Below you will find my original review for Castle Dracula. The Dungeon Boat Ride has been around since the 30’s, and had been the pier’s Tunnel of Love prior to converting to the dark side in 1976. The castle itself opened to the public in 1977. We lost this landmark to fire this January (2002) and are truly sorry for the loss. We mourn not for the attraction described below but for the attraction it HAD been at one time and for the landmark of untapped potential that it still was. Being lovers of this venue, staring at the façade, we envisioned all that it could be. To me, it would have made an AMAZING Haunted Dinner theater, keeping the Dungeon ride below…. There is talk the castle will be rebuilt, but sadly, I don’t believe it will. Walking thru it this past year, its decay was apparent. Though it lacked the technological advances of today’s houses, its downfall was in its skeletal crew of young people who saw this as an option perhaps better than Burger King. It was a haunt that was missing its heart, and without that, I cannot see it’s resurrection from the ashes.

We had officially kicked off our Halloween Season last September (2001) in Wildwood NJ @ Dracula's Castle. We paid the $8 per person admission price for the combo ticket, which had included the castle and the Dungeon boat ride. We climbed the stairs to the impressive looking castle and were greeted by young people in bad makeup. The actors had painted their faces painted white, the guys wearing dark circles under their eyes, and the girls had extended their eyeliner beyond the corner of their eyelids.
We couldn't help but giggle when one of the crew walked by in “full make-up” and wearing a Flyers cap. Now, a Philly fan can be a scary thing; they're notoriously bad tempered, but as none of us were wearing Laker memorabilia, we were unconcerned. I did get a small chill down my spine when the Harpy* that took our tickets screeched at my son's friend, "Stay in the middle area." He had strayed a foot to the right to look over the wall.
We were ushered into a room where they killed the lights and a vampire jumped from the painting above the fireplace. She shrieked at us for a minute or so, but I have no idea what she said. The high pitched tone of the adolescent female is lost to all but the keenest of dogs.
We plodded down the hallway where we were corralled into another pen to watch the "Electrocution man," (available at most of your better Halloween Prop shops). Down another dark hallway to another room, I do believe there were attempts to scare us at different intervals in these hallways; however, their complete lack of light did not allow for us to distinguish between the cast and our fellow travelers.
Next room, a bloodletting scene. Lot's of noise as yet another young woman screamed at us how she needed more blood for her master. One of us would be chosen (at this point I felt, let it be me....). She did manage to frighten the two little girls in front though. Around the corner, next fence (please stand to the front...) Wow, same girl (skeleton crew). Here we saw the beheading. And if I'm not mistaken, we were now pretty safe, as the girl she beheaded was also the master we met at the beginning but I don't really think we were supposed to notice that.
Down another dark hallway and…. into the prop room, whoops, someone had shut the door to the room that we were MEANT to walk into. Pushed back into the correct area, we were oh so surprised when the walls began to close in on us. Out thru one more dark hallway, and into the night. We were really lucky to make it thru that one... whew!

So, to quote my son, "that sucked." Maybe I would have thought less if I had paid the "4 ticket" price of the 3-D Mummy tour on the boards, but $4.50 was a bit steep for a few dark hallways, and overly rehearsed scenes enacted by the same 2-3 young girls.
Down to the moat for the boat ride. Greeted by a not so friendly cast member who was in the process of being reamed by a large angry woman, we were told the ride was closed and to go back thru the castle. Ummmm, no. They were not getting another ten minutes of my life for that. So, I stood in line for 5-10 minutes waiting to get my money back. While there, I managed to find out what the “reaming” was about. Several people in front of me had been on the Dungeon ride and halfway thru, the operators shut the ride down when they smelled smoke. These patrons experienced a scarier ride than was ever intended. The moat attraction, also featuring mostly young and inexperienced people, had no clear defined evacuation plan.
It was never determined in the time that I was there if there had indeed been a fire or if one of the pumps had blown causing the smoke. I was a little relieved that we had chosen the castle first, that kind of scare was not what I was looking for.