Halloween Haunt Ending at Multiple Cedar Fair Parks: A Brand New Tricks and Treats Full-Park Experience to Debut in 2022

[mtorange]

An honest PSA: My sincere apologies for the somewhat clickbait-y headline, I just want to have my bases covered if this expands to more than just the two parks mentioned below (which is rumored to happen, according to CP Food Blog).

Halloween Haunt is no more… at California’s Great America and Valleyfair, that is. To quote directly from the park websites, “Halloween celebrations at Valleyfair [and California’s Great America] are transforming in 2022 as we say goodbye to Halloween Haunt and introduce Tricks and Treats, our all-new, over-the-top, larger-than-life, gotta-be-there Halloween event with all fun and no fright.”

To be VERY clear, this is super different than the Tricks and Treats Fall Fest that has been taking place at Cedar Point and Kings Island since 2020 and was recently announced to be coming to Kings Dominion and Carowinds. This version of Tricks and Treats is a park-wide event with decor, lights, shows, games, and activities for family members of all ages. Think of it as a Halloween version of WinterFest.

There’s an interesting twist: half of the park will be decorated with a Treats theme, a fall festival with no scary stuff in sight, and the other have is a Tricks theme, where the decor will be slightly spookier, but still not scary. I’m thinking this means the Land of Tricks side will have traditional Haunt decor with no blood, gore, or scareactors. Similar to WinterFest, each part of the park will have a different theme. The Land of Tricks areas will be themed to zombies, a 1920s village with graveyards and skeletons, and science fiction, while the Land of Treats section will be themed to a renaissance fair, a candy land, and an autumn fall festival.

Still not convinced this is worthy of replacing Haunt? Just look at the concept art. It looks absolutely, breathtakingly, and horrifyingly beautiful!

Do you see this being expanded to any other Cedar Fair parks? Would you visit an event like this? I can imagine that this decision will make some people very upset, and while I would never myself want Halloween Haunt to be cancelled at Kings Dominion, I would LOVE to see this level of decor in Planet Snoopy during the Tricks and Treats Fall Festival this season.

More information can be found here: https://www.cagreatamerica.com/events/tricks-and-treats

 

[horsesboy]

An honest PSA: My sincere apologies for the somewhat clickbait-y headline, I just want to have my bases covered if this expands to more than just the two parks mentioned below (which is rumored to happen, according to CP Food Blog).

Halloween Haunt is no more… at California’s Great America and Valleyfair, that is. To quote directly from the park websites, “Halloween celebrations at Valleyfair [and California’s Great America] are transforming in 2022 as we say goodbye to Halloween Haunt and introduce Tricks and Treats, our all-new, over-the-top, larger-than-life, gotta-be-there Halloween event with all fun and no fright.”

To be VERY clear, this is super different than the Tricks and Treats Fall Fest that has been taking place at Cedar Point and Kings Island since 2020 and was recently announced to be coming to Kings Dominion and Carowinds. This version of Tricks and Treats is a park-wide event with decor, lights, shows, games, and activities for family members of all ages. Think of it as a Halloween version of WinterFest.

There’s an interesting twist: half of the park will be decorated with a Treats theme, a fall festival with no scary stuff in sight, and the other have is a Tricks theme, where the decor will be slightly spookier, but still not scary. I’m thinking this means the Land of Tricks side will have traditional Haunt decor with no blood, gore, or scareactors. Similar to WinterFest, each part of the park will have a different theme. The Land of Tricks areas will be themed to zombies, a 1920s village with graveyards and skeletons, and science fiction, while the Land of Treats section will be themed to a renaissance fair, a candy land, and an autumn fall festival.

Still not convinced this is worthy of replacing Haunt? Just look at the concept art. It looks absolutely, breathtakingly, and horrifyingly beautiful!

Do you see this being expanded to any other Cedar Fair parks? Would you visit an event like this? I can imagine that this decision will make some people very upset, and while I would never myself want Halloween Haunt to be cancelled at Kings Dominion, I would LOVE to see this level of decor in Planet Snoopy during the Tricks and Treats Fall Festival this season.

More information can be found here: https://www.cagreatamerica.com/events/tricks-and-treats

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Mixed feelings on this. Last year I went to Dollywood's Fall event that these look like they are modeled after and had a really nice time. That said Haunt has such a great history and following and is such a big draw that I honestly think that replacing it with something like this would be a major PR disaster and would likely see a sharp down turn in admissions. I mean personally while I liked Dollywood's event I would never really envision multiply trips even if it was a local to me.

 

[CoasterAuditor]

Yeah I hope KD keeps Haunt for sure. I loved going there last October it was so cool for 2021.

 

[Jonesta6]

Off with their heads! Yay good theming design and whatnot, but I'll bet many guests coming will be disappointed when there's no houses or scare actors. Granted, a few others will be happy and families with younger kids will be more likely to visit during regular scare hours since there won't be scares.

 

[rswashdc]

Yeah I hope KD keeps Haunt for sure. I loved going there last October it was so cool for 2021.

Can’t imagine KD would change out Haunt. It’s a massively packed event and I can’t imagine they aren’t making good money from it.

 

[PNDS]

Not another blow for KD......then Again Tumbili may help, but I doubt it'll be too much of an impact

 

[mtorange]

Not another blow for KD......then Again Tumbili may help, but I doubt it'll be too much of an impact

To be VERY clear, this is not coming to KD at this time. They have already announced that Haunt will be returning this season. It is by far and away the park’s most consistently successful event, and they would be crazy to get rid of it.

 

[PNDS]

To be VERY clear, this is not coming to KD at this time. They have already announced that Haunt will be returning this season. It is by far and away the park’s most consistently successful event, and they would be crazy to get rid of it.

Oh, thats good. I was under the assumption that they would start announcing it for all the parks. I was also unaware they had already announced Haunt's return next year (I guess this year). Im scared we have the Volcano replacement and then we're done if thats unsuccessful. Done as in World's of Fun in VA with two (hopefully 3 with Volcano replacement) top 20 coasters.

 

[horsesboy]

To be VERY clear, this is not coming to KD at this time. They have already announced that Haunt will be returning this season. It is by far and away the park’s most consistently successful event, and they would be crazy to get rid of it.

yeah I know we have T least this year but given CF's history of making all parks uniform in events I worry about next year

 

[bill s]

If they could make it so it looks like you're in a cartoon, that would be terrific, otherwise lame and kiddie. Everyone walking around with pumpkins? I do believe in Halloween miracles... I've heard KD's Haunt pays their entire year's expenses, and business aside, it's a truly great event.

 

[S23X]

It’s also probably worth mentioning that the only cedar fair parks that have halloween haunt explicitly listed under the season pass benefits for 2022 are KD, Carowinds, and Canadas Wonderland. The Knotts website does have the dates for Knotts Scary Farm listed. Carowinds and KD also have dates listed too.
https://www.knotts.com/events/scary-farm
https://www.kingsdominion.com/events/haunt
https://www.carowinds.com/events/scarowinds
https://www.canadaswonderland.com/season-passes
All the other cedar fair parks don’t list Halloween haunt on their website or as a season pass benefit at all. It probably doesn’t mean that some of these parks won’t have Halloween haunt returning, but I think that cedar fair may be plannnig to bring this tricks or treats experience to more than CA great America and valley fair this upcoming fall season.

 

[mtorange]

It’s also probably worth mentioning that the only cedar fair parks that have halloween haunt explicitly listed under the season pass benefits for 2022 are KD, Carowinds, and Canadas Wonderland. The Knotts website does have the dates for Knotts Scary Farm listed. Carowinds and KD also have dates listed too.
https://www.knotts.com/events/scary-farm
https://www.kingsdominion.com/events/haunt
https://www.carowinds.com/events/scarowinds
https://www.canadaswonderland.com/season-passes
All the other cedar fair parks don’t list Halloween haunt on their website or as a season pass benefit at all. It probably doesn’t mean that some of these parks won’t have Halloween haunt returning, but I think that cedar fair may be plannnig to bring this tricks or treats experience to more than CA great America and valley fair this upcoming fall season.

After doing some additional research, Canada’s Wonderland does have their 2022 dates listed. So do Dorney Park, Kings Island, and Worlds of Fun, but you have to search for their specific Haunt pages to see the dates. However, Cedar Point still has their 2021 dates listed on their Haunt page, which makes me wonder if Cedar Point could get Tricks and Treats while Kings Island down the road has Halloween Haunt, which won’t be going away anything soon since their event just won USA Today’s contest—something that they regularly mention in their press releases.

 

[Coasternerd]

I won’t be a fan if KD does away with Haunt. It really is amazing event, and the atmosphere there is amazing. If they do this Tricks and Treats thing there I won’t really like it. I’ve actually been preferring Haunt to HOS in recent years because they are doing Haunt better than BG is doing HOS.

 

[Diamond Dave]

After spending at least two nights at both Haunt and HOS last year, I would put Haunt's newer houses at a level closer to HHN at Universal. They had a lot more detail than what Busch has been doing in their houses the past few years.

 

[mtorange]

Does anyone happen to know how successful these events were at CGA and Valleyfair? I don’t remember really seeing much of anything about either event during the Haunt season last year, and I wonder if it was even successful enough for a return in 2023?

 

[warfelg]

Does anyone happen to know how successful these events were at CGA and Valleyfair? I don’t remember really seeing much of anything about either event during the Haunt season last year, and I wonder if it was even successful enough for a return in 2023?

Depends what consider success right? Would they be willing to take a small hit in exchange for less incidents in the park? Is it about spending less in small parks but getting the operating days still? Or is it really just a slow roll of something bigger?

Personally I think it’s just going to be smaller parks going to this so they don’t spend as much on the park for minimal returns.

 

[netdvn]

Yes the events were very successful and will continue through this year. Idk if it'll carry over to other CF parks right now.

CGA closing soon probably helped their event take off.

Valleyfair couldn't handle the crowds Haunt was bringing in, so they scaled back their event. Will Haunt return in the future? Maybe, but they'll need to upgrade the park to accommodate heavier crowds. Same goes for them getting a new coaster.