... And if that didn’t scare you

IT’S HALLOWE’EN HORROR NIGHTS AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

EVERY year, Universal transforms itself at night into a heart-thumping playground for horror fans, with nine ‘houses’ you walk through all filled with ghouls and ghosties that hop out in the dark and frighten the living you-knowwhat out of you. My personal favourites in recent years were the barn from TV’s The Walking Dead, and a railway carriage filled with soldiers who had contracted plague. A female friend grabbed my hand as we walked through and within seconds, I felt a dead weight. I looked around to see she had fainted. Bad person that I am, I laughed helplessly for hours afterwards. The fun begins this year on 18 September and runs until 1 November. Admission costs $101.99, but if you add the price to your standard daytime pass, you can buy for as little as $49.99 on certain dates. See halloweenhorrornights.com for details.

BEYOND THE PARKS

THOUGH most visitors tend to spend time outside the parks on International Drive or in Kissimmee, the best restaurants are on Sand Lake Road between Turkey Lake and Apopka-Vineland, about 3kms from Universal. My own favourite is Seasons 52, which is pricey but excellent and serves mouthwatering minidesserts in test tubes (Bonefish Grill, Big Fin and Bravo! also are excellent), and the best sports bar is Craig Miller’s Field House, where beers are $1.50 from 6pm-7pm. For shopping, the Premium Outlets at either end of International Drive offer the best value; I bought two pairs of Converse runners for $74. If you want Apple goods, the store is in the Mall at Millenia. Check tax and duty free allowances; customs officers at Dublin Airport were stopping lots of people.