Creatures (Screamers Part II) gone-falls

[robert]

It appears that Creatures haunted house at Niagara Falls is no more. Look here www.accessniagara.com/blog/media/20060515_smart_gifts.jpg and www.accessniagara.com/blog/media/20060502_screamers_paint.jpg
The original, Screamers House of Horrors is still open. Seph, you visited this attraction, (Creatures Part II) it was your first and final visit. Let's see what haunted house they will turn into a gift shop or restaurant next. Screamers Part III (Horror Manor) became a fine dining restaurant (Spicy Olive) in 2005. Apparently Screamers didn't do so well with parts II and III. Now, there are about five walk-through haunted attractions left, minus Screamers parts II and III and Alien Encounter, now a motorcycle museum since last year, it was Alien for 10 years it had a museum and walk-through haunted house part. Frankenstein, Castle Dracula, Haunted House, etc. are all still safe and sound, hopefully for the next 10 years or more. Better get those passports ready in time for 2008. (must have passport or other Uncle Sam approved secure document to return to the US from Canada starting 2008) Oh, yeah, there's lots of construction and changes going on at the falls on the Canada side, just like everywhere else. New high rise hotels, etc, new restaurants.

[hauntfan]

Robert, if you want to experience Niagara Falls haunts, you better get there quick. It appears that what happened to Wildwood with all their haunts dissapearing is happening in Niagara too now. I went in 2002 when all were fully operational and shot pics of all. I think that Niagara hit its golden age for haunts in 2002. They even had 3 cool wax museums operating , I do not know their status. This sucks. Though I have to admit, it kind of confused me as to how all those walk throughs could survive right next to each other. Apparently they can't. It appears the Golden age of Haunts ended in Wildwood about 1984 and now in Niagara Falls 2006.

[robert]

Yeah, it seems Niagara, ON, Canada is going through a building boom phase like most other vacation resort areas. Just like Myrtle Beach, which is losing one of it's amusement parks after 50 years for supposed "upscale" development. That park has a classic dark ride from the 70's, renovated, called Haunted Hotel. I fear the worst, it seems upscale and dark ride don't fit in the same sentence and this ride will most likely be torn down if it can't be moved. MB also has a Ripley's Haunted Adventure and Nightmare Haunted House, both live actor walk through. But, in today's world of rising land values and new development, the classic amusement park or amusement strip is endangered. When big expensive condos come to these tourist areas, the seedy downtowns where all the attractions are will most likely be upscaled (new exotic restaurants with trained chefs, high end shops, designer clothing stores) to fit in with the new condo clientele that will be moving in. That's bad news for average people who just want to have fun cheap and not shop all day or drink wine with their meal. As for the falls, it seems that two of the attractions that were part of the Screamers chain probably weren't doing so hot so they closed them. And the only other attraction that closed was the Alien Encounter which was set up like a haunted house, last year the owner turned it into a classic motorcycle museum. You wouldn't be able to tell that it ever was a dark scary attraction. It has a more polished, upscale look inside to fit in with a quiet museum where all you do is look at bikes. At least 5 of the major haunted houses are safe for now, including the three big ones on the Clifton Hill (Haunted House, Castle Dracula, Frankenstein) as well as Nightmares off the hill and Screamers. Only other problem is the future passport/ID problem of 2008 or 2009. How would we cross the border without one to be able to access the attractions?

[clnancy50]

robert, how do you GET all this information?