Join The KOVEN At The Dead Coconut Club

Great news! I went to the Dead Coconut Club and I think I’m in a witch sorority now?

WHAT’S THE DEAD COCONUT CLUB?

The Red Coconut Club is a bar and dance venue at Universal Studios Florida‘s CityWalk. It’s on the second level; go up the stairs or the escalator to find the entrance.

But wait, you say – I thought it was the Dead Coconut Club. It is! But only during Halloween Horror Nights. The Red Coconut Club reskins itself as a Halloween venue on party nights, with special decor, drinks, and even live entertainment (you’ll see in a minute).

This was my first time inside the club, so I have no idea what it’s like in its Red Coconut form. I guess just a regular dance club? There are two bars on the first floor and one on the second along with a fairly elaborate deejay booth. The main dance floor is in the middle of the first floor, and there are scattered chairs and couches throughout alongside your bare bones high tops. There’s even an outdoor patio upstairs, although I never made it out there.

I’m not much of a clubber, but I’m a sucker for a good theme. So I had to find out…

WHAT’S KOVEN?

The Dead Coconut Club is not the same type of dead every Halloween. They switch out a new spooktacular theme every year. This year the conceit was KOVEN: a college sorority of witches.

When I tell you the club was DECKED OUT, I mean it was dark ride levels of detailed. Seemingly every surface was decorated after the fashion of a very witchy sorority. On this night in particular they seemed to be throwing a house party for prospective pledges.

Some areas had more of a common room vibe, with notes between the sisters, a pledge sign in table, fake punch and snacks, a beer pong setup, and other shared activities. In other places, particularly upstairs, it felt like you had stumbled into a bedroom space with more intimate items like clothing and stuffed animals. Everywhere you went you could find walls covered in vintage-style witchy photos, not to mention plenty of photo ops.

To cap it all off, the dance floor served as a ritual space for the sisters, who would periodically break out in choreographed pieces punctuated by interruptions from a clueless but enthusiastic frat boy. I was convinced they were going to kill off his character at some point – maybe they do at the end of the night?

WHAT’S THE DRINK SITUATION?

The Dead Coconut Club’s three bars can serve you any standard drink you like – but they also have a specialty menu of creepy cocktails and mocktails. Unfortunately the lighting made everything kinda blue, but I’m better at words than visuals anyway.

I tried the Moonlit Grove first, which contained gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, lavender syrup, and club soda. I LOVED this one! The tart lemon juice balanced out the sweetness of the syrup and liqueur, all of which took the edge off the gin. With the addition of the club soda, it was light and effervescent. Not very strong, though. Giving it a good mix before drinking so the sweet and sour elements don’t separate into pockets.

I also had a few sips of the Wormwood Whisper: light rum, chartreuse, agave, mint, and club soda. This one I did not care for so much – it had a distinctly medicinal flavor that I wasn’t into. I do enjoy mint, but I think the chartreuse was so dominant it drowned out a lot of the other flavors. It was stronger if that’s important to you.

I hear the downstairs drink selection is different from the upstairs menu; sadly I didn’t make it to the other bars. As far as I can tell there are no food offerings.

SHOULD YOU VISIT THE DEAD COCONUT CLUB?

Two kinds of people will not like the Dead Coconut Club: those who HAAAATE clubs and those who are too timid for anything stronger than Tim Burton films. (No jump scares in here, just atmosphere.)

However, I would encourage even skeptical theme park enthusiasts to duck in and check it out. Forget the drinks if you’re not in the mood – but by all means take a thorough tour of the set design. It really is richly detailed and full of layered story for those who care to look. And the lightly seasonal deejay sets were varied enough that no one should suffer music they don’t like for long.

The Dead Coconut Club opens at 5pm on Horror Nights evenings. It got pretty busy – although not absolutely packed – in the hour prior to the party start before easing up after Horror Nights opened. If you don’t have party tickets, I would recommend arriving as close to 5pm as possible or after 7pm when the Horror Nighters have cleared out. Either way, do go.

Okay, that’s all I got on KOVEN. Later, witches!

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