Kings Dominion Halloween Haunt 2022
- Thread starter mtorange
- Start date
GrimmWoods was also cleared about 45 minutes ago. We aren't sure what happened, but we heard EMS was involved.
i don’t know if y’all remember, but the violence and chaos was really bad 2019 opening night, then the rest of the nights were problem free. it’s just frustrating that we can’t enjoy what we have been so eagerly preparing for because other ppl have no common decency.
9:30 Convergence isn't happening. Delayed until 10 it sounds like. Not gonna have time to see it now. 
That is a shame from what I saw it looks good.9:30 Convergence isn't happening. Delayed until 10 it sounds like. Not gonna have time to see it now.
With Haunt about to be over in 5 minutes, would everyone say it was impressive compared to previous year or was it underwhelming?
Imo .. The new 21 house is a total bust right now.... Honestly the only good thing was the scare actors escorting you into the house/ weird elevator, that did nothing . .lol
I was also able to get into BnB, it def seemed to have the most scare actors, when I went through, then any other area...
I thought Grimm Woods was a work in progress..
I liked how they had new props that fit the story all along the path .. some prob need to be moved over a bit, it holds up the line when there are allot of people on the trail at the same time... Still needs more scare actors and they need to stay in the story and not head into other areas of the park...
The new scare zone ... Near Jungle x just seemed all over the place and a bit of a mess... I missed the show so can comment on that.
Overall due to the huge crowd I will give it a C- for the first night..
Lines where crazy long.. 21 def not worth the wait..
Fastest line
The new scare zone and house where big let downs for me...
Highlights The End of Grimm Woods and what it could really become ...
Its much darker and really in some places maybe too dark to see some of the props on the trail ..
They need to break up the line/ scare zone areas & not have eveyone on top of each other..
Still hate the acts in the scare zones
Cleaver & site X
Btw... I missed all the fights but there where tons of groups & marijuana among other things being smoked everywhere, by young&old ...its easy to see how things can get out of hand quick ...
Bnb
I was also able to get into BnB, it def seemed to have the most scare actors, when I went through, then any other area...
I thought Grimm Woods was a work in progress..
I liked how they had new props that fit the story all along the path .. some prob need to be moved over a bit, it holds up the line when there are allot of people on the trail at the same time... Still needs more scare actors and they need to stay in the story and not head into other areas of the park...
The new scare zone ... Near Jungle x just seemed all over the place and a bit of a mess... I missed the show so can comment on that.
Overall due to the huge crowd I will give it a C- for the first night..
Lines where crazy long.. 21 def not worth the wait..
Fastest line
The new scare zone and house where big let downs for me...
Highlights The End of Grimm Woods and what it could really become ...
Its much darker and really in some places maybe too dark to see some of the props on the trail ..
They need to break up the line/ scare zone areas & not have eveyone on top of each other..
Still hate the acts in the scare zones
Cleaver & site X
Btw... I missed all the fights but there where tons of groups & marijuana among other things being smoked everywhere, by young&old ...its easy to see how things can get out of hand quick ...
Bnb
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I feel like the biggest thing is that security needs to be upped and the park needs to be capped off. You couldn’t walk ten feet without someone puffing smoke or weed in your face which was hell for someone like me with a medical condition. I saw a ton of fights, there was line jumping, I saw people jumping over the fence into Soak City while in line for Trick or Treat even. I’m hoping this was just an opening night thing because my god it did affect things. Just please have more security, it really shouldn’t be hard
HUGE kudos to the scareactors and staff having to put up with the troublemakers, y’all are rockstars
HUGE kudos to the scareactors and staff having to put up with the troublemakers, y’all are rockstars
Some quick first night thoughts:
I had a really good time for Haunts opening night. Started with the new and not so improved opening ceremony. I can’t quite finger what it is yet that is missing from it but that it felt off from previous years.
First house of the night was 21. I thought it was okay but agree with Parkfans consensus that it was a bit of a step back in quality from Kings Dominions relatively large recent memory of houses. Only got 1 walk through at open.
Got a delicious Prime Rib at the Outpost and grabbed a ride on Tumbili with some buddies while the line was short.
Checked out Site X for a short bit and headed towards Grimmwoods. Very awesome walk through of Grimmwoods. Love all the new changes. Awesome ambiance and great scare tactics from the very playful team here.
A favorite of mine from years past, No Vacancy delivered once more. Very awesome house. Minor changes to set and lighting. Great story telling, great acting, and great scare tactics. Very awesome walk through from a Haunt classic (can it even be called that yet?)
Finished everything off with 2 walkthroughs of Cornstalkers. Haven’t been a fan of this maze in years past - and maybe, just maybe, it was because I was justtt a bit tipsy on my walk through of Cornstalkers tonight, but I really freaking loved this maze this year! It feels a lot darker than years past and the volume of good actors creatively littered throughout the corn maze made for an excellent finale of the night. Lots of fun comments from the actors playing off of one another was very cool to see as well.
My house of the night goes to the longest tenured maze at the park, Cornstalkers.
I didn’t personally experience anything out of the ordinary tonight. I’ve heard of a few incidents and maybe caught the tail end of something happening in CAG around maybe 9:30pm but did not see anything with my own eyes. All the employees I encountered today were super awesome and the guests were really well behaved from what I personally encountered. Like previous years, there is no way in hell I would recommend coming on a Saturday just because of the sheer volume of people in the park, but I think this years event still holds true to previous years in quality.
Despite only getting to do some of the mazes and very limited time in the scare zones we had a pretty good time given how packed the park was. Tomorrow night I’ll be checking out the shows and the rest of the houses. Looking forward to it.
Edit: Note to self. Never, ever try and get a close parking spot if I plan on staying till close again on a Saturday. Ever….
I had a really good time for Haunts opening night. Started with the new and not so improved opening ceremony. I can’t quite finger what it is yet that is missing from it but that it felt off from previous years.
First house of the night was 21. I thought it was okay but agree with Parkfans consensus that it was a bit of a step back in quality from Kings Dominions relatively large recent memory of houses. Only got 1 walk through at open.
Got a delicious Prime Rib at the Outpost and grabbed a ride on Tumbili with some buddies while the line was short.
Checked out Site X for a short bit and headed towards Grimmwoods. Very awesome walk through of Grimmwoods. Love all the new changes. Awesome ambiance and great scare tactics from the very playful team here.
A favorite of mine from years past, No Vacancy delivered once more. Very awesome house. Minor changes to set and lighting. Great story telling, great acting, and great scare tactics. Very awesome walk through from a Haunt classic (can it even be called that yet?)
Finished everything off with 2 walkthroughs of Cornstalkers. Haven’t been a fan of this maze in years past - and maybe, just maybe, it was because I was justtt a bit tipsy on my walk through of Cornstalkers tonight, but I really freaking loved this maze this year! It feels a lot darker than years past and the volume of good actors creatively littered throughout the corn maze made for an excellent finale of the night. Lots of fun comments from the actors playing off of one another was very cool to see as well.
My house of the night goes to the longest tenured maze at the park, Cornstalkers.
I didn’t personally experience anything out of the ordinary tonight. I’ve heard of a few incidents and maybe caught the tail end of something happening in CAG around maybe 9:30pm but did not see anything with my own eyes. All the employees I encountered today were super awesome and the guests were really well behaved from what I personally encountered. Like previous years, there is no way in hell I would recommend coming on a Saturday just because of the sheer volume of people in the park, but I think this years event still holds true to previous years in quality.
Despite only getting to do some of the mazes and very limited time in the scare zones we had a pretty good time given how packed the park was. Tomorrow night I’ll be checking out the shows and the rest of the houses. Looking forward to it.
Edit: Note to self. Never, ever try and get a close parking spot if I plan on staying till close again on a Saturday. Ever….
We arrived at the park at about 1pm and left shortly before 10:30 tonight. The park was totally SLAMMED but luckily my partner was generous enough to purchase "Fright Fast Lane Plus" for both of us so we could really enjoy ourselves without having to stress over the outrageously long lines we encountered at the park.
I'm going to keep it short but here are my thoughts of tonight's Haunt:
Blood Reign Opening Ceremony (show) - Good but nowhere near as great as it was pre-covid. The guy on fire was cool but the transition into The Queen's Ball was confusing as there was at least a 3-5 minute pause leading to over half of the crowd that gathered at the base of the tower leaving. We were just like, "That's it?"
The Queen's Ball (show) - Honestly, I'm not sure if we even saw the full show as about 10 minutes in, the dancers all left the stage abruptly. Again, confusing. Anyone know more?
Condemned (maze) - We started with this maze and came to the conclusion that it was hands down the best maze of the night! I know it's an older maze but we thought it was so good we did it another time on the way out. Honestly this one maze is probably better than all of the houses at Howl-O-Scream combined. My only complaint is some of rooms are too brightly lit for my taste but the rooms that are dark are very dark which made up for it as you could barely see the scares that were coming. Overall 9/10
Blood on the Bayou (maze) - Just as I remembered it in the past. Probably the most impressive in terms of set design but the scares were good for opening night. Score: 7.5/10
Trick or Treat (maze) - Meh.. Not great but also not bad. Wouldn't be upset to see this one go. Score: 5/10
21 (maze) - Also meh.. For a new maze it was a huge disappointment. Hopefully something can be done to improve it. 5/10
GrimmWoods (maze) - Better than I remembered it previously. Not the scariest but the atmospherics and setting made up for it. The set near the end was pretty impressive. Score: 7/10
Cornstalkers (maze) - The last and worst maze of the night. From start to end the whole maze was backed up. It has consistently been my least favorite maze each year so this can go as well... Score: 3/10
Scarezones: I don't really care too much for the scarezones, but I was pretty impressed with Pumpkin Eater. It seems like they add a little more to it each year and it looks great!
Convergence (show) Way smaller than I hoped for but that was my fault as I was expecting for something more on the scale of Let's Get Wild! We left after 5 minutes into it.
Overall we had a pretty great time. If we didn't have the Fright Fast Lane Plus I'm pretty sure we would've left disappointed. I will note other than one instance of a group running around like animals almost into us we were fortunate we didn't really encounter many other guests out of conduct.
I'm going to keep it short but here are my thoughts of tonight's Haunt:
Blood Reign Opening Ceremony (show) - Good but nowhere near as great as it was pre-covid. The guy on fire was cool but the transition into The Queen's Ball was confusing as there was at least a 3-5 minute pause leading to over half of the crowd that gathered at the base of the tower leaving. We were just like, "That's it?"
The Queen's Ball (show) - Honestly, I'm not sure if we even saw the full show as about 10 minutes in, the dancers all left the stage abruptly. Again, confusing. Anyone know more?
Condemned (maze) - We started with this maze and came to the conclusion that it was hands down the best maze of the night! I know it's an older maze but we thought it was so good we did it another time on the way out. Honestly this one maze is probably better than all of the houses at Howl-O-Scream combined. My only complaint is some of rooms are too brightly lit for my taste but the rooms that are dark are very dark which made up for it as you could barely see the scares that were coming. Overall 9/10
Blood on the Bayou (maze) - Just as I remembered it in the past. Probably the most impressive in terms of set design but the scares were good for opening night. Score: 7.5/10
Trick or Treat (maze) - Meh.. Not great but also not bad. Wouldn't be upset to see this one go. Score: 5/10
21 (maze) - Also meh.. For a new maze it was a huge disappointment. Hopefully something can be done to improve it. 5/10
GrimmWoods (maze) - Better than I remembered it previously. Not the scariest but the atmospherics and setting made up for it. The set near the end was pretty impressive. Score: 7/10
Cornstalkers (maze) - The last and worst maze of the night. From start to end the whole maze was backed up. It has consistently been my least favorite maze each year so this can go as well... Score: 3/10
Scarezones: I don't really care too much for the scarezones, but I was pretty impressed with Pumpkin Eater. It seems like they add a little more to it each year and it looks great!
Convergence (show) Way smaller than I hoped for but that was my fault as I was expecting for something more on the scale of Let's Get Wild! We left after 5 minutes into it.
Overall we had a pretty great time. If we didn't have the Fright Fast Lane Plus I'm pretty sure we would've left disappointed. I will note other than one instance of a group running around like animals almost into us we were fortunate we didn't really encounter many other guests out of conduct.
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Honestly, my experience last night was pretty decent. My friend and I got there around 6:45, and were in the park by 7. Surprisingly, we were able to hit all of the mazes without a fright lane, so I'm pretty content with my experience last night.
21: Had no idea what to expect going into this one. Highlight of the maze was the elevator and the interaction with the scare actor. There wasn't a cohesive theme here, but the rooms were decently themed. 5/10
Trick or Treat: Basically the same as years past. Saw a skunk in the queue though. 6/10
Blood on the Bayou: Probably the longest wait of the night, but it was well worth it. There was a conga line, but I didn't have many issues and the guests around me were all pretty tame. 8/10
Grimm Woods: Yikes. The scare actors were trying, and they had some good scares on the teens in front of me, but this 'maze' just doesn't work. At one point, there was a complete stop for a solid 5 minutes that just completely broke the momentum. (Not to mention the horrid septic smell that just got worse and worse as you went through the maze) I hope it gets better as the season goes on. 3/10
No Vacancy: Wow. What an experience. For some reason, the queue operator just let in a group of four (me, my friend, and two other guests). The two others basically started to sprint through the maze, but me and my friend took it slower, and it was worth every second. We were able to slowly walk through the maze and interact with every single scare actor. Every single one of them were incredibly talented, and I'm so happy that I was able to experience this without the conga line. 10/10
Cornstalkers: Pretty good this year. Scare actors were energized and were doing pretty good scaring people. I got touched twice by scare actors in masks, and both times they like profusely apologized. Honestly, it was a really funny experience and i enjoyed it a lot. I'm a bit sad that there was no bungee jumper at the end, but you can't win 'em all. 8/10
Scarezones: All of the scarezones were fine. You could definitely tell that it was opening night. Once the scare actors get into their roles, the zones will be great.
Crowds: Personally, I didn't see much of the rowdiness that's been mentioned on here so far, but I did see a lot of unsupervised teen groups. They are definitely gonna put that chaperone rule in place like Knotts and Carowinds.
Overall it was a great night and I'm excited to go back and see how it improved!
21: Had no idea what to expect going into this one. Highlight of the maze was the elevator and the interaction with the scare actor. There wasn't a cohesive theme here, but the rooms were decently themed. 5/10
Trick or Treat: Basically the same as years past. Saw a skunk in the queue though. 6/10
Blood on the Bayou: Probably the longest wait of the night, but it was well worth it. There was a conga line, but I didn't have many issues and the guests around me were all pretty tame. 8/10
Grimm Woods: Yikes. The scare actors were trying, and they had some good scares on the teens in front of me, but this 'maze' just doesn't work. At one point, there was a complete stop for a solid 5 minutes that just completely broke the momentum. (Not to mention the horrid septic smell that just got worse and worse as you went through the maze) I hope it gets better as the season goes on. 3/10
No Vacancy: Wow. What an experience. For some reason, the queue operator just let in a group of four (me, my friend, and two other guests). The two others basically started to sprint through the maze, but me and my friend took it slower, and it was worth every second. We were able to slowly walk through the maze and interact with every single scare actor. Every single one of them were incredibly talented, and I'm so happy that I was able to experience this without the conga line. 10/10
Cornstalkers: Pretty good this year. Scare actors were energized and were doing pretty good scaring people. I got touched twice by scare actors in masks, and both times they like profusely apologized. Honestly, it was a really funny experience and i enjoyed it a lot. I'm a bit sad that there was no bungee jumper at the end, but you can't win 'em all. 8/10
Scarezones: All of the scarezones were fine. You could definitely tell that it was opening night. Once the scare actors get into their roles, the zones will be great.
Crowds: Personally, I didn't see much of the rowdiness that's been mentioned on here so far, but I did see a lot of unsupervised teen groups. They are definitely gonna put that chaperone rule in place like Knotts and Carowinds.
Overall it was a great night and I'm excited to go back and see how it improved!
I am seeing a lot of complaints on different social media about teen behavior last night and a lot of people asking about a chaperone policy hopefully this will get KD's attention.
As I was walking through the exit lane yesterday, there were groups of teens literally sneaking and entering in. It was overwhelming. I literally had to move out of the way of a high school couple as I was exiting because the dude was literally committed to sneak in. In hindsight, I kind of wish I would have let him and his girl walk right into me, but that’s how bad things start, so I probably did the right thing by moving out of the way. Still annoyed by that kind of behavior because I know what it can contribute to.
I found the lack of highly visible security and police shocking when compared to last year. Exciting 21 last night someone bolted out if the house literally knocked the two people behind me to the ground and knocked me into the chain links fence cutting my arn open and not one single staff member or security person was present to address the situation.
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So besides the amount of troublemakers, I had a pretty good night. Wasn’t able to do Condemned, Cornstalkers or Uprising, but I’m going again in two weeks
21 - I’m definitely in the minority of liking this one, but that’s probably because I knew the plot way ahead of time and knew what to look for, so I wish they made that more clear at the event itself. I get why someone may not like it though, cause at the end of the day it’s basically just a bunch of random themes. Really loved spotting which scene was what though, but why did Blackout get a scene? It made no sense, especially considering the rest of the house was very well lit. Also the elevator????? But yeah I would say 7.5/10
Trick or Treat - The only thing I noticed was that they added new costumes. My feelings haven’t really changed about it, I still think it’s pretty fun. Would be sad to see it go since I have a lot of really good memories with it, but I could see why. 8/10
Blood on the Bayou - I’ve never actually done this one before, so I had no idea about the pictures, so I was pretty annoyed when I found out we waited in a line to go into another line. The house was very intense and pretty, but I don’t think I got the best run because someone in front of us thought it was a great idea to force two toddlers into the house but other than that, it was very impressive, I just feel like I need another run through to truly appreciate it. 9/10
Grimm Woods - Ok yeah I do not get why y’all are trashing on this one because it was hands down the best of the night for us, huge improvement from last year. We hit this one right before park close, and it was perfect because there was barely anyone with us. Lots of good scares, very good atmospherics, actors did a great job, sets were amazing. Loved it so much 10/10
Scare Zones - I personally believe it all depends on individual factors, so I’m not gonna judge too hard, but for the most part the scare zones have been doing their job this year. Site X and Pumpkin Eater I would say are tied for the scariest of the night.
Shows - Don’t really care that much about the shows, as I’m not really a show person in general, but damn they were loud and made my ears hurt
21 - I’m definitely in the minority of liking this one, but that’s probably because I knew the plot way ahead of time and knew what to look for, so I wish they made that more clear at the event itself. I get why someone may not like it though, cause at the end of the day it’s basically just a bunch of random themes. Really loved spotting which scene was what though, but why did Blackout get a scene? It made no sense, especially considering the rest of the house was very well lit. Also the elevator????? But yeah I would say 7.5/10
Trick or Treat - The only thing I noticed was that they added new costumes. My feelings haven’t really changed about it, I still think it’s pretty fun. Would be sad to see it go since I have a lot of really good memories with it, but I could see why. 8/10
Blood on the Bayou - I’ve never actually done this one before, so I had no idea about the pictures, so I was pretty annoyed when I found out we waited in a line to go into another line. The house was very intense and pretty, but I don’t think I got the best run because someone in front of us thought it was a great idea to force two toddlers into the house but other than that, it was very impressive, I just feel like I need another run through to truly appreciate it. 9/10
Grimm Woods - Ok yeah I do not get why y’all are trashing on this one because it was hands down the best of the night for us, huge improvement from last year. We hit this one right before park close, and it was perfect because there was barely anyone with us. Lots of good scares, very good atmospherics, actors did a great job, sets were amazing. Loved it so much 10/10
Scare Zones - I personally believe it all depends on individual factors, so I’m not gonna judge too hard, but for the most part the scare zones have been doing their job this year. Site X and Pumpkin Eater I would say are tied for the scariest of the night.
Shows - Don’t really care that much about the shows, as I’m not really a show person in general, but damn they were loud and made my ears hurt
This will flow better once everything is running. I saw an acrobatic act rehearsing on the stage yesterday afternoon, and Burnette the Barker mentioned during his set that he would be doing a show with the other Duke character on the main stage starting next weekend. Why the delays? Unsure.
Fear of darkness. Great for a phobia maze in theory but execution was not the best.
I was young when there used to be around 8 houses in one season, so to those of you who have gone during those seasons with the crazy amount of houses, I have a question for y’all. Does it seem as if the houses are longer and better since there are two less than the season where there was 8 houses?