downunder

Walked by Sahara a few weeks ago, Speed is still standing for the time being with no sign of anything. I guess that will change maybe. The site was so dead, I had to get off at the Sahara monorail station and walk around it.

I got the survey.

^Barry, you've completely destroyed my faith in restraining orders. Sounds like another solid year at HOS

Haunt was fun this year. I concur with earlier post that Pre-scare buffet is good value especially the earliest 5pm session. Last year I discovered by accident that you could get rides on Ghostrider before the rope drop and I took full advantage this year. I went on a a Wednesday, and I got a full half hour before the non-buffet rope drop. The shows I went to were good this year: The Hanging was a lot of fun, Haunt FX was surprisingly good, and there's two big reasons to always attend Zamora's show. My observation was that the entire audience was lining up to meet Kitty Karloff after the show, and 2 guys were talking to Zamora - they were possibly from Buena Park men-only bar, grill, and S & M dungeon. Sad to hear the flume was down, that is one of my favourite things at Haunt, even if it doesn't loan itself perfectly to a haunt overlay. Xcelerator was absolutely cranking until it broke down for the rest of the night. Invasion Beneath was lame, though I enjoy the mine ride itself. I thought Dollhouse and Terror of London went backwards this year. Delirium & End Games were great additions, and Virus Z was great, though it didn't have one element that I thought was very effective last year in the open room towards the end. Cornstalkers was improved, and the rest were the same - Slaughterhouse was as lame as last year, and the year before.

I'm impressed, and I find it interesting that B & M are starting to go beyond their previous size thresholds with this and Leviathan. My preference would be more for ejector airtime, but I imagine this will have the signature floater air like all their other hypers. Port Aventura keeps getting better.

I don't get scared so I'm not too picky about scare techniques. I went through Hostel twice by myself at the beginning of my second night there, I'm not that scared. I'm just a member of the general public, and I enjoyed the event throroughly. I would have preferred an unlimited Front of Line option, but the VIP thing was pretty cool - I wish Orlando had something as good. Rat Lady in the VIP lounge was off the wall!

^Movie World is open every day of the year except Anzac Day and Christmas Day.

Knott's Scary Farm on Wednesday.

Nevada Las Vegas Fright Dome at Circus Circus http://www.frightdome.com The 13th Floor Experience at Circus Circus http://www.circuscircus.com/hauntedtour/

Hopefully, the new 340 foot giga at Knott's will be up before the world ends, probably not (probably never), and maybe Everland will get something exciting up to replace Eagle's Fortress in 2012 (probably 2013). Other than that, Leviathan and Sky Rush interest me. They strike me as B & M trying to do an Intamin in Levi and vice versa with Skyrush. The wingrider at SFGAm looks great as well.

Stay away from the deals that require you to go to a time share seminar - absolute f***ing nightmare, not worth the time or the aggravation.

This is my third year (in a row) going to the event. I love that's it's just so full on, the scare-actors come after you like you did something bad to their family, and it's so immersive: there isn't many parts of the park that aren't Halloweened up, which is one advantage to being smaller than Orlando. Now I'm just waiting for the tix to go on sale. EDIT: there were some very good Club TPR discounts for HHN last year, so keep an eye out to see if they are available this year.

Killer deals pass is on sale, get in quick: https://ushtix.com/Home.aspx EDIT: Facebook just said they are sold out.

That's where they will posting the link: on FB, it might go up on Twitter too. Here's what's on their FB page: Here's a new image that just popped up on the FB site: Want a date, baby?

Check out their facebook page, they have a limited deal for Frequent Fear Passes if you're interested (which they weren't going to have this year): http://www.facebook.com/#!/HalloweenHorrorNights

^I guess my comparison point was HHN Hollywood where they are so agressive, and the mazes there really emphasise the scares and have big endings. The mazes in Orlando seemed to just peter out by comparison, but I guess they were going more for spooky rather than terror. To their credit the set designs were amazing in Orlando, especially Legendary Truth, Shadybrook and Hades. I'm bummed I missed the Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman mazes in 2009, they sounded awesome.

I believe Lady Luck is actually Fergie without make-up. There's some speculation on Screamscape about the maze themes, aside from the announced Thing maze, they speculate that there will be a Poe Maze, Spooky Cemetery, WW1 Hospital. Holiday Horror, Saws and Steam, Runes, and a Spanish Ghost Ship. It will be interesting to see what they do, I'm not going this year and I was non-plussed by last years effort.

^I have a feeling they might have put the maze up on the website by accident before the press came out. I'm confident the full maze treatment will do the concept justice, I thought the scare zone was fairly anonymous and low key last year. Good to see they're taking a few risks this year; I'm not sure how familiar/interested the younger demographics are with Alice Cooper, but it should be a good maze anyway. EDIT: they've taken the announcement off the website now, oops.

"La Llorona: Villa de Almas Perdidas" maze announcement is up on the website. So that completes the maze line-up I presume.

^Caesar, why was Big Boy smiling so much when he was behind you?

I'll talk parks with anyone who is interested, but the people in my life have no interest in parks; luckily I have other interests and plenty of other things to talk about. I don't really go out of my way to talk about parks. With the dearth of parks in Australia, it's not breeding ground for enthusiasts. People have very little to ride to develop an interest.

I pity Six Flags America, Iron Wolf (at least the last time I rode it in 2007) was brutal beyond belief, firmly in the "please make it stop" class of coasters.

Canobie Lake was a nice park. Untamed was far from unbearable, though a few seats can really sucker punch you. Cannonball was fun. The Corkscrew was mercifully short. It was cool that the 20 minute lake cruise wasn't an upcharge. They had some ride names that were rather beguiling like "Policy Pond", and who the hell snapped off the flyers - let that be a cautionary tale to all the snapmasters.

^Olympia Looping usually comes with a beer tent for extra bonus points, we had a lively day at the fair last year. Things still to do that I care about: Intimidator 305 Expedition GeForce T-Express Kawasemi Now I'm past 500 credits, there are few worlds left to conquer.

^Nice photos, I was there but it seems like a thousand years ago now. It was great to finally ride Bizarro at night.