A Petrified Forest Scare Trail — Attraction in Altamonte Springs

I wanted to start off by saying this was my very time going to this event! I thought the trails, scare actors, and the food/vendors were very cool.

However, I had a very nauseating experience with one of their team members. My friend group, (a total of 8), and I were exiting our first trail. We stopped at the main area and we were talking about which trail to hit next. A female team member came up to my best friend and I, (we were holding hands) and accused us of bringing in alcohol with a description that did not match us. This team member kept yelling at us and accusing us and caused an entire scene. I have to admit, at first I thought this was a joke because it was my first time to the event. I heard things get get intense so I thought it was part of the experience. Since the team member did not leave, I started realizing it was not a joke. I explained that I can’t drink because of my medication and I told her I had proof of that in my bag. However, the team member got more frustrated and stated she will have to call security. I stated that was fine because we did nothing wrong. Eventually security and the sheriff’s office came in, surrounding my group, and escorted EVERYONE to the front to check bags. Mind you, they were accusing my best friend and I only and decided to take out the WHOLE group. When we went to bag check, they only checked my best friend and I’s bag. They did not check my group’s so I did not understand the point of having everyone leave. I do not mind being subjected to a second bag check. However, the yelling, accusing, and having us surrounded just to be confused with a wrong group was seriously wrong. They only stated the bag was an exact match but my bag was not even the right color. My bag was also a PURSE not a BACKPACK. After getting our bags checked, the sheriff’s office apologized but we DID NOT receive an apology from the team member. The team never acknowledged us again and did NOTHING to try to make the situation right. Once we were escorted back in, everyone was giving us looks due to the scene caused. We ended up leaving early because we were nervous to stay around. It made us feel sick to the stomach.

I am not sure what made them stop us in the first place. Supposedly the other group had two Hispanic girls so I guess the team member stopped the first Hispanic pair that she saw.

After this incident, I Immediately wrote to A Petrified Forest on Facebook Messenger. They were very friendly and apologized on the team member’s behalf. I asked that this does not happen again to others. They responded that they have tightened their training so this does not happen again. I requested a refund on behalf of my best friend and I because we did not get to enjoy the rest of our night and on top of that we were embarrassed from the scene caused. I feel like that is a reasonable request for being embarrassed and accused of something that we didn’t do. However, they did not reply to that last message. They stopped replying over a month ago. I wrote again and had no luck yet. From a customer service standpoint, it is the least they can do for everything we have experienced.

I wanted to handle this privately, (which I did since October 28), but seeing as they stopped responding, I feel like I needed to share my story to warn others and hopefully reach...

This is going to be a review from a certified scaredy-cat. My Halloween season typically consists of a visit to HHN as scariest thing I do, so I was anxious about this! I had friends in it and wanted to support them, so I decided to try it with a friend that had been already. This is the scariest haunted thing I personally have attended, but also it was really cool as a theater person!

I went though Estate of DeKay sans chicken necklace to get a feel for what a house would look like with the scare actors going full out, and I was SWEATING. Decided to grab a necklace for the next two, and had a much more manageable time while still getting REALLY quality interaction from the scare actors!

Things that made me want the chicken necklace: 1).actors following us and whispering VERY close to my ears. We were followed in every house, but followed VERY intensely in Estate of DeKay without the chicken necklace. Nothing wrong with that, it just wasn’t for me personally! 2).This was the first haunt I’d done where I was walking through with just one other person instead of a group, and that felt VERY scary to me. Also, it’s extremely hard to tell where the scares are coming from, so it was less overwhelming when the scare actors kept a little more distance. 3).Unlike HHN, there is no reprieve from the monsters and the scares. There are actors free roaming outside of the haunts the entire time, and this was a new experience for me. Their costumes were AMAZING, especially the stilt walkers!!

I did walk through the houses holding the chicken like a crucifix and stating loudly that I had a chicken, and no one made me feel bad for it. The scare actors still interacted with me, told me the stories, and gave me many jump scares from a distance (like two feet or so) . A lot of them made chicken noises at me as a form of scare/interaction, and all in super good fun!! The sets were so good, and the story telling was phenomenal, ESPECIALLY in Lifeline! All three houses had really good set moments, and some incredible actors on bungees for some awesome in the air scares.

I have two very small notes: 1). I would have liked if the chicken necklace actually lit up, so I didn’t feel like I had to say it so often as I was walking through the haunts. 2). in the game show themed haunt, (SPOILER) there is a scene where a man gets very close to you, puts a gun to his head, clicks it, and then tries to hand it to you and tells you it’s “your turn”. This event is in no way marketed to kids so I don’t hate the scare itself, but a small content warning on a poster in front of the haunt for that particular scene could be valuable for people who are sensitive to that kind of content.

Other tips: PLEASE wear bug spray and closed toe shoes. I got bit pretty bad by bugs, and the floors of the haunts are fully just dirt (because it’s a forest theme which makes sense, just beware of sandals if you want to keep the dirt off of your feet!). Also, the attendants have fidgets that they’ll give you to use in the house if you ask. I LOVED this. Overall I had an...

Houses were well thought out with great design. Scare actors performed better than expected and had excellent makeup and costumes. The downfall of our trip has nothing to do with the quality of staff or the haunted houses, but with the structure of how you get into the haunts and setup of the waiting area. We did go the Saturday before Halloween, so I understand it is going to be a busy night. However, this was pure anarchy trying to understand how the line system works. You're given a color that corresponds to a number. Only once your number/color combo is called can you get into a line. Once you go through your first house, you then proceed through the other houses fast pass line. The issue is you're left waiting for this color to be called and left standing in a near shoulder to shoulder packed waiting area. I understand the venue area is small but more space could be added by reducing the amount of vendors or the DJ or just relocate these outside the fence area so people have a place to sit or stand comfortably. Once our color was called for us to get in line there was no organization, just a herd of people scrambling into one another like a Walmart door on Black Friday. It was scarier than the houses lol. Once we got into our first house we completed all three haunts in about an hour and a half. If you live within an hour to this is say it is worth the time and money. For us, we didn't feel like we quite got our money's worth simply because it was a hurry up and wait to be rushed type of thing. If there was more room to relax or grab a quick drink or snack from the vendors I would have made a different opinion, but you couldn't even tell where what line started and where it ended it was so crammed! My final thought is on how the theme that pulled us in to coming wasn't featured in the actual houses. Again, the houses were great and better than Sir Henry's or Screamageddon has been the past few years, but the feature was Wendigo Woods and there was no Wendigo or Native American or Pagan folklore in any of the houses, which just seemed kind of strange to me. I know the Wendigo is just part of the "backstory behind the houses" but it's kind of like one of those free vacations if you attend a timeshare seminar business types of things to me. Overall, if you want a good scare give it a chance, but try to go on less busy nights to experience all it...