Jessica Thompson – Universal Travel Advisor | Universal Orlando & Halloween Horror Nights

Jessica Thompson is a Concierge Travel Advisor with Favorite Grampy Travels, specializing in Universal Orlando Resort, Halloween Horror Nights, and theme park dining, based in Apopka, Florida.

I Used to Be the One Jumping Out at You

Before I planned theme park vacations, I worked inside them. I performed at Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando, and I spent Halloween seasons as a Halloween Horror Nights scareactor, waiting in the dark for your family to walk past.

It is an odd resume for a travel advisor. It is also why I see these parks from an angle most planners never get.

Working a haunted house teaches you things no map will tell you. Where a crowd stalls. Which nights run light, and how long a queue really moves versus what the app says.

As a Universal Orlando travel advisor, I plan for families, first-time visitors, and the fall crowd who build an entire trip around spooky season.

Universal’s Marquee Events, from the Inside Out

Universal builds its calendar around big ticketed events, and I work all of them: Halloween Horror Nights, Mardi Gras, Grinchmas, and the holidays at Universal Studios Florida. Each one rewrites the park’s hours, crowds and strategy.

Halloween Horror Nights 35 runs 48 select nights, August 28 through November 1, 2026. That is the earliest start in the event’s history, so a September trip you booked as an ordinary park visit is now a Halloween trip whether you planned it or not.

Picking the right night matters more than almost any other choice you make. A Saturday in late October and a Wednesday in early September are the same ten houses at very different prices and waits.

Universal Orlando Resort Specialist training and College of Disney Knowledge keep me current on what both resorts officially roll out. A Tuesday night in a house queue tells me the rest.

The Food Is the Trip, and I Eat My Way Through It Weekly

I try a new theme park restaurant most weeks, so what I recommend comes from this month rather than a list I wrote three years ago. Menus at both resorts turn over fast, and a “best of” roundup written last spring is already wrong in places.

Foodie families are the ones I am best at. Tell me your family cares about what it eats, and I will build the day around a reservation instead of squeezing a meal into a leftover gap.

It runs from the hidden gems most guests walk past to the newer dining rooms at Epic Universe, in Celestial Park and Dark Universe.

Twenty Minutes from the Gates, and I Use It

I live in Apopka, about twenty minutes from Universal Orlando, and I hold annual passes. A menu change, a ride down, a lounge that opened last Thursday: you hear it from me that week, before it reaches a forum.

Most people find their travel agent through a friend, then discover the planning is the hard part. Ticket tiers, park-to-park choices, event upcharges and hotel benefits all feed into each other, and families tell me they had no idea where to start.

Everyone asks whether Express Pass is worth buying, and the honest answer is often that you should not buy it at all. Three of Universal’s Signature hotels come with free Unlimited Express Passes for everyone in the room: Loews Royal Pacific, Hard Rock Hotel and Loews Portofino Bay.

Sapphire Falls and Helios Grand are Signature too, and they do not include it. Epic Universe Express is a separate purchase that sits outside the hotel benefit. Those are the two mix-ups I correct most.

For a week-long trip that math often beats a cheaper room plus paid passes, so run the numbers before you book.

Cabana Bay During Horror Nights and the Holidays

No Universal hotel gets more of my time than Cabana Bay Beach Resort, and the version of it I care about most shows up in the fall. I have spent whole staycations there, and during Halloween Horror Nights and the holidays the resort adds seasonal touches most guests walk right past.

It sits in Universal’s Value Inns and Suites tier, so no Unlimited Express Pass comes with the room. You do get Early Park Admission up to an hour early, walking paths to Volcano Bay, and a rate that leaves real budget for event tickets.

If you are doing Horror Nights without unlimited money, this is usually where I put you.

Fourteen People, One Hurricane, and My First Real Itinerary

My first big trip was for fourteen people, and I was still in high school. I planned all of it: golf for my uncle and cousin, a spa day for my stepmother, and enough character meets to satisfy my youngest cousin. Then Hurricane Jeanne came through mid-trip and I rebuilt the whole thing on the fly.

Two decades later, that is still how I work. I want to know what each person in your group cares about before I book anything, because a trip that works for everyone is really several small trips at once.

You get a step-by-step plan for every day, laid out so you will actually want to open it. You hear from me before, during and after the trip, and I am a text away mid-park-day.

Numbers and choreography still take up part of my week, and both turn up here. One keeps a family’s budget honest. The other is why a twelve-hour park day flows instead of stalling.

My husband and I hit every spooky event in Central Florida every fall, from Halloween Horror Nights to Howl-O-Scream to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary. Our 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter are passholders too, and three dogs and two cats hold the house down while we are gone.

The best part of this job is what lands in my inbox after you get home, the long messages about the one thing your kid will not stop talking about.