Colonial Williamsburg has been dubbed one of the “most haunted places in America.” And this October, for the first time ever, you and your family (or friends) can spend Halloween night in one of our haunted Colonial Houses.
Before we get to the contest details, here’s a little background for those of you who haven’t heard about our big (brand new) weekend event. On Oct. 30 and 31, we are opening up Duke of Gloucester Street to trick-or-treaters during our Haunting on DoG Street: Blackbeard’s Revenge. The evenings are broken into two time “zones.” The first is geared toward the younger kids and the later toward teens and adults.
HAUNTING ON DOG STREET: BLACKBEARD’S REVENGE
“A PIRATE’S LIFE FOR ME”
From 5-7:30 p.m. kids ages 12 and under can visit various sites along DoG Street to collect goodies. Registration is required but it’s quick, FREE, and easy to do online at colonialwilliamsburg.com/haunting. While there are no longer reservations available for Friday night’s trick-or-treating, Saturday is still open so we encourage you and your family to reserve your spots now! During the same time period that Saturday night, you can still buy “A Pirate’s Life for Me” tickets that get you into games, pumpkin decorating, and sing-alongs. There are also “haunted” hay rides pulled by our oxen—Pat and Mike! Tickets are $5 per child and $10 per adult. All children must be accompanied by adults to get into these programs and activities.
HAUNTING ON DOG STREET: BLACKBEARD’S REVENGE
“UNDER BLACKBEARD’S FLAG”
Then… at 8 p.m., once the sun goes down, the fear factor goes up—way up! The iconic buildings of the Historic Area will be bathed in blood-red light, and Blackbeard’s undead crew members will return from their graves to seek their revenge. This PG-13 haunted fun also requires a ticket. This one is called”Under Blackbeard’s Flag” and costs $15. You’ll get a glow-in-the-dark wrist band that will get you into the haunted Gaol, the trial and hanging of Blackbeard’s crew, and a front row seat to the procession of zombie pirates at the end of the evening.
But back to that contest! If your family is one of those who loves a good ghost tale—here’s your chance to actually spend the night in a haunted house! We are opening up a Facebook contest where the main prize is a night’s stay (on Halloween) in the Bracken Kitchen. Now, here’s what we do and don’t know about the history of this house. So far, our historians have been unable to track down the original owners mainly due to wars and fires that occurred between the 18th century and today. Without records of who lived there, we also haven’t been able to identify the apparition that has been spotted in the house several times. However, the description is always the same. The ghost is described as a woman in a dark, full dress sitting in a rocking chair on the lower level of the cottage. She appears to be observing what’s going on around her. Other times, while she isn’t spotted, the rocking chair itself will start rocking…. back-and-forth… and back-and-forth….
ENTER TO STAY IN A REAL HAUNTED HOUSE!
What do you think? Does your family have what it takes to spend all of Halloween night in this haunted house? What about your friends? To enter, just click on our Facebook post and upload a picture of your favorite Halloween costume into the comments. Keep it fun. Keep it clean. Keep it to one entry.
Make sure you share your image by October 9. That’s when we’ll select the top five costumes based on originality, creativity, inspiration, and quality. And just in case you need a little inspiration, we dug deep into our family archives (like all the way back to the 80s) just for you to show you our favorite costumes!
On October 15, we’ll post an album to Facebook of our top five costumes. From there, the picture with the most “likes” will win and we’ll make the big announcement on Oct. 23. Here is a link to our official contest rules!
In addition to lodging accommodations for a party of four, each guest will receive an all-access pass to our Haunting on DoG Street fun (good for both the earlier and later programming) as well as a $75 gift card to use toward dinner, souvenirs, and haunted carriage rides. You’ll also have the option to get professional zombie make-up done for the night! Oh, and not to mention our super cool skeleton mugs that you can fill with cider, soda, and water.
Remember - in order to claim your prize, you must be able to stay here in Williamsburg Halloween night, Saturday, Oct. 31.
Now, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and enter… we dare you!
Can the picture be of 3 kids? Or does the picture need to be of a single person?
Sounds like a lot of fun, until I read the part about allowing more than one entry per person in total. By allowing multiple votes per day, it now has become a popularity contest, rather than a contest to pick the ONE costume any ONE person likes best. This, and the calendar contest should be limited to one vote per person. PERIOD.
Jean - I think you misread. There is only entry per person. It states that in the blog and also in the official rules “Only one Submission per person, per email address/Facebook profile is allowed during the Contest Period.” Hope that clarifies! Once the top five go in a Facebook album for voting, you can only “like” once.
Sounds like a scary good night. Announcement Oct 23 - Sept?
Good catch, Gail!! I switched it to October.