2007 was the first year we had ever decided to drive out to Chicago for the annual Transworld Halloween and Haunt Convention.We left Cincinnati, OH at 3am in the morning and drove and drove and drove. We got lost a little on the way, but we finally made it to Downtown Chicago around 10 am and realized that Chicago was an hour behind so we were right on time. We slowly entered into the convention center and it was packed. We went up to the advanced registration booth to get our tote bag with all the goodies inside. Inside of the tote bags was the badge holder with pen and note pad, a Kazoobie, convention directory and more free items. Well , of course I was going to take some pictures while at the convention; so I was off to the show office to pick of my press pass. It was there and I walked out of the office with my badge around the neck and my press pass pinned to my hoodie. We first entered the Halloween, Party and Costume section on the bottom floor, but soon decided to walk up stairs to the Haunt Show.
The Haunt Show is a totally different atmosphere compared to the Halloween section. It’s a lot more hectic with flashing lights, plenty of fog and animatronics galore. We checked out all the booths and took plenty of flyers, business cards and free goodies. But what I was most excited about was The Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is an area of the convention where prop companies and glow in the dark Halloween products are shown off in complete darkness. My favorite new product of the show can be seen in The Dark Zone, but you’ll have to check it out in the photo section. The haunt section of the show was a sensory overload and next we went downstairs for the Halloween, Costume and Party show.
The Halloween area of the show takes on a more business like atmosphere and includes everything from Mardi Gras Beads to Christmas decorations. Many products related to Halloween and Haunted Houses that aren’t part of The Haunt Show can be found in the Halloween, Party and Costume Show. We stayed for about 3 hours and decided to check in at the hotel. Well ,it was only 11:45 and check in time was at 2:00 so we decided to get a bite to eat at the McDonald’s right across from Giordano’s Pizza.
We had a quick bite and were off to the hotel. We checked in early and later that night would attempt to visit Dream Reapers Haunted House. Unfortunately the snow storm didn’t want us to go. But luckily we were able to get some Giordano’s pizza. It was different, but nothing can compare to Cincinnati pizza. Saturday flew by and Sunday morning was upon us.We got up around 10:30 packed our bags and were off to the Donal E.Stephens Convention Center. We arrived around 11:00 and tried to take as many photos and get as many free items as possible. The 3 hours we were there flew by and we were ready to drive back to Cincinnati, OH. The 2007 Transworld Convention was awesome and Las Vegas here we come!