[Haunts] The 2015 Dorney Park Halloween Haunt Insider's Survival Guide!

Well, we've already gone over everything coming to this year's Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park, but now it's time to give you all the inside scoop on the best way to go about making the best of your time while there. With so much going on, I'm going to try and give you the best game plan I can to make the event a fun one for you and your group!

This year's event features a couple of new additions to the maze line up, and some other changes. We'll be there to report on things first hand on September 19th, but going to do my best to guide you through things before that in the best way possible and give some insight to some things that you may or may not know about as well.

Notice: We haven't been to the event this year, so we're not sure what any of these attractions will offer, how good they will actually be, or anything like that. Keep that in mind when reading this, as things could change after our visit on September 19th. If anything does change, I'll make sure to note it here and of course in our review of the event afterwards as well.

First up, the easy stuff. Figuring out when you're going to go and of course getting tickets. This year, Halloween Haunt will run for 15 nights between September 18th and October 31st.

Dorney Park and Halloween Haunt will be open on Fridays from 6pm to Midnight, Saturdays from 11am to Midnight and one Sunday, October 11th from 11am to 11pm. Remember that Halloween Haunt does not start until 6pm, so on Saturdays and that one Sunday, you'll get to enjoy Snoopy's Halloween Party for a less scary, family friendly experience.

It's not a ton of nights that they're open, so that will add to the crunch of crowds a bit, but it shouldn't be too bad. Still get 15 nights of a pretty awesome event, so that's something at least. Now, if you're going, here's the run down on ticket prices this year!

There's a variety of ticket prices and combos that you can take advantage of for this year as well. Some of them are bundled with dinner options and Fright Lane and the like.

So, they might be something to think about there but before we get to that, here's the other options being offered for this year.

The first of these is opening night. Sure, things can be a little rough around the edges as things get ironed out a little bit, but usually it's still just as good a show as any other. Friday, September 18th, the park is having their Zombie Invasion night where tickets are just $27.00.

Also, the rest of September, you can get into the fun for just $32.00 as well. Not a bad deal if you're looking to get your scare on with some smaller crowds and all. The closer you get to Halloween, the more crowded things are going to get. Though, if you can't make it, regular tickets for Halloween Haunt are just $37.00. Not a huge price jump, but again, the crowds can be an issue later on in the season.

There's a few more options and deals you can take advantage of online at the official site, like the VIP Mansion Hotel Meal and Fright Feast as well. You should definitely think about them for this year if you're heading to the park this Fall for some thrills and chills as they offer up some great value and options that you won't get any other way.

Back once again for 2015 is the Mansion House Meal. This is a great deal and was truly one of the top moments we've ever experienced during Haunt Tour last year. This year Executive Chef Jan Giejda is back at it once again with an incredible menu.

Not only an amazing dinner, but you also get to dine inside the Mansion House Hotel maze. Yep, that's right, in one of the haunts with various characters. I could go on about this forever, it's just that cool.

All of that sounds pretty awesome, and knowing how it was last year? Gonna be phenomenal. Chef Giejda works some serious magic for this one.

The really cool thing about this is that the $99 price includes not only dinner, but admission to Haunt and Fright Lane passes. If you do the math, it's a great deal and very much worth it. However, space is limited to just 24 seats a night, so book early!

Also up on the food front this year is the Fright Feast, a less expensive option and with a little more flexibility on price at that. However, it doesn't offer up all the perks as the VIP experience. Of course, if you can't into that one, there's plenty of room here. 

As you can tell, it's an all you can buffet style deal that also gives you admission to the park as well as a single front of the line pass for Asylum, Blackout, or Chamber of Horrors for $42.99. You can get just the meal for $18.99 as well.

We haven't had this one here, but we have at Kings Island and, again, with Chef Giejda overseeing things? You know the quality is gonna be good and all you can eat is never a bad thing if you're hungry!

So far that's just the food, but they also offer a bit extra in the way of cost savings and options to get into some attractions without waiting in line. While they're not for everyone, it's definitely something to consider to save some money, time, and probably have a more enjoyable night overall in the long run.

Also, if you think it's going to be busy, and want to get in on the extra scares and experiences that Fright Lane offer, should decide on that one early if you can. The do run out of them at times and while this guide isn't exactly for those with that, it can make things all the more fun from our past experience at the park. This year's Fright Lane + Skeleton Key runs $35-$50 depending on what night you hit the park up.
 

Now that you're in and ready to get swallowed by the madness, let's take a look at the map and figure out a plan of attack that will work best.

As you can tell, things are a bit spread out this year and grouped together in clusters that should make things a bit easier to navigate and plan for. Given the layout of Dorney, there's no real easy to do this, and Fridays will definitely be different than Saturdays but let's give it a go and see how this shakes out. Also, I'm not going to focus on scare zones, as you'll get to them as you go through, but I'll mention them with the breakdown.

If you have Fright Lane, you should be able to do things however you want with out issue. If you don't, this is for you. To make things a bit easier, I have noted the number after the maze, scare zone, or show name as it appears on the map to help a bit too. Don't forget to show the attendant at each Skeleton Key maze that you have it so you can experience it if you've gone that route!

First up, I'd skip heading down the midway and make a break to the back of the park. This especially works if you're there on a Friday as the park will be empty and you can go against the flow. If you're there on a Saturday, this could work better if you did it in reverse.

This might sound a bit counter intuitive, but hit up The Asylum (9) first. For one, it's the farthest out and last year we noticed a pretty hefty line for this one even early in the night. If you want, you can jump in Mansion House Hotel (10) on the way, but the Skeleton Key room here is better in total darkness in my opinion, but your mileage my vary.

From The Asylum, skip over Gravewalkers. This is mostly outside and the sun will still just be setting. This will be an issue early in the season, but possibly not as much later on in October. I say that since our experience last year was way better when it was dark out and I think that the layout of this one works best for "as dark as possible". So, skip it for now and head straight to Trick or Treat (7).

Trick or Treat is one of the new mazes for this year and bound to be popular, especially with the Skeleton Key room here too. There could be a bit of a line here even now, but it shouldn't be too bad. This is another all indoor maze, in a brand new building, so the level of daylight shouldn't matter at all with this too.

Now, after you've managed to hit these two, swing back and hit up Gravewalkers (8), it should be dark enough or pretty close to give it the perfect lighting for the experience. So much of it is out in the open that it just makes sense to wait. Again, there's a Skeleton Key room to be had here as well.

By this point you've already hit three of the ten attractions and we're still early on in the night. Not a bad way to kick things off!

From here there's a couple of different ways to go. You can just keep on with sticking to the back of the park, or you could cut back to Mansion House Hotel (10) and then loop around that way. This really depends on how early you get through the first set and what the crowds coming in look like.

For the sake of this, I'm gonna with the first option and stick to the back. It should still be pretty early in the night and you'll be right by Thunderhawk, so getting to the next stops won't be too far of a hike.

Here you'll find yourself with a few options once again and to get to the next maze, you'll have to go through the Age of Darkness (6) scare zone. Should be plenty dark out for this one by now too. If you have Skeleton Key, there's a room here just for you and I suspect that the darker out it is, the better.

From here you have the option of either hitting up Blood Drums (2), or checking out the all new CornStalkers (5) maze. I'd play this by ear a little to see what's going on with things.

If there's a show about to start and the line looks okay for CornStalkers? Do that first and then come back for the show after if you're interested. Many will go to the show, leaving less in line for the maze!

You could do it the other way, and if a show is going on, the line could be a bit shorter by the time you get there too. Again, this definitely is one of those things that depends on the moment. Either way, you should be good for at least one with the shortest possible wait at that time.

Now you're halfway through things and, if thing have gone to plan, the front half of the park should be a bit quieter as people have worked their way in the opposite direction. Though, once again, we're left with a choice on where to go. Could head over to Mansion House Hotel, if you didn't hit it earlier, or could keep on the loop and head towards Hyrda and a CarnEvil. If you did hit up Mansion House, then this next bit in reverse could be a more efficient way of going about it.

If you do decide to keep on the loop, then you'll be heading over to CarnEvil (4) and the area that is the most densely populated bit of the park, as far as haunt attractions go.

With CarnEvil you get the bonus of having the Skeleton Crew (1) show right there as well, so if things get timed right you could luck out and catch it on your way to the next maze, Desolation (3).

This is another one with a lot of outdoor parts to it, so keeping this until later is definitely the way to enjoy it fully I think. Last year's Skeleton Key room here was completely mental and fun too!

Next up will be the final house of the night, unless you have Fast Lane and didn't hit up Mansion House yet, with Chamber of Horrors (1). It's a great theme for a house and this year it too features a Skeleton Key room for you to try and survive. Along the way you'll take a spin through Pirate's Cove (2) as well. It's a pretty good way to end the night and if you didn't hit the shows, it may be a good time to circle back and get to at least Skeleton Crew.

Now, if you have Fast Lane, you can go onto Blackout. Since this is exclusively for Fast Lane and Fright Feast tickets, the line shouldn't be too bad at all. Once done with that you've managed to hit everything the park has to offer, congrats you've made it!

This is just one way to do things of course, and lots of things could throw the whole concept right out the window. Some nights could be light due to weather and some could be way busier. If it's later in the season it could be so busy that lines are everywhere no matter what you do so keep that in mind. Fast Lane of course changes things as order doesn't matter much and if you're doing the Mansion House VIP Meal, then you'll be getting to that maze before anyone else does along with dinner and Fast Lane.

Overall though, I think this presents probably the most efficient method and gives the best chance to hit everything. I'm not sure if we'll be testing this exact method when we visit on September 19th, but I'm going to try and see how sticking close to it works. If it does, I'll definitely be letting you know!