Halloween Haunt 10/13/07

[Delirium13]

So, me and a group of friends decided to head up to Kings Island for Halloween Haunt, this was going to be my first Halloween Haunt experience and after all the hype I was pretty excited. We arrived at about 6:15ish, at which point the park was already crowded, which I had expected because it was a Saturday, and the park looked great, not too much of an improvement from FearFest last year in terms of decorating (the biggest improvement being that the whole park is a lot more thoroughly decorated from the CarnEvil (area, not maze) in Coney Maul to the Wasteland in the Action Zone, everything looked good), but it still looked nice. The bad thing about the theming this year is that some of it seemed cheaper to me than in years past, or at least cheaper than decorations at an event touted as being Bigger, Badder, and Better - the doll house by dorothy and thie wicked witch comes to mind, not mention the overuse of skeletons in old halloween costumes throughout the park. There were a few higher quality decorations, such as the big red alien thing under the water tower in the Action Zone. - Overall the park looked great, but there still were things I would change and I don't think that the decorations were worth a name change, sure they were an improvement over last year. But last years FearFest was an improvement over the year before and 2005 was better than 2004 and so on, so to me this just seemed like a continuation of FearFest with a new name rather than a whole new Halloween event. Now onto the Haunts:

First up was Club Blood: We went straight to the line right when we walked in so the wait wasn't to long once they finally opened it up and started sending people through at 7. Overall I would say that this is a pretty good haunt, especially in terms of theming in the maze, it only made me jump a few times though. I did feel welcome inside though, as that seemed to be the phrase of choice everytime someone jumped out. Most of the scareacters would jump out, say "Welcome" and hide again. And in my opinion, the hospital part towards the end was weird and pointless, I thought it was a club. 6/10 - Good theming but the scareacters could be better. It's also too short.

Next we decided on CarnEvil. This is when I found out for myself how inconvenient the way they do the Scare Zones is. It takes a lot longer to navigate the park with the lines for the scarezones and the the fact that they are one way. This is something I would like to see changed next year, it hurts traffic flow throughout the park they aren't really worth too long of a wait.

Once we finally reached CarnEvil we got into a line that was backed up past Chick-Fil-A, this is where I must agree with skjackson or whatever his name is when he says that the lines are unorganized. I saw several people ask what a few lines were for. The line did move surprisingly fast though. I had been looking forward to CarnEvil since I had had a good time in it last year, unfortunately I was pretty bored this time around. I was last in the group and none of the scares were aimed at me, which makes for a pretty boring maze. 3/10 - I was extremely let down, I didn't jump at all and there were a lot of dead spots.

Next up was Trail of Terror, where we encountered the insult witch lady, who apparently took most of her insults from Chucky's Insult Emporium at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, reworded them and made them less funny. The funniest part for me was watching the people she was making fun of because a lot of them were taking it personally. Me and my friends decided to have some fun with it so put my hood up and stood right in front of the house thing she was in, while my friend filmed it on his phone. She called me emo and told me to commit suicide, which I found funny but some others may not. I think a better way to do the insult thing is to do it like Universal does, I mean they've already taken most of the jokes from there so they may as well finish the job, and make it a show, with show times and in a separate area, and maybe let people know that they are going to be insulted.

I'm all for Halloween Haunt being more edgy but there is a better way to do some of the things. If they did it like a little show where you know you are going to be insulted, and come up with more insults instead of a 5 minute loop of jokes which always ended in the lady saying a joke she had just said not too long ago, someone from the crowd yelling, "You've already said that, to which the lady always responded by saying something like how the person has no life because they've been standing there that long. It wasn't the funniest. If you want funny go to YouTube and find Chucky's Insult Emporium that is funny stuff, it's a lot more inappropriate than the witch lady at King Island (so if you think she is bad you probably shouldn't watch the video), but it is a lot better done and if you listen you'll hear some of the jokes that the lady stole, only they'll be funny.

Anyways onto Trail of Terror: another let down filled with dead spots. They were doing a continuous conga line which made matters worse. 1/10 - Not scary, but at least I didn't have to wait long for it.

After that it was getting late so we decided to go through at least one more haunted house before leaving, so we made our way through the crowd of very inconsiderate people who apparently had no idea how to walk and saw that the WorkSite had no line so we decided it would be a good shortcut. We went through, there weren't many people and the people that were there were just pushing barrels and scraping shovels. 3/10 - It scared some of the girls in our group a few times. (In defense of the WorkSite, it was 10x better when I went through it the next week)

Last, but definately not least, Red Beard's Revenge: Cowboy Carnage with pirates is the quickest way to sum things up. That actually isn't a bad thing because I enjoyed Cowboy Carnage last year and this year was just as good, if not a little better. Not much changed though. 8/10 - Highlight of the night.

Observations:

• The new host wasn't as good as the Undertaker. He needed a stage or something.
• The crowds were almost unbearable, and before anyone says it, YES I KNEW I WAS GOING ON A SATURDAY.
• It wasn't much of an improvement over FearFest, in fact I had a better time at FearFest last year (mostly because I went on Fridays) But it definately didn't need a name change because it was completely different and a lot more scary.
• I did see part of Dead Awakening (When they were doing Thnks fr th Mmrs) and it seemed pretty good.
• As much as many people will disagree with me, I'm happy that Kings Island is making Halloween Haunt more suggestive, it definately lived up to the "Badder" part of the Bigger, Badder, Better logo.
• I can't wait till it's an upcharge next year.

What needs to be changed:

1. The scarezones need to be open, with no lines and go both ways.
2. They need new haunted houses, and until they can fill out all the dead spots in the number they have, they need less haunted houses. I would rather there be fewer, higher quality, packed with scares, than the number they have now. Quality over Quantity.
3. The greeters outside of the Haunts didn't seem as into it this year, with the exception of the traffic cop outside of the WorkSite.
4. The whole set up of the insult thing, as mentioned above.
5. And once again I can't wait till it's an upcharge next year. Hopefully it'll be a less crowded, higher quality event.

Although this whole report may seem negative, I have confidence that these comments can be taken and help turn Halloween Haunt into a premier event. At least I hope so because I love Halloween events. Maybe next year Halloween Haunt will earn its new name instead of being another FearFest as I feel this event was.

Thanks for reading.

[standbyme]

Although this whole report may seem negative, I have confidence that these comments can be taken and help turn Halloween Haunt into a premier event. At least I hope so because I love Halloween events. Maybe next year Halloween Haunt will earn its new name instead of being another FearFest as I feel this event was.

VERY nice trip report...and well thought out. I did not see your report as simply negative. I think your criticisms were not only on taget but should be considered constructive.

I, like you think the overhyped name change was not really necessary...except for saving Cedar Fair the expense and trouble of having to make both Fearfest and Halloween Haunt shirts for their parks!

[Karen]

I agree it is a very good trip report. I do not agree on some of your comments but totally agree in the way you made them - not as simply insulting but as constructive remarks to be looked at.

I have been to all of the attractions and will admit that some do have open spots but that is totally up to when you visit them as at a certain time the younger scare actors must be clocked out by midnight.

I went to Trail of Terror - past the Tassles the "witch" - I did enjoy her insults and bantering very much but then I do not go on those sites you mentioned so to me they were fresh. Possibly to others they were as well as not everyone is into the same things. As for the Trail Of Terror they did not do a conga line but I did not enjoy that much because of the very rough path. I am in a wheelchair. I used Kings Island Scooters provided on that particular trail and the park hosts were nice enough to drive my chair to the end of the trail for me. Still the trail was so rough that I spent more time trying to navagate and was not able to get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. Still what I did was very much fun and I did receive enough scares to make it worth while once. The path is wheelchair accessible but with great difficulty.

I sincerely hope you can attend it again on a less crowded day as some of the attractions you did not go to are really awesome! Massacre Manor, Tombstone TerrorTory, Death Row and The Cemetery are among my favorites this year.

I have gone to each attraction, except Trail of Terror, at least twice and each time the experience was different. Some days are simply better than others.

[Delirium13]

Thanks for all the comments, and thank you for recognizing it as constructive criticism and not bashing. I love Kings Island and want it to succeed and have the best Halloween event possible, but unfortunately they didn't deliver. All these comments are meant to help in improving the event.

I did go on less crowded day, but with much less time and here is what I did: Short Trip Report

Once again, I don't mean to sound negative but Halloween Haunt was very overhyped. And telling a member of the General Public that had a bad experience in a haunted attraction that it was probably the time they went through is not going to appease them. They waited in a long line and they are going to expect everyone to be on the top of their game. I seriously think that Kings Island could definately benefit by reducing the number of mazes at Halloween Haunt until they have enough scareacters to fill them and fill them well. Get rid of the long dead spots. Raise the quality of the scares, theming, etc. Remember once again: Quality Over Quantity. A guest is not going to have a good time simply because something is a big event. But they will have a good time if it is a quality event. If you can get both of those elements together and create a large high quality event, such as Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, then you are going to have a great event. At the moment though, Kings Island only has a large Halloween event. Not a quality one. I hope they can make the necessary changes for next year, because what they have this year isn't really at the level that an upcharged Halloween event should be. I have high confidence that Kings Island can do this, but until then they are only going to have the quantity, not the quality.

[hauntguy]

^Remind me sometime in the future to discuss some points your bring up! -Hauntguy