British amusement park Pleasure Beach Resort invited Attractions Daily to experience an extensive overhaul of its Halloween event.
Running across select dates until the end of October, the Journey to Hell event has expanded into an eleven-hour day-and-night operational format for the first time. Operating from ten in the morning until nine at night, the park combines daytime family-friendly attractions with intensified evening horror experiences across its northern area after the southern zone closes at six in the evening.
Whilst the opening hours give guests plenty of time for riding, this leaves an action-packed three hours to pursue the selection of scare mazes, zones and seasonal enhanced rides – which is a scarily difficult task.
Scream by night
The lineup is headed by three scare mazes. Eternal Abyss utilises the park’s century-old underground tunnels, which were once used for transporting equipment between rides. It takes wary participants into the ‘lost temple of Angkor Wat’ in a narrative inspired by the park’s new Aviktas attraction, which also has links to the historic nearby River Caves attraction. The tunnels run parallel to the 121-year-old dark ride, which is currently being upgraded and is set to relaunch with refreshed and new scenes next year. The maze gives a great behind-the-scenes view of the inner workings of the park, and is also the longest of the selection on offer this year.
New mazes for 2026 include The Veil, which explores a grief-stricken residence hiding dark secrets. This takes advantage of a vast space formerly home to the Space Invader 2 rollercoaster. The almost pitch-black maze starts off with empty winding corridors, but soon encompasses a selection of scenes typical of this genre of scare maze and sure to be appreciated by scare event regulars.
Our favourite of the night, Deadline, uses the layout of the Impossible walkthrough attraction. The story-driven narrative environment depicts a corporate office setting where staff never leave their desks. The Black Mirror-esque storyline, which holds huge potential for further development in future years, is more of a family-friendly maze. It holds fewer scares, but will be enjoyed by adult guests with an appreciation for satire and dark humour.
Visitors holding specific maze tickets can also experience ICON: Into the Void, a sensory-deprivation variant of the dual-launch roller coaster that strips riders of their normal senses using blindfolds. We ran out of time to experience this; however, industry reviews have rated it positively, adding yet another way to experience the Mack attraction alongside ENSŌ, the upcharge spinning seat variant.
Enhanced experiences
Returning fan favourites include Down the Rabbit Hole and The Ghost Train: Vault of Shadows, offering frightening reimaginings of classic park attractions including Alice’s Wonderland. Even given the operational challenges of utilising live actors in classic dark rides, we did get startled by at least one actor or changed effect in both these ride variants.
During daylight hours, families can enjoy general park access alongside a new family-friendly scare zone titled Witch Way Out, adding a seasonal overlay to the Chinese Puzzle Maze. Furthermore, evening ride availability has broadened this year in the evenings to incorporate Aviktas, ICON, Launch Pad, Infusion, Avalanche, Derby Racer, and Flying Machines.
Scary personalities
Guests were joined on the opening weekend by numerous showbiz VIPs who had ventured to the Lancashire coast to experience the updated Journey to Hell, including Britain’s Got Talent winner Harry Moulding and comedian John Thompson. An array of Coronation Street cast members from the nearby Manchester-based soap were in attendance, including Cait Fitton (Lauren Bolton), Sydney Martin (Betsy Swain) and Jude Riordan (Sam Blakeman).
The Pleasure Beach has also catered for those not participating in the mazes. The core entertainment offering is Dante’s Inferno, a spectacular stage show with musicians, fire performers, and dancers, whilst there are ample roaming actors creating a Halloween street scene in the busiest areas. There were also two scare zones, Carnevil, and Moonshine Massacre, delivering fun and scares for families with younger children.
Journey to Hell, whilst not a singular experience as the name may suggest, is a selection of scare experiences which will please families. This is an event which garners huge queues – so if you plan to visit, be sure to plan your itinerary and queue early, as the mazes quickly generate lines. The event does show great potential to become a yearly tradition for thrillseekers in the North West of England – and hopefully the operational hours for the ‘Freak Nights’ element will be extended to allow time to appreciate all the experiences on offer when it returns in 2027.
Ticketing for this year’s event at Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach has been revised to provide greater flexibility, removing separate evening-only admission requirements in favour of modular pricing. Full-day tickets incorporating all mazes begin from £57, evening-only packages (with all scare mazes) start from £40, and daytime entry without mazes begins from £33. Visitors can also purchase individual maze tickets separately.
Journey to Hell continues its run daily through the October half-term holidays on most dates until 31st October, concluding a milestone year for Pleasure Beach Resort, which is currently celebrating its 130th anniversary. Tickets are available online now.
