Halloweekends at Cedar Point 2023
Halloweekends has been covered a couple times already here at October Chills. Being blunt, it has never received anything near rave reviews here, although there have been flashes of brilliance shown that give hope. This year's event is an unfortunate return to the abyss, with an uninspired new house and scare zone added to the lineup, with a show being the only saving grace in a year that disappointed our group massively.
The new house at Halloweekends this year is Midnight, based around the icon of the event, Mr. Midnight. This was at the location of the former house, Hexed. I bring this up because Nightmare seems to use quite a lot of repurposed sets and props from Hexed. This on its own isn't an issue, as many places reuse aspects. However, the issue is that the house just felt like a redressed Hexed, with only a couple of spots not feeling familiar. Furthermore, while the actors were decent and were able to be entertaining in their comments, the scares were rather weak. Now, there is the caveat that we went through this house not too long after an emergency occurred in the house that shut it down for the better part of the hour. So this could have easily thrown off the rhythm of the actors. Still, the design of the house didn't lend itself well to providing areas for the actors to provide the scares necessary to make this house anything more than average. The sad thing is, an average house is easily one of the top houses at Halloweekends.
The new scarezone added to the team this year is Clownz: Death Metal Tour. First major issue walking into the zone was that the music just didn't work for the zone. Based off the name and story of the zone, which involved a metal band on tour and their fans, you would expect some hard rock music at the very least, mixed with some carnival music potentially. However, it just felt like just generic carnival music with no other things to fit the themes. Theming for the area was decent, although it felt very spread out and seemed to randomly change into a generic carnival at times, which is odd considering this is supposed to just be a tour stop location for a band. All these are minor complaints compared to the major issue facing this and all other zones in the park, the lack of actors. It seems like the entire scare zone section, which is a few zones strung together throughout the back half of the park, was lacking actors. The most egregious example of this was in Tombstone Territory, which one section goes through Frontier Trail, which is a path that stretches about a quarter of a mile. In this entire section, there was only three actors. Three. Clownz had maybe a dozen actors for its length. This is an absolutely insane lack of actors for a park that sees a large amount of guests for their Halloween event. We are talking thousands of guests in the park, in scare zones that are typically a lot larger than what other parks offer. For example, Universal Orlando uses compact areas for their scare zones, spread throughout the park. This is done to spread their large crowds out, and compact zones allow for the actors to be more concentrated. Cedar Point could learn from this, because at the moment, the scare zones are frankly pathetic.
A major issue I have with the event is the hours of the haunts. We went on a Friday night, and although Halloweekends is promoted as being from 6 to midnight, the houses and scare zones don't open until 8. This left just four hours to hit everything the park has to offer for scares. Within a few minutes of the houses opening, all the lines were at least one hour, with more over the two. I can fully understand scare zones opening that late, since they have to wait for night to fall. However, waiting two hours to open up the houses feels like just a way for Cedar Point to get more money by selling fast passes. Frankly, none of the houses are worth the extra money.
The only highlight of the night was once again the masterful performance by Midnight Syndicate. Any chance to see the musicians behind so many tracks that get played by haunted attractions across the country live is worth it. This year's show is a classic sideshow, with a demented twist. The acts are highly entertaining, especially the balancing act that is genuinely terrifying to watch. All while Midnight Syndicate plays eerie highlights from their long career. This is the one thing that can be said to be must see at Halloweekends.
Halloweekends is a fitting event for Cedar Point. For a place with so many recognizable roller coasters, it makes sense that their Halloween event would be one as well. Although, even at its best lately, it has come off as mediocre as best. I don't see this event improving much either, unless some serious changes occur. The scare zones all on top of each other just doesn't work, especially with the serious crowding issues this event faces. The houses are never great, and most of the time not even good, and why would Cedar Point try to improve? The crowds are absurd already, and don't seem to be going away, so laziness reigns supreme in the design of the event. Also, it isn't a Cedar Fair issue, since other parks in the chain have put on very entertaining events, making how bad their signature park's event is even more depressing. Even if you have a season pass, it really isn't worth the effort to go to this event. From our travels, this is easily the laziest and least enjoyable amusement park Halloween event to do. Luckily Midnight Syndicate plays at this event, which is the only reason to visit.
3 / 10
