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

That's fine! Many people prefer Chipotle to McDonalds! It doesn't mean I want a burrito when I'm craving a Big Mac.

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.

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.

Interior demolition of Boo Blasters has begun, in strangely public fashion (Note these were taken in public guest view areas, if this breaks rules let me know) I know they probably wouldn’t tell us, but I’m curious if Sally Dark Rides take all the props from Boo Blasters and reuses them to create another ghost blasters attraction somewhere, considering I think they’re still making boo blasters as of like 2022 I think??

I think I’m speaking for 99% of guests when I say we’d rather have a Vekoma tilt coaster over a B&M dive. Vekoma tilt coasters are more intimidating in my opinion. They’re also smoother and more comfortable. I still think a Vekoma tilt would be perfect for KI even after Siren’s Curse at Cedar Point.

It was probably a last-minute decision. It's not the first time something like this has happened.

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.

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.

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.

Went Saturday and Sunday and over all I would say this event is better than last year. Overall hard to judge how people are taking to being charged for the mazes on Saturday because from what I understand the Toyota guests got wristbands for the mazes and the park was packed all day. Got there at 6 and was told to go over by the old Timberwolf entrance (behind the smoking area). From there they had you go to whre Invertego was and had it roped off at the restroom across from Amazon Falls. It was a nice large area and having access to a restroom and water fountains while you waited I thought was very thoughtful. At about 6:15 several people were going around checking to see if anyone wanted to purchase an armband for maze access or if they already had a ticket and needed an arm band. Since the tickets were only $10 for a Saturday I went ahead and got them for myself and my grandson (14). We decided to wait on the Conjuring till another night, but did get through all the mazes. Here are my thoughts on the mazes on Friday: At 7 we went directly to Order of the Dragon which had a very small line. I think because it was new and not many people knew about it. The pathway to the maze and the props outside are a nice touch to set up the atmosphere and the outside entrance is amazing. As others have stated I think it may be best to wait until it gets dark outside to give your eyes time to adjust because it was pretty dark. If the lighting was 10% brighter I think the scares still would have worked and you could see and appreciate the work and detail of this maze. I definitely would love to have a lights on walk thorugh of this. The faux cave walls and other details were fantastic. Lots of neat stuff to see and very much worth while. Next we went to Alien Abyss. Very short line (10 min). Pretty much the same without the spinning tunnel. The dark part of the maze is still the worst part and continues to log jam the walk through. In my opinion, this one needs to be the one replaced next year if they replace one. It's old and tired. After that we went to Kill Mart. Short line again (15 min) and over all a little upgrade from last year with 2 (I think) new animatrionics. I always enjoy this one as it has a simple premise that's easy for the scareactors to play off of. Next was Hotel St. MicHELLe. LONG line about an hour. Not sure why but the line looked as long as it did for a normal busy haunt night. Didn't notice anything new, still a nice haunt although I do miss the bed bugs lighting effect from a few years ago. Went to Cornered and it had a decent (30 minute) line. I do like the way it is set up this year with starting at the invertego side and ending at Drop Zone. Seems cleaner and uses the amazon falls queue better. Seemed a better experience than last year. Finally went to Slaughterhouse which was a walk on around 10:15. Great as always and again seemed to be a better experience than last year. For the most part I feel the major "improvements" seemd to be mostly things haning down from the ceiling to bump into and go around. Almost like that was the way they were trying to "enchance" a maze on the cheap. Seemed a bit overdone. A new thing I also noticed was they seemed to be moving away from the bright light in your eyes to help mask a scareactor. Moving instead to using darkness to mask them. Finally rode The Beast at 11 and amazing the difference it make to ride it on a (nearly) new moon in a crisp fall evening. Just absolute bliss and why I continue to love The Beast. Entering the helix tunnel the second time still has about 3 jack hammers, not sure why but hope they address it in the off season. They don't ruin the ride but with as smooth as it is it just seems more noticable. Saturday we went with my granddaughter (10). Didn't do the mazes since she doesn't want to do them yet but the lines for the mazes were considerably shorter than on Saturday. That being said a thunderstorm passed just southeast of the area around 2 which closed down the coasters and seemed to have people exiting early. Rode a couple of rides and unfortunately I forgot my lantern (will try those spots out next weekend). Watched NyteWalkers and this season is the best version of the show I've ever seen in my opinion. The premise is better, the third guy doesn't dissapear, the music is better, they background video is better and at one point all 5 performers are moving on the ramps at the same time, it's simply amazing and hypnotic. The ONLY complaint I have is the same one I've always had with this show. Why on Earth do we need to see "jacked", shirtless devil and company on the screen during the curtain call. It's so distracting when the performers are taking their bows. Focus should be on them, having the wall off in my opinion would be better so people can appreciate the performers making their final bows. Overall the show is so enjoyable and worth the trip on it's own. Well done. Finally I did notice something I haven't seen mentioned. The Royal Fountain has a different song each time playing that has the water, lights, fire and pyro synchronized to the music. It is absolutely INCREDIBLE and a show upon itself. I feel this is what was intended for the royal fountain to do when they refreshed it. It is absolutely a MUST to see and simply put something that is much appreciated because it is obviously a cost they could have avoided to save money, but instead they quitely put in something that is a can't miss. Hope to stay till close next weekend to see the finale. Definitley and upgrade from last season. Over good job on improving the overall experience from last year. Nice job to all involved will certainly be making it out at least once each week this season.

Now THAT is the kind of show Im talking about... THAT is what I want to see when I sit down for a show!!

Being the first night of Haunt and just as expected, many season pass holders came out including lots of families with their large buggy wagon strollers, children under 10, and even saw several babies maybe 1 year old in their mothers arms. There did not seem to be many lines at the houses unlike other years likely because like me, refuse to pay for something that used to be free and pretty much the same every year. However, I do agree it is worth the money to do the Conjuring Beyond Fear experience and wanted to see for myself after reading about experiences at CP. Conjuring Beyond Fear was very well put together and you could tell a lot of thought went into it. I was disappointed in the scare zones as the scareactors were playing up to the little kids instead of scaring folks walking through like me. I walked behind a father of a 5 year old filming his little boy going through Hooked as the little boy chatted with each pirate instead of being scared by them (or maybe they are supposed to be very friendly pirates and in pumpkin eater, friendly pumpkin gut eaters?). Ghouls Gone Wild and Nyte Walkers seem to be more G content rated for families and pretty much the same with a few different songs (and there were lots of kids and families in the audience of both, so seems like Haunt has moved away from the adult theme for mature audiences only. I do miss Dead Awakenings and Hot Blooded for sure.) Exceptional pub burger at the Brewhouse as expected but the place wasn’t super busy. The longest food line seemed to be at Skyline but then again, that place always has a long line being so slow. Considering all the budget cuts lately, my Haunt experience was just okay, not the best and not the worst.

I had a wonderful time at Halloween Haunt at Kings Island presented by SNICKERS tonight! Most of the haunted attractions had a 3 minute (or less) wait time and there are some good improvements and some definite let downs to talk about. I'll also give some thoughts on my Haunted Attractions Pass and ticket for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear that I purchased online. A couple of things to note: tonight is the Homecoming football game for some local schools (so staffing might've taken a hit from that) and it is opening night for an event that is going through a big change (so some guests may be waiting to see if it is worth paying for). Spoilers ahead, if that wasn't obvious. I decided to be one of those people who waited for the parking lot to open and found out very quickly how nice it was when trying to park near the central berm (between the big sign and the entrance). The park opened security lines relatively quickly and seemed to be doing well at moving people through them. It looked like there are somehow still some issues with the chaperone policy though. Turnstiles opened around 5:30 or 5:45 and they let everyone onto International Street with the paths out roped off until 6:00 PM. Our good friend, The Undertaker, was back to calling himself "The Undertaker" this year — something I haven't heard in years! The new set on the International Street Bandstand looks really good; although it'd look better with a real show to go with it. At 6 they blasted the cannons and rolled up the ropes, releasing us into the rest of the park. My first ride of the night: el baño next to Diamondback. As good and clean as it's been since its renovation. Next, I went to the DB Trading Post and got my HAP wristband. It was a quick and painless experience. Next stop was an ice cold Coca-Cola from the Refresh Station. Spoilers for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear are hidden below in case anyone is trying to avoid them like I did. Throughout the night I was able to do all of the mazes and will do my best to give a rapid-fire review starting... now. SLAUGHTERHOUSE: 0 minute wait. This was my first time going through and I was pleasantly surprised. I know this is normally a good maze, and it was nice and long. Bonus points for getting to go back near the old exit for The Beast. I think I might've even seen a werewolf in there... HOTEL ST. MICHELLE: 15-ish minute wait, felt longer because we were already getting tired. A splendid haunted maze, but Kings Island really needs to do something about the queue line. They should find a way to redo that queue to be one big line with zero merge points (besides the Express lane). ORDER OF THE DRAGON: 15-ish minute wait. This is the new one and it is absolutely amazing! The actors and animatronics combine with all of the static stuff to provide one of the best mazes that I've experienced in years at a Cedar Fair park. Very happy to see vampires back at Haunt again as well. My biggest gripe with it is this: the queue line is horribly set up. They are strict about crossing through the stanchions, but they're all made up of flimsy yellow cord and posts in buckets. It's a good solution for something that is quick and cheap, but it's awful in practice. The associate did make a kid (who cut in line to be with his friends) go to the back of the line, but had to warn everyone to not go under them at least 20 times. CORNERED: 0 minute wait. Allegedly an entirely new path this year. It takes you to the right back toward Drop Tower instead of to the left toward Invertigo (go crazy with what that could mean for the inverted blue boy). Very nice sets, not as many actors as I would've liked. KILLMART: 1 minute wait. Same old KillMart. Good to walk through it again after taking a break from it in 2024. I would not be sad to see this one go, although if it does I hope they put its replacement in a different location. Not enough actors for ALIEN ABYSS: 0 minute wait. I didn't know they got rid of the spinning tunnel and was kinda sad about it. The alien design is always good and cool to see. It's VERY dark in there (no wonder they call it an "abyss" bah dum tss). Kind of anticlimactic without the mirror maze or the tunnel. Turn off any more lights and add a safety rope to get Blackout 2.0. REDEEMING AND USING YOUR HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS PASS, HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS EXPRESS PASS, AND CONJURING TICKET: FINAL THOUGHTS: Get a ticket for TC:BF. Pay that $15-$30. It is so worth it. If you'd like to see what the mazes have to offer in 2025, buy the normal pass. I hardly waited for anything tonight, which is good for me and a little concerning for the park. Hopefully once October rolls around we'll see higher wait times for the mazes. Setting up a return time system for TC:BF is a great idea. I wish I would've gotten the All-Season express pass for $59 just so I could do The Conjuring once per visit (would've paid for itself rather quickly). Good news: each Haunted Attraction ticket is more money than they directly made off all the mazes over the past 15 years combined. Bad news: if everyone stops buying Haunted Attraction tickets then this whole thing fails and we either go back to boring and free or start on a path to losing Haunt forever. I'm all for up-charging for the mazes if it means we'll see more improvements over the years and more changes from year to year. If the trend that's been happening since 2021 continues, though, I can't imagine anyone would want to keep paying for sub-par scares. I didn't have an Interactive Lantern with me tonight to try anything with it, but I tried to keep an eye out for interaction points. They are still selling the 2024 versions (spider decal) with the new 2025 versions (ghost decal). The 2025's can do a few more things than the 2024's can, including vibrating with the effects. I don't know if it is just this weekend or if it'll be like this all season but Poe's Garden is gone, the giant troll is gone, and it seems a lot of other interaction points may have been removed as well based on Facebook comments. Overall, I had a really good time because of The Conjuring: Beyond Fear and the short lines for every maze.

Dollywood isn’t decorated RELIGIOUSLY, just with care and attention to detail.

They’re working on clearing out the props from the building and work is being completed in Florida I assume for Phantom, don’t worry. I think there’s just going to be a week where guests return on a random Friday during haunt and the outside entrance of Boo Blasters is just completely gone. It also is an indoor ride that’s technically a retheme vs brand new ride, so it could be a thing were everything’s taken out of boo blasters over a week (which I’m 80% sure has happened by now), Phantom props are brought in a Winterfest or off season week, and the ride can still be ready for like April. Personal speculation, but I think on October 31 (or maybe October 13 because spooky number and it’s not on a weekend day) we’ll see some major teasers hopefully showing off the designs for the characters we haven’t seen yet properly because I need proper references to draw them!

That's how we become DOLLYwood LOL

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/six-flags-over-texas-unveils-record-breaking-roller-coaster-tormenta-rampaging-run-set-to-become-tallest-fastest-longest-and-first-ever-giga-dive-coaster-302567286.html Also, this just shows that this was already planned for a park as expected. Although after looking at the layout for this, now I am kind of sad we didn't get this seeing as it was on one of the surveys for KI last year. This would have been incredible for our park, but alas.

I also agree that I would much rather see a Tilt Coaster at Kings Island over a Dive Coaster. I rode Siren's Curse last month and it just completely outclasses Valravn in my opinion, from the holding you over the first drop gimmick to the actual layout. I would love to see more of these pop up throughout the chain. With the current economic climate, however, that does give B&M an advantage due to their track being manufactured locally as opposed to Vekoma rides that have to be shipped from overseas. I'm wondering how much that's going to affect American parks choosing between B&M and Vekoma. Again, I would much rather see Six Flags move away from B&M and work more with Vekoma, but these are business decisions that have to be taken into account.

We will use this thread for you to post your haunt reviews for the 2025 season.

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.

I was ridding the haunted mansion the other day and had the thought of “oml this ride gonna be boring asl if you just sit there.” A solution could be to put screens in your lap bar, like the size of a smart phone, that show custom Instagram reels to keep you entertained and stimulated when you’re not using the flashlight. You could have maestro doing tik tok dances, or snoopy, or even other six flags parks related reels with gold pass ads. Content could be changed out, and less people will be on there phones, so it’s a win for everyone. Thoughts?

Here are some photos I took at Sweet Spot.

Some related stuff to Phantom Theater, what if almost every major rides here at Kings Island has a video game rating for each story and experience. Phantom Theater/Adventure Express/Orion/Bat: Banshee/Mystic Timbers/The Bat/Diamondback/The Beast/Delirium/Flight of Fear Too many to contained into one list. Vortex

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Nyte Walkers in 2025.

For those wondering, last night they had the Coney Maul circus posters on the fence and a separate light illuminating the Monster sign. While it might not mean anything big, it's a new sign of life that Monster will return.

Here you go!

A peek at Haunt last night. Photos incoming soon.

Just saw a comment on a KIC Facebook post claiming "Typical six flags for ya" — except... it's a photo of the Nytewalkers show times... is it typical Six Flags behavior to offer 4 showtimes of a popular show spanning the entire event night? Is that any different from the 3-4 shows a night that I had seen from Cedar Fair for the past few years? Some people just love to complain, and somehow they manage to complain more than I do.

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!

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.

While I don't know if it even has a name, it wasn't on the map last year either. It's probably intentional, since the scare actors over there are pretty well disguised as bushes,

I walked through that today and it honestly reminded me of the old vine tunnel KI used to have and what KD has. I would honestly not be opposed to enclosing this walkway with a permanent vine tunnel especially if The Vortex plot is going to remain empty going forward.

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It's the BBOBH funeral.

The express entrance is over by the entrance to the building across from the Banshee exit.

There is a theory that the guest trend is shifting toward wanting more PG experiences than PG-13+ events (generally as part of another trend of wishing for lighthearted things to do in dark times). Some "family" events even appear to be getting more G rated than PG as well. I think there is still enough of a market for scary Halloween events to be successful at regional parks, but it seems that the poor quality associated with the Six Flags name and the downward trend Cedar Fair had been on before the merger were not helping to show that. Universal and United Parks seem to understand how to properly run a good Halloween event with good scares. Maybe if someone ever figures out how to gut SF management and replace them with people who actually know how to run parks & resorts we'll finally see some improvement. I can't express just how much I wish they would bring back the PG-13 shows as well. Having all three of your live entertainment options be PG only further contributes to people thinking it is A-OK to bring their children to an event like this. You can see some of the yellow string queue lines here. The whole thing looks better at night, but there is nothing besides actors and associates to stop someone from line jumping.

My last visit (a few weeks back) I'm pretty sure I saw the troll sitting behind Slaughterhouse. When I was there last, you could see it from The Beast break run

Dent Schoolhouse also offers a discount for amusement park passholders.

Group of two teens waiting in line for The Racer while looking at AE: "That's Mystic Timbers, right?" "No, that's The Beast! How dumb can you be?" "Oh wait, you're right. Can't believe I made that mistake."

This is awesome! The props I circled are the ones I noticed, I am curious if this was the first Boo Blasters to be removed from any park.

I don't have a pic but the front half near the lockers is a roped off traditional queue and then the back half is an open walking path, but yes it takes the whole skyflyer plot.

The facade looks really cool! Does anyone have a picture of the queue in the Skyflyer plot? Does it really take up the whole space?

From the KI passholders group

I rode the new one at Hershey this year. Being up on that hill is so fun to ride. I would love to get a screamin' swing at KI.

Too soon?