Every year theme parks seem to be ramping up their Halloween events. In the past decade they’ve proved to be new streams of revenue while attendance starts to wane as cooler weather moves in. This edition of Top 3 Thursdays will list the Top 3 Theme Park Events according to the popular travel blog Gadling’s article: Top Ten Halloween Theme Park Events
3 – Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party: Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Orlando,Florida
As the name suggests, Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is one of those family-oriented Halloween events that’s gaining in popularity at theme parks. It includes a parade, fireworks, and a live show at Cinderalla’s castle.
2 – Halloween Haunt: Knott’s “Scary” Farm, Buena Park, California
Apparently Knott’s puts a different twist on their Halloween event as they actually re-theme 13 rides and turn the queues into “walk-through mazes.” I’d definitely check this out if I lived out West.
1 – Halloween Horror Nights: Universal Studios Florida, Orlando, Florida
Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights has been consistently ranked as a top event for years. For Horror Nights XX, guests can experience eight all-new haunted houses, six scarezones, two live shows, hundreds of frightening scareactors. They’ll also encounter Fear, the mastermind behind Halloween Horror Nights for the past
19 years.
The full top ten includes: Six Flags Great America’s Scream Fest, Busch Gardens Tampa’s Howl-O-Scream, Legoland San Diego’s Brick or Treat and more. Read the full post written by Leigh Caldwell (Theme Park Mom).
What’s Your Take?
What do you think of Halloween events at theme parks? Leave a comment below.
October 29, 2010 at 02:09
What I like about pre-Haloween at the Great Escape and Six Flags New england is the chainsaw guys. All they do is walk around with a fake(but reaslistic) chainsaw and a bunch of zombie makeup, just scaring the heck out of, for the most part, teenage girls. This year, TGE changed the Alice in Wonderland walkthrough into a "haunted house" walkthrough for Fright Fest. It had all of the Alice in Wonderland characters, Zombified. Lots of fun if you're into listening to more teenage girls scream, and in my opinion, is the whole point of Halloween, apart from getting a few new cavities.
October 29, 2010 at 11:34
I've been to Dorney Park's Haunt the past two years and am especially impressed with Cornstalkers and The Backwoods. Cornstalkers appears to be a corn maze, but it's a single path, not a maze at all. The lighting and fog machines make it very disorienting. The "Cornstalkers" blend in beautifully with the rows of dried corn, stepping out of wall when you least expect them. The Backwoods is a camp-themed stroll through CAMP CUDIE, (that's C U Die, NOT Coo-die), including a walk through the camp bus, rows of tents, campfires, motorboats, campers, trailers and other camping-related settings. The folks in this haunt are very good at getting your attention with the camp displays, then popping out from the opposite direction.
October 29, 2010 at 12:25
Seems that our violent behavior toward other countries is now resulting in violent culture here at home. Making murder into entertainment? The only way to look at this is from a psychiatric perspective.
I guess a big effort for pushing love and cooperation is passe compared with fake blood, simulated atrocities, and stupid psychopathy. It seems to be the consequences of being raised on television with the numbing effect of watching countless simulated murders, or perhaps it is the consequence of the real atrocities committed elsewhere. Martin Luther King spoke eloquently about the latter toward the end of his life.
October 30, 2010 at 18:52
This is some of the dumbest stuff I've ever read. It's Halloween, haunted house style attractions are fun. And to quote Dr. King? Trust me, Dr. King and his many, many mistress's would have enjoyed a haunted house as much as the next guy, assuming all races and creeds were scared equally.
October 31, 2010 at 03:12
I just like hearing other people scream.
October 30, 2010 at 22:58
Mark, I understand that it is violent, but most people don't like it because it is bloody and so forth. People like this because it scares themselves and creeps them out. How does this relate to our countries fighting? And, like adavis, its HALLOWEEN, what do you expect?
October 29, 2010 at 12:27
Everyone knows HHN. Of course it would be the most popular. Disney is not exactly known for halloween. More like the winter holidays.
October 29, 2010 at 12:35
I am also working at the local haunted house. It doesn't pay, but some say it's worse than HHN. Why? This house is pitch black all the time (unless you're meeting one of us "monsters"). The different themed rooms include: aroom with three doors (two leading to dead ends), a SAW room, a gorilla cage, a vibrating bridge, a bedroom, someone lays under the floor, the White room (also called the toilet parer room for that is what is hanging almost everywhere), Chainsaw, Asylum, Jail, and electric char. I love working the chainsaw, but the best scare came n halloween last year in the gorilla cage (not notorious for being scary), I scared two college-aged drunk guys so badly, they fell into the corner and cuddled, one ran out faster than the strobe light in the room could blink, the other guy stood up, hugged me, went into the cage, so I had to remove my mask and show him the exit. That was great!! (laughs manaiacally)
October 30, 2010 at 12:13
I kept trying to hug one of the Zombies a TGE. He wasn't to happy about it.
PS-What's the SAW room, hopefuly not ANOTHER connection to that stupid movie.
October 31, 2010 at 11:49
unfortunately, Quil. And we don't have any traps! just some chains on a wall. (we may get a dentist's chair next year)
October 29, 2010 at 13:53
I hate halloween events. Frankly, I'm there for rides, not plywood mazes. So much of it is so macabre, it doesn't help. It makes the lines marginally shorter, though…
October 30, 2010 at 12:19
They have these new Light necklesses at six flags that you can buy, If you buy them, the chainsaw guys and other monster-people can't scare you, because they'll get in trouble if they do.
October 31, 2010 at 04:10
That's a really cool idea Quil. I wonder how many other parks are doing something similar. Not everyone who goes to theme parks during October wants to be scared like that. They shouldn't charge extra for those lights though. Or, they should be really cheap. Do you remember how much they were?
October 31, 2010 at 10:23
We went to Dorney 2 nights in a row … the first night without necklaces and the second with necklaces (2/$1 from the local dollar store). The second night, the ghouls didn't seem as intrusive, but I don't know if it was because of glowing necklaces.
November 1, 2010 at 02:16
I don't know how much the ones at TGE cost. I was just talking to someone in the queue who was wearing one.
September 1, 2011 at 15:05
Dorney park's haunt is also very good. I went to fright fest at six flags great adventure and was dissappointed. Fright Fest had 6 free scare zones, but there were a MAXIMUM of 6 characters per attraction. In one scare zone, the circus psycho, there were only 2 people that popped out at you and that was it. SFGAdv FF had 3 good attractions, but they cost extra! Dorney Park's Haunt is WAY BETTER. DP's Haunt includes every attraction in the admission price, and they are very good and scary attractions with many characters. I was very surprised with SFGAdv because I thought FF would be good, but it was horrible. DP's Haunt rocks!