During the spooky season of October, lots of activities are going on like Fall Fest, apple picking, watching your favorite Halloween movies, but most of all attending haunted attractions. Every year I try my hardest to make it to at least one haunted attraction. This year, I made a trip to Sparrow Pond for their annual haunted hayride.

Sparrow Pond’s haunted hayride includes riding a wagon while looking at scary scenes and being approached by the scare actors. In the past, there were also haunted cabins you could walk through. Nothing was mentioned about it on their website, so I assumed it was no longer being done due to lack of employees or COVID restrictions. I would honestly doubt it was COVID though because of the close proximity of everybody on the hayride.

Right off the bat, I was unhappy with the way the workers were acting. They stated that they did not want to see phones during the ride. Before the hayride took off, me and my guest, Cooper Slocum, took a selfie. Immediately, we were screamed at with unnecessary aggression, they said and I quote “Put that phone away or you will walk back.”  If the ride hadn’t even begun, then was it really necessary to have such a rude confrontation with paying customers? Not to mention the person operating the tractor almost hit a group of people in the parking lot waiting in line! I don’t know about you, but a tractor coming at you at full force is not something I would be happy about.

It cost $12.95 to get into the attraction, which would be all right if you got what you paid for, but I personally didn’t feel like a 15-minute hayride should cost nearly $50 for a group of four. I thought that the sets were decently put together, their best one that I personally liked was one inspired by the hit TV show “Stranger Things.” I also think that the actors did a good job, but my problem is that they are probably making more than $1,000 a night and my question is where is this money going? I feel their profits are not going to their sets and hayride experience.

This was a less than okay experience for me. I don’t like to say that I wouldn’t recommend going, because I think entertainment is subjective, but it’s going to be a no for me. I thought it was overpriced, had rude workers, and cheap sets. This had more of a children’s demographic than a teen or adult. Hopefully others have a different experience.