Halloween Events at the Merlin UK Attractions

With the smell of Pumpkin Spice in the air and all the flavoured coffees available at Starbucks, Costa and even Greggs, we know we are vastly approaching the Halloween season!

Our daughter is not a massive fan of the Spooky and Jump Scare Halloween season but loves the sweets when Trick or Treating (obviously) and a not so scary Halloween.

The Merlin Attractions around the UK cater for both types of Halloween lovers, and I will go through the upcoming events, where we will be visiting this year and what we recommend for the Halloween adrenaline junkies to the more cautious Halloween goers.

Alton Towers Scarefest (7^th, 8^th & 13^th-31^st October 2023)

For a few years now, Alton Towers have put on Scarefest around the Halloween period. They offer Thrilling Frights which include 5 different types of attractions (adding 2 new attractions this year) and Family Frights for younger families and children and the Alton Towers Dungeons (which is there all year round)

These Thrilling Fright attractions are:

• Daz Games: PANIC! (NEW)
• Altonville Mine Tours: Tiny’s Revenge (NEW)
• The Invitation
• The Attic: Terror of the Towers
• Darkest Depths

https://www.altontowers.com/explore/events/scarefest/thrilling-frights/

All of these attractions are recommended for visitors aged 12+. All of these are an extra charge and discounts can be had as Merlin Passholder.

Daz Games is priced at £10 (£8 as a Passholder). Altonville Mine Tours, The Invitation, The Attic and Darkest Depths can be grouped together and costs £34 (£27.20 as a Passholder).

Also, there is a new outdoor scare zone near the Wicker Man, also new for 2023 called Burial Grounds, which looks free and looks like good fun.

For the younger visitors to Alton Towers they offer a more lowkey Halloween experience, like CBeebies Land Monster Ball, Freaky Fun Zone, The Alton Ancestors (who are great fun and turn up every so often to dance and sing) and also Trick O’Treat Town Sponsored by Haribo.

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At an extra cost of £12 (£9.60 as a Passholder).

https://www.altontowers.com/explore/events/scarefest/family-fun/

We did the Trick O’Treat Town last year, and we enjoyed the experience. Our daughter got a bit scared, and the actors could see her distress and acted accordingly which we thought was lovely and put her mind at ease. I came away thinking they probably should and could have got more sweets considering the extra cost, but I think we were being overly critical.

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Chessington World of Adventures Howl’O’ween (7^th, 8^th, 14^th-30^th October 2023)

Every year Chessington offer up a really good mix of family friendly Halloween activities and a couple Thrill Seeking attractions. This year looks no different, with a new addition for 2023 of the Enchanted Hollow. The description suggests an unearthed underground town complete with Post Office, Mayor’s House and Sweet Shop and locals are all ready to treat the visitors. It is at an extra cost of £10.

Alongside this new attraction there are shows all day around the main stage, fancy dress competitions and much more.

Also, there is the return of the Vile Villagers located by the Wild Woods and they are there for more jump scaring and something I think we will be avoiding lol.

https://www.chessington.com/explore/events/halloween/

We will be attending Chessington over the Halloween period and are really looking forward to checking out the new Enchanted Hollow and going on a couple of the rides at dark.

Legoland Winsor Brick or Treat (28^th September – 5^th November 2023)

Our favourite place to visit last year for Halloween is Legoland.  Lego offer the Brick or Treat event which has become a yearly staple for most families. The event is really focused on the kids and is such great fun!

There are plenty of things to do in Legoland which include checking out the 4D movie, ‘The Great Monster Chase!’, which the Monster Jam show on the newly refurbished Harbour (which was so much fun last year) and finally there is Monster Street.

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Monster Street is walkthrough experience which is well themed and offers the visitors sweets and some gifts to take home – which is always a lovely touch! At no extra cost, this experience stuck in my mind from last year and is somewhere we will be pencilling in for every year to come.

Alongside all these extras, there are so many great photo opportunities around the park, and you can also get to meet a couple of the Halloween rockers (they are part of the Monster Jam show and the 4D Movie) These characters include Wolf Guy, Tiger Woman, Zombie Cheerleader and Square Foot.

The theming and decorations around the park are good and extensive, they definitely go all out and with the photo opportunities it makes walking around the park enjoyable.

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We will be attaining the Brick or Treat event and we honestly can not wait! Our daughter and my husband are super excited.

https://www.legoland.co.uk/explore/special-events/brick-or-treat/

Thorpe Park Fright Nights (6^th-31^st October 2023)

Having seen Vlogs and other content from Thorpe Park’s Halloween events, is it not for us as a family. The attractions look amazing and heavily themed and genuinely scary. They offer up a lot of Scare Mazes and scare attractions and they also have new attractions for 2023.

The Scare Mazes are:

• Stitches (NEW)
• Trailers
• Survival Games

All of these can be booked as a package for other during the day (3pm-6pm) or in the evening (6pm-9pm)

The Scare Shows / Zones are:

• Lucifer’s Lair (NEW)
• The Crows of Mawkin Meadow
• Death’s Doors
• Creature Campus

These shows / zones can be purchased as a package also and are booked during the day or in the evening too.

https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/events/halloween-fright-nights/what-s-on/#tickets

Warwick Castle The Haunted Castle (21^st October – 5^th November 2023)

Warwick Castle offer up a nice number of activities and shows for the kids over the Halloween period. There is a Dead Centre Stage which offers visitors to sing and dance with characters in fun and interactive family shows throughout the day. The Witches Den is back for this year and the Witches of Warwick practise their poisonous potions and cackles with the visitors. Spooky Schools is perfect for little monsters looking to learn to catch ghouls and causing mayhem. The castle is also decorated heavily with cobwebs and creatures hanging from the walls.

Around the castle grounds there are the Haunted Hollows which includes a spooky Halloween trail. There is also The Castle Dungeon which is available for an additional charge.

Warwick Castle looks like a great day out for the family for this Haunted Castle event.

https://www.warwick-castle.com/explore/events/the-haunted-castle/

Our Recommendations:

For this year, we will be attending Legoland Winsor and Chessington World of Adventures, we have booked the addition of the Enchanted Hollow walkthrough. We are really looking forward to seeing the theming at both parks and seeing how much effort they will go to.

We also would love to see these parks making an effort with the themed foods and snacks.

Legoland have recently opened a dessert restaurant near the Dragon roller-coaster and would love if they had some Halloween themed options for this period.

We would recommend checking these 2 parks out if your kids are a little bit scared or jumpy, as they are way more lowkey and more child friendly.

Whereas if you want a bit more of a thrilling experience, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park would be the best options as they seem to cater for the more extreme experience.

Having researched this article, I think Warwick Castle would be a great experience for younger children and if we had more time over this period, we would 100% being making the trip there.