I woke up this morning thinking about some of the experiences I had last night at HOS Pass Member Preview Night, and about similar experiences I've had over the years at various haunts, and decided that I wanted to post about it. Honestly, pass members should know better.
First off, I am writing this entirely from a guest's perspective. I welcome thoughts from former and current park employees, and I encourage everyone to read Franco's epic post about how to be a good guest from a ride ops perspective, as well.
Regardless, things that I observed last night and comments that I have seen on this forum prompted me to share the standards my friends and the have developed for ourselves in an effort to be as considerate of other as possible.
Before I begin, I am not trying to be sanctimonious and judgmental. The recommendations below are based on other guests' decisions and behaviors that have ruined my experiences in the past. As in all other parts of our lives, good manners dictate that we consider the impact of our choices on everyone around us, and not just on our own pleasure. It is analogous to rubberneckers: In satisfying their own curiosity, they selfishly create massive traffic jams behind them. Violating the norms articulated below creates those same bottlenecks and interferes with house performance, ruining the scares for everyone around you and behind you.
So, here are my thoughts on how to be the best guest you can be.
1. Never stop in the maze. Seriously. Just don't. Despite how well designed and decorated many houses are, no one should ever stop inside one. When you halt your forward progress, you ruin the experience of every person behind you. In order to prevent stacking, everyone has to keep moving and at steady pace. Do not pause to get a closer look at a prop. Do not stand still to admire a particularly well executed room. Do not dally to chat up an actor you know. Do not loiter to let your child check out a specific scene or say "hi" to one of the monsters. Do not halt at the entrance of a room, because it is too scary to enter. And for the love of all that is holy, do not stop inside a maze to take a selfie. I have been forced to wait, not moving at all, more times than I can count because of some self-absorbed guest in front of me. Similarly, I have managed to catch up with the stragglers at the back of the group in front of me repeatedly. In both cases, my immersion was killed; my anxiety was quelled; and the actors were no longer able to scare me.
2. Maintain a reasonable speed through the houses. We are not teenagers in B horror movies. We do not need to creep through a maze, dramatically telling everyone in earshot that we are too afraid to go in that room. We especially do not need to experience the houses physically attached to five other people from begining to end. Similarly, we do not need to creep along at a snails pace admiring the sets, as if we were in a museum. The mazes are designed for people to trigger the scenes at a normal speed. Once again, all you are doing is ruining everyone else's experience. I was literally never able to make it all of the way through Circo Sinistro last year without catching up with the house-tourists in the group in front of me. In facts, several times, I was forced to experience the entire house behind an unreasonably slow-moving group.
3. Do not take your terrified, young child into the houses. There is already a thread dedicated to the debate about whether children belong at adult haunts, and I am not interested in arguing about that here. I only want to address the ways little kids can ruin other guests' experiences in the mazes. If your child is scared and begging not to go into the house, do not force him or her. Terrified and crying children are upsetting you everyone else, and usually prevent the scare actors from doing anything while in their earshot or site-range. Ultimately, he or she may come to a complete halt, reasonably unwilling to go forward, because everything in the house is designed to be frightening. The result is that your child is unhappy, and you have just stacked the house, minimizing the fear factor for everyone else. The houses are not children's attractions. Even when children are not afraid, the same norms about adults not stopping apply to them as well. A kid pausing to investigate the props or chat with a monster may be fun for him or her, but ruins the scares for both everyone else with you and all of the people now lined up behind you, unable to move forward. I actually got trapped in a virtually empty house behind a man and his son "touring" the maze. He actually held his kid up to take a closer look at a spider at one point. Needless to say none of the actors moved or made a sound, when they were around, because no one wants to terrify a child.
4. Do not hit the actors. Don't yell and curse at them. Do not punch them. Do not try to scare them back. They are hired to scare you, not to absorb your abuse. Enduring retaliation from the guests is not part of their job description. If you think that you might become more belligerent when you are drunk, don't go into houses inebriated. I believe everyone has seen aggressive drunks at the park abusing the scare actors. Don't be that guy.
I am sure I am missing things, so, please add your own thoughts. The point is to make HOS fun for everyone.
First off, I am writing this entirely from a guest's perspective. I welcome thoughts from former and current park employees, and I encourage everyone to read Franco's epic post about how to be a good guest from a ride ops perspective, as well.
Regardless, things that I observed last night and comments that I have seen on this forum prompted me to share the standards my friends and the have developed for ourselves in an effort to be as considerate of other as possible.
Before I begin, I am not trying to be sanctimonious and judgmental. The recommendations below are based on other guests' decisions and behaviors that have ruined my experiences in the past. As in all other parts of our lives, good manners dictate that we consider the impact of our choices on everyone around us, and not just on our own pleasure. It is analogous to rubberneckers: In satisfying their own curiosity, they selfishly create massive traffic jams behind them. Violating the norms articulated below creates those same bottlenecks and interferes with house performance, ruining the scares for everyone around you and behind you.
So, here are my thoughts on how to be the best guest you can be.
1. Never stop in the maze. Seriously. Just don't. Despite how well designed and decorated many houses are, no one should ever stop inside one. When you halt your forward progress, you ruin the experience of every person behind you. In order to prevent stacking, everyone has to keep moving and at steady pace. Do not pause to get a closer look at a prop. Do not stand still to admire a particularly well executed room. Do not dally to chat up an actor you know. Do not loiter to let your child check out a specific scene or say "hi" to one of the monsters. Do not halt at the entrance of a room, because it is too scary to enter. And for the love of all that is holy, do not stop inside a maze to take a selfie. I have been forced to wait, not moving at all, more times than I can count because of some self-absorbed guest in front of me. Similarly, I have managed to catch up with the stragglers at the back of the group in front of me repeatedly. In both cases, my immersion was killed; my anxiety was quelled; and the actors were no longer able to scare me.
2. Maintain a reasonable speed through the houses. We are not teenagers in B horror movies. We do not need to creep through a maze, dramatically telling everyone in earshot that we are too afraid to go in that room. We especially do not need to experience the houses physically attached to five other people from begining to end. Similarly, we do not need to creep along at a snails pace admiring the sets, as if we were in a museum. The mazes are designed for people to trigger the scenes at a normal speed. Once again, all you are doing is ruining everyone else's experience. I was literally never able to make it all of the way through Circo Sinistro last year without catching up with the house-tourists in the group in front of me. In facts, several times, I was forced to experience the entire house behind an unreasonably slow-moving group.
3. Do not take your terrified, young child into the houses. There is already a thread dedicated to the debate about whether children belong at adult haunts, and I am not interested in arguing about that here. I only want to address the ways little kids can ruin other guests' experiences in the mazes. If your child is scared and begging not to go into the house, do not force him or her. Terrified and crying children are upsetting you everyone else, and usually prevent the scare actors from doing anything while in their earshot or site-range. Ultimately, he or she may come to a complete halt, reasonably unwilling to go forward, because everything in the house is designed to be frightening. The result is that your child is unhappy, and you have just stacked the house, minimizing the fear factor for everyone else. The houses are not children's attractions. Even when children are not afraid, the same norms about adults not stopping apply to them as well. A kid pausing to investigate the props or chat with a monster may be fun for him or her, but ruins the scares for both everyone else with you and all of the people now lined up behind you, unable to move forward. I actually got trapped in a virtually empty house behind a man and his son "touring" the maze. He actually held his kid up to take a closer look at a spider at one point. Needless to say none of the actors moved or made a sound, when they were around, because no one wants to terrify a child.
4. Do not hit the actors. Don't yell and curse at them. Do not punch them. Do not try to scare them back. They are hired to scare you, not to absorb your abuse. Enduring retaliation from the guests is not part of their job description. If you think that you might become more belligerent when you are drunk, don't go into houses inebriated. I believe everyone has seen aggressive drunks at the park abusing the scare actors. Don't be that guy.
I am sure I am missing things, so, please add your own thoughts. The point is to make HOS fun for everyone.