Ensuring a perfect night at Scarywood may seem like an impossible task at first glance. Perahps you’ve read our Scarywood Planning Guide, and looked over our Haunted Attractions Guide, but you’re still left wondering “how can I get the most out of my night?” or “surely there’s no way I can fit it all into just 5 short hours??” Indeed, it’s a daunting task, especially if you know you’ll only have one shot at experiencing everything. Unfortunately, many people don’t give this much thought, and their night ends up being sub-par as a result.Every year, we see guest reviews online of people who go to Scarywood, only get in 2-3 attractions, and leave feeling completely ripped off. We’d feel the same way too, if that were our experience. Indeed, even on the nights we visit the park, we hear and see first-hand the people complaining about the lines, and how much they “missed out on”. But yet, on those exact same nights, we get everything in, sometimes more than once, plus a little extra.
In this post, we’ll explain our strategy for getting it all done. In a way, it’s our “perfect evening” at Scarywood. From our perspective, we’re aiming to hit up the 7 “signature” attractions at Scarywood: the 5 haunted walkthroughs, the magic show, and Timber Terror backwards. This is the stuff that you won’t get to do during the regular season, so this should be your focus. Getting all this done in one night is very doable and is what we would consider a successful evening. While we can’t make any guarantees, we do hope you find this helpful as you make your way through the event.
Okay, so this isn’t directly related to Scarywood, but we have to throw out a plug for our favorite restaurant in CDA. Situated in a strip-mall next to a gas station, Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese doesn’t look like much. But looks are VERY deceiving in this case. Meltz is an absolute must-do while in the area, and Scarywood Haunted Nights makes for the perfect opportunity.We head over here at around 5:00pm, leaving plenty of time to enjoy the best cheese sandwich you’ll ever taste. Our go-to on the menu is always the Pot Sticker, but we’ve tried several other items and haven’t found a single one we didn’t like. After you’ve sufficiently stuffed yourself with cheesy goodness, start driving out to the park, aiming to arrive no later than 6:00pm. Get in line as close to the gate as you can, and don’t lose your spot!
Once the gates open, go straight back to coaster alley. Skip over everything you pass by along the way, even if there are no lines. Trust us on this one. Most folks work their way from the front of the park back, and if you want to get everything in, you need to work against traffic. The only thing to take note of on your way, is to see what times the Magic Show will be on for the night, since no posted schedule exists elsewhere. Usually the showtimes are every hour on the hour, starting one hour after park opening and ending one hour before park closing. Check to see if there’s a showtime at 10pm, as that’s what you’ll be aiming for later on. Also note when the final showing will be, so you can adjust your plans accordingly if it starts to creep up on you. Timber Terror Backwards is, as we’ve already noted, our favorite attraction at the park, and it will be a walk-on when the park opens. Ride it once (or thrice) as your first attraction, and then you can get back to the Halloween stuff. If you don’t do this first, you may find yourself waiting for an hour or more later in the night.
So, we’ve ridden a coaster backwards, and we’re now working our way through the park backwards compared to everyone else. Now that you’ve got this one out of the way, heed our advice: no more rides!! (well…maybe)
To start out your scary adventures, the park has conveniently put two haunts in the far southwest corner of the park – Chuckles behind Aftershock, and Total Darkness inside the picnic pavilion. This early in the evening, there shouldn’t be much, if any wait at all. So you should be able to get both of these haunts knocked out pretty fast. Indeed, we often encounter walk-ons for both attractions. If you’re feeling extra lucky and the lines stay short, you could even sneak in a second round on one (or both). But if there is even so much as a 5-10 minute, wait, don’t push it.By this point, you should be approaching 8:00pm, and you’ve already knocked out 3 of the 8 key attractions. That’s better than some people get in an entire night, so you should be feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, you won’t be walking on anything else from here on out, but that’s okay.
Now is the time to start hitting up some of the more popular haunts, before the lines get too crazy long. From the picnic pavilion, head left to go towards Pharaoh’s Curse and Planet Zombie. Pharaoh’s Curse, is likely to have a consistently shorter line due to its location and slightly lower popularity. That’s just been our experience. So, we’d say go get the busier one (i.e. Planet Zombie) out of the way first. You’ll arrive at the Planet Zombie queue, in between the Scrambler and Super Round-Up. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait a bit, even upwards of an hour or more. Just do it now, before the line gets even longer…because it can and it will.
Once out of this haunt, head right and jump in line for Pharaoh’s Curse. Again, you’re likely to encounter a line, but most of the time this one doesn’t get much longer than 30 mins for us.
At this point in your evening, you have two attractions to go, and you’re probably getting a bit hungry and/or thirsty. Start heading back towards the front of the park, and you’ll find a couple places to get something nice and warm. We usually go for the apple cider…something about that always seems to hit the spot at around 10:00pm. If you’re hungry, this would also be a great time to grab a sweet treat to add to your sugar rush. Anything from a churro, to a funnel cake, to a caramel apple always does the trick for us.
Depending on the show times for the Magic Show, this should be the perfect time to try and squeeze this in. Again, with this, timing will be everything, since you will have to be sure to get there at a designated time rather than just hopping in a queue. So, if the timing works, grab your drink and snack, and head to the theater to get a seat. You can enjoy your food while you watch the show. Otherwise, take your snack and head to the queue for Blood Bayou. As with Planet Zombie, you’ll likely have upwards of an hour wait (or more) for this, but your patience will be rewarded. This is always our favorite one to end on, as it’s usually the best in terms of theming.
Now that you’ve officially knocked all the “sinister seven” off your list, take a look at the clock and see how much time you’ve got left. We tend to hit this point at around 11:00 or so, with a good hour to spare before closing. If you skipped something earlier, this is obviously the time to go hit that up first. But assuming you’re done, you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done, and decide on how to finish the night.It’s completely up to you: Do you want to go hit up one of the haunts a second (or third) time? Are you itching to get some rides in? The (night) sky is truly the limit, and it all depends on what you enjoy most. Crowds and queues tend to die down during this final hour, which can make for some additional productivity in your itinerary.
Our final recommendation is to hop in the line for Tremors just as you approach park closing. To us, this is the quintessentially perfect way to end an evening at Scarywood: riding up that lift hill in sometimes 30- or 40-degree temps, staring up into the starry sky, right as the clock strikes 12:00am. Then, enjoy your stroll back through the park one more time as you make your way to the park entrance, and grab a Reese’s Pieces caramel apple on your way out.
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The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
I think Scarywood needs to sell express passes for the 5 haunts. Most haunted attractions offer this and this would significantly increase Scarywood’s revenue.
Thanks for the comment Alex! We agree that’s definitely something that would be a money maker. As you point out, pretty much every other park that does haunts has some sort of “fast pass” upcharge. That said, Silverwood has resisted those type of offerings even during the regular season, so we don’t foresee it as a likely change anytime soon.
Why is Silverwood resisting this? Canobie Lake Park doesn’t offer fast passes but they still offer express passes during Screemfest.
Different philosophy, as far as we can tell. Seem to recall hearing a while back that Gary isn’t a fan of upcharges, and likes to avoid them if at all possible. That likely plays a big factor into it.