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I went up to skull island scream park (www.skullislandscreampark.com) this past weekend (Oct 13, 2007). While it had a neat atmosphere, and was well intertwined with the splash down water park scenery, I don't think it was worth the hype I have heard. There was 5 haunted attractions and a stage show called Escape that was mostly illusion and magic escapes.
Ship wrecked haunted house:
This house has a great facade being that of a full boat hull. There is also great detail and set design in this house. I would say this is the best attraction at the event. Some decent actors inside the house, and nice lighting. The best scene by far due to the detail is the main pirate cabin (typically found on the back of a boat). This attraction was very short though. We wanted to catch the Escape show at 9pm, and had not entered the attraction until around 8:50pm. We were out of the house and sitting in our seats for the show, with 5 minutes to spare. I feel that even if you didn't get scarred, if the place was detailed or interesting to walk through, or made you feel like you were in another world, then it was worth it. This is one haunt that while it wasn't very scary the detail and scenic themeing make it the top attraction at the event.
Pirate Town haunted house:
This was my 2nd most favorite house at the event. It was a good length and had some great sets. Not as much detail as in shipwrecked, but overall quite good. This house is more outside then it is inside like the other houses. The only bad part about this house was the lack of actors, they could have used an extra 5-6 actors in this house, and it would have been a better experience. While walking through the maze you could see places they had designed for actors to hide in/jump out of, yet no one was there.
Davy Jones Locked in 3D:
This 3d haunted attraction wasn't my favorite. While the graphics and artwork that went into this attraction was quite unbelievable, it really didn't seem to fit in with the pirate theme. It did give you that under water feel, however, i think they could have better emphasized the 3d effect. Again very few actors in this house.
Skull Island haunted house:
This was a weird house in the fact that it was mostly a long straight forward path with some twists and turns here and there. This house is the only one that really uses any animatronics, and most are huge, so huge that they have to put them across water rides on the other side of the haunted house your walking through. This gives you a disconnected feeling and really isn't that scary. Not much detail in this haunt. Many places that could have been an excellent place to scare from were underused, and empty.
Bilge Rats:
This was the last haunted house and I have to say, what a waste. The facade is somewhat neat, but nothing to gawk at. This whole attraction is basically a prison type bar maze, with tons of strobes, hard music, and nothing to look at. The night we went there was only one actor in the whole maze (a girl, not saying girls cant be scary, but she was about 16 and half my size). This maze then leads to a total pitch black maze that was a scAir Structure. I had never been in one of these before and was interested to see how they feel inside. While they are very neat, i think they did not utilize them to there fullest. It was a waste to not put anything inside and just use it as a black out maze. Again there were maybe 1-2 actors in this part.
Overall, I really enjoyed Shipwrecked and Pirates Town. The other 3 houses could use help. Perhaps this has to do with the limited space at splashdown water park. I understand not really being able to build what you want and how big you want to, because there is just no room. We went on a Saturday night at 8:30pm, you would think this would be a prime time to attend, however they were extremely limited in their actors. Each house had maybe 5-6 actors with the exception of Bilge Rats that had 3 (I counted). Most of the actors who were outside of the houses controlling the lines etc did NOT stay in character and it was somewhat sad. One guy outside of shipwrecked made 10 of us go in all together because he was "just tired and really wanted to go home." That is exactly what he said to us. Another pirate outside just didn't feel like going through his spiel.
For $25.00/person I expected a little more. The Escape illusion show was cute, but the magician was trying to act too much like johnny depp to really draw you into it. I would have enjoyed it more if he just came up with his own pirate act, then trying to improvise and already well known act from the movies. I think as a family event this could do well, most kids would enjoy being able to roam in a somewhat small space of splash down water park, while still being safe and having a great time. If your really into haunted houses and getting scarred I am not sure I could recommend this event. Its neat, and the two houses mentioned above, Shipwrecked and Pirates Town have something to offer, other than Shipwrecked being relatively short its still my favorite there with quite an amazing facade. If your doing a pirate theme this year for your haunt, you should try to see pictures of their facade.
Ship wrecked haunted house:
This house has a great facade being that of a full boat hull. There is also great detail and set design in this house. I would say this is the best attraction at the event. Some decent actors inside the house, and nice lighting. The best scene by far due to the detail is the main pirate cabin (typically found on the back of a boat). This attraction was very short though. We wanted to catch the Escape show at 9pm, and had not entered the attraction until around 8:50pm. We were out of the house and sitting in our seats for the show, with 5 minutes to spare. I feel that even if you didn't get scarred, if the place was detailed or interesting to walk through, or made you feel like you were in another world, then it was worth it. This is one haunt that while it wasn't very scary the detail and scenic themeing make it the top attraction at the event.
Pirate Town haunted house:
This was my 2nd most favorite house at the event. It was a good length and had some great sets. Not as much detail as in shipwrecked, but overall quite good. This house is more outside then it is inside like the other houses. The only bad part about this house was the lack of actors, they could have used an extra 5-6 actors in this house, and it would have been a better experience. While walking through the maze you could see places they had designed for actors to hide in/jump out of, yet no one was there.
Davy Jones Locked in 3D:
This 3d haunted attraction wasn't my favorite. While the graphics and artwork that went into this attraction was quite unbelievable, it really didn't seem to fit in with the pirate theme. It did give you that under water feel, however, i think they could have better emphasized the 3d effect. Again very few actors in this house.
Skull Island haunted house:
This was a weird house in the fact that it was mostly a long straight forward path with some twists and turns here and there. This house is the only one that really uses any animatronics, and most are huge, so huge that they have to put them across water rides on the other side of the haunted house your walking through. This gives you a disconnected feeling and really isn't that scary. Not much detail in this haunt. Many places that could have been an excellent place to scare from were underused, and empty.
Bilge Rats:
This was the last haunted house and I have to say, what a waste. The facade is somewhat neat, but nothing to gawk at. This whole attraction is basically a prison type bar maze, with tons of strobes, hard music, and nothing to look at. The night we went there was only one actor in the whole maze (a girl, not saying girls cant be scary, but she was about 16 and half my size). This maze then leads to a total pitch black maze that was a scAir Structure. I had never been in one of these before and was interested to see how they feel inside. While they are very neat, i think they did not utilize them to there fullest. It was a waste to not put anything inside and just use it as a black out maze. Again there were maybe 1-2 actors in this part.
Overall, I really enjoyed Shipwrecked and Pirates Town. The other 3 houses could use help. Perhaps this has to do with the limited space at splashdown water park. I understand not really being able to build what you want and how big you want to, because there is just no room. We went on a Saturday night at 8:30pm, you would think this would be a prime time to attend, however they were extremely limited in their actors. Each house had maybe 5-6 actors with the exception of Bilge Rats that had 3 (I counted). Most of the actors who were outside of the houses controlling the lines etc did NOT stay in character and it was somewhat sad. One guy outside of shipwrecked made 10 of us go in all together because he was "just tired and really wanted to go home." That is exactly what he said to us. Another pirate outside just didn't feel like going through his spiel.
For $25.00/person I expected a little more. The Escape illusion show was cute, but the magician was trying to act too much like johnny depp to really draw you into it. I would have enjoyed it more if he just came up with his own pirate act, then trying to improvise and already well known act from the movies. I think as a family event this could do well, most kids would enjoy being able to roam in a somewhat small space of splash down water park, while still being safe and having a great time. If your really into haunted houses and getting scarred I am not sure I could recommend this event. Its neat, and the two houses mentioned above, Shipwrecked and Pirates Town have something to offer, other than Shipwrecked being relatively short its still my favorite there with quite an amazing facade. If your doing a pirate theme this year for your haunt, you should try to see pictures of their facade.