brenthodge

There is this CRAZY thing called weather. It affects artificial fog. I swear, do we need to turn every windy night into a budget cut conspiracy theory?!?

The pics I’ve seen from Dominion, I’d say the cost seems to be justified. Seems like a better all around event just from what I’ve seen. Anyone know how the parade is going at Carrowinds? The first night videos looked pretty poorly watched.

So was the witch spell casting show cut as well? The game show seems like basically a lateral (worse) move to the bandstand, but the daytime entertainment options seem pretty bad for this years Tricks and Treats

Keep in mind atmospheric pressure has a huge affect on artificial fog. When the air is damp and heavy like last night, it can hang a lot more.

Yeah. I cringed a bit when I saw that post.

Right, as Disneyland has gotten into the Halloween game more and more, Knotts can go darker and more adult oriented to carve out a different niche. We have no Disney to do family friendly, so instead we try to do both as cheaply and inefficiently as possible these days.

I would be all for a better -solid surface material-might have to add a few support poles since there’s really not a lot to attach to, but that would be terrible for sight lines if they were just 6” -8” diameter or so metal support poles. As much as I’ve really enjoyed OffTheRails, I don’t love how it totally obscures what was a pretty flexible and attractive base set for a review show. They’ve not really used the side stages much in recent years, and I love to see that theatre and bandstand be more late afternoon/evening rotation to give live E options after 6 or so.

Love that idea, but agree they would need to redo the seating. I wish they would rework that anyway with more of a stepped terrace style seating with tables/chairs on the stepped levels. Could make it almost an “outdoor festhaus” style venue with food from French Corner and TomCher being brought in. The seating or rarely full and it could transform easily into this, but don’t see that happening.

At the rate things are going this season, I could see this as the justification to just kill “sounds of the nativity” instead of finding a new home for it.

Right? It seems like the ship has sailed on the all out adult focussed event of days gone by. Why not make a few more intense experiences that are really “R” rated. A few PG13 scare zones and the rest PG “spooky” with lighting, in great shape props and creative ride overlays that cost almost nothing extra to run yet give a whole new, marketable experience from 7-12am. They are trying to do so much with less and no one is happy. And why in gods name when they have drug out tons of Dios de los Murray props and randomly plopped them for years, when we have a Latin themed area , they don’t use them there and make a fully integrated area - sane with pirate ship stuff -put it over by Viking.

Right. So that’s why maybe it’s time to retool the entire event and make it all a more family friendly with certain “adult oriented” areas. Provide activities for younger while the more intense events are going on and set a hard age minimum for being in certain areas.

Wow. You did get deep! LOL. I was just trying to think logistics since it seems like the park is trying to make a fully immersive experience on a $1.25 budget these days. It seems they aren’t even sure what HAUNT is anymore and I agree it should be a different-adult focussed event, but if they are trying to be all things at once- then I think they need to be all of those things well instead of a shell of an event just trying to be what it “always used to be”

I’m switching to your camp here. And make the scare zones more focussed so they can do less with more. Then really push the limit with 2-3 “adult” mazes and 2-3 “pg-13”. Make 1-2 more intense scare zones with live actors you can bypass and 1-2 “spooky” but just props, music and lighting -like IStreet and Coney being great theming and save the live actors for other areas. Maybe make I street into Planet Snoopy a pumpkin luminights type area like Dollywood to give a place for the families with younger kids to hang if they have to be in the park for the older siblings. At this point I think they’ve got to give up the park-wide haunted aspect since it seems like they basically have anyway.

Wow… bad bad!

It’s at 7:30, so yeah… at the beginning of the event.

No funeral for Vortex sadly.

Anyone seen parade(s) at Carrowinds? I’m not sure how I feel about it. I was bummed we weren’t one of the pilot parks, but now…? Eh. It’s a bit cringy during the “nightmare” version and a bit weak with the Tricks and Treats version. Almost wish they would combine into one , less scary, better staged, with peanuts trick or treat costumes characters super strong parade. Maybe it just happens at the “end” of daily ops to give a “walk out” to that crowd. I’m surprised with budget cuts they are running or 2x. It’s not working for me having “dancing Freddy” and choreography that’s way too “happy” and not slutty enough LOL. The crowd at least on the clips I’ve seen from Friday night didn’t seem that enthusiastic, but I get that it’s early in the run. I’m sure they will be watching this investment closely, but it doesn’t seem needed to keep people in the park later the way it’s currently structured and timed.

Totally agree. Went to water park 1x this year. So wish it would be reconfigured as a stand alone gate so it would be its own revenue segment and they could use the gate fees to really improve it, give discounted price to dry park passholders, and not have to spread the live as much like now where it is just an “area” of the park.

more like the budget to pay for it all

yeah - thats clearly a budget issue - they already HAD the game show idea over by Hanks - this is essentially a cutback - not an add. Pretty weak overall lineup.

On this note -and with budget cuts - I cant for the life of me figure out why they don't look for creative ways to PLUS existing rides and attractions with lighting, fog, minimal animatronics and projection mapping to up the HAUNT attraction count without increasing run cost significantly outside of initial investment in tech. These things could easily be hidden (or not - knowing how sloppy the park is with tech equipment the rest of the year) and quickly uncovered and turned on at the start of haunt. Glowing eyes following you on The Beast. Cursed skeletons come to life on Adventure Express. Demon aliens take over Flight of Fear. Almost all of the major rides could have overlays that would make it feel WAY more immersive without hiring tons of live cast

Never understood why Dollywood discontinued that. Was wonderful! Especially for first time visits-could check out the park, get a feel for it- have dinner and still come back the next day. By not feeling like you had to “cram it all in one day” I know we spent way more time eating and shopping since we also felt like we got “a bargain” on the park. Seem like short sighted, bottom line thinking that got rid of it.

Right. That’s from Carrowinds if you read the post. That was what the conversation was about.

https://www.facebook.com/100064487422992/posts/pfbid0XKP13cfkhhNVj8cfedaHXdU5oKXV65HYno5nsvRZEMGmhRc6LFqwr4nrqPuPgFCRl/?mibextid=cr9u03

Anyone know anything about this down in Charlotte? Haunt Parade??