Halloweekends 2016

It seems like it was just yesterday they were promoting Halloweekends 13.
But actually it was more like 7 years ago... or something.

Went to the Halloween Haunt event at Kings Island last year. There was a screamster out front who was miked up and heckling various patrons walking around. When he wasn't heckling, he was simply rambling on and on in his spooky voice about all sorts of crazy things. It was being played over the front entrance loudspeakers and could be heard throughout the front parking lot coming in and in the main midway.

It was so continuous and well spoken that I originally thought it was just a looped recording and I even told my wife that's what it was when she asked if there was someone going up to and talking to park guests. It turned out she was right and I was quite wrong! The guy was really good and that really set the tone for people as they entered the front gate.

I would love to see something like that at Halloweekends! (Hopefully someone will tell me that it's already here, because now that I think about it, I believe we always parked in the SC lot the past several years and never came in to Halloweekends through the front gate).

That's an awesome idea! I've never been to King's Island Haunt but that sounds like such a fun feature. I'd love to see something like that here! CP used to do a "call of the scare" or something like that where there would be an Overlord who summoned all the screamsters before the nighttime halloweekends activities began. It was really cool to see, but they've changed that in the last few years.

Barkers are at the entrance to every scare zone and most of the houses. I could see them adding an "event" barker to the front entrance area. Add a platform atop the Cedar Point sign, maybe even replace it with a Haunt Sign, (there is already an audio input to the speakers in the planter) and you can have a barker there to draw people in. Though really it's not like you are drawing random people in like on the Midway's. If they hit that plaza they are most likely already going into the park.

Difference between KI and CP (and someone correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a few years since I have been to either) is that KI closes and reopens as Haunt. There are no safe zones. Whereas CP is a "kid friendly" park that has sections that are scary.

So KI the entire park is scary, CP only well marked sections are.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/haunt

It looks like the Haunt site is now live. No new haunts, although all of the new Skeleton Key rooms will be along Frontier Trail apparently.

Thanks for posting the site! I wonder what the plan is for these new skeleton key rooms..looks like they won't be in the actual houses anymore?

I'd imagine they are going to use spaces like the blacksmith shop and one of the cabins near Fort Sandusky.

Knott's Scary Farm is also going with standalone Skeleton Key rooms this year. Perhaps they felt that the Skeleton Key rooms caused traffic flow issues inside the houses?

We had Skeleton Keys on a very busy Saturday last year, and they did get backed up - we actually had to stand still in line inside a few of that houses to get in, which created a backup for the non-Skeleton Key folks trying to get past everyone in line. This change makes a lot of sense to me.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/things-to-do/the-great-pumpkin-fest

The Great Pumpkin Fest information appears to be up now as well. Nothing too different from previous years but it looks like the Monster Midway Invasion Celebration Parade will now be The Great Pumpkin Parade.

Here's an interesting bit. The list of rides which are not open on Fridays (emphasis added):

• Antique Cars
• Camp Snoopy
• Cedar Creek Mine Ride
• Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad
• Challenge Golf
• Corkscrew
• Gemini
• Giant Wheel
• Mean Streak
• RipCord
• Rougarou
• Sky Ride
• Super Himalaya
• Troika
• Witches' Wheel

Sorry Rougy. Year 2 and you've already been demoted to Mantis status for Halloweekends. You are already less important than Iron Dragon.

Anecdotally, I'd like to say this must mean ridership is down and that it is time to convert it to something else. ;-)

Rougarou will now be getting invert trains. An inverted invert.

It is just wrong that Witches' Wheel is not open at any time during Halloweekends. :)

I still wish they would convert the Antique Cars into something like GL's "Scary Oldies" with actors and props set up through the ride.

^ That's a great idea! A drive-thru scare zone.

It's interesting to me that since Halloweekends/Haunt is advertised as being included with the season passes, that they haven't invested more into it to make it at least feel like a separate event. The outdoor scare zones are mediocre at best, and it's not just about the fog, but the Steampunk thing was a fad like, years ago. The mazes are not bad, but to me there's too much disparity between them, you aren't getting good quality at all of them, just some of them.

While I do give the park props for their decorations, and the activities for kids are nice (considering that rides for kids are a pain point for them), I just don't see the investment being made yet. When I look at the grand scheme of investments the park has made in all areas, it seem like Halloweekends is still behind the times.

Now at least one of you will argue the point of: look at the crowds or its still popular blah blah blah. Of course it is, where else in this area are you going to find that many Halloween activities in one place? (I'm not counting major cities like Toledo or Cleveland)

My final criticism would be the live entertainment. The park had a HUGE hit with Midnight Syndicate. There should be this caliber of show somewhere in the park. Sadly it has not happened since the demolition of the GTT.

CP Maverick said:

I still wish they would convert the Antique Cars into something like GL's "Scary Oldies" with actors and props set up through the ride.

They used to do that. In the first few Halloweekends, it was a Trick-or-Treat ride and (if you had kids), you stopped at various stops and collected candy. I am guessing as thing got busier they figured the lines would be too long (and thus the creation of the House on Boo Hill).

Halloweekends is no doubt more expensive to put on now and there are a lot more people, but there were little things like that when Halloweekends was new that I miss sometimes. Granted, there were no outdoor scare zones at all and only 3 indoor haunted houses so maybe I am just being nostalgic for a kid experience I can't get anymore.

Knoebels has a haunted car ride and KI did it too with their antiques when they had em. I think it's a brilliant idea, and while the scares are on the mild side, there's a definite feeling of being trapped and victimized. I remember everyone in the car screaming at me to floor it out of there, but it was just putt-putt-putt. No getting away from those monsters! So hilarious.

LMAO! That is hilarious.

Anybody been to the park recently? Just wandering if the gravestones of past rides are up yet?

Nope. Nobody here's been to the park. You should wander over and find out.

Btw, Shawn, you voted me up six times in as many minutes which brought my total to 999. You couldn't make it an even 1000? Come on...