What should come and go for Halloweekends?

Were they letting the groups in too close eachother?

We ran into this problem last year. We were able to see the group in front of us, and were able to see what was going to happen. Kinda killed the experiance.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. My group was always the start of the next group they let in.

MichiganWolverines said:

I went to the park this Friday and it was the first time I had ever been to Halloweekends so I was pretty excited to experience all the haunts. However, I have to say I was pretty disappointed with it. Maybe I was expecting too much?

Well, I'm sure the screamsters will get better with the season, and the attractions may have been a little understaffed on a Friday night.

But in general, you may have been expecting too much for an amusement park. Being in your mid 20's (like myself), nothing at Halloweekends is going to leave you with nightmares. I just think of Halloweekends as Cedar Point with a really fun atmosphere. I love CP at night, and walking through the park via scare zones is just a bonus to me.

I think as you get older, more of the appeal is in seeing the screamsters scare other people, especially young girls and moms. Go into the haunted houses with your muscles clenched tight and frantically looking everywhere, and you're going to be disappointed. Go into the haunted houses slowly and casually, and there are bound to be a few surprises that'll make you jump.

I hope depending on the length of the line, they'll be able to determine when to dispatch the next group so that it won't ruin the experience. Like Cornstalk said, timing IS everything in a haunt.

Erebus, the world's largest/longest haunt located in Pontiac Mi, has this problem. While they have the length that gives them the title and some well themed areas (very little though), they SEVERELY lack in the timing department. Their method of timing was too confusing and it caused back ups. In fact, it was so bad that there were multiple areas where they had to stop people to help with the issue. And not only did they have that problem, but the scare points were too open and left little GOOD scare opportunities. It ultimately left a horrible taste in my mouth and I found it to be a waste of money. I went through it again a few years back hoping it would get better, and it didn't.

I can't say I've seen this so far at any of CP's past haunts so I hope that won't change when I get to go through EE and HJTF.

Your mom is to fat to ride TTD. said:
Last night (friday) was pretty lame as far as haunts go. Most screamsters were just standing there talking to eachother or walking around not doing there jobs. It was really obvious in Cornstalkers. Last year it was my favorite. Last night, it was pathetic. Terror Island was bad compared to last year too. Fright Zone was pretty good, thanks to the sliders. Such a cool looking job! Hopefully the suckyness of the zones will improve over the following weeks. I hope it was just 1st week things. Things that can be fixed.

I didn't have the chance to go through Happy Jack's because it was around an hour wait, but Estates was amazing! This was a fun zone and made up for the bad jobs the other zones were doing.

I had the opposite experience. I found cornstalkers much better than last year.

I waited about 20 mins for Toy Factory and 40 for Eerie estates. Loved them both. Toy Factories sign would be better on the other side as you can only see it at the exit or if you are walking by that area rather than entering on the other side and I heard no music but it was great.

The doll's face blinking freaked me out when I was on Max Air as it was on the side I was on and it was creepy.

Ffej, it did seem understaffed a bit. My mom was in a wheel chair (broke her leg at Busch Gardens) and EVERY screamster had the "original" idea to push me aside and push my mother, thinking it would scare her. Its just another guy pushing so it didn't do much.

One guy in cornstalkers pushed her through the whole layout. This wasn't trying to be scary, but being nice since it is such a tight space. He traded his shovel for my mom which I thought was funny. While being pushed through cornstalkers, nobody tried to scare us. Most of them would come ask if she was alright.

After we were done I decided to go back through, by myself, to see if they didn't scare us, because mom was with us. They did the same thing. Just stood there and talked to eachother.

The fog in the zones were bad too, but that was cuz of wind.

I'll be back 3 more times so I hope it is better.

Ffej said:

Well, I'm sure the screamsters will get better with the season, and the attractions may have been a little understaffed on a Friday night.

But in general, you may have been expecting too much for an amusement park. Being in your mid 20's (like myself), nothing at Halloweekends is going to leave you with nightmares. I just think of Halloweekends as Cedar Point with a really fun atmosphere. I love CP at night, and walking through the park via scare zones is just a bonus to me.

I think as you get older, more of the appeal is in seeing the screamsters scare other people, especially young girls and moms. Go into the haunted houses with your muscles clenched tight and frantically looking everywhere, and you're going to be disappointed. Go into the haunted houses slowly and casually, and there are bound to be a few surprises that'll make you jump.

Yeah I'm thinking that was it. Maybe I'll have to get down to Universal's Horror Nights one of these years. I guess I was just expecting a little too much.

Like I said we still had a blast and it was a lot of fun to be there at night, haven't done that in YEARS. Overall great way to spend $30.

another thing to mention about the houses and cornstalkers is that while there are more paid actors in them they do still have scream teams which are volunteer organizations working in them. These screams teams don't get any of the monster training that the paid actors get so in some cases it may be that the paid folks simply haven't learned how to work their room yet, and in other cases you're encountering a guy (or girl) who was simply handed a costume and sent of with the advice of "be scary" so they don't really have any idea of what they're doing and are really only going to be there that night or weekend.

Can't know if that was what you were encountering or not, but it is a possibility.

It was good to skeer U! ! !

Naughty Mermaid! !! : )~

Tell "One Person" not to breathe! !! !

MichiganWolverines said:Maybe I'll have to get down to Universal's Horror Nights one of these years. I guess I was just expecting a little too much.

Try to do so! It will give you an ENTIRE different look at haunted houses. Their level of detail and professionalism is outstanding and they never disappoint. That is unless the house wasn't something that you found appealing. Though you'll still leave that house/scarezone with a "Wow that was very well done." mind set.

Of course I'd never directly compare what CP does compared to Universal, that will never happen. They're on 2 different plains. And while Erie Estates/Happy Jacks comes VERY close to the detail I've seen at HHN, being part of a movie company REALLY comes with some perks....if you know what I mean.

I will say I LOVE what CP did with these new haunts and I HOPE more improvement comes in following years. So major props to CP for stepping it up a notch.

I just tried out Corn Stalkers for the first time yesterday and I have to say I was impressed. I admit that I am a little jumpy and for being that, I was scared a few times going through the cornstalks. Fright Zone was scary as it always is, although since I was by myself they didn't bother me as much.

Unfortunately timing isn't something that can be taught, and that can be a setback in the first night or two of the haunts. I know at Terror Island there was a vast improvement between Friday and Saturday, and I've heard the same thing happened everywhere else in the park. It's amazing how much timing, strategy, and character development can occur in just one night.

I was there both Friday and Saturday. The crowd Friday was small and Saturday it was quite large.

I found the walk throughs on Friday to be lackluster. I considered Friday to be Spring Training for the Screamsters. They had few targets and few chances to blend in with the crowd and use the element of surprise. Yes, they were standing around at times. Maybe they could have tried a little harder, but they had little to work with due to the sparse crowd.

Saturday with a big crowd the screamsters were in fine form. Fright Zone and Terror Island especially. Lots of double teaming groups of girls and just good work in general. TI was possibly the best I'd ever seen in it's short history. Care Evil needed to use the tents more. Most of the clowns were just roaming around, not enough jumping out from behind something.

Fear Faire can go anytime now. Waste of space IMO.

^ I agree. It just seems like it's not very well planned and thought out. I hate to say, but it's the worst one every year.

The only good thing about it is that it adds fog to Raptor. ;)

^And to the Blue Streak haha. Coming back toward the station we were dipping into the fog on the bunny hops.

From the sounds of it I think next year I will plan on going the second Friday of Halloweekends so they can find their form a bit more.

I've been following HHN for the past few years and from the pictures and descriptions I have read it looks amazing. Just have to save up for that trip.

But in general, you may have been expecting too much for an amusement park. Being in your mid 20's (like myself), nothing at Halloweekends is going to leave you with nightmares. I just think of Halloweekends as Cedar Point with a really fun atmosphere.

I agree with everything you said. I think a lot of people probably go into HalloWeekends expecting a little too much on the scary level, especially if you've never been before, because you don't know what to expect... Having been going to this event for as long as I can remember, I really applaud them for how far the event has come. I remember going years ago and not even realizing there was a Halloween event going on. Over these last few years they have really been stepping it up. The last 2 years have been awesome! You have to look at the event for what it is and go from there.

I usually make my yearly trip down to Halloween Horror Nights in a few weeks. This will be the 1st time in many, many years that I won't be going, so I have been looking forward to HalloWeekends even more than usual. I was really pleased with opening weekend, and the 2 new houses are outstanding. They help ease my pain of not going to Horror Nights because they match the quality.

Not to keep mentioning another event, but for me one thing that is so exciting about Horror Nights is all of the lead up and anticipation that surrounds the event and how so many people get pumped up for it all year long. I create my own excitement and anticipation for HalloWeekends since I don't really know if a lot of other people anticipate it all year long like I do lol It's just fun to have an event like this to look forward to. I do feel that this year the park has been getting us excited for a while now. How they got us intrigued with Eerie Estate back in July, putting up signs and banners throughout the park and so on. All of that really plays into the excitement and draw of it all.

Obviously budget is a huge part of it and I think something that is always good to remember is that HalloWeekends is included in the price of admission to the park, which is a really good deal. If I had to pay a separate admission, depending how much it was, then I might be more critical of the event. If it does ever become a separately priced event I hope they will offer some kind of unlimited pass.

I go into these events hoping for an awesome, Halloween themed time, some cool houses/zones and great memories. Try to make the best of it and have fun!

Edit: About letting small groups in at a time, no matter how much time is in between each group we always catch up to the people in front of us. I've been in houses that have a conga line the whole time and the scares are still effective. I like the idea of small groups, just not days the lines are really long.

Also, I love the Overlord and how he sends all the Screamsters out at the beginning of the event. Such a great way to create excitement, get the crowd pumped up and kick off the evening!

Your mom is to fat to ride TTD. said:
Fear Faire can go anytime now. Waste of space IMO.

Not that it's actually occupying any real useful space anyway. The biggest problem with Fear Faire is a lack of crowds. Sure the layout could be tweaked a little bit here and there to make it not as wide open, but the small crowds are the worst part. I remember the busiest nights there were far slower than the slowest nights in Fright Zone.