Dorney Park Haunt 2016 Review
Joe Rovinsky
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Website: http://www.dorneypark.com
Location: Dorney Park, 3830 Dorney Park Road, South Whitehall
Introduction
Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt is a mainstream attraction which over the past three seasons has incorporated interactive, escape room elements into its various haunted attractions and Scarezones. Dorney Park is completely transformed into a Halloween scare-park featuring a multitude of “Scare Zones”, dense areas of fog, mood lighting, and atmospheric Halloween music as guests move from attraction to attraction. Dorney Park does cater to haunt fans of all ages, and backgrounds. The transformation of Dorney Park into a Halloween themed wonderland is impressive, with an endless number of scare actors roaming each area of the park all with distinct characters. Furthermore, each Scarezone features impressive set designs, animatronics, and high-quality scenes that transform each section of the property into a movie quality experience. Dorney Park’s various “Scare Zones” incorporate diverse scares into the entire attractions experience. From the Pirates of Cutthroat Island to twisted clowns of CarnEvil, each zone is uniquely themed to create memorable experiences. We especially found the medieval “Age of Darkness” to be an especially impressive “Scare Zone” this year, with twisted scenes of torture, massive fire-breathing dragons, crooked dark knights and a highly charged “execution scene” leading the way in creating a mature, realistic, transformative experience at Dorney Park’s Haunt.
Dorney Park is best described as one of the most fun, intriguing and entertaining experiences for all haunt and Halloween fans. Dorney Park is a great value due to the number of different events, attractions and “Scare Zones” featured around every corner of the park. From Halloween-themed shows such as the “Blood Drums”, to Fright Feast eating options, Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt provides quality entertainment for all ages, interests and maturity levels.
This year Dorney Park continues to implement mature themes and escape game aspects via a “Skeleton Key Room” option, which incorporates scenes and interactive activities that are similar to more adult themed attractions. We found the “Skeleton Key Room” experiences to be entertaining this year, but they were far easier to complete and sanitized in comparison to previous years. More extreme interactive elements found in previous years were reduced, and the experiences were less memorable than previous years. Hopefully, Dorney Park revamps the “Skeleton Key Room” experiences to move in a direction that is more interactive and mature which was the case in previous seasons. Also, the once “Skeleton Key” exclusive attraction “Blackout” is now open to all guests. While we appreciate the park’s desire to provide attractions for all guests, the exclusive nature of the attraction added value to the attraction.
Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt is typically crowded and we suggest you purchase a Frightlane Pass. The Frightlane Pass also allows guests to participate in the unique “Skeleton Key Room” experiences, and improves the overall experience greatly as on busy nights’ lines are lengthy for each attraction. The design of each maze, “Scare Zone”, and overall theme of the park spares no expense in creating a budget intensive show that is a Halloween spectacle!
Attractions
Mazes
Blood on the Bayou
“Blood on the Bayou”, new for 2016, is one of the most visually impressive, disturbing and oddly realistic walk-through attractions at Dorney Park, featuring a black magic, Voodoo theme and an overall “evil” atmosphere. This maze features a careful attention to detail, every single room encourages exploration and the voodoo themes highlighted in each room are truly disturbing. From talented scare actors who are hidden in every corner to scenes of sacrifice and a tribal soundtrack, the attraction is perfectly themed. We have never witnessed a more “realistic” take on a voodoo style attraction. Talented cursed actors, rooms filled with dead “animals” creepy imagery, scenes of possession and a trip through a murky swamp highlight the trip through the almost perfectly designed attraction. The structure of the maze itself transforms an area of the park into the Louisiana French Quarter, with a use of mood lighting that sets a tone of fear. Each room features such a high level of intricate detail as we often found ourselves lost just looking around each room. Pyrotechnics and special effects allow scenes of “spells” and “curses” to come to life and we found this one of the most impression attractions ever hosted by Dorney Park. “Blood on the Bayou” while not particularly scary is unsettling, an engaging experience that uses a voodoo/black magic theme in a realistic, creative manner.
Mansion House Hotel
“Mansion House Hotel” is a classical haunted house attraction featuring beautiful set designs, special effects, and a soundtrack that create a vintage experience for haunt fans. The attraction is a classical haunted maze featuring interactive props and sets which effectively hide scare actors. “Mansion House Hotel” features an abandoned mansion/hotel theme featuring demented bellhops, dead guests, workers and a newlywed couple. When we went through this maze we were slightly disappointed at the overall lack of scare actors featured in the attraction. We counted maybe five scare actor’s maximum in the actual maze portion of the attraction. The Victorian set designs are beautiful and enhanced by fantastic special effects and jump scares induced by interactive animatronics.
“Mansion House Hotel” features interactive rooms such as an “elevator” and creepy set designs which depict the death of long-lost hotel guests. This attraction while visually impressive could be longer and would be stronger if more scare actors were featured. The “Skeleton Key Room”, is a theatrical storyline regarding a ghouls search for a long lost love, which despite the impressive acting does not really feature any interactive elements and is the weakest of the “Skeleton Key Rooms” at the Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt.
Blackout
“Blackout” is a pitch-black style maze in which guests must navigate the darkness following dimly lit arrows. The attraction is highly effective at generating scares and utilizing creepy actors who get uncomfortably close in the darkness. Actors are hidden along the dark maze, are almost impossible to see and make this one of the best attractions at the park. “Blackout” was once a “Skeleton Key” Frightlane pass exclusive, for mature haunt fans, but this is no longer the case. With additional guests entering the dark maze, the effective feeling of “isolation” is reduced as we bumped into several groups in the dimly lit environment.
Chamber of Horrors
“Chamber of Horrors” is a wax-museum themed attraction which has some of the goriest, and creepiest props of any haunted attraction. From mutilated bodies, and life-like serial killer wax figures, the attractions design is impressive. Props are almost indistinguishable from live actors which provide for effective jump scares. Disturbing imagery of actors being melted in “wax” make for a creepy experience as guests attempt to escape this maze. The “Chamber of Horrors” is one of the best detailed haunted mazes you can visit for the 2016 season, but we felt as though we were rushed through the attraction, actors were out of place and staff seemed concerned with pushing as many guests through the attraction as possible. The quality of props and artistic direction is mature and we hope they find a way to expand this excellent maze, reducing a need to rush guests through the attraction hindering its effectiveness.
Cornstalkers
“Cornstalkers” is an outdoor corn trail, and one of the more mature, gritty attractions at Dorney Park’s Haunt. We travelled through a brutal butcher shop, featuring actors who try to make guests become their next victims, were stalked by creatures among the corn, “urinated” on by a quite hilarious prop, and forced to interact with an uncomfortable group of hillbillies along the trail. The “Cornstalkers” attraction features a “Skeleton Key Room” experience in which guests must eat some of mother’s “home cooking”. While not a maze, actors such as scarecrows are effectively hidden amongst the cornstalks. “Cornstalkers” set designs incorporate some violent themes found in the now-defunct “Bloodshed” attraction.
The Ward
The “Ward” haunted maze, previously operated as “Asylum” and has been drastically enhanced for the 2016 haunt season. Detailed asylum scenes, coupled with theatrical scare actors create a memorable experience that is far more aggressive than its previous incarnation. From a twisted mirror maze, through pathways featuring demented medical experimentation, each room features gory details and special effects that induce paranoia. The “Ward” is relentless and shockingly disturbing for an amusement park haunt. Scare actors are allowed to shine in this attraction and play out insane roles that fit the upgraded asylum attraction for the 2016 haunt season.
Trick or Treat
“Trick or Treat” is a “witch” themed maze in which guests move through rooms featuring victims of witches who have been placed under various spells and subjected to various Halloween “tricks and treats”. While this attraction is not particularly scary, the design of each room and make-up of each actor is impressive. The special effects such as floating witches and creepy character designs create an unsettling experience of a child’s Halloween experience gone wrong. Furthermore, the “Skeleton Room Key” experience is one of the more “extreme” aspects of Dorney Park’s Haunt, in which we were forced by a witch to eat a rather creepy, insect “treat”.
Scare Zones
Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt again features several “Scare Zones” which are large-scale outdoor walk-through attractions. The scenery and design of each attraction is impressive in its scope, featuring impressive animatronic props, and insane actors. From relentless clowns in the “CarnEvil” Scare Zone to pirates at “Cutthroat Island”, each set provides entertainment between the main haunted mazes. This year Dorney Park features “Skeleton Key Room” experiences at “Age of Darkness”, “Cutthroat Island” and the Grave Walkers “Scare Zone”. These experiences are a must visit, as we took a “coffin ride” through hell and were sent to the gallows by medieval executioners, after being arraigned by a creepy scare actor “priest” who cast judgement on our souls, and had to drink “urine”, and search for “booty” at the direction of twisted Pirates.
Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt proves that amusement parks can operate incredible haunted attractions that cater to Halloween fans of all age and maturity levels. The level of detail and quality of set designs found in each maze/ Scare Zone is of the highest quality and the actors work tirelessly to engage the number of guests who attend this attraction. In order to avoid long lines, upgrade to the Frightlane pass, which includes “Skeleton Key Room” access and an additional pitch-black style maze. Dorney Park continues to improve each year, and we hope they enhance their “Skeleton Key Room” experiences again next season.
Pros: “Skeleton Key Experience”, Frightlane Pass benefits, incredible FX and prop design found throughout Dorney Park, endless number of talent scare actors, entire park is transformed for Halloween
Cons: Long Regular Lines, Some of the Mazes are too short, not all attractions cater to mature haunt fans, and the “Skeleton Key Room Key” experiences have been reduced in terms of a challenge this year. We were rushed through “Chamber of Horrors” and found “Mansion House Hotel” to be lacking in a number of scare actors.
Should you visit in 2016? Yes- Dorney Park has made several changes and improvements to its mainstream haunted attraction, with two new mazes. They continue to incorporate aspects of more mature/ adult themed haunts in a surprising manner for an amusement park. Haunt fans upgrade to the Frightlane pass to get the full experience and avoid the long lines. “Blood on the Bayou” is one of the most detailed, creatively themed walk-through attractions for the 2016 season.
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