Rate Kings Island Fall Event.

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I thought after 5 weeks of Haunt and 4 weeks of Howl o Fest it would be interesting to see how the KICentral community feels about the events as a whole and compared to years past

If you care to share what you really enjoyed or would rather see done away with. Also feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions.

I was fortunate enough to get in a few visits this year and thought Kings Island did a great job entertaining the guests in offering something for everyone likes. Not sure how they could improve on Howl O Fest as it offers so much and a family could spend a lot of time there. Halloween Haunt I thought was great fun and I enjoyed a variety of houses and mazes this year to include Mysteria. I thought the new Scare Zone, Maze and House offered something unique and hope they offer more of that in the future. Trick or Treat with the Dinosaurs was a fun event i enjoyed doing with my family and it seemed to do well.

My suggestions is basically for Haunt. Even though I truly enjoyed the houses I felt (believe it or not) that less scareactors would be better to build anticipation in the house and the money be used for more/better props to build the story line. Or use the money to have more scareactors roaming in the scare zones. I really enjoyed watching the activities and scaring at the scare zones.

Just for laughs, offer a comedy show next year.

Next suggestion I need to explain a bit before I make the suggestion. Here in Indy a great many schools have went with the Balanced school schedule, tons more next year and within a few years almost statewide. I noticed many of my acquaintances that have children decided to take their families over to KI these past 3 weekends due to their children being on Fall Break (out for two weeks) which may have contributed to some of the large crowd sizes to include the great weather this year too. One of my visits was on a Saturday night and I could not help notice that many families stay past 7PM and many of my acquaintances said they stayed over to enjoy the Haunt part with their families as well. It seems families are looking to do haunt events as a family and I was told just this morning that several families have decided to make it a weekend ordeal next year as a group of families. I wonder if maybe Kings Island should consider toning the Saturday nights down a bit not a lot but make it more family friendly to keep the crowds coming in and honestly I am surprised to hear so many families from Indy going over this year during their first Fall Break. I see that trend growing tremendously and suspect that is the reason another park is going to offer a Fall Event starting next year. Fridays seem to do well but has room to add many more guests without the feeling the park is over crowded or that the lines where to long.

So here is my suggestion Offer and advertise Extreme Scary Fridays to attract that crowd and to improve Fridays attendance. Since Saturdays are heavily attended by families who seem to want to do an haunted event as a family so they do not leave, build on that maybe offer a couple more family friendly haunted houses or a family dinner event. Basically they want to stay since they are already there so no need to run them off when they still have money in their pockets to spend. I mean the souvenirs sells could only improve with families in the park after dark. Offer a haunted parade. Many here have fond memories of doing Christmas events as a family through the years and I can see amusement/theme park fall events becoming a new family tradition as well. Who gets that crowd well it just depends who goes after them first to be the tradition park.

[KIfan1980]

I can only really comment on Howl-o-Fest this year as I've been unable to visit KI myself since P&G day (this will be the first time I didn't visit multiple times during the Haunt season for some amazing night rides and the first closing day I'll miss in years - I miss riding my coasters, but hope to be better by opening day 2012! )

My kids still enjoyed Howl-o-Fest, but commented that it wasn't as much fun as prior years because there was no pumpkin patch or candy stations. Because of this they only wanted to go to the park that one time this fall - as much as they've enjoyed riding coasters in their costumes in the past, this attitude surprised me a little but goes to show how a little thing can make a big difference.

[jcgoble3]

Can we get an option on the second question for "This was my first year attending the fall events"? That way us first-timers that can't compare to previous years can vote without skewing the results of the second question.

[TombRaiderFTW]

I really love Haunt this year. I love the fact that's it's turned somewhat from the previous focus on gore to creative scares. That's not a slam on Urgent Scare or Slaughterhouse; the gore factor just doesn't do much for me. (In fact, those two houses have consistently been some of the scariest I've experienced this year.) Holiday Horror is a great addition that, even though it has its weak points, always finds some way of throwing me for a loop each time I go through it. I'm kind of a sucker for Mysteria, too. It's not the most thought-out Haunt that ever was, but the workers in there seem to get more and more creative each time I go through. Nightmare Alley, as well, has livened up a part of the park that used to be pretty dull during Haunt--it always seemed like Carnevil was off in a corner by itself before.

The only thing I'm not wild about is Cornstalkers' new spot, which really surprises me. Granted, I've only done it once; but it was towards the beginning of the Haunt season, when scareactor counts are usually at their highest. Since Cornstalkers always seemed to suffer the quickest, I was eager to see what this year's was like.

When Cemetery Drive was in Tower Gardens, the gardens themselves lent themselves to the theme, so it didn't seem to require as much theming. Now that it's CS, there's corn and the wooden tower things everywhere. That's not necessarily a bad thing, except everyone's in the same costumes doing the same types of scares. I mean, sure, that's kinda what CS has always been... It's just too long for its own good. After the same pop-from-corn-then-disappear-into-it or pose-like-a-scarecrow-then-jump-down-at-people scares happen repeatedly, it's entirely predictable how the rest of the maze will go. And that's a shame, because part of what made CS good for me in past years was that it had the types of scares that you couldn't really find elsewhere. Combine that with the path between Drop Tower and Invertigo being as short as it is, and CS almost had charm, especially the times when someone with a chainsaw was lurking at the end. Cemetery Drive wasn't perfect, either, when it was there, but at least the theme had enough going for it that the actors could get creative with their surroundings. Really, how much can you do with corn?

But enough of that complaining. Even though I did like CD when it was in Tower Gardens, it seems to lend itself a little better to International Street, traffic flow issues aside. It's more of what people seem to expect from HH when they enter the front gates--statues turning to watch you as you walk by, etc. It's got a creepiness factor that sets a really cool mood for the evening, and I love it. I thought I'd be frustrated with Urgent Scare this year having been shortened, but it actually works a lot better. The actor density in the house has skyrocketed, and they're really good at their jobs.

Finally, I want to point out: like other people have said, the formerly uninteresting Haunts have gotten quite a bit better this year. I didn't really think I'd ever say this, but Cut Throat Cove and Wolf Pack are really good this time around. The actors in WP seem to have gotten better at being scary without trying too hard to be scary, and the actors in Cut Throat Cove have been both very creative and very in character when I've gone through, which is great! (I haven't noticed much of a difference for Tombstone Terror-tory this year, except for the train ride. While the story the "conductor" tells you doesn't really set the mood as well, the new "breakdown," which they only did around Halloween last year, freaks a whole lot more people out. Smart move!)

In other words, this has been a great year for Haunt. Definitely better than the last few!

[Tanna]

I went to both events. I'm gonna nitpick. I was really hoping to see armies and armies of little kids in costume. The only way I could think of to promote a true Halloween experience was offering a discount to costumed peoples under a certain age. I quit giving out candy at my house, and go to my parents house to give out treats, because all the kids in this area STINK with their lousy costuming ideas, if they wear a costume at all.