Nightfall at Old Tucson — Attraction in Four Corners States

I agree with most of the negative comments. I went with a group of five family members Thursday night (10/13). I got the pre-email which explained the new format, but I had been following Nightfall's info releases for awhile so I new about the change ahead of time and was VERY excited. One of the actors also explained the process when we entered the park BUT said it could take 2-3 days to get all the info you need to solve the mystery story line, and there was a secret room only two people had found so far. At $50 a ticket, that is completely unreasonable. Plus $5 parking. Why are we paying for parking?! Timed entry might have helped entry lines but was overall pointless. The map needed more info to help as a guide as well (such as food, haunt, and show descriptions plus key character locations.)

Story line: We tried to speak with every actor we came across with a variety of questions and only ever got the same response: some people were missing and go speak with so-and-so. So we would go find so-and-so and same message. It wasn't helpful. We went to all the spots of interest, took pics of the letters and messages left as clues, and tried to figure out the mystery. At the end of the night, we went to one Main Character who we were directed to speak with to get some answers and all they said was "go out and find some answers and come back to speak with me." It was the very end of the night. There was nothing else to do and no time. That was what ruined it right there. We were done.

Haunts: There were five haunts but only three real walkthroughs. The train was required to access one of the haunts, The Church. It was an hour and half wait to ride the train for a 4 minute "show." Absolutely not worth it. Due to the limited number of haunts, the lines were long and we couldn't experience them all. The ones we did get to see only had two or three actors in them. It was just going through a dark maze with strobe lights. Disappointed there.

Food: Limited and expensive eating options. We went to Rosa's Cantina and got fajitas (that's a joke), nachos (these were good), and a quesadilla (be aware for picky eaters: it has more than just cheese in it and my family member had to pick out chilies. I like extras but not what she expected.) NO outside water allowed inside. We always carry resuable water bottles but weren't allowed to bring them in. Bottle water was $3 a pop. I read later the bar gives out free cups of ice water but too late to help us and the amount of bottles we contributed to the trash, not like plastic cups is any better. Not great.

Shows: only three shows with limited viewing times. We made it to all three (sacrificing a walkthrough). The Grand Palace show was boring with weird music choices and was supposed to tie into the story some how (???). The comedy show was ok and gave some clues. The election show at the end of the night did not wrap up the story line. We were disappointed we went through everything and left without a conclusion.

Overall, only a small portion of the town was used. I always wanted all the wonderful buildings of Old Tucson to be built into the experience and was hoping the bigger company would do that. Instead, it was smaller somehow. Too few haunts, too few actors (though most they gave it their all), too few shows, too few food choices, way, way, way too pricey. I always went to nightfall year after year and had fun until now. Hopefully they take our feedback to heart...

My family and I have been going to Nightfall for the past 5 years and have absolutely loved it. Told everyone we knew that it was well worth the money. This year was a huge flop :( very, very disappointed. Not only has the price for entry almost doubled, The lines for everything were extremely long. The majority of the night was spent waiting in an unorganized line. This could be solved by putting a cap on the amount of tickets sold per evening to assure the lines do not exceed a certain amount of time. On the map they hand out, it said that the line for the train closes at 11:00 PM, so we decided to save that for later in the evening, ensuring we would be able to see all of the shows at their scheduled times. We went to the train originally a couple hours after we arrived and it was closed down for some unknown reason. We came back to ride the train at 10:20 , which was 40 minutes before the line was supposed to close, and there was an employee blocking the entrance to the line, claiming that she isn’t allowing anyone else to get in line because the park closes at 11:30 and the line that was already formed was expected to take over an hour to get to the train. Number one, if the map says the line is open until 11:00, then the line needs to be open until 11:00, even if that means keeping the train running after 11:30 to make sure everyone that had been in line will get a chance to ride. We paid a lot of money to attend this event, we should have at least been able to ride the train, bare minimum. Also, the Haunts they had this year were not scary at all. The previous years they had very frightening haunts that made it worth the price, but this year they were more children fear level based, the only scary parts being jump scares from the employees hiding in the shadows. Oh, and the PARKING! Every year prior, you were able to park in the parking lot that is right at the entrance to the park. This year, unless you paid over $50 EXTRA per ticket for the R.I.P. pass, you were forced to park almost a mile away the park, walking through unpaved desert to get to the entrance. Ridiculous. The shows this year were also very lacking as well, not because the actors were bad, they were great, just the overall plot itself. It was boring and didn’t offer any intriguing storyline that made you excited to see what was next. Not sure if there was a new owner/management this year but they really messed up. Unless they find a way to limit the wait times and organize things better, we will no longer be returning to Nightfall and encourage others to save their...

[RECENT EDIT FROM OCTOBER 14, 2023 AT THE BOTTOM] Huge warning, if you liked the original Nightfall and was expecting the same experience, don’t go. They’ve removed a majority of scary attractions, leaving only 6 in total and half of them are family friendly. Yet they also have 6 locations just to purchase alcohol, real family friendly right there 🙄

They’ve removed the scare actors in the main walkway and now they expect you to interact with all the actors they have there, yet it’s more difficult to find them, and to find them alone so you can speak with them. At this point, they didn’t bring back Nightfall, they just reused the name.

EDIT: My family was able to get 4 tickets for free from a coworker, so we went again on Saturday the 14th. It was infinitely better compared to 2022. They’ve added a location to check IDs and give you an alcohol wristband (so if you want a drink, it won’t be such a long line to check everyone’s ID). Further ahead you have 2 routes. One that has scare actors and one that is safe with no actors, the safe one follows the west side of Old Tucson where the carousel is at. There are scary attractions located everywhere, as well as attractions for younger kids who get frightened easier. The also opened up the northeastern portion of the place for a haunted attraction. The lines that form leading to the scary attractions have “scare zones” where scare actors dressed for the attraction going around keeping people entertained.

This is one of the few instances where an establishment listened to their customers and improved on it. This truly felt like a redemption compared to the previous year. And if circumstances hadn’t allowed my family to go, we would’ve never enjoyed it. I understand that a few of the reviews felt like they were “ripped off” or that the “lines were too long”. I’m sorry to break it to you but that’s how these things go. If you have a little patience and perhaps get some food and water in your system (got free water cups from a restaurant on the northwest side, most places like these charge a kidney) it would make the lines bearable. The attraction should make the line worth it. It certainly made our...