The Valley Of Fear and The Original Haunted Hayride — Attraction in Lower Southampton Township

Me and 2 of my friends chose to go here on a Sunday, so we could use a coupon and (hopefully) avoid longer lines. We were already off to a late start and the drive was about an hour long (this is obviously not anyone’s fault). Finally we arrive and find out parking is $5. I was lucky my friends had cash, there was no mention of the parking fee on any brochures and I do not usually carry any cash. It would’ve been so disappointing to drive for an hour and just have to turn around. We got into line and it really was not long. There were maybe 20 people ahead of us, mostly in larger groups, like I mentioned it was a Sunday. Well this short line somehow lasted about an hour. At some point the computer stopped working and they just shut the window. Someone came out to block off that line, but that was minutes after the window randomly closed. I think she should’ve come out sooner and explained what happened. The only reason I found out was because the lady behind me in line asked at another window. We were off to a pretty bad start, but my hopes were high. I really wanted to love it, especially after such an absurd wait. We first rode the hayride. As you’ve probably heard from other reviewers, only one side of the hayride gets any action. I didn’t really turn my head because I thought something cool would happen on our side; I ended up basically missing everything. The actors can’t touch you, which doesn’t make much sense for a hayride you hang your legs off of. Then we went to the zombie maze/facility. It was cool in that fact that it was maze-like. The haze and darkness made it hard to find your way. The zombies, however, only really growled. Nothing really jumped out or scared us, just got in our faces a little. Although my friends did not agree, I liked the zombie paintball/escape room attraction. The wait was pretty long. I thought it was cool that you could do escape rooms with people you don’t know, it would add to the challenge. The escape rooms lacked much of a puzzle aspect, there werent really clues you just kinda did stuff. The paintball was fun but your gun doesn’t have a lot of range or paintballs. There is only 1 zombie per team (2 zombies total) and no matter how much you hit them, they didn’t fall or seem to take “damage”. Finally we made it to the scary-tales, what me and my friends really came for. The idea is so cool. For a lot of it you couldn’t really tell what fairytale the scene was from, or it was just a general setup. I thought it would have more specific parts that were clearly from stories. Again, the actors didn’t do much other than snarling. They talked to you, but talking can only be so scary. All in all, I left feeling like I needed more. I wish the actors did more to really scare you. It felt like I was just doing some kind of walkthrough, not a haunted attraction. For those of you who go to haunted houses often/are very into scary things, this may not be for you. The “scaredy-cat” friend in my group hardly jumped and didn’t scream once. Sorry for being so long winded. I mean this all as constructive criticism, not to just be rude. Thanks...

It pains me to write this review. I would love to speak to someone from valley of fear staff or management about what a bummer this experience was. I used to attend the valley of fear hayride and haunted house back when I was in elementary and high school. I am now in my 30s and couldn’t wait to return w my husband and family and friends. Firstly, the traffic control is nightmarish. We waited in 1 hour of traffic to go 1 mile. Our ETA to arrive was 7pm (opening time) and with traffic one block from the location, we didn’t arrive and park our car until 8pm. I feel for locals who live in this neighborhood. There is poor traffic control and they are in dire need of a police officer at the corner of Buck and Bristol. People were cutting one another off and going up the road against oncoming traffic. God forbid an emergency vehicle need to get through or someone lives in this area and just needs to access their house. Then once you get to the event, you have to pay $5 cash to park on top of the high prices of the event itself. I pre purchased tickets online ($256 for all tickets for our group including an online service fee) only to find that this didn’t save us any time. We approached the line to the entrance to the attractions with our online tickets saved to my apple wallet only to be told that we had to get into the “online ticket pick up” window. This makes no sense because our tickets were already on our phone. Apparently there is no point in pre buying tickets because it doesn’t save you $ or time and actually costs more due to service charges. There is no signage about the fact that they do not accept online apple wallet tickets and that you need to stand in the pickup “will call” line. Once in line for the hayride, expect to wait at greater than 1 hour to get to the hayride. We are in line as I write this. We are over 60 minutes into waiting and nowhere near boarding the hayride. I am so upset to see how poorly managed this has become and I will never be back. I used to love this place and recommend it to others. The only reason our group didn’t abandon the whole event is bc I made the unfortunate mistake of pre purchasing the tickets. I would not recommend to anyone and I truly don’t think this event is salvageable unless they cap their headcount, or do timed ticketing, and/or get better traffic management. A sad day for me.

Update: it took just over 90 minutes to get to the hayride. It was very entertaining and at times, scary -but definitely not terrifying and not worth the cost or wait. The props are great and the actors are giving it their all. Since it took an hour to park and 90+ minutes to wait for the hayride, we skipped Shipwreck Cove even though we paid for/had tickets for it. The wait was estimated to be over an hour for this as well and it was already 10:30 at that time. I’m so disappointed and would truly like a refund for the second attraction cost as well as the service fee. The fact that they charge an additional couple bucks for parking is just a slap...

Right from the gate I had a bad experience. The lady cashier gave me a hard time due to my cash check card. She claim there wasn't any signature on the back of my card and that I had to go all the way back to my car to get two proofs of identification. She told me how she can lose her job and a big long story about why she needs all of this information. I believed her and went all the way back to my car understanding that the company needed proof of identification, I was not upset. However when I reached my car and went to sign the back of my card and get a second proof of identification when I saw that my card was already signed. I became very upset because I walked all the way back to my car which was far away from the ticket booth just because a lady couldn't see that my card was signed already. When I returned I told the lady that I had already signed the back of my card and that I was not happy that I had to walk all the way back to my car because she didn't see that it was signed. She was very nasty and said that she was right about what she did. When I asked to talk to someone regarding the situation they also didn't listen to what happened and quickly turned it around to saying that they want to keep the card and things safe. I did understand that but I wasn't upset about that, I was upset because the lady didn't see my card was signed and I had to walk all the way back to my car only to find that I wasted time and had to get out of line with my family because she couldn't see. As a cashier you cannot mess up those kind of transactions and not apologize ,when you're in customer service. That was an inconvenience for the customer. Long story short, bring two forms of identification if you are paying with a check card.

Also get a fast pass, because the normal lines go very slow. I have been to many of these haunted attractions and never have been upset in my waiting time. Granted, the lines can take a long time very understandable, but without the VIP tickets it can be miserable at Valley Of Fear. We were waiting in line for a long time when 3 groups of VIP went in front of us and there's only like a three or four dollar difference. People started to become upset in line and it affected the rest of the trip. However the attractions were not that interesting , the hayride was okay but not the best. Actors were good that's about it. They didn't have really much to work with like not to many chainsaws and other props. Some of the ground staff seemed annoyed and not happy. Hey I understand it's cold and dark but this is your job you chose. You can't showcase a bad attitude when you're trying to make it fun for people. It definitely takes away from the experience. In all for my first time I didn't have such a good experience at the Valley Of Fear and I hope this information is helpful to future customers. To top it all off you have to pay...