shadowscare Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Ah... I've been looking forward to this all year. Last year was my first ever trip to the Haunt, and I was blown away. This year we had a couple Haunt rookies! Woo-hoo! So below is trip report. Possible spoilers are below; I did my best to reveal as little as possible. Friday night, October 16th. We arrived at the park around 6:30, happy to see Invertigo and Diamondback warming up. Considering the cold and misty rain, this was a welcome sign! Kudos to KI for getting the rides going in the elements. Thankfully the rain never got worse than a light drizzle, and we hardly noticed it throughout the night. As we wait outside the gate I'm getting pretty excited for the opening. As 7:00pm nears I notice there's not nearly as much fog building behind the gate as last year. Then the countdown 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... the gates lift. And powering through comes a mass of... huh? Make that a TRICKLE of ghouls and goblins. And there was little to no fog as we passed through the entrance. Much different from my previous experience. We took off toward Firehawk, knowing that line would get insane as the night rolled on. But... where's the fog? There was a small machine here and there, but last year I could barely see right in front of me on the walk to the back of the park. Anyway... we hit the front seat of Firehawk, first train out. Good times as always. Then a haunt! Below is a list of the Haunts we hit. But first let me make something clear: I'm not a haunted house snob. If I get spooked a few times and the monsters inside are somewhat into it, I'm happy. So on with the reviews... Death Row This haunt received mixed reviews last year but when I went through in 2008 it was pretty impressive. Thick fog, disorienting strobe, and inmates popping out everywhere. Not so much this year. Still had the strobe, but less fog, and just a handful of imates that were apparently told "hey, don't jump out at this group of 4 guys. Just stand around, and tell them how the Buckeyes will lose tomorrow." Funny considering none of us was wearing any OSU gear. Even funnier that he was right! By the time we exited we all had the same reaction. "That sucked." So on a scale of 1 to 10... Theme: 4 Scarefactor: 0. Yes, I know it's a scale from 1 to 10. This wasn't even worthy of a 1. CarnEvil 3-D Glasses eh? So are these really going to... oh wow. WOW that is cool! We really enjoyed ourselves in this one. The hall of mirrors was pretty disorienting, and we were spooked a couple times by the scareactors. Not very scary overall, but it was great fun. Theme/Setting: 8 Scare Factor: 4 Trail of Terror Walked behind Firehawk to find a nearly empty line. Nice! This was by far the best haunt of the night. Walking back into the dark forest with the eerie quiet was creepy. We got nailed a few times on the trail. I won't spoil the location for anyone, but whoever swung out of the tree right towards my face (no contact, thankfully!) nearly made me wet my pants. Still, the trail seemed sparsely populated. That said we had a great time back there. Highly recommended. Theme/Setting: 8 Scare Factor: 7 Massacre Manor Known as one of the better haunts in the park we were looking forward to this. The dark facade and the narrow entry way set a great tone for this haunted house.The scareactor hiding in the hall with the fabric hanging down got us good. But after that it was pretty tame. If you work the Haunt, here's a tip. Just standing there staring at us is not scary. Theme/Setting: 6 Scare Factor: 2 Slaughterhouse Again, another Haunt with mixed reviews, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Considering the name, I expected lots of blood, guts, and gore. If that's your thing, you won't be disappointed. I'm not a big fan myself (take it or leave it), but I have to give credit to KI on this one. The guy in the intro room going over the rules was well into character, and looked like he could snap at any moment. Nicely done. From the music, to the scenes, to the actors, they hit a home run on the theme. Now scaring visitors? Not so much. I mean we walked through the hall of dangling carcases, and nobody is in there? Really? Big opportunity missed there. And the car would've been scary had we not been able to see it plain as day before it charged at us. Well done theme, but didn't deliver at all with the scares. Theme/Setting: 9 Scare Factor: 1 Your mileage may vary but I gotta tell ya on the whole I was not impressed with the Haunts. Last year we only did Death Row, Urgent Scare, and Tombstone Territory. TT was just ok, but the other two were pretty good. Something this year was off. Rarely did anyone bother to attempt to startle us (other than TOT), and for the most part the scareactors seemed uninspired. I'm not sure what the deal was but it was a far cry from 2008. Other than the Firehawk we also rode Diamondback twice which was great fun. We had to wait 50 minutes for our first ride but that's no biggie. Back seat is where it's at on this one. Holy ejector air, Batman! Flight Deck was a walk on so we hopped in the front seat. Little did I know this ride has an "Awesome" dial , and apparently it was turned up to the max. I've always enjoyed this ride, but wow that thing was out of control on Friday! We immediately got right back on for another spin. Flight of Fear was entertaining as always, though those mid-course brakes grabbed HARD. Unfortunately Drop Tower was not open, and Delirium broke down. Can't win them all, right? After seeing many people bash The Crypt on this site I had to find out for myself. Uh... yeah. Pretty weak. Much to our surprise there as a lot of 1-train operation. Racer, Stunt Coaster, and even The Beast were only offering solo runs with lines moving at a snails pace. Booooooooooo. They weren't very long lines people wise, but they weren't moving. We ended up skipping all three because of it. I realize the weather isn't the greatest, but c'mon. I also noticed the lack of roamers. Only saw one knee-slider, and where were the guys pushing around carts of body parts? There also was not a single scareactor lurking in the heavy fog areas. The only thing I can figure is that the cold, damp weather caused a lot of employees to no-show. Haunt 2009 was nowhere near our experience from Haunt 2008. Hopefully that changes for next year. Don't get me wrong, when all is said and done we had a good time, and look forward to 2010. Hopefully Kings Island will crank it back up a notch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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