XGatorHead 8904

It's been several years since I've been to Fearfest (2004 was the last time), so I've been looking forward to visiting HH this year after reading all the comments from the other posters on here. My wife and I were finally able to get someone to watch out daughter on a Friday night (there was no way I was going to go on a Saturday!), and we focused on the haunted stuff, no rides. We got off the ramp from 71 at 7:30 and from the line of cars into the toll plaza, I just knew it was going to be busy. However, the wait there wasn't too long, and the lines the rest of the night weren't as bad as I thought they would be from the looks of the parking lot. I was reminded later in the night by a former coworker that the 3rd weekend of Fearfest/Haunt is historically the busiest, which I should have remembered since I worked there the first 5 years of it. But we went right through the metal detectors and turnstiles with no wait, and our wait times for everything else were not bad. The first thing I noticed as soon as we got into the park was the amount of fog. This was a definite improvement over Fearfest. Now I know temperature, wind and humidity levels play a major part of how the fog hangs around, so I guess we picked a great night to go. My wife asked where it was all coming from, and I told her it just magically rolls in every Friday and Saturday night. I just couldn't give her a straight answer when it was so simple. Our first stop was Club Blood, which along with Dead Awakening, was at the top of our list to do. We wanted to see what all the commotion was about, and how it was adult themed. Club Blood Queue Line Time: 7:45 - 8:05 (20 minutes) Rating: 4/5 I was the lead person in our group, so I got to set the pace. The bouncer was excellent, and probably my favorite scaractor of the night. He ran and got within an inch of my face and asked "What are you looking at? Where's your ID?" I yelled back at him, and he moved aside to terrorize the people behind me. Great job done by him. Then a vampire chick tried to lure me on. I just have to say that Club Blood has the best makeup work I have ever seen in a haunt. The faces looked just like the vamps in Buffy (one of the all time greatest shows EVER!!!). The cage dancers weren't as scantily clad as I had been told, I don't know if this was a change or just an exaggeration. The little props the vamp girls were carrying towards the end were excellent as well (I don't want to say what they are for those that haven't been through yet. There should be some surprises!). No real scares for me, but there were in my group behind me. I was just disappointed there wasn't a bar in there. I wanted to order a Jack & O-Neg. Dead Awakening 8:30 Show Rating: 3/5 We were eager to see how "mature" this was. I was told by friends beforehand not to overthink it, just go with the flow. I was not immediately drawn into the show, mainly because I didn't know the first couple of songs ("Welcome to Our Nightmare" and I think there was another one in there). Once they started getting to the pop stuff it got better. But unfortunately this is when people also started leaving (I guess they didn't read the HH guide/map and the signs in front of the theater ). The lighting was very well done (Adam, you will be missed), the costumes were great (especially the white outfit on the female lead! ), the singing and dancing were decent. (On a side note, while I was sitting at BW3 watching Monday Night Football this week, they had WWE wrestling on. The costumes of the WWE Divas were about the same as DA, and how many kids watch that? And has far as the dancing, the movie Dirty Dancing comes to mind. I can see people's complaints about the noose scene, but it didn't bother me personally.) I felt the tempo of "Bring Me to Life" was too slow, it was dragging. Overall, the music fit the show, I especially liked hearing "Thnks fr th Mmrs", and then mixing it with "Waiting for Tonight". I would have given it a 4, a few tempos were too slow, it didn't grab me right away, and I needed a little more cohesiveness in the story line (I know, I know, overthinking). Was she in a car accident, was she asleep and dreaming and the car accident had nothing to do with anything, was she in the car accident and woke up in dead in bed (the most likely given the title of the show). I don't know! Massacre Manor Queue Line Time: 9:13 - 9:55 (42 minutes) Rating: 5/5 I'll start by saying this: a big part of the amount of fun you have in a haunt is the people that are with you. That said, the couple in front of me were definitely worth our longest wait of the night. They were jumping and screaming at every little thing. And the guy was a big guy, the type you would assume would be "manly" through a maze. I liked the closet, the dark hallways, and the levitating. I started quoting The Exorcist in that room... "The power of Christ compels you..." Lots of fun, I jumped a few times, and laughed at the other couple the rest of the time. Trail of Terror Queue Line Time: 10:05 - 10:35 (30 minutes) Rating: 4/5 Trail, along with Manor, has always been my favorite. We got in line right after it had reopened after someone thought they smelled smoke, so we expecting to be in line a while, however I have waited MUCH longer than this before. I laughed at the top of the hill when "The Insulter" made a crack at the blond walking near me about being confused (she was looking over her shoulder and missed the start of the line and then got really confused). Tassles, if that was you, good job. Despite what others have said on here, you were not over the line as far as what I heard. The first scaractor came up to me and congratulated my wife and me on our shotgun wedding we were having that night. It was somewhat unfortunate when we caught up to the group ahead of us at the tunnel (I noticed no one was going through it that night, we were all taking the walking option to the right). So, we conga lined it through the rest of the trail. Still one of the best, the atmosphere in the dark woods and the "spider webs" are great. My only gripe was the chainsaws weren't running. The Worksite Queue Line Time: 10:50 - 10:53 (3 minutes) Rating: 2/5 Good scenery/themeing. The kid behind us was going through without his friend because the friend had chickened out. He and my wife were having a ball throughout, but no real scares for me and not quite creepy/disturbing enough. I loved seeing "George" in there... if only the public knew what that really was... (it's located almost halfway through on the right). Later in line for Cornstalkers we loved seeing the chainsaw guy chase people out of the maze and towards Tower. Hilarious and made the wait for CS better. But I've never seen a chainsaw at a road construction site before... The Cemetery Queue Line Time: 10:58 - 11:02 (4 minutes) Rating: 5/5 See my first comment on Manor. Again, the couple ahead of me was hysterical. The scaractors were merciless on them, chasing them around through the fog. The girl was cowering down, covering her face while leaning on a tombstone screaming with scaractors on both sides of her. We could have gone through faster, but I wanted to stick with them just to see her reactions to everyone. CornStalkers Queue Line Time: 11:14 - 11:29 (15 minutes) Rating: 3/5 I was lead guy again, and this one is probably the one that I jumped the most in. Just when I thought a scarecrow was fake, it would come at me. They did an excellent job standing perfectly still until we were passing them. Docked a point because of the litter gitter walking towards us though the maze sweeping, destroying the illusion. He definitely did not need to be there. Tombstone Terror-tory Wait in Station: 11:35 - 11:45 (10 minutes), Wait Sitting on Train: 11:45 - 11:50 (5 minutes), Wait at Start of Maze: None Rating: 1/2 out of 5 I'm sure this rating will get the most response from people, and I want to apologize in advance to Hauntguy. I know you guys try hard. I was told to save this one for last and do it only if I had time. Boy, was that advice right. I think I remember reading that there was supposed to be someone on the train talking on the speakers, but this didn't happen. I did see the silhouette of someone in a cowboy hat stand up in the 1st car when we got to our destination, and I thought maybe they said something, but we couldn't hear it in the 3rd car. We got out at the platform and were like, "ok, what now?" We then saw the gate next to us being opened and we went through. We were in the first group from our train to go through the maze. My rating is no fault of the scaractors in this maze. It's just too much "dead" space, with nothing going on and no scares/creepiness. The scaractors tried, but didn't really get any reaction from our group. It's basically a flaw in the design of the attraction. It's too much space to try to cover. It was just too obviously the exit to WWC, unlike Trail which was designed specifically for a maze and the woods are closer to you, more claustrophobic, more "what's going to jump out at me from the dark woods?" The only good part was the bridge over the train tracks. It was completely filled with fog and you could not see anything in there, and I loved that part. I don't know, maybe our group was just too jaded, unlike my experiences in Manor and Cemetery. Redbeard's Revenge Queue Wait Time: 12:07 - 12:20 (13 minutes) Rating: 2/5 "Big Lip Guy" was lurking around the queue. I liked his makeup, but we had this brat kid about 10 years old in line behind us heckling him. This one was just ok. One of the first scaractors said "Prepare to be shark bait" and I immediately said "Shark Bait, Hoo Ha Ha". I guess I've watched Finding Nemo too many times. I liked the sense of claustrophobia in this one, but nothing really jumped out to scare us. Overall, we had a great time. The park has done a great job with the skeletal displays around the park, the fog, the tombstones (especially liked the ones in Rivertown of the old rides. God I miss them...) and just creating a creepy atmosphere in general. We decided not to do Death Row and CarnEvil, since the basic premise of these (chain link maze, clown maze) has not changed since their first years. My two year old daughter did like CarnEvil (er, Little Big Top) during the day, especially the spinning tunnel. I don't know if our experiences at the last two mazes were a result of the whole minor labor law situation, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Whether we'll actually pay for the Haunt in 2008, we'll see. It depends on the price they set. If it's in the $20 range, possibly, but we may make it an every other year trip like we do the Renaissance Festival. If it's Knott's Scary Farm prices ($46/$51), definitely not. And I know, before anyone says anything, the value would still be good compared to other places in the area, but with a two year old at home I can think of better things to do with $100, whereas this year its included in the $86 I paid for my pass. Thanks for sticking with this and reading my novel. I enjoy reading other people's experiences and hopefully you enjoyed reading mine!

Now for a tangent... Who's the genius who put a designated smoking area right next to Lost Parents/Baby Care Center at KI? I always thought that was odd...

We bought our 2008s two weeks ago. They are the real passes, so no exchange this year. I'm GUESSING the problem last year was they didn't have the card stock designed/ready for the 2007s in fall 2006. Plus, I don't know how long this has been a procedure since when I worked there you had to get a new picture every year, but when you go to SP processing, you don't have to have the picture retaken. They just transfer the image electronically to your new card. Of course, the new card you get looks exactly like the 2007, so the employee there suggested writing 2008 after my signature.

^ Sending groups in more often would work perfectly if only every group went through the attraction at the same rate of speed. However, this is definitely not the case. You get groups that just crawl along because they are scared of what lies ahead, and then you get groups that practically run through each maze. When the runners catch up to the crawlers, you get a conga line. This seems to ALWAYS happen to me. I'm going to HH for the first time tonight (I haven't been to FF since 2004) and am very interested to see the changes that have been made!

Opening 2012... SAN FRANCISCO 49ER'S BOOMTOWN Featuring: The Mine Shaft, formerly Drop Zone Wheel of Fortune, formerly Survivor the Ride Runaway Mine Car, formerly Demon OK, I'm tapped out of ideas. I'm just surprised that they would like a stadium there. From what I remember there are lots of office buildings in the area, but I do remember GA's parking lot as being HUGE compared to the crowd that was there on the day I went.

Whatever happened to just calling in sick to work?

Congratulations to Maureen! She is so nice and deserves all the best!

HILARIOUS!!! But you forgot 2008 Halloween Haunt... As if that hasn't been discussed enough on here!