan 39:34

Well, like we talked about at the top of the show, you've done an HHN Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and out in California this year. What do you think Orlando does better? And what do you think Hollywood does better?

Alicea 39:51

I don't know if the sound stages in Orlando are just bigger, but it seems like the production is more in Orlando. They have more houses. They had 10 over there, and I think it's just because they don't have a terror tram. Hollywood does weather better. I like the terror tram. Some of the houses are better. I don't I don't know if there's really one over the other. Now I would do Hollywood, like if I had to do one and only one, it would be Hollywood for me. Because of weather, one thing, and because of the RIP tour. I know Orlando has one too, but I feel like you walk around more in Orlando. I don't know if it's a bigger park or not.

Nathan 40:41

We can ask Samantha.

Alicea 40:43

Yeah, Samantha will know.

Samantha 40:44

While the Universal Studios Florida Park is 108 acres, it's on the 1200-acre footprint of the Universal Orlando Resort that includes City Walk and Islands of Adventure. The Universal Studios Hollywood theme park is about the same size, but the whole complex is just 415 acres, which includes their version of City Walk plus a working movie and TV studio lot.

Nathan 41:04

Oh, oh, okay. Thanks.

Alicea 41:05

Yeah, that's good to know. And I really like the terror tram aspect of it. And you get to go through movie sets in Hollywood. Like I went through I get to go through the War of the Worlds set, the one with Tom Cruise. Like they have an actual, I think it was a 737 or 747 or something, ripped apart, and you get to walk past that.

Nathan 41:25

Yeah.

Samantha 41:25

It's a 747.

Alicea 41:27

And you get to walk through Jupiter's claim from the movie Nope, which is really neat. Yeah. I just I I like that whole thing. Oh, and we got to we got to go past the boat from the Odyssey, like the actual boat that they used in the movie.

Nathan 41:42

That's so cool.

Alicea 41:43

We went by it really quickly, but we're like, oh look, there it is. That's cool. Yeah.

Nathan 41:49

That's I remember doing the uh the behind the scenes movie tour. I forget the name of it off the top of my head there at Disney's MGM studios back in the day.

Samantha 41:58

You're thinking of the backstage studio tour.

Nathan 42:00

And you could see the uh the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator was back there. So yeah, yeah. Our our Gen X uh childhood really enjoyed that site. So neat. Neat. So it sounds like the RIP tour, at least for you, is totally worth the price and you'd probably do it again.

Alicea 42:21

I think it is. Your mileage may vary. I like having that little semi-bespoke experience. I like being able to have an area I can go to and just chill if I need to. The lounge area is open after 11 o'clock for R.I.P people. Like you can just go in there whenever.

Nathan 42:40

Cool. Well, let's move on.

Lightning Round Picks And Tips

Nathan 42:42

Let's do a little lightning round with you. Thinking of just the stuff here in Hollywood. Best house.

Alicea 42:49

Sinners.

Nathan 42:50

Scariest house.

Alicea 42:52

Oh. I think Evil Dead Burn.

Nathan 42:55

All right. Best overall set design.

Alicea 42:58

I think Ozzy Osborne.

Nathan 43:00

Best scare actor moment, or scaracter, as you love to call them.

Alicea 43:05

That's what they call them. Well, there's scare actor and then there's scaracter, like character. One word. So there you go. I think from Sinners, the guy who came down from above.

Nathan 43:18

Dropped out of the ceiling.

Alicea 43:19

Yes, dropped out of the sky. Yeah.

Nathan 43:22

Most memorable moment of the night.

Alicea 43:25

I think the surprise of getting to go on the roller coaster.

Nathan 43:28

Oh, yeah. That's cool.

Alicea 43:30

We had no idea. So yeah.

Nathan 43:31

That's awesome. Yeah. Would Kaitlyn go back next year?

Alicea 43:35

Oh yeah.

Nathan 43:36

Would Sanae go back next year?

Alicea 43:38

I think so.

Nathan 43:39

All right. Hollywood or Orlando?

Alicea 43:43

If I could pick and choose houses from each one. I think Hollywood. I just like the vibe better in Hollywood.

Nathan 43:50

All right. RIP tour, buy or skip.

Alicea 43:54

For me, it's a buy.

Nathan 43:55

There you have it. And lastly, if somebody is considering Halloween Horror Nights, Hollywood, for the first time next year, what's the one thing you wish they knew before they go?

Alicea 44:09

I'm crap at these type of questions. Um I haven't ever done this as a regular guest. I've only done this as RIP. So

Nathan 44:20

we bougie.

Alicea 44:21

I am bougie, yes. It gets crowded. So plan ahead. The waits for the houses can be really, really long.

Nathan 44:31

Yeah.

Alicea 44:31

So keep that in mind if you're going to this. If you want to try and counter the weights a little bit, you can do an express pass or an RIP tour. But if you don't want to do either of those, just know you will be waiting in line.

Nathan 44:45

Yeah. And that's the case in both coasts. Like there can be some pretty hefty lines. Yeah.

Alicea 44:51

So I did not track the wait on this one.

Nathan 44:55

Okay.

Alicea 44:56

I did in Orlando because we're doing an express pass. I didn't do it the RIP pass because they have their own separate line.

Nathan 45:05

Yeah.

Alicea 45:05

Even different from Express in some of the houses. Yeah.

Nathan 45:08

And you didn't even see what the waits were.

Alicea 45:11

Um, it was posted. I just didn't look.

Nathan 45:15

You didn't need to pay attention to such plebeian information.

Alicea 45:19

No, because I knew it would be faster.

Final Thoughts And Listener Prompts

Nathan 45:23

Well, I am so glad that you were able to live your fullest Halloween season, the most malevolent time of the year. I love you.

Alicea 45:34

Thank you for letting me do this.

Nathan 45:36

Absolutely. You know, for content.

Alicea 45:39

Even if it wasn't for content, I'd go anyway.

Nathan 45:43

Well, as we wrap up, a reminder that we are not affiliated with Universal or any of its subsidiaries. Everything you hear on this show is based on personal experiences, opinions, and questionable snack choices. We are, however, proudly affiliated with fun. And cotton candy people. Oh my gosh.

Alicea 46:06

If you're planning a Universal or Disney vacation, we always recommend working with a travel advisor or reaching out to the parks directly to help make the magic happen. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please take a second to rate and review the show. It really helps other folks find us.

Nathan 46:23

If you have a question, a topic suggestion, or a story you'd love to share, please send us an email at podcast at our mousecapades.com.

Alicea 46:32

You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads at Our MouseCapades, and on YouTube at Our MouseCapades Pod. Also, please don't forget to share us with your friends and family and Disneyslash Universal fans of all ages.

Nathan 46:45

Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back in your ears next week.

Samantha 46:50

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye-bye.

Nathan 47:00

Wait for this car to go by. How is a Tesla so loud?

Alicea 47:06

Is it humming really loud? No, no. Is there a choir of celestial angels moving by?

Nathan 47:11

It was a the tires, I think.