This is the pattern that seems overwhelming. I heard Jason’s Woods was unbearable this weekend and a hayride had to stop because kids kept jumping off.
Kings Dominion Halloween Haunt 2022
- Thread starter mtorange
- Start date
I can't stand the groups of teens that think line thoroughfares seem like ideal hang out spots for example, the entrance to Tumbili, and the entrance to I305s station. That one kills me I actually spoke up Friday night to get this group holding up the line for 3-4 trains just forming a big circle where people walk into the station. I don't want a grouper at I305 but man some days the people that hold up the line by just standing there.....
KD needs to raise Haunt ticket prices. Or, more accurately, they need better variable pricing in order to keep the crowds down on nights like Sunday when they should know crowds will be massive.
To be clear, it’s not a matter of pricing any “undesirable” guests out of the park. It’s a simple function of the fact that the park is too crowded on some nights, and that higher prices will reduce demand and thus lighten the crowds. With higher prices, KD can potentially earn more revenue while keeping the park experience more enjoyable due to the lower crowds — which is something that their brand desperately needs.
To be clear, it’s not a matter of pricing any “undesirable” guests out of the park. It’s a simple function of the fact that the park is too crowded on some nights, and that higher prices will reduce demand and thus lighten the crowds. With higher prices, KD can potentially earn more revenue while keeping the park experience more enjoyable due to the lower crowds — which is something that their brand desperately needs.
It isn’t just teens. More than once on Sunday I found myself trapped by families that decided to stop and chat at the exists of rides and houses.
I’m trying to think – does any park do this? I know sports teams do it. Star players and teams from opposing teams can drive price up vs keep it down based on demand.
But I don’t get why parks don’t do something like this. Heck take it further. Make a M-Th pass and a 7 day a week pass at each level. Push to be busier in non-peak times.
BGW has used variable pricing for Christmas Town. Disney uses it year-round.
The block-out dates at BGW and Disney are also a way of limiting pass holder attendance on busier days.
The block-out dates at BGW and Disney are also a way of limiting pass holder attendance on busier days.
Sounds like choosing yesterday as your first visit to KD in years was an unfortunate choice. Try another Sunday, but not before a holiday.
Yeah, a $5 to $10 delta clearly isn't doin' it.
What really struck me about both opening night and Sunday night were how many people clearly had no idea what Haunt was, how it worked, what a Halloween house at an amusement park was, whether their 7 year-old should have fun in one, etc. The event is way too good and way too packed for it to be flooded with parents with young kids who don't even know what it is and didn't even mean to show up for it. People will pay KD good money for this event. It's a fantastic event. The park's insistence to undervalue it so dramatically just baffles me. It seems like they're just blatantly leaving stacks of cash on the table.
Look at Hersheypark's Dark Nights. House admission for four houses which, on average, are far worse than KD's six houses varies between $25 and $45 per night. No one gets in for free. Despite that, Hershey has STILL been ABSOLUTELY FLOODED with guests this fall. Kings Dominion could and should be making stacks of cash hand over fist while also dramatically improving the guest experience in these houses.
Alternatively, if they are willing to do the full measure instead, make the whole event separately ticketed, rake in boatloads of cash, while also dramatically improving the guest experience across the board.
I just hope KD's Haunt reforms—both in safety and revenue—before something really bad happens and Cedar Fair considers pulling our adult Halloween event all together as we've already seen them do elsewhere. KD's event is one of the absolute best out there. It would be devastating to see it destroyed by horrible management decisions.
To go off that @Zachary , especially since I consider Jason’s Woods the premier haunt event, they charge $40 for a 5 house event, no rides or anything else tied to it. So $15 more basically gets you park entrance fees with a 75% experience of the thrills. Field of Screams has a pass for $250 for 4 houses in a 2.5 month event. So you could do all of Hershey/KD/BGW things for the same price of one pass for FOS. Yea they are haunt only things, but for the price….man….give me the parks over the haunts.
Also, you and @Nicole should go to those two if you like them as a good price point comparison.
Also, you and @Nicole should go to those two if you like them as a good price point comparison.
Based on what non theme park Halloween events charge, I don’t see why this isn‘t a big upcharge, particularly for season pass holders. Honestly it’s so hard to do everything in a single visit that a season pass is basically a cheap way to see Haunt over a few visits and get the rest of the season for free. KD could almost go for a reverse BGW and have a base pass for summer and Winterfest, with a higher priced version to include Haunt. Either that or block out all the popular days of Haunt.
Personally I hope they don't do what's being proposed here. I guess I'm a genius or something (I'm not), because I've never gone to Haunt where it was a bad experience. Just pick your day wisely and you'll have a lot of fun.
I ended up going to Haunt on Sunday. Due to the lack of time I had, I ended up springing for Fright & Fast Lane Plus. I don’t know why everyone else had such a bad time, because everything we did we got in fairly quickly, the only maze that was a Conga line was Trick or Treat, and that wasn’t bad at all. I got plenty of scares that I thoroughly enjoyed. Even was able to do Twisted Timbers, Tumbili, I305, and Windseeker as well!
Ended up going through most scare zones (except for Queen’s Ball), and I have to say I absolutely loved it.
Maze Rankings:
Condemned
21
Blood on the Bayou
Trick or Treat
Cornstalkers
Grimmwoods
Condemned:
I thoroughly enjoyed this maze. This was the first haunt maze I’ve done that’s genuinely made me nervous, which was a nice change of pace from BGW HOS. Actors were doing fantastic as well.
21:
This was another maze that I also loved. Great sets, actors were on point, and even got some fun interactions with one of them.
Blood on the Bayou:
Oldie but a goodie. Enjoyed this maze, better than the first time I did it 4 years ago. Details were also great. Actors again were doing pretty good, but not quite as good as 21 and Condemned.
Trick or Treat:
The only maze I had a Conga line situation with. Not a huge amount of scares but I absolutely loved the sets and atmosphere of this maze. Plenty of monsters in this maze, but didn’t really get any scares.
Cornstalkers:
Decent maze. Definitely could use some improvements, but still pretty good otherwise. The maze was pretty good other than for us coming to a dead stop midway through the maze.
Grimmwoods:
Let me start off by saying that by no means is this a bad maze. This would be the 2nd best maze if it was at HOS, and not Haunt. There was a lack of monsters, I think I only counted 8 monsters in the entire maze. The sets were fantastic but the maze failed to make me uneasy or even scare me at all. With a maze this long there should have been more scares and more uneasiness. The lights were cool, but the maze just didn’t do much for me.
I’m not going to rank the scare zones, but I will say Site X was a pretty cool scare zone. Great way to tie the theme together with the area.
I wanted to get food from Grain and Grill, but they closed at 9:00, when I have remembered in previous visits, they have stayed open until closing time. All the other places just had long lines so we didn’t get food.
Going to give a shout-out to the Tumbili crew, they were dispatching as fast as they could when I rode.
Overall, would definitely go again (maybe on a not so busy night), and try to get more rides and also see if any mazes move around in rankings. That and get food at Grain and Grill.
Ended up going through most scare zones (except for Queen’s Ball), and I have to say I absolutely loved it.
Maze Rankings:
Condemned
21
Blood on the Bayou
Trick or Treat
Cornstalkers
Grimmwoods
Condemned:
I thoroughly enjoyed this maze. This was the first haunt maze I’ve done that’s genuinely made me nervous, which was a nice change of pace from BGW HOS. Actors were doing fantastic as well.
21:
This was another maze that I also loved. Great sets, actors were on point, and even got some fun interactions with one of them.
Blood on the Bayou:
Oldie but a goodie. Enjoyed this maze, better than the first time I did it 4 years ago. Details were also great. Actors again were doing pretty good, but not quite as good as 21 and Condemned.
Trick or Treat:
The only maze I had a Conga line situation with. Not a huge amount of scares but I absolutely loved the sets and atmosphere of this maze. Plenty of monsters in this maze, but didn’t really get any scares.
Cornstalkers:
Decent maze. Definitely could use some improvements, but still pretty good otherwise. The maze was pretty good other than for us coming to a dead stop midway through the maze.
Grimmwoods:
Let me start off by saying that by no means is this a bad maze. This would be the 2nd best maze if it was at HOS, and not Haunt. There was a lack of monsters, I think I only counted 8 monsters in the entire maze. The sets were fantastic but the maze failed to make me uneasy or even scare me at all. With a maze this long there should have been more scares and more uneasiness. The lights were cool, but the maze just didn’t do much for me.
I’m not going to rank the scare zones, but I will say Site X was a pretty cool scare zone. Great way to tie the theme together with the area.
I wanted to get food from Grain and Grill, but they closed at 9:00, when I have remembered in previous visits, they have stayed open until closing time. All the other places just had long lines so we didn’t get food.
Going to give a shout-out to the Tumbili crew, they were dispatching as fast as they could when I rode.
Overall, would definitely go again (maybe on a not so busy night), and try to get more rides and also see if any mazes move around in rankings. That and get food at Grain and Grill.
@Coasternerd brings up a good point. If the park is overly crowded guests will purchase Fast Lane Plus which increases revenue. If the park is never packed guests won't have an incentive to purchase the upgrade.
There are likely attendance points where diseconomies of scale start coming in and the extra fast pass sales doesn’t make up for those extra costs from very high attendance.
This makes me wonder if KD was just brutally unprepared for Sunday’s crowds. Maybe they didn’t account for the fact that Monday was a holiday? Having a fair amount of insight into how Grain & Grill operates, I can only imagine one reason why the restaurant would ever close early: they ran out of food. More specifically, G&G requires an enormous amount of prep work done to its fresh ingredients — this all happens in the back kitchen beyond where guests can see, and is incredibly time and staff intensive. Most of G&G’s food is prepped hours in advance, if not in the morning before park opening or even the day before, in order to ensure there is sufficient prepped food available as “backup” at any given time.
So, if KD got way more slammed with guests than they anticipated, they might have run out of prepped food — and thus had to shut the door. G&G is a huge money-maker for the park, especially towards the end of the night as guests make their way to International Street. In fact, it’s one of the only restaurants that regularly stays open past park close (closing up to 30 minutes after the park, in order to sell off any remaining cooked food). As far as I know, the only reason they’d close is if they literally ran out of food to sell.
And all of this backs up my suspicion that somehow, the park woefully misjudged how big the crowds would be on Sunday.