Politically Correct Haunts?

ZOMBIE HIGH SPOILER ALERT!!!!

We spent the weekend doing our favorite rides and haunts and as always had a good time. The staffing at Zombie though was weak, as in I counted 6 screamers and 4 had clustered in the same room. The biggest disappointment came when going through the "locker room". The jock straps that use to hang from the ceiling have been replaced with over starched pool towels and the room was well it. What fun is that!? Who in God's name made that call? Its a piece of fabric, the only discomfort comes in the mind of the persons walking through. If this is the start of politically correct spookin' they might as well eliminate the peep show because your must be a pervert if you look, or the entire freak show haunt, and oh my those poor pumpkins that have been carved!

Wake up Maggie I think I have something to say to you.......It's late September and "Zombie High Rocks!

Happy 1st of October ;)

I would also find Jock straps more appealing, but that’s just something that’s my business. Also Amazon’s.

I actually found it kind of gross to push jock straps out of the way, I think I like towels better.

NOT THE JOCK STRAPS!!! What is next? Another tree?!

Other than Porky's, I don't think I've ever seen a locker room covered in jock straps. If someone hung their jock somewhere in high school, I'm sure we would have questioned WTF they were doing.

I think it's a stretch to even consider this an issue of political correctness. But really - who cares? And honestly, I don't know what is so wrong with political correctness. I guess that is the snowflake millenial in me.

The logo for Eerie Estate has changed as well- the skeleton figure surrounding it was removed. Cedar Point has really got rid of all of their spooky decor over the years in an attempt to make it a more family friendly environment. Kings Island’s Haunt still seems to be going strong, however. Wish we were in the same boat. I like watching old Halloweekends videos on YT from the 90s and 2000s to see how much it has been toned down over time.

Pete said:

I actually found it kind of gross to push jock straps out of the way, I think I like towels better.

But that was entirely the point, I think? To gross you out? So it worked?

If anything, these changes seem like steps more in the "family-friendly/PG" direction than due to political correctness.

They are actually advertising Zombie High, Hexed and Eerie Estates as toned down houses this season. I do recall seeing signs up about a Hallo-Tween event outside of Hexed that almost made me skip the house.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/halloweekends/great-pumpkin-fest

On this page it's actually listened as "Zombie Jr. High" for their new Hallo-Tween event. Houses open during day time hours on Saturday and Sunday.

So this is probably why it was toned down. Easier to have it more PG13 during the day and just increase the amount of scare actors in the evening. I'm guessing they didn't want to advertise this towards kids and tweens and then make them walk through jock straps. Parents would not be happy.

So I doubt your observation for Political Correctness is... correct. They just decided to take a few haunts a new direction this year to have more activities available during the day for families.

Kinda amazing what a little research can find before coming on here and pounding the keyboard in anger over missing jock straps. ;)

Now what fun would that be? Let’s make a fun fact of it: Why was the jock strap invented?

Men on bicycles in the late 1800s needed better support without the garment riding up or filling crack. Not contact sports, not team sports, not kink. Bicycles.

I mean, prop bodies are still being dismembered, severed heads are still being cotton candied, fake poopy toilets are still shooting water at people. I don't think Cedar Point is suffering for a lack of grossout theatrics on HalloWeekends.

I'm guessing it's just part of the "Jr. High" family friendly thing going. I think the jock straps made for a better effect but I don't care one way or the other since I really only go through he houses to make my kids happy.

CP seems to have one of the tamer haunts of the chain. I went to Dorney in 2011 and went through their Asylum haunted house (was about 12yo at the time) and one of the rules given to our group by the entrance guy was "RULE 3: DON'T DROP THE SOAP!"

Also, while other parks had their asylum haunts for a while, CP's was rethemed to Eternity Infirmary (which still had the same general asylum theme but didn't directly mention mental illness, only highly implied it) after getting complaints about it and a live show that had similar themes.

It's happened at other CF parks too. KD was panned for making a haunt themed to the ghosts of miners who had died in a fire or explosion a few years after a mine a few hundred miles away had an explosion that killed many miners, and more recently Knott's, CGA, and Canada's Wonderland pulled their upcharge VR haunt where you were wheeled through a VR mental hospital in a wheelchair...

As for the jockstraps, my first instinct when reading this was to think it had something to do with sexual assault in the news over the past year, but it makes more sense that it's to make it a bit tamer for younger people during a time when it's being marketed to younger people.

I'm glad they got rid of the peeing babies!

Think of the children!