Halloween Harvest 2020
- Thread starter DRIFT
- Start date
Right now, Kings Dominion’s newer haunted houses cost about 25% as much as a Universal Orlando maze. That’s about a 33% budget increase over their last generation mazes. Considering how small KD’s warehouses are compared to Universal’s soundstages; I can’t imagine them getting a higher budget anytime soon.
Now, with all the recycling they do, the value of a maze is way higher than the budget for building it. Personally, I’m perfectly happy with the quality of KD’s next generation mazes, but so far we only have two (Trick or Treat and Blood on the Bayou). Plus, it’s been three years since the last brand-new house. My worry is that in order to give Kings Dominion a bigger budget, corporate decided to limit how often they could get an entirely new maze. I sincerely hope this isn’t the case, and that the park’s recent slacking was only because of focusing their efforts on WinterFest.
However, Park President, Tony Johnson told ACE Mid-Atlantic at Thrillfest 2019: “We will not abandon the maze business.” So, maybe there is some hope.
Now they have set the bar very high, and if BGW also makes an effort to compete with KD, then I believe we can expect to see some better haunts in Virginia in years to come. Ultimately, I believe that is what Kings Dominion’s creative team is hoping for. Fingers crossed that they get their wish.
Now, with all the recycling they do, the value of a maze is way higher than the budget for building it. Personally, I’m perfectly happy with the quality of KD’s next generation mazes, but so far we only have two (Trick or Treat and Blood on the Bayou). Plus, it’s been three years since the last brand-new house. My worry is that in order to give Kings Dominion a bigger budget, corporate decided to limit how often they could get an entirely new maze. I sincerely hope this isn’t the case, and that the park’s recent slacking was only because of focusing their efforts on WinterFest.
However, Park President, Tony Johnson told ACE Mid-Atlantic at Thrillfest 2019: “We will not abandon the maze business.” So, maybe there is some hope.
Now they have set the bar very high, and if BGW also makes an effort to compete with KD, then I believe we can expect to see some better haunts in Virginia in years to come. Ultimately, I believe that is what Kings Dominion’s creative team is hoping for. Fingers crossed that they get their wish.
For 2020, I really hope we retire or change Vault: Overtaken and Jack is Back so we can have fiends back. I really miss the “Freakenstien Experiment Today” sign and the show itself. One thing I could do without is the Ireland costume show off that was there in previous years.
Fiends wasn’t removed so Vault or Jack could exist. Fiends was removed to reduce the investment in Ent at HOS and to provide more time for Gloria install.
Also, Vault: Overtaken (in its current form at least) IS dead. 2021 construction will necessitate it.
Also, Vault: Overtaken (in its current form at least) IS dead. 2021 construction will necessitate it.
They could move Fiends to The Elmo’s Castle stage.
Fiends pretty much already works at most B-rated strip joints next to any given international airport.
They haven’t had Elmo in CastleOSullivan for quite some time, but I would totally support Fiends being in that theater. The only problem they might have is that Castle O’Sullivan has a much smaller capacity than the AST, and the stage is not as versatile.
However, I thought that Igor’s Fright Feast (which was tied to the Fiends universe) was the best usage of that castle scenic wise since they had a real show in there. If they could afford to have about 300 less seats, that theater would be perfect for a Fiends revamp. Maybe they could make it more like Tampa’s satire show, which changes each season.
If Fiends returns, BGW should allow the audience to give donations in the form of single dollar bills to the hard working Fiends performers. When an audience attendee donates a dollar by placing it carefully on the side of the stage, the strip.. er, the dancer will dance extra hard for that audience member's visual delight.
"This is the newest and most terrifying haunted house in HOS history! Try to make your way through the twisted labyrinth of our park while being chased by angry PETA protesters!" /s
How does Coronavirus affect BGW specifically? Do they have the resources for virtual lines? SIF (Stuff in Face) can't happen this year obviously, but what do y'all think could be different?
Brambo
Cyberdyne Systems Software Engineer
Howl o scream (and the amusement industry in general) is likely going to be quite a bit different in the coming years as a result of this. I could see them significantly curtailing the number of people who go through a maze at a time, which will obviously hurt the throughput. That alone will be pretty bad, as the lines for some HOS attractions can get really long on weekends. The actors are likely going to be instructed to significantly change up the way they interact with guests as well.
So what your saying is that they’ll actually have to space out groups for HOS. I see no problem with that.
Brambo
Cyberdyne Systems Software Engineer
Yeah that will be nice, but seems likely it'll kill the throughput and therefore cause a much longer line than before. But then again, who knows if the lines will even be bad this year or if the park will even open. Sad that it might come to that ?
Not necessarily. They could reduce their capacity as well as institute more cleaning measures between groups play. With these kind of measures, I'd expect the escape rooms to be more limited, but still operational.