VacationScares 281: Halloween Horror Nights 2026 Review & House Rankings

🎃 VacationScares continues with a full Halloween Horror Nights 2026 roundtable! Tom welcomes Jon Self, along with Kris and Dave from the Adventures by D YouTube channel, to talk all things Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights. We break down our experiences at this year’s event, including what worked, what didn’t, the overall atmosphere, scares, sets, and some of the moments that stood out during our visits. Then it’s time for the big one — our Halloween Horror Nights house rankings! With four different people around the table, you can probably guess that we don’t agree on everything. We compare our rankings, defend some choices, question others, and see which houses rise to the top of the group. 👻 In this episode: • Our overall thoughts on Halloween Horror Nights 2026 • What stood out from this year’s event • Favorite scares, sets, themes, and moments • Houses that exceeded our expectations • Houses that didn’t quite work for us • Tom’s house rankings • Jon’s house rankings • Kris and Dave’s house rankings • Where we agree — and where we definitely don’t A huge thanks to Kris and Dave from Adventures by D for joining us for this year’s HHN discussion! 🎃 VacationScares is Vacationeers Theme Parks & More’s celebration of Halloween events, haunted attractions, spooky experiences, and everything that goes bump in the theme parks. 👍 If you enjoy the episode, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more theme park news, reviews, vlogs, livestreams, and VacationScares adventures. 🌐 Vacationeers Theme Parks & More https://vacationeerspodcast.com (https://vacationeerspodcast.com/) 🎃 VacationScares https://vacationeerspodcast.com/vacat... 🎢 ThrillLedger – Track rides. Count memories. https://thrillledger.vacationeerspodc... 👕 Vacationeers Merch https://vacationeerspodcast.com/merch/ 📱 Follow Vacationeer Tom X: (https://x.com/VacationeerTom) https://x.com/VacationeerTom Instagram: (  / vacationeer_tom  )   / vacationeer_tom   Facebook: (  / vacationeertom  )   / vacationeertom   TikTok: (  / vacationeers_podcast  )   / vacationeers_podcast   📱 Follow Jon Self Instagram: @jon.self.37 X: @pastorjonself Until we stream again… keep making memories.