Halloween is about a month and a half away but its celebrations are just around the corner. Candy and costume companies are not the only ones who cash in on Halloween festivities; theme parks have also noticed this cash cow. The biggest attractions locally have been Knott’s Scary Farm: Halloween Haunts, Universal Studios Hollywood: Halloween Horror Nights, and Six Flags Magic Mountain: Fright Fest. A fairly new comer to the A-list attractions is Disneyland Resorts Mickey’s Halloween Party. Each of these event tickets do cost a decent amount of money (average of 50 dollars) so the challenge is finding which is the best for you?
Fright Fest, Halloween Haunt, and Halloween Horrors Nights are all fairly similar but Mickey’s Halloween Party has found a target niche audience that have been only marketed to by candy companies. Mickey’s Halloween Party is a place for families to go and feel their children will be safe while they celebrate Halloween and trick-or-treat. There are candy stations around the park, a Halloween parade, and the Halloween Screams fireworks show. It is also a great place for Disney fans or anymore who prefers not to be scared out of their mind when Halloween comes around. The party will kick off September 30th.
For people who love the thrill of a scare the other Halloween themed events aim to be that place. Knott’s Scary Farm will have a total of 13 mazes, seven shows and three scare zones this year. The three new mazes include Delirium, a play on the mind, Invasion Beneath, part of the Calico Mine ride, and End Games: Warriors of the Apocalypse, an end of the world experience. According to LATimes.com Knott’s Scary Farm accounts for more than half of the theme parks profits for the year. Knott’s Berry Farm was the original place for Halloween scares so they do have history on their side as a reason to choose them for your Halloween celebrations.
Universal Studios Hollywood is advertising more mazes than ever before and opens this Friday along with Knott’s Scary Farm. Halloween Horror Nights has only six mazes but have pop culture relevance. Four out of the six mazes premise around movies and one is themed around rocker Alice Cooper. A new maze this year is The Thing: Assimilation, based on the new horror flick coming out this October. Expectations are usually high for Horror Nights because it is created by a theme park based on Hollywood movie magic.
Lastly, is perhaps the most inferior of A-list events for Halloween, Six Flags Fright Fest. It is open significantly less compared to the other events and does not start until October 7. Fright Fest has a lot of special offers and have tried to put a new twist on their rides. Several rides will have the lights turned off, like Tatsu, and the popular X2 becomes X2: Area 19, an alien adventure. It has a good variety of attractions but probably falls short because Knott’s and Universal Studios put on a better event for about the same price.
Personally I fit into the scare demographics. My pick this year will probably be Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. I like the relevance of the attractions and the realistic costumes and makeup. Which event will you be at for the Halloween season?
