TombRaiderFTW

^^ Ahh, gotcha. It's been a while since I read the '06 report, so I must have forgotten about seeing it in there. I do remember them mentioning adding additional bracing, though, now that you mention it. Thanks!

As much as I don't want to ask this for fear of stirring up the rumor mill... Does anyone else see red steel cross-beams in the last two pictures? (They look a bit like the cross-sections on Arrow track that connect the rails to the spline.) Or is the blue tint of the pictures playing tricks on my eyes? Or have I not paid that much attention before now, and they've always been there? EDIT: Should be noted in case someone misunderstands... I'm not talking about how the cross-beams are positioned. I've just never noticed the red-ish beams before.

For me, what makes the chainsaws "scary" in any sense of the word isn't that I think it's going to chop my feet off. What gets me about chainsaws, when they're placed properly--like at the end of Slaughterhouse this year, or at the end of Cornstalkers and Trail of Terror in past years--is that I'm usually jumpy enough heading towards them that, when the person wielding the chainsaw jumps out at you, you don't have the reaction time to subconsciously realize, "Woah! That guy scared me. Good one." It's there, it's loud, and it doesn't stop as soon as it's started like most scareactors. If they time it just right and have hidden well enough beforehand, I'm caught so off guard by the sudden presence of it that the adrenaline flows for several seconds, so it almost feels natural to run. (Trail of Terror was notorious for this: you could stand in line and watch group after group run from the trail's exit. Unfortunately, it seemed like they went a bit overboard with it towards the end of Haunt last year... There usually were three chainsaws, and the sound of so many of them idling at once pretty much announced their existence.)

I really love Haunt this year. I love the fact that's it's turned somewhat from the previous focus on gore to creative scares. That's not a slam on Urgent Scare or Slaughterhouse; the gore factor just doesn't do much for me. (In fact, those two houses have consistently been some of the scariest I've experienced this year.) Holiday Horror is a great addition that, even though it has its weak points, always finds some way of throwing me for a loop each time I go through it. I'm kind of a sucker for Mysteria, too. It's not the most thought-out Haunt that ever was, but the workers in there seem to get more and more creative each time I go through. Nightmare Alley, as well, has livened up a part of the park that used to be pretty dull during Haunt--it always seemed like Carnevil was off in a corner by itself before. The only thing I'm not wild about is Cornstalkers' new spot, which really surprises me. Granted, I've only done it once; but it was towards the beginning of the Haunt season, when scareactor counts are usually at their highest. Since Cornstalkers always seemed to suffer the quickest, I was eager to see what this year's was like. When Cemetery Drive was in Tower Gardens, the gardens themselves lent themselves to the theme, so it didn't seem to require as much theming. Now that it's CS, there's corn and the wooden tower things everywhere. That's not necessarily a bad thing, except everyone's in the same costumes doing the same types of scares. I mean, sure, that's kinda what CS has always been... It's just too long for its own good. After the same pop-from-corn-then-disappear-into-it or pose-like-a-scarecrow-then-jump-down-at-people scares happen repeatedly, it's entirely predictable how the rest of the maze will go. And that's a shame, because part of what made CS good for me in past years was that it had the types of scares that you couldn't really find elsewhere. Combine that with the path between Drop Tower and Invertigo being as short as it is, and CS almost had charm, especially the times when someone with a chainsaw was lurking at the end. Cemetery Drive wasn't perfect, either, when it was there, but at least the theme had enough going for it that the actors could get creative with their surroundings. Really, how much can you do with corn? But enough of that complaining. Even though I did like CD when it was in Tower Gardens, it seems to lend itself a little better to International Street, traffic flow issues aside. It's more of what people seem to expect from HH when they enter the front gates--statues turning to watch you as you walk by, etc. It's got a creepiness factor that sets a really cool mood for the evening, and I love it. I thought I'd be frustrated with Urgent Scare this year having been shortened, but it actually works a lot better. The actor density in the house has skyrocketed, and they're really good at their jobs. Finally, I want to point out: like other people have said, the formerly uninteresting Haunts have gotten quite a bit better this year. I didn't really think I'd ever say this, but Cut Throat Cove and Wolf Pack are really good this time around. The actors in WP seem to have gotten better at being scary without trying too hard to be scary, and the actors in Cut Throat Cove have been both very creative and very in character when I've gone through, which is great! (I haven't noticed much of a difference for Tombstone Terror-tory this year, except for the train ride. While the story the "conductor" tells you doesn't really set the mood as well, the new "breakdown," which they only did around Halloween last year, freaks a whole lot more people out. Smart move!) In other words, this has been a great year for Haunt. Definitely better than the last few!

(Hmm, it's been a while since I launched into a Crypt spiel. ) ^^^ Yep, both are HUSS rides. KD's model is a Suspended Top Spin, but KI's is a Giant Top Spin. Why build a Giant Top Spin, you ask? Like Terp said, HUSS pushes the capacity aspect. A GTS carries 56 riders per cycle, where an STS only holds 38. But if you're asking specifically why KI built a GTS, it's because its primary purpose was essentially to carry riders from "scene" to "scene" for Tomb Raider: The Ride, only occasionally doing Top Spin-ish things like flips. The GTS occupies more space, which allowed for KI to separate the room the ride is in into different parts--the goddess, the icicles (since removed), and the lava. Sure, the same effect could be done with an STS, and the ride could have been more thrilling by incorporating more flips. However, Tomb Raider's thrill relied primarily on its theme--which, in turn, seems to be why Cedar Fair's having as many issues as they've had with balancing thrill vs. maintenance. They've tried to make the ride more thrilling to make up for the lack of theming, which resulted in the ride tearing itself apart. In a nutshell, that's how the ride got to where it is today: ironically short on both thrills and theme. I'm not saying this is why (then) PKI went for a Giant Top Spin; I'm just pointing out possibilities. EDIT: As far as your KD visit goes, I've heard weekdays in May and June are notoriously dead. I've only been there once myself, so I don't know how true this is.

Which, on a side note, is actually a semi-proven fact. Between 2008 and mid-2009, ours ran a program moderately similar to KD's Crypt. Besides being unpleasantly forceful for some, it kept the ride shut down about as much as it was open. As far as the seats go: if the limitations of the Giant Top Spin design could be ignored, I really wish the ride's third row would make a return. Maybe nostalgia's wearing off for me, but it seems like the ride's line has been crawling this year. The extra capacity would be nice. (Of course, this could just as easily be attributed to unenthusiastic ride ops or me just not having paid attention before now, but still.)

^ *awkward cough* There may or may not be a couple guys that get frightened by Slaughterhouse's chainsaws, too... Not that I'm one of them or anything.

Thar be a Holiday Horror spoiler in this post. Warning everyone now. Dude, the clock completely caught me off-guard. I've been through it 4 times over the past 3 weekends, and the first three times the clock did nothing. I just assumed it was a clock to make the Thanksgiving room feel a bit more "cozy". The fourth time, the clock rushed me personally. I can shamelessly say that I flipped out. I had zero idea that was a costume! The same thing goes to a lesser degree for the scarecrow/jack-o-lantern in the Halloween room... I couldn't tell if it was just a prop that they made look just enough like a person to distract people or if it was actually a person. I figured it out pretty quickly when it jumped in my friend's face and shrieked, "Trick or treat! Bahahaha!"

Darn it! I've been trying to get there for the past two years but couldn't get anyone to go... and now this. Cue the cries for the return of Winterfest!

Yeah, I didn't really understand Wolf Pack's theming, either. Doesn't make it any less creepy when the actors are using them to their advantage, though. I voted for Holiday Horror. That one's consistently been the most fun (and FUN, particularly in the President's Day room ) every time I've been through. I really love the flower costumes as well... They're incredibly misleading. They look like props, but when the actor scares you, you can see they're actually some of the best costumes Haunt has to offer.

Now that you mention it, I actually really like the idea of MA getting at least a WindSeeker. That's the one place I can see a WS living up to the hype CF sets up for these things.

^ "I'll pay $40 to not ride it!"

"Kinda smells like bacon. I dunno why. It just smells like bacon." I'm really glad I'm not the only one who smelled that on Tombstone Terror-tory, haha. I can't figure out where it came from! Cool review.

^ I'm with this guy. I do love me some Adventure Express at night, for some reason. I can't decide why... It's honestly not that much different at night, except you can see the lighting a little more easily.

Holiday Horror also features "Kinzel for President" signs (or something to that effect) in the President's Day room. I really hope there isn't a hidden meaning to be analyzed from that, either. Unless, of course, someone actually believes all problems in the world can be solved with trashcans and concrete.

The Outer Hanks shrimp and fries. Maybe I'm not the most cultured person when it comes to park food, but the shrimp really surprised me with how good it was. It's way better than anything in the Festhaus. And the seasoning on the fries is delicious. It costs more than a lot of the other food in the park (approx. $10 for a shrimp and fries basket), but seeing as how it isn't covered in a thin sheen of grease and didn't seem to have been kept under a heat lamp for hours (I'm looking at you, LaRosa's), I say it's worth it. (Granted, I've only had it once, but I'd definitely go back again.)

Okay, apparently I'm missing something. Can someone please explain to me what's actually changed about the ride between when it stopped operating and now? For it becoming so completely structurally unsound as it allegedly has become since it shut down, it sure looks an awful lot like it always has. (On second thought, it is Son of Beast... ) I'm not calling out anyone in particular, but I think people want news so bad that they are trying to find something wrong with the ride for the sake of conversation.

I have to agree with GoodYellowKoRn. "Maze" is a bit of a misnomer that's been applied out of habit by the GP. That being said, Mysteria is a bit of a maze. At the very least, the groups I've gone through with have had some trouble getting out the first time. It seems like the scareactors like to hide deep in the fog at the dead ends, which, to me, is a really cool idea.

^ I don't think it's roughness that's got the trims on there. There are maintenance benefits to be had as well, and, given MS's size, I bet that's one of their primary reasons they exist. In fact, I'm willing to bet that's got something to do with why the ride has gained what roughness it has... The train's constant searching for either rail in the large turns, due to the lack of force keeping the train against the outside rail, surely did something to the track. Several thousand pounds smacking against a couple pieces of wood and steel is bound to have some effect. If I had to guess, the trims have probably cut down on their amount of maintenance at the bottom of the drops (since the train isn't moving as fast and thus isn't pushing as hard against the track and supports) but has worsened the high turns, thus creating the necessity for the retracking we're currently seeing.

^ Hm... that's odd. Those first two turns were actually quite good when I was there at the beginning of September. There were actually laterals up there, rather than obnoxious shuffling. When I hear MS's track was missing in spots, I'd imagined it would be at the bottom of some of the drops, where the jackhammering is still rather unpleasant. Oh well, must be for some good reason...

Not to mention that they also closed it early last year, again for retracking. Last year, it actually caught on fire right beforehand, causing many people to ask why the Sandusky fire department acted so quickly. Fortunately, the retracking seems to be doing the ride a lot of good. I had fun on MS for the first time ever this year.

^ In the Room of Requirement with the Soak City announcement?

^ Ah! Wasn't aware of that! Learn something every day. Thanks for correcting me!