I agree that the new scarezone is a bit odd—it's my least favorite of the lineup. It's an interesting theme—but I feel like it needs more—probably more chaos to really set it apart from the others. Hopefully they will do some fine-tuning.
I'm pretty neutral on the Site X relocation. I like it more than when it was directly in front of Jungle Market, but less than when it was back in the (now defunct) forest area. The actors were really selling the story well and I thought it still provided great vibes though. Lateral move from its peak probably in my opinion all things considered.
No real thoughts on Masquerade—seems unchanged—I always appreciated the interactions here. I thought Clever Brothers, atmospherically, was improved. Especially noted some audio improvements here I think? Then Pumpkin Eater—damn—I swear it gets better every year. Cast was fantastic and atmospherically it's a masterpiece. Props, costumes, fog, lighting—top tier in my opinion.
Then I-Street. The vibes up there this year with the use of all of I-Street's incredible lighting package were immaculate in my opinion. I wasn't up there when the show was going on so I can't speak to the clashing audio
@RollyCoaster experienced, but when there isn't a show going on and all the lights in the entire area are all synced to the passive area music—love. Great place to grab some free Grain & Grill food and chill.
As for houses, especially early in the night when crowds were legitimately non-existent, I had my best runs through MonsterCon and FEAR ever as well as some of the best experiences I've ever had in Bayou and Trick. Later in the night repeat runs through all four were weaker as casts started to feel a bit more lethargic, actors began going on break, etc, but I thought they were all giving a very, very strong effort.
Unlike
@RollyCoaster, I felt that I noted some notable changes in MonsterCon. Parts of the first half felt much more claustrophobic than last year to me—making them notably more effective in my opinion. I also think the first couple rooms are really significantly altered thematically. I sorta miss the grander, campier con entry hall with the big merch table and whatnot (there's a little still there but I think it is notably changed from last season?)—but I'm willing to forgive that because it definitely felt to me like the house was setup better to scare this season than last with better hiding spots, tighter paths, etc.
I noticed some minor improvements in FEAR, but I still hate this house. It does absolutely nothing for me. Just screams amateur hour in structure and concept. I also can't believe that we are however-many-years into this house's run and you still can't understand the audio in the awful preshow at all. Just a completely incoherent, poorly-designed house where I come out feeling for the actors who really try desperately to make it work year after year. This event needs a chaos house again. Can we just get Zombie High or Lockdown back instead of FEAR?
Beyond what seemed to be minor lighting changes (most for the better—aside from the center of Bayou feeling a little too bright/a little under-fogged), I didn't note much different in Bayou or Trick. Both houses' casts were killing it though. Well staffed with strong storytelling, engagement, stalking, and startles. It's always wild to go to KD and see casts performing far better on day one than you'll find at many parks' best nights. Exemplary work.
Meanwhile, after the sun went down, I had my best Grimms experience ever and my best CornStalkers experience in at least a decade.
I know
@RollyCoaster doesn't like the changes in Grimm, but I honestly observed the same changes and have the opposite opinion. I thought the much darker lighting and the much more overgrown path really enhanced the vibes here a lot for me. I got good engagement and storytelling from the cast and even a few good attempts at startles—something Grimm often struggles with a lot in my opinion. I'm normally not a big Grimm fan, but I was really happy with my experience there tonight.
Then, over at CornStalkers... Wow. I don't know if they've actually tweaked the path or if they've just really stocked some paths with corn, but damn, there are some NARROW sections in there right now. No idea how a wheelchair would make it through, but at least for me, it really helped the vibes and atmospherics tremendously. A not insignificant portion of the cast wasn't moving for me, but the ones who did did a great job and even managed a few scares. I have a very dim view of the continued survival of CornStalkers overall, but I was very pleasantly surprised by my experience there tonight.
Overall, I'm FURIOUS about the ticketing changes and I HATE that the event is so stagnant—there's truly absolutely zero excuse for it—BUT I think looking at my experience of the event tonight (which, for the record, could definitely just have been a super lucky streak—Halloween events are highly variable!), I think KD's Haunt is looking mighty good. I have some more thoughts on the specifics of the implementation of the upcharge on the ground and how it's impacting houses (at least from tonight's observations), but I'll save those for another post.
For people who have been to the event and seen practically the same lineup for years now, I wouldn't tell them they should definitely go out to KD—in fact, I would encourage people to use this year to go experiment with other events like Dorney's or Hershey's—but for anyone who hasn't been to Haunt in a bit and, preferably, for anyone who wasn't scammed by the park on a season pass—I think this event is still proving to be one of the best regional amusement park haunts out there—vastly superior to the likes of SFGAdv's FrightFest, certainly better than Hershey's, and likely better than Dorney's overall.