Fright Feast review with lots of photos

[standbyme]

Being that I live in Illinois and there is a lot of driving time involved, I figured that the trip report I posted for my Halloween Haunt opening weekend would be about my last trek to Kings Island this year…but luckily I was wrong! Now anyone who has read my thoughts about HH this year know that I have been a little critical of it. (Nothing more than Fearfest with a new name and a LITTLE more “mature audience” stuff.) I think that Cedar Fair and Paramount are both equally as good at getting your hopes up that you are going to see something really amazing…only to be let down. (I.E. Boomerang Bay, IJST…and Halloween Haunt.) Maybe if I didn’t fall for the hype I would be happier…but I AM learning to not get my expectations too high. Anyway, with that said, what got me to drive all the way back to the park this year…Fright Feast did! I saw a picture posted of the food being served out of a casket and figured that looked too cool to pass up…I didn’t want to miss the chance to experience that. (Especially if the park doesn’t do it next year.)

Usually when my family goes to the park we make the drive “worth the while” and stay two days…this was only going to be for about a half a day visit to the park! (We did not plan on staying for Haloween Haunt…especially with the way the crowds have been…and I knew that the last Saturday of HH was going to be packed.)

We left our town at about 7:00 A.M. and arrived at the park at about 12:15.

I won’t bore any of the younger people in here with how we spent the day in Nickelodeon Universe with the little ones…but that is always a great time. It really is weird how even when you love riding coasters and all the other adult rides, you don’t mind giving them all up for the day because it’s JUST as much fun watching your kid “light up” when they are riding their rides. (And THAT is what Kings Island is about to me…family time and great memories down the road.) We spent the whole day up until 5:00 in Nickelodeon Universe. The only comment about Nick-Or-Treat that I will comment on is…What is the park thinking having Spongebob’s foam maze running on a “cold” day. We were not “stupid” enough to go into it, but tons of kids were. It also appeared that their were several sorry people who didn’t quite comprehend how wet their kids would be when they came out. It just seemed cruel to even put the temptation in front of the kids.

The only thing that I did that was outside NU was fill up one of those “$10.00 all of the Paramount stuff you can fit in a bag” specials early in the morning. It was around 12:45 when I did this. I was just walking by the shop when an employee outside “lured” me in! I took a bag from her and went inside to see what might be left…and it wasn’t much…but they did have something I wanted badly…30th Anniversary maps! A long time ago I started a project where I needed LOTS of maps. I contacted the park about buying some in bulk but they said they thought they were all gone…so I was surprised to see a stack sitting on the table. The employee was standing near me and so I asked her how it worked again…she said “Whatever you put in the bag it’s $10.00”. So I said…“So I could put that WHOLE stack of maps in my sack and that would be ok?” She said yes…and so I reached over and took them all…when she saw me do it she smiled and said “That’ll work!” (They obviously wanted everything gone a.s.a.p.)

There was not too much left to choose from, some Top Gun pins, season pass holder/wallets, kids hats, Boomerang Bay sandals, Scooby Doo sandals, season pass refillable cups and a couple of cheap kids toys. T-Shirts were a dollar a piece…but pretty much all that was left were the polo type shirts. I put a few other things in my sack and left VERY happy. Yes I felt a little bad taking all of the maps…but I guess NOT that bad! When I stopped by the shop later in the evening, the sack deal was over and everything appeared to be $1.00 each…and it was pretty much just shirts and season pass cups and sandals.

So, on with the purpose of this trip report…Fright Feast. I don’t know if it was because I tried to keep my hopes down or what…but I thought Fright Feast was incredibly well done. The park put a lot of effort in the whole “funeral home” theme. As you walked up the steps you were greeted with this sign:

It was all of the little touches that made it so special, for example, as you reached the top of the steps you were greeted with a guest sign-in book just like at a real funeral.

We arrived just a little after 5:00 and was greeted with a fairly long waiting line to get our food…but the line moved pretty fast. The set-up was different from the last time I was up in the (former) International Restaurant this time the food was all in the left-side room above the steps. There was mystery involved, as you are standing in line you couldn’t see what was in the “food room” because of a set of curtains. When I finally made it through the curtains it was even better than I could have expected. Four caskets lined the walls, 1 with drinks & the other 3 for food. In the food caskets the food was sitting on a glass panel and if you looked underneath that you would see a skeleton looking up at you.

Off to the side there was a complete mock funeral set up complete with chairs, couches & (of course) a casket with a body. One of the little touches I liked was dead flower arrangements spread around the room.

In the bar area there was another casket with a skeleton that had a nametag that read “Craig Ross”. As for the food itself…it was the same variety that you would expect to find at the picnic grove…nothing to write home about, but not awful either. (How’s that for praise!) I am not that picky with food as long as it is not over-priced…and I think for the effort put into this event I certainly got my moneys worth. The ONLY thing that disappointed me was that it did not turn really dark before we had to leave the restaurant…I would have liked to have seen the view of the fountain & the tower lit up from up there. We had a nice leisurely dinner and when they started to line people up for “Club Blood” we decided it was time to leave…it was around 6:30. (Like I said earlier, we did not want to deal with the Saturday HH crowds.) All in all we had VERY good day at the park…and even though our travel time was longer than the time we spent in the park it was well worth the trip.

Here are some more pictures of the event:

http://www.putfile.com/standbyme/images/156598

So, let me say to any of the park staff that might be reading this, you did a VERY nice job & I hope you have this again next year.

Thanks!!!

[Reclaimer]

I attended Fright Feast with a friend on the 13th and LOVED it. I will totally agree with you, the work they put into it was spectacular. They really put a lot of detail into the restaurant. I loved eating with a kind of disturbing funeral soundtrack playing in the restaurant...it really added to everything. The event was indeed well done and I hope it is brought back in 2008.

[The Interpreter]

Very nice report! And the spread does look incredible.

I'd hate to see my name on one of those skeletons. I now have known three separate people to get that honor this season, only to end up working elsewhere before the season ended!

[Karen]

Yes very well done trip report!! We were going to do the Feast but because we got more people added that day decided against it. I wish now we had gone ahead and done this!!

Maybe if they bring it back I will get a second chance!