Top Halloween Amusement Park Events
It’s October. The weather’s cooler, the crowds are smaller, and when the sun goes down theme parks transform into Halloween wonderlands. Park guests are running from ghouls and hockey-masked crazies as they make their way through dark, creepy, mazes.
HauntWorld, the self-proclaimed ‘international 
headquarters of the haunted house and Halloween industry”, has listed their Top 10 Amusement Park Halloween Events:
1. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando, FL
2. Knott’s Scary Farm at Knott’s Berry Farm, Los Angeles, CA
3. Phantom Fright Nights at Kennywood Pittsburgh, PA
4. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, CA
5. Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens Africa, Tampa, FL
6. Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens Europe, Williamsburg, VA
7. Halloween Haunt at Kings Island, Cincinnati, OH
8. HalloWeekends at Cedar Point Sandusky, OH
9. Fright Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure Jackson, NJ
10. Nightfall at Old Tucson Studios Tucson, AZ
I heard of the list on The Season Pass Podcast. It’s a great theme park podcast. I’m definitely going to have to add it to my rotation. Check it out.
If you haven’t to a Halloween event in a while, trust me, they get scarier and scarier every year. Out of the top 10, I’ve only been to Busch Gardens Europe’s Howl O Scream. The park took on a whole different kind of energy. I’m not the biggest Halloween fan, but I can see why parks do these events and millions of guests visit their local parks to be scared half to death every October.
Have you been to any of the Halloween events above? What’s your favorite Halloween event? Leave a comment below.
October 5, 2008 at 08:50
I went to Nightfall at Old Tucson studios one year, and it was fairly fun and pretty damn scary. I also went to Howl o Scream at BGE and it was terrifying, never going again.
October 9, 2008 at 00:07
I went to Howl O Scream years ago, but I was really there for the rides and only went into one haunted house. It was the one below Escape from Pompeii. Me and my girlfriend had fun watching this one guy that pretended to be a dummy or statue. As people passed by him he'd come to life and scare the crap out of people. It was pretty hilarious.
October 10, 2008 at 08:22
Just an FYI…you may want to change that to Williamsburg, VA and not PA. We went to their event last year and it was a BLAST!
October 13, 2008 at 13:48
BGE is my favorite park in my favorite state. How'd I get that wrong? Thanks disneydina. That's what I get for typing too fast.
July 1, 2009 at 20:19
I like The Halloween Horror Nights in L.A. because Orlando has about 45 scares But L.A. has 50 and it is bigger and a longer walk.