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Welcome, to the Haunted Reviews, Mwoarhaha 2016 has provided me with a vast number of park trips and adventures. A trend which has continued happily for the Halloween season. Due to excessive number of events done and trying not to bore you with maze review after maze review, I thought I would try and compact my trips into just one report. Where I intend to focus mainly on the best bits (and sometimes the worst). Xtreme Scream Park/ Beginning with a bang. This was my first event and it certainly did not fail to disappoint. Despite its fairly remote location and its budget not being massive I was highly impressed with this event, from the interaction and portrayal of roaming actors to the scattering of spooky theming. Pie Factory was by far my favourite maze, down from the consistency of actors and scenes throughout and the fact some scenes worked fine without any actors as they helped build up the suspense and fear factor. Apart from The Dungeon which I wasn't a fan of, was strongly impressed by all mazes there (a total of six). Stilton House Hotel and Hunted are honourable mentions. Scarefest It may surprise some of you that prior to October this year I had never been to a Scarefest event before (although I tried and failed last year). And finally losing my Scarefest virginity finally happened With no regrets attending. All three maze offerings were of acceptable quality, Terror Of The Towers being surprisingly good despite being a largely established maze. Sub Species was my preferred maze, which I liked the split elements and the preshow which was of good quality. Altonville Mine (or Skin Snatchers) seemed the weaker one and looked like it had potential, but I feel we may have just experienced a poor run through which was a shame. Aside from the decent park lighting, the amusing flash mob and acceptable theming, the addition that Pleased me the most was House Of Monsters. A family based attraction which was more funny than frightening, the use of scenery and acting proved and was certainly an entertaining attraction that was worth the £5. Particularly liked the Skeleton and vampire actors and was certainly 15 minutes well spent and reminded me of Shrwk's Adventure in a few ways but maybe better. Night rides are cool too Fright Nights No Halloween would really be complete without at least a visit or two to Fright Nights, especially being one of my local parks. The event celebrated it's 15th anniversary by bringing back some of the park's popular roaming actors from deceased mazes including the Freezer and Experiment 10. This is always one of the things I like about Fright Nights and would like them to add a scare zone one day. Big Top was much better this year. The flow was better, the acting was consistent and it generally felt more of a maze than a few disjointed scare zones. Face It Alone was as enjoyable as always but cannot help feel last year's was better. Whilst I've tried to remain positive, this is where it sort of dwindles. The park was rammed on literally each attendance. Whilst some may see this as a positive thing, the crowd handling certainly has room for improvement. Three and a half hours for Platform 15 just can't be justified, as the queue was barely moving and not even completely full. The maze itself however was better than expected and offered something different and unique from the rest with its location and plot line. The long tunnel was one of the stronger elements which I thought built up suspense rather well. Cabin is still cabin, acceptable but rather stale now. I can't comment for the rest as I never got to try them . Howl O Ween Despite possibly saying I probably wouldn't go I visited anyway (call that unacceptable if you must). The only reason I visited was because it was on the way for other scare attractions and night rides never go a miss. A round on tomb blaster, Carousel later and a final night ride on Fury ended the season. Didn't manage any mazes as they're the same as last time and Vampire was dead. The theming however was quite good though. Acceptable theming! Tulley's Shocktoberfest Tulleys is somewhere I've been wanting to go for a while now and was finally able to do so this year. Though lacking the exterior theming and roaming actors, this event certainly impressed me which provided a sufficient of mazes, eight to be precise. The Horrorwood Tractor ride was certainly my favourite with it's interactive scenery and theming elements and vast range of different actors appearing throughout from scary cowboys to mad scientists. Certainly more of a ride than a maze and clearly better than Zufari. Other mazes that impressed me included the Colony and its large length and variations, The Cellar with its haunted theme and Pandemonium with its use of 3D elements. Hellements was the only maze I wasn't taken with as it seemed weaker than rest, though Creepy Cottage was rather on the short side though. Only other negative was the location as a whole looks very temporary and the use of temporary loos but that can't be helped given the location. Legoland Brick Or Treat Perhaps not a Halloween event in the traditional sense but still appropriate. At the end of each year Legoland holds themed fireworks to end the season with a bang, alongside a selection of kids Halloween activities in their enchanted forest area. This year's fireworks were themed to Nexo Knights (one of their current product lines) which featured audio dialogue synchronised to the fireworks. The display as a whole was good, although not amazing. Helped by it's audio plot line and glasses that turn the fireworks into Lego bricks (worth the £1.50). I particularly liked how the harbour area (one of the main viewing areas) was sort of turned into a pre-show before the main event as a result of the connected fountains and light being synchronised to the music. Apart from the lack of good nighttime lighting and the number rides closing at dusk, was a very good event. And this marks the end of another good Halloween season which has certainly been a good one (most of. The time). Didn't do Screamfest Burton and Screamland, but hopefully they can be done for another year. so, in brief: Best maze- Pie Factory Xtreme Scream Best non maze attraction- Haunted Hayride- Tulleys best fun scare attraction- House Of Monsters- Alton Towers Best scare event- Xtreme Scream Park Most improved maze- Big Top Thorpe Park Most awkwardly hilarious moment- Walking out of a fire exit on the Twisted maze at Xtreme Scream Best lit park- Alton Towers StormmSurge- Hellements- Tulleys Until next time, Farewell.

For several years now, there's been something on my theme park bucket I've always been wanting to tick off now for a long time. No, not Baron 1898 [although soon hopefully], not Europa Park either I'm afraid, however keep an eye out for MC16 which is happening soon, some hints to what this may even appear in this very blog entry. This something is of course on home soil and relatively simplistic in all honesty. It's Chessington's Howl O ween event. It's been something I've planned for over two years but until had not worked out, due to not getting chance in 2013 and absolute rotten luck in 2014, very narrowly missing out on going [big emphasis on the very narrowly]. However due to numerous reasons [cough cough budget cuts], the two former fantastic mazes from the last few years were gone despite receiving strong reviews in their time and in were two new mazes [although in different locations to those], which begged the question. Would they remain as strong? Wait & see. One thing to note about Chessington is how much theming and decoration there was set-up, which made it feel a-lot more in swing, certainly more than Thorpe too. Pumpkins, lots of lots of pumpkins. Not bad theming for Chessington. BTW, I would recommend the Chicken Shack for food at the park as I'd say it's the best eatery there by a large'ish margin, especially if your fed up with Pizza, Pasta buffets or don't want miniscule fish & Chips either. But this was definitely the most impressive Halloween thematic element though, and looked even better at night. Review Of The Mazes [why the heck didn't I take more pictures] Curse Of The Lost Tomb The Main new maze for this year, with the absence of Haunting & Mystery [as mentioned earlier], this was the maze I was looking forward to the most and it had a lot to make up for. The maze was located in Wild Asia where the conference centre was [there might have been a stage there once too]. From the outside, there wasn't much to see really, just a standard temporary cattle pen like in to a building [bit like Thorpe really], not to mention was taking a bit of time for the queue to move. But the question was, did the maze itself prove to be worth it? Overall rating 9/10. Really enjoyed this maze, which featured an original storyline and features [game show like in a way] but unlike Thorpe's mazes were your just straight in to the action and are scraed silly, this had not just more of a backstory and not to mention a general reason why you were here in the first place. Trick Or Tweet Woods Located on the grassy area near Hocus Pocus where the log cabins continue to still exist. Being out in the open, not the best setting for a maze [though Blair Witch copes well] not to mention the cabin and trees were some cause for concern. Due to these reasons, we avoided the maze during the day and only did it once it was starting to get dark, hoping it would turn out better. But were we in for a trick; or a treat? Overall rating 2/10 [I'm feeling generous] That's 5 minutes I won't be getting back, makes Blair Witch MK1 look amazing, bring back Haunting In The Hollows! Though feeling hugely let down by that second maze, there was one good thing now, it was completely dark and meant it was time for some night rides. With the park closing at 8pm this year [something that will hopefully remain for next year], this gave us over 2 hours to experience rides fully in the dark [over 3 hours once the clocks change]. Night rides we managed were Scorpion Express which looked quite impressive at night especially the orange fire effect. We queued for Vampire next, which the dimly lit queue in the darkness really added to the experience even more than it does in the day. Unfortunately the ride broke for a while when we queued but was well worth it in the end, as the ride at night is superb. The way the ride interacts with the trees as it helix's through the shrubbery, it was absolutely amazing, shame there is only 10 days in the whole season you can really experience this ride at night. We did Fury after which turned out to be our final ride of the trip, which proved to be just as good at night, the darkness made the ride more fun and disorienting, not to mention the view from the lift was highly impressive [why I don't see that in the day is astounding]. Howl'O-Ween Summary The event as a whole was very good. Absolutely loved the Curse Of The Lost Tomb maze and the night rides, where the park as a whole looks amazing, even more so than Thorpe [except Stealth], as there was different coloured lighting and effects park wide which greatly added to the atmosphere. The park's soundtrack helped set the scene but was a little repetitive in all honesty. Whilst in some ways this event was better than Thorpes [There I Said It!], like the park's current state, there were a lot of flaws. Firstly ride operations were hit and miss. Some rides were OK such as Scorpion and Falls, but others left little to be desired. Rattlesnake especially which was going very very slowly and took 45 minutes to queue for from the cave, plus Vampire didn't seem to operating as fluently as normal, whether this was because of possible ride issues remains another story. Aside from Trick Or Treat being disappointing, this years event was described as not being as good as previous years [gutted 2014 never happened], but the overall absence of two fantastic mazes replaced by one that was very good and one that was poor, amongst there being a severe lack of live entertainment and roaming actors, which made Thorpe look like it was flooded with in comparison. The factor that Ramesis once had lasers and did not continue to this year, only added insult to injury. There was even slightly less theming this year too [so I've been told]. If the park had kept Haunting In The Hollows, at least one live stage show and live roaming actors, the event would've been amazing to the degree it's better than Fright Nights. However, unfortunately due to the line up being a little on the small side, I would say Fright Nights at least maze and entertainment wise is better. Chessington need to get their act together and pick up the disco ball they once held, I've heard some amazing things about their Halloween events in the park and though this years was ok, it didn't seem to quite up to it's previous amazing standard. With much investment, TLC & efforts Chessington could once again become the creme de la creme of UK parks but has since become very stale. Scarefest is definitely at the top of next years Halloween list.