This was my first visit to Shaqtoberfest and it was fun for the most part...except for parking. My bf and I left around 6ish and arrived around 7:50pm maybe a little less. We were not expecting an hour long wait just to be told that we had to drive to another parking structure away from the event. Which took longer because there was traffic from the other cars that also were turned away. We ended up finding public parking which was $20. It was around 8ish by then, and the walk would have been a 45 min walk. Yes, we could have waited for the shuttle, but we just wanted to get there, so we ended up riding the Lime scooters to the event, which honestly was pretty fun! It saved a lot of time and we arrived, finally around 9pm. -- The event itself was pretty cool! Some people were generous enough to give us their VIP passes as they were leaving and we didn't have to wait in the lines for the mazes. The food was good, pricy but good, but what would you expect at an event? I enjoyed the Wack Shack since I love fun houses, and the bumper cars were great too! The Grey Ghost was my favorite! As it is inside the ship. The other mazes had a nice atmosphere to them, I liked that they weren't very short. The Engine room was really cool- overall everything was fun; 4 stars because of parking. Hopefully parking can be managed better in the future for everyone's enjoyment! read more

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SHAQTOBERFEST!! Queen Mary Halloween fun is back!! Shaq brings family fun and horror mazes to life! read more

Shaqtober Fest - Diesel - Haunted Houses Near Me - Long Beach, California

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I paid to have the VIP experience at the Shaqtober Fest. I went on a Friday night! To be honest it could have been so much better. I felt it lacked reaching its full potential. I expected and it wanted so much more from this experience. Pros The performers were wonderful and offered great scares and a great experience. Cool haunted mazes and great bars throughout. Not a super large crowd! VIP had private bar, seating area, exclusive engine maze in Queen Mary. Great vibes and people. Cons ****We had to wait in the line with those who paid the regular admission to get on rides with VIP tickets ridiculous. **** There were only four carnival rides. A carousel, Farris wheel, bumper cars, and the spinner ride. I felt that there should have been more rides and variety. The food was just ok it was pinks hotdogs, corn, loaded fries, and funnel cakes. Pretty much basic carnival food. VIP tickets didn't include parking and we had to park off site which was a hassle without prior notification. We then had to be transported via shuttle to the event. Overall I am glad I went to the fest. If you go don't expect much and go at the normal ticket price not the VIP because for the price you pay there is not much of a difference. read more

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A solid place to be during the Halloween season :) Yea I know it is a step down from the original Dark Harbor, which I missed and loved growing up in Long Beach, but still kept most of theme besides adding basketball stuff cause you know its Shaq lol. The ambiance is not bad for its pricing compared to the other Halloween theme amusement parks. The production and scarers are legit.. not the best but you get what you paid for. There are 5 Halloween mazes.. I suggest go to the Gray Ghost first because this actually goes inside the Queen Mary (Yeah I missed those days when almost all the mazes are inside.. but better than nothing). My second favorite maze is the Pumpkin Patch, which like sorta rave/ maze type haha. It is closed to where they have the Witching Hour with the DJ and performers. The other mazes are ok but not the greatest. The food are all over mid! .. And the vendors are mid all around, but you don't go here for that so be prepared to have a not so so good food. Definitely go to the Witching Hour that starts at 8:30pm, I believe. That is when the scarers and ghouls show up for a parade. Overall, it is way better than other Halloween amusement parks because it is not that crowded and lowkey for the locals :) read more

My girlfriend and I got "fast break" tickets (not general admission, not VIP), tickets were around $85 total because we did presale so it was cheaper. General Parking was $25, wrist bands for rides were $20 each for ultimates rides. We got there 1 hour and 15min early and went straight to event parking. Parking: the guy checking our ticket didn't even look at it. He just asked if it's prepaid and we were like yeah. Then he said all general parking is gonna be off site. So we had to drive to the off site one (they give u a little piece of paper explaining the directions). The initial gate to enter was closed so I just pressed the call button bc I didn't want to get a ticket to pay. They let us in, went down to park where it says staff and vendors parking. Walked up and there were like 4 big buses there, drove us to the entrance of the event. The busses were empty so it was kind of sketchy, they could've put signs on the bus indicating it's for shaqtoberfest. Waited in line, let us in to security at 6:30, let us into the the actual event at 7. Mazes: deadman's warf, midway madness, pirates cove: short cute mazes, not a lot of scare actors, 3.5/5. Average of 3min for the maze walk through. Pumkin patch: has a big bounce house plus slide for the kids, the actual maze was the LONGEST maze there. Prob 7-8min in there. Very interactive and super cool, there's a mirror maze in there which tripped me out. The grey ghost: this has the longest line, you have to climb up about two flights of stairs then back down two more flights of stairs to wait in line about 45min. This maze you go through the Queen Mary herself, very hot inside, small, smells bad. Short not that exciting maze. Food: mid, everything's expensive like an amusement park per usual. Bathrooms: only Porter potty's!! Super gross not very handicaps accessible btw (the entire event bc it's was rough dirt grounds, dust in most areas.) Carnival: 4 rides, Ferris wheel, carousel, bumper carts, the big spinning ride. Actors went on some of the rides with guest so that's cool. Overall: there are actors all around the park very fun, no shaq is not there, good event for the price. read more

Shaqtober Fest - Haunted Houses Near Me - Long Beach, California

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Brought the family here, 2 older boys and my husband, it was day 2 so it wasn't very packed. The lines for the mazes took us about 10-25mins max for the Queen Mary. So worth it! At 8:30, Shaq calls upon all the ghouls to rise, and if you go to the main stage area, you will see dead basketball players, zombie cheerleaders, dolls, and much more. My favorite wete for sure is the clowns on stilts. They all interact with he crowds while the DJ is playing EDM, there's bars and food all around you and places to sit and bar tables to stand. The area isn't that big, so I understand why people said they were done in 2hrs, honestly it was worth it to me and my family, no annoying lomg lines, good music and beer for us! I definitely don't recommend little children after 8 pm, but teenagers are ok. I'm down to come next yr and take advantage of the dance floor. We all had a blast. We ssint try any of the food bit the beer selection w a nt bad: modelos, mango carts and mixed drinks available. read more

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There is a Yelp page for both "Shaqtoberfest" and "Shaqtober Fest", so I am cross-posting for both pages for everyone's benefits and convenience. Shaqtoberfest is your yearly Long Beach haunt. This used to be Queen Mary Dark Harbor, but for whatever reason, they are not doing it this year. Instead, Shaq took over, and made the event scaled down (only taking place next to the ship, in a smaller total area overall), practically all family friendly, and cheaper, if I recall correctly. In a nutshell, this is a Halloween carnival with Shaq's name tagged on. Nothing more, nothing less. It has NOTHING to do with Shaq except his lending his name, and a few images and photo ops featuring his likeness. He won't be there or anything like that, but you already know that. (And it costs $36 or so per person to get in.) The event website would make you think there are more attractions and things to do than there really are. But when you get there, it'll be a huge letdown tbh. Let me break it down for you: SHIPWRECK GRAVEYARD is a scare zone area, and not a maze! It features many props and photo ops, but the real maze is DEADMAN'S WHARF. It features deep sea creatures. There is also a bar called BOAT HOUSE. Nearby, there is a maze called PIRATE'S COVE. Yarrrrr. Next, there is a huge carnival fairground called MIDWAY MADNESS. It features rides and food vendors, all of which requires payment. So that sucks. They're expensive, too. There is also an unnamed clown-themed funhouse maze, and a dragon inflatable walkthrough. Walk deeper in still will get you to the VIP SLAM DUNK LOUNGE and TIKI TERROR bar. Both are foods and drinks based, and are not attractions. What's left are: LOST CITY BOARDWALK, a 1920s-themed maze. A BLOCK PARTY featuring live DJ and various stage performances. And DIESEL'S PUMPKIN PATCH, which is another semi-maze. And that's it. There is no more to do. (Quick spoiler: I actually finished doing everything within 2 hours. This is nowhere near the quality or the scale of Dark Harbor.) All of the mazes are very, very short, sans the Pumpkin Patch, which is decent length. This pumpkin patch also features moon bounce that only kids can participate in. So even less stuff for adults to do. All of the sets actually look nice enough, so visual wise, they are definitely passable. But there is not enough scare-actors hired (or scare in general) for every single area or attraction! I screamed a grand total of ONE TIME in the entire night. And I am a screamer. I love screaming for little to no reason. Positives: lines weren't bad. I never waited for more than 15 minutes. For most mazes, it was a short 5-minute wait on a Friday night. Most scare-actors were enthusiastic about their jobs, and the block party stage's music was pretty bangin'. The atmosphere was certainly sort of there. So what's the conclusion? This is not for horror fans or grown-ups. Even after the witching hour (more on that below), it's still extremely, extremely youngster friendly. The witching hour is a special time for this festival: everything on site will be tame and kids-oriented before the witching hour. But in plain translation, that just means all the mazes and scare zones will be without scare-actors, and children can trick-or-treat in peace. (Trick-or-treating is included in the price of your admission. So get loads of candies! They are mostly cheap candies like Dum Dums.) On the Friday I went, at 8 pm the witching hour, the scare-actors will put on a brief show at the Block Party stage, and disperse into their respective working mazes and zones. But as mentioned, there is a serious lack of scare-actors all across the entire event. This is a uniform problem everywhere, no matter where you're at. There are about 3 to 4 actors TOTAL per maze, it feels like, and tons of dead space and dead time. Empty spaces should otherwise be entertained by animatronics, but many aren't even working. All and all, this just didn't work. Overall, an asking price of $36 pp for an underwhelming experience is not too worth it in my eyes. I cannot genuinely recommend this to most, and will not be returning next year if they decide to do this again. (Hence, the 2 to 2.5 stars rating.) Sure, you're paying half the admission for Halloween Horror Night at Universal, but you're getting less than half the value also. For families, I would go for Knotts Scary Farm instead. PS, parking right next to the venue would cost you $25. $25! That's almost another ticket! If you want to park for free, you need to use the shuttle parking. But trust me, no one is doing it just for the convenience. However, you should, if you don't mind the hassle, since you have plenty of time to do everything and still have time left over during the operating hours. (Reminder: I left after a measly 2 hours. I was over it.) So not a bad idea to waste some time on the shuttle and save $25. read more

Shaqtober Fest - Event map. There isn't much to do... - Haunted Houses Near Me - Long Beach, California

This year was our first time attending this event. We were a party of 5. We bought the fast break tickets and it was pointless because majority of the guest were fast break. The general admission line was shorter for the mazes. It is insane. Save your money and purchase the general passes. You will not regret it. They stop selling alcohol an hour before they close. We wanted to get syringe shots but sadly they were sold out. Would we attend again? Probably not. This is a one time event. They need more actors in the mazes and walking around. The witching hour was pretty cool. The dj was playing some ok songs. read more

This was my first time ever going to a Halloween event with mazes. I'm usually the type of person to get easily scared of things and this place was NOT scary at all. I went through almost every maze.....and if I had a fear level from 1-5, I'd give it a 1. I was honestly bored. I was there for the vibes and I wanted to test out if I can do scarier mazes for next year's Halloween. I think the idea of having a Halloween event next to the Queen Mary is super cool. I just wish it gave me the thrill.. read more

Shaqtober Fest - Haunted Houses Near Me - Long Beach, California

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Only reason I'd give any stars is for the amazing actors/workers and the decent mazes. Poor review due to: 1) Restrooms - Portable potties only and not enough of them. There were ridiculously long lines for the bathroom, almost as long as the maze lines (about 30-40 mins). The bathrooms are also not at all sanitary and not well-maintained or cleaned. There were droppings on the floor and toilet seat (very gross and smelly), it was dark, and no one was regulating lines until a person went to complain. 2) Parking - Don't fall for the trick of buying a general parking pass online! There was plenty of free street parking available near the parking garage. You can easily park and walk to the shuttle pick up point. 3) Shuttle Service - Very slow. We had to wait 30 mins after parking just to be picked up by the shuttle and taken to Queen Mary. 4) False Closing Time - Sections of Shaqtoberfest start closing an hour before the actual closing time listed. Make sure you check which area will be closed first to make sure you get to mazes in that area. We missed the maze by the entrance because the area closed off early. 5) Fast pass/VIP line tickets are not worth it. In some cases, the fast lane had a longer wait time than the general line. Disappointed and will not be returning... read more

WHY did we have to pay general parking price only to find its over sold to get back on a freeway ramp and follow these directions (see picture?) NOT WORTH IT. I hope we all demand refunds from this! See videos. MORE FUN STUFF! I found them on instagram and sent some a (see attached photos). Their customer service link doesn't even exist A+ for customer service yall! read more

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Great news everyone! Queen Mary Dark Harbor is coming back this Halloween season! I went there back in late October of last year and the mazes aren't really that scary but I like one maze that goes inside the ship. I give it a 3 just because I didn't have a bad experience going there but for some reason, they were playing rave music read more

I was super excited about going to Shaqtoberfest. I loved Dark Harbors and was hoping Shaq would up the horror game. Unfortunately, not. Driving a 1971 Ford Pinto with insurance by the General is more scary! There is lots of promise, but Shaq failed to score. Shaqtoberfest is located next to the Queen Mary. Parking was $20, not other options unless you Uber. Must go through a metal detector and bag search before you get it. A good thing is there is lots of security who were all professional and courteous. I didn't see any security or safety issues. One of the things they don't make clear is that up to 8pm all five of the mazes are kid friendly and hand out candy. Which is cool for families. I just wish they had made that clear when purchasing your tickets. Nothing scary happens until 8pm. The mazes are extremely short. The scare actors seem more bored than scary. It looked like they got no training on how to scare anyone. staffing in the maze was minimal. There are more scare actors in a Friday the 13th movie. There are no scare zones. There are about 3 guys with the obligatory chainsaws, and maybe 3 girls dressed in costumes walking around. Again, for the size and cost of this event there should have been 3x the scare actors. The scariest thing at this event was the food and alcohol prices. Entrees start at $18, not including sides. Adult drinks start at $15 for short pours. The bartenders are super slow. Typical carnival food. They also have Pink's hotdogs and Hotdog on a stick. Besides the short non-scary mazes and the expensive food, they also have three carnival rides, which you have to buy tickets for separately. Cheesy. When I first entered my tickets were not scanning so I had to be escorted to customer service booth. On the way there the girl told me they put the whole event together in just 3 weeks. After leaving, I completely believe her, it really does show how little effort was applied. The one positive experience was the DJ. He did a great job on spinning the records. I will not be going next Halloweeen, unless they make corrections and I read positive reviews. What I'm really hoping for is Long Beach reopens the Queen Mary and Dark Harbor returns. Save your money. I would not recommend this place to my family, friends or even people I don't like. read more

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Bring back dark harbor.!!! You pay $25 for prepaid parking to just be told you have to park offsite off ocean to take a shuttle to the event. When you get to the event there are like 3 mazes and your done. You can finish seeing the whole event in like 2 hours. Save your money and go to universal or knotts. Shaq is just trying to suck the $$ out of you as much as he can at this event. I'm Dissapointed all around. read more

I can't comment on what it's like inside because I didn't make it in. We got dinner in the area so that we could leave a good amount of time before our scheduled entrance time incase it took awhile to park and get in. We left 30 mins before our entrance time, literally 2 mins away from the venue, and it took almost 2 hours to get through the line to the parking lot. When we got there they told us we had to go to a different parking structure because that lot was only for preferred parking and we had general. I know for a fact that this wasn't a fluke and wasn't a one time thing. I read a review from someone before going that had the same thing happen, but they said there might have been an event that night and that's why there were problems so I figured I'd risk it and hope that's what it was. I didn't think a company that's supposed to be professional would do something like this on purpose, but I was wrong. On my ticket for the event and parking was the address that was "preferred parking". They didn't notify me that I would need to go to a different address prior to the moment I got to the front of the line to park, and the majority of people in the line to park were also in the same situation, so I know it wasn't only me who wasn't notified. They had the opportunity to notify people of the address change before and didn't do that. Especially considering that this isn't the first night that this happened and they would be aware that they over booked the parking lot since they're in charge of booking it. We were told we would need to park in a parking structure which was the exact area we had just come from having dinner. The piece of paper they gave us said we'd need to take a shuttle from there for $16 and we'd get reimbursed. We couldn't find the shuttle and by that time it was already close to 10. Our entrance time was 8. By the time we would make it into the event we would have had less than an hour to enjoy it, if we even made it in. So we decided not to go. I have a feeling that whoever runs this event is doing this on purpose to try to make some extra money by over booking. We'll see what happens with our request for a refund but I would never try to go to this event again. I doubt it's even worth the headache they put us through. read more

Horrible. Waited in line two hours to get to the parking only to be told we have to leave there is no more parking even though we paid 25.00 for parking. There is no refund or rescheduling. Do yourself a favor and save yourself a world of frustration do not come to this event read more

Super fun. Lots of activities. Entered 4 out of 5 mazes. Food is delicious ! Overall I would recommend and come back!

So DISORGANIZED!!! Whoever is in charge of parking for the event needs another job! No signs directing people anywhere. Cars waiting in line for 1+ hours to be told the lot is sold out. Then redirected to another lot. Waiting in line for another 40 minutes. This lot is sold out too. Ended up parking on the street and taking their shuttle to the event. Bathrooms are exclusively port-a-potty's. Unless you can go to the engine room. They are disgusting. No attendants for the whole night and it shows! Trip hazards everywhere. How did they pass the fire inspection?! In the Pirates Cove maze there was a standing beam in a scare room that was painted dark brown. Common sense was not used here! Hardly any signs at the event directing people anywhere. The fun parts were great tho! The ship maze was really well designed and super creepy. The dance party was different and fun. read more

So so boring and disappointing. Wish they'd bring back Dark Harbor which was so fun and comparable to Knott's Scary Farm and Horror Nights. Don't waste your money and time at Shaqtoberfest. read more

Parking is horrible. They charge you $27 for general parking yet it takes like 2 hours to even get to the front. We are still in line on the freeway at 9pm ans the event closes at 12pm....... Save your money for another event that has better parking. read more

Got here at 7:45, waited in a line until 9:45 just to get to the parking lot, only to be turned away and told we had to go to off site parking because that parking lot was oversold. I paid for preferred parking and still had to pay for off site parking! By the time we were able to find the off site parking lot, find the shuttle, and get in another line to just get onto the shuttle it was nearly 11 PM. When we got there originally we would have had 5 hours for the event, by the time we even got to the shuttle line we would be lucky to get 2. TL:DR don't waste your money or your time, save yourself the frustration. I'm requesting a refund. read more

Amazing! So much fun! I went last year and this year is even better! I loved that they had the Queen mary open for a maze this year read more

Horrible parking. Paid for preferred parking, waited an hour to get in to the parking and then still got sent out. Highly recommend against it. read more

DONT BUY PHOTOS FROM this event. I bought photos at their kiosk and they said it would be emailed to me. Photos never came and there's no response from customer support. Had to dispute the charge to get my money back. read more

It's alright, a bit underwhelming. The mazes were a bit dull and lackluster. The Queen Mary self tour costed extra and wasn't worth the money as you could only go down one set of stairs to the engine room and no further. It was extremely windy that night, blowing roof tops, dirt, and hay everywhere. Hazardous. read more

#Scamtober The best part was the bus back to Long Beach. Don't waste your money unless you plan to be drunk or high the whole time. I can't believe Shaq put his name on this shit. It's was as good as Shaq's free throws. They had a hunted boat and still managed to be 3rd rate. The whole bus was making fun of this crap on the way back to Long Beach. Some employees tried, but it wasn't as scary as the fucking price tag. read more

Checked it out last week...great spot to watch some haunted mazes. Wished they had more rides and games.

Very small, not scary at all. Do not waist your money here. My house is more scary than this place. Dark Harbor just to be great but now they are using just the outside and have like 6 hunted houses with very few monsters(live) inside and the lighting(too bright and not enough smoke machines). Never again the only cool thing was their techno music. read more

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We had an awesome time! Our check in time was 6:15 we arrived at 5:45 and got decent parking. I will agree getting out was a challenge people were going the wrong way trying to find a spot to park. About the event itself ..amazing!! The workers were so nice to my grandkids! The pirate guy in the maze was a crack up. The head basketball throw was a nice touch. It turns scary at 8:30 and that's when the goblins come out. I sat by the stage while my daughter and grandkids went into the haunted mazes they said they were great!! A creepy referee guy scared the sh** out of me which thrilled my grandkids.. Great family fun. We'll be back read more

TERRIBLE! NOT WORTH THE MONEY!! Mazes are small and short. Not scary at all. Nothing as advertised on the site. Overheard someone saying that there wasn't even a cannon. Great for photo ops but not worth the money at all!!! Never NEVER coming here again! The best feature was the Queen Mary. Poor experience. ZERO STARS!! read more

This was a carnival that we have to pay to enter and than have to pay more to get on the 5 carnival rides. The mazes where short and not scary for adults. The restrooms, portable toilets, where filthy and had bad lighting in that area. However, the kids, (8 & 5), did have some scares and seemed to enjoy the night. Because of this I gave it an extra star. Had it just been adults going this would be a one star review. What happened to the Queen Mary and its haunted shows?? read more

I got my tickets for 10pm on Thursday & the closing time for the event was midnight. Tell me why by 11 the whole park was already closing . Doesn't make sense at least prepare to close at 11:30 . I went to the Bar at 11 and they said closed read more

Great place ! Had so much fun with the family ! Mazes we're full of great animated props. Plenty to do and see. Will be coming back again.

Soooo fun! GREAT food/snack options! First year attending and definitely will do again next year

Client service negative stars. No one will respond to contact given. Only by email with no response. Tried to show up at 7pm early enough to allow resolution of my only ticket purchase at no avail. I never record my tickets sent to my email. My payment was processed and now I am left to wait to see if I i get resolution while I try to redeem my tickets in person. read more

Couldn't even make it to the event. Told us to go to off site parking and wait 45 minutes just to find out it's full and directed to ANOTHER off-site parking structure. Absolutely ridiculous!! I want my refund!!! Spent over $200 for this event. read more

It is better than Haunted hayride. More mazes than LA Haunted Hayride. Needs more actors.

NOT SCARY AT ALL. Don't waste your time or money. You just wait in line forever for a five minute walk through metal walls with little scare effects or monsters. read more

At least now I can tell people I was robbed by Shaq! The lines for the mazes are long and the traffic getting into parking takes some time so plan ahead! Also the event wasn't really scary. Overall was disappointed. For the amount you spend vs what you get... I'd pass next year read more

ABSOLUTE TRASH! Paid $275 for tickets, parking and another fee to receive our tickets via email. We waited for 1 hour just to get to the parking lot to be told it was FULL. We paid $25 for and was redirected to a whole different location nowhere near the event and they can't help refund me my money. We weren't able to make it to the event AT ALL because of the parking situation and nobody was directing traffic to inform them there is no parking AND I CANT GET AHOLD OF ANYONE TO REFUND ME THE ENTIRE AMOUNT! call your banks if you this happened to you and get your money back. What a scam!!! They should be ashamed. read more