Florida Parks for Halloween??? Other Great Halloween Parks?

Greetings, earthlings. . .

Going to be heading down to Florida the last weekend of October for some of the big Halloween festivities at the major parks. I was wondering if any Buzzers can give me some intel on where the best Halloweenfests are and how does pricing and all that work. Are most of those parks open pretty late for some good night riding?

Every year, there is also the confusing and problematic deal of never knowing whether or not a Season Pass is good for these October Halloween Park Visits. Aren't most parks pretty much charging a flat-rate admission and ignoring Season Passes altogether?

Thanks for any help and input you can provide!

I can't believe it's almost Halloween-time again! I noticed last night it was dark here in Cincinnati at 8 pm!!!

Summer must definitely be over.

I also love HAUNTED HOUSES at parks. Truly one of the best I've ever been to was at Lake Compounce one year. I can't remember what it was called but it won major awards. A good portion of it was outside. Halloween has become Big Business for a lot of amusement parks.

Barry J.

Busch and Universal have separate tckets for their Halloween events. They close, empty out the parks, then re-open later...

Weekends are more expensive, and more crowded....when IoA was the only park open for HHN, I found it TOO crowded to be enjoyable. Trusted peeps have said it is MUCH better spread out across the two parks in terms of *capacity*.

Kennywood and Knotts have fantastic events as well, and I've *heard* of LC's Haunted Graveyard event as being RIGHT up there...

like 7 posts below this one ...

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=43007

Hard to beat the park that started it all and has been doing it for over 30 years: Knotts.

Thanks Impulse-ive for the link. I should have scrolled through the Forum Topics and seen it myself. There's some great suggestions there.

And, Mamoosh: I'd love to get to Knotts, but so far away. . .I'm hoping to do Cali sometime in '06.

What kind of thing did Knott's do to start it all? You mean they were the first park to do a Halloween-themed deal where they converted the park??

Barry J.

Yes, BW. They were the first park to retheme rides [flume and mine train] and build haunted mazes.

I know your looking for florida parks, but here in ohio Geauga Lake puts on a great halloween event called The Halloween Haunt. It has something for the whole family.

It features two haunted houses called "Big Top Terror" and "Phobia". Plus many haunted trails, "The Fright Zone" being the best one that weaves through their western villiage in complete fog and darkness.

Their antique car ride the Merry Oldies becomes a haunted drive at night. the list goes on, just check out GL's site if you are interested in more. It's not in florida, but it's worth checking out. everything about the haunt is included in the 24.99 admission to Geauga Lake.

Kennywood is the best one I have been to, but I haven't been to very many Holloween events. They do a fantasic job with the decorations and the characters walking around.

Universal's Halloween Horror Nights is more elaborate than Busch's event. It's also quite pricey ($50-55 on the weekend nights). The upside? Universal stays open until 2am for this (rides too).

If you need a Halloween bargain, Cypress Gardens Adventure Park is going with Phobia. It doesn't seem too elaborate but it IS included in your park admission (about $35) so you can show up in the late afternoon, take in the waterpark and the rides and then at 6:30 the scare mazes open up (until 11pm I believe).

Disney also has a kid oriented Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party hard ticket event (though it's most during the week, not weekends).

In short, there is plenty to do.