Holiday World closes in on new attendance record

Holy smokes, they are up to 1 mil already? Last time I was keeping count they were up to 700k. Very cool.

Paula posted Saturday afternoon that they surpassed the number Saturday morning.

It is refreshing to see people still going out to the parks and in record numbers in Holiday World's case. Just maybe my wife or I will be the record breaking guest at the Fall Affair!

Has the park ever tried or thought about jumping onto the ever popular Halloween crowd? Or would the attendance not justify the additional cost?

I think based on the amount of halloween events that there are plenty of customers out there. I would guess, sooner or later, HW will dip their toe in that pool.

With a name like Holiday World, I would think it's inevitable. They even have a section decorated already. Think of the time they'll save there. ;)

Do they need to extend into the Halloween season? They've already set a record attendance. They make enough money to add new attractions every year. Just seems like an unneeded risk.

I don't see where the huge risk is. Obviously they would be best to start relatively small and build a Halloween program over some years as attendance grows. But if they have the chance to make more money than they do now, why not give it a try?

If a Halloween event is what you want in Santa Claus, then Lake Rudolph is your destination. http://www.lakerudolph.com/images/Halloween%20Activities%20Schedule09.pdf

Halloween "Haunt" Crowds are pretty crazy, and a bit rough. They are already open into October, and they could extend the season another week or two with some sort of harvest festival as opposed to a haunted house type attraction.

I know. They could celebrate the harvest of beer. Now what would be a good name for a festival like that? ;)

A halloween event can be tailored to meet whatever crowd you hope to attract. It doesn't all have to be about "haunts" and attracting a crazy rough crowd. Hershey's is definitely a family type event. They tried including haunted attractions a few years ago, but dropped them after only 1 or 2 events.

It's amazing to me that Holiday World has come this far in such a small amount of time. It makes me wonder why Michigan's Adventure hasn't adopted the same formula, considering they have been doing well for a number of years now, just not as well as Holiday World. Cedar Fair needs to take a hint...

MA doesn't have the same market as HW.

When I think of a possible Halloween event theme at Holiday World the first thought that comes to my mind is "A Nightmare Before Christmas." Not sure if it would be possible to build something around this concept but it would be very interesting!

Not very likely since Nightmare Before Christmas is a Disney property.

But I have seen Disney merchandise for sale at Six Flags and I have a shot of the Mouse on the entrance sign for Hershey park. So I guess if there is enough cash anything is possible.

And if you listen closely the theme song for Nightmare Before Christmas plays in the Halloween section as well.

I'll chime in and say that there is probably a good reason Holiday World doesn't do a Halloween event. These types of events have been around for 10+ years and I would imagine they have done an analysis to see if it would be useful to them.

In the end, I would wager that without the waterpark operating, and being in the middle of nowhere they have issues drawing a large crowd outside of the traditional summer timeline (Memorial Day to Labor Day).

Ive gotta think if they did what Disney, or places like KI (during the day) does (family friendly event, Trick or Treating, harvest festival, etc) they could probably bring lots of families in. You could have the Trick or Treating stuff in Halloween maybe spill into part of the waterpark, the harvest festival stuff in Thanksgiving and then have a show in the Christmas section about Santa and the Elves preparing to "leave their vacation home" and gear up for the final push for Christmas.

There is a conversation every year about Holiday World's lack of a fall festival.