Shaqtoberfest is executed by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment group (the same company behind the LA Haunted Hayride) and is in partnership with basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal and ABG Entertainment. While none of the mazes take place on the ship, The Queen Mary in Long Beach provides a perfect backdrop for six distinct and fun scare zones and mazes, along side of a Block Party that provides an active DJ and party atmosphere, plenty of bars and food, and a carnival rides. The event is also unique in that it provides a family friendly atmosphere before 8pm, with all mazes open to explore “with the lights on” and friendly actors inside—but when the witching hour hits, Shaqtoberfest and all its zones and mazes transform and are filled with scare actors, monsters, and chainsaw-toting maniacs. This is an absolute breath of fresh air to the LA haunt scene, boasting some of the best set designs in LA and is just a really, really fun evening.

Scare Zones and Mazes

Each zone feels unique in theme and style, showcasing scare actors and monsters that are specifically designed for that area, but often wander the park to engage and interact with audiences. Before the park transforms at 8pm, the actors are friendly, funny, but still in themed costumes and attire. And when Shaqtoberfest transforms, the monsters become far more imposing, chasing you with chainsaws, creating mischief, and creating a jump scare for those unaware of the creature just behind your back.

To set appropriate expectations, the mazes are shorter than those you would see at LA Haunted Hayride (apart from The Pumpkin Patch)—often consisting of three or four rooms. With a condensed length, the set design is often elevated, packing more statues, animatronics, and monsters in a small area. While no mazes extend onto the ship, they feel distinct enough without having to rely on the Queen Mary to prop them up. To us, the mazes feel more like an extension of the scare zone around it adding more flavor to a cohesive experience rather than being the experience itself.

Shipwreck Graveyard

Upon entering, the first area you will encounter is Shipwreck Graveyard. This sets the tone for the expert set design you’ll come to expect with Shaqtoberfest. Rusted ship hulls and aged cargo peak out from the fog, as undead sailors greet you with salutes. Old ship captains are happy to pose with you for pictures—the Live Bait photo op is a personal favorite and is lit wonderfully. There’s plenty of animatronics ready to create some jump scares (these are not active before 8pm though). Before 8pm, there’s friendly trick or treating, but even after dark, we never found this area to be too frightening, just beautifully decorated with plenty of photo ops.

Also, to note, this is the only of the 6 areas without a dedicated maze—the gauntlet of animatronics and actors provide a great introduction to Shaqtoberfest and its distinctive addition to the LA haunt scene.

Deadman’s Wharf

From Shipwreck Graveyard, this maze is the first one you’ll encounter—don’t skip it! Skeletons with red eyes and divers in metal suits welcome you in, as giantic animatronic creatures come to life in the fog. There’s tentacles everywhere and a cool room with fog and lasers to walk through. This maze feels uniquely themed and fitting to the overall Queen Mary aesthetic. It’s short, but sweet, and one of the most unique mazes we encountered at Shaqtoberfest.

Pirate’s Cove

Continuing the nautical theme of the other two areas, Pirate’s Cove brings you into the most accurate pirate ship set I’ve been in. Undead sailors and swashbuckling captains scare you from within, until you set outside into the den of a siren. The ghastly statues of the sailors they drowned line the walkway—and some may still be alive, ready to scare. A mermaid queen sits upon her throne, and, if she lets you live, you’ll likely come back to this one—especially for Captain Shaq’s Hideaway, a shot-bar with rum punch hidden inside the ship’s interior. It’s short and sweet, but easily one of the most memorable areas.

Midway Madness

Apart from Pirates and sea monsters, the other defining aesthetic of Shaqtoberfest is the carnival-like atmosphere. There’s basketball with severed heads, plenty of fried food, and carnival games like the Tilt-a-Whirl, the Gravitron, a ferris wheel, and a full-walkthrough Wacky Shack.

For brave guests, a clown-infested funhouse welcomes guests inside. Our first time through, this maze felt a bit underwhelming, with only two actors across the three rooms and minimal set design. However, on our second time through, there were four times the actors and tons of interactivity. The clown and snake animatronics here are superb too!

Further, I absolutely loved the shooting gallery. The sound effects of gunshots and plates breaking as you navigate up and down lines of wooden ducks with bullet-holes in them is so fun. Other guests can look in at the maze from the outside and watch as actors scare the audiences.

Lost City Boardwalk

Step into the 1920’s and enter a boardwalk city, complete with a bank, jail, and casino. Sultry 1920’s jazz bleeds through the speakers and flashing reds and blue lights transport you into a cartoonish version of a spooky town. The sets are small, but fun, providing plenty for the actors to work with. Bones, a skeleton in a prison outfit, was our favorite scare actors of the evening, showing tremendous energy as he leaped through windows and hid among cloth hung from the ceiling to scare us numerous times.

I appreciate that the boardwalk attempts to link all the narratives together with a series of newspapers with titles such as “Beware of Pirates”, “Scary Clown Invades Midway Madness”, “Devastation in Shipwreck Cove”, and “Bones Robs a Bank”.

Diesel’s Pumpkin Patch

Don’t miss this area! We (wrongly) assumed this was simply a pumpkin patch with inflatables meant specifically for the kids—but it’s not! This is the longest maze in Shaqtoberfest and full of plenty of surprises.

Before nightfall, Shaq Diesel’s Pumpkin Patch hosts inflatable bounce areas, inflatable slides, trick-or-treat stations, and pumpkin sculptures. But as the sun sets, the EDM music of Block Party floods overhead, creating a festive atmosphere where kids and adults can jump on soccer-field sized playzone.

But explore to the right and there’s a small shack with a door. What we thought might be a backstage area offers an entry-point into a scarecrow zone, more inflatable slides, and multiple farmhouses and haybale areas to navigate through. This is the length of a traditional maze you might find at another haunted attraction and the juxtaposition of kid-friendly inflatables with monsters hiding in the dark is a blast, having us returning to this area just to experience it again.

The Beast

While The Beast shows up on the map (look for the large crocodile shaped monster on the right), it is not designated as an individual scare zone—but we wanted to include it here as a “maze”. This is a dark maze with minimal lighting through a gigantic inflatable beast with twists and turns and some areas that you may need to duck (not crawl) through. This is fun and a truly novel take on a dark maze—the inflatable aspect is wonderful—but the only downside is there are no monsters or actors added, even after the lights go down in Shaqtoberfest.

Tiki Terror

Tiki Terror is also listed on the map, but is only a small, secluded area with some tiki theming and a bar. If you’re looking for a quiet area to escape the madness outside, this would be a perfect area to retreat to.

Block Party

If you’re looking for the opposite, Block Party is the heart of the experience, providing modern, 80’s and EDM beats to keep the party going all night. LVCRFT can often be found dancing among crowds, interacting and engaging with audiences to make all feel included. A giant basketball hoop with screen projecting dancing skeletons helps tie in the brand of Shaq and the rest of Shaqtoberfest.

Improvements

While Shaqtoberfest is a fun, carnival-styled experience that feels jam-packed with actors, interactivity, and loud, energetic music, the main area for improvement would be the mazes. As mentioned above, they are highly detailed and feel cohesive with each zone they are placed in. But if Shaqtoberfest becomes a mainstay in the LA Halloween landscape, we hope that they work to extend their mazes and work to create some terrifying full-length entries—potentially extending into the Queen Mary once it is repaired and ready to host haunt-goers again.

Shaqtoberfest Conclusions

With a name like Shaqtoberfest, we went in with modest expectations, but Shaqtoberfest exceeded all expectations, impressing us thoroughly; it’s clear there is passion, know-how, and money behind this production. While the mazes may be on the shorter side, there are six of them, and they work harmoniously together with the scare zones around them making it feel like one cohesive experience. There’s simply a fun, party-like energy infecting the entire Queen Mary area and we’ll say, this is the most fun we’ve had at a haunted attraction this year.

If you’re looking for Dark Harbor, this is the closest you’ll get. It’s similar in that you’ll get the hidden bars, the shipwreck themes, and the Queen Mary looming in the distance. It differentiates itself by providing a perfect atmosphere for children and Halloween fans who don’t like jump scares during the early hours, then shifts, providing a scarily fun experience for those who want something a little more dark. There’s something for everyone at Shaqtoberfest, so make sure you pay it a visit; it’s definitely worth it.

For more information about visiting the Shaqtoberfest this Halloween Season, check out their Facebook, Instagram and website. For information about similar events, check out our Event Calendar.

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