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FearFest 2004 Review


RingMaster
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I really enjoyed FearFest this year. This was actually the first time I ever went as a guest, and I found it very interesting, not very scary, but interesting. There were only two things I didn't like as much as the rest. One was the dreadful Dracula's Haunted Castle movie. How did they ever get anyone whose appeared in Hollywood movies to make an appearance in that. The other thing was Sleepy Hollow. Now I didn't outright hate this attraction, I just didn't think it was quite ready. The overall look of it was great, and it was obvious that a lot of work was put into it. But, there were still many dry spots and they should have put the Headless Horseman somewhere near the end as a climactic conclusion instead of placing him in the beginning. I'm willing to forgive these minor flaws, though. After all, it is only it's first year, and improvements can me made as PKI sees fit.

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The weirdest thing with Sleepy Hollow though, was the fact that they finished the entire maze in less than 2 days. No joke. Supposedly, they had bought supplies down in Florida at the same time the hurricane struck, bad idea. So, the entire crew of Sleepy Hollow was just stuck walking around the park visiting all the mazes during rehearsals. But for what little time they had to work with, they managed to pull off a beautiful maze, which probably saved FearFest from being total crap this year.

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FearFest this year was leaps and bounds ahead of FearFest last year. There was a ton more in park theming this year compared to last year. I liked the fact that they turned the lights off on The Racer and Vortex`s lift. The one thing that was still missing from the FearFest`s I attended in 2001 and 2002 was fog. It used to be that the midway from the Zephyer to The Vortex was full of fog, and you could only see ten to twenty feet ahead of you.

Sleepy Hollow was ok. I thought that the ending lacked excitement and scare. By far the scariest maze I`ve been through is still Maze of Madness, just because it is so disorienting with the chain link fence, mirrors and strobe lights. It was quite impressive that the park was able to build Sleepy Hollow Horror as quickly as they did.

From what I`ve heard, we`ll be lucky if they even have FearFest in 2005. Allegedly they at one point had planned not to continue FearFest this season. I just hope that if they discontinue it they open for some sort of Winterfest, with a couple rides open. Flight of Fear maybe, a little Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, The Carousel and Dodgems would be fine by me.

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The fog was there during this Fearfest. I went every day. And I don't remember it ever not being there. It made visibility low - which I didn't like because I never knew where the sliders were. I tried to avoid them. In fact - all through Fearfest - I was never startled by one. laugh.gif

But I know the fog was there - because on one ride on SOB, the fog could be seen at the bottom of the first helix. It was like a bowl - and the bottom half of the helix was under the fog. So you would dip in and out of this haze. It was really cool! biggrin.gif

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The weirdest thing with Sleepy Hollow though, was the fact that they finished the entire maze in less than 2 days. No joke. Supposedly, they had bought supplies down in Florida at the same time the hurricane struck, bad idea. So, the entire crew of Sleepy Hollow was just stuck walking around the park visiting all the mazes during rehearsals. But for what little time they had to work with, they managed to pull off a beautiful maze, which probably saved FearFest from being total crap this year.

It was more than 2 days. They didn't have it ready for Dry Run night and barely had it ready for opening night. I personally thought Sleepy Hollow was great.

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I thought fearfest was good but the dracula movie was a joke. I went to Six Flags Great America up near Chicago the last day they were open and i thought that their Halloween themeing was a lot better. The only bad thing was you had to pay to get in there haunted houses and it was like 7 or 8 dollars a piece and the people coming out of them said that they were really bad and that it wasn't worth it. We got there at 8pm and they closed at 11pm and they still charged me $34.00 to get in and i thougth maybe with my ACE membership i will get a discount, they had no clue what it even was. We rode 2 whole rides, Raging Bull which was cool and V2 which wasn't to bad. Not all the rollercoasters were even open. I really was looking forward to riding Superman Ultimate Flight and of course it wasn't even open, my luck.

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I seriously doubt that they would stop doing Fear Fest. Halloween is second only to Christmas as holidays go. Amusement parks make a ton of money during the month of October. It allows them to operate longer and gain extra revenue. It also lets them push season passes. I thought Fear Fest was ok. For the money you really can’t beat it. You ride the rides and get to go through several haunted attractions at once. Most haunted houses charge an average of $10 to $15 and it takes you about 30 minutes if your lucky to get through. Do the math!

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Yes, that is the word on the street. Apparantly PKI wants to get back into the Winter Holiday market again. From the advertising The Beach did for their Holidayfest, it must be doing pretty well. They advertised like crazy and were pushing their season pass sales on their commercials too. I would not be surprised if PKI decided to shorten FearFest so that they could prepare for their own winter celebration.

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if we are going to mention any Six Flags...

lets consider Kentucky Kingdom, crap!

the theming for "fright-fest" was extremely minimal, there was no "Elvira" as in past years there was, and there were haunted houses/trails, they enclosed the bumper cars and added strobe lights and fog to them...

...next, the theming, they went wild near the hellevator ride, and over where the bungee udes to be, there was a herse, but other than that nothing major, you had to use the old employee path to get to twisted twins as the "woods of the Wicked" was converted to a 'haunted area' and i dont even think they put much effort into it, there was a small childrens trick or treat trail near the kiddie train... and there were a few halloween characters running about, they looked stupid, and yet there was another hauntede house near the himalaya ride. the rest of the park had random coffins sorted around. and the operators were aloud to wear costumes, which many did, and it was confusing to find an actual ride opeartor and not a fool... wait, this is SFKK, they are all fools, not like others... laugh.gif

altogether i thought PKI's FF was fantastic, i really liked The Vortex/racer lights, they should have been on, its not like it added to the effect, at all, but they are still very fun, and that interactive kiddie haunted door thing in HB-NC was pretty neat, we went all around it looking at mirrors and everything, it was cool, we even got our little pumpkins, funny stuff!

we noticed when we went though, there were two inoperable rides... Face/Off, and RRR, and i know exactly why, Vekoma says not to run them in such weather, not that they are excellent coasters, but there are way better than T2, wow, rough, not as much so as SoB, but woo! hurt!

One thing, next time, if i visit for FF again at PKI, i will definitely bring gloves, it was freaking COLD!

i mean i almost was reluctant to ride anything due to how cold it was,

we rode Fof TRTR Beast SOB TOP-GUN Vortex Troika recaR Eagles Beastie Delirium SS DZ:ST PTC-Grand-Carousel Train

but several were repeats

i know there were at least 3 beasts, 4 fofs, 4 duhlees, 2 Vortex

i feel like there was more we did, but who really knows, i cant think well.

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SFKK had Elvira's Superstition this year. I know. I went there with some guys from my crew, got in line thinking we were about to see Stargate SG-3000 (or whatever they call it), and instead we were treated to good ol' Elvira. We waited a while for this without prior knowledge of the movie switch, and afterwards my crew wanted to kill me. ( I made them wait in line because I wanted to see Stargate)

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As I said before I doubt they would end or even shorten Fear Fest. It’s only during the month of October anyways. They would have most of November to switch the decorations around and get ready for Winterfest. I like the idea of doing both but you have to be very realistic. This is a business.

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I would love to see a Winterfest, but familyman is right-they have to be realistic and not slack off, especially with FearFest. What they should try to do is begin building FearFest at a much earlier date; beginning in September is a bad idea, and that was the case with Sleepy Hollow. Had they started in like mid-August, this little problem could've been avoided. But, all-in-all, I would at least like to see the mazes get re-decorated to make them look better, and maybe get some more "colorful" looking street and maze monsters.

If winterfest does occur, I would love to see what they plan to do in terms of theming. One question though-does this mean we might see PKI open all year round??? DUM DUM DUM! laugh.gif

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I know CP starts decorating in September. My wife and I snuck up there for a weekend a few years ago and were blown away with some of the decorations for Halloweekends. There are more to Haunted attractions than one would think. Fire codes, Throughput, and cost to name a few. It takes time for an amusement park to build up to what I am sure will be a huge success for PKI.

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