Over the next few days, John Carroll University students and other fans of fear will have a handful of chances to get to Cedar Point and experience HalloWeekends 2024. From record-breaking coasters to heart-wrenching haunted houses and events in between, there is a lot to see at this year’s Halloween festivities.
What are HalloWeekends?
HalloWeekends are Cedar Points last days of operation when they add a haunted twist to their rides and entertainment.
The park itself has 17 operational roller coasters, with traditional carnival game parlors, beachside boardwalks, and a 145-foot-tall Ferris wheel. It looks out over Lake Erie, with views south towards Sandusky and north peeking into Ontario. Though there is a plethora to enjoy, including 58 different restaurants and dining options, the park’s greatest October asset is its “Scare Zones.”
Scares and Haunts of HalloWeekend
There are five indoor scare mazes and five outdoor scaring experiences. “Bloodbath” and “Midnight” are the staple indoor attractions and invite park-goers to run the gauntlet of Club Orpheus’ murder-hungry members. At the same time “Midnight” seeks to vex victims into becoming permanent editions of Mr. Midnight’s magical mansion. “Slaughterhouse” and “Eerie Estate” both stay true to genre norms and are stocked full of murderous meat cleavers, and Victorian-era ghouls, though the greatest twists come with “Feargrounds Freakshow” where *spoiler alert* you have to watch out for Professor Pit’s menacing monkeys.
Outdoor mazes and scare experiences include “Blood on the Bayou” a New Orleans swampy-scare factory, “Cut Throat Cove” with pirates walking the plank, and “Clownz: The Hall of Infamy.” Also, there is a more relaxed horror zone for those twenty-one plus, in the Tombstone Terror-tory” a western-style scream experience, with boozy “snake oil” sold near the entrance and there is the main outdoor attraction of “Cornstalkers Maze 2.0: Revenge of the Pumpkin Heads” Which not only is the largest haunted attraction at HalloWeekends but throws participants into the deep end of the lost corn maze, escaping the orange-headed ghouls of turned park guest that who never left…
Aidan Husleman ‘25, who had the chance to go to HalloWeekends this year said “It was a great first time! The rides were incredible, and the haunted houses, especially haunted Frontier Land (where the outdoor haunts are located) was really fun!” adding that HalloWeekends is “worth seeing again in 2025.”
For those worried about the intensity of the exhibits, they are all rated on a scale of one to five, with one being completely family-friendly. And for anyone worried about haunters getting too handsy (yes they can touch you) feel free to grab a glow-in-the-dark “No Boo Necklace” letting staff know you are “off-limits”—though this is almost sixteen dollars extra.
Frightful Finales
Though the weekends have seen thousands of visitors from across the area and beyond since opening this September, the final dates are coming up for HalloWeekends 2024. The park will be open from Thursday, 6 p.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight and Sunday 11 a.m. -8 p.m. from Oct. 17 through Oct. 27. Unfortunately, on the day of Halloween, the park will be closed, though on Friday, Nov. 1, and Saturday, Nov. 2, HalloWeekend will be in full swing from 11 a.m. to midnight.
