Let’s talk about this crazy thing we call Halloween. It’s the time of year when people dress up in costumes, galavant around town in search of treats and it’s an excuse for adults to act a fool! Well, for us, Halloween only means one thing….Haunted Houses! As you know, we recently experienced The Vault’s, Vault of Souls, and had an awesome time. After that experience, we were excited about finding more fun and horror around Tampa Bay. Cue…Scream-A-Geddon!
Scream-A-Geddon, located in Dade City, is a terror attraction made for those people who love to get the pants scared off of them! It has 6 main spots to visit and they are:
- Monster Midway: “It’s the perfect place to get the night started or to take a break and bask in the afterglow of adrenaline-fueled terror.”
- Cursed Hayride: “Ride the wagon through Cursed Hayride and witness the horrifying sights and sounds of the doomed souls. But remember, they want your life… and your soul!”
- Dead Woods: “To find your way out of DEAD woods you’ll have to navigate through the wooded trail, discovering different members of the Tate family in their cabins, workshops and outhouses.”
- Pandemic: “Omni-Labs Clinical Research is one of the nation’s foremost genetic testing facilities. A recent undisclosed accident, however, has resulted in an uncontrolled contagion. Omni-Labs has lost control of a mutated strain of VG-231 and efforts to stop it have been futile. Closing your eyes won’t keep you safe….”
- Bedlam 3D: “Bedlam could be thought of as pandemonium and anarchy, but you could also say that it’s immersion in the chaos of the unknown.”
- Infected: “Try to control your terror as you weave your way through fields, military tents and the farmhouse to confront the creatures within. Will you be the next one infected?”
We chose to go take the trip up to Dade City on a Sunday since we figured the lines may be a bit shorter….and we were RIGHT! We drove the 30 minutes or so to the middle of the woods, waited a short 15 minutes for parking and made our way anxiously to the entrance. After a few short minutes, we were inside and already being greeted by some freaky folks. The fun had in our group was the fact that some of our friends were super scared by the friends we found in the woods while there. The Monster Midway is the central area that acts as the carnival portion of the attraction where you can buy carnival food, beer and lemonade, souvenirs and play carnival games.
After seeing some of the Monster Midway, we sized up our different options for scare zones and went for the one with the longest line first…The Haunted Hayride. This was something else! They pile guests into tractors lined with hay and you sit as the cart is pulled out into the middle of the dark woods. With lots of things happening around you, it is quite the frightening experience. They even have people out in the woods who climb on the cart, follow alongside and scare the daylights out of riders. A must see!
Next, we jumped over the our most exciting attraction, Pandemic. The website provides quite the warning for this VERY interactive experience:
“WARNING – WARNING – WARNING – WARNING – WARNING
Pandemic is an interactive attraction.
Visitors entering Pandemic will be faced with an important decision:
- Should you explore the facility and simply watch the action?
- Or should you “mark” yourself to truly interact with the creatures within?
Those who opt-in for a truly interactive experience may be grabbed, held back, sent into hidden cells, removed from their group, or even forced to remain…
Choose wisely.
(Customers must be 18 years old to “mark” themselves)”
When we walked up to the entrance we were given the option to put on a glow necklace, which would allow the actors to grab, separate you from your group and leave you behind during the tour. After some coercing by the more psychotic of the bunch, we all agreed to put all the necklaces. Immediately upon entering, our group was dismantled and some fared better off than others. It was my personal favorite part of the night! It was scary, confusing, and exhilarating and we escaped with our hearts beating out of our chests!
After that, we needed a mini break before continuing on. We grabbed a beer and a snack and continued to wait in line for the next attraction, Dead Woods! This outdoor experience had us separate into smaller groups (of no more than 6) and before entering, we were given ONE glow stick to light the way for our WHOLE GROUP! As you can imagine, the dim light did not mend well for our crew as we were quickly spotted by the creepy characters left out there to scare us. We were snuck up on, jumped out at, and taunted by our dead wood neighbors, but it made the experience that much more fun!
With only about an hour left before closing, we had to think strategically. We jumped over to the Bedlam 3D, where the line was short and moved quickly. We grabbed 3d glasses and headed inside. The fun of this attraction was that the 3d nature of the house made it super difficult to know what was going to come next. We eventually made it out of the clown filled terror chamber and made our way to the final attraction, Infected!
Infected is based on the Walking Dead type model. Everyone inside is infected with some disease and want to infect you too! We meandered through this indoor/outdoor attraction quickly and eventually made it to the end after sneaking through an abandoned school bus and creepy old house. The characters in this stop were really sneaky and came out of nowhere!
We spent about 3 1/2 hours at Scream-A-Geddon and had an awesome time. Even as adults, we all got a bit scared at points (some more than others). It was a ton of fun and a great time was had by all of our group. We highly recommend you checking it out. If not this year, since it closes this weekend, definitely be sure to stop in next year. Here’s to a successful Halloween season of Tricking and Treating!
-Nicholas
NHIE Guys 