Spook Spots Available at Knott’s

Tickets for Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park are still available.

The spookfest, now in its 27th year, is considered the granddaddy of them all.

“Halloween Haunt turned out to be more popular than we thought,” said Knott’s spokesman Bob Ochsner of the idea first conceived to increase park attendance on Halloween night. Now, he said, as a result of the event’s success, October ranks right up there with the summer months when attendance is at its peak.

Knott’s staffers won’t divulge attendance for this year’s 19-day run, only that “hundreds of thousands” will come by Sunday to get spooked by the park’s 1,200 monsters, goblins and witches.

Amusement parks throughout the country have followed Knott’s lead, according to Joel Cliff with Virginia-based International Assn. of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

At Shipwreck ‘99, Long Beach’s Queen Mary is transformed into a vessel of horrors. Tickets are still available for tonight and Sunday, 6:30 p.m. to midnight. $20. Call (888) ETM-TIXS.

For Halloween Horror Nights III at Universal Studios, guests wind their way through three wicked mazes created by Clive Barker (“Candyman”), Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy”) and rocker Rob Zombie. The event is sold out for today. Tickets are available for Sunday. Hours: 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. $38. Call (714) 740-2000.

Knott’s Halloween Haunt hours for Sunday: 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets are $35 in advance; $40 the day of the event. Call (714) 703-2555.

For a list of Halloween events, see page B11.