Kids at HOS

[Applesauce]

I think the park needs to remind guests not only that Festa is closed on Wed/Thurs openings, but also that all kid attractions are closed.

I would love it if Wed/Thurs nights became like an age restricted/stroller ban nights. Nobody under the age of 10. I think it could work. Because you're still leaving the weekend as an open time for families.

 

[warfelg]

I'm not a fan of banning at an age or strollers. Frankly there are families with large age differences in kids that can't help but having to take the young kids as older ones want to go.

Here's my solutions:

• England, Scotland, Ireland, Rhine Bridge over to LoD, LoD, and FOF are all 'kid friendly'. So no matter the age of the kids, it's 100% 'fun scares" in those area's where the scaractors are trained to be a little more friendly and tone down the makeup to more generic scares than heart pounding.
• Wild Preserve, France, New France, Germany, Oktoberfest, San Marco, Italy are all "kids at your own risk" zones. Meaning it's not kid friendly, but it's up to the parents. The scaractors don't apologize for scaring, makeup is bumped up a bit. In the haunts no kids are allowed at all. This is where you cut any 'dance parties' or things like that.
• Festa Italia and Festhaus Field become "100% no kids" and "high scares" area's. This is where scaractors are told to let it all rip, go all out with makeup. Basically this is where you go all out.

If SPW comes to fruition I think that's when you can really change this setup. Unfortunately until then, I think at least sections of the park needs to be kid friendly because of families having large age ranges. Until you have a large space with attractions that can be kid friendly, you can't really do something that is 100% not kid friendly.

 

[Applesauce]

That would be all well and good except HoS is marketed as not a kid event. The kids have Count's Spooktacular during the day for weekends in October. (Which could very easily be extended into September honestly.) Not to mention it would add confusion to people because most guests don't remember how to read things and take warnings seriously.

I recommend an age/stroller ban for the two least popular nights of the event, Wed/Thursday. All the kids I saw last night were with families, but the age range was close. There really wasn't much in the way of large families with varying ages from what I saw.

Unlike last Sunday, where I saw a wonderful family with like 6 kids of varying ages, but the eldest couldn't be more than 10, and they were just collectively ignoring their crying younger ones for wanting to leave. One was in a stroller covered by a blanket and refused to come out, despite being at AC. And the other was out but crying a lot refusing to go to her mom because she was afraid that something would come get her. And the mom ignore the one I'm assuming is the aunt, who offered to take the kids out to the car because of the ones who were scared, plus the fact that they had apparently been trying to leave for two hours. But mom thought no it's fine because they can go in the stroller and be covered by a blanket, and that if she was in their shoes, /she/ would feel fine and safe. She says as an adult who can tell the difference between reality and fiction.

Nevermind that I over heard a small child in the stall next to mine on that same night quietly ask to leave because they didn't "want to see any more monsters". And their mom immediately and without hesitation just told them firmly to close their eyes.

So I honestly have little sympathy for these parents who would ultimately whine about an age/stroller ban, because they're very clearly ignoring their children. There is so much going on in their little brains that seeing the scary stuff can cause harm later. Whether it's something incredibly stupid like me, where I can't eat spaghetti with red sauce on it because of the times my dad brought me in a house when I was incredibly young and told me that it's okay all the people are covered in spaghetti sauce. Or if it's later developing trust issues with their parents, because their parents consistently ignored their cries to stop and be removed from a situation.

These families should know their children, which means if they wouldn't take them to go see a scary movie: /leave them at home/. Hire a babysitter. Do a child swap with some friends.

Stop traumatizing your kids because /you/ want to do something.

/Hops off my soap box.

 

[phurst]

After a conversation with a coworker yesterday, I have to assume that the kids situation is at least in some part due to ignorance.

I mentioned I was going to HOS this weekend, and she got all indignant, saying she would NEVER return for that event. They took their young child last year, and, predictably had the bejesus scared out of her, which she thought was unacceptable. I said, well, that's the whole point of the event, they make it very clear that after 6:00, it's not a kid friendly event. She countered by saying they had been near the tea cups, which she considered a kid ride. I explained (in a nice way, we're friends) that a) it's not a kiddie ride, b) there is an entire kiddie section of the park and, most importantly, c) there is a scare zone RIGHT THERE. She finally conceded that she had paid no attention to the event info, didn't know there was a difference between day and night ops, what time the event started, or that there even were scare zones. She assumed it would be regular park operations with Halloween decorations.

I'm definitely not saying that's the reason MOST families with kids are in the park, but it must be true for some of them.

 

[Nibbins]

One thing that has to be kept in mind when discussing kids, and people in general, is that they are not all the same.
I was out last Sunday with my family and a friend and their family. We had kids from 6 to 15.
While my 8 year old handles all houses just fine without even flinching the 15 year old refused to go in any of them and the 11 - 13 year olds were screaming at every jump scare along with our friend in her 30s but enjoyed every second of it.
The 6 year old did not enjoy the first house she was in, but managed ok going through, so we kept her out of the houses for the rest of the night. She is fine with the scare zones.

I think it should be up to the parent to know their kids, but I would also expect the parents to not ignore their children's needs.

 

[BGWnut]

One thing that has to be kept in mind when discussing kids, and people in general, is that they are not all the same.
I was out last Sunday with my family and a friend and their family. We had kids from 6 to 15.
While my 8 year old handles all houses just fine without even flinching the 15 year old refused to go in any of them and the 11 - 13 year olds were screaming at every jump scare along with our friend in her 30s but enjoyed every second of it.
The 6 year old did not enjoy the first house she was in, but managed ok going through, so we kept her out of the houses for the rest of the night. She is fine with the scare zones.

I think it should be up to the parent to know their kids, but I would also expect the parents to not ignore their children's needs.

I agree with you completely. I have a young kid who loves it and thinks it amazing. The problem I see is that too often parents bring their kids and they get scared and the parents get upset that they would scare their kids.

 

[WDWRLD]

Yes, I agree its not all kids...in fact ive seen many a adult that shouldnt be there and some BGW should have talked to and told them to know it off or leave. We were in Vault a couple weeks ago and this 20 something male was screaming and acting like a fool the entire house to the point of bumping into many props, pushing other guests, generally acting like he was scared to death when you culd tell it was a act. At the end he knocked over or almost knocked over one of the floor lamps from Dr Freakenstien. He was so annoying I soent the entire time trying to keep him from pushing my family. Of course BGW does nothing.

 

[BenWilkerson]

Seems as thought they’re at least attempting to improve the situation...not sure how they’ll enforce it though

 

[Ice]

So kick people out at 5? Huh?

 

[----------------------]

Bgt uses wristbands for howl o scream ticket holders for the first few hours. They hand the out in pantopia when they close the rest of the park for an hour or so to switch over and also give them out at the gate. Perhaps they will just give them out throughout the day?

Nice to see them taking the first step towards up charging

 

[Applesauce]

Disney also uses wristbands for the halloween party. It would make sense to do something similar, however in practice... I'm not sure how well this will go over, considering for 20 years hos hasn't been an upcharge. And despite that fact that for at least the past two years all the kids stuff closes early, there's still a lot of kids at hos. :/

I easily see this backfiring, there's a ton of guests who just don't care and won't listen to employees, if they tell them their kids can't stay because of a wristband.

 

[WDWRLD]

So if they give kids wristbands then parents just take them off and they blend in with all the other guests? Or do they give out wristbands to everyone else.....so they spend money to hand out 20,000 wristbands to weed out the 25 kids who got in on that cheap ticket?

 

[WDWRLD]

Here is another though I never though about. Saturday night we were on the train and there was a family behind me with small kids. In listening to them it sounded like they had came in the afternoon for the kids halloween stuff, and now they were trying to do the regular park rides and avoid the HOS scares. They were leaving Festa headed to Caribou for Invadr. They repeated to the kids over and over that they wouldnt see any "scarry people" on the train. It also sounded like they got in the park way later than expected due to traffic. So I guess they could have planned of getting in and out before HOS started but didnt because of traffic.

 

[Nibbins]

[…] They were leaving Festa headed to Caribou for Invadr. They repeated to the kids over and over that they wouldnt see any "scarry people" on the train.[…]

They are not going to make their kids happy when they are greeted by chainsaws and undead Vikings once they arrive at Invadr.

 

[WDWRLD]

They are not going to make their kids happy when they are greeted by chainsaws and undead Vikings once they arrive at Invadr.

But they did at least get there. We got off train and didnt see the first Viking till the pottery place and the chainsaws werent there.

 

[Nicole]

So, I observed something last night at HOS that I found very disturbing.

We were at the entrance to Kill Die and overheard a BGW staff member talking to a little girl. She was attempting to convince the (looked like) kindergartner to go in the house. She said something along the lines of, "it is just like when you and your friends dress up for Halloween! They are just in costumes." The little girl looked confused and said, "it is Halloween?"

No! No, it is nothing like your Halloween parties! There are terrifying images of bloody and dying people, dismembered body parts, threatening monsters, etc. No one is bobbing for apples or dressed like Elsa.

What was that BGW cast member thinking? The girl is not going to have fun and neither are the actors and other guests who have to deal with a terrified child in a haunted maze.

 

[GoHokies87]

So, I observed something last night at HOS that I found very disturbing.

We were at the entrance to Kill Die and overheard a BGW staff member talking to a little girl. She was attempting to convince the (looked like) kindergartner to go in the house. She said something along the lines of, "it is just like when you and your friends dress up for Halloween! They are just in costumes." The little girl looked confused and said, "it is Halloween?"

No! No, it is nothing like your Halloween parties! There are terrifying images of bloody and dying people, dismembered body parts, threatening monsters, etc. No one is bobbing for apples or dressed like Elsa.

What was that BGW cast member thinking? The girl is not going to have fun and neither are the actors and other guests who have to deal with a terrified child in a haunted maze.

This is why I liked the old Pumpkin ratings. You could tell at a glance which houses lacked the more objectional material for younger kids(like the train and revenge of Pompeii.

If you wan't to make the event fully aimed at the older crowd thats totally fine and works well, but I don't even think the park cares to do that with the no-boo non-sense.

 

[Ice]

The pumpkin scale was arbitrary and meaningless. Of course a train is less scary than the houses. The attempts at ranking some houses scarier than others meant absolutely nothing. It was just a gimmick.

 

[Zachary]

Yeah, I'm not pro-pumpkin ratings, but I am ardently pro-toned-down, daytime house hours.

In my perfect world BGW would have two houses open during the day for a more family friendly audience:

• The first, a house featuring minimal graphic content that's open for tours—no actors, just an in-character, not scary guide that leads small groups through the house during the day a la daytime Revenge of Pompeii. Hell, BGW could get even more creative and could do trick or treating in one of their houses by day. Nevermore is a good example of a house that could be used this way.
• The second, a house featuring a normal selection of Howl-O-Scream decor, but with light staffing and toned-down scares a la daytime Caverns of Darkness or Catacombs circa 2009/2010.

This would give families some stepping stones to work with to acquaint younger people with Howl-O-Scream houses. Right now houses are a sink or swim ordeal which is bad for everyone involved. Giving families a better way to test the waters to see how different kids react seems like it would be a huge benefit—and one the park saw value in too previously.

 

[Nibbins]

That sounds like a lot of effort.

Having young kids I would have to say that the Terrortories are just fine to "test the water".

-If your kids do not want to walk through the meat market, don't drag them through a haunted house.
-If they do go through but get scared and hide behind you or run through, don't drag them through a haunted house.
-If they think the Terrortories are fun, try a house and see how they do.

Generally, if they are reluctant to go into a haunted house it's pretty clear they won't enjoy it. Talking them into it is not going to help anyone.

I saw a woman at Kings Dominion the other week walking into a house with her 4 year old literally hanging on her leg (arms and legs wrapped around it) screaming. Who is going to enjoy that one?


I took my 9 year old into Nevermore 2 weeks ago, because she thought she can handle it. She was fine until one of the actors got a good jump on her half way through. After that she started dodging all the actors and didn't want to go in another house. So I don't make her go in other houses.
It's really pretty simple.