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Ah, the fall. Crisp, cool air takes over, darkness sets in earlier and earlier each day, the leaves begin to change... and on Friday and Saturday nights if you're near Dorney Park the screams can be heard for miles.
Well, perhaps not really
miles, but with Dorney Park's annual
Halloween Haunt scare-fest taking place this time of year, they're certainly not hard to hear if you're at the park.
Running during October on Fridays and Saturdays until the 27th, Halloween Haunt turns all of Dorney Park into a fog filled, nightmare version of its daytime self. The event includes many haunted houses, scare zones, special entertainment, activities, decorations and the park's rides as well.
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This year in addition to changes with several attractions, Dorney Park's Haunt features a nice array of new decor, which gives the park an even more spooky atmosphere. There's also a renewed focus on entertainment and gathering spaces, which has helped the event move up a notch further in my book.
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Of the various decorations that have been added, the Main Midway has several, with the returning of several older pieces as well. This new version of the headless horseman replaces one that was at the park for years, complete with a glowing pumpkin head.
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The giant lantern boxes we saw under construction during the summer are out and look great lining the flower beds down the center of the midway. Their colors are just bright enough to draw attention, and they blend in with the fog wonderfully.
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Near the park's Waveswinger, this new photo opportunity has been set up. Set inside an elaborate greenhouse structure, there are an assortment of creatures to have your photo taken with. There are witches located here at times, but also the event's special haunt crew. Above are some masquerade characters that I bet everyone wishes had kept their masks on!
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Even as the event progresses new props are coming out into the park. Just this weekend saw the addition of a brand new haunted trolley on the Main Midway. It is a throwback to when Dorney Park was one of hundreds of trolley parks that existed in North America. Granted the ghouls on this trolley are quite different than the visitors that came in flocks to Dorney Park ages ago.
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Dorney Park loves to celebrate their long history, and this trolley is a great example of that. The graphics on the new prop are all real historical items plucked from the park's archives. Here is one of the posters on the trolley that was an original advertisement for the trolley line that ran to Dorney Park. It's a great read if you're at the park and want to take a moment to check it out.
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Dorney Park has also taken some of their Halloween Haunt food offerings up a notch, including this extreme pumpkin milkshake, available at Coasters Restaurant. Yes, that's an entire piece of pumpkin pie, sugar cookie and a donut on top! This one might be a good item to share with a friend, or perhaps the whole family!
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Each night of Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park kicks off with the Overlord's Resurrection show, greatly new and improved for 2018. The park has crafted a brand new stage for the show, and moved the production to Hydra plaza so there is room for all to watch. The show starts at 7:00 and is the official kick-off to the night's scares.
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The Overlord is quick to join the stage and let the crowd know that he and his minions will soon be taking over the park. He is joined by characters of both good and evil, and it is probably not too hard to figure out which wins at an event like Halloween Haunt!
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Before the show ends there is some great fire and pyro that goes off, and then the Haunt monsters, which have silently gathered around the area, are officially unleashed on the crowd. All the haunted attractions open shortly after the end of the show.
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New in 2018 at Dorney Park's Halloween Haunt is a scare zone maze hybrid, known as Necropolis. The attraction is located on the site of Grave Walkers, and shares a similar theme. The actual attraction is totally different however, and that required a new name to be given to it. Visitors begin by entering under the sign seen in the photo above, then move into the yard of a Gothic church.
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And that yard is pretty darn full of fog... making it hard to get a great photo of the facade of the attraction. But as you can gather from this, there is a large entryway in the middle of the lighted faux glass windows, and that's your ticket into the graveyard of the undead. Once inside you follow a more streamlined path past both old and new props, with plenty of zombies popping out at all directions. The lighting and mood of Necropolis is a big improvement to me, and it includes one indoor segment that's pretty creepy and totally filled with skeletons!
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Also new this year is the reimagining of the park's former scare zone, Cut Throat Island, into a new experience named Port of Call.
Located along the Possessed midway, the park is still using the giant pirate ship props they created for the scare zone, but have now used them to create an entertainment area for guests to gather in. It's also the home of a live entertainment show, Jolly Rogers.
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The giant pieces of the pirate ship are arranged to create a space that can be used for watching the Joly Rogers show, grabbing a drink and relaxing at one of the hightop tables, or enjoying a little warm up time at the many flame heaters. There's also a DJ on the top of one of the pirate ship that keeps the crowd entertained and some haunted pirate characters milling about the area - but not scaring.
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Several times a night the Jolly Rogers show takes place in the area, which is a cirque-style show filled with comedy and pirates. More upbeat than the haunt show using the same stage in years past (located by Hydra), Jolly Rogers keeps the best of the former shows and adds in plenty of laughs. In addition to a fake knife throwing act involving a park guest, the show includes the popular trampoline act that is totally high-energy and a spectacle in its own.
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For the first time the park has also added a bar to the Port of Call area, aptly named the Port of Call Pub. It features wine, cocktails and beer - including the park's three original brews: Epic Ale, Lazy Lager and for Halloween, Haunted Hops. The bar is decked out in pirate theming as well, and is located in the center of all the action. One of the coolest drinks is named Pirate Gold, a "shimmery white sangria" with a dry ice stirrer.
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Even if you're not in the mood for a drink I suggest taking a look at the bar top in the Port of Call Pub. The park has once again added some great historical touches to the theming of the bar, including treasure maps that includes old ride names such as Journey to the Center of the Earth and Gold Mine, along with an old hand-drawn map of the park.
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The Dorney Park Pumpkin Spectacular has been added to this year's activities, and while not a scary area it's a huge plus to the overall event. The park has taken thousands of both real and fake pumpkins to create a whole midway decorated head to toe with them. The attraction is located along the walkway to the Urgent Scare haunted house.
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The walkway also has this great new photo location added to it - it's great to see the park embracing the fact that everyone takes photos of everything and everyone! The crowds were lined up to pose with these characters, I was lucky and grabbed a photo in between guests.
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The pumpkins, as you can see they're really all over the place, are arranged in different patterns (can you make out Snoopy in one of these?) and glow brightly in the night. Lots of people just stop and take it all in while on the midways - I hope that this is just the start of a tradition the park does that will only grow with the years!
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2018 is also the first year for the park's Trick Or Treat haunted house to have a new "Lights Out" tagline added to it. The house, which follows the storyline of missing children that went trick or treating at a witch's house and never returned, is now much, much darker than it has ever been in the past. Visitors are given tiny flashlights that only provide a dim path for them to make their way through. The house has received several new special effects and props to go with the lights out theme, and has given fresh new life into the house.
In total, the 2018 Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park features 3 live shows, 1 entertainment area, 6 indoor haunted houses, and 4 outdoor scare zones. We've already detailed what what new for this year, but that leaves a lot of returning favorites as well. Such as...
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Tourist Trap, which was last year's scary new haunted house...
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The ever-popular CarnEvil scare zone, filled to the brim with the clowns that nightmares are made of...
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My personal favorite Blood On The Bayou, make sure to watch out for that alligator...
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The pulse pounding and blood thumping Blood Drums live show...
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And no trip to Halloween Haunt is complete without a trip through CornStalkers: Barn Bred & Blood Fed. Plus, there's also the Chamber of Horros, Urgent Scare, Blackout and Age of Darkness in the lineup as well.
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And that brings us to the end of our look at this year's Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park. If you want to plan your own trip before the season ends, get all the details you need from the
park's official website. Many thanks for the park for their assistance in this story, and happy haunting!
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