Northern Screams Attractions — Local services in Greater Sudbury

A fun seasonal experience with three separate mazes - Carrefour Carnivale, Gaston's Graves, and The Hostel. Tickets for each maze are 13.00 each, regardless of age. If you purchase tickets to all three mazes the price is discounted to 33.00. (No price discount for only two mazes.)

If you only want to visit one maze, make it The Hostel. The waiting line can be quite long (close to an hour) depending on when you visit but The Hostel is the longest maze to go through and it is situated indoors while the other two mazes are quite short and both are outdoors.

There are three carnival games that can be played as well but only one attendant coveting all three games. This wasn't really a problem during our visit however as few people seemed interested in playing. The prize selection was dismal, especially given the cost per play. I believe that most people realized that they could simply go to a dollar store and buy the exact items for considerably less.

The game booths did add to the overall atmosphere however. I would love to see more games added next year, along with a better selection of prizes. I would also love to see traditional carnival treats like candyfloss and candy apples added as well. There was a concession stand inside but it wasn't well advertised and the lineup of people waiting to enter The Hostel was a real deterrent as it was not very clear that you could enter to purchase concessions without waiting in the hour long line. Better signage and more staff interacting with patrons outside would be an improvement. As would lowering the concession prices.

A family of 4 would have to pay $132.00 just to go through the three mazes. Having to pay the high concession prices on top of that was just too much. I overheard several parents telling their children that it was just too expensive. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun but expensive evening. As two adults it was a $100.00 evening for an outing that would have been over in 30 minutes, (including game play) if not for the hour long wait to enter The Hostel maze. I'm glad that I didn't have children with me to cover.

I do want to give a shout-out to all of the teenage employees who worked inside the mazes. They really did a great job with their costumes and they really went for it with their characters. I'm sure that they all lost their voices by the end of each evening. I know that my ears were definitely...

Do you like haunted houses? What about horrible service? Because the real nightmare is trying to get what you paid for here. If you thought that buying your tickets online would buy you some convenience, you're sadly mistaken. We stood in a long line and when we got to the front, having my online ticket wasn't good enough, I needed a punch card that was supposed to be given to me by someone outside but apparently I wasn't one of the lucky ones who got one. So she told me to go to the ticket sales trailer and then get back in line. Which would be the end of the line because who is going to let me in front of them? And the ticket sales trailer had a longer line than the attractions. The fun didn't stop there! I had to negotiate with her for 10 minutes because she wasn't authorized to let me in without a punch card even though I was showing her my online ticket. She finally let us in because she realized I wasn't going to leave and then afterwards I went to find the guy with the punch cards so I could go to the second attraction without the same problem. When I found him and told him what happened, he offered no apology, and actually seemed annoyed with me. Everything is out of control here, people in line arguing about what lineup they're supposed to be in, a "fast pass" line that is really just the regular line, teenagers cutting into line and then adults swearing and yelling at others because no one knows what's going on. That was the real horror about this place. This event would be amazing with better management. So many lost opportunities. If you wanted to buy a snack, you have to stand in the long ticket sales lineup. There should be snack stands and food vendors on site for the amount of people that were there. And maybe a tent to get a warm drink to stand in line with. Management is not considering anyone's needs but their own. Don't give this place your money. They don't care that you're supporting them. They only know how to fill their pockets. This gig is far too complicated for them. Save your money. I thought of a motto for them.... "We scare and we...

The scariest part of the whole experience was the wait times; especially after a sudden random second line formed for the Hostel, most of whom were let in almost immediately. Apparently forethought and purchasing tickets online ahead of time only buys you a longer wait time. Earlier reviews are correct about poor management ruining a potentially good experience; by this point they should be aware of how many people they can put through in a night and a 10 to 15 minute haunted house really isn't worth an hour and a half of waiting...