RingMaster
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Posts posted by RingMaster
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Considering the fact that The Beast's 30th anniversary was nearly shut out because of a new coaster being built across the pond (new entrance plaza notwithstanding due to Diamondback's layout almost demanding an entire area remodel), I doubt they'll make a massive fuss out of the coaster's 35th when we have yet another new one being built, this time at the opposite end of the park.
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Can someone give me an example of a dark ride, please?
Boo Boo's Blasters is a dark ride. It's defined as an indoor themed attraction with slow(ish) moving vehicles that travel past set pieces and scenes. Flight of Fear, however, is considered a dark coaster because of a combination of dark ride elements and a roller coaster experience.
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I see this as less of an answer to Spiderman and more of an answer to Toy Story Mania at Disneyland/WDS. Hopefully there will be some thematic props and setpieces installed to make the screens.
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IIRC The Bat was used outside during Haunt pre-Crypt era.I don't think it would do well in outdoor elements.
Actually that particular prop wasn't around for the 2007 Haunt; the closest resemblance to it was the alien that originally resided underneath the water tower:
Not surprisingly, most of the props and animatronics scattered throughout the event are from Unit 70 Studios, a company just up north near Columbus. Several companies specialize in manufacturing props for haunted attractions, but I've always liked Unit 70 because theirs look the most realistic both in design and function.
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Guys, We could also just see some new trees of flowers...
Adventure Express becomes...GARDEN EXPRESS in 2014! Rocket past fields of man-eating roses and tulips, and careen through arches overflowing with bloodthirsty azaleas, before a heartstopping finale with a gang of tribal dandelions and the evil Venus Fly Trap God who pours a vat of scalding weed killer!
....seriously, though. Wouldn't that be awesome to have a coaster set up like a cross between Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and a horror version of the flower scene from Alice in Wonderland?
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What was there to do at Winterfest besides ice skating? I'd rather go to the Zoo's Festival of Lights since I don't think there's anyway it would look as good as the Winterfest of old days.
Not much. Only International Street, Oktoberfest, Rivertown, and half of then Hanna-Barbera Land was open. The Carousel was the only attraction not in Hanna-Barbera Land to be open during Winterfest.
At the beginning of the night there would be an opening ceremony where the mayor of the Christmas town (I-Street) would invite a family to light up the Eiffel Tower tree. The Paramount Theater held Santa's Toy Factory, arguably the best production the park has ever created. There was a Christmas music revue inside Festhaus where a circular stage was set up in the middle of the restaurant and featured live sax music.
Bubba Gump's got some nice yuletide decorations, including a reindeer crossing sign that stayed up for a good two and a half years because it was in a fairly decently hidden spot. The Paramount Story was a makeshift Christmas tree sale/meet-and-greet involving the Nickelodeon characters.
Swan Lake had a light show involving a barge with five trees and featured a pyrotechnic finale; the barge would later remain tucked in the back of the lake until Diamondback construction began late 2007. Rivertown's other main attraction was the Holiday Express, where a WWII vet hopped on board to make a trip back to his family while singing along the way. Giant postcards were set up along the train route.
Because of ongoing construction for Nickelodeon Universe, the back section of Hanna-Barbera Land and the entirety of the former Nick Central was closed off and most of the forested area was already demolished. The Hanna-Barbera Store became a Toy Factory/mini Nick Store, selling Christmas and Nickelodeon knickknacks. Top Cat's Taxi Jam, HB Carousel, and Scooby's Haunted Castle were the only attractions open in the area. As the last big Winterfest attraction, there was a Christmas parade that had brand new floats made rather than repurpose floats from the Nick Celebration Parade. Because of Coney Mall not being open, the parade route, which normally went past the Airbrush Shop behind Viking Fury and straight into Coney, was changed to circle the Eiffel Tower, go past the Carousel, and head down towards Swan Lake and through Rivertown, where the floats would then be stored behind Tomb Raider.
FUN FACTS:
- With the cancellation of Winterfest 2006, the floats from the parade were relocated to Knott's Berry Farm for their Christmas festivities.
- Most of the Christmas decorations were repurposed into a single-year scare zone called Holiday Horror for the final FearFest (the "zone" would come back five years later as a full-blown maze with other holidays thrown in); a few props made their way to the Psycho Path and Massacre Manor houses.
- The concrete ramp used to get guests down to the fountain for ice skating still stands and is still used quite often by the maintenance crews.
- The footings for the giant postcards from Holiday Express are still visible.
- The giant Christmas light at the top of the Eiffel Tower tree, which was the Paramount logo, would later be bought and used by the owners of EnterTrainment Junction as part of an outdoor mural.
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What was the building used for Slaughter House built for? I see it as a haunted attraction for years but what was it built for originally? Starting to see more buildings being used for haunt and nothing else. Could be a great place for arcade or a Chaos Room type setting. Xbox on 200 inch screens etc. Low dollar investment but another air conditioned hid out between rides.
It's actually Stunt Grill during the summer months. In my opinion, it will probably see a lot of business next year with the opening of Banshee.
Thankfully, the park just got an executive chef, so hopefully, Stunt Crew's food improves greatly. Of course, assuming it still retains its title next season.
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^^ how about actually using the animatronic spider (that was never animated) from the Bayou Bloodbath attraction. That thing was freaky as heck in the dark...I kept expecting it to jump up but only got scared when the ghillie suit guy came out from under it...that was the real scare. I literally jumped when it happened....LOL.
interestingly, fake spiders and webbing in strobe lighting looks rather real....add in snakes and maybe a scene like this...
If it was never animated, that means it was ordered as a static prop which is much cheaper than an animatronic version.
Speaking of "animatronic" spiders, THIS:
...is what I'm talking about! Have that as a finale scare for the spider maze and peeps would almost literally be tumbling over each other trying to run away.
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It disappeared with the Nickelodeon Central expansion, I think. If I recall correctly, a portion was relocated next to where Chic-fil-a is now.
I think it more when HBLand was annexed to become Nick Universe that the arch was removed. And I also believe it to be a CBS decision to remove it and not Paramount.
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The funny thing is that, after Curse left after the 2004 season, the infamous crawl tunnel was relocated to the Trail of Terror where it remained until a bunch of Dinosaurs took over. Of course, the transition from an indoor to an outdoor environment (especially being put on the ground in the middle of the woods) made the tunnel really damp and moist, which made it a truly nightmarish experience for those who braved it. And for those who don't remember its location on the Trail, it was the second scene of the attraction, immediately following the cornfield scene, and before the outhouse. It also most notably was the section where the trail split in two for a brief moment, with "Brave" and "Chicken" options for guests; the "Brave" side being the tunnel, and the "Chicken" side being a more wheelchair-friendly path going through laundry. It's quite sad, though, that the tunnel was never put into another Haunt attraction after Trail left. I would've at least expected it to go in Wolf Pack as a makeshift moist cave.
I think an entire haunt attraction based on phobias could be interesting.
Fear of spiders
Fear of snakes
Fear of _______ fill in the blank.
If done right, a spider-themed haunt would be the most terrifying haunt in existence. And by done right, I mean, the spider props would need to resemble their real-life counterparts to a T. Essentially the Acromantula section of Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey made into a walk-through haunted attraction.
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I'm still holding out for the day the park decides to bring flavored popcorn to the masses. And not just the simple caramel or kettle corns (although I'd be happy enough if they brought back the Kettle Corn stand from back in the day), but flavors like these:
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I thought Backwoods Bayous was fantastic but man they need to do something to increase the capacity on Tombstone Territory it was horrible. I waited for everything else no more than 30 to maybe 40 minutes saturday but TT was darn near 2 hours. They took forever to load the trains!
The biggest problem with Tombstone is that the drop-off point to get to the maze portion is just over a quarter of the way into the train's layout and the trains have to go the entire route to get back to Rivertown station. Now that Howl-o-Palooza is out of both Planet Snoopy and the Picnic Grove, I don't know why they won't utilize sections of the Grove and/or the path leading to Soak City to create one large walk-through attraction similar to what Universal Hollywood does for their Terror Tram:
It would be unique to dress up portions of the Grove into a ghost town with saloon and jail facades, maybe a giant barn for guests to walk through. There's also a maintenance path that sits in between Flying Ace and RFYLCB and connects to the back of Picnic Grove that could also be utilized so that guests exit close to the train should they have family/friends waiting and don't want to walk all the way over to Peanuts Playhouse.
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Let's let the quality of the haunts Kings Island already has improve dramatically before even considering the thought of adding one that requires an upcharge.
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Actually, Hollywood Studios' landmark is supposed to be Grauman's Chinese Theater (although the water tower with the Mickey Ears ended up the more marketable landmark), but they somehow believed it wasn't iconic enough and decided to plop a giant sorcerer's hat in front of it and ruin the atmosphere of their Hollywood Boulevard. A similar issue happened when Mickey's wand remained atop Spaceship Earth long after the Millennium celebration and dampened the appeal of Future World.
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Plus, when kids get scared, they have the loudest screams. I like myself a scream, but not every three seconds right in front of me in a maze, showing me where the scares are.
I know 40-year-olds with screams more annoying than a 13-year-old. Plus, it's better to have them actually scared instead of the complete opposite, where they're constantly saying they aren't scared of stuff to every monster they see.
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Somehow I can see the local law enforcement putting a stop to this. And I can just imagine the sexual harassment claims, etc. I sincerely doubt that "waiver" form is worth the paper it's written on. I can also see fundamentalists or even the Westboro Baptist Church helping "lightning" to strike, or worse.
Bad, bad, bad idea.
Interesting...it's almost as if people forgot about the Blackout extreme haunted houses in New York and now L.A. that featured scenes of graphic sexual nature and torture:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-insane-moments-in-worlds-most-hardcore-haunted-house/
...or the fact that the creators based the schtick on a Discovery Channel show with a slightly different name:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/naked-and-afraid/about-the-show/about-the-show.htm
I have no idea on whether or not the haunted house this challenge takes place in has actors in it or not as it doesn't say on their page.
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One word immediately came to mind once I saw the photos of Board to Death: WOW.
Talk about a major, and I mean MAJOR, transformation from its previous iteration as Mysteria/Death Row. B2D literally looks like a Universal creation for Halloween Horror Nights. Excellent job on the park's part just by glancing at these photos.
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Also from @KingsIslandPR via Twitter:
Our new scare zone, "Backwoods Bayou," is going to be a good one!
So it appears as if Backwoods Bayou is in CornStalkers' original location on the path around Backlot going toward Rivertown. Which is weird as I was expecting it to be in Oktoberfest.
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After seeing the commercial (the same thing as HHN Hollywood back in 2010 & 2011) I'm REALLY disappointed with these past 2 years (mostly this year). Very unoriginal & weak, it needs to go back to being an ALL ORIGINAL event :-/ I'm just guessing that they did this whole woods thing just to use that commercial & the unoriginal IPs, very very sad
I agree with you on the need to go back to an all-original event; some of their best years feature wildly unique houses and scare zones that all tie together into one cohesive theme/setting.
That being said, the Creative Team is at the mercy of the higher-ups and the Marketing Division, and they have the final say on what shows up at an HHN. So when they look back on years when attendance soared because they had houses based on popular horror movie franchises ('07's deal with New Line Cinema for Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface), you know they want to replicate that almost immediately.
Case in point, Walking Dead. Much like Bill & Ted's Halloween Adventure being a staple of Horror Nights, I see The Walking Dead remaining a major player for HHN for as long as the show remains on TV. As for everything else, it all depends on what horror movies debut next year and are well-received enough to warrant a house treatment.
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Adventureland Park in Iowa had a surprise announcement today via Facebook today, announcing that they will be opening The Storm Chaser (a WindSeeker) for the 2014 season.
I do find it interesting that a non-Cedar Fair park will be getting one of these! Thoughts?
For a second I thought this was another one of Thrill-Biscuit's Photoshops (of which they are always awesome to look at).
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My guesses as to where these "Experiences" will go...
The Fall of Atlanta - New York. It's got the wide open spaces and urban feel to nail the look of Atlanta after the apocalypse. Plus, they got a tank this year, something only Hollywood's version managed to cram into their maze. I'm reminded of the infamous Deadtropolis scare zone from way back in 2006 which took over the entirety of the New York area of the park.
Woodlands - Central Park. It sits in between the Hollywood and kids' areas of the park and its trees hang over the path to provide plenty of shade. The most recent scare zone that took place in this area was 2011's Grown Evil:
Survivor's Camp/The Farm - Mel's Drive In or Shrek Alley. There's a spot at the edge of Central Park that sits immediately across from Mel's Drive-In that's been home to several scare zones with eye-popping set pieces, most notably this:
That's an actual prop they built that guests were able to walk through as a mini-maze experience. It's a toss-up as to which of these two zones may get this coveted spot, but I would really like to see guests be able to walk through the barn again like they did in last year's Walking Dead attraction. If not, then it would make just as much sense to have Dale's RV parked just on the outer edges of the Woodlands and The Farm go in a more secluded spot such as Shrek Alley (named for the path that sits next to the Shrek 4D and Donkey attractions), also a place that's seen some really nice zones in the past.
Clear - San Francisco. I'd put this one here simply because it's a good bet that this year's Walking Dead maze will once again be in the extended queue line of Disaster, and to have a scare zone by the exit for guests to pour out into is a no-brainer. They've usually had it to where a roving band of scareactors patrols the exit area and have gone so far as to have a zone tie into the maze itself (2010's Zombie Gras zone tied into the ZombieGeddon maze by way of a parade float crashing into the power supply of a zombie containment facility).
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It seems like the park still has a lot of work to do to set up Haunt. The only visible Haunt construction is limited. Cemetery Drive in the Tower Gardens has received a nice new wood facade. And there were also props behind Stunt Crew Grill, and visible outside of the Crypt building. I also saw the usual Haunt props over by the Zephyr from The Racer. We are only about three weeks away from opening of Halloween Haunt, which opens on September 20th.
Well, most of the indoor haunts stay up throughout the year (Club Blood, CarnEvil, Urgent Scare, Wolf Pack, Cavern), but they usually wait until after Labor Day Weekend to start going full throttle on redecorating for the event. It's especially true of the attractions that take place in locations that are normally used in the regular season, such as Stunt Crew Grill and Peanuts Playhouse. Looks like September 8th will be the last day to get any Haunt construction photos up close before they reopen on the 20th, unless anyone has been invited to one of the big private event days at the park like P&G or Toyota.
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What a great addition for Canadas park, Cedar Fair take note Kings Island needs one like this keep boo blasters but build a ride like this at your flagship parks. Kudos:
Well, the fact that this company can upgrade existing technology to this new iDR system (and at a fraction of the cost, apparently) means that we might see the former Boo Blastin' chain of dark rides upgraded over the next several years should Guardian next year go off without a hitch.
Interesting to see it's roughly the same tech in the ride vehicles as seen in the infamous Spiderman/Transformers attractions at Universal and DarKastle at Busch Gardens. Hopefully they use the seamless integration of real scenic backdrops to video screens seen in those prior examples.
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The only reason I go into Club Blood is for the scenery.
You can go to the park on a Wednesday afternoon (or even a grocery store) and witness the same kind of scenery.
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Banshee Construction Progress
in Kings Island
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^ From welding the track connections and grinding down the welds to smooth it out. They'll go back and repaint over the welds at a later date.