For epicurious horror-seekers looking to sink their teeth into everything there is to offer during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, there’s a dedicated Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass that may tempt your palate — and your wallet. The special lanyard offers the chance to save money as you chomp and sip your way through all the themed fare they’ve cooked up for this year.

Universal hosted us for a visit and to try out this year’s dining pass option. Is it worth it? Here’s everything you need to know about Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass during Universal Halloween Horror Nights 2025 at Universal Studios Hollywood.

In essence, the Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass is a prepaid option that gives you a physical card that you can use to redeem for select food and drink items from select locations around the park. The pass is on a lanyard and features a barcode that can be scanned to redeem eligible menu items.

There are dozens of exclusive food and drink options to choose from that are themed exclusively for Halloween Horror Nights and the good news is almost all of it (excluding alcoholic beverages) is eligible with the Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass. Additionally, many regular non-themed menu items at most establishments are also available to redeem. Here’s a rundown on how it all works.

What to Expect

Each Dining Pass includes a total of six item redemptions:

• 2 eligible Entrée Items which typically includes a meal-sized portion of food
• 4 eligible Select Items which typically include sides, snacks, desserts or beverage items.

How Much?

• Cost: $65 plus tax per person

Where To Buy?

• Dining Pass is available for purchase at kiosks located in the theme park as well as at participating theme park restaurants.
• You can also pre-purchase The dining pass online.

Know Before You Go

• All eligible menu items are designated by a Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass logo on the restaurant menu boards.
  • There are two different icons to differentiate Entree Items vs. Select Items.
  • It’s important to note that menu boards that do not feature prices also do not indicate dining pass eligibility. Sometimes you will have to look at menus closer to the registers to verify which items are Dining Pass eligible.
• The Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass can only be used during the Halloween Horror Nights event and must be fully used on the night purchased.
  • Any remaining entitlements on a Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass are forfeited at the end of the event on the day of purchase. That means you cannot save redemptions for another visit.
• Menu items are limited in number and are subject to availability. Popular menu items can and do sell out on a nightly basis.

Is it Worth It?

At $65 a pop, this is not a cheap upgrade to your evening so the value of it is dependent on your priorities for your evening. Halloween Horror Nights is about 6-7 hours of play time so if you’re willing to devote time to enjoy everything the pass has to offer, this could be a very worthwhile option. We had two passes and after learning from our experience during Fan Fest Nights we made sure to actively seek out food so that we could use every single one of our redemptions.

To make sure you get the most value out of your six tabs, you want to try to redeem them on anything that’s going to be more than $10.83. Generally speaking, you’re looking at an Entree Item price range of $9.99 to $18.99 (there’s also two different 22″ hot dogs for $39.99 which require two entree redemptions — more on those below) all of which makes choices of what to eat pretty easy. However, you’re also looking at a Select Item price range of $6.99 to $15 which makes it just a little tougher to clear depending on what you order. But as long as the average of the six items you get still comes out to at least $10.83, then you’re definitely saving some money.

Below is a look at how we fared. Note, for ease of reference, we are not factoring taxes into any calculations here.

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So you can see our total average on both Dining Passes were above the $10.83 target average which means vs paying a la carte prices, we did get some value out of the Dining Pass — especially on Dining Pass 1 where we had more over $20 in savings. However, you can see Dining Pass 2 only just barely scrapped by with a little under $2 in savings vs paying a la carte. If you are an Annual Pass member, depending on your pass level, you might actually score a better deal purchasing items a la carte using just your discount.

Still, we were able to make the pricing of the Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass work to our advantage. But to say this is an easy value would not be accurate as you definitely have to pre-game and plan to make it make sense for your visit. You also want to be prepared with backup solutions as some items are very popular and will sell out. To its benefit, the Dining Pass does streamline the process a little without having to whip out a payment option for each item. Ultimately, you have to look at your interest level in the menu items available and weigh your… appetite! Perhaps the biggest unexpected cost in the experience will be your time as the more time you spend waiting in line for food, the less time you will have for seeing all of the evening’s attractions and entertainment.

The easiest way we can recommend to make this worth your while is to check out if the most expensive entrees are appealing to you. If that works, you’ll also want to check if any of the specialty (non-alcoholic) drinks are also of interest as those carry the highest price tags and will help ensure you get your value.

Our pro tip? There are two different 22″ hot dogs available this year and each is available a la carte for $39.99. If you are already planning to get one, the Dining Pass should almost certainly be something to consider. Even though the Dining Pass requires you to use two entree redemptions for either of those 22″ hot dogs, that actually puts you way ahead of the curve for getting your money’s worth. Remember, you want to spend at least $10.83 per item and the value of the hot dog is almost double that per entree redemption. That means for the remaining four snack redemptions, virtually any combination of snacks you get will put you out ahead.

At the end of the day, the Dining Pass works best if you share one pass between two people. The two entrees and four snacks split amongst two (or even three or four) is a great way to stretch your dollar while still getting to sample a wide assortment of the event-specific offerings.

Food and Drink Options

Ready to take a look at the menus and see if the pricing works to your advantage? We’ve got a full list of all the Halloween Horror Nights themed food and drink for this year listed not only with the price but also if they are Dining Pass eligible.

The good thing is that the Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass is available for almost ALL of of the themed food and non-alcoholic specialty options PLUS you can also use it for many regular items all around the park, not just on the special event-themed items.

See our resources below to see if this makes sense for your trip!

Full Menus

MORE INFO: MENU: Food and drink at 2025 Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood

See it for Yourself

Halloween Horror Nights returns this year to Universal Studios Hollywood (Thursday, September 4, 2025) and to Universal Studios Florida (Friday, August 29, 2025) and both events run select nights through Sunday, November 2, 2025.

DON’T MISS: Get details and ticket information!

Craving More Terror?

MORE INFO: See all MouseInfo coverage for Halloween Horror Nights