17th Door opens with impressive Covid precautions

The 17th Door haunted house in Orange County opens today with some of the most stringent Covid-19 precautions and requirements we have seen:

• All actors and staff will wear NIOSH approved valveless N95 masks, gloves, and eye protection.
• Customers must buy tickets as a private group of four, five, or six people. Guests may not buy an add-on ticket and join a stranger’s group. Each group will have no contact with other groups.
• All customers are required to wear face masks correctly at all times, along with nitrile gloves and eye protection (which will be provided).
• Surfaces are cleaned every thirty minutes.
• Facility is disinfected every night with UV light.

Perhaps most important (in light of scientific concerns that Covid-19 is an airborne virus), The 17th Door has upgraded its ventilation system to replace air inside the haunt at a rate that exceeds hospitals. As the haunt website Covid Updates page explains:

CDC code for brand new hospitals is to have an ACH (“Air Changes Per Hour) level of 12 for infectious disease isolation rooms. This means every 5 minutes (12 changes per 60 minutes), the air in the room is replaced with fresh air from outside. We have exceeded this extremely high level with an ACH of 12.7, which means it only takes our facility 4.7 minutes to replace its air with fresh outside air.

Tickets start at $144 on weeknights for a four-person group, with a $36 charge for each additional member. Prices are a few dollars more expensive on weekends and peak nights. Tickets are sold only only online, not at the door. Reservation slots are scheduled every 15 minutes, and guests are admonished to arrive on time with their complete group present.

The 17th Door is located in the West Fullerton Shopping Center at 1851 W Orangethorpe Avenue in Fullerton. The haunt will be open weekends and select weeknights from October 2 through 31. Hours are 6:30pm to 11pm on weeknights and Sundays and 6:30pm to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. A few nights toward the end of the month will have extended hours. Get complete info on their website.