Halloweekends or Haunt??

I know the season hasn't started yet, and it is a little early to be talking about October. But Dorney Park has recently announced it is changing from Halloweekends to "the Haunt." I have never been to King's Island or King's Dominion for this event, but is it much different from Halloweekends? And if so, do you see Cedar Point changing in the near future?

From what I understand, KI event is a little bit scarier meaning more geared for teenagers and up. Not sure how true this is. I haven't been there for Halloween.

And I don't see CP changing. They are a "family park" so they will keep at least most of it acceptable to the little ones.

Kings Island's Halloween Haunt is intended for an older audience. I thought they did a really good job this year. There was so much fog in the park it was pouring out into the parking lot! There were some haunts that were pretty good, while others weren't as good. And the lines were reasonable, but I went in early October.

i have to give a thumbs up to kings island and their haunt. we went to watch the last 3 reds games of the year and hit kings island and had a great time. as stated above, there was fog, fog and more fog.

CP has always kept Halloweekend at a nice balance between a scary and family fun event. Paramount's Haunt event and Knott's event isn't so family friendly.

I don't see CP doing anything to it's Halloweekend format. It is continually becoming a bigger and bigger draw. The event has seen the park's busiest days for the last five years at least I believe.

I do see them doing something to the format... ;)

Yeah remember folks, T&T have allready said that Halloweekends is getting some "new things" this year.

At the very least, CarnEvil is going to have to be either moved, rethemed, or axed because PS now spills into those midways and CP is not going to have a kiddie area host a scare zone.

To me, Halloweekends has been an event for the whole family. I do not see CP changing their format this year.

^CP luva, I disagree, I think that Halloweekends during the day is a perfect family event (except for the three indoor houses but thats confined,) but come nightfall and the scare zones open up it ratchets up there to a "PG-13" experience. Why people continue to bring elementary age kids through those zones is beyond me.

Touchdown, when it reaches nighttime and the scare zones open, how do you see it become a "PG-13" expericence? The zones are marked so if you want to avoid it, you can.

Between the house they do in Dodge'em and the candy rides on the antique cars, plus the dancing monsters, Camp Spooky, etc., there is plenty that still makes it a family event (and hopefully they remember to market it as such).

But there will be some new direction this year... something people have talked about for a long time.

But people dont, way too many kids are back there and even so you hear people screaming (and its not from coasters,) and then you add spooky music, errie lights and fog and you have a concoction not even in the scare areas that will freak most kids out.

Where are you coming up with these generalizations? Are these happy little kids all over the place just my imagination?

Touchdown said:
But people dont, way too many kids are back there

And that's just called stupid parents. 80% of the park is kid friendly, 10% is targeted directly at kids and the other 10% is the "adult" haunted areas. There's more than enough ways to keep young ones out of areas too scary for them. And just becuase some "parents" dont' know what that word means doesn't mean they need to advertise the park as teens and up, there is still plenty for kids to do during all hours of operation.

^ Amen to that.

I will say, as a parent of two young children, we brought them up every Halloweekend last season and it was a great time...the Friday night Kiddie rides until midnight were great, as were the Sundays in the park. I sure pray the family-friendly atmosphere doesn't change.

I hope I don't get slammed for saying this, but sometimes it's impossible for folks to find sitters for their children, and since we don't live in Sandusky, I wouldn't want to be that far away from them for very long. Once or twice, when my kids are sound asleep in their stroller, my wife & I have ventured (quickly) through the Fright Zone. I personally like that level of scare, and don't like too much over the top. And that's been the only way she & I have been able to spend any time in those areas.

I realize most people don't want children back there, but let me tell you that a lot of us also don't want to see it become a 100% teen-infested area. There are some 20-something and older adults (we're 30-40 something) who enjoy the fright zones when they're not too crowded and crawling with crazy (well, crazy-acting) teenagers. (Don't flame me on that, either--I was a teen once, too!) If there are big changes coming, I hope at least those atmospheres are still available for the rest of us.

The changes that I'm aware of are additions. I don't think they're going to mess with the formula so far. It's pretty obvious that they've invested in the parade, which was a huge hit, and you can bet that will be back.

Believe me, we don't want the areas to be teen infested either. Teens (generally) make our jobs a lot harder than they should be.

Jeff is right, they aren't going to mess with the overall formula because they have a good, well-rounded event already. I've been excited about the additions since I first heard of them, and I think they are going to be a big hit with the guests.

Ah just open up the soak city gates, fill it with these haunts and about 200 fog machines...haha jk.

^Before I begin, let me first point out, I know that this is never going to happen, but heres my pie in the sky for a fantastic haunt:

Renegade River, but covered up (ie has a roof) and has fake walls in it (ie unlike Werewolf, you still have a maze element) entirely chalk full of fog. Also, have the wave section be an actual maze (ie there will be dead ends.) It would be an extremely long maze, so long they could probably put in multiple themes if they wanted and of course it would be full of some fantastic props.

But as I said above: way too much money, too much prep, too much risk of harming the river, and no way to monitor it all=never going to happen.

I hope that this year we see an upgrade of the indoor haunts (stale, stale, stale) and a brand new scare zone to compensate for CarnEvil leaving (as to where I dont know.)