Halloweekends 2013

I can't think of any rooms of total darkness that you're speaking of, however....Have them walk through the Frontier Trail on a Saturday night (starting at the MF tunnel) or you could even put them through the aisles of the Cornstalkers or Cut Throat Cove attractions. There is some darkness and alot of fog in those places.

Thanks CPFan. Have you been through them all? If anyone else has an idea, I'm all ears.

Our trip is on a Sunday, so the outdoor scare-zones are not open, as far as I know (October 20th).

Tony, how much do I have to bribe you to shut the lights off in one for say...5 minutes? :)

I could just lock them in a janitor's closet.

I went both Friday and Sunday opening weekend and some of my random thoughts:

Zombie High has some great props and ambiance, but the scareactors are still building character. Sunday was better than Friday. I have hope it will continue to get better.

Zones are all the same... Nothing really new here for the past few years (sadly). Carnevil had a great crew though, very active. I found Screamworks to be quite terrible on Friday... I saw a few people, at best, just walking around with little effort to do much of anything. The worst I have seen this zone in years. Hopefully it improves as the weeks go on. Blood on the Bayou was so-so.

Not much else going on around the park, though... Houses are all the same more or less along with the zones.

Riding was excellent though both Friday and tonight... Plenty of walk-on rides all over the park. Between last weekend and this weekend, I rode my share to hold me over until next fall!

Kevinj said:

My question is this: Do any of the haunts have areas of complete darkness in hallways, rooms, etc.?

Eternity Infirmary has a couple of rooms/hallways that are nearly pitch black. I know the layout well, and I still need to use the wall to guide myself through that space. So that might serve what you're looking for.

Thanks, Ralph; that' exactly what I'm looking for.

I was there Friday and Saturday. Friday was more crowded than many in the past. Saturday was similar to a summer Saturday. very crowded, but manageable.

It seems there are fewer decorations around the park. Much fewer pumpkins and corn stalks. A fewer of the larger props aren't there either. I didn't see any evidence of the Overlord. I must admit I wasn't at Celebration Plaza at 7:30 either day.

Zombie High has some great props. There wasn't too much scaring going on in any of the houses. I realize the first weekend is never too good as far as that is concerned.

The out door walk throughs had even less. in Screamworks it seemed like they weren't even trying. They were just standing around both night. I didn't hear any screams while in there. It was much better as Fright Zone.

Friday Cornstalkers had zero line we just walked right in, nobody was even there to send us in. Unfortunately there were few people doing any scaring either.

I have to agree with Clevelandkid.

I went to the park this past Saturday, and to say the least, it seemed like a downplay from last year. Some of the larger props (Crashed UFO, Hillbilly Car with Skeletons riding, Buses out front, etc.) are no longer being used as decorations around the park. This really surprises me because it does not take any money to put them out, and creating the atmosphere is the best thing they could do for Halloweekends. The only new prop is a a famous old man still trying to get his flying machine to work over in Screamworks. You will have to check it out for sure.

Now the Overlord. They got rid of this completely, only to use the excuse "We don't do that anymore." I have talked to some of my friends who are Screamsters and they said they have no idea why this was randomly taken away. Someone said it was because of new management, but I do not know how much of that is true. It was rather sad to see the Screamsters just walking to their zones without this great gathering and getting them pumped up for the night.

Zombie High IS an improvement from Club Blood, but being new, the Screamsters still need to be trained and practice some basic scaring techniques to get the best out of this Haunted House. Great potential in this Haunted House, and would suggest taking a little bit of time to really see the amount of detail that went into theming for this house.

Hopefully more people will be employed as Screamsters for the next weekends, so the lack luster of scaring and amount of Screamsters in areas will be fixed.

I would highly suggest the Sideshow Magic Show in the Jack Theatre for anyone. Great Energy, Corny Jokes, Mystical Magic. It truly is one of the best shows for the Park.

Kevinj said:
My question is this: Do any of the haunts have areas of complete darkness in hallways, rooms, etc.? To be honest, it's been a few years since I have walked through any of them. Ideally, a whole hallway of darkness or an entire room is what we're gong for.

Not sure if this has been answered already but es most houses have some area of complete darkness. But probably the best house for your uses would be Erie Estates. Not only are there plenty of dark corners and hallways but they have one right in the entrance. As you leave the first room you enter a small hallway that is completely dark and you have to turn a corner into the next room.
I think this would be ideal because it is so close to the entrance that if you have to back out it is easy to do, was well as being pitch dark at the same time. And if you make it through this hallway there are a few more scattered throughout.

Ok, haunt thoughts so far this year

Zombie High School--Total fluke, I'll give it one more go this season, but not impressed. It looks cool, and is a pretty big haunt, but it's pretty lame, and moreover just something to pass up time. Also makeup was a shame there

Eerie Estates--Always has some good scares, it's a tight small maze. The effects are always amazing too btw, check out the worms on the dining table, very awesome.

CarnEVil--Always fun for me, my gf hates clowns...props to the guy with the tricycle, I enjoyed him even when I was an employee, it's just amusing. Also props to my friend who's a barker there

Eternity Infirmary--Great haunt, few good scares got me (air cannon before the animatronic bridge), good theming, and a few great actors

Screamworks--Beautifully detailed costumes, and many good scares, but moreover just looks AWESOME. Also the actor with the trashcan with lights and horn, epic scare, I have a video, will upload later

Cutthroat Cove--Fun maze, I got a few jumps, favorite thing was seeing one of my favorite paddlewheel elements there, but the actors did a great job here

Blood on the Bayou--Not really too scary, more fun than anything, the voodoo guys, probably best actors at CP hands down, also awesome costumes

Eden Musee--BEST HAUNT HERE...Great makeup, effects, walkthrough, everything. The creeper is an excellent actor...spooked my girflriend four times even though she knew right where he was...thats what this is all about. Great job. The most wild thing was how amazing and vivid the makeup was, one girl has "melted wax" on her head, and it looks it. Great haunt, we went through three times that night

Skeleton Crew--AMAZING LIVE SHOW GO WATCH IT!!!!! Also, other enthusiasts/Tony, I want the music, help me find it/get it, I honestly was very impressed with everything from the show. I loved the fire dancing, and the girl with the metal...hula hoop, yeah lets call it that.

Show @ Red Garter--Not bad, pretty nice to throw back a beer to, but I'd still go to Skeleton Crew if I had to pick, good music selection though.

Monster Midway Invasion--Always fun for me, brings back memories of working there in 2011. Kids def. get a kick out of it

Does anyone have a recommended plan of attack for a busy Saturday for around 8 pm when the haunts open up?

By now we know what rides to go to when and what wait times to accept or check out later...and then also what rides to just plain skip if the line is ridiculous.

However, HW are another story. I haven't gone in many years and would like to be prepared to get the most out of our night just by doing what makes sense at certain times. We will probably have all of our big rides out of the way by that point, so I just don't want to be waiting for a haunt for an hour then go by later to see that the line is considerably shorter! I know Saturdays are usually quite busy, but it's probably the only time we can get there this year.

I'm not sure if there even is a plan that works best since the park has been open all day, but if there is, I know someone here knows it :) Any recommendations would be helpful. Thanks!

(Also, let me know if there's anything HW related that we really should just plain skip. You know, like Corkscrew, Mantis or MS skip hahaha!)

The indoor zones open earlier, I think 5pm, and the outdoor zones open at 8pm. I'd get in line about a half hour before the indoor/outdoor zone you most want to visit opens and in the end, I think it'll be a relatively short wait. Keep in mind, the outdoor zones Fear Faire (i think), CarnEvil, and Screamworks have no waits (walk thrus) and can be enjoyed with no expected wait.

^^"a plan of attack for a busy Saturday for around 8 pm when the haunts open up?"

Your best plan of attack is to pray. :)

I think the reason for certain props missing and them not doing the overlord anymore could be that they are really trying to market halloweekends to younger kids. I have heard a lot of advertising for how kid-friendly halloweekends are.

Also anyone have pics of halloweekends? I've seen the ones on this site but that's about it.

Coco said:
Does anyone have a recommended plan of attack for a busy Saturday for around 8 pm when the haunts open up?

The indoor stuff does open at 5 on Saturdays. Best advice for the outdoor zones is avoid Cutthroat and Bayou right at the 8 PM opening. Even though the lines are free flowing (not grouped like the indoor haunts) there's usually a decent crowd waiting for them to open, and you can only get so many people through the entrance at once. Screamworks and/or Carnevil are probably better choices in the first hour or so. In general the line for Cornstalkers dies down later in the night, so you may want to save that for last.

Going today! I can't wait.

I was in the park last night for a second visit to halloweekends and i gotta say i some improvement in some of the haunted houses minus the fright zones (were not operating due to weather). So far, Eternity Infirmary is my favorite house. Theres so much noise and so much going in there that you really dont know what its around each corner. My opinion on Zombie High School has changed as i noticed a significant change in the effort of the monsters. Overall it was significantly better than last friday.

I'm so glad I didn't go yesterday since the Fright Zones weren't open. I would have considered that a wasted trip.

We got through everything haunted yesterday. I think we enjoyed Eerie Estate the most. Cornstalkers was cool but I have a bit of a beef with it. There were several spots with straw bales on the ground only one high which made them very easy to trip over when you saw nothing ahead but your feet were catching them. I figured no big deal I'm not the most coordinated person in the world so maybe it's just me but after getting out found out my husband had a similar experience with what he thinks may have been one of the smoke/fog machines. He's not sure what it was because he never saw it but it was short and he ended up flexing his knee back too far when he hit it and had a gouge and a big knot on his shin from walking into it. We saw a girl limping and crying, hanging on to her boyfriend in the area afterwards so he may not have been the only one.

I like the music they are playing in the park now for Halloweekends much more than the stuff they played during the summer. I hope they modify their summer play list next year to be more like it is now.

Sorry this is kinda off topic, but does anyone have an idea of how crowds will be on Sunday, October 13th?