Halloweekends Announcement August 28th

A coworker of mine was at the park yesterday and said Disaster Transport was closed. I know they turn the queue into the haunt, but do they normally shut the whole ride down for the conversion?

^ - no. If they were making the change, they would just shift the entrance to the Halloweekends entrance point and keep it open. It was likely just down for some reason.

I was at Cedar Point yesterday and Disaster Transport was open and was using the entrance it normally uses during Halloweekends. The archway for the haunted house was already up so your coworker probably saw that and thought the ride was closed. Disaster Transport was definitely open yesterday.

I actually don't mind this haunted house... the 3D effects are kind of fun.

I do think that ALL of CP's haunted houses would be much better if they had hired screamsters working all of the houses, not just the Zones. It seems like a lot of the houses are manned by college kids who half the time could care less that they're there, and the other half of the time are trying to do a good job but just really don't know how to scare effectively.... This a a quality control area where Kennywood's Phantom Fright Nights beats CP hands down - CP's rides are better, the shows are better, and the Zones are better, but Kennywood's haunted houses rock.

AndyG said:
I do think that ALL of CP's haunted houses would be much better if they had hired screamsters working all of the houses, not just the Zones. It seems like a lot of the houses are manned by college kids who half the time could care less that they're there, and the other half of the time are trying to do a good job but just really don't know how to scare effectively....

You are exactly spot on, but it's difficult just to staff our zones. I don't want to imagine how hard it would be hire enough people to staff all the houses too. But if you want to help out, you can apply online today. :)

I'd actually love to.... I think it would be a blast. My wife and I have talked about it, but we live a little far away (about 3.5 hours) to make it economical.

The regular entrance to DT is already themed for Pharaoh's Secret so thats not changing.... Its gotta be MF's island. ;)

I'm also excited to see what CP has up their sleeves for this year's Halloweekends. I think with all the hype we are sure to see some exciting new attractions. As someone already said i'd like to see Pharaoh's Secret get replaced / redone. It was getting very old, and I'd say was worst and most cheaply done of the Halloween attractions.

Overall I think given the crowds for the event recently, CP could really make this a top notch thing (similar to what they are doing at Knott's). I think if they A.) added more attractions, and B.) made them better in terms of quality, they'd really have something special on their hands.

^They seem to do a little bit more every year. I don't see where the return on investment would be to add a bunch more attractions and try to make the existing ones better. Halloweekends is already one of the busiest times that have at the park. The attendence can't really get much higher.

I don't know about adding a "bunch" of things, but those things that they do add every year (Parade/Fear Faire/WW Canyon/CarnEvil) keep it interesting for those of us who do come every year - it keeps us coming back, rather than skipping a year or two because it's the same old same old.

Along those same lines.... some additions aren't about increased attendance - they're just about improving the overall experience and being the best at what they do.

^I agree.

I agree that Cedar Point isn't likely to see any huge jumps in attendance regardless of what new stuff they add, but as AndyG said, they still have to work hard to retain the guests that are already coming by changing it up every year, and trying to improve the event year after year. And that's sort of what I meant by "more stuff". And I don't think anything new needs to be another huge haunted house, but rather some cooler smaller attractions similar to the fortune teller, etc.

The next step is really to get people coming on a day that is not Saturday. If they can get Sunday busy enough to open the outdoor haunts, they would be well on their way to having two capacity or near capacity days a week instead of one.

Why would they announce it right before halloweekends though? Wouldn't it make sense to release the info before so people know about it? I bet a lot of people will not know anything is new till they get to the park.

The announcement is being made 2 weeks and 1 day before Halloweekends starts.

^^^If they do that they'll lose me as a Halloweekends visitor. I have my traditional closing weekend trip, but I like to throw in a couple Halloweekends Sundays because it's not too busy. If Sunday's were as busy as Saturday I wouldn't make the trek down.

If Sundays were as busy as Saturdays they wouldn't care if you stayed home.

Touchdown said:
The next step is really to get people coming on a day that is not Saturday. If they can get Sunday busy enough to open the outdoor haunts, they would be well on their way to having two capacity or near capacity days a week instead of one.

I think a bigger issue is staffing. Remember, a lot of the employees are college kids who need to get back to school. Staying open late enough on Sunday to make the Fright Zones worthwhile (not to mention the time to get out of costume afterward) would put put a lot of them back to school between 2 and 4 am on Monday.

Which should be right about the typical college student's bedtime on a school night. :)

The haunted house that struggles the most in my opinion is the Lair of the Vampire. It just seems too simple to me. I may be in the minority, but I liked it better when it was the Toxic Tunnel.