Who won the 2023 Halloween haunt season?

First time going to any Halloween event at the theme parks and I spent a few days at HHN Orlando and hit all the houses and a majority of them I went twice. Really enjoyed the Yeti and Last of Us haunted houses at Universal with the diversity of scares and good theming. Went through Dueling Dragons twice and the first time was good but the second it felt rather short and not as good for scare locations/quality compared to the other houses. Looking to go to some other parks next year!

I hit the same parks as you, Robert (with the addition of Horror Nights at Universal Studios Japan) and was blown away by Darkest Deal in Orlando and Chucky in Hollywood. Cinema Slasher was a solid maze but, and this was a theme at Knott's this year, lightly staffed and not particularly scary.

It's a rare year where it's tough to split the difference between Hollywood and Orlando for their Horror Nights events, but I probably have to give the edge to Orlando. There were no bad mazes in Hollywood (unlike Chucky in Orlando) but I think Orlando slightly edged Hollywood with the other IP houses. Good year for Horror Nights!

HHN Orlando is my favorite theme park attraction so I’m biased. It’s like getting a new theme park every year. Though it seems like HHN Hollywood really upped their game this year while I thought Orlando was little subpar. And I was jealous not be able to see The Hanging at Knotts.

I only made it to both of the Central Florida Howl-O-Screams and HHN Orlando. It's not really fair to compare the latter against the others, so if I had to pick the superior HoS, that would probably go to Busch Gardens Tampa. The Residence: Home for the Holidays was a lot of fun and scary at the same time. Definitely one house I wouldn't mind sticking around for a couple more years. At HoS Orlando, the winner was D3LER1UM666 Laboratories, which was elevated by a neat little pre-show effect. At HHN, The Last of Us was my favorite house, but I may have been biased going into it.

I had my first ever experience at HHN Hollywood as an Australian tourist and I was blown away by it. There’s nothing like it at home. My personal favourite house was Stranger Things but The Last of Us and Holidayz in Hell were also stand outs in my mind. The winner of the night for me though was the Terror Tram. Never had so much fun at a haunt attraction ever. 10/10 I wanna go back already

I only watched the Chucky series due to HHN, had never seen the films, but now I desperately want a Chucky ride!

We stayed close to home this year for Halloween, so only hit the 3 mid-Atlantic theme parks (BGW, KD, and SFA). On the whole, BGW puts on the best event of the three, but KD does solid work, and SFA has been upping their game, though continue to put mazes behind paywalls (additional charge beyond theme park admission). SFA's shows are surprisingly good with a magic show from Aaron Raditz, a circus-style sideshow in one of the outdoor theaters, a stunt show that's always a highlight of any SFA visit (we missed the performance on our lone visit this year), and a "burlesque" show in the Western theater, which was behind a minimal paywall ($5) to force an ID check because of the adult content.

My favorite mazes/houses this year were Nevermore at BGW and F.E.A.R. at KD. The former did an excellent job of using Poe mythology to create a well-themed and complete experience with elaborate details while the latter was solid in using special effects, staging, and well placed (though limited) scare actors.

I do hope that Kings Dominion realizes the logistical nightmare they created this season by trying to make Haunt a separately ticketed event. The park never appropriately communicated the changeover process to guests (and staff), and the park just isn't equipped to manage guests who chose to stay inside the park during the changeover. While separately ticketing Haunt allows the park to cart in more elaborate sets and theming elements during the changeover period, it's a complete nightmare for guests that just isn't worth all the frustration for those who want to visit for both daytime operations and Haunt. I'm sure BGW was taking notes to see if they could take a similar tact with future HoS events.

Still a few more days left here in Orlando at HHN ...

First time to do a ticketed Halloween event. Did UO HHN. Loved it. Based on advice from this site we got the express pass which was very much worth it. All houses were great, but for whatever reason, the Yeti house made me jump several times. Least favorite may have been Dueling Dragons, but there is a level of chance as to whether you ‘get got.’ Liked the Stranger Things and the Last of Us for sheer production values. The street events were quite fun too. Food and drink- not so much, but we were not there to eat, and the amount of people made it difficult. Will definitely do it again, but October is a difficult month for us which is why it had not been done before. Will have to do some in California in the future.

I went to HHN in Hollywood and Scary Farm, and I thought both knocked it out of the park this year (I've been going to both every year since 2009 as a sample space). On occasion, both had understaffed mazes, but multiple nights at both meant I got plenty of good runs.

On the Australian front, I went to Halloscream at Luna Park Sydney, and Fright Nights at Warner Bros Movie World. Halloscream was excellent last year, but regressed substantially this year with clear cost cutting, one maze instead of 3, and the excellent haunted overlay of an original 1935 fun house called Coney Island was no more. Fright Nights similarly regressed in every way except price.