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How's the Wilkommenhaus projection? I saw a small clip of it and it looked far superior to the summer nights one, but I didn't see the full thing.

Also, how lame is the "witching hour"-esque kick off thing? I anticipated it to be rather cringe. Is it decent?
 
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Here’s the deal with frostbite. Once you get into the maze, you aren’t in the maze yet. There’s this excessively long filtering line that is kinda uh.... shit. After that they’ll filter you through two sides. I got the left side, and it had a few good scares, but had very long empty corridors at time. The thing that shocked me was that there was no snow. I’m going to put my foot down and say that the right side probably has the snow. Final conclusion: Half shit.

the two separate paths only last for a few feet, the snow is along one path that everyone should go through (if they turn on the effect)


We stopped by the Creepy Drunk Stalker upcharge attraction... I mean the Control Lab nightmare. There were people just watching the TVs and laughing at other guests in the mazes and randomly on the Festa bridge (why is there a camera there?). It seemed cruel and creepy all at once. It is a good thing I didn’t really enjoy any of the houses very much this year, because I absolutely don’t want to go in them as long as random strangers can watch me for their entertainment,

It boggles my mind that there isn’t a way to opt out of being the source of hilarity for people hanging out at a “bar” in another part of the park. I feel nothing but hate for this naked money grab from the park.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what the problem is between watching someone get scared in a house versus someone sitting in a terror-tory watching you get scared out in the open? Some people just love to see others get scared and have a good time, I find nothing creepy about that. Also I think you use the word stalker incorrectly. A stalker is an individual who follows someone for long periods of time. I highly doubt that anyone is truly stalking people.

That said, I understand people get uncomfortable around cameras and being recorded in general.

The bright side is I'd rather that park make this quick money grab effort instead of making the event separate charge. My point being, there has been talk in the past that SEAS has pushed for HOS in VA to make the event bring in more money considering the event is not separately charged like Tampa. The Escapes Rooms are kindve an example of making that extra cash.

Also as a another note, the Escape Rooms have way more cameras and people watch your entire 30 minute experience, which I'd consider worse than the Control Lab.
 
What did everyone think of Howl-O-Scream in general for the first Saturday of the season?

I paid for the unlimited quick queue for today. I didn’t know until late last night that there would be no wristbands/lanyards showing that I had quick queue. This became a hassle trying to get our passes scanned at every house. I’m still annoyed that they closed Dark Kastle and put two crappy mazes in its place. I asked one of the employees tonight why the houses didn’t have many scarers in them and he replied that they would be “adding more in the coming weeks.” Sadly that didn’t help me for today’s visit. Most of the time I walked through empty rooms, heard slamming, and random cat purring noises from the monsters. How a cat purr is suppposed to be scary I will never know.

After going the past three years to KD, I was really expecting BGW to have great mazes. Especially for their 20th anniversary. If this is what BGW means by a “new era of terror,” I think I’ll pass and go to some mazes that are more local or I’ll go back to KD next year. Such a disappointment.

The only highlight I will add is that I enjoyed all three shows. Fiends and Monster Stomp on Ripper Row were fantastic, like always. I was very surprised with Night Beats. I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was.



I had a nice day at the park, but the lack luster mazes left me with a sour taste in my mouth and some buyer’s remorse. Hopefully it’ll get better in the weeks to come, but I’m done with BGW until ChristmasTown.
 
My experience was further ruined by other guests. The group in front of us came to a compete halt for no discernible reason, and stood there for about 2 minutes. BGW needs to find a way to address the systemic problem of people holding up the lines through their houses.

This had me thinking about how many people they sent through when I was there last week -- despite the lighter crowds, the houses had lines since only 4 were open. At Dystopia the grouper lest through a group of about 30, and then for me and a few others said "small group" and immediately put us through, which added us to the group in front by the time we were even inside. Every house was a conga line.

I've been to some haunts, mostly independent, where they make a big deal about small seperate groups, and the problem is when the wait is longer almost nothing can be worth that much wait, especially some of those. So it is a compromise. But I think BG goes into an area that putting more people in doesn't make for more people through. It may even slow it down: for example, if people are a little more spread out, then sometimes faster people pass slower ones, but in the conga lines there's more a sense everyone has to go slow and it doesn't make any difference. It's like passing on a crowded 2 lane road, you just end up stuck behind someone else. The slowest people control it for everybody. Personally I like to go slow, but mainly so no one will be directly ahead, which is impossible as well.
 
Any updates from Garden of the Lost Souls? Was hoping to see some more pictures. Also does anyone know if they're using "The Dark Side of the Gardens" here or anywhere else in the park this year?
 
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Any updates from Garden of the Lost Souls? Was hoping to see some more pictures. Also does anyone know if they're using "The Dark Side of the Gardens" here or anywhere else in the park this year?
Garden of the Souls really strives at night, so it’s hard to get pictures while it’s at its peak. All I can say is that the costume design is absolutely fantastic. One of my favorite scare zones of the entire history of the event.
 
7. Cornered. There is no corn in CORNered. I’m sure there is a good reason that the park decided to replace the maize in the maze with the privacy fence displays from Lowe’s. Maybe they were going with the Vault theme and hearkening back to the first year of Root of All Evil.

I was told last year by a scare actor/friend that they had a problem with black mold in Cornered last year so that could be the reason for them stripping out the corn this year.
 
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I'm not a mold expert, but it could be a combination of factors. Bad corn, moisture, and it could have been really old corn just carried over from the previous year. I don't know the exact shelf life of corn, but I do know that corn is susceptible to mold as it goes bad though, particularly on the leaves and stalks.
 
Also, how lame is the "witching hour"-esque kick off thing? I anticipated it to be rather cringe. Is it decent?

I took a video of it that I can share. What's the best way to post a video on here? Embed it, upload it to YouTube and link it here, or what? I'm at the park on mobile right now so I haven't had a chance to fiddle with it to see!
 
I was told last year by a scare actor/friend that they had a problem with black mold in Cornered last year so that could be the reason for them stripping out the corn this year.

If it is mold (we knew about problem last year, as well), there are three better options:

1. Replace the corn mid-season;
2. Move the maze indoors (would anyone really miss Frostbite?); or
3. Replace the maze with something new and more waterproof.

What is not a reasonable option, in my opinion, is having a house themed to corn with no corn.

I took a video of it that I can share. What's the best way to post a video on here? Embed it, upload it to YouTube and link it here, or what? I'm at the park on mobile right now so I haven't had a chance to fiddle with it to see!

Upload it to YouTube; paste the link into the Forum; and it should embed automatically.
 
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There it is. Sorry for the quality, my phone is a potato but I got what I could. Here's chickenkingBGW's video of it as well! He at least can remember to hold his camera horizontally unlike myself ?

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Why do they have him lip sync and follow along with it, have them talk so they can make their own stuff up also to get the crowd hype
 
Ok, I wish I could make a poll on this, but don't know how to and don't want to waste a new thread on it:

In your opinion would BGW be better served with more mazes/scares but overall shorter experiences or less mazes but overall longer?

Me personally, I think they are trying to do both. Long and a bunch. I'm not sure what would serve them best to be honest. There is massive upsides to both, as well as downsides. I feel like they do a good job in overall theme elements and design, and its a bit of a let down that the experiences aren't as good.
 
Do you mean like more shorter mazes with more actors vs fewer mazes but they're longer?

Because honestly, I think they're better if they can just staff the stuff they got. I can't really imagine going through a maze longer than 5-7 minutes. I can't imagine a maze that's only the same amount of time as a roller coaster. It wouldn't be worth it.
 
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