Halloweekends Season-Opener Review

The Friday night opener for Halloweekends had good points and bad points. It was much too warm, unfortunately. It’s hard to get in that harvest mood when the temp is in the low eighties after dark! There was no wind, though, which made for good fog. Saturday was much better, being in the low 70’s all day, and dropping into the 60’s after dark. The moon was just before full, and there were some scudding clouds on and off, so the atmosphere was pretty conducive.

The decorations this year are pretty good. More complete in some areas, less in others. I guess they needed to do away with the vehicle display on the Iron Dragon/Wildcat Midway because of the shows on the stage down by the CP & LE. Still, there were a lot of subtle things that sort of grabbed your attention. Small things here and there, which, when added together, make a nice mosaic around the park. There is a neat display of gnomes with tiki torches by the concrete bridge between Dragster and the Magnum, for example. They also cleverly blanked out the “R” and the “V” in the word DRIVE at Coasters, so now it says DIE IN. Unfortunately, they hung a skeleton from the “I”, so it is partially obscured. On the Main Midway, near the walkway to the Marina Gate, there are some lattice-work structures with small skeletons climbing on them, in one of the flower bed displays. The very cool part is that there are numerous real spider webs on them, compliments of Mother Nature!

The Rock & Roll headstones are such great pieces of work, and it is really cool to see them pay homage to the musicians in that way. I like the fact that they include the middle names where they are known. Similarly, the deceased ride cemetery is also big fun. I just wish I could remember what the French Frolics was all about!

Fright Zone is good again this year. This is such a great concept, and I am glad it has become a staple. This year, there were a couple of characters working in pairs near the Force tunnel. One out in the middle of the trail would engage your attention, and her partner in crime would leap from the fog, out of the light, and just scare the heck out of you, when your attention was focused on the first one. The guy with the trash-can and beeper who chases people is a riot. Some of the characters will follow you for long distances, right next to you, and be inches from your face the whole time. I would love to know what the premium-rider for their insurance is, for this attraction. Whatever it is, it is worth it.

We saw “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” at the Glassblowing Theatre. The guy who does TTH is a master of his craft, although his performance started out a little rough. I think the noise coming from Shopping for Christmas Trees can be a bit distracting. I had expected him to do “The Black Cat” as well, but it was another actor. He was good, but clearly not as experience. He will improve. You can also tell he has worked extensively with the first guy, as some of their delivery and mannerisms are very similar.

Werewolf Canyon, aka Shopping for Christmas Trees, is still a work in progress. It is much expanded, but still suffers from a less-than-effective delivery. The fog is outstanding, but the wolves need to be more, well, wolf-like. Mostly they sort of wander around, kind of like zombie-wolves. More trees might help also. The “Pig’s Revenge” in the barn, at the end is really cool, however.

I cannot comment on any of the haunted houses, musical or magic shows, as we did not see any this weekend. We were riding on Friday, and doing other things, and the lines were too long on Saturday. The girls did Vampire’s Lair and Pharoh’s Tomb, and said they were fun.

CarnEvil was a bit of a disappointment. I think it is too close to the lake to sustain the fog when there is any wind, and wind is always a problem in that area. I had expected the tents to house attractions, but they were simply empty. It was obvious that it was built to help draw some of the crowd out of Fright Zone, and balance the flow in the park, but it needs some work. For example, a little more guidance on the traffic flow might have helped, and having the characters work out of their respective tents would have them make more sense. I think with some tweaking, CarnEvil will be a good addition. The barkers at the entrances were pretty good, especially the one near Macaroni’s. The characters were a bit more aggressive than the FZ characters, and you dared not stand still, as they would target you in a heartbeat. That, in my view, is how a haunted area should work, so I give them high marks for that.

As usual, however, there were idiot parents who don’t seem to fathom that Fright Zone and CarnEvil are not designed for 3 and 4 year old kids. I saw several crying children. In addition, there were strollers running around. My wife actually got rammed by a double-wide stroller in a particularly foggy area of CarnEvil, near the Oceana stadium. I almost tripped over one in the Fright Zone. I think CP should consider banning them from those areas. Also, there were far more benches in the Fright Zone than I have seen in the past, and those have the potential to be some real knee-bashers. I was surprised to see them.

Overall, Halloweekends for 2004 is going to be a good time, I think. We have at least one more trip scheduled, so I am hoping to check out the haunted houses and some shows for myself. I am just glad to see the park open into October. It makes the off-season that much shorter! *** Edited 9/28/2004 4:41:37 AM UTC by Tank***

I planned on checking out park deco Sunday, but with the lack of people in park,I got tied up on Magnum all day! :)