For decades, Mystery Fun House has delighted, challenged and spooked generations. It sits demure, a stone's throw away from Universal Studios, dwarfed by the cylindrical tower hotel nearby on Major Boulevard. Merlin the Wizard, the attraction's perennial icon, welcomes you in with organ classics.

The sad truth is that the landmark shack of thrills could use a makeover. While this may even add to the carnival charm during the funhouse itself the once ambitious expansion has backfired. Through the years, the addition of a dinosaur-themed miniature golf area and a video arcade complete with laser tag has given the place additional revenue streams. However, in light of the cleaner and brighter offerings around the city, it is hard to deny that Mystery Fun House has been rundown.

Accepting that, tradition is as good a reason as any to stop by Merlin's place. It is an intimate experience and maybe the fact that it is far removed from the pristine Disney and Universal park refinery gives it a sparkling level of human warmth.

Your journey begins in a demanding glass mirror maze. Dim-lit, effect-enhanced, nice. Early on you will also find the best-kept room, a crooked Egyptian tomb room which will test your sense of balance and tinker with your perception of space. Along the way you will encounter a few glass-enclosed gruesome audioanimatronics. All this as you work your way through the usually darkened rooms full of buzzers, rubber bars, padded bags and a tumbling barrel finale. You do have your funhouse customary spinwheel and mid-house there is a standing only screening room showing clips of classic horror flicks.

You exit into the once high-tech video arcade, which has seen better days, and where food concessions are sold. From there you can head onto the putt-putt, the laser tag or a unique gift shop. The entire walk-through of the house is elaborate but shouldn't take much more than half an hour, longer if you take refuge in the film room. The house is not necessarily cheap, but a bargain relative to the major Orlando attractions. And, while you will find plenty of pure horrorfests like Terror on Church Street and Skull Kingdom, this is one for the entire family as even the seemingly morbid robotics are pretty tame and enclosed away from the pathways.

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