Howl’o’ween is alive at Chessington World of Adventures! With extra entertainment on the Mane Stage and around the park, scare zones and an award-winning live-action horror maze and spooky treats - lots is going on this Halloween.
This year, the Wild Witches of Adventure Point have conjured up a spell to awaken spooky creatures from around the park, bringing to life select areas from midday. Don't be scared of the troublesome trio, these Witches are friendly, performing on the stage in Adventure Point throughout the day join the Witches as they cast a spell over the park at midday and 10 minutes before closing time. Last year was the first time Chessington had ever done a flash mob at the start of the event at midday, this year the park has changed the storyline and almost doubled the actors.
This year rather than the actors from all of the scare zones just roaming around the area, you get more of the storyline and you understand that they are being controlled by the witches spell. During the entrance show, the 3 witches are on the stage cackling and casting a spell, with someone standing to the side explaining the story to guests. Towards the end of the day, the creatures of Chessington reassemble back in Adventure Point for one final flash mob where they again dance the night away, the witches call forward their creatures only to be spooked by The Curse Catchers who come just in the nick of time to save the day. If only they managed to get there earlier to stop the spell.
The Wild Witches
The Wild Witches of Adventure Point bring the event to life, starting the day with the curse. These three witches perform throughout the day singing and dancing on a small stage in the centre of Adventure Point. This is a great addition to the parks lineup of Howl’o’ween entertainment, with a mixture of seasonal songs to get you in the mood you will be left feeling spooky by the end!
Ferocious Pharaohs
The Pharaohs of the Forbidden Kingdom have awoken again and roam the area with risky intentions. Lead by the Snakecharmer with a Crocidale for a hat, these are people not to be messed with. Some of the costumes in this scarezone remain the same as last year but one of the new outfits, the snake charmer is very cool! The 3D crocodile mask/hat is awesome, again, so much hard work has gone into adding extra theming into the area such as more skeletons and mummies tied to the posts in the area. We really enjoy this scarezone but there were some points that we walked through and didn't see anyone.
Barbaric Bandits
Mexicana has been taken over by the Barbaric Bandits, straight from the mines of Rattlesnake and Scorpion Express these townsfolk roam the area looking for gold! This scare zone is a lot smaller than other scare zones in the park, with others there's more area for actors to roam around. The issue we found was we would always find them in the same place and there wasn't many of them. We love scare zones but this one feels like it's just had 2/3 actors added. No extra theming has been added to the area, but there is another interactive Tomb Stone that when you press the button it makes a noise.
Vile Villagers
Vile Villagers is located in Wild Woods and can be accessed by walking past The Vampire entrance on the right. In the old location of Haunting Of the Hollows, this scare zone feels more like a mini scare maze. The theming through it is stunning and is one of the most beautiful scare zones we’ve ever seen! So much has gone into this small walkthrough, with scares that really pack a punch.
An amazing attraction in the day and at night, we love the Vile Villagers! We feel like in the future this attraction could be tweaked a bit and turned into a paid attraction again, although you don't currently stop for any storyline or dialogue we think it would work!
The Legend Of The Wild Witches Show!
Join the witches on the mane stage to discover the curse taking over Chessington this Halloween. The show brings to life the story, resurfacing the residents of Mexicana, The Wild Woods, Forbidden Kingdom and Pirates Cove. All joining together to haunt Chessington this Howl'O’ Ween!
The show lasts around 17 minutes and has so many exciting elements including pyrotechnics and Co2 cannons. Live singing with a great range of spooky songs. The costumes and dancing during the show is incredible and you can tell a lot of time and effort when into planning and making of everything. Compared to previous years Howl'O’ Ween shows on the stage we think this is the strongest one yet. Chessington always know how to put on a good show!
The Curse Catchers
When a group of Witches have cast a spell over the theme park, who you gonna call? The Curse Catchers! These brave individuals use the latest technology to seak out Witches, Ghosts and Curse struck characters. Roaming around the resort The Curse Catchers need our help to expel the spells of the Wild Witches.
The fun take on the Ghost Busters is great entertainment for little ones, at various points in the day we bumped into them around the park and the guest interaction was always amazing. The costumes for The Curse Catchers are really simple but all of the small details on them are cool, such as the curse catchers logo on the sleeves and on the badge holders on the wallets.
The Forgotten Forest
The Forgotten Forest is back for another year, wander through the woods full of spooky pumpkins, photo opportunities and lots of skeletons. This freeflow attraction has no actors and is included in the ticket price. On busier nights we expect this will get busier as people stop to take photos. This year the attraction has had a few chances but nothing major, with more photo points installed throughout we feel like the experience, is more set up as a family photo / Instagram attraction. We would love to see the space redeveloped into something new. With this huge space being taken up by the Christmas grottos and Halloween 3 months of the year we feel like the space could be better used.
Creepy Caves: Resurgence
Creepy Caves Resurgence is back for another strong year! Yet again we remain amazed at how good this attraction is. For a Halloween maze in a family park, we feel like the actors inside tone up or down the scariness depending on the guests coming through which is a good thing! Costing £5 with discount, the maze is very well priced and you don't feel like you're being ripped off. The storyline remains mostly the same compared to previous years and inside the attraction, nothing else has changed. Following last years change you no longer enter via the old emergency exit stairwell but you now enter via the old entrance to Creepy Caves. Amazing theming, great effects and use smell pods inside, we love Creepy Caves Resurgence!
Banyan Fire & Dance Show
The Banyan Fire and dance show is something that isn't advertised on the Chessington website. Located in Wild Asia, Banyan comes alive in the afternoons and at night, with a combination of dancing and fire and special effects this is a show, unlike anything we've seen in Wild Asia. Last year there was another unadvertised show on at the Banyan tree with a small fire effect but this year the park have added more fire, dancers and so much energy into this show. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the fire light up the sky in Wild Asia. This is a show that needs to be seen in the dark to take advantage of all of the special effects.
Around Chessington extra theming has been added everywhere, from more cobwebs, spooky pumpkins and new theming in the scare zones, spookiness is around every corner. The new mini-stage in Adventure Point works really well, located in the centre of the area this 360 stage gives everyone the chance to gather around and watch the evil witches cast their spell. Since our first visit, more theming has been added around the park and in adventure point, haybales have been added to hide the stage. One of the highlights was finding out that the 4 black round sections of theming in adventure point are actually the chandlers from the vampire station cut up!
Throughout the park, music has been changed to create more of an atmosphere. We even heard some old soundtracks being played around the park such as the old Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall music being played in the Croc Drop ride area and some old Terror of The Towers music being played in a scene in Vile Villagers.
Chessington has released a wide range of merchandise for Howl’o’ween this year! With a new pin badge released to mark the event, along with some T-Shirts with the events logo on it, a Creepy Caves T-Shirt and a Howl’o’ween hoodie, both in children and adult sizes!
A trip to Chessington wouldn't be complete without rides in the dark and with this being the first time Croc Drop has opened at night time, the park has added more lighting around the area to make sure the ride looks great. Around the rest of the park, gels have been added to floodlights however Wild Woods is missing a lot of its normal lights this year with the Vampire looking a bit dull.
There's so much extra entertainment at this years Howl’o’ween event. This is definitely one of the strongest events Chessington has done over the past few years. With all of the extra actors around the park and the new scare zones in public areas instead of queue lines, you can't turn the corner without finding something spooky. Howl’o’ween is well and truly back at Chessington World of Adventures.
