Spirit Of Halloweentown

The events were great, though the whole scene is WAY too crowded. Vendors were nice but some were overwhelmed with lines spiraling all over. The event lines were better managed but also extremely long (I have to use a cane and their accessability is overall poor, using a wheelchair or walker would've been darn near impossible, I'd think.). Ended up leaving early because it was too difficult to navigate with a cane. I suppose it would be more enjoyable for the ablebodied. Still really enjoyed myself in the stuff I could do, though(haunted house and alien experience thing).

Very cool merch store and the lady at the counter was wonderful, I would have given it five stars if the haunted house was active but it was shut down for the year due to problems with the animatronics. I will be back though next year to try it out and I full expect to give it a five star at that time The rest of the town was fantastic too, too bad all the construction. That's another reason for a star off.

We drove down to Halloweentown from BC and only stayed about 20 minutes. The vibes were great, and the nostalgia from the movies was fun, but it’s mostly just a photo op. I wouldn’t recommend buying the tickets as none of the extras were worth it. Thankfully, we had other plans. It has so much potential to be more with added activities or events.

Would not recommend, do not purchase the $40 tickets in advance most of the events are free and you can purchase photo opportunities for just the photos you do want. Long lines for everything, long lines for the haunted house, long lines for photos with the pumpkin and long lines for the bus back to the parking lot. The event could be a lot more, but it seems like at this point the event coordinators may be over it. It's not worth the trip there, not worth the hassle to find parking and not worth the ticket price. Some of the attractions (the train) were under maintenance so you're paying full price for an event that you can't even do. Save your money, no ticket needed to enter. If you do want a picture pay for that photo only and find a place to have some food/drinks and call it a day.

Don't bother. It's a disappointment. They don't even have the pumpkin. 40 MINUTES of backwoods driving from the freeway to see ... Nothing. It's 2 days before Halloween and we have maybe 200 square feet of a kiddy park with random plastic pumpkins and scarecrows. They've got Benny in his cab in the road. If you want a picture you've gotta dodge cars to get it. There's somewhere you can spend $45 to make see more things but I'm not interested after this disappointment. Just don't come. Youre not missing out.

The wait time for everything was insane. Took 2 hours just to get in once we parked. We bought tickets ahead of time online because we thought we’d need that to enter but turns out it’s only for a few events which also had lines that took hours. Everything seemed very poorly planned for the amount of attendees. There’s fun photo ops and free things on the street that didn’t require an admission fee. If you plan on going expect to wait in lines all day.

What started as an exciting and hopeful day ended in frustration and anger. To start with, as others have said, don’t buy tickets. It’s a huge scam, and the website absolutely made it sound as if you needed the tickets to gain entry. You don’t. It’s an open street fair. We got to the parking lot 20 mins after the event started and had to sit in long lines to park. Okay, we can roll. Got to the actual event and discovered you didn’t need tickets to get in, the lines were already insanely long, the street was packed, and there was zero crowd control. Checked out the pumpkin picture line and it was a nearly 3hr wait to get a picture, so many little kids in line waiting in the heat. We couldn’t even get into stores to shop/look around, all pubs/eateries were packed, and the lines for the food carts were insane. Sadly, all the vendor items were equally terrible and over priced. We managed to have one caramel apple and had to call it quits after walking around for an hour and a half, and finding nothing available to do. However, the kicker came at the end of the adventure. People had begun to just park themselves and it resulted in zero exits out of the row of cars where we were parked. Our car was truly boxed in with no where to go. The parking attendants were no where to be seen, so there was no one managing anything. Thankfully, someone was just sitting in their car and they moved so we could get through, otherwise we would have been stuck. Also saw several cars entering through the exits of parking lots to get around the long lines. Overall, what was supposed to be exciting and fun, was anything but. If we could give it zero stars, we would.

Satisfied a curiosity, but wouldn't recommend. Tons of missed opportunity for this potentially cute and fun annual Halloween event. It's crammed into two small areas near the river. Pretty run down and janky. Too many people, kids, strollers, and dogs. Stores are overcrowded, vendor area walkways are chaotic, inexplicable line ups for things that we were guessing at. What is that line for? Why are people lined up here? No foot traffic management to be seen. Cakes, popcorn, and candy vendors with food sitting out and sweating in the sun. I overheard someone say they were charging $10 for Dippin' Dots. Lots of canned drinks being sold out of coolers (???) parking is scattered at best and we saw people hoofing it for blocks and blocks who paid $20-30 when it wasn't necessary. You could easily find street parking closer to the main event area. Not worth the hour+ drive from Portland to attend this one. It's too bad. It could be so great if the right event company were to invest some money and manage it.

As a huge Halloweentown fan, I was excited to visit this place during my trip to Portland. I was not aware that the event was free and we the ticket admission we paid only was only for entry for the alien exhibit, haunted house, and oddities museum. I honestly would just skip out on all of these attractions and just head on over to get your pictures of the town center. I honestly had very high expectations and just assumed the pumpkin was going to be gigantic. I didn't expect the pumpkin to be small and just thought the town center was going to be bigger. However, I was still happy that I visited this place. It does get super packed and crowded so keep that in mind. Don't forget to check the weather since when we went it was pouring rain but good thing we brought an umbrella.

It's cute but very crowded. Don't travel from far away, you will be very disappointed! Don't pay for anything in advance! It's free to wander around and see the decorated town square. The very expensive tickets are for the haunted house and a few other attractions that a lot of people say is not worth it. Even with tickets the lines are very long and the people on those lines did not look very happy. This seems like something that started out really cool and special for the locals but social media caused it to blow up into a nightmare.

Waste of money. No one checked our tickets for parking and apparently we didn't need to tickets to get into the event. We walked the mile to get to the event from parking because the shuttles were slow and we were told by parking staff it would be faster to walk than wait for the next one. The attractions included on tickets had super long lines and the event was crowded, shoulder to shoulder. This was too much for me and my kids and we did a loop around and left. It was a complete waste of time and money.

Very cool store and the lady at the counter was wonderful, I would have given it five stars if the haunted house was active but it was shut down for the year due to problems with the animatronics. I will be back though next year to try it out and I full expect to give it a five star at that time

To start, I went on a weekday so I can't speak to the experience of the weekend! But on a weekday it wasn't crowded, space to take pics, but overall it was a little underwhelming. But for free and being able to park right there in town for free and just look around I would definitely say it was worth it for me.

I specifically came here to tell people not to buy tickets online, or in general! My wife and I planned a trip to Oregon and decided to stop in St. Helen's to check out Spirit of Halloweentown. It looks like it was probably very fun years and years ago, but now it looks like an area where a few props are displayed. There is absolutely no point in paying general admission for something that doesn't even require a ticket! Wear boots, too! The entire square is a mud pit! There were a few restaurants around that we decided to check out. You could tell they restaurants were sick of let down tourists. We went to one and they told us that there would be a 15 minute wait when there was only one group of people seated. We ended up going to a cut little pub.

This town is adorable! They have a ton of cool little shops and restaurants, and it's right off the bay. They also have an old film theatre right at the start of downtown. The thrift store was our first stop and I'm so glad we checked it out. We were in there over an hour exploring! The actual event was very cute. They had acts like chainsaw juggling and dancing witches! They also have an oddity museum and haunted house. Not super scary but very cute and family-friendly. A lot of photo opportunities as well. The line for ticketing was super long and the pumpkin was much smaller than expected, but everything was worth the visit!

My update for 2024: While some was similar to last year, I'm going down a few stars because there was not much to do this year. There wasn't a train, no playground access, no Halloween decor tent that the little ones loved last year. Last year we stayed for 4 hours, this year, we were done with everything in 1 hour and that's including lunch. Our tickets included a picture with Jack the Pumpkin, but the line was so long that our kids were pretty tired after 20 minutes of waiting. I hope they focus more on activities for the kid's next year. Still and fan, but it felt a lot less thought out this year. I'm hoping the new waterfront will help next year.

We traveled from California to St. Helens to visit HalloweenTown on October 12, 2024, arriving around 3 PM. Although street parking was limited by the time we arrived, we were relieved to find street parking and avoided the parking shuttle. We overheard other visitors expressing their parking shuttle frustrations. We purchased the $40 ticket, which turned out to be a mistake. Here's what the ticket included: Haunted House Entry: This was ok. There are no live monsters, so it is just lighting, scary noises, and a few Halloween props. It takes about 7 minutes to walk the full haunted house. it took us 45 minutes to enter the haunted house. Alien Meet & Greet: This featured a long 25-minute wait. The Alien Meet & Greet was combined with the Oddities Museum, both located upstairs. We found this especially disappointing; most of the displays consisted of cheap items easily found in discount stores. We expected at least an alien in costume to greet us, but that didn't happen. Oddities Museum: This was included with the Alien Meet & Greet and didn't add much value. Boo Bash Pavilion: The pavilion was a large tent with some tables and a few games. It did have a small bar, which made it one of the better parts of the experience since it provided a space to escape the chaotic crowds and take a break. Train Ride to Nightmare on 4th Street Haunted Yard Display: We skipped this because it wasn't a train at all, but rather a school bus that also served as the parking shuttle. The line was about 45 minutes long, and after experiencing the other attractions, we felt this would likely be a letdown as well. Free Digital Photo with The Big Pumpkin: We were excited to get a picture with the big pumpkin, but the wait was over 1.5 hours, which was far too long. We were left feeling underwhelmed by our visit to Halloween Town, and the ticket didn't provide the value we had hoped for. Overall, the event felt poorly organized and was not enjoyable due to the large crowds. There were long lines for everything, and the food options were quite limited. We ended up going to a nearby Thai restaurant, which was over capacity, resulting in a 30-minute wait just to place our order, and it took over an hour to receive our food. I was really excited to visit Halloween Town, but I left feeling disappointed. The $40 ticket is not worth it.

The expensive tickets aren't worth it. Low budget and crowded. Smaller than I thought. Though - it was cute l, had a good amount of vendors, and I am not unhappy I went!

Sooooo disappointing! Drove down all the way from Seattle after hearing about this event for years. Halloween town is such a nostalgic classic for me but this was not at all what I thought it would be. Paid almost $100 for two adult tickets for what you might ask? I'm still trying to figure that out. You didn't need tickets to enter the town area at all. The area had a bunch of street vendors (literally like any little street fair or outdoor market) nothing special. Over priced gross food and basic stuff to buy. The only cool thing was this mermaid they had in the tent (this part you needed the ticket for) and the few spots where you could imagine the movie came to life. I will attach pictures. The was this strange museum (if you'd call it that) with a bunch of alien decor, an animatronic haunted house (which was kind of cute), and the tent which literally had nothing inside except the cool mermaid and a bar with drinks you had to pay even more money for. Also a picture with the pumpkin that you got a digital download of. That was all that you got for the $45 adult ticket. Overall wouldn't be as sad if we didn't waste an entire day, $100+, and gas to just see this. If you're close by or bored sure, but don't bother buying tickets! And plan to do other things too so it isn't a complete let down! The vibe of the town is also just WEIRD. Lol Better off having a cozy nostalgic movie night at home and spending like $10 to rent the movie and buy some snacks!

This experience is FREE!!!! Yes, you read that right - FREE. My partner and I flirted with the idea of buying tickets for years, until we did a little digging and found out that you can go take pictures with the iconic Halloweentown pumpkin and walk around the town for free. The tickets sold include the price of carnival-esque treats such as a maze, fun house, etc that are there on weekends. If you're just looking for photo ops and walking around to see filming locations for Halloweentown and Twilight, you can do that all for the smooth price of $0. We went on a Friday night and there were some folks in costumes walking around, a few vendors, and some statues scattered about. It wasn't super lively, but we were there to see the courthouse and iconic movie locations! They throw a larger celebration on the weekends with fun for the family, and possibly more folks walking around in costume to scare the kids and to take photos with. The vendors there were very lackluster. Just a couple of white tent stalls with plastic knick knacks for kids and cotton candy. We stayed for about an hour, and walked around the local shops in town that went all out with their Halloween decorations and items for sale. Some of the houses in the neighborhood also go all out with their yard decorations, which was a fun sight to see. Overall, the town is a little barren except for this event, but if you're a huge fan of Twilight or Halloweentown, it is absolutely worth the drive in if you manage your expectations.

If you were a kid and ow fully grown and want to see this. It's worth it. Lots of vendors and everything is in close proximity.

Drove all the way from southern california to come to this event. I'm sad that I didn't have to actually buy a ticket to see the halloween town and I spent money only to do the haunted house. What you're paying for is the activities, not the town. If I would have known, I would have spent that money to actually meet the cast that were there for the 25th anniversary. Although i'm upset, I'm glad that the money went to the town or workers. It was my first time in Oregon, but the trip was worth it because it's such a beautiful state! Would I go back to halloween town? maybe if I ever make my way through the town again, but definitely not what I did.

Don't waste your time or money like many other comments, that day stared with excitement, the family was ready to go see Halloweenton, well that all changed once we arrived, parking was horrible we waited 1 1/2 to 2 hours for the shuttle to arrive and if you wanted to walk it was about a 30 minute walk near a busy narrow street with no sidewalk, once we finally arrived it was extremely crowded you couldn't walk with out bumping into someone, they lines for everything were longer than the shuttle lines, all the venders looked overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything. Yes the even is free but they also keep pushing you to buy a tickets, adult tickets for $40 each and kids for $20 no one checks them at all anywhere. If you wanna go save your money but be prepared to waste your time/ day just waiting in long lines.

Everything! The decorations ect are the best you will ever see (in my humble open. Well II did see some REALLY cool costumes and decorations in Mexico! If you ever get the chance, go almost anywhere in Mexico to celebrate: Day of the Dead & All Saints' Day. I promise you won't regret it!!) the community seems to all get into the Halloween celebration. Super nice folks, some good food and tons of fun filled events! A great family get away or just something different for anyone that loves Halloween Enjoy

My family has gone to this event the last four years and have always enjoyed the small town vibe and fun activities. Our experience yesterday was a big disappointment. It took almost 90 minutes to park for $30 and another 35 minutes to take a shuttle. The event was packed into an area way too small for the crowd with long lines for exhibits that cost additional amounts and were underwhelming. The lines for food were long, and vendors ran out of items by 3:00. In prior years we got there early and stayed late. This year we stayed about an hour before giving up and heading back to the parking lot. We spent more time trying to park and riding a shuttle than at the event. We won't be back next year.

Its fun! Or, it was!! When it was smaller it had more heart and less expenses. They got too headstrong and now you have to wait an hour to get on a packed school bus. With 30 dollar parking. I miss the charm, but I suppose this happens to the best. Oh well, I don't know if I will continue going to this every year as I used to. What a shame.

This was the first time my wife and I have ever visited St. Helens during their Halloweentown event, and it is not likely to be our last. Sure, it's a bit cheesy, low budget, and based on an arguably unremarkable movie, but they definitely put some real "Spirit" into it, and more so than just in name alone. However, to maximize your experience here requires a bit of foreknowledge, so here are the tricks and treats that will save you a lot of time, effort and money: 1) The website for the event is garbage. It reminds me of something you'd stumble upon in GeoCities back in the 90's (how's that for a wayback reference?). Huge walls of text, terribly formatted, difficult to navigate, and leaves you with just as many questions as before you started reading. Skip it. 2) Don't pay for parking. You can find a spot on a side street within a few blocks, and walk down to the town square. 3) You do not....I repeat...you do NOT need to purchase a ticket to this event. Although it is called a "general admission" ticket, the whole of the event area is open to the public, to people of all ages. The ticket grants you access (one visit per person) to three of the experiences: the Haunted House, the Whispers in the Woods trail, and the Pumpkin Puzzle Plaza. Of the three of these, only the Haunted House is (arguably) worth it, but save some money and just purchase tickets for it a la carte, which you can do on site, or with your phone. There are also attractions that are not covered by the base ticket, which are superior to anything included in the "general admission" ticket, so I really don't see the justification for it. More on the Haunted House: it's very thematic, but it's not scary; there are no jump scares, and no actors - it's all automatons and aesthetics. It's cute, it's fun, but if you're looking for blood-curdling terror, look elsewhere, because (in the spirit of Disney-fied dungeoneering), it is suitable for all ages. So, what else is there to do, besides the aforementioned events? There's plenty of Halloween-themed photo ops in front of the courthouse, including props from the movie. There's also live music throughout the day. Vendors line the streets on either size of the courthouse plaza, as well as down the street towards the docks. There's plenty of cute vintage shops, a (ticketed) museum of oddities, a (ticketed) water taxi adventure, and some (ticketed) after dark activities, none of which are, again, covered by the "general admission" ticket. See where I'm going with this? Again, save your money. The real charm of the Spirit of Halloweentown event is in enjoying the charm of old St. Helens which, any other time of the year, is mostly disappointing - another somewhat derelict, decaying downtown nowheresville. However, there are some truly excellent restaurants and bars here, some cute vintage and antique shops, and some truly well-preserved historical buildings that easily justify an at least once-a-year haunted Halloween holiday. Well, a day trip, anyway.

Can I give zero stars? This is insanely expensive for how little there is and how stupid long the lines are. It's a total ripoff. If you want a picture of the pumpkin in front of city hall, go during the week for free.

Ticket scam; crowd organization; food vendors; clearer descriptions online for what alleged attractions are (e.g., alien and oddities experiences were random "spooky" thrifted ideas or handmade crafts with fictional back stories to portray "spooky" concepts. Not kidding.)

Very unorganized, came from La over priced tickets everything sold out. Super hungry over 30-40 min waits for food.

It was a terrible experience. It was not well organized this year. They make you buy a ticket for the event online, but there is, in reality, no need for the ticket. "A fool and his money are soon parted" Well, I was the fool this time.

I wouldn't pay for any of the attractions. It's mostly just stage props placed around town with characters roaming the streets and this can all be enjoyed for free. A decade of visiting and not much has changed other then the price $20 to park?? In there lot? Really? We walked up a block and parked for free. $15 for the animatronic haunted house was fun for our 3 and 1/2 year old, but more like the old Chuck E. Cheese bands for the rest of us. We will be back but hope they work on attractions. Charging to play in sand really quite ridiculous.....

Okay, I never wrote bad reviews, but this was so bad, I want to warn you to save your time and money. I didn't check Yelp before we went, and I really wish I would have. This was so disappointing, and I am so angry that I can't get my money back. $166 for a family of 5, and we drove over an hour to get there. What a waste! The haunted house (on Friday night) didn't have any live actors, Nightmare on 4th Street had mostly un-decorated houses--my lame Halloween decorations are better than half the ones on that street, and after we rode the train and went in the haunted house we couldn't find the Big Halloween Tent right away (the "maps" they have around town don't make sense and it was a dark and rainy night)... luckily we got hungry and stumbled across an amazing Thai restaurant. We decided to forgo hunting for the tent and ate. Once we left the restaurant, we walked over to try to see what it they were setting up for the next day, and stumbled across the tent which was on the waterfront behind City Hall. With 15 minutes left before they were supposed to close, we thought... well this is lucky and went down to check it out. Unfortunately, they had closed the tent early. So even though we had paid $25 each--$125 for tickets, we didn't get to go in. There was no one in sight. In addition, the ticketing purchase descriptions on the website were a little confusing, and I thought we had to buy haunted house tickets separately; totally my own fault, but I paid an extra $36 thinking I had to pay for my girls to go, not knowing that was included in our $25 tickets. I thought those were for the train ride and tent. So I paid for 5 extra admissions for the darn Haunted House, when two of us didn't even go in. Thanks for the confusing ticket descriptions organizers. All in all a GIANT waste of money and time. The only good thing I have to say is that the train conductor was a super sweet man, the "guides" for the "walking tour" of Nightmare on 4th Street were very sweet, though a little pushy (we didn't want to get off the covered train and walk the street like they want you to since it was pouring down raining and cold), and the staff at the Thai food place was great! We were also told by another group that the pub had really good food too. Also, hope you don't have to use the restroom, because the row of port a potty's by the train had 1 of 5 unlocked, and that one was full... full of excrement and urine with no toilet paper. Not a fun night. We will not be going back.

I paid 40 dollars online thinking it was for entrence and haunted house and a haunted house tour on a bus. well entrence is free and the bus tour took me 2 blocks droped us off so we could walk the haunted house blo I which wasn't even that good. the 40 dollars per person was so you could get in the Alien house the beer house, a picture with the pumpkin, haunted house and bus tour. I would have only paid 15 for just the haunted house cause the others were not worth it. but the place is amazing honestly however contraction limited so much.

Complete waste of $100. Do not waste your money. Plus way too many people to even be able to walk around or see anything. What a total waste of time.

It was right after Halloween of 2021 and I came across a list for U.S. towns that are known for doing Halloween in an over the top fashion. Of course Salem, Mass was on the list as well as New Orleans. But St. Helen's, Oregon was also on there and that town was the closest one I lived by out of the entire list, it was just a few hours away. Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and has been as an adult. Eventually it went passed Christmas which was the starring crown for me as a child but I am an adult now. This year(Autumn of 2022) I wanted to celebrate the holiday in a big way. Covid prevented much celebration the last few years but this year I celebrated the holiday with various activities, a visit to Halloweentown being one of them. To tell you the truth I didn't know much about Halloweentown and some of the driving force behind it. I didn't see any of the movies that this festival is based from (At least one Halloweentown film was made in St. Helen's. ). The festival as a result takes place for about two months, September and October. There are vendors in downtown selling Halloween merchandise and rides like a train trip to a forest to see spooky sculptures and a boat trip to a nearby river island to see Bigfoot and roast marshmallows. To get all of those rides in and to see the Haunted House I got The One Big Ticket general admission. There is a Museum of Oddities that I really wanted to see but unfortunately it was closed. Tickets from the Spirit of Halloweentown seem a bit confusing especially if you haven't been to the festival before but once you get there it makes more sense. If you go on a weekend you should also buy an additional parking ticket from the ticket section of the website to ensure your car doesn't get towed. In addition to the activities on the ticket, the vendors and the town decorated for Halloween from one end to the other there are additional special events and if you read the website where you buy the tickets you can see what the schedule is and what the activities are. From the looks of days where they may be a parade tickets go fast but I went on a Sunday and it was nice and chill. When I printed out the QR codes for my parking ticket and general admission ticket and arrived there I parked first, the address for parking is on the website and it is signed. I wondered through the vending area and saw a check in booth for your ticket so make sure you go there and get the QR code paper exchanged for a physical ticket. It's on the "main drag" as far as streets go. My ticket granted me the Sand Island Adventure, Whisper in the Woods, Puzzle Plaza and the Haunted House. I first started out with the Haunted House and enjoyed. It wasn't by any means state of the art but was fun all the same. Then I went to Sand Island. To me this was the highlight of the whole trip. Getting on a boat, going to a river island and roasting marshmallows and seeing Bigfoot. The Whispers in the Woods was good too. You board a train where it takes you a short distance and you walk through a forested area on a trail loop encountering faces in trees with spooky sounds. Again, not state of the art and maybe for some people disappointing but for me it was enjoyable. Puzzle Plaza was just that. An area where you can hang out and work on puzzles. That was okay but not quite my thing. Nearby Puzzle Plaza were pirates shooting off canons which I liked. Once I was done with the rides I strolled through Pumpkin Plaza, the Plaza in front of the court house and took plenty of pictures. I even bought a few t shirts before heading out. All in all I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. Seeing a whole town decked out for Halloween made it pretty exciting for me. One thing to keep in mind this festival is seasonal oriented. It's definitely in September and October only unlike Salem, Mass and New Orleans where you can go practically any time of the year for a spooky fix.

Would be 3 stars if we had children. Great concept poor execution. Spend an hour walking around. I would recommend not buying the tickets, you get the experience with or without. Really made me want to go to a real haunted house.

honestly it's a lane tourist trap. 30 min wait to park, pay $15 to park and wait 3 hours for a shuttle bus ride. All the while there's no restroom while waiting save a single buck outhouse that's padlocked shut. Once there, there's less vendors than our local saturday market, only two booths serving food and one was sold out, and a single water fountain that barely functions so you dehydrate badly. It's a beverage desert and getting anything to eat or drink means an hour wait in line. Very little to do too. The upside was there were a decent amount of people in costume doing photo ops, and the circus show was fabulous. The parade was fun, but not well run. They need a lot more security running it and keeping all the idiots out of the road. Repeatedly the parade dropped off for an extended period and people thought it was over and started leaving. It was kind of chaos. Seems like overall the event just wasn't prepared for the sheer number of people there. Overall it's a fun event that we hope continues, but it could be so much better with more staff, more vendors, more shuttles, and better organization.

This was probably the biggest, waste of money I have ever experienced. Waited an hour to get on a bus to get to "Halloween town" the port-o-potty was LOCKED, no shade, 20 dollars to park in a grass lot with lot employees that don't know left from right. I am absolutely so disappointed in what this was. Basically the entire day is waiting in line for BS prices. Vendors in a parking lot is what this is. I am so angry that I spent 150 dollars to be annoyed.

This place needs to be investigated for fraud. Like many other people, I was tricked by their website into thinking it was a ticketed event when it is free entry. The ticket, which they do not make clear, is not to get in, it is to do a haunted house, a "train" ride, an oddities museum and a couple other things. When we realized we'd been manipulated into purchasing $40 tickets we were pissed. Especially since everything the ticket was for had lines that wrapped down the street and around the block. What family with young kids wants to stand in a 2 hour line to take a picture with a pumpkin right after you waited 1.5 hours for a museum and 2.5 for a "train" ride. We literally took one lap and left after 30 minutes. These lines were so long that even if I wanted to do all the lame stuff on the ticket, it would've taken me 12 house of waiting in each of the lines just to do it. I went to the ticketing booth to see if I could convince them to refund me. The woman was very nice, but as I expected she couldn't help me at all. She told me that all day long people come and ask for refunds because they're so disappointed with the lines, or were also misled about tickets. This is a scam, it feels illegal and I'm reporting them to the bbb.

4 stars for effort! It is literally a town! What you see in the pictures with the big pumpkin is the square. There is plenty of parking as again it is a TOWN. There are actual residential houses it's an entire community. In some of the reviews on here it talks about parking and shuttles, but there is plenty of street parking but you might have to walk to get to the square. Before going I would recommend going on a weeknight when it is not as busy. When you purchase tickets get the ones labeled "After dark" these are $25 each you get admission to the haunted house which was probably the best part about the visit. You get on the train which will take you around the town and then drop you off at the haunted house, you also get to go to the carnival tent. You wait in the square for the train which gets there on time so pay attention to the times on your ticket. After the haunted house the train will drop you off for about ten minuets on fourth street where the neighbors decorate the entire street and guests can look at the decorated houses. There is a pub in Halloween town you can grab food at and there are a few vendors who sell cotton candy and other small things. This is a good place to go to for younger kids, go after dark when every thing is lit up and it looks a little cooler. This is nothing like the movie set, it is cute but out dated little town, but everyone is pretty nice and have been working there a long time. If you have questions the staff is in the haunted house where you will also find a gift shop! Gift shop takes Apple Pay. Again don't expect Hollywood style sets or anything like that. It's very old school feeling but very cool to visit!

Review & key takeayways of Spirit of Halloween 2022 I've always wanted to visit Halloweentown of St. Helens, and finally did last weekend. This review is for the "admission" to Halloweentown. I paid about $65 for two general admission tickets online prior to coming. Upon arrival - it was pretty apparent that the cost of general admission was obscenely overpriced. To me, general admission says "you can't enter without a ticket" which is not the case here. The general admission tickets gave you: - Haunted house entry (the only part of the ticket that was worth it, but you can purchase haunted house only for $10) - admission to a rinkydink "puzzle" yard which was a fenced off area with table top puzzles. There was a mermaid in a tank here - the only remotely interesting thing there. - "Whisper in the Woods" which was a 3 minute "tram" ride across the parking lot to a small hiking trail that wasn't even decorated. Don't waste your money and buy tickets, it really isn't worth it. They can do so much more than they're doing for the admission price. It's worth it to JUST experience the square. There are vendors, decor, entertainment and that was what I came for. I'd visit the square again but would not pay for GA. The haunted house was very well done, though. Not your traditional scare haunted house, more of an aesthetic thing. Other tips: - DONT pay the $20 for parking. We parked up the street and walked down a bit. - GO in the evening when everything is lit up. - EXPLORE the shops around the area. There are some great gems around here.

Customer service is laughable. I'm trying to support the local activities but I guess I'll just go see what I can do for free

My kids love the Disney Halloween Town movies and always wanted to come see the town. We decided to to finally check it out. We bought five tickets and a parking pass for $159. It was the biggest waste of money! There is free parking around town and of you wait until 4:30 or 5:00 the attendants leave and the parking is free. We bought 5 $30 tickets for the "event" and other than the train and a walk through a sketchy park (that is not ADA accessible) were closed. If you want to eat overpriced mediocre fair food or see the pumpkin (not the one from the movie) you don't need to pay for the tickets. I have never experienced such and underwhelming paid event as this!

Was nice to see the places, and props from the Halloweentown Movies. Worth basing my whole vacation around? No. The town for the most part was clean and friendly. Didn't actually go to the festival, wasn't going to wait in line for pictures only, the square is open all day and no one was there while I took pictures.

If I could give this a zero stars I would. When I say this is the biggest scam I have ever seen it's an understatement. This is the first and last time my girlfriend and I will go to this at least with paying because you don't need to pay the excessive $100 per ticket to do the events they have. I am disgusted with this even and wish I could get my money back but it makes sense to have a zero refund policy when you're scamming people of their money. It was so disorganized, the systems to scan any of the QR codes even worked and it was basically a garage sale with the vendors. The "big tent" was a pathetic excuse for a side attraction as well as the "alien exhibit" they charged you more for these attractions as well and the big tent was a couple string lights and a card board cut out as well as garden gnomes and a skeleton you can buy from party city. The alien attraction was mannequins painted different colors with cheap costumes on. Also can't forget that "amazing train ride on the water" which consisted of a guy pulling you on one of those trains they have in the mall for children while talking about the construction the town is doing and the attractions they didn't have and to use your imagination, also should add the whole "ride" is maybe 5 minutes. 0/10 would never do this again.

I'd give it zero if I could. You have to park down the road. Pay $20 to park and then either walk 30 min or wait for a bus that took 2 hours to pick up 50 people. Paid $150 for tickets to the cheesiest event I've ever seen. The "big Halloween tent" is Costco Halloween decorations and straw. The lines to get any food are an hour long. It's not organized and they don't tell you the event is free besides the cheesy tent that is not worth the money. I do not recommend wasting your money or time. I traveled from out of state and was super disappointed. I'm embarrassed for them.

I got to meet Benny the Skellington, he was driving a "The Psychic Taxi" from the movie and he talked. He is my favorite character in the whole movie. We took pictures with him and other props from the movie. I didn't really like the Museum of Oddities. there wasn't a lot of active things to get to do and there weren't a lot of rooms. Also the I thought it was weird that there were Toy story aliens at the Alien Museum. The haunted house I thought was fun but not very scary. but I hid and got to scare Hailey and she screamed really loud and she almost Peed her pants! I got to do my first VR game! it wasn't scary like everybody thought it was. you were on a roller coaster and it tips you from side to side and then it tips you upside down. it wasn't even scary at all! o was yelling WOOHOOO the whole time! #GregTravels

Underwhelming. Feels like a tradition that is slowly dying. It was really cool to see the filming location of Halloweentown but a lot of the activities were lack luster. Can tell this event is definitely catered towards children. Most of the museum artifacts are low budget Halloween decorations. For whatever reason the museums required an audio tour?? Doesn't make sense when you're in a group. The haunted house was probably the best part of the experience but wasn't scary at all. Check in was confusing and most of the activities don't really justify the $30 spent on the ticket. Overall the event doesn't seem well put together. Extremely overhyped. Would skip buying a ticket and just go to the town as a quick tourist stop, not a destination.

It's a really dessapointing place, they should do better, not scary at all! Not even a little, there were a few mechanical props, lights, really not impressed.

There are a lot of mixed opinions about this event, and it all has to do with perspective. I've only been twice, and I've only been since COVID reigned. I bring this up because this event has been going on for years, and people who have gone to it for a long time have more of a comparison from then to now and feel it isn't what it used to be. Also, there's the perspective of paying for a ticket for entry to activities or not paying for a ticket and just doing what you can without ticket. I have chosen not to buy the ticket because it seems to me the activities that require a ticket are mostly geared toward little kids. So, if you have kids, the ticket might be worth it. I still spend quite a bit because my friends and I like to go to vendor village which does not require a ticket. They have some neat props set up there along with the pirate shanty where they set off the canons, and there are several vendors where we have purchased adult beverages, souvenir shirts, and other artist products. We then walk up the hill to the food trucks and buy snacks or whatever. We dress up to walk around town, we people watch, and we go to the restaurants and stores to buy things. If you're a fan of the movie, it's neat just to see how the town is set up. This year we even met Luke the Goblin because he was down by vendor village briefly. Even with not buying a ticket, we easily spend at least 4 hours there if not more. If you don't buy a ticket, and you don't shop or eat or drink, then I could see how you might not get much out of it. The decorations and events might not be at the level you would see going to Disneyland, but honestly how often do you go anywhere and see a whole town square decked out for Halloween with decorations and props? It takes money and/or supporters, and St. Helens, OR doesn't have Disney backing their budget.

This place was highly underwhelming. The activities, decor and staff were all a random mix of stuff that made no sense nor did they correlate with the Halloweentown movies whatsoever. To start off, the staff seemed to be all volunteer women who didn't want to be there and were annoyed at anyone who had a question. The activities are genuinely comedic. There's one (whispering woods) where you are shuttled about 30 feet down the road, only to walk up some random public trail (that the locals were walking their dogs on) to search for masks on trees. Literally, that's it. They hung these wooden masks on trees and some of them had speakers next to them that played weird wind or breathing sounds when you walked past...? The activity is literally just to count how many masks you see. Would also like to mention that the docent asked if we knew what we were doing when we walked up and we said no, and she replied with "yeah...most people don't" and passively told us what the activity was. She seriously was just sitting there in a camping chair yet was bothered that we didn't immediately know the activity. Also, can't forget how she threw in a little fun fact that there was POISON OAK on the trail that they were continuously sending guests through. HUH?? It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. On to the next! They had this alien museum thing. So random, because why would they make some fake alien museum in Halloweentown...? I thought it would be some ACTUAL museum about aliens. Like some kind of space museum with conspiracies and stories about alien abductions or what not. No...oh no it's not. It was random props and artwork that they typed a fake folklore or story to go with. Yep, that's it. You walk up this musty staircase with literal trash and an old stair lift that's broken along the walls. No seriously. And you're then filed through a room with just, stuff basically. The only room slightly related to aliens had Pascal (from the Disney movie Tangled) figurines as part of the display like we wouldn't recognize it. They also set up a literal monster high doll and made a fake story to go with it and acted like that was some ~spooky scary mystical haunted alien doll!~ it was a JOKE. The food carts were horrific and extremely overpriced. My friend bought curly fries that were advertised as, well regular fries. She paid $8 for them and she got literal potato peelings. I included photos so you guys understand how badly she was ripped off. Eight dollars for THAT. Don't even get me started on the Chinese food cart I bought my lunch from... There was also some sort of vendor area with shops set up and I have no idea what was going on there. The booths consisted of some carnival prize booth (no seriously. Like when you win a game at the fair and get some blowup alien doll or a stuffed animal), metal headbands, water bottles, a pirate one, a clothes one and some $5 jewelry booth. Also, the pirate booth thing had literal cannons they had lined up and were firing off??? They also had paid actors to walk around the venue like you see in Disneyland. And no, there wasn't any grandma Aggy or Marnie actors, they hired someone to dress up as Jack Sparrow and the Queen of Hearts from Alice in wonderland????? They also had just RANDOM decor all around the streets. Like cardboard cutouts of Sally and Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. Even the town center with the giant pumpkin, which is a huge part of the movie franchise, was wrong. They had two different pumpkins, neither movie accurate, both next to each other and both surrounded by weird lawn decor on the ground. Not a single thing made sense. It felt like I was in a fever dream. I could go on and on about how random, weird, chaotic, unprofessional and cheap this place is but I won't. I thought this would be a replica of the Halloweentown franchise. I thought activities, food etc would be related to Halloweentown or themed like it. Idk just something that references the movie. At least ONCE. I'm not sure if I had high expectations but this was shockingly bad. It's almost not even funny, it's bewildering that people put this together and think it's worth the money we pay. And the cherry on top of this all, is you're only allowed to do each event once. They will stamp or mark a little card they give you when you enter the alien museum, haunted house etc and it's funny because they're acting like anyone would want to do the activities more than once? Absolute waste of money and a total joke. It's like all these middle aged women who were running the place watched halloweentown once with their grandkids like 10 years ago and are just going from memory and think throwing in random stuff will captivate a larger audience. So wrong, so so many things are wrong.

I really enjoyed this event. Where else can you do fun and silly things with your children for 35.00 a person? There was a silly walk on an island where one of the Grandbabies slipped and was mud-covered but still had a great time. They got to search in the trees for signs of bigfoot. Then there was a walk in the woods with amazing carvings on the trees and there were speakers that told stories. The pirates were down at the waterfront and they told stories and lit off cannons and just were general fun. There was a super silly alien museum thing and some "oddities'. Oh and the haunted house. Loads of effects and during the day, no jump scares. Took all of the Grands in from age 1 to 10 and they loved it. There were also shows down on the waterfront with all kinds of circus-type performers that the kids and I both enjoyed. Leapin Louie was our family favorite. What else? LOADS of vendors. Everything from Hair Tinsel to Caramel apples. Really a good selection this year. It was quite a bit better than last year. I'm trying to think of everything because there was so much more this year. There are oodles of photo ops and eye candy. Oh and the people from the movie!! How could I forget? Luke, Dillon, Sophie, The Twins, the Toothfairy, the broom salesman, and Harriet. It was free to take pics with all of them except the broom salesmen "Kenneth Choi" due to his continued fame in 911. Some gal came and even brought Marnie's original broom. It was so cool. Anyway, I'm looking forward to what next year holds. Should be fun! I know the grandkids are super excited about it. If you can't find anything fun to do here, it's your own fault!

I'd leave less stars if could. I see why you have no refunds, because I'm sure many people would demand one. This is a joke, dollar store Halloween decorations plastared haphazardly on the buildings, scrawny crappy bats thrown in the trees, and don't get me started on your idea of sound mixing your speakers, it was a treat getting my eardrums blown out. This event is clearly oversold, the lines for the "attractions" were literally insane, stretching blocks and around corners. The map makes absolutely no sense. The bennys taxi cab is literally parked in front of a lamp post, ruining photo ops. The main pumpkin has its own long line, which is to be expected, but no staff to offer to take pictures for people? Or like a platform to put my phone on to snap one. This whole event is pathetic, I wasted 75$ on two tickets and I didn't do a single thing offered, I don't feel like catching covid at this oversold way too crowded event, because of course no one is enforcing social distance let alone masks.

I wish I could get my money back! Visited this weekend and it was the biggest waste of $74 for tickets ever. whole event was so unorganized. Over priced and over hyped. The biggest L we took was the " Walking with Pumpkins attraction" biggest Scam. waited over 40 minutes for the boat to come to the dock. you finally board the boat using a sketchy 3 step ladder. slow as boat takes about 10 min to cross the river, I COULD swim across it in 5 minutes! jk but seriously very slow, Once you get to the island there is nothing but some wooden cases with craved pumpkins faces on them. -_- about 4-6 of them, after you pass that there is nothing else to do in the island but wish you had never came in the first place. Once you are finally done 10 mins max you walk back to the dock and wait yet again a long time for the boat to come an pick you up to take you back to St. Helens dock. this took about 2 hours total from our day.

Needs some serious program management and web development. Areas are not spaced out well. Confusing to even find where to go. Their so called, "maps" not helpful. To see the "mermaid" you are crammed down an area that you will see the "unicorns" and llamas before being smashed to see the mermaid. You then get an opportunity to have your picture taken with her if you want to wait another hour. All this crowding is right in front of the "big event" tent. Inside the big event tent are some photos opts. that's it. The train ride, that will go nowhere, and you will see nothing exciting, as it goes down and turns around at a dump/abandon location. The shows look interesting, if you can see and hear. There is no stage as they are just on the street, so unless you can make your way through the crowd to see or hear you will be out of luck. Need more food choices so you don't have to wait an hour, for those over cooked elephant ears or hairs in your chili fries, or you can wait in the short line for cold clam chowder. The Nightmare on 4th street was part of our ticket, to be drove there. However, we walked there, anyone can without a ticket to see a few houses that are decorated. We could not do everything because we did not get the next level of membership; you would think $45 per person is enough to see all the exhibits. We also prepaid for our tickets online and I heard the lady at the ticket booth state she only excepts cash, so be prepared for that. I saw no water stations and no security. Better spacing, better and more food, better pricing and more actors, actors from the movie since after all it is based on the movie but yet they had no people bringing this together. We also did not pay for parking. We found parking along the road. We went, we saw, we will not go back.

Absolutely charming! My wife and I went on Halloween of all days and were in absolute . Well done St.Helens! Not sure why people are bashing it but it's safe to assume they're not all there. We loved it and you will too!