HalloWeekends vs King Island Halloween Haunt 2007

CP is more fun for all ages and families (seriously if people aren't smoking on the Midways that is). HalloWeekends is a nice balance between fun, funny, tongue in cheek, entertaining and scary. Good variety. You walk out of there knowing you had a good time and will be back. It's more like riding a good roller coaster. And there's more room. The outdoor haunts use lots of controlled fog and stage quality backlighting to set up scares.

KI HH. I went opening night. It's more edgy overall. Club Blood is racy. The Scareactors are not abrasive or confrontational but they yell at you like "what are lookin at" "Keep moving" "get off my property" and stuff with an "attitude" like that. The outdoor haunts are mainly narrow and short. So you see a box on a narrow path well there's someone behind the box.

I won't ruin any of the haunts except for a few comments. But there are nightvision (infrared the color is green) videos on youtube TOPGUN1993 put up from Media Night. Search for "Club Blood".

The indoor haunts they ask you to put your hands on each other's shoulders like a conga line for "safety" I think it's more to get people thru efficiently. People do it. I don't if I'm in the back. I ended up in the front most of the time.

Trail of Terror is way back behind Firehawk and hard to find. It goes thru the woods. It ends in a Texas Chainsaw sort of motif. Be ready to crawl thru a muddy 10ft tunnel.

The train ride haunt only consists of the spiel backstory and then lets everyone off to walk thru the actual scares.

CarnEvil is indoor 3D. They give chroma-keyed 3D glasses like HW's Pharoah's Secret but for free with no souvenir logo. You either keep them or throw them into a pile at the exit door. Lots of older Scareactors in their.

A Scareactor was telling pirate jokes in the pirate haunted house line. "Gimme an Arrgh. Gimme an Arrgh. Gimme another Arrggh. What does it spell? Everyone had fun with an said "Argghhh"

The live shows are on Saturday so I didn't see those.

They have a working electric chair prop in the entrance. One of those $6k jobs. A large Kinzel tombstone. Their Fright Zone style large skull is just an entrance prop.

Most of the roller coasters are open. There's a metal detector as always. No readmission no hand stamps after 7pm. That means all of Fri night. The hot dogs at the hot dog wagon across from Subway are tasty. They do have a Chik-fil-A open.

I appreciated that it's more adult than CP within the same company, state and within driving distance of each other on day to the next. So I'd say check it out. I wouldn't take kids there. There were some but very very few. Mostly teens to adults. There's more than that to say but that's the gist of it.

*** Edited 10/12/2007 8:50:47 PM UTC by HalloWeekends!*** *** Edited 10/12/2007 10:54:22 PM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

That definitly sounds like some fun. I just may have to make a trip or two down there next year.

HalloWeekends! said:
Mostly teens to adults.

That probably explains why there is no re-admission after 7 PM.

I really don't know why that's the policy. I don't know why they have metal detectors either other than I guess they don't have their own Police Force, it was probably institued by Paramount post-9/11 and its close to a major metropolitain city that has a history of gang related activity althogh that's a stretch and it's near a major interstate. I wonder if the strange requests they make for conga line style walk-thrus and peopel comply is part of keeping order in a way. I don't know just guesses.

But everyone who was there behaved themselves. And the smokers knew where the designated areas were.

I'm going to try and go one more time before I end the season at CP HW.

Even though they tell you to "conga" at the entrance to the haunts, they don't really seem to care too much if you don't do it once you get in. I noticed a lot of people would let go as we got inside and nobody, guests or employees, cared.

I know this has been debated a lot elsewhere, but I thought I would mention it here. I got a Kings Island newsletter advertising their 2008 season passes. 2008 season pass holders will get one free admission into their 2008 Halloween Haunt. I assume this applies to platinum pass holders as well.

^^ I was surprised to see how many people didn't mind doing it on opening Friday night and actually seemed to have fun with it. I didn't ; ) But I wasn't with a group either.

^ That's not a bad deal. I don't have the Maxx Pass this year (I got the HH ticket on their web site) so I didn't bother to see if anyone used their Maxx Pass at this year's Halloween Haunt. I never made it out to Fear Fest in the past either. *** Edited 10/16/2007 10:34:04 AM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

^^Chris, that KI newsletter states you can get in one free admission THIS year, not next.

VISIT HAUNT FOR FREE!
All 2008 Passholders get ONE FREE VISIT THIS FALL! Use your new pass to visit the all-new Halloween Haunt or the family-friendly Nick-or-Treat or come on a Saturday this October and do both!

*** Edited 10/16/2007 12:18:08 PM UTC by Mark Small***

we went to ki on the opening saturday of their haunt and i had no idea ki could hold that many people. the place was jammed packed but we had a really good time. i couldn't believe how foggy the coney maul was. i mainly went for one ride and i had to wait less than an hour for it. beast rides at night rule. overall i liked how the park was transformed. if the right situation arises, we'll go back again next year. i also took my first night rides on vortex and adventure express and really had a good time. from the 2nd lift hill on the beast, the fog from the coney maul was easliy seen. pretty cool.

I've been to both, I prefer HalloWeekends. Halloween Haunt's haunted attractions were nothing, they weren't scary, and there were hardly any scareactors workin them. Their "scare zones" were really short and understaffed big time. You also have to wait in line to go through their scare zones. Your basically waiting in line to get to the other side of the park.
*** Edited 10/16/2007 1:00:54 PM UTC by Benjamin***

I guess I missed the part that said this year. Whoops.

You have to crawl through a muddy tunnel? What if you dont want to get dirty?

^ At that point they have a Scareactor and a sign that's hard to make out in the dark that says something like "Brave" over the tunnel and "Chicken" over the other side where you can walk around it. But the Scareactor the one time I went thru basically made people go into the tunnel by blocking the front of the Chicken door and said "It's only 10 feet". He failed to mention it was wet and muddy. But I had shorts on so I didn't care. I had fun with it. Kind of weird staring at a strangers backside though.

On a sidenote I saw a lady on the other side of the CP Lair of the Vampire's Vortex Tunnel like she was ready to pass out over the railing. There's no way around that one. But if you ever get disoriented too bad in a Vortex tunnel just stare at the left edge of the catwalk and it will appear straight.

I should add that the tube you crawl thru at KI HH seemed to be carpeted kind of like what a cat would play in only larger. The tube is one of those kinds that they pour concrete into to make pillars in construction. *** Edited 10/16/2007 11:40:28 PM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

Also, the tunnel is really just an optical illusion, so if you get queezy and feel you are about to fall: close your eyes. Without the visual trickery, your other senses will realize that you are on perfectly sound, unspinning ground.

But we should also add That's no Fun! : )

CarnEvil indoor haunted house at KI HH also has a Vortex tunnel. The best effect ones are like LotV. Simple white UV paint dots lit by a black light. The one in Undertaker U adds an orange UV vein pattern that still gives the illusion but not as good as LotV. I can't recall what CE at KI HH was like I think it was more like UU that they tried to make it colorful. I'll have to make note of it if I go again. But a Vortex tunnel is cool regardless. Btw, If you want to know how they're contructed or want to build one in your back yard here's a good example: http://www.scary-terry.com/vortex/vt.htm

KI HH CarnEvil's dot room is like Pharoah's Secret where the haunter wears a body stocking with dots the same as the walls. But it uses round flourescent stickers instead of paint. *** Edited 10/17/2007 1:55:30 AM UTC by HalloWeekends!***