Lake Compounce has premiered an all new family friendly Halloween event following the departure of the Haunted Graveyard which headlined the Halloween festivities for the last two decades. This is a very different event, aimed at a very different crowd.
Here is a review of this event looking at the benefits and drawbacks of this new event as well as comparing it to the Haunted Graveyard as it existing during its last year at Lake Compounce in 2019. The review will be split up into sections discussing the decorations, food, how it compares to Haunted Graveyard, activities, and the crowds.
Decorations
The decorations are the absolute highlight of the event. Every inch of the park is covered in Halloween decorations.
Most of the decorations are additional bunting and pumpkins throughout the park, but the park also has a few more elaborate decorations.
The front of the park features the entrance carousel horse with a witch hat.
The Main Street section has bats hanging from the lights.
Another carousel horse in the park has a skeleton riding it.
The entrance to Wildcat also features skeletons riding the roller coaster ride vehicle on top of the entrance to the ride.
All of these fully transform the park for the season, and the park is sure to look even better with all of these decorations as the leaves start to change colors over the next few weeks, especially on the park's signature attraction Boulder Dash.
Food
While most of the food offerings throughout the park are the same as during the normal season, the park is featuring a limited collection of special offerings for the season.
The highlight of these is probably the Mac O Lantern. This treat is an orange bell pepper, cut to look like a Jack-O-Lantern, filled with mac and cheese. It is an incredibly photogenic dish, and while the taste does not match its appearance it is still a nice seasonal offering at the Potato Patch.
How Happy Hauntings Compares With The Haunted Graveyard
While they are two incredibly different events, this review would feel incomplete without a comparison between the Haunted Graveyard and Happy Hauntings.
The Haunted Graveyard at Lake Compounce was an amazing Halloween horror event on par with those at much larger amusement parks, and it almost felt out of place at Lake Compounce due to its sheer scale.
Haunted Graveyard was definitely aimed at an older crowd than the current Happy Hauntings is, as the Haunted Graveyard, with its terrifying walkthrough and scares throughout the park was certainly aimed at teenagers and above, whereas Happy Hauntings is a family friendly event aimed at children.
This does not mean there is nothing for older guests to do at the Haunted Graveyard. During the event, the park has been featuring some of the shortest waits of the year and low costs for tickets, meaning if you want a chance to ride some of Lake Compounce's most popular attractions, this could be a great time to do it.
Happy Hauntings also has the advantage that essentially everything at the park for the season is included in admission, as opposed to the Haunted Graveyard which was an up-charge experience on top of a ticket to the park (although it was definitely worth the cost).
The main drawback for Happy Hauntings, apart from the lack of the Haunted Graveyard in itself, is the park's operating hours. One of the best parts of the Haunted Graveyard was that the park was open at night, allowing for night rides on the major attractions. Happy Hauntings meanwhile is open from 10AM to 6PM, which robs the event of essentially any time after dark. The park during opening weekend was also almost empty until after noon as the park is opening earlier than it did during the summer season. These hours are not the best and are a drawback for the event.
Happy Hauntings is great at what it does, but it does something almost entirely different than Haunted Graveyard.
Activities
There are a variety of unique activities to do at Happy Hauntings that should be fun for the whole family.
One of the main offerings is trick or treating throughout the park. There are various treat stops with different characters throughout the park in themed areas of the park. It is a fun activity to do that adds some nice scenery to the park, and all of the characters handing out candy were fun to interact with.
There are also hay mazes throughout the that are fun to explore and included with admission. It is a nice small scale fall activity that anyone can do.
There is a collection of shows that happen in the theater which most recently showcased a Daniel Tiger show in the kiddie section of the park, adding some much needed energy to the area. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come to the area year round from this point on as Lake Compounce emerges from its pandemic era changes.
These are just some of the highlights of the activities taking place at Lake Compounce for the season.
Crowds
By far this is the highlight of Happy Hauntings so far. There have been incredibly low crowds. If you are looking for a time to visit the park with low waits on every attraction, this is the time! Nearly everything was no more than a walk on for a good portion of the event.
It is unclear if this will last as more people discover the event exists, (it is the first year) but for now it is an amazing time to visit the park for the rides alone.
Also, the park is having significant sales on nearly all merchandise, so be sure to stop in a shop during your visit. The sales are up to 80% off.
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