Halloween Haunt At Kings Island

Halloween Haunt is back after missing it in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. Describe me as excited in every way because I felt this event ranks among my favorite things to do during the fall. I went twice, once on opening night and another time during the day with family so they could experience it also. The difference between day and night is fairly extreme I would find. During the day the park rolls out fun games and not so scary characters for the children to view. I try to go every year. If I were younger I’d go every weekend with friends if possible.

The games are a lot of fun I should add. One of our favorites involved a scavenger hunt, where we ventured around the park taking pictures of candy that we would later show to a park attendant and receive a button. I found this fun. When you visit a place multiple times it is fun to switch things up a little and this gave us a fun thing to do as a family. Each station provided a QR code that loaded a PDF that offered clues to the next station you needed to visit. Honestly after awhile we stopped reading the story offered because they were too long and skipped down to the bold line that told us where the next could be found. Other than the scavenger hunt, we played a few other kid games and spent some time in the arcade winning tickets that we turned in for some toys.

This year we did not go into any haunted houses or rides with an enclosed area, sticking to outside mazes. We are not entirely comfortable with that yet, but perhaps next year we will enjoy that again. Food and drink offerings this year also interested me. KI rolled out a tasting menu and I did try as much as I could find, however, some fried items were raw in the middle (taken out of fryer too soon). They did seem to struggle with under-staffing so I cut them slack. I should add the cocktails this year were tasty. I tried the “Zombie Juice”, a fairly sweet concoction that came in what looks like a blood bag. I liked the color of it so that is why I chose it.

Fridays as usual are the best time to go to Haunt, which starts later in the day. Any day is probably good for the kids, but if they are small enough make sure you get them out before Haunt starts as it can be a little intense for them.