Being a one-star giver is not easy. People read it and think bad thoughts. I feel like a hater. The business feels discouraged. But... you have to give me something to work with here Ghost Ship! I don't know how much the tickets were, $60? However much they were, they were not worth it. First Fail: We couldn't find it. We drove and drove, nervous about missing the take-off time, and drove right past it at least 3 times. And we are not dumb (of course not!). And we had a GPS (in case we were dumb). And they did not have ANY signs, not even when we drove almost right up to the ship. Also, b/c the ship will take off and we had tickets for one specific time, it was not a come whenever type of situation like other haunted places, which sucked and I had to rush out of a fun barbecue to make it to the ship. Second Fail: The line to get on the ship was huge. Like free preview of a movie at a ghetto theater HUGE. And what's more? The exhaust fumes from the ships was all I could breath. That's how we get cancer people. Please don't make me stand in line for 30 hour breathing in ship exhaust fumes. I don't want to go through chemo any earlier than I have to. Third Fail: Once we got on the ship, the whole thing just sucked. Fourth Fail: There were 3 floors on this ship. One floor had a random chick in a cage, not doing anything. A fortune teller, working for tips, a "show" of a girl in a box that has saw blades put into it. And another cage with a woman who gets pierced by feathers. She bled a little. It was gross. Not scary and not interesting. There was also a bar where you can purchase refreshments. Fifth Fail: Another floor was a show. That was so cheesy and retarded. Just a complete waste of time. Sixth Fail: There was NO BENEFIT to being on a boat. There was limited space, trapped with a ton of people, the long lines, and having to get there early to not miss sail. We were just in rooms the whole time. And b/c it was night time, didn't even get a cool view of the water. And no breeze or anything since all the stuff was indoors and it was freezing outside anyway. Seventh Fail: $10 for parking and then they direct you to park in a BANK ACROSS THE STREET. I could have done that for free. Yes I could have. But I wasn't driving, or paying, so whatever. But still. WTF????? Eight Fail: Decoration was sub-par. Actors were over-cheesy. Just a waste of time and money. The ship (not big) looked like any other guy's modern white ship. They just hung up a sign on the ship that said "Ghost Ship". It looked nothing like the website picture. Ninth Fail: The cruise was only for an hour. And we were so happy to get off. But count in driving there, and all the waiting before, and while on the ship, it comes to a good 3 hours of just wasted time. What was the one semi-acceptable part? The maze was okay and parts of it was even scary. Though part of it was gross, had to squeeze through these blown out tarp things. Gross. Who knows how many other dirty bodies have squeezed through it. EWWWW. Just don't go. read more

I want to start off my review by saying that they are removing negative comments on their facebook page. If they dont like what you are saying, they remove your comments, and eventually block you from writing any new ones. I had started a facebook page to allow people to post whatever they want, but I have pulled it down since they are threatening lawsuits to anyone who defames them. So without further ado, this is my personal review of ghostship. Its just my opinion and nothing more. I welcome you to take a ride on the ghostship and come to your own conclusion as to how good or bad the experience was. The title of my review is "Ghostshit - Terror sets Fail!" In my opinion, Ghostship was the worst haunted house experience I have ever been on. It was also the most expensive Haunted House Attraction I have ever been to. Three levels of Fail! Level one - A crummy maze that lasts a grand total of 5 minutes. It is not scary in any way. Its also not very easy to navigate. At one point I was lead in to a room that seemed to have no exit. So I sat there for a while waiting for something to happen. Finally an actor pointed at what was suppose to be the exit door. I went to open it, and it wouldnt budge. After a minute or two, an actor came in, and had to body slam the door to get it to open. At the very end of the maze your forced to squeeze through these blow up billows, that is similar to what a baby experiences when they exit the birth canal. Level two - A huge room where they expect you to spend more money on drinks. Its not really well put together, and there is only a handful of creepers inside. I didnt order a drink, so I wont comment on the quality of the libations they were serving. At the front of level two is the bow, which is were the majority of the guests accumulate after being dissapointed by the ghostship experience and wait till you get back to port. Level 3 - The most epic fail of it all. The execution scene. You can search for Ghostship on Youtube. I posted a video I took of the entire execution. You can hear everyone in the background laughing during the video. They're laughing because its the opposite of scary. Its downright hilarious at how awful it is. So what are my thoughts on this event? I beleive Thirty One Productions owes the people who paid for this event one of two things. 1) A full refund, or 2) Completley redo the event to make it as advertised, and then invite everyone back for a complimentary ride. The idea of a haunted house that sets sail is actually amazing, and what drew me to this event. The idea has the potential of being the premier haunted house event in Southern California. Unfortunatley it didnt live up to the hype in any way. My opinion is to save your money until they can redo the entire event to make it worth your money. See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n4wPmXUA9k read more

Things that could have improved this boat ride: -Books to read when you're done seeing everything the boat has to offer 6 minutes into the ride. -A maze that lasts more than 4 minutes. -Booze that doesn't require spending 45 minutes in line for. -Booze that's complimentary because we spent $70 on fucking tickets & parking. -Complimentary parking -Decorations so it actually looks like a haunted ghost ship instead of a repurposed yacht. I'm not an idiot, I know it wouldn't be seaworthy if it looked like the picture, but they didn't put any effort into dressing the boat up. Meet us in the middle. -It doesn't actually go out to sea. This is a pro because we would have been stuck on this boring-ass boat longer. -There are two people doing some weird magic show on the top level with the bar. The show lasts about 15-20 minutes, so you'll probably see it 2-3 times while you sit on the couch, bored to tears. C'mon people. $70 for this bullshit? Put some effort into it. How about some original costumes instead of cheap masks? Some music? Popcorn? A scary movie on a projector? Something. Anything. The worst part is not being able to leave. It's 6-minutes of content stretched out to an hour. Here's what you can do to improve this boat ride: -Tell people to get flasks full of booze. -Tell them to stay home. -Cancel the ride. read more

What a waste of time, money and a true embarrassment to the horror genre. Watch American Horror Story on FX for free. Save your money. $30 for dinner nearby, $10 for parking, $60 per person, $7 for drinks and there is one small maze that was "full" for most of the cruise. A really bad show where you are supposed to witness public executions only to sit in the dark while everything happens and if you are in the 1st row, it is 4D as you get drenched in cold water. The line at the bar took 25 minutes of the 70 minute cruise. The only highlight was the variety show on the bar level, the "singer" and the "captain". The perk for this over the Queen Mary was that this shipped moved. Follow the other 1 star reviews on here and go to Universal, Knotts Berry, Queen Mary or Anything else, before you wish you were dead on this boat. read more

When I first heard that there was going to be a Ghost Ship haunted attraction for this Halloween season that actually takes you out to sea, I thought it was one of the greatest ideas ever. Well, there's nothing great about the execution of said idea at all. There are three levels on the boat. The bottom level is a haunted maze so short and amateurish that you almost can't believe that's all there was to it. The entire top level is wasted on a brief stage act with cheap effects so laughable that our group wanted to abandon ship immediately. And there's the problem. Once you've seen the show and been through the tiny maze (a whopping 10 minutes worth), you're stuck on the ship for another 45 minutes or so. And what do you do with that time? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You go to the middle level and hang out near the bar where they try to scrounge more money from you. It doesn't go out to sea really, it just stays in the area puttering around where you can easily see land, so it's not even a particularly nice ride. They should be giving everybody free drinks for not starting a mutiny aboard this pathetic excuse for a haunt. Go to the Ghost Ship web site and it looks like an incredible, grimy haunted old cruise liner. Go to the Ghost Ship in person, and you find a yacht lined with white Christmas rope lights and virtually NO Halloween decorations whatsoever. I've never been to a haunt where so little effort was put into it. I could go to Party City, spend 20 bux on some fake cobwebs and other cheap Halloween decorations and make the ship look a hundred times better than it did. If I could give the Ghost Ship no stars, I would. Save your money and check out some haunts that actually put effort into their attractions instead. I know there aren't any icebergs in SoCal, but I really hope the Ghost Ship suffers the same fate as the Titanic. This is one haunt that belongs at the bottom of the ocean... far from where it can do our wallets any harm. read more

Ghost Ship - Local Flavor Near Me - Newport Beach, California

Ironically there are no ghosts on the ghost ship. Also it wasn't a ship but a luxury yacht. They spared no expense on the 1 banner that said "ghost ship." It must have cost a lot because there were no other Halloween themed decorations on the yacht. Not even cheesy cobwebs. The lowest level is the reason I'm giving this thing 2 stars. The maze was pretty good. Lots of good creepy stuff in the maze. Unfortunately there were two levels of terrible above the maze. The top level had this boring and poorly executed show where they were "executing" the mental patients. The only thing that was killed this night was theater. Yes.. good idea to melt a guy with acid. Bad idea to just turn of the lights so you can't see the guy get up and crawl away. Except you could see that. Oh, and the "acid" was still in the jar. Seriously. They should have just had a table with bowls of creepy stuff to stick your hand in like my elementary school used to do. Even worse that the top level was the mid-level bar area. A giant waste of space. This mid-level is huge, there was so much potential to do anything here. Instead you had to sit there and wait for the boat to go back to land. read more

Ghost Ship - Look at all the Amazing ghost decorations!!! - Local Flavor Near Me - Newport Beach, California

I can't find the words to express what a damper this horrible experience put on my whole party's entire weekend. I have been to literally 100+ haunted houses and this was without question the WORST and certainly the biggest ripoff I have ever been tricked into being part of. I feel cheated and offended that the producers of Ghost Ship think they can get away with upsetting so many people to such an extent. Anyone who says positive things about this attraction MUST have vested interest or must be one of the not-to-blame & hard-working performers. I cannot fathom a single patron being happy they spent their time & money on this crap. read more

The only thing scary about the Ghost Ship is that they make you pay $60. It includes one lame show on the top deck, a short maze on the bottom deck and over priced bar on the middle level. My group started on the top deck. The show they put on was laughable. We went to the maze on the bottom deck. When we came out I was getting more excited thinking each part of the ship was getting better until I realized that I had done everything. For a $60 ticket, if all they're going to do is pump an undecorated ship full of fog and hang out in the harbor then they should at least throw in a couple of drinks with the ticket price. This was terrible. Save your money and go to Knott Scary Farms, Horror Nights or just go to your neighbors self made haunted house in their garage. I guarantee it will be better than this. read more

Backstory: When one of my friends suggested to a group of us to go on this, I thought to myself...HELL NO. I hate being scared. Especially after reading their website. Chairs that come alive?!!! Nope...not for me. But then I thought about it and decided I didn't want to miss out on the group event and would suck it up. I had been nervous about it for weeks. Planned on drinking before to calm my nerves. Told a friend of mine she had to stay with me the whole night. I was super nervous. Actual experience: Ghost ship= not scary. I was more scared visiting their website and anticipating the event than the actual boat ride. The events listed on their site did occur. There was a maze. There was an execution show. There was a bar. Maze=short and just ok Execution show= hilarious. The people behind me scared me more. I am not kidding. Bar= my $7 drink tasted like $1 water. After experience results: My dream last night (which had nothing to do with the ship) was more frightening than this boat. I not only wasted money, but wasted calories on my unnecessary pre drinks to calm my nerves. Don't go. read more

Bummed out, completely. Just think "Blair Witch" hype and then burn your $60 without having to fight traffic and watch a couple way below average shows--the worst is the one on the 2nd floor. Despite its apathy, the lower level maze is pretty good but just too short. Characters floating around the boat were not well put together (ok, a couple were good), and the costumes came out of kindergarten. If this is run by the same crew as the Haunted Hayride, there def was a lack of oversight. To do this right you need to trim the amount of people by at least half that can get on, include a couple of drinks for free, bump the price UP to make up for it but that will allow a much more intimate setting. Then, bring in the pros from the Hayride and let them do their thing. This COULD be cool, but until then.... read more

The ghost ship is billed as an insane asylum at sea that was lost. The web site claims that there are 'no safe spots.' They promise interactive executions. Sounds like a great concept. The interactive executions are not interactive at all. It's a 5-10 minute show. Nothing looks real. The actors don't even struggle against being killed. Think of your little brother using a ketchup pack to pretend that he hurt himself. The middle floor is a nicely decorated bar - love the girl in the black/red dress in the cage. However, nothing worthy of paying admission for. The bottom floor is a sweet, yet short maze. SPOILER ALERT! The naked bathtub suicide girl is great. The guy hanging from the ceiling. The bedridden patients jumping up are great. The birth canal tube follow by pitch black darkness and a guy with a chain saw circling is great. The boat puttering around the marina adds nothing. If it were $5 or $10 for the maze, it would have been fun. The customer service was horrible. It took days of calling their number and e-mailing to get a response. Nobody ever picked up. A few days later, their recording only said 'mailbox full.' Go to Queen Mary/Dark Harbor and have some really scary fun! read more

I signed up just to write this review as well. It's that bad. What offended me most about this company is how they responded to negative reviews. They called people liars, told them they were stupid, and threatened to sue them for "slander" all right on their Facebook page. They even said they've already contacted their lawyers and to expect a call. That's the level of intelligence the Ghost Ship people possess. They threaten customers and don't know legal terminology so how could they have pulled off this Halloween themed cruise? They do the Hayride though and I heard that's great. Too bad, now that I know who they are, I would never buy that ticket. And on to the boat! Others complain that they finished all the entertainment in 10 minutes and were left sitting with nothing to do before the boat even left the dock. Not me. I was further back in line so I spent most of the voyage jammed into a hallway leading to the maze, just standing and trying to breathe. Checked some email though. We had just enough time to catch the horrible show upstairs. The show upstairs was horrible. Three executions! The first, a man holds a jar of acid that he will use to dissolve a mental patient strapped to a gurney. Lights go off, mental patient walks away, light come up, man holds up jar, "He's dead!". Slow clap. Here's the thing. That jar is still sealed and still full. Ghost Ship is that kind of operation. Second execution is the same level of illusion except, when the lights go off, I got sprayed with water. Thanks, Ghost Ship. How do you top that? With the third execution, the one with the canned air that got sprayed into my head at close range. Thanks for the burn, Ghost Ship! At least it wasn't in my MOUTH like another guy behind me. C'mon, what was merely stupid crossed into stupid and dangerous. Hold on, there's more. As you wait to board the undecorated boat, a guy walks down the line and explains that you cannot touch the goons. "Do not touch the goons and they will not touch you." Warning: ALMOST EVERY ACTOR/GOON TOUCHES PEOPLE. On all three levels, actors touched me, pet me, grabbed me, and ran into me. Not cool. Hospital Gown Guy on the second level moves in very close, makes contact, and breathes in people's faces and I ain't into that. Each time, I would shove them off me but girls take this a little differently. You've been warned. I don't recommend Ghost Ship. No way. -------- Check all the negative (and accurate) reviews being filtered here. My GUESS is that Ghost Ship is flagging them. That's what they did on Facebook. read more

Firstly I was really banking on this being amazing. Everything about it sounded great. A BOAT, MAZE(S), SHOW(S)?!? How could it be bad?!? This is gonna be incredible! ...I was completely wrong Not only was it a cheap elementary school maze (that was full 80% of the trip) on an overcrowded boat, the drinks were watered down and the "execution" show was the worst thing Ive seen since a 3rd grade talent show. Now I have NO idea how or why this cost 60 dollars + 10 for parking (Which by the way the company gave no direction to or rates when asked) I cant believe how completely scammed I feel. The company even went as far as to remove all bad reviews from their Facebook page, accuse all of the posters of being affiliated with some other company and then threaten them with legal action. Every time a negative post goes up, it is taken down and then the company encourages people in bashing the reviewer. How is this professional at all!?!? They say they're apparently affiliated with the Haunted Hayride but with something put on so poorly as Ghost Ship, Id have to say that was yet another scam tactic. read more

Lower your expectations because really not worth the money. But at least there's an overpirced bar to drink away your disappointment. Pros: - The maze was short, but decent - You're on a boat? Cons: - Pricey! from the cruise to the drinks = $$$ - Painfully cheap stage show upstairs - Middle deck (where the bar is located) was a total waste of space - No "scare zone" here - The ship does not feel like a ghost ship AT ALL. You may as well be on a whale watch Seriously - Once you complete the maze, you're stuck with nothing to do. Very "un-halloweeny" atmosphere and vibe. I won't be back next year. PS: Ghost Ship - but NO ghosts?! Change the name or add some ghosts! read more

I thought ghost ship was fun. it was their second night and I am sure they are working out the kinks. My brother wrote a great review and wanted to share it. we had a really great time. So saturday night i got a chance to ride on the infamous Ghost Ship of Newport harbor.When you first board the vessel you are ushered into the maze and immediately emerged in an atmosphere of pure terror! Everything seems normal as your in line on board until you turn your head to find that there has been an extremely creepy and deranged looking person with an amazing mask two inches from your face twirling there hair in their fingers and scaring the pants off any girls in the immediate vicinity. Then you enter the first stage of the maze and are heckled and pushed around by a vary large and scary looking mental patient . Our friend was so terrified at this point she was leaving bruises on our arms and trying to escape but could only find more terror behind every corner!The maze was put together vary well and the actors inside put on an amazing believable performance! after the maze the girls went to the restroom where there were still more deranged mental patients that would scare and torture you even in the rest room. we made our way to the lounge where there was a vary impressive dead pianist and sexy zombie girl with an amazing voice performing Dream a little Dream of me wile looking utterly creepy! There were also more deranged mental patients running around the lounge terrifying the guests and making crude remarks that made me laugh like no tomorrow! After we got a few drinks we watched an interesting sideshow style dance performance and magic act which was visually stunning, vary funny and entertaining.After this we proceeded to the upper deck to watch a public execution of three maniacs. This show was amazing and well put together my only regret was that i couldn't sit in the front row. The show was so interactive and cool with awesome special effects! After we were done watching the show the girls took another run through the maze and by the time they were done the boat was arriving back at the port. All in all i had a pretty good time but i could see where there could be a few improvements. But seeing how this was only the second night the boat was running I am sure they are still dialing in the finer details and working on making a few improvements. The staff was extremely professional and polite and the actors were amazing. I Suggest you go Check out ghost ship this year cause its definitely an interesting experience you cant find at any of the other haunted attractions since there is more of a show aspect to it. The only thing id like to see is maybe some dancing at the end on the ride back. A dead mans party on a yacht cruising through the harbor would be so rad!! read more

By far the lamest haunted attraction I have ever been to. There was zero effort put into this and it showed. They pretty much went to a Halloween party for a bunch of 10 year olds and then decided to copy it step for step (but on a boat!). I heard no positive feedback from anyone on the boat. In fact, most of us felt completely ripped off. When I finished the cruise, I posted my negative feedback on their Facebook page, which they promptly removed, along with any other complaint by the other unhappy passengers. I also e-mailed them to ask for a refund and they threatened to have their lawyers come after me for slander, which in this case meant stating the absolute truth. Save your money. Save your time. And be careful, because those negative reviews are apparently not protected by free speech! PART II: I wanted to give an update on Ghost Ship. We all complained and yelled and it did work. I was not able to get my money back, but the company did work with me to get my entire party passes to the Haunted Hayride, which I can say is a thoroughly fun experience. I cannot comment on Ghost Ship's changes, as I have not seen them, but I think that now, the operators are listening to people. If you have gone on Ghost Ship and feel that you didn't get your money's worth, I would recommend getting in touch with them and trying to work something out. I was bitterly angry for days as this whole saga played out, but I am actually happy with the resolution. I will be sending my suggestions on improvements directly to Ghost Ship so hopefully next year they can do it properly. read more

Not enough to do and way to much money for the entertainment you get. Huge disappointment. I won't be returning or recommending to anyone. read more

Great concept. Terrible implementation. I was only mildly annoyed about the price until I read they started selling tickets for half price, now I'm actually pissed. If they had put half as much effort into this as they do the hayride, it could've been awesome, but really it was just lame. The theme was patched together at best, which is a shame, because the website sold the floating asylum idea so well. The "executions" were ridiculous, the maze was acceptable but worth $5 max, the sideshow was some chick standing in a cage doing nothing, and the "magician" didn't even have an act, he just rambled on and on about how special and unique his prop box was, and begged for tips every other sentence and whinged on about how someone stole his assistant's cellphone. Really? I want my money back. read more

I am yet another person signing up just to complain about this specific event. It is horrible. The 60 dollar pricetag made me curious to start out with, but, its a boat I figure. Getting that out to sea, maintaining it, etc. Okay. Fine. We then show up at 8pm, and while a friend uses the bathroom we are rudely told "we are leaving with, or without you." (The advertised departure time is 8:15) You then get on the boat that is admittedly, poorly decorated, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, given that its a sea vessel, there may be laws beyond their control. The middle level is cute. I thought it was decently decorated. The actors were kinda cool. The drinks were overpriced, but not terrible. The maze was fine. Short. Not very scary at all. But then again, I'm a hard sell. Im tough in that regard, so I give it a mulligan.......But so far, I am thinking to myself, this was a long drive, and a steep price tag for a so-so maze and a "cute" lounge.....So, we head up to the top level for the execution show. My. God. Insulting is not the word. I have, in no uncertain terms, literally seen better productions put on by my neighbors when I was 8 years old. I saw many reviews complaining about a cheesy acid bath execution. Well, they must have listened, because they replaced it with even worse events. First, a guy gets shot in the head....A little blood spray in the back wall....Okay. The warmup I say. Then, a man's head is shown in a mask through a wall. With his body underneath......His lumpy, off to the side, with a long droopy turkey neck connecting it to his head body.....Again, Ive seen better fake bodies stuffed with newspaper in peoples front yards. He proceeds to cut off the head with a chainsaw. A tiny spurt of blood later (like 3 ketchup packets worth) and the event is over. The remnants being the yellow pieces of foam that are supposed to be his neck just sitting there. Wow. Then, a dude gets pressed into a fan....When he does. His body sprays water everywhere......woof. I get it. you dont want to stain peoples clothes. Well, then dont do the gag at all. Then, an inmate escapes the event, gutting the host. Ohhh boy. Once again, water is employed for no good reason, and theres a terrifying crunch. What crunch you say? The sound of a breaking spine? The sound of the murderer's hook breaking off into the hosts midsection? No. The crunch of the host squeezing a water bottle..... Let me restate that, because I feel it bears repeating. To simulate a man being gutted alive. The host bent over, and crunched a full bottle of water....A visible. Bottle. Of. Water. 60 dollars for roughly 7 minutes of entertainment. A bar with some fun atmosphere and one of the most painfully insulting shows you've ever seen. Then you get to sit around for the rest of the hour bored to tears. Oh, be sure to check out there facebook page where they are censoring reviews and claiming that they "found out" all the negative reviews came from a competing company. Woof. read more

Like everyone else I had to sign up and post! I get the $60 because you have to maintain that boat, but geez.....other than the salaries and fuel what's to maintain?? I might have had a better time watching the Captain (the real one) back that thing up. He did a great job. Only part of the experience that interested me. The drunk lady next to us that kept falling on the deck was kind of entertaining though. She never spilled a drop of her drink! Total waste of time otherwise. So much for going out into the dark ocean. It seemed like every time I stepped out of the boring Shock Therapy deck I kept seeing Joe's Crab Shack. Oh how I wanted to be over there instead! I mean really, this is LA....Hollywood.....I think we all expect more. And more of what they did on the bottom deck throughout the entire ship would have been the right thing to do. read more

Do NOT waste your money on this boat. The scariest things about this ride are the overpriced tickets, the long lines for drinks and the scary patrons. We actually saw some guy in a suit smugly looking at all of us as we walked out.. counting the money in his head. read more

I wanted to give this 3 stars, but 3 stars equals A-Ok and honestly, Ghost Ship needs a lot of improvements to get to A-ok. However, I'm not going to go on a full-on crazy rampage because I don't think that's helpful. As a halloween LOVER of all things haunted I'd like Ghost Ship to FIX their errors so there can be another cool thing for me to do around Halloween. So Ghost Ship workers, please take my CONSTRUCTIVE criticism as what it's meant to be...CONSTRUCTIVE, as I would like to partake in your adventure again sometime if the wrongs get...right-ed.... The Maze: I actually thought the maze was pretty good. It definitely rivaled the majority of mazes I've been on at Knotts, Queen Mary, and Universal, the size was small, but they had some great aspects to it. The guy up in the ceiling and that weird black inflatable thing at the end (which made me feel as if I were being birthed straight outta Mama's womb was enough to creep anyone out) and honestly, I think A LOT of the negativity could be easily solved by just giving patrons MORE of that. We go to these things for the mazes...not for a bar and not to sit in the dark and get water squirted on us when it's 50 degrees on the ocean. So all-in-all I would give the maze portion 2 thumbs up. The Middle/Bar area: My main issue with this was the waste of space & lack of really...anything. Yes, the drinks were overpriced, but welcome to LIFE! A $7 drink anywhere is overpriced, that's just how the cookie crumbles. I think the INTENTION of this space was okay, it just didn't follow through. Great to have a bar, cool to even have a dance area, but I think they needed to play that up more & attempt to really get people dancing. Maybe they should have gotten a creepy band or even a DJ to stimulate the lackluster energy. Of course, then there was the "magic show". Now, I consider myself a realist so I know most people thought that was horrible, but I personally found it pretty freakin' funny...maybe that's because I was drunk? All I know is every time he threw the confetti up in the air I peed in my pants a bit. The butterfly girl in the beginning was a waste of time, period. There are easy solutions to fix this level. One- PLAY UP THE FACT THAT YOU'RE ON THE WATER! Someone else said the thing this had over the Queen Mary was that it actually took to the water, I AGREE! However, every time we tried to get NEAR the water to make sure we were in fact MOVING we were told to "get back" by the security guards...maybe they thought we were going to jump to make the night more interesting? :-) Two- go full power with the music/dance floor idea, it's there USE IT! Make people want to jump around and party..have monsters dance with people, whatever. Three- have DIFFERENT shows going on instead of just the little magic thing. The third level- This was the BIGGEST disappointment for me easily. It was a huge waste of time and space. I won't go into the details as so many other people already have, but instead, offer some suggestions. First of all, any time you have a Halloween themed show you're going to be compared to the big players like The Hanging at Knott's. Let's face it, that space is WAY too small to really do anything interesting with as far as a show is concerned. The show was terrible, and instead I think they should try to capitalize on the maze idea and make another small one up top. I also think, again, they should take advantage of being on the water...hire professionals to jump off and act like they're committing suicide or something. If they want to keep a show on the 3rd level, make it audience interactive...have a hypnotist get people..it's a small area so it could be very intimate and scary. Other suggestions/disappointments: We were on the "maiden" voyage and therefore the paint was still wet...I mean this literally and figuratively (seriously, the walls were still sticky and we saw them carrying in props as we waited to get on). We wasted a ton of time standing in the hallway waiting for the maze until we just decided to leave and go upstairs (we returned later). The price. My fiance surprised me with this and paid full price for the tickets...$60 a person. Later on he couldn't hold back his annoyance when he went on their facebook and saw they decided to blow out the tickets to $35 a piece instead. We had already paid the $60 and that's just honestly unfair...there's no other way to state it. Ghost Ship needs to give everyone the difference back that paid full price, that's the RIGHT and honorable thing to do. Someone else said it best...for $60 you can get an entire NIGHT'S entertainment at Knott's or Universal, and we paid that for 75 mins. here. In my opinion there is one other way to EASILY fix this entire thing. Turn it into a scary dinner cruise. That way they can still charge their 60$ and just set up that middle level with tables and serve dinner. Keep the maze, change the 3rd level and add a meal. Easy. read more

As you can gather from the previous reviews, the Ghost Ship only provided disappointment at sea, instead of the "terror" it promised. I am not a "complainer" by any means, and have never written a review of anything before...This experience, or complete lack thereof, made me incredibly upset and insulted! I have been a huge fan of the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride for years, and must admit that the fact that Ghost Ship was their new creation lured me in. The complete lack of decor (aside from a few white sheets draped over seats in the bar and bags of skeleton bones on the tables), the amateur costumes donned by the handful of ghouls milling about the bar, and the fact that I paid $7 for a plastic cup of wine didn't exactly kick the evening off to a great start as we entered the "lounge" deck. But, being how much my boyfriend and I love and respect the Hayride, we tried to remain optimistic...I mean, the other two floors had to be great...right? Wrong! To keep this short, the "execution" upstairs was complete with laughable props and a script that was written in about five minutes. The were going in a good direction with it but it seemed underdeveloped and incomplete. No one seemed very impressed. Back on the middle deck we watched the very satirical Wonder Show, which was actually our favorite part of the entire experience, followed by a very random minute long clown dance party...didn't seem to fit the theme but at least something semi-exciting was happening! After dancing with the clowns we headed down to the maze, hoping and praying that it would turn our very lackluster experience around. While there were some good props and the mood is eerie, the whole maze probably didn't last five minutes. We couldn't believe that was it! The fact that the security guard shrugged his shoulders and laughed as we exited told me we weren't the only ones disappointed. Heading back to the middle deck we sat with the other patrons who looked very bored and upset. The vibe screamed mutiny! I sent the company an email with my comments and was told a refund was not an option...for the hefty $60 price tag you can go to multiple So Cal haunts that have the professionalism and creativity that will be worth your time and money! As much as I love the Hayride, I'm not sure I can stomach giving this company any more of my money and I am considering it's removal from my Halloween tradition as well. They are presently deleting all constructive criticism from Facebook and not allowing any refunds. Such a disappointing experience...I hope no one else gets suckered into it! Save your money, people! :( read more

Waste of time and money. The maze wasn't bad but really short (took 10 minutes to get through). The executions took about 10 minutes and were so LAME!!! . The middle area, loud heavy metal music and what was suppose to be ghosts I think but no one could stay in character. Tried to find the tarot card reader and the person I asked didn't even know what a tarot card reader was. Finally found her, in the front of the ship with no lights so she had to use her cell phone light to read the cards. 30 minutes we had seen everything. Spent the rest of the time wishing the boat would turn and around and let us off. read more

I was so unbeliveably disapointed. I haven't felt this ripped off in a long time. The first (top floor) was a 5 min REALLY LAME show/ skit, in which they killed 3 people in really laughable fake ways (not really entertaining). The second middle floor was a bar with two different areas for shows that would ramdomly go off which were not that great. the 3 and bottom floor was a very short maze that was actually very good except it was very short. PLEASE DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! read more

I would give this Ghost Ship negative stars if I could. 1 Star isn't even fair. What a waste of time and money. $60 per person to go on a harbor cruise and not get scared at all. Really?! I'm a jumpy type of person and I was laughing pretty much the whole ride with how horrible this was. They maybe had 15-20 people that were trying to haunt the boat with over a 100 people on it. Ridiculous! Think they spent more money on the website than the actual boat, maze or haunts. I had high hopes for this being a really fun and scary experience. But not the case. I'm even more embarrassed that this was a date I choose to go on with a guy. Don't waste your time or money. read more

This wasn't worth the drive or the money I paid. Had the drinks been stronger I might've been drunk enough to think I had a good time. Sadly the only good thing about this activity was finding free street parking. read more

We would have been better off watching the terrible movie "Ghost Ship" with Julianna Margulies. At least in the movie they were on a real ship. On the ocean. With a 1930's ballroom. And ominous music. Basically everything we were promised and didn't get. Bottom line it was lame, lame, lame. Please save your money. read more

Honestly i had a nice time. They should put a little more in the maze. Other then that it was fun. I plan on going again.

I wish there were a choice for zero stars. Yes, the Ghost Ship is that bad. If for some reason you still decide to go after reading these reviews; do yourself a favor and don't get in line early. We did. When you are allowed to board the "ship" the first thing they do is shuffle you through the "mediocre" at best horror maze. Then they shuffle you up to the poorly decorated bar area. We were close to first up there; so the drink line wasn't too horrible. By the time we had gone through the maze and picked up some drinks the rest of the passengers weren't even on the boat yet! We sat on the bow for a while and that was nice, but hell, we didn't need to be on a "Ghost Ship" for that! After a bit we started to get restless and headed up to watch the "execution show." DON'T GO UP THERE. Just don't; unless you like sitting in the dark being sprayed with a mist of who-knows-what. After that we went back through the maze a couple more times; probably so we would feel we were getting our money's worth. We didn't. We paid full price and feel ripped off. We feel even more ripped off after finding out they started blowing tickets out for half of what we paid. Yes, they did. I think everyone that paid full price needs to get a refund to at least the discounted cost. Anybody know a good lawyer? read more