Universal Studios Florida hosted the second annual Premium Scream Night for Halloween Horror Nights 2025. We attended the inaugural event last year and returned this year to see how it held up.
What is Premium Scream Night?
Premium Scream Night for Halloween Horror Nights is a one-night-only chance to experience the event before it opens for the regular season. It requires a separate ticket and is not included in any Frequent Fear Pass or other admission. Premier Passholders cannot use their free Halloween Horror Nights admission for Premium Scream Night.
How Much is Premium Scream Night?
For 2025, Premium Scream Night tickets started at $375 plus tax. Over the course of the sales period, the price was raised ultimately to $415 before the event sold out.
In 2024, the event did not sell out, and prices were $350 (or $325 for Annual Passholders).
What’s Included?
Premium Scream Night includes admission to a limited capacity preview of Halloween Horror Nights before the event begins. The house experience is different, with guests being “pulsed” in small groups through the houses instead of in the constant “conga line” of the regular operation.
Food and non-alcoholic drinks are included from various venues, including the themed HHN venues as well as a limited menu at several of the regular restaurants.
All guests also receive a souvenir lanyard with a credential card.
Our Experience
Entry
One of the issues began right at the start.
Ahead of the event, the official word was that guests would not be admitted until 6:30 p.m. for the official start of the night. This was also the case last year (though, like most nights, the gates actually open shortly after Opening Scaremonies around 6:00 p.m.). However, the day before Premium Scream Night, Universal confirmed in comments on social media that the Stay and Scream option would be open.
Stay and Scream lets guests with valid Halloween Horror Nights and daytime park tickets stay in Universal Studios Florida while regular guests exit and event preparation takes place. This meant that anyone with a Premium Scream Ticket and regular admission to USF (ex., a single day ticket, an Annual Pass, etc.) could stop at the Stay and Scream wristband station, show their Premium Scream Ticket, and get early access to the houses.
Guests using Stay and Scream were allowed to pick up wristbands as early as 3:00 p.m. and start queueing for houses as early as 4:00 p.m. The first round of houses opened at 5:15, an hour and fifteen minutes before the advertised start of the event.
This is a great perk to those who have the correct admission, but it was unadvertised, meaning that guests who didn’t happen to catch the random social media responses where Universal had commented with the information would arrive to find the lines already packed full of others.
The entry experience itself was smooth. We waited only a few moments to scan in and get our wristbands before being turned loose to wander and wait. The souvenir lanyard and credential were given to us at the same time as the wristband, so we didn’t need to come back to the front of the park.
Food & Drinks
The food and beverage experience was improved this year over last. Last year, most venues shut down by midnight because they had run out of their menu items.
This year, while the lines were still very long, the booths stayed open until the end of the event at 2:00 a.m., and we did not see or hear of any items selling out early in the night.
The serving size was also increased to the regular-sized dish, whereas last year, sampling sizes were served. This helped make the long lines less burdensome as you were at least getting a full, filling dish.
Our group at Premium Scream Night was not composed of foodies, so we didn’t spend much time on food or drinks. We got the Flamin’ Hot Birria Ramen from The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane booth (at Animal Actors) and loved it. Later in the night, we tried the spaghetti pizza, Cupcake, and Chica’s Sour Lemon Tang mocktail from Five Nights at Freddy’s (Louie’s), all of which we regretted — and so did our review team when they visited on opening night.
Crowds & Wait Times
It was apparent as soon as the gates were opened that the crowd was much larger than last year. While the wait times weren’t atrocious for a regular night at HHN, they were much longer than last year for Premium Scream.
Now that we have attended both Premium Scream and opening weekend this year, we can attest that these wait times below were (mostly) lower than a regular night, but there were some underlying issues.
To start, the houses advertised to open at 5:15 were delayed, meaning those lines built up and did not abate quickly. This included Five Nights at Freddy’s, which, as the tentpole Intellectual Property of the year, along with one of the first houses physically encountered, is bound to be one of the longest waits all season.
There was also a surprise panel with some of the creative team behind HHN scheduled for 7:45 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. To attend, guests had to pick up tickets ahead of time at the Pantages Theater, and distribution began at 6:00 p.m.
That led to the first snag of our night. When it was nearly six and it was clear Five Nights at Freddy’s wasn’t going to open in the next few minutes, we got out of line and went to get tickets for the panel so we didn’t miss out. Obviously, we could have chosen not to do this, but we were trying to do everything offered.
Once we had our tickets, FNAF had opened, but had a 70-minute wait due to the accumulated crowd. We needed to return to Pantages by 7:15 to line up for the panel, so we opted for Terrifier with a slightly shorter posted wait of 45 minutes.
Throughout the night, the posted wait times were often much longer than the actual wait time, but when planning your time, you can’t count on that. So we may have ultimately had shorter waits, but we were forced to make choices based on the posted times.
Between the panel and the first showing of Haunt-o-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey at 9:00 p.m., we didn’t get to our second house until 10:15 p.m.
| House | Posted Wait | Entered Queue | Entered House | Actual Wait |
| Terrifier | 45 mins. | 6:18 p.m. | 6:41 | 23 mins. |
| Five Nights at Freddy’s | 15 mins. | 10:15 p.m. | 10:29 p.m. | 14 mins. |
| Grave of Flesh | 15 mins. | 10:38 p.m. | 10:45 p.m. | 7 mins. |
| WWE Presents | 45 mins. | 10:55 p.m. | 11:20 p.m. | 25 mins. |
| El Artista: A Spanish Haunting | 30 mins. | 11:47 p.m. | 12:09 a.m. | 22 mins. |
| Jason Universe | 25 mins. | 1:01 a.m. | 1:22 a.m. | 21 mins. |
| Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters | 20 mins. | 1:36 a.m. | 1:49 a.m. | 13 mins. |
| Dolls: Let’s Play Dead | 20 mins. | 1:54 a.m. | 2:04 a.m. | 10 mins. |
By the end of the night, we had seen eight houses and one show. For comparison, in 2024, we did all ten houses twice each for a total of 20 runs.
Overall Review
The Good
Compared to a regular night, the shorter wait times are nice.
The availability of food and drink was decent.
The Bad
The wait times were not as short as last year, and we were unable to enjoy the event’s full offerings.
The crowds were much heavier than last year, more comparable to a slower event night than a premium limited-capacity offering.
The Ugly
The advertised perks of the event include the pulsed lines/small groups. However, we did not experience this at every house, and when talking to other guests who attended the event, many did not experience this at all. Instead, regular conga lines were in practice, probably in an attempt to control the wait times.
It also needs to be mentioned that accessibility accommodations were not available during Premium Scream Night. A 45-minute wait for Terrifier might have been shorter than a regular night, but a guest who cannot wait in a 45-minute queue had no option but to miss out. During a regular event night, a 90-minute wait outside the queue may be a more accessible choice than 45 minutes in a queue for guests with disabilities.
The guests who are normally given Attraction Accessibility Passes paid the same admission for Premium Scream Night as everyone else, just like during daytime operations.
Do We Recommend Premium Scream Night?
No.
Last year, I recommended the event to those with only one night to experience Halloween Horror Nights. The cost was comparable to a one-night ticket with Express, plus food and drinks.
That’s not the case anymore. You cannot experience everything that Halloween Horror Nights has to offer during Premium Scream Night. Even a guest with one night only is better off with a non-private RIP tour, which is, admittedly, slightly more expensive, with prices starting at $439.99. However, your RIP tour guide will walk you straight to the entrance of the houses, get you reserved seating for shows, and you get a pre-tour reception.
Premium Scream Night in 2024 was a great experience. While Universal worked out some of the operational issues, the changes made for 2025 largely devalued the experience. I don’t recommend it unless things are improved ahead of next year.
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