Halloween Haunt 2019

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Joe said:
I’m KD’s defense, I didn’t see anything on Saturday (No Boo notwithstanding) that indicated any real shift towards a family friendly atmosphere at Haunt. I was just arguing against a hypothetical. In fact, with the decreased emphasis on shows and generally darker paths, I’d contend that Haunt is more adult-oriented now than it used to be.
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I hear what your saying but do you have kids? If not the new masquerade zone at the Eiffel tower is definitely a shift towards a family friendly atmosphere. Its a pretty much a dance party with the kids/adults & the preformers...(I personally really didn't care for the location) but my kids didn't want to leave it at all pretty much the whole time we where there.... Also moving the Blood Drums as said before in this thread definitely ruins the scare zone atmosphere in Cleaver and tones down the act for sure because of the small venue...
I don't think that was the intention of KD but it has done that so far....
 
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The changes made on International Street this season were easily my least favorite part of Haunt this year, so that makes sense. International Street used to have a beautifully spooky atmosphere during Haunt and that’s been completely ruined this season.
 
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I plan to go next Friday, October 4. I went around the same time last year for my first KD Haunt and loved it. No issues with crowds. I'm hoping for the same experience this year.
 
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RollyCoaster said:
@Joe What is your main gripe? Personally, the DJ doesn’t do it for me. The type of music being played isn’t very “haunt” like and adds a kiddie atmosphere when a show isn’t playing.
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It’s more than just the “family” atmosphere I didn’t like about International Street. Masquerade felt like an even poorer excuse for a scare zone than the worst terror-tories at HOS because there were virtually zero props and the “monsters” seemed to just be the show cast sitting and mingling around the Eiffel Tower. There wasn’t even a soundtrack playing around the tower; it was just the show music coming from the bandstand. The atmosphere around the Eiffel Tower now feels permanently show-ified which is disappointing since that area is now supposed to be an actual scare zone.

The worst part is what’s happening on the rest of International Street. I guess they decided to continue the “party” vibe because the area’s soundtrack is a horrible techno mashup of 70s and 80s songs. I have no idea what they were thinking there. It felt ridiculously out of place and it was honestly pretty laughable hearing a remix of Sweet Caroline playing as I exited the park. I just don’t get it.
 
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Joe said:
The worst part is what’s happening on the rest of International Street. I guess they decided to continue the “party” vibe because the area’s soundtrack is a horrible techno mashup of 70s and 80s songs. I have no idea what they were thinking there. It felt ridiculously out of place and it was honestly pretty laughable hearing a remix of Sweet Caroline playing as I exited the park. I just don’t get it.
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I heard them playing Ballroom Blitz during one of the shows, which reminded me of Wayne's World. If that was intentional, it was an interesting selection.
 
Yeah, I agree with @Joe completely here. Masquerade is the most disappointed I think I've ever been with a major new addition to Haunt since No-Boo. I-Street has always been one of my favorite areas of the park with its wide array of one-off actors and characters all doing their own thing—some scaring, some entertaining, etc. All of that encapsulated into a relatively quiet, eerie atmospheme made I-Street BRILLIANT. Now though, it's just another bright, loud, area with flashing red lights and the least cohesive soundtrack I can possibly imagine.

I have a million issues with Masquerade on paper as it's just a mediocre show pretending to be a scarezone, but despite that, if they're going to try to pull this off, I'd at least like to see it done well. The classical music/dubstep remixes blasting from the bandstand are fine for Haunt. Why that isn't being used as the whole I-Street area soundtrack is baffling to me—especially since it could probably be synced up with all of the I-Street lights to turn the whole area into an interesting spectacle.
 
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So their were 3 fights at Scarowinds last weekend that sound similar to what was posted earlier. Maybe the woman got the 2 parks mixed up.
 
For reference. Here's what International Street used to sound like. Eerie. Mysterious. Mourning.
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They even added a few vocal songs a few years back, but they still added to that haunting, chilling, even quirky vibe of International Street.
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And here's what International Street sounds like now.
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Does. Not. Compute.
 
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Summer Nights: “Yo, this sucks how’s summers over.”

Monster Jam Thunder Alley: “I know, I miss being such a crucial part of the Kings Dominion experince. Too bad I have to leave and go to another park.”

Summer Nights: “Wait, there’s another park that does not have a sweet, hip, dubstep soundtrack blasting throughout the park?!”

Monster Jam Thunder Alley: “Yeah, there’s this event Halloween Haunt it has such a lame atmosphere and is so thematically consistent why would you want that?”

Summer Nights: “That’s straight facts. I have a good idea. What if I make a dubstep playlist for Haunt?”

Monster Jam Thunder Alley: “Yoooooo.”
 
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BGWScream said:
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So their were 3 fights at Scarowinds last weekend that sound similar to what was posted earlier. Maybe the woman got the 2 parks mixed up.
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No, the woman was talking about Carowinds. There were references to a Wendy's outside of the park and officers from York County were quoted in the article. KD is in Hanover County and the only chain fast food restaurant outside of KD is Burger King.
 
Damn, with this hitting all the local news, KD is painted into a really bad PR corner right now. Anyone with PR knowledge know the best way to go about with damage control?
 
Joe said:
Damn, with this hitting all the local news, KD is painted into a really bad PR corner right now. Anyone with PR knowledge know the best way to go about with damage control?
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1. Do not let any minors under 16 (or higher if needed - 18) years without a responsible adult (21 years old or older - Limit 4 minors per adult) during any Haunt operating day.

2. A park wide capacity limit based staffing. If KD's capacity is 32,000 or 34,000 with FULL parkwide staffing and your existing staffing only allows for 24,000 to 25,000 park goers then that should be the MAX park capacity for the night. Once you reach that limit, the park is closed to anymore park patrons entering KD.

Course, any rule in place will not be full-proof. There will be a small percentage that will get around a rule; but, I think it will cut down the numbers of out of control kids running around without adult supervision.

KD and any other Cedar Fair park needs to crack down by enforcing a zero tolerance policy; especially during Haunt, when this type of behavior occurs year after year.
 
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Nicole said:
I think that they need to stop doing things to increase the crowd sizes on opening day. Last year they offered the Bring Your Own Mob tickets. This year they hosted a Geico corporate event.
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Unfortunately, it looks like the same deal was offered this season. Scroll towards the bottom of this page for the exact print.

Amusement Park Tickets & Water Park Tickets | Kings Dominion

Find the best deals on amusement park and water park tickets to Kings Dominion. Buy tickets online & save on daily admission to the park! Learn more today!
www.kingsdominion.com www.kingsdominion.com
 
mwhinva said:
1. Do not let any minors under 16 (or higher if needed - 18) years without a responsible adult (21 years old or older - Limit 4 minors per adult) during any Haunt operating day.
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What about the fight that was perpetrated by adults? At least according to the news report, one of the 3 fights was between adults.
 
mwhinva said:
1. Do not let any minors under 16 (or higher if needed - 18) years without a responsible adult (21 years old or older - Limit 4 minors per adult) during any Haunt operating day.
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I don't agree with this proposal - I visited Haunt unsupervised for years with friends before I turned 18 and I'm sure countless others did too. I don't think it's fair to punish the well-behaved lot of teens by making them choose between going with Mommy and Daddy or staying home, because of the actions of a few troublemakers. More importantly, it seems like bad business to bar a substantial amount of your target demographic from your event for the same reason.

I think the better solution is to raise ticket prices and do away with the flood of low-price ticket deals the park always puts out during Haunt. Higher ticket prices automatically reduce crowd size and would accomplish the same goal of keeping some teens away but without setting a hard anti-teenager rule. Better yet, it allows the park to still make money even with reduced crowds.

That said, I'm still trying to figure out the issue KD's PR department has at hand: how do you fight the bad press about Haunt's safety right now? It seems like a catch-22. If they stay quiet, the social media outcry will continue to fester and grow. If they speak up and talk about the safety measures they've taken at Haunt this year, that legitimizes the problem and airs it out even more. What would you do if you were in the PR department's shoes?
 
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