Oct 1, 2012

Countdown to Halloween - Monster Minigolf

Welcome to the AEIOU and Sometimes Why Countdown to Halloween 2012!!

Take a moment to say hi to our Halloween mascots up there in the banner: Hellcat, Batty and Punkinhead. They've been with me since last Halloween and are very excited to be greeting you all this year. I've also put up some new wallpaper courtesy of Disney's Haunted Mansion.

Last year, I had "theme weeks" such as Vincent Price or Disney's Haunted Mansion. This year I'll be mostly featuring things from my Halloween collection along with the occasional audio treat and probably a contest or two.

Be sure to follow me on Pinterest and/or Tumblr as I'll be posting Halloween-y images all month on those platforms as well that won't be here.

If you haven't yet, check out the Great Pumpkin Gift Exchange that I'm organizing. 
It's sort of like an online Secret Santa for Halloween fans. 
Deadline for signing up in this Saturday, October 6th.

 I had a birthday over the weekend and since the weather was going to be questionable, I decided to do something inside: Monster Minigolf! We've been here a few times before. It's always a good time and a fun way to start the Halloween season a little early.

Monster Minigolf Danvers MA entrance
This guy welcomes you when you open the door
Monster Minigolf is an indoor 18 hole minigolf course with a cartoony monster theme. The entire thing is lit with blacklight and the props and artwork are done with fluorescent paint.

Monster Minigolf
Entrance to the course
 Probably the most entertaining thing about our visit was a boy around 8 who was going to a party inside. The kid had been there before but did not want to go in, even though he had a gift for his friend having a party inside. We waited outside for our friends for about 20 minutes and the kid still wasn't going in, despite the mom trying everything she could think of (and a few suggestions from us) to get him in. He did make it at some point as I saw him after we finished our play through.

Monster Minigolf Frankenstein Monster

You can do birthday parties here and they have a couple of party rooms that would look at home in any haunted house. They were full so I couldn't get any pictures. Darn kids!

The course has a few animated props that activate every so often, like the pics above and below. Frank lifts forward from his slab while electrical noises play. The skeletal demon is about 8' tall and makes monstrous noises while his head and arms move.

Monster Minigolf skeleton demon

There's a DJ booth where occasionally a live person will make birthday announcements or call an impromptu "dance contest" for participating kids to win prize tickets. They mostly play '80s music and TV/cartoon themes. If you rent the place out for a private party, you can hook your iPod up.

Monster Minigolf WIRD radio
WIRD radio
The creepiest part is the 18th hole where you have to shoot your ball into a giant clown head.

Monster Minigolf 18th hole creepy clown
Say ahhh!
The mascots of Monster Minigolf are Stella Skellerella and her dog Jawbone.
They make a few appearances around the place.

Monster Minigolf Stella Skellerella

After our round of minigolf (I was 3rd out of 5) we went to dinner and finished things off with some cake. My wife asked for Nightmare Before Christmas but because it wasn't one of the licensed things the bakery could do, so they did their own take on it. One of the cool things about having a birthday at the end of September is getting Halloween themes cakes.

Nightmare Before Christmas birthday cake

Head on over to Flickr to see more photos from Monster Minigolf and check out the cool art.

Be sure to visit the other bloggers that have their porch lights on. 
They're waiting for you! 

countdown to halloween 2012 logo

18 comments:

  1. Love the Haunted Mansion wallpaper!

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    1. It's more obvious on a blog because you can see it closely but what I love about it is that the faces are subtle when you're further away from it.

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  2. Whoa...dude. That Monster Mini Golf place looks super cool. I see that they have a location in Maryland, but I've never even heard of it. This is going on my to-do list immediately.

    Btw, happy birthday! What an awesome cake!

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    1. Yeah they're springing up all over. Be sure to take pics if you go. I'd like to see what's different at yours.

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  3. That place is amazing! It's going to be a fun month, and I can't wait to get going on the Great Pumpkin Gift Exchange.

    (Happy birthday!)

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  4. Dude, Nightmare Before Christmas is cool, but that cake is seriesly awesome! I love that different Monster Mini-Golf locations have different stuff inside. Mine has none of that (and I'm surely lamenting not being able to stand next to that Franky display.) Like the others I can't wait for the Great Pumpkin Gift Exchange to kick off!

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    1. I've been to one other one in our state and it's similar with some of the same things but not everything. I'd like to visit more of them to see how different they all are.
      Especially the one in Vegas that is KISS themed!

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  5. Hey Dex! Happy countdown and...happy birthday too!

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  6. Happy (belated) Birthday to you! :) I'm always amazed by how many of us Libras are in the blog world! That mini golf place looks really cool. My favorite critter is the "skeletal demon". I'm not sure why, but I imagined him as being really little, like the size of a small dog. 8' tall is different from what I imagined! That's a good looking cake you had too. Glad you had such a fun birthday!

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    1. Yay Libras! Haha. Yeah he's pretty big but I didn't get a shot of him with anything in it for scale.

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  7. Would love to have the money to do a Monster Golf but I am tapped out...

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  8. Wow, that is an amazing mini-golf place! Love it and your cake is fabulous!

    Happy birthday and Happy October! :D

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  9. The Great Pumpkin gift exchange is such a fun idea!!!

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