netdvn said:
OK so Oktoberfest and Killarney have always been the "safe zones" since I started attending HOS in 2011. Nothing new there.
Ports of Skull still has scares. The scares pretty much take up the entire pathway from Pompeii to the Battering Ram (at least thats how it worked last year). The photo op section is really no different from the steps outside the Globe where all of Ripper Row's actors pretty much hung out last year.
So that leaves all the specialty stands... Well I just looked at the Food and Wine Festival map I picked up last June and counted (and re-counted to make sure) 17 stands selling beer. Last year there were a total of four specialty stands selling mixed drinks during HOS.
So why are drunk people so much more problematic during HOS? Its because the park sells the alcohol in the lines for all the mazes, the specialty stands, the restaurants, and in little carts scattered everywhere. If they simply just removed all the beer stalls in the mazes and the alcohol carts, it wouldn't be as big of an issue. I dunno if they've always had beer stalls set up like that in all the queue lines but they were certainly there in 2011. Just keep the alcohol at the specialty stands and the restaurants.
I've been going to HoS since about 2000/01-ish and Oktoberfest has been and off and on party spot. There have been scarezones in Oktoberfest (NOT Rinefield.), but honestly I've never seen an actual scare actor in the area. (Stitchin Time being the only time I've seen actors in Oktoberfest, but that was really just the bridge connecting Oktoberfest to Rinefield. So I don't really count that.)
In the past Oktoberfest had things like a street party in front of the Festhaus, where you could dance with the characters from Fiends in Das Festhaus. And just some general other party atmosphere of playing music and dancing. It has never been club-ish or like Demon Street, with a 'DJ'. (As far as I can remember.)
I think Killarney earns the name of a party spot by some people on here, because of the nurses selling jello-shots and the fact that they play classic rock.
And to be fair to the Ripper Row crew, working in an area where the vast majority of the crowd is leaving the park, is difficult. So I don't really blame them for being more towards the sides. You've got a massive herd moving in one direction, it's hard enough just to cut your way across the crowd if you wanna visit one of the shops on the way out. Banbury is a difficult location to do scares because of the crowds.
While I do have an issue with the bars for HoS, F&W is different because wine is part of that experience. It's in the name of the event. Having beers and other alcohol from the various countries is also part of that experience, because you're supposed to be tasting things from different countries. Meanwhile, HoS just has just about the same name brand alcohol everywhere, from what I can tell. There's nothing really special about it. It's the same stuff they serve during the regular season, with no event.
Overall I think I'd be okay with the bars, if they stopped selling alcohol in the lines of the mazes, and randomly on the streets. They seem to be pushing the alcohol more at HoS than they do at F&W, and it's a lot more in your face. And not gonna lie, with the amount of places you can buy alcohol at HoS just gives me the vibe that they want you to be drunk in order to enjoy the event. But that might be just me. Drinking isn't the issue I have with it, it's the excessive-ness of it all.
WasabiDragon said:
I think it would nice if they had sometime of themed show in the Elmo area and/or Land of Dragons. They advertise that after 6pm the events are not meant for young children then why not create more activities for this audience during the day. I don't have children yet but I know that one day I will and this issue will be a more a prevalent one for me and will likely determine if I attend the event at all.
I believe they have a small show in FoF for Halloween, but I could be mistaken. However, LotD used to do HoS shows. Things like Spooky Kooky Dragon & Friends (think that was the name.), and Witchy Poo & Pumpkin Too. Why they still don't do those sorts of shows, could be any number of reasons. but they stopped doing the shows for kids around 2006ish, I believe.
