10/4 KIC Haunt Night TR

[malem]

On Friday night, several of us got together for the second annual "Haunt Night" meet-up. In a nutshell, it was a fantastic evening at the park. The weather was absolutely perfect, lines weren't too long, Ed Alonzo was great, the screaming contest was surprisingly entertaining, and scareactors were upbeat all the way until park closing. Interestingly, they don't seem to be doing Fast Lane on Haunt Fridays, and not too many people had Fright Lane. For the long-winded trip report, read on!

Before the park opened, jcgoble3 (Jonathan), ohiocolts (Lucas), DiamondAceExpress (Laura), and I (Matthew) met at Outback Steakhouse on Kings Center Ct. for dinner - celebrating Laura's birthday! I ordered the ribs/chicken combo; the 1/3 rack of ribs was great if a little small, but the piece of chicken was tiny and dried out. Unfortunately, Laura wouldn't let us have the wait staff embarrass her with a song - not even for free dessert!

We got to Kings Island around 5:10pm, meeting thedevariouseffect (Devan), his girlfriend (Lindsay), NoChickens (Rick), Mrs. No Chickens (Dee), and YoungStud (Brian). Before long, OhioColtsPapa (Matt), silver2005 (Mike), and KI Man (Zach) joined us at the entrance. I received texts from Beastie1980 and elyk saying that they wouldn't be able to make it. A few others apparently tried to find us, but there was some confusion about where to meet.

While waiting on the park to open, we chatted about our plans for the night and grabbed another guest to take our group photo. Except for jcgoble3, we were all intrigued that YoungStud finally made an appearance. Despite his posting style and sometimes-annoying online antics, he's very nice in-person and is an interesting guy to talk to. At present, he's banned from this forum for violating site policies, so meet-ups are the only way he can talk with us!

Once inside the park, we headed to Action Zone first for "Scream Like a Banshee" registration. They only register for one competition at a time. The first competition at 8:00pm conflicts with the first Ed Alonzo show at 7:30pm, so we decided to return later. While we were over there, everyone except silver2005 (who doesn't do haunts) and KI Man (who we lost at the gate) went through Slaughter House, which had an empty queue at this point.

We figured that Slaughter House would make a good starter maze since it's lighter on the scares than most, preferring black comedy and fake gore. Lucas was terrified about going through, so I went ahead of him and spoiled as much as I could. He would greet each ghoul after I pointed him/her out, mentioning that he didn't want to be eaten. When we got to the kitchen, Sam (XGatorHead 8904's character) had birthday wishes for DiamondAceExpress in lieu of his usual scare. One of the new scenes here was impressive, but unfortunately it activated too late to scare me successfully.

Drop Tower was next! After waiting one cycle we were first to board, giving us a great view of Banshee from the top. It turns out that Lindsay enjoys Drop Tower only slightly more than Fire-Beast-OF FEAR. Even if you hate the ride, it's a must-do for the unobstructed construction views!

Lucas was ready for another haunt, and he wanted to get through Wolf Pack before it got dark. Laura, Jonathan, and I accompanied him through the maze while everyone else went to marathon Flight Deck. I again provided spoilers, but I accidentally misidentified one hiding actor as an animatronic. (Sorry, ohiocolts!)

We regrouped around 7:00pm and went to Kings Island Theater to get an early spot for the Ed Alonzo show. I was expecting hilarity after reading reviews, and he delivered! There are new tricks, and his improvising is truly impressive when he's let loose. Make sure to see this if you haven't already, but be aware that it contains adult humor and is not intended for children.

Afterwards, we separated to wait on the 9:00pm "Scream Like a Banshee" contest. Jonathan and Laura registered right after we got out of the show with only three slots left! Some of us took a night ride on Adventure Express, and I explored a couple scare zones on my own.

The screaming competition is put together very well. KI's undertaker character did a really great job of improvising. Somehow, he made listening to fifty people screaming in succession entertaining to watch. The technical situation was less impressive, though, annoying the geeks in the audience!

The "decibel meter" for measuring results consisted of a powered vocal mic connected to the 1/8" audio connector on an iPad. An iOS app was used to calculate an approximate decibel reading from the input volume. This was wildly inaccurate, as the beginning of nearly every scream was measured between 120dB and 133dB. This indicated that the input signal was clipping. My guess is that either the microphone was popping, the mic amplification was turned too high, or someone forgot to turn off automatic volume control.

OhioColtsPapa and I had a good laugh at the absurdity of the results, which seemed completely unrelated to the perceptive loudness of the screams. None of the screams were anywhere near 120dB, let alone 130+dB. This contest is all for FUN and marketing, so it's not a big deal. Amusing, nonetheless. (For the curious, the loudest human scream ever published by Guinness World Records was 128dB.)

Jonathan had an impressive scream, but sadly he didn't win even with YoungStud cheering him on. DiamondAceExpress apparently came in last place, but at least she got her shirt. Matt left the park after the contest to check on ohiocolts's sister (Dollmondback) at home.

By then it was approximately 9:30pm, and lines were at their longest of the night. We waited 35 minutes for an excellent night ride on The Beast. Faeriewench (Amy) joined us as we exited the ride. We had ohiocolts pick a haunt for us to do, and he chose CarnEvil.

We waited about 40 minutes for CarnEvil, which is still fun even though it's showing its age. I was intending to bring lineraly polarized 3D glasses for everyone to wear, but sadly I left them at home. The hiding locations are easy to spot, especially if you've been through it before, so the glasses would probably help with the scare factor. (On my to-do list for next year!)

After CarnEvil, we met up with Fire-Beast-OF FEAR (Duncan) and went through the two new mazes - Delta Delta Die and Board to Death. Lucas stayed behind and got food with DiamondAceExpress instead, since he had experienced enough scares for one day.

Delta Delta Die was the least effective haunt of the night. There's no story involved, and there wasn't much creativity involved with the acting. Hopefully this improves as time goes on.

Board to Death was rather impressive, especially considering that it's brand new. Their takes on board games like Monopoly, Twister, Battleship, and Trouble are very funny. A well-hidden actor was able to catch me off-guard here, startling me well as I laughed at one of the games.

Ohiocolts and DiamondAceExpress rejoined us for a ride on Flight of Fear, which is always one of my favorite things to ride. Interestingly, we noticed that Fast Lane was blocked off and closed. Nevertheless, even though the line only filled one switchback outside the building, it took about 30 minutes to reach the platform. There seemed to be more guests than usual asking ride ops to stow loose articles, and no one seemed to be in a hurry at all. (In fairness, it was after midnight.)

We exited Flight of Fear at approximately 12:25am and decided to ride Diamondback before the park closed. The queue looked to be about 20 minutes long at 12:35am, so we skipped it to return just before closing. Most of us then waited about 10 minutes for Madam Fatale's Cavern of Terror, while NoChickens and Mrs. No Chickens took ohiocolts to ride Backlot Stunt Coaster instead.

Madam Fatale's was again impressive. The props are top-notch, and the actors were on the ball even at 1:00am. DiamondAceExpress decided to block her peripheral vision with her hands, to which the monsters responded by stalking her all the way to the end. Had the screaming contest taken place here, she might have won!

All of us got to Diamondback by 12:56am, and we waited about 10 minutes to board. A great way to end our night!

Overall, we had a great time at the park, and I'm already looking forward to next year's Haunt meet-up. Haunt keeps getting better each year, and a KICentral meet-up is a great way to enjoy it! Aside from getting to know some of the great people who post here, meet-ups like these are an excellent chance to experience the park with others who share a passion for it.

Again, thanks to everyone who participated! (And thanks Jonathan for trying to put up with YoungStud, notwithstanding your inner-Wikipedian.)

[thedevariouseffect]

Awww...they look like bros

It was a pretty fun day...But Lindzey doesn't like Drop Tower, she HATES that ride

[fanofFirehawk]

Great Trip Report!

Did anyone get YoungStud's phone number to invite to future informal meet ups?

[BeastForever]

His number was on this google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuPkaMcZP5OodHdpNmE2OFZTSW1mV2lBSDFxYlFYYnc#gid=0

[BB1]

Thanks for the TR, it is truly a shame I didn't make it out on Friday night, but the TR makes it all good! Looking forward to a possible last meet up, just make sure to let BB1 ride his FoF and Beast as many times as he can!

[DiamondAceExpress]

It was a great night! Madame Fatale's was indeed impressive. It's amazing how people who are dressed up and not actually hardly doing anything can scare me so badly! I'd like to see Board to Death! Maybe I can get back there before the season is over.

[NoChickens]

Yep, a great evening, we had fun with all involved. 1am rides on Diamondback are highly recommended. I was kind of surprised by the lighter than I expected crowds, in a good way of course.