Kings Island: Tricks and Treats & Halloween Haunt

Date of Visit: October, 5th 2024

Built in Mason, Ohio in 1972, Kings Island is an amusement park known for its roller coasters, water park and signature blue ice cream. Since its opening, families have been venturing to experience rides like The Beast, Diamondback and The Racer for a full day of fun. The park has undergone a lot of changes since opening. The children's section has hosted characters from Hannah-Barbera, Nickelodeon and is most recently branded as “Planet Snoopy” featuring all your favorite Peanuts characters. Fan favorite roller coasters such as King Cobra, Firehawk and Son of Beast have sadly been discontinued. Through all of these reinventions, Kings Island has continuously found ways to entice visitors in through their gates. One of their tactics has been featuring special events with themed decorations, games and food. The most popular of these experiences is the “Halloween Haunt”. This past Saturday, we decided to pay a visit to assess both Halloween Haunt and the daytime, kid friendly version “Tricks and Treats”. Below, we will break down the visit by daytime/nighttime attractions, food, merchandise and overall experience.

Daytime attractions: Most of the day-time attractions are located in Planet Snoopy as they are mostly catered to children. Throughout the area are trick or treat stations that are themed along with a “character” to match. Notable were the pirate, Dia de los Muertos, and haunted house stations. The park hands out bags for the kids to collect their candy. The games were renamed “Ghoulish Gamezone” with slight shifts to give them a Halloween element. Rides such as The Boo Blasters on Boo Hill and The Great Pumpkin Coaster are not part of the Halloween event. They are in Planet Snoopy all year round. However, they do add some fall décor to give them added appeal. Pumpkin and mask decorating take place at designated times that can be found on the Kings Island website and signs posted inside.

A stage is set up in front of the famous Eiffel Tower where costume contests are held all through the day. Actors dressed in a Tim Burton fashion host this high energy contest. With names like Sporty, Silly and Scary, the hosts pick kids dressed in costumes that match their names. The cheers of the crowd help determine the final two contestants after which the finalists compete in a heated game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to become the champion. The winner wins a pretty decent prize. The show that we attended left the victor with free fast lane passes for 6, allowing them to skip lines for rides that are sometimes over an hour. This show is extremely fun for both contestants and crowd as the actors are talented and comical in a family friendly way.

Additionally, you can find plenty of photo opportunities in every section you visit. There are a lot of traditional fall decorations (straw, pumpkins and sunflowers) scattered throughout Planet Snoopy. Peanuts characters show up to the stage in the Beagle Scouts play area at designated times for children to interact with and take pictures. There is cemetery scenery on the paths between sections of the park and an eerie haunted carnival theme in the Coney Mall area.

Nighttime attractions: We decided to list out the nighttime attractions by type and ranked from best to least favorite.

Scare Zones Experienced: 

1. Abandoned (In RiverTown, next to Mystic Timbers)

   • This scare has a decent sized area to walk through.

   • Actors walk around with Axes and Chainsaws so if you have an aversion to that, avoid this zone.

   • When you walk fast to avoid the actors with chainsaws, those with axes may come scare you.

   • If you use the opportunity to try to take a selfie in the fog, actors will sneak up on you so flaunt at your own risk.

2. Coney Maul (In Coney Mall)

   • This zone is all clown themed and thus all actors are all some type of evil clown. Those with coulrophobia should steer clear.

   • The area is filled with fog machines to give it a spooky vibe.

3. Hooked (In OktoberFest, next to Viking Fury)

   • This pirate themed scare is another walk through

   • Pirates will ask you if you want to play, call you pretty, and blow in your face. Our germaphobe of the group did not appreciate the latter.

   • Although the area is small leading to a short experience, the decorations very much immerse you in the theme. 

4. Street Fear (On International Street, entrance/exit)

   • This “scare” is essentially actors who walk the streets that connect the sections of the park. Some are pretty good at jump scares. Our only complaint is that we witnessed people tell the actors no multiple times and those wishes were not respected.

Mazes Experienced:

1. Kill Mart (In Coney Mall, Between Zephyr and Kings Mills Antique Autos)

   • Want to go shopping during a zombie apocalypse? Here is your chance!

   • This area had extremely well hidden spots for jump scares and really cool decor.

   • The actors did a good job of spreading out and ensuring they stayed hidden even with the quick pace that people are being sent into the mazes.

2. Slaughter House (In RiverTown, Next to the Beast)

   • Actors get in your face a lot more in this maze than the others and will follow/corner you.

   • There is meat and corpses everywhere making this one of the more gory sections

   •  There are some good jump scares and the park seemed to have purposely chosen actors that will tower over the average person adding to the creepy vibes.

   • The actors will ask if you want to eat meat. No thanks, dudes.

3. Hotel St Michelle (In Coney Mall, back behind Wind Seeker)

   • In this maze styled to resemble a haunted hotel, doors will slam and some creepy animatronics are programmed to scare you. Overall, not much of a thrill compared to some of the above mazes.

4. Madames Cavern of Terror (In RiverTown, across from Auntie Anne’s)

   • This maze is not super accessible as you have to go down a set of stairs to enter.

   •  It is very dark with some good hidden spots for unexpected scares.

   • There seemed to be fewer actors and so fewer scare opportunities.

   • There is a weird strobe light at the end that makes it seem like you are walking in slow motion or in a horror film. Anybody that has issues with strobing lights should avoid.

5. Cornered (In Action Zone, entrance is beside Drop Tower, line starts beside Invertigo and goes behind Congo Falls)

   • This outdoor maze opens at 7 so it isn’t incredibly dark. Therefore, we could see most of the spots that actors were planning pop out of leading to limited scares.

   • We were able to see that the decorations were impressive.

   • There is one really good jump scare (we won't tell you where in case you decide to partake) but that is limited to one or two people. Once we heard those screams, we knew what was coming.

Overall take on the Mazes- Because it is so crowded they send people into the mazes with zero separation detracting from any fear we faced. We could see the groups in front of us so we knew where most of the jump scares would be before we got there. Your average haunted house would do a better job at spacing people out. Some mazes such as Kill Mart and Slaughter House handled the crowds better and were able to disguise their jump scares, leading to their ranking at the top of our list. 

Attractions We Missed:

• Alien X- Scare Zone (In Area 72)

• Alien Abyss- Maze (In Area 72)

• Pumpkin Eater- Scare Zone (In Action Zone, behind Festhaus, path to entrance/exit)

Food: An array of fall themed foods can be found at certain restaurants. Larosa’s Pizza offers a Monster Mash Flatbread complete with potato puree, sour cream, shredded cheese, bacon and green onion. The Sweet Spot is serving up Brain Bleed which is a cake stuffed with strawberry Bavarian cream and a speckled luster glaze on top. The French Corner conjured a Witch’s Pot Pie with a flaky pie crust over smoked turkey and vegetables in a cream sauce. Unfortunately, we couldn’t try EVERY food item in the park and a lot of the specialty items are not sold after 7pm. Below are the items we were able to sample.

Wicked Apple and Sausage Empanada- Located at Enrique’s Cantina, this was a very interesting treat. It offered a savory and sweet combination that worked in every way. The crust was buttery and flaky, the sausage was seasoned perfectly and the balsamic aioli drizzled on top gave the dish a tanginess that helped it hit every flavor element desired. This is one that we highly recommend.

Pumpkin Beignets- Not as adventurous as our first entry but a solid dessert. You really can’t go wrong with fried dough, powdered sugar and pumpkin spice. This treat can be found at International Street Funnel Cakes.

Bride of Frankenstein Waffle Cone- Offered at any of the soft serve stations, this cone is a black and white swirled vanilla ice cream in, you guessed it, a waffle cone. You can also ask for it in a sugar cone or bowl. This treat is really just an aesthetic item because it features no special flavors. However, it also is no more expensive than the ordinary waffle cone, so we say “Go on with your spooky self” and choose this over the signature blue if you are feeling it. But BEWARE: we waited in line at one of the soft serve stations for 40 minutes only to be told at the counter that the ice cream machines were broken. Seeing as how that is the staple of the location, there should have been signs posted or an employee notifying guests in line.

Blood Bags- These alcoholic novelty drinks are located in numerous areas. They are sold in IV bags and offer flavors such as A-Positive (vanilla vodka, pineapple, cranberry and grenadine), Witches Brew (blood orange syrup, sweet and sours, tequila and edible glitter) and Zombie Juice (granny smith apple syrup, pineapple, lemonade and vodka). If you are buying for the taste, these are quite tasty. However, for the $17 price tag, they are extremely weak on alcohol content. That is a pretty steep price to pay for a glorified Capri Sun.

Hand Pulled Pork- Served at Coney’s Bar B Que, this item was not a themed meal but pulled pork is always a good choice. This was served with corn on the cob and hush puppies. We won't exaggerate and say that this meal was incredible but it was a flavorful choice. The corn, with its street corn taste, was smothered in plenty of butter and the hush puppies were as close to perfect as you can get. We also got a side of macaroni and cheese and seasoned ranch potatoes, both of which were as good as advertised. However, pro-tip for any upcoming visitors: When asked if you want a bun for your pulled pork, clarify that you want your pulled pork served ON the bun. Otherwise, your pulled pork will be slapped down on your plate with the bun crammed on top. There was no silverware available at the time we visited and it was next to impossible to get the attention of the slammed employees. We were left with no other choice than to pick the greasy meat up with our hands and place it on the bun. Thank goodness they did have napkins.

Cheese Burger- Served at JukeBox Diner, this burger was exactly as it sounds. It was just a plain burger with cheese served on a toasted bun. It comes with a side of the customers choice–fries or onion rings. The portions are reasonably sized and the onion rings were cooked perfectly. The seating in this area is super packed due to its location so you may not find a table to sit and eat at, so if you go here you may need to be okay with standing to eat or going somewhere else to sit, 

Merchandise: Planet Snoopy has their Halloween and Great Pumpkin merch directly in the center of their shop and the items are incredibly cute. Peanuts Halloween sweatshirts, a mummy Snoopy backpack, and a vampire Snoopy plush were some of our favorites. A gift shop near The Banshee features special Halloween Haunts hats, t-shirts and sweatshirts with some pretty wicked artwork. The most interesting item sold would have to be the interactive lantern. Crafted to resemble an old oil lantern and adorned with a black spider, this lantern reacts to certain areas in the park deemed “cursed locations”. The ad forewarns that the lantern “may even trigger a reaction from the spectral energy that abounds across the park itself!” At the price of $39.99, we will let you make the decision on whether this is a deal but it does add some magic to the experience.

Overall Experience Score: 6.5/10

While we love Kings Island as an amusement park, the focus of our review was on this singular Halloween event experience. With the haunt event starting at 7pm and taking place in the Planet Snoopy area, the day is cut short for families with young children. However, the ticket price does not reflect that. Ticket prices remain the same. When you consider the amount of time a child stands in a ride or event line, this dramatically shortens your day. The yellow jackets were horrible during this visit including a swarm at the top of Orion. They were the worst around trash can areas leading one to believe that they probably should have been emptied more frequently. We hope nobody got stung. On one particularly unpleasant bathroom visit to the men’s restroom, there was feces on the floor. We aren’t sure about the duration that it had been there but it feels like it needs to be mentioned. These in addition to the few negatives mentioned in the food and nighttime attraction section is what contributed to our score.

If you love roller coasters, get-togethers with family/friends and a plethora of food options, we doubt that you will be disappointed with your visit. The Halloween events will just be an added bonus. If you are going strictly for the Halloween events, our advice is to go to a free local fall festival followed by a good, haunted house. You will get a similar experience for a fraction of the cost.