We're going to Haunt Friday night. We usually do Fridays and crowds aren't usually a problem anyway, but just curious if people have noticed a difference in crowd numbers this year compared to others. Would expect they'd be a bit lighter, but just curious if anyone has noticed.
Halloween Haunt 2021
- Thread starter wombat96
- Start date
We went yesterday and I very much enjoyed it, except that there was way less fog/mist than the last time I went which was a couple years ago. Not sure if that's the norm this year or what, but it was a bummer. All the fog with the music and such really created a great atmosphere. This time we had to seek the fog out and even then it was just piddly amounts.
Lines weren't bad. 45 minutes for Twisted Timbers, 15 for i305, probably 15 to 20 minutes to wait and get through both of the mazes we did (the outdoors ones). The event was run well. I just wish that Grizzly was open for night rides. That's a huge bummer/fail.
Lines weren't bad. 45 minutes for Twisted Timbers, 15 for i305, probably 15 to 20 minutes to wait and get through both of the mazes we did (the outdoors ones). The event was run well. I just wish that Grizzly was open for night rides. That's a huge bummer/fail.
I'm pretty late on my recap since we went on Friday, but here we go. Bottom line, we had a great time. I do think some have hit the nail on the head about the lack of fog being a minor issue and I could do with some changes in music to give it the creepier vibe around the park, but overall the atmosphere is great, as it usually is.
With it being a Friday, crowds weren't bad at all. We hit all the houses and scare zones (minus Masquerade, just wasn't interested after last year), plus got a ride on Twisted Timbers, Dominator, and finished the night off with Intimidator. While the crowd itself was about normal compared to previous years on a Friday, it did seem like the smaller number of houses may have made some lines a little longer than usual, but nothing crazy. Usually, there are a couple houses that we walk right up to with no line, but that didn't happen this year (other than Grimmwoods, which I assume is how it's set up) and that's obviously okay. Think Blood on the Bayou was our longest wait for a house, and that was probably 20 - 30 minutes, so not bad at all considering it's next to the most popular ride in the park. Twisted Timbers was the longest wait of the night obviously, probably 40 minutes or so. Dominator was nearly a walk-on and Intimidator was about 15 minutes or so, but that was close to midnight. So overall, lines were not a problem at all other than Flight of Fear being like 90 minutes at one point, which kinda blew my mind. We skipped it.
Anyway, here is what I thought of the houses, in order of best to worst.
Cornstalkers - Always a hit or miss, right? Some years it is among my favorite, others it's a bit of a dud. This year was awesome and might be the best time I've ever had in Cornstalkers. I don't remember there ever being so many actors in the maze as there were this year. I got a handful of good scares, but the actors targeted the hell out of my buddy's girlfriend, who was screaming coming around nearly every corner it seemed. One of the actors followed her for a long stretch, continuing to scare her, teaming up with other actors to get her and making her scream quite a bit before turning back and saying "She did it to herself, really", which got a good laugh from all of us (including her). Our group had a blast in Cornstalkers and it was just barely my favorite of the night.
Blood on the Bayou - I've never actually had a great experience in this house. It always looks fantastic, but it seemed to lack a good number of actors and even the actors I would come across were usually just lurking or possibly resetting themselves for the next group. But this year, it was freaking awesome. Actors in seemingly every room, with awesome energy, and the house still looks great. We had a bunch of great scares and it was easily the best experience I've had in Blood on the Bayou. If not for Cornstalkers, this would've been the best of the night.
Grimmwoods - I love this setup. I'm a sucker for any kind of haunt that is outside, even on a wider path like Grimmwoods. The lighting out in the woods is freaking awesome and it is very eerie to me and just brings a very different experience to Haunt. Hard to explain without going through it yourself I think. The sets are great to look at and the books telling you what story you're walking into are a great touch. Even without a large number of scares, this is actually the one that sticks out to me the most. It just represents a very cool step in KD's Haunt design philosophy. This is also a walkthrough where the lurking-type actors actually works weirdly well to add to that creepy atmosphere. We only got a few good scares, but our fun mostly came from just being out in the woods with the creepy lighting and awesome sets. I can't wait to see what they do with it next year
Trick or Treat - As always, the house itself is great. You definitely feel like you're walking through a real house full of witches and victims. Atmosphere alone always makes this house a good experience. A few good scares, at one point making me run into a wall, which was all I needed to keep me satisfied. That tends to be my experience most years with this house: Great atmosphere, a little lacking in scares, but still a fun walkthrough.
Condemned - This is the first time I've been letdown my Condemned. I think our group got maybe 2 or 3 scares among the 4 of us. It seemed like it was just lacking the number of scare actors compared to the other houses. Disappointing since, like many people, this has consistently been one of my favorites every year since it debuted. Eh, can't win them all. Might be time to re-do this house though.
So the houses were great overall. Good energy from actors, good atmosphere, cool effects, and a handful of scares in almost all of them. I'd prefer to have 1 or 2 more houses in the park if they're able to get the staff for it next year, but the houses did seem to benefit by being able to put more actors into the smaller number of houses. So it did prove that a smaller number of houses can absolutely be a benefit.
Will keep it quick for Scare Zones. Uprising probably gave our group the most scares. Definitely feels like an updated Necropolis, which I'm all for since I always loved Necropolis. Cool lighting, good sets, and a good sized scare zone. Cleaver Bros is always a pretty fun time. We didnt spend a lot of time here, just passed through, but it's always a very cool one to experience with high energy actors. Pumpkin Eater seemed kind of small, I wish they would've kept it in the arbor, but maybe I'm mistaken about the size. Don't think our group got any scares here, but it's still my favorite zone to look at with the awesome sets. It just screams Halloween and I love it for that alone.
So we had a great time. It was probably one of our best experiences at Haunt, even with the smaller number of houses than usual years. Sets are great, actors are awesome and high energy, and the park just looks great. It was awesome to be back after losing it last year and I'm very excited to see what they pull off for next year in a (hopefully) more normal year.
With it being a Friday, crowds weren't bad at all. We hit all the houses and scare zones (minus Masquerade, just wasn't interested after last year), plus got a ride on Twisted Timbers, Dominator, and finished the night off with Intimidator. While the crowd itself was about normal compared to previous years on a Friday, it did seem like the smaller number of houses may have made some lines a little longer than usual, but nothing crazy. Usually, there are a couple houses that we walk right up to with no line, but that didn't happen this year (other than Grimmwoods, which I assume is how it's set up) and that's obviously okay. Think Blood on the Bayou was our longest wait for a house, and that was probably 20 - 30 minutes, so not bad at all considering it's next to the most popular ride in the park. Twisted Timbers was the longest wait of the night obviously, probably 40 minutes or so. Dominator was nearly a walk-on and Intimidator was about 15 minutes or so, but that was close to midnight. So overall, lines were not a problem at all other than Flight of Fear being like 90 minutes at one point, which kinda blew my mind. We skipped it.
Anyway, here is what I thought of the houses, in order of best to worst.
Cornstalkers - Always a hit or miss, right? Some years it is among my favorite, others it's a bit of a dud. This year was awesome and might be the best time I've ever had in Cornstalkers. I don't remember there ever being so many actors in the maze as there were this year. I got a handful of good scares, but the actors targeted the hell out of my buddy's girlfriend, who was screaming coming around nearly every corner it seemed. One of the actors followed her for a long stretch, continuing to scare her, teaming up with other actors to get her and making her scream quite a bit before turning back and saying "She did it to herself, really", which got a good laugh from all of us (including her). Our group had a blast in Cornstalkers and it was just barely my favorite of the night.
Blood on the Bayou - I've never actually had a great experience in this house. It always looks fantastic, but it seemed to lack a good number of actors and even the actors I would come across were usually just lurking or possibly resetting themselves for the next group. But this year, it was freaking awesome. Actors in seemingly every room, with awesome energy, and the house still looks great. We had a bunch of great scares and it was easily the best experience I've had in Blood on the Bayou. If not for Cornstalkers, this would've been the best of the night.
Grimmwoods - I love this setup. I'm a sucker for any kind of haunt that is outside, even on a wider path like Grimmwoods. The lighting out in the woods is freaking awesome and it is very eerie to me and just brings a very different experience to Haunt. Hard to explain without going through it yourself I think. The sets are great to look at and the books telling you what story you're walking into are a great touch. Even without a large number of scares, this is actually the one that sticks out to me the most. It just represents a very cool step in KD's Haunt design philosophy. This is also a walkthrough where the lurking-type actors actually works weirdly well to add to that creepy atmosphere. We only got a few good scares, but our fun mostly came from just being out in the woods with the creepy lighting and awesome sets. I can't wait to see what they do with it next year
Trick or Treat - As always, the house itself is great. You definitely feel like you're walking through a real house full of witches and victims. Atmosphere alone always makes this house a good experience. A few good scares, at one point making me run into a wall, which was all I needed to keep me satisfied. That tends to be my experience most years with this house: Great atmosphere, a little lacking in scares, but still a fun walkthrough.
Condemned - This is the first time I've been letdown my Condemned. I think our group got maybe 2 or 3 scares among the 4 of us. It seemed like it was just lacking the number of scare actors compared to the other houses. Disappointing since, like many people, this has consistently been one of my favorites every year since it debuted. Eh, can't win them all. Might be time to re-do this house though.
So the houses were great overall. Good energy from actors, good atmosphere, cool effects, and a handful of scares in almost all of them. I'd prefer to have 1 or 2 more houses in the park if they're able to get the staff for it next year, but the houses did seem to benefit by being able to put more actors into the smaller number of houses. So it did prove that a smaller number of houses can absolutely be a benefit.
Will keep it quick for Scare Zones. Uprising probably gave our group the most scares. Definitely feels like an updated Necropolis, which I'm all for since I always loved Necropolis. Cool lighting, good sets, and a good sized scare zone. Cleaver Bros is always a pretty fun time. We didnt spend a lot of time here, just passed through, but it's always a very cool one to experience with high energy actors. Pumpkin Eater seemed kind of small, I wish they would've kept it in the arbor, but maybe I'm mistaken about the size. Don't think our group got any scares here, but it's still my favorite zone to look at with the awesome sets. It just screams Halloween and I love it for that alone.
So we had a great time. It was probably one of our best experiences at Haunt, even with the smaller number of houses than usual years. Sets are great, actors are awesome and high energy, and the park just looks great. It was awesome to be back after losing it last year and I'm very excited to see what they pull off for next year in a (hopefully) more normal year.
^You will have approximately 2 hours before the place has the most human beings you've ever seen. Not sure if the park lets people in before the opening time anymore exactly.
They were opening gates to international street 30 minutes before the listed opening time on Friday nights. Don't know if that is true other times
International Street opens at 1:30 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Most likely you will be fine. The scare actors don't come out until 7 and there's really not a ton at the front of the park unless you're at the Blood Reign stage right at 7 but there will be so many people there at that time tomorrow I would be shocked if you actually encounter a scare actor.
This all brings me to one question. Theme parks at times contract these jobs out, where as sometimes they do the job themselves. I asked this question before; but does anyone know if "STEVE THE HAUNT GUY" is still working for KD. That's the man who built a lot of KD's Haunt mazes. That guy could do some incredible stuff if he had the space that BGW has.
I believe the guys at CoasterRadio just had the haunt guy from KD on their podcast. I want to say his name was Tony though.
I thought I would share some of my favorite photos I took during this year's Haunt.
I was very glad to see KD chose not to adopt the 'no photography in scare zones' policy, which some of the other Cedar Fair parks did this year; like CGA (discussed earlier in this thread) and Carowinds. I mention this, as aside from the photography aspect itself, I thoroughly enjoy the interactions with the scare actors themselves when taking the photos.
One favorite instance was in the new Uprising scare zone:
When walking through the zone, one the zombie actors started shadowing me; keeping a foot or two away in my blind spot, hoping to scare me. At one point I stopped to frame a shot on my phone of some fellow KD patrons across the path. While composing the shot, I arched my head backwards to smile at her; which at that point she realized her cover was blown. Staying completely in character, she started pointing at the phone uttering "whaa... whaa...", attempting to vocalize "what is that", but unable to, given her dreadful zombie affliction.
On the phone's display I then pointed to the individuals, and responded in a slow manner: "Those are called p-e-o-p-l-e... Have you terrorized them yet?". And just as they were about to vanish behind one of the props in the path, I exclaimed: "And look! They're about to get away!".
At this point she thrust the severed arm she had been carrying into the air, and began brandishing it as a weapon. Then just before charging, she bellowed an epic war cry.
Unfortunately I do not have any photos of her charge, or the assault on the poor unsuspecting scare zone visitors... as I was too busy laughing.
But alas, I have digressed from this post's true intent, which is the photos. So hope you enjoy - as I certainly enjoyed taking them.
I was very glad to see KD chose not to adopt the 'no photography in scare zones' policy, which some of the other Cedar Fair parks did this year; like CGA (discussed earlier in this thread) and Carowinds. I mention this, as aside from the photography aspect itself, I thoroughly enjoy the interactions with the scare actors themselves when taking the photos.
One favorite instance was in the new Uprising scare zone:
When walking through the zone, one the zombie actors started shadowing me; keeping a foot or two away in my blind spot, hoping to scare me. At one point I stopped to frame a shot on my phone of some fellow KD patrons across the path. While composing the shot, I arched my head backwards to smile at her; which at that point she realized her cover was blown. Staying completely in character, she started pointing at the phone uttering "whaa... whaa...", attempting to vocalize "what is that", but unable to, given her dreadful zombie affliction.
On the phone's display I then pointed to the individuals, and responded in a slow manner: "Those are called p-e-o-p-l-e... Have you terrorized them yet?". And just as they were about to vanish behind one of the props in the path, I exclaimed: "And look! They're about to get away!".
At this point she thrust the severed arm she had been carrying into the air, and began brandishing it as a weapon. Then just before charging, she bellowed an epic war cry.
Unfortunately I do not have any photos of her charge, or the assault on the poor unsuspecting scare zone visitors... as I was too busy laughing.
But alas, I have digressed from this post's true intent, which is the photos. So hope you enjoy - as I certainly enjoyed taking them.
I really feel like KD deserves some serious praise for not being followers this year when it came to their bag and camera policies. So many parks gave them oodles of top cover with which they could have cut bag check and whatnot, but KD decided against it.