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And THIS right here is exactly why special events such as Pride Night are so special. It sickens me to hear this kind of garbage. I know this unfortunately exists everywhere but I really hate it when people simply can't just mind their business. We're all just out here trying to have fun, not be harassed and made to feel less than. And as for the more "family friendly" Haunt, I have a lot of feelings about this. Like most of you, I am truly not a fan of the watered-down Haunt we have today. Fear Fest is deep in my memory as an experience that was truly dark and had a real creepy feel to it. Long gone are those days it seems. I wish they felt they could keep it on high. Its not like there isn't a family friendly event during the day and its not like there aren't warnings about the event not being recommended for those under the age of 13. If your 5 year old gets the crap scared out of them and parent takes issue with the scare actors or the scenery/music/atmosphere that completely falls on them for having said child there in the first place. You don't get to be upset when you have been warned. And because of this the scare actors don't feel like they can turn up the heat and truly create a scary experience. Not to mention the No-Boo necklaces. If you wish not to get scared, don't come! That's like going to a rock concert and not wanting to listen to it because its too loud even though you know with it being a concert it will be loud so you ask the board operators to turn down the amps to a dull roar thus making the experience less immersive for everyone else. Maybe I sound too brash but I just want to see Haunt be what it used to be when it was Fear Fest.

I don't know what really to believe (and, honestly, not sure I care; the personnel issues within a regional amusement park don't necessarily impact my enjoyment of said park). I find it hard to believe that upper management -- the people who would have made the decision about Don Helbig -- would be petty enough to go search out a tombstone in the park and deface it. They likely pay little attention to that stuff; the decor doesn't get them dollars. Why would they care? And if his ousting from KI was a business decision, why would we jump to them thinking it was a petty personal thing? Many times, these decisions come down to money. It's not personal. But moreover, for the people who are intent on finding something to complain about with current management, there was no way of handling this that would have avoided any griping. Not put the tombstone out at all? They're erasing Don! Put it out with his name on there? They're mocking him by having a tombstone of the guy they fired! Just let it wear off or take it completely off? They're disrespecting Don's memory! I don't know Don Helbig. He seemed to be a great guy and he's a very fun and engaging social media presence. I hope he's doing well. But some of you are taking this worse than he seems to be.

Alright, here’s my full review from Friday, 9/22. It’s my first Haunt visit in 10+ years and to sum it up… we had a good time, but my how the mighty have fallen. (very minor spoilers ahead) Arrival: At 5:45 we found a mob of people crammed in shoulder to shoulder waiting for the gates to open. Once the gates open, you have to pass through a chaperone check which creates a major bottleneck. They have to find a better way. Back in the day. I still vividly remember the fog building behind the gates, then seeing them open up to a rush of scareactors storming the crowd. It was absolutely epic, and oh how I wish they would bring it back. Instead there is now… nothing. No opening sequence at all. The Haunts: Keep in mind we went straight from the gate to the first maze, and only went on two coasters between he first maze and Cornered, which likely helped with the short waits. Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror: Walk on. We were one of the first few people in the maze, and thought it was excellent. Good theming, the scareactors were on point, and a few jump scares mixed in to make it a well rounded haunt. didn’t feel short on scareactors so my hopes were high for the rest of the night. The hostess at the entrance was really into her character, setting the tone for the maze. Slaughterhouse: Near walk on. It was as good as advertised and very gory. Felt like it could’ve used another character or two but by no means sparse. Scareactors were into it and some good jump scares mixed in. But can someone tell me what the point of the air-blown feathers in the glass cases was all about? It was in the middle of the journey and felt out of place. Thumbs up to the shaking bodies on the walls. It’s a simple animatronic but effective in creating an unsettling vibe. Killmart We waiting maybe 20 minutes here. I loved the setting inside but… where is everybody? It was sparse, little to no jump scares and lots of missed opportunities. Thumbs down. Hotel St Michelle Short wait. I liked the theme of it. Felt a little light on scareactors there, and outside of the hallway scene not much in terms of jump scares. We thought it was fine. Cornered Waited around 30 minutes for this one, getting there around 8:00pm after bailing on Alien Abyss. Wow… this one is bad. I guess it’s worth the walk through if the line is short but otherwise, skip it. They’re barely even trying in this one. Alien Abyss Holy crowded line, Batman! This place was packed all night. The queue was nearly full when we stopped by on two separate occasions. After reading on datapoint here of an hour wait with only two and a half rows of the queue filled, we probably would’ve been there 90-120 minutes. We gave it a shot, but the line barely moved, and saw lots of people bailing out. I mean, we have season passes so we figured we’ll visit again and just head straight for it before the crowds arrive. We hit St Michelle, Cavern of Terror and Slaughterhouse a second time later at night. All had short waits of under 15 minutes. Slaughterhouse definitely had more scareactors in it the second time around. The other two lost the effect of jump scares as the folks in front of us were moving very slow. Scare Zones: Coney Maul: So uh… where is everybody? And what’s with the pop music? Pumpkin Eater: Short, but a cool area. But again, pop music? Alien X: Eh.. not much going on here. Costumes feel more UFO encounter and less scary flesh eating alien. Abandoned: The marketing photo makes it look like it’s more than it is. But it’s a fun, though short zone to walk through. Rides The Beast, Stunt Coaster, Drop Tower, The Bat, Banshee, Orion (had the longest wait of the night, though still just 30 minutes), and Mystic Timbers. The Beast is still meh, Mystic still rocks, and the others were as expected. Well, except for The Bat. We sat front row for a ride in the dark. Now, I don’t know if it was the mild, dry air, or perhaps the darkness that enhanced the journey, but holy smokes was that thing hauling like never before. What a rush! Other notes: -Outside of the mazes, and maybe just a couple of the “scare” zones, it felt like any other night at the park. -The ambiance is nowhere near what it used to be. -Fog is limited to the scare zones, and fairly sparse for the most part. -The only chainsaw encounter in the entire park was at Abandoned, which I found surprising. -I was surprised by the number of young kids there. KI makes it VERY clear this is not for kids. I mean, I saw a family with toddlers going into Killmart. An infant, yes an INFANT being carried out of Slaughterhouse. A four year old being forced to go into Cavern of Terror, crying, screaming “I don’t wanna go!” What on earth. I could go on. Did we have fun? Yes, of course. Are there missed opportunities? Yes, many.

I was about to say something similar. Putting the name of a current, well known park employee on a tombstone is a nice gag. But putting the name of an employee that recently left? That can be taken the wrong way by a lot of people.

I went to haunt on Saturday. Frankly, not impressed by most of the event. It feels inappropriate to have the really young kids even in the park, let alone the parents who were taking children in strollers through the houses. The roaming scare actors feel more like photo opportunities than something to scare the guests. The lack of fog, the park has gone over board in the past, but it was almost nonexistent this year. While in line for Cornered guests found several extremely rusty nailed and screws sticking out of the fence. They proceeded to try to break them off and successfully did so to at least 2 or 3, but someone should have checked before the event. I understand the desire to pulse the line, sending guests through the house in groups, which lets the actors reset. This works to a point, and frankly several lines reached the point where they should have moved to bigger groups or at some point just conga line the guests. It’s not uncommon for groups to bunch up already anyways. Repeatedly while I was walking around close to a house, person after person was leaving a house and trying to warn other guests near the entrance it’s not worth it. Proper line management, would have done a lot to help guest satisfaction. They might be even more disappointed by the house itself, but with a reasonable wait they are more likely to enjoy the night overall. The best part of the event was the live entertainment. I watched both Nyte Walkers, and Monster Rock, plus about half of Dr. Nightmare. Not really a fan of Dr. Nightmare, I like the host but it feels like it was not a good use of his talents or of the stage. The other two shows were fantastic and both are a much better use of your time than the houses. The event just does not feel big enough, 6 houses are not enough, there are not enough scare actors. Personally I would prefer the park improves the event and makes it into something that would be worthy of a separate hard ticket, where even most or all pass holders need to buy a ticket. But it would take a lot of changes to get to this point. Frankly I recommend checking out the shows, and getting night rides on the coasters, at Kings Island. Then just head to some of the many better haunt events and houses in the area. If you’re up for traveling, Knott’s Scary Farm, Halloween Horror Nights on either coast, and either Howl-o-scream event in Florida are all much better events.

And the times the wind rolled it out over 71 prompting calls from the OSP to turn the fog down Now there is more vape smoke than fog LOL

Why do others enjoying Haunt make you so upset?

Ahh the good old days of Fearfest! It has become quite a bit tamer it seems over the years. I can remember the fog being so dense quite a few years back that while riding Drop Zone at the time, you could not see the ground halfway up. It was like you went up into the clouds. It lent a fantastic and a bit scarier ride with all the fake fog covering the ground. And walking through the park, some areas were completely shrouded in fog so you couldn't see a scare actor creeping up on you in the midway. Loved that aspect and believe that adds so much to the ambience of the event.

Yeah, except that wasn’t the rhetoric you were trying to convey. Let’s not backpedal now. Don will be missed but this is a golden opportunity for the forum to hit the reset button and rekindle a relationship with the park. Unfortunately there are people like you who are holding onto the past and getting in the way of any future progress. The members of this forum deserve better.

So maybe I’m not in the know but where did you get this information? Is there a bonafide source with reference we could see that these claims are true? I’m upset Don’s stone is removed as well but I’m not privy to all of the information out there nor am I about to start a rumor mill about a man’s abrupt career change. In my eyes Don is a private individual who had a private separation from Cedar Fair with professionalism and respect for parties involved. Which out of respect to Don I’m not delving into anything much more than that when it comes to the stone. That’s really it without stirring the pot any longer. He’s going to be missed, I’ve met the man twice at the park and he went above and beyond from what I’ve seen at the park. He has a legacy, he is practically a part of the KI legendarium. He’s the benchmark for PR professionalism and interactivity and the park won’t be the same without him. The fact he put up with a fanboy site about the park he worked at day in and day out is a testament to his dedication to the fans of the park.

Some good points here, some things change, others didn’t. I would seriously look at what people were saying last year and what people were saying this year and use that as a bench mark. Some points fellow members discussed were used for Haunt this year whether or not that means people are reading this is up in the air but at least there was some form of progression while overall we saw some recession. ”if you don’t learn from the past you’re doomed to repeat it” or something like that

Haha!

The back of the park is eerie in such situations. I've been among, if not the last to leave The Beast plaza numerous times and routed around through Rivertown because the direct path to the Eiffel Tower had already been cleared and guarded for the night, and especially before Mystic Timbers the area where the station and queue are now was really creepy because of the old worn-down funnel cake building and patio with no lights on.

I know the truth in my last post makes you uncomfortable. But let’s stay on topic. Being angry for your friend is okay. It’s apart of the 5 stages of grief. However it isn’t doing anyone any good here. Now is the time to build bridges, not burn what is left down.

Emphasize the "mature audiences" part more, and maybe ditch the no-boo necklaces. If it means doing the KD method of separate ticket but passes are still good, I'd be all for it.

So I've though about Haunt and what all has been said here (as well as another thread) and here are my thoughts: Kings Island's Haunt (or Fearfest when it started way back in 2000) has always been an event where the purpose was to take most of regular Kings Island and add a Halloween twist to it in the form of later operating hours, scare zones and scare mazes, and scare actors roaming a fog covered park. Boiled down, Kings Island infused with haunted houses (sorry if this sounds rather simplistic; I really don't know how else to say this lol) The point is that its supposed to be scary. Halloween is the holiday of fear. Scary and fear is not family friendly is most instances. A scare maze themed to a shopping mall overrun with zombies is NOT family friendly. Haunt in general is not a family oriented event and its not supposed to be. If families want to experience Kings Island during the Halloween season but do not like the gore of Haunt, there is literally an ENTIRE family friendly event that takes place 11-6 (which is a little over half of the operating day) on Saturdays and basically all day Sunday. So families with young children should plan accordingly or else not be surprised when 6 and 7pm come around. Kings Island literally advertises that Haunt is not suitable for younger audiences. Families dragging their kids around Haunt and then complaining about the intensity of it is just ridiculous. Its the same logic as bringing your family through Dent Schoolhouse and wondering why all of your kids have soaked pants and then blame the people who run Dent Schoolhouse. In this specific regard, Kings Island should not catch flak for the poor planning of families. Tricks or Treats Fallfest is family oriented. Haunt is not. Period. Anyways, getting to some more specific details, roaming scare actors have been a staple of Haunt since its inception. Having scare actors themed to their respective areas is the best possible use of that resource. It adds to the areal theming of each haunt area and it adds to the atmosphere of haunt itself. The fog at Kings Island is also a staple. Walking around the park when its covered in fog (with the scare actors roaming around) as well as getting the LEGENDARY night rides with the fog is something that only can be understood by experiencing it. To end this off, I know that Kings Island has been facing budget cuts this year. I will say its certainly affecting and has affected the atmosphere of haunt so far this year and in the last several years. All I can say is that hopefully Kings Island doesn't cut any more budgets and that hopefully in the near future they can raise budgets.

A lot of the Haunt tombstones and whatnot are quite old now, although I'm surprised to see the Area 72 van peeling like that.

I am not going to go on a rant about it (I have before), but Kings Island needs to start paying attention to detail when it comes to props and theming. It’s pathetic that Kings Island invests in custom soundtracks and theming props only to not maintain their investment. I wish Kings Island would care more about that.

The fact that someone went out of their way to create a nearly identical burner account to discredit the park is beyond petty.

Once again, why are parents bringing little ones? Back when I was young we had these things called babysitters. I knew some teens in my neighborhood that would make some good money babysitting. Don't parents have "date night" anymore? Also, it's ok to tell little Johnny he has to wait to experience some things in life. (they have to wait for a license, etc). oing to KI for Haunt should be an experience you do once you have reached a certain level of maturity (actually now that I think of it going to KI alone should have the same criteria.) I don't blame the kids, I blame their parents. We are practically forcing these kids to grow up faster than they should. They are missing (in my opinion) crutial parts of their childhood necessary to become a well rounded, thoughtful, mature and kind adult. I feel the past couple of generations have had a hard time telling their kids NO. To me it was a vital part of my childhood. Understanding to be patient and good things come to those who wait and if you break an expensive toy you don't automatically get another one is, in my opinion, crutial to becoming a well rounded person. Obviously you were too irresponsible to have the expensive toy in the first place and should do without to make you appreciate what you had (and people wonder where this "entitled" mentatlity comes from, It's a learned behavior.). Look I understand especially with the cost of living that it takes 2 parents working to raise a child and I hate that. Gone are the days when wages were such that a family could have 1 bread winner (wife or the husband) and I think childeren in the end has suffered because of that and it's more a product of our society rather than the fault of the parents. But in the end having a child is a responsibilty and sacrifices are to be made. If you only get to go to Haunt once a year when you can afford a sitter instead of every weekend then so be it. Eventually your child will be grown and out of the house and you'll be able to go when you want again. But those years you have with your child are you raising the next generation slip away far faster than you can ever imagine. Before you know it you'll have grandchildren and hopefully you'll be able to watch them while your adult kids get to have a "datenight" off and go to Haunt while you experience the wonderful time of letting your grandkids eat what they want, have tons of sugar and stay up late. As a grandparent of 4 myself I can truley say those times are ones I cherish much more than any Haunt, and in the future when I'm gone and my grandkids look back I hope they cherish time spent with me and my wife more than time at an amusement park. As a society I hope we get back to focusing what's really important before it's gone. After all once you loose your parents/grandparents you don't get to go on Amazon and order another one. The fact that you can't is what makes them so precious in the first place. Thanks for hanging on till the end, this really went in a different direction than I though it would when I started. But hopefully some out there can read this and it will make a difference. We're all in this together, keep your stick on the ice.

If y’all have any legitimate complaints, PLEASE send them to Cedar Fair corporate. KI has absolutely been kneecapped by budget cuts. Every single issue goes back to the cuts. It’s horrible. I say this as an employee who is a scare actor.

Kings Island's marketing department reports to corporate, not to the park. I doubt Mike Koontz had any say in the decision of Don leaving.

Since this is a topic about the remembrance of Don Helbig, all those new ride (and event) announcements and teaser campaigns with Don Helbig and Greg Sheid back in the day were really awesome! In those days, the park would tease like crazy and hold in-person live announcements for basically all new additions no matter how small. Off-topic, but Greg Sheid is also a big reason why Halloween Haunt was as good as it was. He absolutely loved the event and helped make it one of the best Halloween events at a regional amusement park in the country. It is sad to see the event’s slow decline over the years.

Right? It seems like the ship has sailed on the all out adult focussed event of days gone by. Why not make a few more intense experiences that are really “R” rated. A few PG13 scare zones and the rest PG “spooky” with lighting, in great shape props and creative ride overlays that cost almost nothing extra to run yet give a whole new, marketable experience from 7-12am. They are trying to do so much with less and no one is happy. And why in gods name when they have drug out tons of Dios de los Murray props and randomly plopped them for years, when we have a Latin themed area , they don’t use them there and make a fully integrated area - sane with pirate ship stuff -put it over by Viking.

:::waiting on @Tr0y to justify age discrimination for the sake of KIC’s “relationships” with the park:::

Literally the park has pulled bait-and-switch strategies on myself and countless others. This continues up to and including today when Mr Selfie, who you think is doing such a bang up up job despite getting zero coverage for Haunt’s opening weekend, put out the list of dining plan options for Tricks and Treats only to have several items quietly removed. This is after selling the daily meal plan to several guests. As with Prestige Passes, terms are subject to change. No refunds. You may think what they are doing is just dandy, but the paying customers of Kings Island deserve better.

And so can anyone, including fake accounts. I know the corporate-level checkmarks are gold, but how many people will notice anything more than the typical blue-check on a very close fake?

I know you’re mocking, but they put out damaged and defaced props assuming that most are too stupid to realize it. There’s always going to be a few people who prove their point.

I noticed yesterday at Haunt that a lot of vinyl is missing or in disarray. They hate them because they hate you. Remember this when they are begging for your votes.

I don’t know why it’s so hard to make the event atmospheric. Playing fall music isn’t hard.

The burnt end mac sucked, 0/10 would not rbe recommend

Or it looks like someone else made an account trying to have an “ah-ha” moment. The name of the account is KingsLslandPR. It’s a fake account.

I’m switching to your camp here. And make the scare zones more focussed so they can do less with more. Then really push the limit with 2-3 “adult” mazes and 2-3 “pg-13”. Make 1-2 more intense scare zones with live actors you can bypass and 1-2 “spooky” but just props, music and lighting -like IStreet and Coney being great theming and save the live actors for other areas. Maybe make I street into Planet Snoopy a pumpkin luminights type area like Dollywood to give a place for the families with younger kids to hang if they have to be in the park for the older siblings. At this point I think they’ve got to give up the park-wide haunted aspect since it seems like they basically have anyway.

Pro: love the new scare zone, it delivers more and gives a different direction with the flow of crowds. Also love what they did with Pumpkin Eater although it is super small. Con: I’ve been coming to haunt for decades now, and every year it somehow gets worse. The dj’s in Action Zone and Coney Maul zapped the haunt ambience. I’m sorry, but the Macarena or pop is not something I want in what’s supposed to be the best haunted event. Something like this would be GREAT for a children’s event in PS or maybe the waterpark but not the main park. Way too many kids, for an event that used to state publicly that it was not designed for individuals below 13. The chaperone policy is not being enforced and there were as there always is a horde of children running around bumping into my group. The event just feels different from what it used to be. Even looking back 10 years ago it was so much more than what it is now. If you want a family event create a day event that’s at the waterpark, give them that experience like what they used to. Theming is hard to quantify but in some parts it was really good, others it just felt cheap. The park used to use old PT props in coney for the coney maul, we used to have a lot of interesting toxic/alien props which i wonder what happened to them. I’m actually shocked we didn’t get anything in the adventure port area as I thought the park was gung-ho for dia de muertros in the past few years. I’m not going to harp too much on the scaractors as I know there have been shake ups in the past few years and it’s the first night but I really hope the park invests in the event overall as I feel like it’s just a husk of what it used to be. I think my biggest irk is the fact that the park used to have unique attractions like Tombstone, Trail of Terror & Carnevil and they’re long gone. It’s upsetting which I know times change I know the park can’t have certain attractions anymore due to recent additions but I feel like we lost something along the way.

We don’t have the hotels to make it profitable.

Thank God for Mike Rochester Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

It will auto renew before the end of the 90 days. It could be the default from the author of the cert for security is 90 days, but totally guessing here. @malem can chime in with the reasoning for the 90 day instead of longer.

Spell check please on the Haunt map ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

An idea I have that wouldn’t take much effort to accomplish but could get the park some more attention: adding titles to their rides. For example, instead of saying “The Beast is waiting for you this weekend” say something like “The World Famous Beast is waiting for you this weekend.” Instead of saying “Carpenters are spending the offseason replacing the wood on The Racer” say “Carpenters are spending the offseason replacing the wood on the Historic Racer.” “Guests enjoy their ride on the Record Breaking Banshee.” This is done here and there with social media posts but I think they should try and capitalize on anything they can to market themselves a little more. Including a few extra words could make all the difference. The World Famous Beast The Historic Racer The Record Breaking Banshee The Mile Long Diamondback The Award Winning Orion/Mystic Timbers

I have been very impressed with the videos she has been creating. She has an awesome talent. Hopefully she is hired full time when her internship is up.

Just know other former employee tombstones had their names “removed” as well. This wasn’t an attack on any individual. For example here is former GM, Greg Scheid’s tombstone with the lettering removed:

That's more-so an issue with Kings Island in general, not just Haunt. I can't even begin to describe the amount of sexism, racism and other derogatory behavior that I've seen teenagers take part in at Kings Island, and apparently it's still an issue even after the chaperone policy has been in-effect.

The clientele that this event attracts is so trashy. The amount of homophobia and sexism I witnessed tonight made me feel like I was living back in the 50s. I saw at least 4 groups of women getting cat called and harassed, mostly by younger & teenage males. Not to mention as I was driving away from the park some crazy chick tried to road rage on me. I think there’s two solutions here, either rise the prices to help keep these types of clients out of the park or just stop haunt all together. Horrible horrible experience today.