Halloweekends 2011

Don't go on frontier trail at night. Its a haunted zone. The rest of the park should be fine. But around 7:30 by the wildcat and giant projector, the screamsters await to be released into their scare zones.

xfireboyx said:
Does anybody know what the 'blood on the bayou' trail will be used for during the non-halloweekends time?

It seems like a large expense to renovate this area just for 1 month out of the year.

Parks with Halloween events do pretty darn good business this time of year. If all the props, costumes, makeup and so on weren't generating a hefty return on investment, they wouldn't be doing it every year, and in many cases adding stuff every year.

djDaemon said:

Impressive that you can pass judgement on an attraction after the first weekend of the attraction's existence! Too many people waste their time not having knee-jerk, unsubstantiated reactions to things like this.

This is no snap judgement. I've known about the zone changes since last year. seeing the planning and reactions from monsters, management, and others involved since oh... almost immediately after the end of last season I've had a lot longer to "pass judgement" on the zone. Given that I've worked the event the past 6 years and called the fright zone home for the past 3 of them I know how things change and the monsters adapt over the course of the event. What looks like a theme that won't be super effective with the general public can still be full of talent and a fantastic zone. Only time will tell and nobody will know for sure what worked and what didn't until the end of the season when you can look back and lay it all out.

other than that I'm not even sure what you're trying to say.

@fireboy- Technically it operates for 2 months so there's that. And while TI wasn't paved they made the trail on the island and it sat untouched till now when they decided to include the dinos. So who knows maybe down the line they will put something there but it's not unheard of to just let it sit. I mean heck, Boecklings sits almost undisturbed in that building all summer. They mostly just close the door and keep it as is when not in use.

Last Friday I actually had a chance to play in the park for the first time during a Halloweekend. I was extremely impressed with Happy Jack's, Terror Island and Carnevil (the lighting / effects for Terror Island and Carnevil were spectacular). Kudos to those crews! Also, I loved the costuming (although I feel that they are slightly impractical) for Scream Works, I feel like it has a lot of potential to grow into something amazing.

josh88 said:

djDaemon said:

Impressive that you can pass judgement on an attraction after the first weekend of the attraction's existence! Too many people waste their time not having knee-jerk, unsubstantiated reactions to things like this.

other than that I'm not even sure what you're trying to say.

I think he was trying to say that he has no clue and is mad that you did, so he tried to play it off as you were stoopid.

josh88 said:
other than that I'm not even sure what you're trying to say.

I'm saying that it's far too early to say this:

josh88 said:
welcome to what a lot of people said in advance. I knew from the start that most of the general public wouldn't get "steampunk" and those who knew and like steampunk would look at it and not be satisfied with what the park did.

It's been one weekend. Your preconceived notions and ill-formed opinion are based on insufficient (or a complete absence of) evidence. Even the popular zones that have been around for years don't necessarily "hit the ground running" every season.

That said, you've apparently changed your tune since, which is good:

Only time will tell and nobody will know for sure what worked and what didn't until the end of the season when you can look back and lay it all out.

Much better. :)

MamaThrills said:
We are planning on taking our boys (9 & 11) for Halloweekends for the first time. My boys LOVE the coasters but I don't think that they are quite ready for haunted features just yet. What areas of the park should I avoid to keep them away from the terror & gore? (I'm sure that they will love this stuff in a few years but just not yet!)

You never know until you give it a try. We were there all last weekend (friday was the best day) and we took our 5 yr. old son through Terror Island, CarnEvil, Blood on the Bayou and Screamworks with us. He said he wants to go back and see the evil stuff again. I think we're probably going back up in October if I can get a campsite.

So what does the sleeping giant do?

He does essentially the same thing he did at Geauga Lake (unless they bought a new one): snores for a little while, opens his eyes, stands up, says something in a grumbly voice, closes his eyes, and sits back down. He seems to attract quite a crowd even though he doesn't do all that much.

TimChat2 said:
He does essentially the same thing he did at Geauga Lake (unless they bought a new one): snores for a little while, opens his eyes, stands up, says something in a grumbly voice, closes his eyes, and sits back down. He seems to attract quite a crowd even though he doesn't do all that much.

I knew I've seen him before somewhere, I just couldn't remember where. He also farts and makes a comment about that, my son got a kick out of that.

TimChat2 said:
He does essentially the same thing he did at Geauga Lake (unless they bought a new one): snores for a little while, opens his eyes, stands up, says something in a grumbly voice, closes his eyes, and sits back down. He seems to attract quite a crowd even though he doesn't do all that much.

Where was he located at in Geauga Lake?

I remember he was usually by Texas Twister as the "Grave Keeper" in his "Graveyard". For some reason I want to say he was near the front gate for a season or two.

Geauga Lake had some cute and clever vignettes throughout their Haunt. I always enjoyed the skeletons swimming in the front fountain (complete with the ghost splashes). Some of the displays now at Cedar Point, particularly the ghost motorcycle rider by Monster, are in a similar spirit. I'm glad that there still can be those little touches at HalloWeekends, even though it feels like there aren't as many as there used to be.

djDaemon said:

It's been one weekend. Your preconceived notions and ill-formed opinion are based on insufficient (or a complete absence of) evidence. Even the popular zones that have been around for years don't necessarily "hit the ground running" every season.

once again... have you missed the point that I have worked in said zones for quite awhile now? I'm the first one to say the opening weekend is always rocky as people get into the swing of things. My original judgement wasn't on the zone itself or the people working it, it was worry with the theme the management picked. (and I wasn't alone in the screamsters thinking this) Yes some guests will know what steampunk is, but let's be honest a majority of the crowd won't know much about what the steampunk genre is really about. The rest who do know, and are into it likely won't be impressed by the "decoration" taking old sand filters from Geauga, painting them gold and slapping some cogs on them is no more steampunk than the trains they put around. Sure the engines run on steam but that alone isn't enough to make it "Steampunk"

I'm not saying the park should cater to those hardcore steampunk fans though because to put that much detail and attention into costumes and decor for the zone and to do it really well would cost thousands of dollars. You have to make concessions. Another point for the management not thinking everything out clearly is the number of screamsters having issues with gas masks (and similar lens related) and such fogging up and restricting breathing/sight.

There is already a lot of evidence going around from before the zones even opened to the public that I'm putting behind my opinions. Not just a single weekend. Is the Fright Zone still my home? yes. and this new zone has a large contingent of my friends and family still working it who know what works for the zone layout so I have absolutely no doubt they will continue to rock it.

maybe you thought my opinions harsh and overly critical but when it comes down to it, the screamsters are our own harshest critics. We hold ourselves to high standards and expect the best of each other or we let the guests down and there are plenty of my fellow screamsters here who would agree and back up what I've said.

Josh, didn't you know that your years of experience still don't make you knowledgeable about your trade?

Your ill-formed opinion disgusts me...

/sarcasm

Ill formed opinions are opinions based in crap. If a guest went to the park this weekend with no knowledge of the new zone and came out saying, "Huh I knew steampunk was a horrible idea!" That is one thing but an experienced Screamster who was knowledgeable about the concept for almost a whole year has a bit more intelligence in making such a statement.

I knew FF would be a lot better this year because of my prior knowledge of the changes to the zone. So when I say, "This weekend proved me right FF is awesome this year." Is that a "knee-jerk" "Ill-formed" opinion??

/rant

^ I've only seen FF in the daytime the last couple of years, but the setup has improved greatly. I'm glad that zone got the attention it needed. I still wish they had a "barker" out on top of the mock castle entrance. Preferably someone who has watched Monty Python's Holy Grail at least 100 times. :)

josh88 said:
...the screamsters are our own harshest critics. We hold ourselves to high standards and expect the best of each other or we let the guests down and there are plenty of my fellow screamsters here who would agree and back up what I've said.

Ain't that the truth? Even when Terror Island is at the top of its game (and in my opinion we kicked butt on opening weekend) I still always have a laundry list of things that can be improved.

Yes we do need a barker, or the ability to scare out to the arches. The latter is a little more complicated with the picnic tables being there but I'm sure it could be worked out.

As for the exit, even with bright lights all the way down to the arch a couple of Screamsters who were where they were supposed to be ::coughnotcough:: did a great job giving some exit scares under those bright lights.

I was not one of them of course.......ahem.

I also agree that we are harsh critics. Just look at yourself even. I know that I am never and will never be a perfect Screamster and always look to improve. Everytime I miss a scare I never blame the guest or the zone or the fog etc, I always figure out what I did wrong that made me miss and fix it. Everyone can be scared it is just a matter of adapting to the different personalities. Which of course is like hitting a moving fly with an electron gun.

josh88 said:
We hold ourselves to high standards and expect the best of each other or we let the guests down...

Hey, I can respect that. My point was only that you might be judging too harshly too quickly. Wouldn't it take time to figure out whether or not you're letting the guests down?

As for the Screamworks itself, have they removed a lot of stuff from what was formerly Fright Zone? If the zone was gutted of all props & such, then only half-refilled with steampunk doo-dads, then I could see a potential problem with the guest experience.

djDaemon said:

josh88 said:
We hold ourselves to high standards and expect the best of each other or we let the guests down...

Hey, I can respect that. My point was only that you might be judging too harshly too quickly. Wouldn't it take time to figure out whether or not you're letting the guests down?

As for the Screamworks itself, have they removed a lot of stuff from what was formerly Fright Zone? If the zone was gutted of all props & such, then only half-refilled with steampunk doo-dads, then I could see a potential problem with the guest experience.

you obviously can't remove the "frontier trail" theme since the buildings are all still there, but the tombstones, and wagons are gone which were about the only stuff in the zone before. Now they've got a handful of props that still don't fill the zone and aren't great steampunk either.

As far as FF I still remember our first year when we opened we had the "king and queen" sitting out front and one of the kodak people there as a photo op. Taking that away was one of the worst things they did for that zone. It pulled all kinds of people in. Everyone noticed the zone and said oooh whats that? the next year they stopped doing it and there was a significant and visible drop in the amount of people coming through. proof positive that you need a barker or draw in and are now the only zone not to have one, except I guess cornstalkers and I guess TI unless someone stepped up to jump into zeek's shoes.

As for the concept of Screamworks, I don't think most people understand what it is supposed to be. I only know what I've read on PB and still it doesn't mean anything to me. From what I can tell from comments I've heard, people see it as a few random tanks with valves and such and people wearing gas masks, it is that to me too.

We went through Screamworks Friday and Saturday. We usually repeated the old Fright Zone a number of times. Friday after one walk through the Screamworks we decided to move on to Fear Faire we were that unimpressed. I will say the light crowd did work against it and mention that at the time. Saturday we came back to Screamworks and it was filled with people and it was much better. We went through 5 times. The screamsters were in good form. The size of the crowd really affects the experience. Still the props didn't do anything for me. It's really about the screamsters and the crowd anyway.

I remember when Fear Faire had someone in the chair out front. That was a good idea. Overall, FF has improved very much since those days. It still needs someone out front to draw in the crowd.

Clevelandkid said:
As for the concept of Screamworks, I don't think most people understand what it is supposed to be. I only know what I've read on PB and still it doesn't mean anything to me. From what I can tell from comments I've heard, people see it as a few random tanks with valves and such and people wearing gas masks, it is that to me too.

We went through Screamworks Friday and Saturday. We usually repeated the old Fright Zone a number of times. Friday after one walk through the Screamworks we decided to move on to Fear Faire we were that unimpressed. I will say the light crowd did work against it and mention that at the time. Saturday we came back to Screamworks and it was filled with people and it was much better. We went through 5 times. The screamsters were in good form. The size of the crowd really affects the experience. Still the props didn't do anything for me. It's really about the screamsters and the crowd anyway.

I remember when Fear Faire had someone in the chair out front. That was a good idea. Overall, FF has improved very much since those days. It still needs someone out front to draw in the crowd.

You didnt happen to have anyone "drop in" on you in Fear Faire did ya? =)