CoasterGoblin

I may have 2 or 3 tickets for Knott's WCB for sale. Send me an email or PM! Still have a Magic Mountain ticket for today in case anyone wants a last minute ticket! Unexpected move is really cramping my style :-\

I still have a ticket available for Saturday I sent you an e-mail if you were interested! Maybe someone else is still selling their ticket as well.

I still have a ticket for sale as well for Saturday at SFMM PM me or reply here if you are interested!

I was just going to ask right before the tour to confirm that there wouldn't be any actors in there as a surprise/bonus. My six year old has been wanting to do more scary Halloween stuff but I know she's not quite ready for a full HHN or Haunt type attraction. A tour like this though would be perfect for her if there aren't any surprises. Just stick with me or Robb before the tour when we ask to see if it's okay for young kids. Cool thanks! We *might* take our daughter to her grandparents house before the Haunt stuff.. I know even the Q&A can get a bit twisted for a little girl who is still afraid of the Haunted Mansion elevator

I'm moving to a new place so I can't make it Saturday to Magic Mountain and I have 1 ticket for sale. PM me if interested! Also would it be bad to take your 4 year old daughter to the Knott's Haunt Q&A and maze walk-through?

I'd be more interested if it was on a Saturday or Sunday and a bit cheaper (The Knott's event seems to have more and is cheaper) OR an unlimited front of the line pass. That said I might consider it as is.

Has anyone used the X2 Flight Pass voucher that was given out when renewing their Magic Mountain pass (by a certain date)? Do the ride ops know about it or are they going to look at my funny when I try and use it? The voucher says to go through the Fast Pass entrance.. does that even exist anymore?

I too was very impressed with the event yesterday thanks to all who made it happen!! It was exciting to see such enthusiasm coming from the management team. I loved the tour/Q&A portions of the event as it’s really great to know that people on the inside have the same exact concerns that us theme park fans do. X is one of my favorite rides and I’m glad they didn’t let it rot.. I can’t wait for X2 to open. If I had kids I’d be looking forward to Thomas Town (heck even without kids I’ll definitely be checking it out). I look forward to the changes to come at Magic Mountain!

I went October 17th and the event was just as good as I remembered it.. I've always ended up in a 'haunted line' inside a maze just about every year I've been going to the Haunt. I try to avoid the busy days of the season (ie I go on the cheapest nights) so maybe that helps.

I plan on going to HHN later this season but Knott's has more 'new' mazes this year than HHN has in total. Not bad if you ask me. Also I never thought the Knott's staff was unfriendly at all.. That said I look forward to HHN this year as last year felt a bit lacking in the show quality and maze quantity departments.. and both seem to have been improved this year! How busy was opening night?

Thanks for the info.. I noticed I can't seem to buy a Flash Pass online for SFGAdv does that mean they aren't available during Fright Fest or just not online? Also if I ended up making it on Friday the 19th do they charge less for the Flash Pass since the park is not open for the whole day? Just wanted to make sure this trip would be worth it from the west coast during this season.. thanks again.

I'm not really interested in the Fright Fest festivities.. I just really want to ride El Toro and the other coasters they have there. I was thinking Oct 20 and 21. Is this generally a bad time to visit the park? Would I be better off waiting until next season? I'd be willing to get a Flash Pass! Are there any other parks that might be better to visit during October other than Cedar Point, Holiday World, or any of the Southern California parks? (I have visited those in the past couple of years) Thanks for any suggestions.

Me too! I'm staying at CP for 4 nights (my first visit there) this Friday and already planned to go to GL since it's pretty close.. but is KI too far to drive there and back from CP for a day trip? Google maps says it's almost a 4 hour drive. Hmm oh well hopefully CP will keep me busy! Great trip report!

Was at the park on Friday and saw the construction for the maze at Xcelerator. Wooden walls hug a lot of the left-side of the queue starting from where the tester seat and Xcelerator sign is. It didn't look like it was going to go past the left side of the queue (which is right under the tophat) but it's hard to tell.

Yeah that's what I thought I read elsewhere.. Funny I've gone from thinking my California Maxx pass won't let me into the park to trying to get early entry with it. I might end up staying on site anyway. Thanks for the info guys!

Thanks.. I'll bring my GA printout since my pass should be the same (except for the huge Knott's picture on the frontside ). Can you use your Maxx Pass for early entry without stay at a CP hotel? I read on one forum that it works but most people seem to say no..

Yes I realize that it's very obvious now what they say the California Maxx Pass is.. but back in March it was a different story. It was very clear that it was supposed to be valid at ALL Cedar Fair parks.. you couldn't even buy any pass better than the California Maxx pass at the time. I wish I kept a screenshot of the website back then to show them if they give me a hard time (which I fully expect). Edit: After a quick google search I'll just print up this page: http://www3.cedarfair.com/greatamerica/shop/shopping_season_pass.cfm where it clearly states that the California Maxx pass is valid at Cedar Point. But if anyone has gotten in or had any problems with their Cali Max pass please post.. thanks!

Hi all, back in March when I bought my California Maxx from Knott's I made SURE that the pass was going to be good at all Cedar Fair parks.. and now that I have a trip planned to Cedar Point I notice that on the Knott's website (http://www.knotts.com/park/guest/ticket.shtml) the California Maxx pass is only good at Cedar Fair parks in Calfornia?? Did they change the deal or did I just flat out buy the wrong pass back in March? Anyone use the California Maxx pass at Cedar Point recently? Thanks for any info guys!

Do you actually have to 'cut' in front of them or is there a special line if you purchased it online already?

With my annual pass they let me through the exit gate at 9:40pm tonight (20 min til closing) and I got to ride. I enjoyed it a lot! Not scary or anything but unique. The wait was about 40 minutes (the ride was not running the first 10-15 minutes or so I was in line). I chose the 2nd car as the first car wasn't spinning all that much. The 2nd and 3rd cars seemed to spin the most. On my ride the car didn't seem to spin often. I was mostly stuck looking to the side and got to see a bunch of rocks fly by (fairly close I might add) for much of the ride.. overall it was pretty disorienting and I couldn't stop laughing for some reason. Who knows if I'll ever ride it in that position again but I liked it. I was glad that the spinning was really smooth as I was afraid it would be like Primeval Whirl at Animal Kingdom (the only other spinning coaster I have been on). I did hear a kid comment on hitting his head during the ride so it might not be that smooth for shorter folks. Great job Knott's!

Ok thanks for the tips.. I'll try to make the trip out there early or late in the season. Hopefully Knott's lets me use my annual pass voucher toward a Maxx Pass!

Hi all, Trying to plan a 3-day weekend trip to 3 of the parks in Northern California (SFDK, Great America, and Bonfante Gardens) and was wondering when a good time to go to avoid the crowds. Is early in the season (let's say opening weekend of March 31st for the two Cedar Fair parks) a good time to go? Or is later in the season better? I would prefer going sometime early in the season but am worried about the crowds. Thanks for any advice!

I ended up going to Halloween Horror Nights on Halloween and had a great time! If I had gone on a busy night I don't know how I would have liked it but I got to do the Terror Tram 3 times, The Asylum 2 times, House of Horrors (half of it- due to wanting to go see Slaughterworld), Slaughterworld, Carnival of Carnage, Chucky, Fear Factor Dead Celibrity, Jurassic Park, and The Mummy. Got to see about the last 5 minutes of The Mutaytor as well. The Terror Tram and Asylum were both top notch.. as good as Knott's Halloween Haunt at its best.. and I might almost like it more than what Knott's has to offer because I'd rather see people 'acting' than trying to scare me since I don't really get scared at these events. I can see where people would rather get scared though and if you wanted that you’d definitely want to go to Knott’s. The shows were really lacking. I only liked the Carnival of Carnage and Chucky (partially). The Mutaytor looked cool but since I saw it several times walking by I wanted to check out the other shows.. which was a mistake mostly. Slaughterworld was mostly a waste especially since I saw Waterworld recently. Fear Factor was abysmal I’d go so far as to say Dead Idol Live at Haunt this year was superior to it.. at least they had live singing which requires talent. Knott’s always has some shows that have high repeat value (notably Hacks the past couple of years). There was nothing that I saw at HHN that I’d want to see again. Random thoughts: -George the Giant in the Carnival of Carnage show was paired with Zamora the Torture King at Halloween Haunt the first few years I started going to Haunt religiously. I think he was a much better co-host to Zamora than Miss Electra is. -HHN is in your face and loud like an MTV music video whereas Knott’s is more like an independent film.. if that makes any sense. The Terror Tram had extremely loud music/noise before leaving, Chucky is vulgar, Slaughterworld and Fear Factor seemed to have risqué jokes for the sake of it. Compare the ‘freak show’ at HHN and Knott’s and you’ll see it’s more elegant with the lighting and music.. but Zamora at Knott’s seems like a much better ‘freak’ but very low key. The differences between the look and feel of the two events are quite obvious to me. -I was hoping to see more props like some of the stuff seen in recent Knott’s mazes (giant dragon, giant pig with bouncing head, coffin rocking on the ground, bubbling vials, electric chair guy, spinning books hanging from ceiling, everything inside Grudge 2, etc). -I went to Haunt 3 times this season and saw no more than 2 shaker cans. I can’t even count how many shaker cans I saw at HHN it was easily over a dozen. Not that it makes a difference to me at all.. it just seems some people act like shaker cans = bad. -I really liked a guy in one of the scarezones who stood at a light pole just staring at people while licking his chops as if he wanted to eat you. We walked by him 2 or 3 times in various times of the night and he was doing it each time.. pretty cool. -The acting in the Terror Tram was pretty cool. I read there was even more acting in general at HHN earlier this month.. I think I might have liked it even more if that was the case. I didn’t see one staged killing. -Overheard some disappointed people as they got to the end of a queue and found out they were in line for a show. Some people were probably expecting a lot more mazes.. and I’d expect many people were disappointed. Hard to tell really. -Loved the price of food hope they keep that up! -I was slightly disappointed in how short the Terror Tram was and that there weren’t any attempts to scare us while in the tram. -Jurassic Park in the dark didn’t seem dark at all to me.. there were lights everywhere. -I think they need at least 5 more Asylum quality mazes, at least 2 killer shows, and many more nights to reduce the torture of sold out nights to get to the point where I’d consider telling people to check this event out instead of Halloween Haunt. Overall I’m glad I went and as long as they change things up a bit every year I will definitely be checking this event out! I think competition is great and I hope Cedar Fair feels the need to spend more money on Halloween Haunt!

I'm not too sure why there is such a focus on whether or not shaker cans are used.. but either way the last few years I've been to Halloween Haunt I haven't noticed many shaker cans (if any) except on the Mine Ride and maybe the Log Ride.

If you get there early enough on an 'off' night you should be ok buying tickets before the event. I went a couple of Sundays ago and got in line for tickets at about 6:50pm and was probably in the park within 20 minutes. If you get there even earlier you will be just fine. Oh if you do buy tickets ahead of time don't do it through ticketmaster they rape you with service charges (probably stating the obvious).