gabelogan99

Awesome. This means that if I end up going Sunday, we'll be able to stay into the dark hours and I'll get to go through Massacre Manor--the only major HH attraction I didn't get to do that I wanted to do last Saturday. I'll have to get on the phone and let the rest of my little group know that The Beast will be open at night!

Well I vowed to try to make it back to HH when it wasn't so crowded, so I did. I went on Friday and there is a big difference between Friday and Saturday, crowd wise. It wasn't nearly as crowded for HH as it was last Saturday. My main compliment has to do with the entire atmosphere of the park as a whole. I loved it. I didn't expect that many monsters in the front, and it really makes a great mood-setter with all of them lurking around up there. But there was just so much improvement that I saw all over the park when it came to themeing and scareacters. So that was my favorite part of Halloween Haunt, although I will say that the front of the park is CRAZY crowded with people at 7 on Fridays. Add people running around like monsters (this doesn't even include the "real" monsters), and you have quite a scene. But I really embraced it, and I loved it. The first thing my aunt and I did was Redbeard's Revenge. There was absolutely no line for it, so we figured why the heck not. It's something I wanted to do anyways. It wasn't really as scary as I thought it would be. But it wasn't really all that bad either. I'd say my expectations were certainly met. Next we rode The Beast. And by this time it was pretty dark and riding The Beast in the dark is not something I get to do all that often, so that was great. We then went on our way towards AZ and stopped by Adventure Express on the way for another great night time ride. Action Zone wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected it to be. We waited about 20 minutes for Club Blood and although I had high expectations, they were certainly met. Some things made me jump a little bit, but overall I didn't think it was that scary either. Then we made our way into Coney Maul, which was packed. We kind of checked out the line for Massacre Manor and Death Row and they were both long so we figured we might just wait to do them. (I didn't really want to do Death Row anyways.) But Coney Maul is definitely a great area to get spooked. I loved the themeing here, too. We met up with some friends who were just coming out of the long Firehawk line and we decided to go on Vortex. (By the way, something HUGE went down in The Vortex queue later that night, around 12:30. There was a big racially motivated fight that had the Mason PD out there hauling people away. I was gone by then, but my cousin saw the whole thing and told me the next day.) We had a great night time ride on Vortex and then after that our group hoofed it back to AZ. We all decided to ride Drop Zone. I had never done it before at night, but for some reason it still didn't strike the fear into my heart that it usually does. I was in seat #1 for the first time, right by SkyFlyer. Then we decided to ride The Beast. (We had to go via Coney Maul due to path closures.) When we got to The Beast the line was really long. My aunt and I wanted to focus more on the HH attractions so we decided to leave the group and go do another haunt. But then everyone else decided to do the same thing so we went to carnEVIL. Now, first of all, carnEVIL was nowhere near where I thought it was. I thought it was in the midway but, as you know, I was dead wrong. I had not planned on doing this because I didn't think it would really be that great. And the line for it was pretty long when we got there. We waited about 30-45 minutes for it. I didn't expect much, so I will say that I got more than what I expected. This turned out to be a pretty good "haunt" although nothing too Halloween-oriented made it just ok in my opinion. It was about midnight and I decided to leave so we could get a jump on the traffic and such. I didn't get to do The Cemetery or Massacre Manor but I'm not completely ruling out another trip to HH this Saturday or maybe even going on a Bare Bones night. (I'm almost certain I'll be going on Sunday with a small group, this will probably be my last trip to KI this year.) These two things could be there next year, too. I give the Haunt an unprecedented 9 out of 10 and hope it just improves in years to come.

Oh yeah, I mean all I really said was I don't know...I don't know everything and I don't pretend to know everything. But I haven't been convinced either way. I'm sure that the PR department typically knows what they're talking about though.

I wouldn't necessarily take second hand information like that. That might be how it's SUPPOSED to work, but I am seriously doubting whether it really works that way or not. Now, my aunt did it fair and square because she did buy a 2008 pass, she did not have a 2007 pass, so she used her free ticket to get in Friday. However, I did not stick by her to notice if her picture came up when they scanned her ticket at the gate or not. And I'm almost positive that the picture doesn't come up when they scan the ticket at the window, because I did kind of pay attention to that. So, again, there's a difference in what something is intended to do and what actually is the case. And, again, I do have a little of actual experience in the department. But I won't say I'm confident about anything because I really don't know. At this point, I'm not convinced either way. Nobody has posted anything yet to make me think differently than I originally did, though. I'm also pretty sure that someone posted that a current employee in the admissions department suggested that someone give their free ticket to someone if they had no use for it. But I'm positive that there is a total lack of communication, and that can't be argued about or denied because it's a fact. Miscommunication leads to confusion for everyone, so nobody should really be held accountable for their actions if they're confused about something. And since there aren't too many days left of this anyways, I don't think that there will be much more fussing about it.

Thanks for the confirmation on that. I'll admit it's been hard to keep up with all of the new policies.

If they try to pull that with anyone else, just try to do one discount ticket at a time. Meaning, don't try to put multiple ones on the same order. I hate hearing stories like Degen's... the make me even more embarrassed. But, again, I have no affilaition anymore to the department...but still... ugh.

A quick side note before I begin...I am a FORMER employee in the department of admissions back when Parmount owned the park. So I don't necessarily have any sort of loyalty to the department anymore, and certainly not the company it is run by. I'm not necessarily the best one to answer questions, but since the admissions department is not currently represented on KIC, I guess I'm the next best thing. I went to the park last night for Halloween Haunt. I had a great time and a trip report may be coming, but I wanted to get the ticketing info out there first. While the overall night was really fun, getting into the park was something a little different. THE FREE TICKET OFFER FOR '08 PASS BUYERS My aunt and I went straight to the ticket window as soon as we got there. She had a 2008 pass that she wanted to use to get a free ticket to get in for that night. The admissions associate, Jimmy, who by the way is a GREAT guy that I worked with when I was there, knew nothing of the free ticket. He called over his supervisor, who I did not know, and she also knew nothing of it. But there was a guy who works in marketing directing people in the ticket line and he came over and not only knew about the offer, but knew how to do it on the computer. So, anyways, she got her free ticket but only after the supervisor imput her information into the system. They are not letting associates print the comp tickets for the free day in October. They do scan your pass and they do electronically keep track to see if you've already got your free ticket, so don't try anything fancy because I can gurantee it won't work. But, again, admissions was totally clueless as to what was going on. I felt a little ashamed of my former department. I will say this though, this was the first day that the new policies really came into affect. I think after today it should be better. How to bring a friend FREE during October EDIT: Everything I know about this is only unconfirmed. I won't post information on it since I really don't know what's going on. At the end of the season, when it doesn't matter anymore anyways, I'll tell my conclusions on it. THE DISCOUNT TICKETS FOR PASS HOLDERS The Admissions Department was also clueless to this offer. Once again, the marketing guy knew about it. But there was still a problem. I tried to buy two tickets at $14.95 for my cousin and her boyfriend, but the computer would not allow it. I knew that I had read you could buy up to SIX at that price. The marketing guy even disagreed with me on that one. So in order to get two tickets, I used my 2007 pass to get one, and my aunt used her 2008 pass to get one. So it doesn't matter if you have an '07 or '08 pass, you can buy discount tickets regardless. But the problem still remains that it seems like you can only buy one. But we were trying to get multiple tickets with one pass on a single order. However, I'm betting that you can get six tickets but they can't all be on the same order. I'm kicking myself for not trying to use my pass both times to get the tickets, which should be totally "legal" in the first place but I didn't try it. It seems like they have some bugs to work out, and really I'm the one that was bugged by the whole thing, now that I'm just a paying customer. Instead of posting the same information as someone else, read this: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11111 (By the way, it IS the Return Visit booth that you have to go to in order to do this. It's in the park across from the lockers.) I can't BELIEVE that I didn't think to do this before it was too late. Because my dad had a ticket last week and I could have upgraded his ticket to a season pass. But I don't know if it would have gone in as an upgrade from my '07 pass and I might not have got my free parking. Now, however, there are UNCONFIRMED reports that they are giving free parking for next season whether it's an upgrade from an '07 pass or not. This method works best if this is your first season pass and you can definitely finagle two free visits instead of one. I discovered this, because of my expereince in the department, but was deciding wether to post it or not so I'm glad that I don't have to make the moral decision anymore. lol They have run out of the vouchers for free jackets, too, I was informed by Jimmy. I would say as long as you have your pass, and as long as you have a copy of the printout you used to get your pass, you shouldn't have a problem. Even though they will take your paper when you get your pass processed, make sure to keep a copy somwhere either a printout or just keep it on your computer somewhere until you need it. That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it. Please also post questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

You know it's weird because I had this discussion with my dad a couple of nights ago. He said that he thought it was strange that they would have skeletons on the old cars of Son of Beast when people got hurt. But I told him that nobody died, and if someone did die then it would be different. Then he mentioned the skeletons in the pond and said that perhaps that wasn't the best idea, since people really did die in there. But honestly that didn't enter my mind when I saw that. I'd say the majority of the people that go to the park don't even know about that event, but I don't know if that makes it "right" but I don't know if it's necessarily wrong either. As far as the office display, I think I'm more "offended" by the references to Pavarotti and Anna Nicole Smith than the Owen Wilson reference. In other words, I guess it's not terribly funny since it's true. But I only noticed those names in the picture of the display that was posted. I did NOT notice them when I was there looking at it so it may have been changed. But it also could mean that I wasn't paying real close attention. I'm just a little surprised that nobody has come to the defense of the truly dead as opposed to the attempted dead. And as far as things being funny or not funny, sometimes it takes time for tragic things to be funny. On that note, I'll end with this thought...Nothing Owen Wilson has done in the past two years has been successful. The only movie I've ever liked him in was Armageddon...and his character died in that. Is that ironic?

Or after a hotel for that matter? What did they do, just decide to name their daughter after their favorite hotel? I think I'm going to name my kid Orlando Howard Johnson...which actually doesn't sound too bad... Back on to the topic, I knew what this was going to be about before I even opened it. Human behavior is pretty easy to predict, but I didn't know if the complaint was gonna be about the display as a whole or one particular part of it. Either way, I found it pretty funny. But then again, I have a sense of humor about things. And honestly it didn't even enter my mind why his name was crossed out, although I had heard of his attempted suicide. I think there might be a complete misinterpretation altogether of why the name is crossed out, it might not have anything to do with his attempted suicide--it would be pretty hard to prove, either way. If it was a succesful suicide, I doubt there would have been any reference to it.

Thanks. It's nice to hear from someone who has actually done it. Now I'd like to hear from someone who has tried using their 2008 pass to get a free ticket and in turn give that ticket to someone else to use. This has already been discussed, and the only reason you would do it is if you had a 2007 pass and thus not really have much of a use for a free ticket. I would imagine, and again I have a few months experience in the admissions department, but if your picture or anything is not associated with the ticket they give you, then I would suspect that you can just give it to anyone to use. It doesn't say that you can do this on their site. But it also doesn't say that you can't, they only place some "restrictions" on discount tickets, not the free ones. But hey, that could just be another added benefit that they're giving to 2007 pass holders along with free parking for next year. This would truly be a bring a friend free benefit, although not an advertised one. All this stuff interests me, I guess it's because I used to work in Admissions...and if I still did I would probably be able to answer all of these questions... maybe. lol

Did you show them your pass from this year? When I got mine done they scanned my pass for this year and just transferred everything to the pass for next year. If you didn't let them know you were a 2007 passholder, then they wouldn't have done that.

Thanks Interpreter. I had not received that e-mail. I knew that it had been copied from somewhere, I just couldn't figure out where. Looks like it's gonna be another weekend of October fun at KI for me. I'll be there Friday night and Sunday.

BoddaH: I have not seen or heard any official word that this is true yet. Can you point me to where it says this on their site? Also, I'm assuming that you can only do this at the park and not online, which is fine.

Yeah, if I end up going to HH again I think I want to add The Cemetery to the somewhat short list of things I'd like to go through. Besides, I'm kinda already familiar with that terrain...unlike the houses, which I've never been inside before.

I guess I'll go ahead and throw in my two cents, since it's such a hot topic... This show was completely over hyped by pretty much everyone on here. My expectations were extremely high and I expected something completely different than what I saw. But I still gave this a 3 out of 5. I had no idea they changed the show and then changed it again. The show I saw on Saturday looked more like the video of it posted on Youtube, so apparently they've changed it back. (I saw the video after actually seeing the show.) I didn't really notice if the guy was shirtless or not, but I really think he did have a shirt on. I did notice that the "B" word is no longer used in the show, and as for the "F" word? It's weird...I know what song that word appears in, but look up the lyrics to that song some time, and you may be surprised. I'll discuss this further a little later, maybe. I'll say that they did a good job of choosing the songs--a lot of contemporary stuff there. Was any of it better than the original? Not that I heard--except of course for maybe the song "Toxic" which has probably never been truly performed live, at least not by the original "artist". (I just realized that someone else made pretty much the same comment...LOL.) There's no denying the talent of the performers though, that's why I can't give this anything less than a 3 out of 5. And I can't really give it more than that because it is all singing, there is no real apparent story line (although there is something to be said about the title), and it's nothing all that edgy in my opinion. There are shows just as edgy on network television. But I had the same experience as most of you: people were laughing, walking out, and I overheard at least two people make comments as to how many kids there were in the theater after the announcement came over.

Oh no don't get me wrong. I love seeing the spooks and stuff like that. I think it's great and it's better than ever this year. I just don't know if I like being blindsided, although I'm sure at some point I will be, especially if I go back this Friday. I enjoy it very much and want to go back at least one more time. I especially liked it when I just would hear random screaming from time to time around the Eiffel Tower Saturday night. That was a sure sign that a spook was near by, but that's really the only area I was around and it was while I was waiting for the gates to the theater to open for Dead Awakening.

My aunt got her season pass when she upgraded her single-day ticket earlier this month, but we don't really know if she can still use her 2008 pass to get in one day for free since she kind of already did. Being the "expert" I am on the topic, I'd say that it's in the computer that anyone can get in one day for free, regardless of how they obtained their pass. I doubt very seriously anyone can answer this question and that's what I told my aunt. Even if she called, they probably wouldn't know exactly what to tell her. But I'm guessing that she'll be able to get in free Friday if we go, and the only way to find out is to try.

So I posted a TR for the 13th, promising another visit the next day, which was yesterday. Me and my dad went and we went early. The very first thing we did was Firehawk since he had never rode it. So we did it and waited an extra train for the front. Only about a 15 minute wait total. Then we immediately rode Flight of Fear after and walked right on to it. On our way to The Beast from Vortex we stopped at Italian Job. Neither of us had ever rode it before. We both ended up liking it and even rode it a second time later on in the day before ending with The Beast again. We didn't wait long for anything. I'd say it was a tie between Firehawk and Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle. We did everything big except The Racer (and recaR), Delirium, and Drop Zone (although I noticed that there was absolutely no line for these things and we could have walked onto them if we wanted to) and then we left around 3:30. The lines for everything were much shorter on Sunday than Saturday. If you don't care about Halloween Haunt attractions, Sunday is the day to go in October. I have never done so much in such a short amount of time. But Saturday was still very cool, I thought, even though I didn't do any of the mazes. I loved seeing the transformation of the park at night though on Saturday. The difference is truly night and day. But ultra short lines on Sunday made it a little better in that respect.

Well, first of all the park looked great. I loved the scenery and they did a great job putting everything together. My favorite had to be the display by Emporium. But I have to say I also loved all of the old Phontom Theater memoribiila they had "spread around" (the majority of it is in the same place, but be on the lookout nonetheless.) One other thing to keep in mind: I was by myself the whole day. Me and my dad are going tomorrow (Sunday). Now, I like Halloween things but haven't been exactly notorius for going to haunted houses and things like that. So here's how it went down: I only wanted to do three of the haunts: Red Beard's Revenge, Massacre Manor, and, of course, Club Blood. I also wanted to catch Dead Awakening. So 7 PM rolls around and I'm sitting in the Festhaus watching the football game and it's really good. So, I have to admit I was a bit freightened to go out there, especially by myself because I knew I'd be a pretty easy target. And as soon as I set foot out of the Festhaus around 7:15 there's a guy banging on a bio hazzard can like a madman coming inches away from crashing into people. I liked it, but maybe only because I wasn't in the group he decided to target, they were walking the other way, towards Festhaus near Delerium. I knew the key to not being blindsided by a spook was to constantly watch my back and walk with a group of people, or in between two groups even if I could manage. I also figured that the spooks wouldn't go after certain people. People with strollers, the handicapped, etc. I may or may not have used that to my advantage. So, anyways, I make my way to Coney Maul and to Massacre Manor. (I had scouted out precisely where everything was eariler that day.) Then I walk. And I walk. And then I walk some more, clear to Dodgems (bumper cars.) that's where the line was. Some guy who was not affiliated with the park came along saying it would be a three hour wait. I didn't know whether to trust that or not. I stood there for five minutes and then walked back inside the Festhaus to watch the rest of the game. The game was practically over, so I figured I should make my way over to the theater to see Dead Awakening. I had high expectations that weren't exactly met, but I'd still give it a 6/7 out of 10. (By the way, it's not R-rated.) It wasn't too bad. That's the only Halloween Haunt attraction I ended up doing and then I went home after the show. I don't know what I'm gonna do now...I may possibly go next Friday with my aunt since we can both go for free, but I've heard through the KIC grapevines that the Friday crowds are now starting to get ridiculous. So then I start thinking about Bare Bones. According to KI's official website, mazes will be open along with select rides (and if I went for the mazes I wouldn't even care about the rides.) So I'm thinking... Ok.. go during the week. It will be a school night. Everything you want to do will be open. What could possibly go wrong? But I don't know for sure if everything I want to do will indeed be open, because of confusing language used on their official site. Maybe we'll find out more about it as it approaches. Either way, I'll probably end up going next Friday anyways but don't know if I'll get to do everything. I'd still like to see about going on a Bare Bones night, too. I was at the park at opening time today. I did everything I wanted to do, ride wise. Didn't wait more than about 45 minutes for anything, but I skipped Firehawk, Racer, Recar, and Dodgems. I made a giant circle around the park, doing everything only once, then I ate at the Festhaus. I didn't venture into Rivertown after dark. Next time.

So here's the deal, it's October. I'm back. Yipee. Ok so we got that out of the way. First of all I want to say I have been to KI for FearFest but have never really participated in FearFest activities. However, since I have a pass this year I think I will check it out. I like halloween and halloween-oriented things but just have a couple of questions about the elements: (by the way a lot of you have done a great job of reporting without giving away too many spoilers. but overall I don't like big surprises. I have already decided what I'm doing and what I'm not doing.) First of all, you keep on using the term "maze" when describing things like Massacre Manor and Club Blood. So there's two parts to my question/concern: Can you get lost in these? Are you walking through all by yourself when you go through them? I mean, it sounds like you can get lost/hurt while going through Death Row so I've ruled that one out I think. Probably won't do the Clown one either... Clowns don't freighten me. I won't necessarily change my mind on any info that anyone can give me, but I just want to be in control of at least SOME of the elements. Oh and I'm not doing the one where you crawl/get wet. No thank you. I'm just not entirely familiar with the concept of the haunted house I guess. But I will continue to protest that this type of thing fascinates me for some unexplained reason and I want to particiapate this year. Aterall, everyone is saying it's the year to do it. So, these are just elemental questions. Things some people don't think about then haphazardly go into it and freak out because of something. I guess the good thing is I'm not squemish at all. Also, and this is more of a general KI thing... do the gates still open an hour early in October before the rides start? If anyone can answer this and nothing else, that's fine. It would save me a phone call to GR.

You know, I noticed that too a while back, but I had kinda forgotten about it. It's very cool.

I'm guessing it's all you can eat while you are back there in the picnic grove between the hours of 3:30 and 5 PM.

Yeah, I'll ride SoB again for sure. They're gonna improve it, it's going to be better than ever, and everything will work out perfectly. (at least I'm praying it will) Anyways, about the dates... most people know what 666 is. 555 and 777 usually trip people up though. And, by the way, about not being able to do it after 12/12/12, according to the Mayans, there won't be any dates past 12/21/2012 as the world will "abrubptly come to an end." Of course, that's if you believe the Mayans lol. I know this can get off topic real quick so I'll stop. I went a little crazy with the History Channel over the weekend. Nostradamus, the Mayans, the Bible... it never ends...lol.

Yeah... like I said I'm somewhat familiar with it because it's probably about the same quality as they had for the picnic for employees. (Not sure if Cedar Fair is doing that or not.) And also they used to have something similar at Wyandot Lake. I'm probably going to choose Friday, since I don't want it to be the first day and I don't want it to be on Saturday. I'll probably arrive over there around 4 or so since it only lasts until 5.

I will be there all three days of SpirtSong (7/5 7/6 and 7/7) even though I'm not actually going to attend any concerts. For the first time ever (excluding the year I worked there), I'm getting a KI season pass and I'm very excited about it. My aunt bought it online for me as an early birthday present and I'll be taking it to have it processed on the first day, the 5th. She and my brother actually are going to a few, but not all, concerts for SpiritSong. So, I know how SpiritSong days can be... I usually go every year at least one day of it. And I know how the crowds can be on the Saturday of because I've been there on Saturday the past two years. The Saturday of SpiritSong is typically the busiest day of the entire operating season, so I hope you're bracing yourself as I am. I will most likely spend most of the afternoon sitting by the "beach" in BB. I will hit the rides in the early hours and the late hours. By the way... I'm making a Nostradamus-like prediction for 7/7/07. What will happen on 7/7/07? The same thing that happened on 5/5/05 and 6/6/06...nothing. So... we're done with the "biblical" numbers, at least for another thousand years.