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I I didn't do the haunts but I never did them when they were free but I noticed a lot more scare actors walking around. We a had a great time and an awesome night beast ride.

The haunted houses and mazes don't do much for me anymore it seems. I'd rather ride than wait for them. I'm a big horror movie fan and love Halloween and scary stuff though. On a semi related note to scary stuff. When I lived in Texas as a kid, my dad and I visited one of the new caves at Carlsbad Caverns at the time. It was pretty wide open till the end. We had to crawl through a pretty narrow tunnel at the end of the trail to get to a back room big enough for about 30 people called the dark room. The test was how long we could keep our flashlights off the longest back there in unreal pitch black. I am 6' 4" and crawling through that tunnel to get in and back out was one of the scariest things I have ever done. And the weight of total darkness in that back room was unreal. It feels heavy and you lose all sense of where you are. It did not take long for people to turn their flashlights back on. That's the stuff that scares me.

Then just go to Dollywood? If every park operated exactly the same that would be incredibly boring. Roaming scare actors have been apart of Haunt all this time and even though it might be the "free" scares in today's Haunt, I'm glad they still have them. That also provides part time jobs for folks too which is also a good thing. I will still never understand the mentality of any of this "leave me alone" stuff. Simply DON'T attend Haunt? Go to the daytime event. Or go any other day of the year prior to Haunt when the park is open and stays for night rides. It's like going to any haunted attraction and complaining about getting scared/annoyed. You know what you signed up for as every haunted attraction has information and disclaimers. In some cases, even waivers. There is always going to be room for improvement and room for growth, however, this is the first year with some big changes and things will probably be different next year depending on how things go this year. But at it's core, Haunt has remained the same and therefore successful enough to last 25 years. We never know what the future holds, but I hope for 25 more years and beyond of Haunt at KI and wish it continued success.

When @teenageninja and I worked at the park, we did a study which found that roaming scareactors had an overall positive economic impact on both the park and the region.

Kings Island will also be staying open for 1-2 more weekends in November this year. If those days are successful this year, I could easily see them becoming a great time to get night rides without needing to do anything family-friendly with Halloween Haunt. Do we think this weekend might be a better indicator as to how the Haunted Attractions Pass system might work out? Last weekend was a good test period but it was also a weekend where: it was the first night(s) of a new system Toyota families received maze passes guests wanted to hear if anything was better now that there is an upcharge

I have higher standards when a park charges extra for the event than when it’s included as part of the ticket. The conjuring for instance is worth that extra cost, the house is incredible and is overall one of the best houses I have ever done at any theme park, including the huge number of houses I have done at Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando. Over the years I have been to roughly half of all the HHN events at Universal in Orlando, and have also done Knott’s Scary Farm, Howl O Scream, and HHN in Hollywood, in addition to numerous other haunts. I feel like I have a significant amount of experience when it comes to haunts. The houses at Kings Island have largely been decent but nothing special. For actual build quality they are acceptable, and staffing has always been a little weak. But it was a free experience and like I said I have lowered expectations due to that, and Kings Island lived up to those lowered expectations. I went opening night and I started my night at the conjuring, and that house is one of the best haunted experiences I have never had, it is a level of quality that justifies charging extra, and is just as good as the houses at HHN. Probably better due to going through as a small group. I was at Cedar Point the previous weekend and experienced The Conjuring there as well. While the two houses are very similar, Kings Island does have larger rooms, and I am pretty sure I saw duplicates of at the very least the office at the start and the warehouse at the end, so I think it can have a much higher capacity. The line gets long, and moves slowly, but it was worth waiting two hours at Cedar Point, and while I waited less time it was definitely worth the wait at Kings Island as well. If you do nothing else at Haunt buy a separate ticket just for the Conjuring and experience this house. After the conjuring I started doing the rest of the houses, which largely are the same as previous years except for the one new traditional house, and I will cover that last. Hotel St Michelle Is my favorite of the old houses, I feel like the layout is an interesting choice starting at a service entrance and working your way to the front door, overall well done. Houses like Slaughter house, and Killmart are classics, but they are getting old. Alien Abyss is a bigger problem, overall it’s not that old, but the house is just boring, and I don’t care for it. Cornered while I believe it’s a new layout, is still similar to previous years, nothing special except for the length. At this point in the night, I was not really feeling the upgrades that I would expect moving to a paid event, because while the conjuring is worth extra, it’s also not really one of the houses. If anything the staffing felt lower than previous years, and I was not really caring about the scare zones. Then I went and did the Order of the Dragon, not a fan of the walk to the actual entrance, the gravel path would be better as a straight line or if there were walls of some kind, the back and forth especially when you can see the whole path the entire time just did not really do much. But I was already noticing the quality of the props, and they look good. Then I got to the entrance, and it really impressed me even before I saw the inside, and sets the stage for the house. I don’t want to give spoilers for the first room, but it’s something I would expect to see at Halloween Horror Nights, it’s not that a room can’t be built like that other places, but I have seen similar effects and making it the start so the group sees it all at once is a good move. The build quality of the Order of the Dragon is very, very good. I don’t know who designed or built it, but I am pretty confident the park hired an outside company to do so. There are projection effects, recorded sound effects, pretty sure there is music, costumes, it’s an actual professional house. It’s a level of quality that does not fit in with the rest of the event except for The Conjuring. This house feels like what you would see at Knott’s, or HHN. My biggest criticism is just like the rest of the event, it just felt light on scare actors, this might get better over time, or maybe I just kept hitting the houses at bad times. I did not see the shows, or buy a lantern, so not much I can say there. The shows I will catch sometime next month. If the order of the dragon and the conjuring shows what the future of the event will be by moving to charging extra for Haunt, sign me up. I will happily pay for houses of that quality. For me half of the event is basically old, and not really worth the expense and personally I don’t feel like those experiences were that amazing. But if Kings Island can keep this going, and build more houses like Order of the Dragon in the future, charging extra for Haunt makes sense.

Please no. The purpose of a themed attraction is to get people to feel as if they've stepped out of the regular world, not to thrust them back into it.

Do you think Haunt will be more packed this coming weekend, or do you think it will be the same short waits for both rides and houses? I personally think it will become busier because of the reasons @Losantiville Mining Co. listed. I believe it was also homecoming for a lot of local schools, so not sure how that affected the crowds or if it did at all. I'm planning on going the weekend after next, so hopefully everything is worked out by then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, does anyone have a video or pictures of the show on I Street that utilizes the pyrotechnics? I saw a brief clip of the show on Tower Topics, but was wondering if anyone else had pictures? Ryan mentioned that it wasn't listed on the website as a show, which I looked at and it isn't (which I found weird). According to Ryan, the show goes off every hour at the hour. I wish more people could know about this show, because it seems like the park isn't advertising it at all. Great episode by the way guys!

Order of the Dragon was designed and built by Plague Productions (https://www.plagueproductions.com/), a professional haunt/Halloween design company. They were the ones behind Ghost in the Machine at Dorney Park, CryptidLand at ValleyScare, and various things at Knott's Scary Farm. The company has also done work for Paramount Scares and Lionsgate for Midsummer Scream.

The metro actually has a line that goes from downtown to KI. I believe the 71X takes passangers from government square to the passanger drop off area. Not exactly "fun", but it is a nice option to have.

Yes, the event named HAUNT should be done up like the fall festival event at the highly religious amusement park in the nountains.

It is a manslaughter investigation, which simply means they're investigating an accidental death.

Yep, boo-hoo I think the event would be better without the roaming scare actors. Id much rather see decor on the likes of what Dollywood has during their Harvest Festival. Besides since the parks are now charging for mazes they shouldn’t be giving out free scares. No wonder the lines for them are short.

There is an alternate route so you don't have to crawl, although some scenes may still feel claustrophobic due to the size of the rooms. If you stick toward the back of the group you'll probably be led through the non-crawling route by the actor anyways.

This is crybaby stuff. If you don't want Halloween Haunt, don't go to Halloween Haunt.

I would love it if they put a R.I.P. Boo Blasters Tombstone right in front of The Phantom Theater one!

Social media is not real life. A quick perusal of park-centric "social media" would have me believe that literally every ride at every park is closed for several hours every day, and when not closed, almost killed their father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's, former roommate due to a restraint malfunction, etc. It's all meaningless nonsense propelled by algorithms designed to trigger outrage. As pointed out above, the only thing that matters is whether the parks are still pulling in revenue on Saturdays in October. And there has been absolutely zero indication that the parks will have any difficulty doing so. I agree that the messaging strategy regarding now up-charging for certain attractions was poor. But the fact of the matter is that it has never been cheaper, in my lifetime at least, to visit the parks. If anyone is so so price-sensitive that they're going to complain about the value proposition, previous fall attendance trends suggest that there are literally thousands of others who will happily take their place, ready to pay extra for access to haunted houses.

Pre-merger Six Flags tried eliminating meal plans. Didn't work. You are NEVER going to get passholders to pay full price for food in the park again once you got them used to enjoying two meals every visit for one price. Just look at the widespread backlash with the Haunt money grab. I just can't believe that giving away the gate, constant ride closures, dirty parks, poor customer service, and taking away things people already paid for hasn't been a formula for success. Really shocking.

Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia are in what the company considers its top tier of parks. They like the potential upside each park has.

I’ve always assumed this was the endgame when the merger happened, no matter who was in charge. Factually, the Six Flags name was kept for its national recognition and licensing power, while Cedar Fair took the reins on operations - not sure if this is still factually accurate considering current events. Cedar Fair’s parks are mostly in mid-sized regional markets (Sandusky, Cincinnati, Richmond, Kansas City, etc.), while Six Flags gives them anchors in massive metros like New York, LA, Chicago, and Dallas. That combination wasn’t an accident. What we already know for sure is that not every park is safe. Six Flags America is closing after 2025, and California’s Great America is set to close after 2027. Analysts are openly saying the chain might have to sell off 10-12 more parks to cut debt. If a property doesn’t have strategic value - either because of location, attendance, or land value - it’s a target to be sold or shut down. That said, I don’t think this means the chain is going to liquidate every park it wants to part with. Some parks could easily be sold to private equity or to another operator. What’s happening with Six Flags America and California’s Great America won’t necessarily be the standard. If a company like Hershend, SeaWorld/Busch Gardens, or another chain is willing to pony up the cash for a park that doesn’t fit Six Flags’ long-term strategy, I don’t see Six Flags ignoring that offer. My take: I can’t break this down mathematically, but it makes sense that the chain might actually generate more revenue long-term by diverting some of their assets. Fewer parks means they can funnel more capital and attention back into the flagships - the ones pulling 2-3 million+ visitors a year. If I were running it, I’d rather have a leaner chain of higher-quality, higher-attendance parks than a bloated portfolio where a bunch of properties don’t move the needle. It’s the same logic you see with Disney, Universal, or even Busch Gardens/SeaWorld - they don’t need dozens of properties spread across the country to dominate. Sometimes less really is more.

You're right! Why not make it the tallest, fastest, longest, stock drop FUN has ever seen!

You're going to need a bigger drop than that...

You should write horror scripts because that's terrifying.

“It’s going to be fine, Cedar Fair will be running it” said many when the merger was announced.

That doesnt surprise me one bit at that joint, they would charge you to breathe beach air if they could. Of course it wouldnt come as a HUGE surprise to see it go chainwide, it stands to reason they would put it in play first there at Disneyworld Jr.