So You’re Going to Universal Studios Hollywood with Kids!! HALLOWEEN EDITION

Planning on visiting Universal Studios Hollywood during the Halloween season? Halloween is our family’s favorite time of year, but Universal Studios is best known for it’s scary, just for adults, Halloween Horror Nights. Does that mean that there isn’t any fun, Halloween-related things to do during the day with kids? Absolutely not! Here’s a round up of things to see when visiting Universal Studios during Halloweentime!

CHARACTERS
Universal Studios has some of the best Halloween characters year round! You can almost always find Frankenstein, Dracula, and/or Beetlejuice roaming around the upper lot. You may even see the Scooby gang running away from them! These characters may look intimidating, but they have hearts of gold. Frankenstein is more than 3 times the height of my 3 year old, but she loves to spend time with him. He dances and plays with her, and even gave her a flower once. As for Beetlejuice, he’s raunchy and silly and loves to hang out with the kids. Dracula will hang out in shady spots (hello, vampire) and likes to poke fun at the other monsters.

In addition to the usual monsters, the Minions and Hello Kitty have joined in on the fun! You can find FrankenBob and Mummy Stuart meet and greets by the Despicable Me ride and Hello “Bride of Frankenstein” Kitty by the Hello Kitty store. They all look so cute dressed up in their Halloween costumes!

FOOD
Dufftoberfest has taken over in Springfield, USA where you can enjoy special seasonal offers such as Pretzel buns with Duff cheese and seasonal beers on tap. Minions Cafe also has a fun Halloween overlay complete with seasonal offerings and an adorable Minions Halloween popcorn bucket.

MERCHANDISE
Halloween Horror Night merchandise is available in stores all day, not exclusive to the evening event! Go ahead and grab yourself a HHN tee or mug, and while you’re at it, there’s some adorable Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein merchandise too. The Frankenstein purse and exclusive passholder pin are two of my favorites this year! All of our kids love the Minions Halloween POPs.

DECOR
If you’re visiting with children, note that there is some spooky decor up around the park from HHN. Demons, skeletons, skulls, and various spooky stuff is all around, but nothing moves or jumps out. It’s simply scary looking. Our 3 year old loves all things spooky, so none of this bothered her in the least, but our 9 year old was not convinced that the statues weren’t going to come to life and scare him. It took some coaxing before he realized that the park wasn’t out to get him…yet.

On nights with a Halloween Horror Night party, you may want to plan to wrap your day up by 5P. The park closes to regular guests at 5:30P and that’s when everyone files in for HHN. You never know what you might see!

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