Volume 2, No. 19. October 11, 2002
Haunt
break hotel
This is the time of year when parks and organizations set out to intentionally
scare their patrons, but Universal Orlando in Florida is going to such great
lengths to frighten guests it’s, well, really frightening.
Thanks to the growing popularity of its 12-year-old annual Halloween Horror
Nights—which this year moved from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure—Universal
Orlando has added a new dimension this year: a haunted room in the resort’s
Hard Rock Hotel. The Scream Team that put together the experience wants guests
to have a nightmarish experience, from the costumed ghoul who provides tuck-in
service to the $585 plus tax and incidentals bill the next morning.
That price includes the room for two people plus two passes to Halloween Horror
Nights. Any other amenities? “Terror,” said Universal Orlando’s
Director of Public Relations Tom Schroder. There was no hint of humor in his
voice. “It’s very interactive, very immersive, very terrifying,”
he described the night in the room.
The Hard Rock Hotel has turned one of its two-room “kid’s suites”
into the special room, repainted for the occasion and containing cobwebs, skeletons
and a real coffin. But the room offers more than mere ghoulish decoration and
that real ghoul tuck-in. “The moment happens in the early morning when
guests will feel as if someone or something has entered the room with them and
has done terrifying things in the room, and they will be the next victim,”
Schroder said. “To go into more detail would be to ruin the experience
for people who want it.”
Made available with the opening night of Horror Nights October 4, so far the
park has received “a lot of phone calls” but only one couple who has
booked the room: a couple who asked to be married this Sunday as part of Horror
Nights and will spend their honeymoon in the room. Though placed in one of the
kids’ suite, the room is recommended for adults. “It’s too intense
of an experience for children,” Schroder said.
Though it may truly be a living nightmare for those who choose to stay there,
Schroder said the designers kept safety in mind as they designed and built the
room. “But you’d be surprised the amount of terror you can bring to
someone’s heart while keeping them perfectly safe.”
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