It had been a few years since members of our group had toured Halloweekend at Cedar Point, and actually a first time for myself, and we could not have been happier with what we found! Halloweekend begins the minute you step through the park gates and doesn’t let up! No matter where you roam in the park, once the sun goes down you are not safe from the ghosts and demons that roam the grounds. Cedar Point is a great value since you can pay admission to get into the park and that covers all of the haunted attractions as well as the rides and roller coasters that remain open, so for the money, you really can’t beat it.

The actual haunted attractions are a mixture of indoor haunts and outdoor walk through haunts. There was a good mixture of themes ranging from pirates to clowns, to haunted mansions, and even an evil toy factory. The level of detail and creativity that went into these haunts impressed even our most veteran haunt reviewers! We always love creativity and attention to detail and two haunts really stood out for our group. Happy Jack’s Toy Factory was a very unique concept that we have not really seen before. It was so incredible with the level of detail in the costumes and makeup, you can honestly not tell who is real and who is just a doll.

My personal favorite, G.A. Boeckling’s Eerie Estate, really raised the bar for a good old fashioned scary mansion. The scenery, actors, and layout were all amazing! They took some serious time to perfect the layout of the haunt and used space very creatively to create 360 degrees of scares! It has been a long time since I was truly scared and creeped out by a haunt, but this one did it for me! The greatest thing about this haunt and a lot of the haunts we toured here was that they don’t rely on all of the overdone blood, gore, and screaming to get a scare. You really have a lot of stuff that is just down right creepy and not so much just jumping out and yelling “boo.” They went back to the basics of what is scary and put on a really great experience. Personally, this may be one of the best haunts I have been to in years. When you scare someone who has been touring and rating haunts for 15 years now…you know you have something great!

Halloweekend at Cedar Point is the ultimate haunt experience for the casual haunt fan as well as the seasoned haunt veteran! Bring your kids and enjoy the family-friendly daytime activities and rides, then come back to the park at night with the adults for a truly frightening experience! Halloweekend’s overall score came back as one of only a very few better-than-perfect scores we have ever given. Halloweekend earned a score of 11 out of 10, earning extra credit points for scare factor and the final rating of “FRIGHTMASTER!”

Great job on creating a top-notch experience! I can’t wait to visit again next season. Thanks again to Robin and John for showing us around the park and being so helpful to our tour group! Cedar Point’s Halloweekend is definitely a MUST SEE! We would highly recommend this attraction! It’s well worth the drive!

• Club Blood: 8 – Very Good
• Happy Jack’s Toy Factory: 10 – Excellent!
• G.A. Boeckling’s Eerie Estate: 11 – Frightmaster!
• Undertaker U.: 7.5 – Very Good
• Terror Island: 9 – Excellent
• CornStalkers: 7 – Good
• Fear Faire: 7 – Good
• Fright Zone: 8.5 – Very Good
• CarnEvil: 7 – Good

Overall rating: 11 – FRIGHTMASTER

Visit their website at www.halloweekends.com

The Dent Schoolhouse continues to impress us year after year, and their 2009 showing didn’t let us down! Our trip to the Dent Schoolhouse was on a perfect night for a haunt with the cold, rain, and foggy atmosphere. This made the graveyard experience that much better! The scenery is always great, but this year we noticed a lot more detail and much better actor placement than last year. The length of this haunt is always more than worth the money, and they had some really good scare factor as well! Great scenery, great actors, and a great haunt that keeps with the schoolhouse theme. We were very impressed this year.

The Dent Schoolhouse has secured its place as one of the premiere haunts in the Greater Cincinnati area and has gotten even better this year. Thanks for letting us tour your haunt, and we scored the Dent Schoolhouse a 10 out of 10 this year, earning the rating of “EXCELLENT!” Keep up the good work. See you in 2010!

Rating: 10 – Excellent

Visit their website at www.frightsite.com

Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt has become a yearly stop for us on our tour, and we were again reminded why we keep coming back! Halloween Haunt is such a great option for the haunt enthusiast because of the quantity of attractions that admission to the park gets you access to. With 11 haunted attractions and 2 live shows, Halloween Haunt is a great value for someone looking to spend a dark evening with the ghouls that haunt this Mason, OH theme park.

The park is transformed into a dark and scary nightmare where you never know who is going to jump out of the fog at you. With the addition of a good haunt this year in “The Slaughter House” and some of our old favorites, Halloween Haunt keeps impressing year after year and it never gets old. Our personal favorite, the “Trail Of Terror,” leads victims through a twisted trail of horror and fright. They have a great mix of haunts, and with so many options, there is something for everyone.

Halloween Haunt earns a rating of 10 out of 10, earning the score of “EXCELLENT” for 2009! Great job on another great season! Thanks for letting us tour Halloween Haunt. We are already looking forward to next year!

• Slaughter House: 8.5 – Very Good
• Massacre Manor: 7 – Good
• Death Row: 6.5 – Good
• Trail Of Terror: 10 – Excellent
• carnEVIL: 9 – Excellent
• Cut Throat Cove: 4.5 – Average
• Tombstone TERROR-tory: 7.5 – Very Good
• Club Blood: 7.5 – Very Good
• CornStalkers: 8.5 – Very Good
• Cemetery Drive: 4 – Poor
• Urgent Scare: 8 – Very Good

Overall rating: 10 – Excellent

Visit their website at haunt.visitkingsisland.com

USS Nightmare has been around for a long time now, and it’s still worth the trip down to tour the old haunted riverboat! USS Nightmare still has one of the longest haunts of anywhere we have toured and has a lot of scare packed into this haunt. The theme of the haunted riverboat was always really unique and the scenery is always amazing as well. The realism of the actors is always impressive as the USS Nightmare uses realistic makeup rather than relying solely on masks for scare. It’s always one of our favorite stops on our tour, and thanks to everyone at the USS Nightmare for always showing us a good time!

USS Nightmare earned a score of 9 out of 10 with a rating of “EXCELLENT” for 2009! Great job, and thanks again for letting us tour the USS Nightmare!

Rating: 9 – Excellent

Visit their website at www.ussnightmare.com

Sandyland Acres has in just a few years of operation has taken a claim as one of the best haunts in Greater Cincinnati and Northern KY! What is so amazing about Sandyland Acres is how great of a haunt they put together each year working with a small fraction of the budget that other haunts have to work with. Sandyland creates new concepts and builds their own scenes from scratch. Sandyland Acres also takes away that safe and secure feeling when the actors frequently come onto the hayride to look for victims up close! They have certain elements at this haunt that we have yet to see anywhere else. Sandyland Acres is such a great success story from people who really do go the extra mile to put in the creative time to plan an amazing haunt! I always look forward to seeing Sandyland Acres and I encourage you to make the short drive to Petersburg to experience a unique twist on the haunted hayride experience!

Sandyland Acres earned a score of 9 out of 10 and a rating of “EXCELLENT” for 2009! Thanks again for always showing us a great time and really giving our tour group a frightening experience in your haunted corn fields. Great job, and looking forward to seeing you in 2010!

Rating: 9 – Excellent

Visit their website at www.sandylandacres.com