RingMaster

You'll see me out on the streets, but I'm not telling you where exactly. Chances are that I'll find you before you find me....

Good question. Generally, Friday nights have smaller crowds compared to what Saturday nights deliver. However, with Opening Night being on a Friday, I think you will see a fairly large crowd. My advice is to hit up the new maze Slaughterhouse first; the new maze will almost certainly have the longest lines. Follow that up with Club Blood and/or Urgent Scare as they also have long lines. Aside from that, lines for all the mazes get long once 9:00 rolls around, and dies out after midnight when people start going home.

I originally wrote Slaughterhouse off as a gimmick to further shove the More Gore, More Mature theme down everyone's throats. However, from what I've seen and heard about the maze, I may be wrong about my previous assumptions and this may finally be the house to put Kings Island back on the map when it comes to talk about theme park haunts. Granted, it's not the most creative maze idea they've done (I'd have rather seen an attempt at a Doll Factory-type maze), but it should be an amazing experience to walk through regardless. EDIT: I'm also expecting Hot Blooded to blow Dead Awakening out of the water. It's that good.

Death's Office is in the Emporium, next to the candy section of the store and opposite the Frozen Lemonade stand that sits next to the Bandstand stage. In 2008 he temporarily switched area codes when he moved to the Spotlight Souvenirs window next to the stairs leading up to the International Restaurant.

Didn't they have Owen Wilson's name on Death's List the year he tried to commit suicide, but then it had an 'X' through it? That was funny but a bit cold. I had one of those "That's just not right" chuckles at it. Yeah, Owen Wilson's name was on it in 2007, but Death crossed it out and wrote "My Bad" next to it: *courtesy of KIExtreme.com.

One way or another, I'm seeing PETA getting involved with the Haunt in some shape or form... But I do remember last year Mr. Cowpie brought a goat, skunk, and parrot along during his show for Howl-O-Fest. Wonder if he'll be making a return this season. EDIT: To go along with Bombay's post: "In Soviet Russia, animal pets YOU!"

I wouldn't think it would be up for too long before someone complains. Just like the Vick scene set up in a previous Haunt event. I find it to be more of a tribute to him than an insult. Maybe him being on Death's List this year (along with Billy Mays and Bea Arthur) might be pushing it a bit far, but not the skeleton because it is based off the Thriller video, which is, no doubt, Halloween-themed.

Or outlaws hijacked the train, killed a few "innocents" as they forced everyone off, and sent them to Boot Hill (WWC exit) like an old-school train robbery. Just like the train ride in its early days, they could bring that back for Tombstone. You know...for NOSTALGIC purposes?

I've always hated Tombstone Terrortory/Headless Hollow, but for the design and layout of the attraction, NOT due to the talent in the maze. Anyway, my all-time favorite maze has to be Sleepy Hollow Horror, which is now Cut-Throat Cove. Everything about the maze (design, talent, sound, etc) wowed me year after year, especially after it moved to Mining Company in 2006 as Cowboy Carnage. The only gripe I had about the maze was the strobe light being the only form of illumination and it being pitch-black in the maze (which is why I hated the first half of 2004's Curse of the Crypt and the heartbeat-styled strobe light). Thankfully, they got rid of the strobe light in '07 when it was changed to Red Beard's Revenge and it still remains my top maze, beating out Club Blood and narrowly skidding past Urgent Scare.

2005 and 2006 Then it became Massacre Manor. Ah, good ol' Fear Street Nights. *facepalm* That went from my favorite house of 2004 to my least favorite of 2005 (Headless Hollow a close second). EDIT: I take that back. Sleepy Hollow Horror was my favorite house of 2004. House of Darkness was 2nd. My bad.

Kings Island got the Best Kids' Area Award in 2001 because they installed an inverted coaster for kids to ride, the first of its kind in the world (along with Silver Streak at Canada's Wonderland), and bumping up the number of kids' coasters to four (Reptar, Taxi Jam, Beastie, and Ghoaster Coaster), not because it was themed to a Nickelodeon property.

The last third of the maze was the weakest portion of Urgent Scare, traveling around a few wrecked cars. It felt like a trimmed-down version of worksite. I would've rather seen them try to install store facades for the exit, to simulate going through the small town in the wake of the virus to really hit the point of it being uncontrollable. But I guess considering worksite isn't coming back this year, all of its props will go to Urgent Scare to improve on the last third of the maze.

From what's been rumored for quite a while, the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey attraction is set to re-revolutionize dark rides the same way Spiderman did back in '99, albeit in a completely different manner. Without spoiling anything, take The Simpsons Ride and literally put it on a roller coaster.

While it's not totally groundbreaking news (as details on the dark ride still remain a secret), the names of the attractions have been announced: http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/...r-wizardi-5374/

If they're really strapped for cash they may just drop the Wild Thornberrys name from the log ride but keep it as the River Adventure. All they would need to do would be to remove the human characters, the transforming RV, the explorer's spiel and music, and Darwin (the chimpanzee) in the crate. Everything else can virtually stay. Of course, they can just put a fiberglass Snoopy on top of the elephant and then name it Snoopy's River Adventure.

Can we at least assume they won't try and go the Freestyle Music Park route and shell out a MonSTARS of Rock attraction: Granted, they have more than four weeks to "retheme" it, but still.... -shudder-

Red Beard's has always been my most favorite maze since its inception way back in 2004 as Sleepy Hollow Horror. I'm betting this year's Cut-Throat Cove will not disappoint even though it got relocated.

It may come to a point where if the mazes are really short-staffed on those nights, monsters out in the streets may get temporarily relocated to a maze, so I think the issue would more be worrying about seeing monsters OUTSIDE the maze rather than INSIDE the maze.

Last year for their Fright Feast (at Wings Diner) they had a mini Wall of Monsters to where monsters would crowd around the windows for a small period of time before they rushed in and "attacked" the guests inside. On the final night there was quite a good crowd of people in Wings (the Feast on Saturdays always managed to sell out), in particular a round table with six girls. My eyes instantly locked on them the moment we huddled around the windows. As we started making noise and banging on the doors, the girls were making faces and mouthing, "We're not scared of you" towards us and were giggling their preteen hearts out. I almost thought that all they were going to do would just flinch and scream. Man, was I glad to be so wrong the second I opened the door and everyone stormed in. The look on their faces went from amusement went to sheer terror. Two girls sitting closest to the door slid four feet away from the table on their chairs. One fell backwards on her chair after she jumped and screamed. Another literally CLIMBED over the table trying to get away and ended up tipping the whole table over (thankfully no food was on the table). The last two flat out booked it towards the bathrooms before getting teamed up by two creepers. Everyone else that had watched (including the Haunt supervisors and the Marketing/Food full-timers that were in there) almost died laughing; three guys in the corner were on the floor howling with laughter.

Good 'ol Jeff Seibert. He left the park at the end of the 2006 season and moved down south to Schlitterbahn in Texas. Of course, you can still hear his voice on Thunder Alley (which still has the King's Island mispelling on the logo), Son of Beast (the spiel is still on even though the ride is currently SBNO), and Runaway Reptar. Oh, and The Beast spiel DOES still play during the music on the lift hill. I think it's just due to the speakers not being loud enough. "Welcome to The Beast. Remain seated at all times. Please keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the car at all times. Thank you."

You'll see me back out on the streets, though I do not know my exact area yet.

DING! Found it: "The Darkest Day" by David Arnold from the Independence Day Soundtrack.

The body collector with the big top hat, flowing overcoat that looked like a million fashionable rugs beautifully woven together, and a broken lantern with a noose tied around it? Yeah that was me. Man, I miss that coat. The giant cart with the dead bodies, not so much. That thing was a PAIN to lug around because they never did add a second set of wheels to it so I would have to lift it (close to 200 pounds, almost) in order to move it around.

I watched a video on the Haunt yesterday....then the phone rang, telling me I have seven days. Strange, as my rehearsals begin in six days (16th).

On that incident pikeman referred to: I had scared said couple and the boyfriend had walked away from her. She had her face buried in her hands and had her back turned towards me. She turned around, her face still buried in her hands, and walked towards me, thinking it was her boyfriend. She placed her head onto my chest as I gave her a quick hug, telling her everything was going to be alright in a normal, human, voice. That's when she looked up, saw me, screamed like there was no tomorrow, and walked away to her REAL boyfriend.