hauntfanatic
10-11-2007, 10:51 AM
After reading so much about the Headless Horseman and seeing it consistently towards the top of the Hauntworld rankings, we decided to take a trip from Philly to upstate New York to check it out. After checking this site, I found that Kevin McCurdy's Haunted Mansion and Skull Island Scream Park were also relatively nearby.
We made a reservation for the Headless Horseman on Friday night for 8:45 PM. After some horrible traffic on the Garden State Parkway, we made it up from Philly to Ulster Park with about 5 minutes to spare. The grounds of the Headless Horseman have a very cool festive atmosphere, and the huge headless horseman animated prop is great. The hayride was very good with some impressive scenes, props and actors. I especially liked the 'Spider Woman'. Apparently the themes here change each year and this year it was some kind of circus sideshow/freakshow theme. After the hayride is a cornwalk and one of those inflatable creatures - I've seen these things in magazines but never walked through one of them. It was HUGE on the inside! I was really surprised how long it took to walk through it. I have to say that its not really that interesting in there, but just fun to think you are walking through this huge inflatable prop. There were two haunted houses at the end of the cornwalk. I thought that both of these were just ok. I was slightly disappointed in them after so much hype about this place. Headless Horseman was good, but not truly worth the high ratings.
Saturday night we went to the Kevin McCurdy's Haunted Mansion in Wappinger Falls, NY pretty early so we could fit both this and the Skull Island Scream Park. We bought the combo pass for $40 that included both attractions. I think we must have been the first two there because we waited for about 10 minutes outside of the house and chatted with the security guard without seeing anyone else around. The guard said that it would take 45 minutes or so to do the entire attraction, but I think it took us about 20-25 minutes. The house had a guide that took you throughout, and we were very impressed by the elaborate scenes. This house was definitely better than the two at the Headless Horseman. The rest of the attraction (outside of the house) was mostly forgettable with outside mazes. There was a cool building themed as a movie theatre there, complete with an animated ghoul in the box office. The building contained some old props and pictures from horror movies. The Haunted Mansion itself was great, but this haunt is a bit overpriced at $25.00. I don't believe there is a price just for the house only, so for overall bang for the buck Headless Horseman is the better deal.
We headed just down the road from the Haunted Mansion to the (apparently new this year) Skull Island Scream Park in Fishkill, NY. It seems odd that these two attractions are so close together, but great for people like us! Before we even parked, my fiancee spotted an elaborate pirate scene just outside of the entrance and remarked 'This place looks great!'. There are five major attractions at Skull Island - Skull Island, Shipwrecked, Pirate Town, Bilge Rats and Davey Jones Locker in 3D. There is also an illusion show which is entertaining (about the quality of a theme park show). We found this attraction to be an exceptionally good value, and also a nice touch that you could do the attractions multiple times. Also, the theme is very different from the typical haunted attraction in that it is based upon pirates. It was pretty dead the night we were there so we went through 3 of the attractions a couple of times. Shipwrecked and Skull Island were our two favorite attractions. Shipwrecked has a very detailed pirate ship facade, and you walk through a large sand lot to get to the entrance - nice touch. It is essentially an indoor walk-through with rooms/scenes, all of which were good. The actors were especially good here and throughout the entire park. Skull Island was also VERY well done and featured several large animatronics which I've never seen before. It is an outdoor attraction, kinda a maze I guess you could say. The only recommendation I would have is to light the King Kong animatronic better at the very end of the maze. Pirate Town was the third maze that was really good. Bilge Rats wasn't so great - it is one of those walk-throughs where you just make your way through cages, with strobe lights and blaring techno music. How on earth do actors work in these things all night with the strobe lights? Davey Jones was a fairly standard 3-D walk through attraction.
So on this trip, Skull Island Scream Park was clearly the standout and I think has actually become one of our top favorite attractions. I hope they do well this year so that we can return in the future. Overall, I would give the Headless Horseman a 7 out of 10, Haunted Mansion a 5 out of 10, and Skull Island a 10 out of 10.
Heading down to Busch Gardens and King's Dominion in Virginia this weekend so hope to report on these amusement park haunts next week.
Happy Hauntings!
We made a reservation for the Headless Horseman on Friday night for 8:45 PM. After some horrible traffic on the Garden State Parkway, we made it up from Philly to Ulster Park with about 5 minutes to spare. The grounds of the Headless Horseman have a very cool festive atmosphere, and the huge headless horseman animated prop is great. The hayride was very good with some impressive scenes, props and actors. I especially liked the 'Spider Woman'. Apparently the themes here change each year and this year it was some kind of circus sideshow/freakshow theme. After the hayride is a cornwalk and one of those inflatable creatures - I've seen these things in magazines but never walked through one of them. It was HUGE on the inside! I was really surprised how long it took to walk through it. I have to say that its not really that interesting in there, but just fun to think you are walking through this huge inflatable prop. There were two haunted houses at the end of the cornwalk. I thought that both of these were just ok. I was slightly disappointed in them after so much hype about this place. Headless Horseman was good, but not truly worth the high ratings.
Saturday night we went to the Kevin McCurdy's Haunted Mansion in Wappinger Falls, NY pretty early so we could fit both this and the Skull Island Scream Park. We bought the combo pass for $40 that included both attractions. I think we must have been the first two there because we waited for about 10 minutes outside of the house and chatted with the security guard without seeing anyone else around. The guard said that it would take 45 minutes or so to do the entire attraction, but I think it took us about 20-25 minutes. The house had a guide that took you throughout, and we were very impressed by the elaborate scenes. This house was definitely better than the two at the Headless Horseman. The rest of the attraction (outside of the house) was mostly forgettable with outside mazes. There was a cool building themed as a movie theatre there, complete with an animated ghoul in the box office. The building contained some old props and pictures from horror movies. The Haunted Mansion itself was great, but this haunt is a bit overpriced at $25.00. I don't believe there is a price just for the house only, so for overall bang for the buck Headless Horseman is the better deal.
We headed just down the road from the Haunted Mansion to the (apparently new this year) Skull Island Scream Park in Fishkill, NY. It seems odd that these two attractions are so close together, but great for people like us! Before we even parked, my fiancee spotted an elaborate pirate scene just outside of the entrance and remarked 'This place looks great!'. There are five major attractions at Skull Island - Skull Island, Shipwrecked, Pirate Town, Bilge Rats and Davey Jones Locker in 3D. There is also an illusion show which is entertaining (about the quality of a theme park show). We found this attraction to be an exceptionally good value, and also a nice touch that you could do the attractions multiple times. Also, the theme is very different from the typical haunted attraction in that it is based upon pirates. It was pretty dead the night we were there so we went through 3 of the attractions a couple of times. Shipwrecked and Skull Island were our two favorite attractions. Shipwrecked has a very detailed pirate ship facade, and you walk through a large sand lot to get to the entrance - nice touch. It is essentially an indoor walk-through with rooms/scenes, all of which were good. The actors were especially good here and throughout the entire park. Skull Island was also VERY well done and featured several large animatronics which I've never seen before. It is an outdoor attraction, kinda a maze I guess you could say. The only recommendation I would have is to light the King Kong animatronic better at the very end of the maze. Pirate Town was the third maze that was really good. Bilge Rats wasn't so great - it is one of those walk-throughs where you just make your way through cages, with strobe lights and blaring techno music. How on earth do actors work in these things all night with the strobe lights? Davey Jones was a fairly standard 3-D walk through attraction.
So on this trip, Skull Island Scream Park was clearly the standout and I think has actually become one of our top favorite attractions. I hope they do well this year so that we can return in the future. Overall, I would give the Headless Horseman a 7 out of 10, Haunted Mansion a 5 out of 10, and Skull Island a 10 out of 10.
Heading down to Busch Gardens and King's Dominion in Virginia this weekend so hope to report on these amusement park haunts next week.
Happy Hauntings!