9/12 First Friday of Halloweekends

I was at the park last night, not part of the halloweeneds preview, although I wish I could have been. Anyway, overall the night was great, the park was not crowded at all and the longes I waited was 20 minutes for Millennium, also got on Maverick, Dragester, Raptor, and Gatekeeper.

As great as the wait times were, there was one major disappointment of the night: The haunts. I understand that it was the first night and the actors are still getting into their characters, but I have been to the first Friday in past years and it was still significantly better than last night. But even with that here is my review of each haunted house.

Zombie High School: Just as it was last year it looked amazing. But after the first couple of corners I wasn't jumping because some one jumped out at me. The actors were doing a lot of standing and staring. Creepy, sure kind of, but not scary. Even if they talked and interacted with guests it would have been better, at least I could have gotten a laugh out of something other than the last room.

Blood on the Bayou: Pretty much same thing as Zombie, a lot of staring or following, there was one problem with it but it was the same problem all the other outdoor haunted which I will list at the bottom. Not bad, not good, I expect it to have improved dramatically by my next trip in October. Also there was a screamster with a chainsaw and he never used it to scare any one by using the sound. They may have removed them but he just walked behind us not even waving it n

Carnevil: Very entertaining watching the screamster ride around on a tricycle. Decorations were great and the acting was amateurish but better than the previous haunts.

Tombstone Terror-Tory: This one was rather confusing. It may have been the smallest scare zone ever. There wasn't a ton of fog due to the wind so I didn't really notice I entered it until I saw a screamster following me. I just had a hard time grasping the concept of this one and it's boundaries. It did not extend from the railroad tracks to frontier trail, that is for sure. It was a pretty big dissappointment over all, no decorations either really besides hay bales to make it better.

Cut Throat Cove: See blood on the Bayou, same thing pretty much.

Cornstalkers: This was by far the best one of the night. It seemed narrower than past years and there were a lot more places for screamsters to hide. They also incorporated a lot more of the cornstalk like costumes. The people dressed in those got me every time. This one was fantastic and of it improves like the others are bound to it wi be great.

Screamworks: Not bad, but far from good. Great use of the lasers in the fog made for a great effect, acting wasn't terrible. Nothing else much to report.

Overall review: Only did the one indoor haunt because we didn't want to wait long only to have some disappointment but the High School was decorated and lot great, if the others are like that then those will be great too. One problem I found was that the person before Zombie (and Cornstalkers) was that the screamster that layed down the rules before the haunt was, extremely polite and tried to make his spiel funnier by using extreme sarcasm. He mad no attempt to scare any one or try to be scary at all, and by making there spiel more fun it took longer which in turn made the line much longer. Another thing was that in the out door haunts, the props were poorly lit. It may have been like this in past years and I don't remember but I could have sworn they at least had a light on the skull before screamworks and also on the buildings in the bayou and cutthroat. That could have added to the theming and overall experience. Last thing was that there were employees all over the place in the outdoor haunts. There seemed to have been an increase in the number of police, which isn't a huge problem, but also a great number of I'm guessing the employees working with the fog machines and lights, they were all over the place just walking the opposite direction of traffic.

That's my review of the haunts, even though they weren't up to pat I recognize that it is early in the season and will get better. The night was great, got on rides quickly due to lack of line. When they shut rides down for rain I just went through the haunts so no complaints about weather for me. I'm excited to go back in October!

Thanks for the review! I enjoyed reading it.
I'm headed down from Toronto, ON, next Friday, so it's really great to hear you had little to no lineups. We're going mainly for the rides, but I'd like to try a couple haunts to see how they compare to CW's Haunt. Based on your review, I think we'll try to do Cornstalkers for sure, and maybe Carnevil.

Just keep in mind this was the first night. The screamsters are still working on getting in to characters and having fun with it. I encourage you to go in the indoor ones especially. They really are outstanding in terms of theming and even later in the year scares.