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Roaming Scareactors have been a unique part of Haunt/Fearfest since the beginning... over 20 years. If most people at the Haunt didn't like them they wouldn't have them. To that guest I would say, "why are you at Halloween Haunt if you don't want to be scared?" If being scared is that bothersome, he has the whole spring and summer not to mention the time earlier in the day before Haunt starts to enjoy Kings Island without being scared. Yes, the "no boo" necklaces are a cash grab, but people buy them which seems to be what the park cares about. That guest has to realize that there are some people who look forward to Haunt all year as it's configured and it would be selfish to try to change it just because it's not entirely his cup of tea.

Roamers are a great part of the experience. Not only for the atomosphere but from the aspect of having employees among the crowd that can report anything "unruly" going on. It's like having more security around, not just for unruly behavior, but to help out people with question, problems, etc. Also I'm sure there are several people who only work haunt at night. In my opinion haunt should be intended for adults (18+). This is why the kids area is closed. They are open during the day and on Sunday for the family crowd but, in my opinion, Fri and Sat nights should be for the adults to play. In all we're talking about 12 nights out of the year for adult haunt. In the past when they first started the event you never saw kids. They closed the park at 6 and re-opened at 7 (literally clearing the park). Nowadays people are pushing strollers at 11pm at night. As far as the "no boo" I would love to see those go away. It does look like a money grab. If you don't want to be scared then leave before 7. I think some of the scareactors "edit" themselves because of the chance of kids being around and I think they sould be free to do their best. It's only 12 nights out of the year.

Cost-cutters have their place in the business, but unlike management they don't have to focus on the full picture when thinking of potential cuts. Some costs just don't have revenue directly tied to them. How much does landscaping net them in ROI? On paper nothing--actually a big negative-- but take it away and perceived value of a park goes down. A guest feels the park is less special, and may spend less money at the park, make fewer visits, or be willing to pay less to come in. Think of those car dealerships that give away the coffee and donuts in the mornings. There's a psychological effect on the customers that indirectly makes them money. The cost-cutters, doing their job, would just find the cost-cutting opportunity not realizing or caring what the wider effects would be. The biggest cost-cutting I've seen has been the modest investments for new attractions, and they're industry wide. The economy is not good, but not horrible. The lack of investment though has been worse than what we saw in 2009-10 when it was horrible. Can anyone recall a string of three years when things were this modest in terms of investment? Take next year, the two biggest park investments are a modest Dive coaster (Cedar Fair) and an "off-the-shelf" large boomerang coaster (Six Flags). Regarding day-to-day- cost cutting at Cedar Fair, I'm sure the orders are coming from the board in Charlotte. The "best day ever" Ouimet strategy from several years back is out and the strategy of cost-saving and mostly status quo is clearly in. Hopefully, this is just echoes of the pandemic and they'll be pulling out of the ultra-conservative pandemic "survival" mode soon. Large, top-tier amusement parks need continuous maintenance and re-investment just to maintain the status quo let alone grow the business.

Working in the haunt industry and being trained by some of the awesome heavy hitters throughout the Ohio Haunters Association, I can say that roamers are good to have. At an outdoor attraction, such as KI, to get people amped up to enter the house (maze) or scare zone, you want to have queue actors (aka roamers at KI). Imagine going to a haunted house in the middle of October and there is nothing outside of the house to set the mood that you may get scared including actors. You just walk up to the building and enter with no "setting" being portrayed, no actors giving you information on the place whether rules/history/portraying a character that may be inside...it'd be boring for sure. If they half @** or not even that, the entrance experience you'd likely expect the inside of the attraction to be half @**ed. The queue actors not only amp guests up to head into an attraction, but they set the expectations of how to act within the attractions. Yes you have your greeters at the entrances of the mazes for the rules but in person interactions when a guest touches what they shouldn't touch (actor or prop) queue actors have more flexibility to roam, tell a guest to stop, flag security down, etc. I have not worked a Cedar Fair haunt, but I will say that I do know the haunt industry is way more complicated than what meets the eye.

The one thing that immediately comes to mind, is Mystic Timbers. They could change the movie in the shed to something a little more sinister during Haunt with relative ease, I would imagine.

On this note -and with budget cuts - I cant for the life of me figure out why they don't look for creative ways to PLUS existing rides and attractions with lighting, fog, minimal animatronics and projection mapping to up the HAUNT attraction count without increasing run cost significantly outside of initial investment in tech. These things could easily be hidden (or not - knowing how sloppy the park is with tech equipment the rest of the year) and quickly uncovered and turned on at the start of haunt. Glowing eyes following you on The Beast. Cursed skeletons come to life on Adventure Express. Demon aliens take over Flight of Fear. Almost all of the major rides could have overlays that would make it feel WAY more immersive without hiring tons of live cast

Obviously I don't know anything official, but I have a very, very strong suspicion that the end of LNM's service life drawing near is exactly why any of this is happening in the first place. "Service life" is a fact of engineering, not fancy jargon some marketing person made up to get rid of Vortex and Big Bad Wolf.

Was that pun intentional or not?

Saw this on YouTube today! Just thinking I would share with everyone here.

I personally don't like being scared but it's not a big enough deterrent for me not to go to the park and get lots of awesome night rides during haunt. Would I prefer the monsters/actors only be in the mazes? Yes, because I prefer not to be scared/jumped. However, I do understand that Haunt is it's own event and that people who are really into that stuff would be disappointed if the roaming monsters/actors went away all together because then their only option would be waiting in the long scare maze lines. I see both sides of the argument. As for me, the last two years I've attended haunt solely for the purpose of getting lots of night rides seeing as scare mazes, actors, monsters, etc is not really my thing.

Built in 78. No "end of service life" for Loch Ness!

From news articles I've seen and BGW website it sounds like Loch Ness Monster is getting a full restoration/refurbishment. I can't wait to see what they do and I hope this is also a maintenance refurbishment as well to keep this coaster in prime condition for many more years. I've always thought that BGW takes good care of this ride and this has only reaffirmed my belief that they are looking to keep this coaster around for a long time. Such a great ride and is actually one of the smoother arrow loopers in operation.

There’s nothing scary about any of the actors. They are people dressed up. The ones coming at you on the midway are annoying. Not scary. I agree with the original post. If people like being jumped at the better use for the employees is at the mazes. We all know that Haunt does not bring in a high quality crowd (the reason for no re-entry) . If they didn’t have these annoying actors jumping at people through the park, they might perhaps increase the quality of the crowd with people who don’t care for that stuff, but would like to go to the park for night rides. Cedar Point limits their midway actors to Frontiertown/Trail. The majority of the park midways are just normal night operations. This works great and seems to bring a better quality crowd as they allow re-entry.

I haven’t ever operated a monster or spider so don’t know how strict the manufacturer is with balance, but usually for circular rides, it’s pretty important. Most complex I’ve done is Giant Wheel at KK. It allows a tolerance of +\- 2 gondolas on each side. So at any given time other than when stationary for load/unload you must always be within 2 gondolas loaded on side. First thing in morning for first riders we were able to load 2 gondolas (12 people max) then move wheel to exact opposite side. At this point, we could now load 4 gondolas (24 max) for a maximum first ride capability of 36 people (assuming every group had 6 people). You had to watch the line to make sure you had enough people to replenish whatever you loaded so that it never got out of tolerance or the ride would fault and motors unlock until heaviest weight settles at bottom. Had to be very careful if loading multiple “sets” (more than 10 gondolas per cycle) as it would be very easy to go out of balance if line didn’t support it.

Just a rumor but it makes sense with the way Cedar Fair has cut the budget this year...lots less scareactors this year are going to be employed. So the event is continuing to spiral downhill IMHO. At this point, just have Oktoberfest weekends and put lederhosen on the employees and sell brats and let haunt die it's miserable death.

Also more food for thought: If I’m part of the park’s front office, I’m looking at where the dollars are going. Look at ride ops: you know you need a certain amount of people to operate a ride and you know the operating cost to staff it. You can calculate ROI based off of the number of riders per hour. You can’t really calculate the ROI of a roaming scareactor. If I’m Dent Schoolhouse, I know I’m getting my money’s worth with my staff….if I’m employing roaming scareactors in an amusement park setting with “no boo necklaces”, I don’t know if I’m getting all that I can out of them. If you put them in a maze or scare zone, you know they’re being used as effectively as possible. The no-boo necklaces certainly invite a more family atmosphere that I don’t see going away. More and more parents are taking their kids to Haunt because they see it as a less scary alternative to Dent Schoolhouse, USS Nightmare, Land of Illusion, etc. Also, with Haunt being open for late hours, enthusiasts are able to catch night rides on their favorite coasters later than they would during the regular summer season. The event is certainly evolving but I personally don’t think they’re making as much money off of employing scareactors as they should be.

Video update, hosted by Tony Clark! Looks like we can expect more of these as construction progresses.

I think eliminating the roaming aspect and restructuring actors/actresses into the mazes would help with the staffing problems. On any given night, the pathways are jam packed with guests and it seems like scareactors can’t be as efficient at doing their jobs; I’ve heard from multiple people that they never needed to get “no-boo” necklaces because they were never approached by any monsters. TL;DR- eliminate the roaming effect and relocate all scareactors into the mazes

Very excited for Haunt this year! I’ll definitely be one of the first in line for Alien Abyss on opening night! Hopefully it’s scarier than CHAOS was. CHAOS was always one of the least scariest mazes, at least for me. Alien Abyss seems darker and creepier than CHAOS, so fingers crossed! Hotel St. Michelle had some of the best theming for a Haunt maze that I’ve seen, so hopefully Alien Abyss is on the same level. Abandoned seems like a solid scare zone, so it will be interesting to see what it’s like. From the description, it sounds like it plays into the Mystic Timbers theme. Maybe it will connect the lore of Diamondback, The Beast, and Mystic Timbers? Either way, I can’t wait for Haunt!

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.

Agreed. There is more money to be made from families than there is with young adults and teens. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a future of a highly decorated Halloween event with no scare actors or mazes. Much like what Dollywood does. It’s much more inviting for families, which is we’re the money is at.