USS Park Update: Trick or Thrills, Halloween Horror Nights exhibition – 2021 Halloween event info and more

Read about the upcoming day (and night) Halloween event at Universal Studios Singapore for 2021.

UPDATE: Trick or Thrills: The Full Event Article!

The new photo article on Trick or Thrills event highlights is now available here! Read all about DIE-ning With The Dead, Universal Studios Scream Alley, Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition, and Halloween Meet & Greets!

Trick or Thrills – 2021 Halloween event

The Trick or Thrills event will run from 3 September till 7 November 2021. Featuring numerous Meet and Greet experiences, the event is the continuation of last year’s Halloween Fun for Everyone. For the first time in Singapore, Trick or Thrills is a day and night Halloween event where daytime guests can enjoy extended park hours till 10PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and an evening admission option is offered for guests visiting the park from 6PM on these days.

In Sept 2021, the park will be open 4 days a week – Thursdays thru Sundays, with the addition of 6 Sept (Monday) due to the September school break.

Update (21 October): It’s Showtime Premium Experience?

The park appears to be preparing for It’s Showtime, a new park event format, that may be happening on the following dates: 24, 31 October and 7 November. On these days, the park will be open from 10AM till 4PM, with It’s Showtime happening from 4:30PM to 9PM. It’s Showtime has been revealed on Klook to be a “USS Premium Experience”.

Find out more about It’s Showtime! here.

Highlights of the Trick or Thrills event include:

2021 Halloween Meet and Greet

Seasonal Meet and Greet experiences have become the staple for park events. For Halloween 2021, the park has so far announced these characters. There may be more appearing during the event.

Hollywood
– “Kung Fu Panda: Halloween of Awesomeness” (Po)
– “Rock & Trolls” (Poppy, Branch, Guy Diamond)
– “Despicable Me Tricks & Treats” (Agnes, Edith and Margo)
– “Minion Monster Tricky Treats” (Various minions in seasonal outfits, and Wolfman Minion’s Debut)

New York
– “Big Bird’s Halloween Meet & Greet” (Big Bird’s Halloween Debut)
– “Sesame Street Candy Cavalcade” (The Count, Abby Cadabby, Cookie Monster)

Madagascar and Far Far Away
– Madagascar (Alex and Gloria)
– “Happy Ogreween” at Far Far Away (Shrek and Princess Fiona)

New York – Sting Alley (For Friday and Saturday event nights only)
“Universal Monsters Scream Alley”
– Dracula
– Bride of Frankenstein
– Frankenstein’s Monster
– Wolfman

See below ‘After Dark Experience’ for more information.

Due to safe distancing and contactless experience at the park, you may wish to bring a tripod or selfie stick to help capture these moments at USS.

Trail of Treats

Candy Ambassadors will also accompany the park’s popular characters, handing out snacks and sweets to any park guest that wait in line.

Halloween Costumes Allowed in the Park

Just like last year, guests will be allowed to dress up during the event period, provided the costumes adhere to park guidelines. There are also daily and weekly costume contests.

Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition (from 10 Sept~)

UPDATE (3 Sept, 8AM)
On 3 Sept, the Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition attraction and DIE-ning With The Dead dinner experience were revealed on the RWS website to be part of the ‘Trick or Thrills’ event. The HHN Exhibition is said to feature content on past haunted houses, shows, and the event’s iconic characters over the years.

UPDATE (3 Sept, 1PM)
This attraction has yet to be officially launched at the park. Later in the day, the RWS website was updated to state it will be available from 10 Sept onwards.

Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition art
© Resorts World at Sentosa

When opened, this exhibition will be available to all park guests during the ‘Trick or Thrills’ event, and I presume will be held at Soundstage 28 – the fully indoor venue where past HHN haunted houses were staged. A new Halloween VIP Experience is also available during the day, as a themed seasonal edition of the park’s USS VIP Experience. Entitlements for this experience include 5 hours of tour time around the park, VIP access to attractions, a themed meal at KT’s Grill (but not DIE-ning With The Dead), and also a guided tour of the HHN exhibition.

As for DIE-ning With The Dead, this is perhaps similar to ‘Scare Actor Dining’ in the US. On select nights, guests can choose to partake in this 1 hr 45 minute dining experience which includes a choice of 3- or 4- course themed dinner. Spooky encounters during your meal, too.

After Dark Experience

On Friday and Saturday event nights, brave park guests wandering into Sting Alley will encounter Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, Bride of Frankenstein and the Wolfman. This Universal Monsters Scream Alley experience takes place at the iconic alley in park’s New York zone. It was also home to numerous Halloween Horror Nights attractions, including Zombie Laser Tag in 2017 and ConTERMINATED in 2015.

As the Scream Alley experience is an event highlight, I would expect some sort of scenic backdrop and lighting to help make memorable snaps, as compared to the barebones Meet and Greet during the day in 2020, as shown in these photos.

It should also not be as dark or frightening as a true Halloween Horror Nights event (shown below):

Halloween Horror Nights 3 – Attack of the Vampires (Sting Alley section)

The following rides will also be available during this version of ‘After Hours’ (6PM – 10PM) – I guess it would be ‘Halloween After Hours’:

Accelerator, Madagascar: A Crate Adventure, Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase,
Transformers: The Ride, Revenge of the Mummy

This also suggests that these two zones will not be open during ‘After Dark’ as none of the attractions in these zones are available:
Far Far Away, Jurassic Park (The Lost World)

Trick or Thrills event – ticketing options

Trick or Thrills is included with park admission during the event period. Here are the main options:

* Valid for Singapore Residents with an official Singapore Photo ID (NRIC, Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit, Work Holiday Pass, Dependent’s Pass, Long Term Visit Pass, or Student’s Pass). ID required for entry.

There are also ‘After Dark Ticket’ promotions available for Maybank Cardholders ($47 for Ticket) and Mastercard Cardholders ($49 for Ticket with $5 F&B voucher). For ‘One Day Pass’, Maybank Cardholders can enjoy a discounted rate of $67 for Ticket (with vouchers), while Mastercard Cardholders pay $69 for Ticket (with vouchers and “exclusive gift”).

It looks like there is no ‘Non-Resident’ After Dark Ticket, which means that these guests will need to purchase either the Maybank bundle or pay the full One-Day Ticket price. There is also no Child, Youth or Senior price for ‘After Dark Ticket’.

About Halloween Horror Nights 2021

As mentioned in earlier Park Updates, it is unlikely for Halloween Horror Nights to be held in the same format as previous years. Given prevailing health and safety measures, it is not feasible for a full-scale line-up at this time. I’m sure you’d know that the event has a large following and is guaranteed to cause crowding – with congestions within haunted house attractions, long lines to get into attractions, and the infamous ‘scaremony sardines’ situation at opening (though technically “outdoors”). Of course, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible – Universal Orlando held its ‘Halloween Seasonal Offerings’ in place of a full-fledge HHN in 2020. There were 3 haunted houses at the event that were open during daytime, with adjustments made (e.g. plastic shields in haunted houses) to ensure safe operations for both performers and park guests.

As of time of writing, Universal Studios Singapore has not announced plans for a full-scale Halloween Horror Nights 2021 event, with the only HHN-related attraction to be the Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition.

Around the Globe: 2021 Halloween events at Universal Studios theme parks

Readers who wish to have a recap on the event’s illustrious history may visit the Museum of Horror Nights digital feature for easy access to all articles on past 9 years’ scare zones and haunted houses.

State of the Park: Q2 2021

Reservations still required to visit the park

Just a gentle reminder to readers who are planning to visit the park – do remember to check your tickets and make an online reservation for your visit before heading to the park.

Show Attractions

All street entertainment and shows are still unavailable at the park, with the exception of Sesame Street Goes Bollywood held in the park’s Ancient Egypt zone. This is a new street show added to the park on 2 July 2021, along with the ‘Summer Edition’ of Tropical Thrills which I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to cover. I heard it was more photo backdrops added around the park.

The Pavilion in Ancient Egypt – now home to ‘Sesame Street Goes Bollywood’

Ride Attractions

Singapore’s gradual reopening in the past year was met with several setbacks, which had business and operational consequences for all attractions in Singapore. From 21 May 2021, the park started staggering the opening hours of its attractions – likely in response to lowered attendance due to capacity restriction applied to all attractions, such as during the ‘Phase 2 Heightened Alert’. This means that some rides will be available when the park is open at 12PM and will close earlier (at 5PM), while another lot will open later. Rides will only be open for 5 hours each.

From 3 Sept – 7 Nov: On Thursdays and Sundays, the following rides have adjusted opening hours:

12PM – 5PM
Treasure Hunters
Puss In Boots’ Giant Journey
King Julien’s Beach Party-Go-Round

1PM – 6PM
Battlestar Galactica: CYLON (from 21 October 2021)
Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN (from 28 October 2021)
Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure
Canopy Flyer
Dino-Soarin’
Enchanted Airways

2PM – 7PM
Transformers: The Ride
Treasure Hunters
King Julien’s Beach Party-Go-Round

From 3 Sept – 7 Nov: On Fridays and Saturdays, the following rides have adjusted opening hours, and hence remain open as part of ‘Trick or Thrills: After Dark’

12PM – 5PM
Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase
Revenge of the Mummy
Madagascar: A Crate Adventure

1PM – 6PM
Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure
Canopy Flyer
Dino Soarin’
Enchanted Airways

1PM – 9:30PM
Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase
Accelerator
Battlestar Galactica: CYLON (from 21 October 2021)
Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN (from 28 October 2021)
Madagascar: A Crate Adventure

2PM – 10PM
Transformers: The Ride
Revenge of the Mummy

*With the exception of 24, 30 October and 7 November: Park hours on these dates are adjusted to 10AM-4PM, with the It’s Showtime USS Premium Experience supposedly happening from 4:30PM-9PM.

The move to staggered opening hours was not surprising as I already saw the park’s flat rides operating in 20-minute cycles (sometime early this year for a period of time), as the lowered attendance would mean that there may be times when rides would run with little to no guests on board.

Also around the same period, Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN vs CYLON closed for “scheduled maintenance”, with no details on the work involved or a reopening date.

This particular pair of dueling rollercoasters had a troubled past, with the ride closing mere weeks after opening to the public in 2010. The ride vehicle was reportedly taken apart, analysed, reassembled, had the problematic part replaced, and reopened in February 2011. The attraction closed again in July 2013 for technical review and in 2014 the park announced that several adjustments to be made, from redesigned two-seater ride vehicles to modified segments of the ride tracks (which were not officially announced but still documented).

Update (22 October 2021): Battlestar Galactica: CYLON has resumed operations.
Update (28 October 2021): Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN has resumed operations.

Update (29 October 2021): Battlestar Galactica: CYLON has closed for maintenance again.

‘Trick or Thrills’ event information was prepared using publicly available information from the RWS website, as there is no release or I did not receive a copy.