Here is another discussion question that could cause a huge debate. What is the best theme park Halloween event? I can probably guess a good majority will say Halloween Horror Nights at the Universal Parks, but there are some other good events out there.

 

Personally, I have only been to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in 2003 and 2019, but looking into HHN one year when it is not swamped.

Living in SoCal, I've done almost all of the local Halloween events except for Castle Dark, Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld and Fright Fest at Six Flags. I can absolutely attest to any park's event being different based on how you experience it, though. My top contenders are Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Scary Farm at Knotts. 

Horror Nights just can't be appreciated in its entirety if you aren't splurging for a "fast pass" ticket. No matter what night you go, you'll be stuck waiting in line for a single maze upwards of 40 minutes. I've seen those wait times skyrocket to 3 HOURS at their peak. No matter how good the maze is, it just isn't worth it, because you literally can't accomplish every attraction with wait times like that. We've done the RIP Tour a few times now, however, and that not only guarantees you get to do all the mazes, but you also get shuttled around the lower lot on your own trolley, you get a super yummy buffet, and unlimited 'express lane' access throughout the night after the tour ends. They also get you "preferred" seating at the shows, but we've yet to see a show that was worth waiting for anyway. It isn't cheap, but it's nice to be able to do everything and feel a little "VIP" along the way! Thes past few seasons we've gone, the street ambiance has been super sparse between the main drag after entering the park pretty much all the way down to the lower lot, and calling a "scarezone" a "maze" is a slap in the face....but I don't know if that's still an issue this year.  In 2021, the mazes felt "meh," and that was a huge bummer. I've only seen video of one maze (the Chucky one) and it looks like an absolute blast, so I'm really excited and trying not to spoil anything more for myself. We'll be going later in October!

Knotts has upped their game many times over in the last 5 to 6 years, which adds a lot of value to their more economically-priced tickets when compared to Horror Nights. Knotts' mazes are now lengthy, highly-detailed, and well-staffed (Mesmer's premiere year was mind-blowing amazing), and they directly compete with Horror Nights' quality most of the time. Here again wait times can creep up into the 2-hour+ mark, but that's typically on weekend nights during the back half of October. Actors will regularly patrol the queues and keep patrons scared and entertained, which is a great element that I don't often see at Universal. Knotts' ambiance beyond Ghost Town Streets leaves a little to be desired, though, but they have a bevy of shows that - again - adds value to their ticket cost. Puppet Up! is stupidly funny and almost worth the cost of entry alone. We'll be going to Scary Farm in a couple of weeks!

A Saturday night ticket at Knotts with the 'fright lane' add on is about $300 a person. Comparatively, the same ticket option on the same night is $400 at Universal. The RIP Tour adds another $140 onto that, and it comes with food, soft drinks, access to exclusive cash bars, and the guided-tour. Knotts also has a food option ticket, but we've yet to opt for that. I have heard both amazing and horrible reivews about the "boo-fet" at Knotts, but since we live down the street, we just get the fright lane tickets and head home when we've done everything. 

Although several years ago, we did Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary, and while we made it fun (the included drink vouchers with our tickets helped with that), it wasn't an event we felt was worth doing year after year. Dark Harbor dried up in 2020, but came back as Shaqtoberfest last year. 

So where do I stand? I think I always look forward to Horror Nights more, but am often left feeling a tad disappointed once I'm there. Whereas I have lower expectations of Knotts, but am usually pleasantly surprised once in the park. Universal has a more premium experience that comes with a much higher price tag, but Knotts offers a much better bang for the buck. Typically we would only pick one park to visit in a season, but this year we're doing both, so I'll have a final decision after we've come back from the final haunt!

I've actually never been to a Halloween event in any park before, crazy since I live in Florida but it never interested me much... I think I stayed in Magic Kingdom late enough when the Not So Scary party was starting but it just felt like any other normal night at Magic Kingdom, haha

I usually hear a TON about Knott's Berry Farm during Halloween though, and I live nowhere near that 😆

My family did the Mickey's Halloween Party at DL Anaheim back in 2012. It was okay, but HUGELY crowded! The best part was that I got to dress up as Alice and my oldest son as The Mad Hatter, which made for some very special memories!

YOU LOOK LIKE THE PERFECT ALICE.

8 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

YOU LOOK LIKE THE PERFECT ALICE.

Thanks! As you probably can tell, I'm a huge AiW fan!

Not my hair, though. Luckily a good wig can hide my red hair well! (a red-headed Alice just doesn't look the same)

Went to Knotts Scary Farm this past Saturday. The short and sweet review: the 50th Haunt season provided a stunning array of lengthy, well-themed mazes (especially The Chilling Chambers, Cinema Slasher, and Wax Works). Street atmosphere was heavily present with ghouls lurching out from almost every corner. While we only caught two of the four shows (a kooky circus romp and a humor horror musical), what we did see was entertaining enough, yet the Puppet Up! show from years prior was sorely missed. 

As someone who considers himself a "haunter," I spend most of my time absorbing the ambiance, scenery and tech that goes into these productions. So I don't knock an event when I don't get spooked because it's rather difficult to do. I can only think of a couple of times an actor caught me off guard - I think I was more afraid of my hair getting messed up by an air cannon. 

The park was PACKED. On a Saturday night in October, it's to be expected, but holy macaroni was it wall-to-wall people. We arrived about 20 minutes after the event opened and anticipated a huge line to get in with the enhanced security checks, but thankfully we were pretty much waved right through since we didn't have any bags to check. Also surprisingly I didn't see an attraction line with a wait time longer than 60 minutes. I thought for sure I'd pass by a 90 or 120 minute sign, but nope! However, if you have to wait an hour for each of the 10 mazes, you are going to leave disappointed. I will ALWAYS vouch for upgraded tickets if possible; we waited at most 5 minutes for a maze with the "fright lane" add on. 

The food wasn't as yummers as it had been in previous years. The Boardwalk BBQ place always had a super delicious pulled pork plate that was sadly absent this year, and instead replaced by a mostly dry beef brisket option. Enough bbq sauce will fix that, though, and indeed we tried. 

As I've stated, the highlight of the Haunt is the maze, and I don't think there was a single dud this year. Sure, some had issues (a stupidly-expensive and poorly-executed chainsaw scene in Cinema Slasher) or were showing their age (I really hope Dark Entities and The Depths are in their final year) or needed a 10 minute mini-doc to explain their backstory (Looking at you, Bloodline 1842), but the sheer volume of effort put into these mazes is staggering. Detail, detail, detail. Even the audio, which I think is one of the most consistently overlooked and/or underwhelming aspects of a haunted attraction, was dialed in everywhere (save for a bear's roar that really sounded more like aggressive flatulence). The Chilling Chambers is an amazing callback to some of the heavy hitters of mazes past, with easter eggs and tributes strewn throughout that absolutely requires multiple passes through. MAJOR props to Knotts this year for an amazing 50th. 

We'll be attending Horror Nights at Universal Studio Hollywood in a couple of days - I'll report on that one, too.

On 10/17/2023 at 1:16 AM, Kablary said:

We'll be attending Horror Nights at Universal Studio Hollywood in a couple of days - I'll report on that one, too.

Will Horror Nights in Hollywood also have that Last of Us section? It looks pretty cool!

3 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

Will Horror Nights in Hollywood also have that Last of Us section? It looks pretty cool!

I have been very careful not to spoil anything for myself at HHN, so I've refrained from watching any videos or reading reviews. Aside from the Chucky maze and the stunt show in the Waterworld arena, I have no idea what's in store 😬

5 minutes ago, Kablary said:

I have been very careful not to spoil anything for myself at HHN, so I've refrained from watching any videos or reading reviews. Aside from the Chucky maze and the stunt show in the Waterworld arena, I have no idea what's in store 😬

Please report back, I also demand videos of you screaming and running.