RingMaster

I don't think you realize how popular Potato Works is in Rivertown. Prior to it being used for Slaughterhouse, Stunt Crew Grill barely stayed open in the post-season. Plus, having an eatery that's right next to a queue line for a haunted house (now two with Cavern) is an excellent sales opportunity as people get hungry/thirsty while waiting in line. Now I don't recall how crowded the seating is for Works during Haunt, but if push comes to shove, then you are, in fact, right about at least clearing the tables for Tombstone. Peeps just have to sit elsewhere (there's still all the seating behind Rivertown Funnel Cakes).

If Halloween Horror Nights pulsed their line like Haunt does (sending people into groups), the wait WOULD be forever, reaching well past 4 hours. As it stands, the average maze at HHN has a wait of roughly two hours, and that's with a continuous line of people walking through the house. They can't clear out the tables because of Potato Works right next door. And they can't extend the other direction because they'd be blocking the exit to Terrortory itself which is a fire and safety hazard. There could be a possibility of using the grassy knoll in front of Crypt's cave and installing those nets to catch loose objects above the temporary queue line (for the Crypt haunt). It's not like it isn't feasible; Knott's has a maze that literally goes underneath Xcelerator at several points.

That's implying the indoor queue will be used AS a queue and not actually part of the attraction itself. I don't really believe they'll squander what is essentially the best scenic detail ever created at the park for a haunted house by using it as a queue line. Also, Tombstone does have turnstiles/switchbacks, just outside the main entrance to the train station. It's just the problem of the trains themselves taking so long to load and unload, and the length of time it takes to come back to the main station after dropping people off by WWC (which is barely a quarter of the way into the normal circuit). I would love to see them construct a new rail line that cuts through the field right by the train storage house just to make the route shorter, as the train then wouldn't have to go all the way to the fort/Soak City station and back.

A look at the 2012 Haunt season map: Glad they finally decided to annex the fear zones as part of the attractions list, bumping the total to a whopping 19. Curious as to what Grimm Blvd and the new-ish version of Nightmare Alley will look like (I'm assuming the old NA is being renamed Freak Street). Also, how are they going to handle the potential threat of congestion/clashing lines from Cavern and Terrortory, as the former is the new attraction, and the latter deals with loading and unloading times from the train longer than Firehawk?

Take the gimmick to where someone poses like a statue then leaps out at you, and do that for about every scare in the maze, although this actually sounds more like a cross between a wax museum and a roadside tourist trap, given the description and name. Depending on how in depth the maze is with the theme, there may be a few scenes showing how wax figures are made (see the film House of Wax for a perfect example), but I really wouldn't expect much out of it. I'm hesitant on this because their track record on wowing me with their new haunts the first year out is less than pleasing (Wolf Pack, Holiday Horror, Slaughterhouse, Club Blood).

With the one blog post from earlier, we pretty much know everything save for the name of the single new haunt and the location of Blood Drums. All of the prior mazes are returning despite my increasing frustration that some have yet to be retired after 10+ years and others have major problems that most likely will never be fixed.

And anyone who believes a ride is only worth riding or considered "thrilling" if it's at a set height, speed, or style should not be allowed to consider themselves an enthusiast, either.

Considering I will be preoccupied with another local haunt and won't be able to attend this year's event, I second this motion. Also: I would imagine/hope at least a portion of Crypt's indoor queue is used to alleviate the potential problem of its line overflowing out into Rivertown's midway. Especially if Tombstone Terrortory returns this season, which has the problem of having the line for the train extend as far back as Rivertown Arcade.

Quick question: have you ever walked through a haunted house/attraction?

You should be fine with just about anything. Just go in and have fun.

The concepts here deal with the attraction being separated into three acts, much like your average film, with each act comprising of 3-4 "scenes", so to speak. Pandorum: Shares the same name of the film, but is based more off the game Dead Space 2. Think Titanic meets a zombie/alien outbreak, and set it in space, and you get the picture of what this maze is about. Act one starts in a spaceport with a tunnel connecting to a giant space cruise ship, which you end up boarding. Prior to entering the ship, you think everything's all hunky-dory with monitors playing a spiel about your vacation aboard the ship. Once you board, however, it's clear that this is not the dream vacation you were expecting to have. The rest of the first act deals with the opening moments of the outbreak, with more attention being paid to the ensuing chaos and less to what is actually CAUSING the chaos. That is, until the last scene where you get your first glimpse of a monster and are rushed into act two, which is the inner workings of the ship. These are the utilitarian areas compared to the normal guest areas of the ship (Main Street USA versus Backstage Disneyland), and things have slowed down quite a bit. Much darker environments, and made to instill fear of the unknown and your surroundings. The third act thrusts you back into the chaos and has the last of whatever security members on board fighting the monsters and you being caught in the cross-hairs. The Dollhouse: The name alone says what the maze is about, but this concept is a bit different from what one would expect. Movies like Dead Silence, House of Wax, and Child's Play are inspiration, along with mazes like Happy Jack's Toy Factory and the Scary Farm's Doll Factory. The first act starts in a toy shoppe and leads to a doll/mannequin factory that sits behind it. The second act is the inner workings of said factory, with heavy emphasis on the particularly gruesome process behind creating life-sized dolls. Examples include ripping out a spine while making a ventriloquist dummy, lowering someone into a vat of wax, and draining blood out of bodies. The third act sort of reprises the scene from Doll Factory by going into a massive doll house, but you don't know it until almost the very end. The finale is a shot down a hallway with windows on one side, and on the other side of one of them is a giant eye peeking in, the giggling of a young girl ringing through the hall. At the end of the hall is a door that swings open and a giant human hand reaches out to grab you. 8: Spiders. Not the cheap dollar store variety, either. Painstaking amounts of detail to make them look and move like the real deal. Eight Legged Freaks minus the comedic elements. The first act starts in a cabin home covered in cobwebs. The owners are not to be found, but a trail leads out the back and into the woods. Normal-sized small spiders dot the cabin, but it's clear that the threat is much bigger, as the webbing stretches across furniture and such. The trail leads to act two which is a dark, dank cave. Hints that there are monster-sized arachnids start to come into fruition, like molted skins appendages strewn about and various prey wrapped up. A leg might pop in and out off in the distance to indicate you are not alone. One key scene is a victim laying prone in front of guests, wrapped up in webbing from the waist down, with her hand as if to grab out for help. Suddenly, she is yanked back into the darkness by a spider (who you don't see) and spits at the audience. Shadows of spiders are now more prevalent, and a spider rears up and screeches in the next scene to kick off the third act, where all hell breaks loose. Now you actually get to see them in their full glory and all around you, including a scene in which you believe you are back in the forest with tree trunks all around you. However, it's clear they aren't tree trunks as they start to move up and down, forcing you to look up and notice you are standing right underneath one. The finale is simple, but effective, as you finally come face-to-face with one crawling up to you and stopping mere inches from your face.

From the desk of one Screamscape.com...

And you're implying they aren't/haven't already because...?

I keep thinking of Griffon every time I see the logo. Anyway, the double keyhole element over the entrance gate pretty much nails the reasoning behind the name Gatekeeper. And the layout isn't half bad. Still, I think Cedar Point is gonna get beat six ways to Sunday by SDC's Outlaw Run.

Might as well just rename the @!#$ ride to Zebra, no one knows what the @!#% to label it as.

Yes and no. Technically, almost all haunts are handicap accessible from the get-go, as safety codes state hallway widths have to be no smaller than 48". The bare minimum for wheelchair access in general is 36". But more often than not, when a scene requires able-bodied individuals to walk through, special access routes are added; e.g., the spinning tunnel in CarnEvil has an emergency exit placed right by the staircase for wheelchairs and such to bypass said tunnel (other examples are Slaughterhouse's inflatable tunnel and the former Trail of Terror's crawl-through tunnel). Ergo, haunts have a semi-strict set of guidelines when it comes to handicapped accessibility. A scant few even choose not to, rather opting for extremely tight corridors and the utilization of crawlspaces (to which the number of people in a group drops dramatically to that of a normal haunt).

Hot off the press from Screamscape: The ride chamber's footprint itself is quite large, yet it sits 10-15 feet below grade when looked at from the preshow room, so it's understandable a staircase or ramp would be erected to get to ground level. That said, a multiple-leveled haunt would be quite a challenge and a staffing nightmare trying to keep what would be a monstrous-sized crew in check throughout the run.

You act as if they can't have a haunted house themed to the Australian outback, even if it isn't in the water park, simply because the water park lost its Australian theme. If anything, that would make for an interesting retheme to Cut-Throat Cove, switching the pirate motif to an Aussie resort oasis gone horribly wrong (reminiscent of the video game Dead Island).

They are. I was just digging up the question of whether or not the attraction will use the theming that's already there (hence utilizing the name Curse of the Crypt), or if every square inch of the attraction has been gutted and new theming is put in place for said haunt.

Some cases, having a "year-round" haunted house isn't such a good idea, especially if it's in a park that has a haunted event in the fall. Case in point, Universal's House of Horrors @ Uni Hollywood. Pre- and post-Horror Nights, it's a decent attraction with a few actors and permanent set pieces based off several big horror flicks. During Horror Nights, it's an abysmal attraction with a few more actors and hastily put-together set pieces draped over permanent set pieces based off several big horror flicks. Unless the theme of the year-round haunt changes drastically by the time the actual Haunt rolls around, it will stick out horribly amongst the other mazes.

I had heard rumors last Haunt that Trail of Terror could be coming back in a new location this season; last year it didn't come back because of Dinosaurs Alive! being put in its (general) spot. Other than that, I got nothing. What we do know is that The Crypt is being used for Haunt this year. Now whether or not it'll be themed similarly to the previous tenant or every square inch has been gutted, or even if it's a one-shot if the building is removed after this season or stays for several seasons, is completely up in the air. Potential themes to ponder about for new attractions: Zombies - Zombies are big-ticket items this year. Walking Dead returns this October, and Universal just announced haunted houses based off the show for Halloween Horror Nights. The closest Kings Island has to zombies are the infected folks that lie inside Urgent Scare. All it would take would be a simple change of wording and BAM, zombies. Curse of The Crypt(?) - Those that have attended Haunt since its FearFest inception in 2000 should remember an oldie called Curse of the Crypt, a mash-up of vampires, werewolves, and mummies in an ancient tomb. The interiors of The Crypt ride were extremely detailed (more so than even the likes of Urgent Scare or Wolf Pack) and ripe with darkened corridors and an already dismal environment. It would be a crime not to use what's already there; the only issue is if they would be able to carry the same attention to detail to the rest of the attraction.

Cedar Point has the same schtick with the Overlord ruling over the ghouls; it's just the name of the event (HalloWeekends) that's different. Knott's Berry Farm, however, just axed their Overlord in favor of having the Green Witch be their new icon for their 40th anniversary.

This has always been a hot topic my friends and I discuss around this time, and even during the run of Haunt. Most of us agree Haunt would be better off as a separately-ticketed event, as the best theme park haunts in the nation are separately ticketed (Kings Island being the black sheep of the family according to last year's Golden Ticket Awards). The only real issue here is closing down and re-opening on a Saturday, as normally, crowds tend to increase right around the 5:00 mark. It's been done before on the first Saturday Haunt is open with a private event going on in the daytime, but it may be a bit more difficult with a regular crowd. Now would it automatically mean haunted attractions of a higher quality? It's doubtful that it would start off that way the moment they immediately start charging, but down the road it would/should increase with more money being put in from sales.

That's the last thing we need is to have to yell fire in that building. Then it'd be an actual Crypt... People seem to forget the large swath of land White Water Canyon's queue line resides in. While severing the lengthy forested queue from the ride in favor of a clone of Jungle Cruise's indoor switchback sounds like grounds for the KI Facebook community to bear arms at the very mention of deforestation (of which they instantly had no problem with Swan Lake's demise after it was announced a Beemer were to dance upon its grave), I believe there to be more than enough space for a few flat rides, beautiful scenery, and a chance for that hidden lake in-betwixt WWC and the railroad to be seen in its full glory.

In all honesty, it's really up in the air when it comes to an announcement date for any given new attraction. Sometimes, it'll be in the middle of Summer, and either work will already be underway (Diamondback) or before ground work even begins (Italian Job), sometimes even if clearing doesn't start until after the season has ended (WindSeeker). Other times it's in the Fall after Labor Day Weekend (Nick Universe). On an occasion or two, an announcement will be made a mere two or three months before the park even opens (Firehawk and Dinosaurs Alive!). And yet still, the heads-up for the announcement is hard to track. They may give a good month or two in advance to say they're announcing something, or you may instead find out what's coming the following season as early as next week. Situations like these are like summer rains...you can never predict them.