5 Reasons to Celebrate Fall with The Great Pumpkin Fest at Worlds of Fun

If you didn't already know it, we are BIG Peanuts fans. The Great Pumpkin is one of our favorite holiday movies, and my kids have even dressed up for Halloween as Peanuts characters in the past. Leave it to Worlds of Fun to indulge our love of all things Great Pumpkin with their Great Pumpkin Fest -- taking place in the Planet Snoopy part of the park on Saturdays and Sundays from Sep. 14 - Oct. 27, 2019! Worlds of Fun hosted in past years, and there was so much to see and do!

My kids are a mix of ages (18 all the way down to our youngest baby at 2), and they are more into fall fun than spooky Halloween scares. Thankfully, there was so much today from 11am until 5pm on Saturday when we went. We got our fill of rides and no-scary fun. Here are our favorite reasons to visit:

1. All of our favorite rides are open.  Yes, Planet Snoopy is full of rides that my kids up to age 11 love to ride together. No matter what size your kids are, there is a ride thrilling enough to make them happy. Matthias is a big fan of flying rides. He forgot to remove his hat before the ride, however. He wasn't so happy about this...

He enjoyed it, anyway.

And the hat was retrieved.

In addition to the rides inside Planet Snoopy, there are all the rides in the rest of the park to enjoy, too! My older kids had a great time on their favorite coasters while we enjoyed the activities for young ones. (I do not need roller coasters to freak out. As you see here, anything that makes my tummy "wobble" will get a scream from me. Don't laugh.)

2. Pumpkins. In addition to pumpkins decorating the entire park, each child was allowed to pick out their own mini pumpkin from a big pile. My kids were very careful to pick just the right ones. Manny held his pumpkin for the rest of our day, almost not wanting to give it up for rides.

3. Snoopy! I can't think of a better reason to love visiting Great Pumpkin Fest than this cuddly guy. He was dressed for Trick or Treats and was handing out hugs. Manny was a bit shy, so instead of giving Snoopy a hug, he gave him his little pumpkin. Snoopy was kind enough to give it back and trade it in for a very bashful wave good-bye.

4. Trick or Treats. Well, actually, there were no tricks. Just some great people handing out candy to the kids. Manny cried and wanted to go back through a second time, and the kind helpers didn't make a fuss about it. He was so happy with his little bag of goodies!

5. Lots and lots of photo opps! Between the corn stacks and pumpkins, the characters and signs, there were lots of places to take a photo. My kids were all dressed up in their Husker gear (it was a game day), so it was the right time to get them smiling and having fun. 

I had a really fun time capturing their special moments, including the hale bale maze (which the taller boys insisted they do on their hands and knees -- so that they could be surprised on how to make it through.) All the goofing around was caught on camera, and it will help make The Great Pumpkin Fest live on for ever... what sweet memories!

 A note on creepy stuff: Planet Snoopy is at the back of the park, which means you'll likely walk down some of the paths that are later used for the "over 14" scary entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights. The "Haunt" as it's called is not for little ones, so it's super important that you don't hang around too long after dark. Most of the decorations your little one might see are like the ones below. My boys actually thought they were funny, and since the Huskers have a little history involving the "Boneyard", we used it as a fun photo opportunity. 

The rest of the park is really mild stuff, like Peanuts character decorations below:

You can get tickets online now for weekends through Halloween! Get unlimited visits with a season pass!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company in conjunction with Blog Meets Brand, and I have been compensated for my participation. All opinions are my own.