How to go
What: The USS Nightmare
Where: 101 Riverboat Row, Newport Ky.
Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., through October 31
Extreme unrated tour: Midnight to 2 a.m. Oct. 29 (18 in advance online or $20 at door)
Open Halloween: 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Oct. 31
Cost $16; R.I.P. (skip the line) price is $20; Matinee (4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 23): $6
NEWPORT, Ky. — A steamboat along the banks of the Ohio River with a crew of the undead is beckoning passengers with their bony hands to come for a visit.
Celebrating its 20th season this year, the USS Nightmare — formerly known as the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredge steamboat the William S. Mitchell — is back to make thrill seekers shriek in terror along the riverbanks of Newport, Ky.
It’s something the attraction has done well, being named one of the top 13 scariest locations in the United States for a haunted house in 2011 by the website Hauntworld.com.
“We are having more fun than ever before,” said Allen Rizzo, president of the USS Nightmare, regarding the ship’s 20th year of giving Greater Cincinnati the willies. “We will be getting darker and more frightful after 11 p.m. on the weekend — something our more mature audience seems to want and enjoy — and I must say our veteran crew really enjoy taking up the fright level of the show a bit as it gets later and the crowd skews older.”
Among some of the new features of the attraction this season are the opening of the vessel’s laundry and machine shop, which were previously closed due to the damage the boat received in 1993 when it broke free of its moorings in Kansas City, Mo. and hit multiple bridges along the Missouri River.
“We have made use of the engine room, crew quarters, crew mess hall, galley and infirmary in working near the area of the boat crushed (due to the) collision with the five bridges,” Rizzo said. “The creative staff had a lot of fun creating a creepy laundry room, drying area and the frightening laundry chief that seems to have been feared by all the crew.”
The new features are part of the staff’s efforts to improve the show for customers, Rizzo said.
“Each season our creative staff works hard to add areas of the boat not previously used or to rework areas to make the show better and add new twists and turns to provide the best possible experience to new and returning guests,” he said. “The haunted house business in the past twenty years has blossomed in this area and around the country. Like other entertainment venues we have had to keep up with technology and trends in the industry.”
Rated ‘Best Value’
In addition to the national recognition the steamboat has received, it has also garnered attention for being rated one of the best-value haunted houses in the regions by Ohio Valley Haunts.
“We have not taken a price increase for the past four seasons,” Rizzo said. “We have felt it important to hold that price while some others in the industry in our market have taken steep increases. We work hard to be a family-friendly event that is good for the young and old alike — spooky enough to provide a great entertainment value for the thrill seeker as well as a great value for the whole family.”
The national attention the haunted steamboat has received is a pleasant surprise to Rizzo.
“I was convinced from the beginning that the old ship could become the number one attraction in the area,” Rizzo said. “It was creepy and haunted-looking without special lighting and sounds, so it was not much of a stretch of my imagination. But I would not have foreseen the amount of national recognition and attention the boat and our show would get.”
Rizzo realized what he had helped create with the USS Nightmare, he said, when he discussed the attraction and its attendance with other haunters at Halloween conventions throughout the country.
“The mix of an old 288 foot long dredge — having all of her old steam-powered equipment still aboard for set decoration and the history of the boat breaking loose and hitting five bridges — is a recipe for a true one-of-a-kind authentic steamboat,” Rizzo said. “It was about 10 years ago that we adopted the tagline ‘America’s premier haunted steamboat’ because we realized we were rare and one-of-a-kind; a retired steamboat dedicated to being a great haunted attraction.”
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