Big post incoming because I have lots of thoughts.
According to my Haunt wristbands I visited Kings Island's Halloween Haunt 9 times this season, with one additional visit to Cedar Point's HalloWeekends. I thoroughly enjoyed having a Haunted Attractions Express Pass, and am happy that I was able to get one this season — especially considering the fact that I might not be able to get it again next season. I saw a ton of packed maze queues and hope it continues so Kings Island can keep upgrading the event.
Maze Rankings:
Jason: Blood Reign
Order of the Dragon
Metal Massacre
Slaughterhouse
KillMart
Alien Abyss
Jason: Blood Reign is by far my favorite. The sets and scenic design alone brought it to the top, but the actors only added to it. Order of the Dragon remained high on my list in its second year, though I would've liked to see the sewer fog/laser effect working more often. Metal Massacre has so much potential. It really just needs to be packed full of scare actors for it to work better IMO. I think Slaughterhouse is a classic that can keep sticking around. There needs to be one more maze on the right side of the park that isn't The Conjuring, but I also think that TC:BF is a nice thing to have. KillMart was definitely hit or miss this season, but I will say I enjoyed it more than in previous years. Alien Abyss is my least favorite for the same reason J:BR is my #1. The sets and scenic design were good in its previous iterations, but didn't do much at all for me this year. I would like to see Alien Abyss and/or KillMart rethemed next year to original (non-IP) themes. Shoutout to Diablo: The Infernal Path at Cedar Point for being another really cool maze. I only had two complaints about it, with one being a hallway that I found repetitive and the other being something at the very end that took me out of the immersion.
Some of the other mazes also had bad things. Jason's queue situation is by far the worst in my opinion. The park needs to either completely re-do the queue in front of Action Theater or just eliminate/close off one side (or shorten it and use it for Express). They used WindSeeker's queue for particularly busy nights, but there should've been a sign directing guests on where to enter. All of those A-frame signs the park uses are quite easy to change out from night to night. Order of the Dragon also had a flexible queue entrance, but it was for Express instead of being for Standby. That one really needed a sign because you had to walk all the way around toward The Bat's entrance depending on the night. Any of the mazes with the yellow rope queue also need either more yellow rope or some kind of barrier to prevent guests from ducking under to get further in the queue.
The various Interactive Lantern points continued to be good. I wish they would bring back the Poe's Garden experience in Tower Gardens. Our friend in the electric chair could use some more touching up before next season, but he's always one of my favorites. The troll (Everest the Elf) has also been missed in recent years. I can understand if he broke and was too expensive at the time to repair or replace, but I'd like to see him return to KI. All of the people who get speculative over the Son of Beast tribute interaction point are always very fun to see.
That area with the ride graveyard is in desperate need of fencing to keep guests out. It might make bringing the decorations in/out harder to accomplish, but it's better to keep guests out than let them where they shouldn't be. I've been going back and forth on the lack of a bag policy this season. On one hand it makes security move faster, yet on the other hand it was a good way to keep people from bringing various items into the park. If there was a way to both not have a bag policy while also ensuring the park isn't stroller/wagon central during Haunt then I'd be okay with its absence.
The area in which KI's Halloween Haunt is lacking the most is its entertainment. The park only had two regular shows, a set of fountain shows (always welcome), an opening ceremony, and a trivia game. I enjoyed Ghouls Gone Wild a lot more this year than in previous years. It does a nice job at bridging the gap between daytime/nighttime entertainment, though it suffers from the same ailments every show in the Festhaus has to contend with. Nytewalkers has gotten stale — even with the songs being changed from year to year. This is not a dig at the AllWheelSports folks (y'all do a great job), I just wish there was a newer, better show in the International Showplace. It doesn't have to be all blood, sex, and rock n' roll (I miss you Hot Blooded), but the event is in desperate need of a show that's a mix between Hot Blooded and Fangs After Dusk. It will probably return next year as part of the standard 2-year entertainment contracts, but I'd prefer to see it relocated within the park. You all probably know my thoughts on the trivia show if you've read my other posts that included the matter. The fountain shows remained a wonderful addition to the event even with the Royal Fountain's issues this Fall season. Lastly, the fact that the Kings Island Theater is still remaining empty during the Fall is a travesty. The park's premiere entertainment venue has nothing in it for half of the operating calendar? That's probably one of my biggest gripes about Haunt.
Despite all of the complaining I've done in the above paragraphs, I really did enjoy this year's Halloween Haunt. While it generally needs more elements to change I understand that this has to be an incremental process. Not every park can be HHN and put on a totally new event every year. I didn't hate the removal of the International Street Fear scare zone this year since I was tired of people asking how to get through the park without going past scare actors. That said, I don't think it would be a good idea to remove the scare zones entirely and put those actors in the mazes. If the company is going to charge for maze access then there need to be good scares that are included with the price of a guest ticket/season pass/membership. $15-$25 isn't a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but when people are already complaining about being priced out then it becomes a big deal.
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Losantiville Mining Co. ·
