REVIEW: How to enjoy the scary thrills of Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt
Photo: Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt continues most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 2. Photo by John Soltes.
DORNEYVILLE, PA. — Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom doesn’t hold back when it comes to spooky season. The thrill park’s annual Halloween Haunt has begun, and visitors should expect scary mazes, creative decorations, holiday treats and intense scare zones.
On a recent Friday night, this reviewer checked out each of the mazes in the park, plus all of the scare zones and the many decorations and Halloween lights around the park. An added treat is that many of the rides in the park are also open for some nighttime fun.
There are a few live shows that also take place on the nights of Halloween Haunt. This year, Dorney has The Shrieks, a dance party set to pop music, plus Skeleton Crew, a circus-style show that features some death-defying thrills. One of the best scare zones, CarnEvil, also hosts the Sink the Jerk show that has park-goers trying to send an annoyingly loud performer into a dunk tank.
Other than CarnEvil, Dorney’s scare zones consist of Steel Yard: Forge Your Fear, which leans into the steel industry surroundings one can find in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, area; Midway Misfits, a somewhat undefined spectacle of creatures; Port of Call, which centers on pirate culture; and perhaps the best one, Dystopia, which feels like a George Miller Mad Max film come to life.
For the unbeknownst, scare zones at a thrill park are kind of like haunted houses out in the open. No extra tickets are needed, and all of the action takes place on the pathways of the park, beneath the starry skies. Themed actors try to scare passersby by rattling coins in cans, screaming, jumping in front of families and sometimes skating on their knees, sending up sparks along the darkened paths.
The main event for Halloween Haunt are the haunted mazes. Separate tickets are needed for these experiences, but the add-on is relatively cheap at Dorney Park. There are two options: general admission ($10 add-on) and the express pass ($29 add-on). On a recent Friday, well before Halloween season’s busy time, lines were not too bad, and general admission was perfectly acceptable. However, as the holiday approaches, Friday and Saturday nights will almost require express passes because general-admission lines can have long, long waits.
Dorney’s maze offerings this year are: Ghost in the Machine, a steel-centered attraction; Trick or Treat, a somewhat classic maze featuring witches; Tourist Trap, which finds visitors heading into a World’s Fair hotel run by a demented collector; Blood on the Bayou, a New Orleans-set maze that has wonderful ambient music; Roadside Stop N’ Chop, a grungy maze that finds park-goers on the menu at a terrifying eatery; Blackout, which is a maze in the near-complete dark; and the best of the best, Necropolis, which is the rare maze that takes place outside.
Necropolis is a sure highlight, simply because of its outdoors environment. Buyer beware: On rainy nights, this one might be a muddy mess, but on a nice evening, the scares are plentiful and the sights atmospherically mysterious. Blackout would be a contender for one of the best as well, but the line of glow-in-the-dark tape that helps visitors head from the entrance to the exit was a bit of a spoiler, lighting enough of the way to drop the scare factor.
Ghost in the Machine was great fun and had some nice decorations, including a surprising aerial stunt. Blood on the Bayou also wins for its transportive detail, as if the walk-through were taking place in a mansion in the Garden District of NOLA.
There’s a lot of Halloween happiness to be found at Dorney’s Halloween Haunt. This reviewer was able to experience each of the mazes and scare zones within two-and-a-half hours. To accomplish a similar feat, especially as the season becomes more crowded, definitely consider the express pass. Also, taking a break from the haunted happenings for a few roller-coaster rides is never a bad idea.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Click here for more information on Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom’s Halloween Haunt.
