AmyUD06

So says the person with 3 posts in the past 3 months.

I'm sure I've asked this before, but does anyone know if the SEAS Platinum Pass needs to be activated at the park where its purchased first before it can be used at other parks? $190 is a hell of a deal compared to the $408 that BGW is charging.

New bet, what opens first? This or SFStL's carousel.

I would be very, very surprised if anyone at Adventure Park USA would be able to tell you today whether or not the coasters will be running on the weekend. And yeah, Six Flags gonna Six Flags all right.

I'm "local" in that the parks are like an hour and a half drive for me, but I haven't been in a few years. No idea what's up with Superman at SFA. Typically, when they had Holiday in the Park, the whole back half of the park would be closed, but there is no Holiday in the Park this year, so it's anyone's guess as to if that "Temporarily Closed" is left over from last weekend or was posted in anticipation of this weekend. Other rides in the area don't say that, so I wouldn't think the whole section of the park would be closed. Adventure Park USA is always a bit of a coin flip as to if their coasters will be running, even in the summer. The website indicates that the "outdoor attractions" will be open on Saturday and Sunday, so I'd say your best bet is to call them when you're nearing where ever you would turn off to head there. Be advised that they can only run one 4-person car on the Wildcat, so if there's any kind of a crowd (which there probably won't be), you might have a wait.

Okay, time to get back to it here. Kings Island: 2022 Haunt Day 1 (October 14th, 2022) After my long drive from Delaware, checking in to my hotel, I made my way over to Kings Island just before 5 PM (for a 6 PM opening) on Friday the 14th. This was the sight I was greeted with: Oh yeah, it was gonna be busy. But it was good to be back for Haunt! The lines of people waiting to get in at 5:15. At 5:45, I was finally inside! I grabbed my all-season Fast Lane Plus wristband and Fright Lane lanyard, and then hung around for rope drop with the massive crowds: The releasing of the monsters! M4H03118_Trim.mp4 You can also see that the preparation for Winterfest has begun, with the lights on the buildings and decorations in the Tower Gardens. An ominous Angel of Death watches over park goers: Hey look, Kings Island has these things too! Except here, the art in them was designed to the various mazes and and scare zones throughout the park, instead of generic Halloween-y scenes like at Dorney. Before proceeding further, I came across one of the history signs I hadn't seen before: The first stop on my agenda here was the new-for-2022 maze, Hotel St. Michelle, way back in no-mans-land at the old Action Theater. I opted to not use my Fright Lane for this yet, and had a 5 minute wait. I was very surprised that they were initially sending guests through alone (or with your personal group); this obviously wouldn't last throughout the night, but it was a nice touch at the beginning of the night. Of course, about half way through I caught up with the previous groups and it became a conga line. All said and done, I thought this was a great concept and there were a TON of actors (though very few were in character, just doing generic groans and screams), but it was definitely too dark to really appreciate the artistry. Next up was an old favorite... Again, I didn't bother wasting my Fright Lane yet, and had zero wait. They modified the layout her from previous years, and changed out the "moving-car" prop for a band(?). As with Hotel St. Michelle, it was far too dark to fully appreciate the artistry, and despite having a lot of actors, all but one were not in character. The one that was, though - a faux mannequin - was absolutely spectacular and actually got me the first time through. Now it was time to check out the new scare zone... I swear Cedar Fair got a group rate on these water-crate-things. No scare zone actors yet, so it was time for... My first use of the Fright Lane. More or less unchanged from last year, but the addition of some very detailed alien costumes was a nice touch. The mirror-suit from Kings Dominion's 21 would fit in perfectly in the mirror maze section of this house (which I mentioned to the staffers outside). This one also had a ton of actors, with the scientists playing their roles well. Next up was... No wait with Fright Lane. Now anyone who is familiar with my reports knows just how over the whole butcher-shop haunt theme I am. That said, this was a very pleasant surprise! Again, tons of actors, all of them in character, and there were a couple of very nice physical prop gags, including a wall-closing-in-on-you thing like at Madam Fatale's Cavern of Terror, which was my next stop. But not before grabbing a shot of this awesome decoration: I guess this was a thing? I didn't take a notes video after it, so from what I can remember it was pretty much the same as last year. Again, a ton of actors, which was an awesome constant at Kings Island's mazes. With all of the indoor mazes complete, it was time for some shows. First up was Terror Rising, their main musical show at the stage at the end of the fountain. This was your typical "drummers over an EDM backing track" type of show, but with the variant of including a guitarist and dancers. I did not stay for the whole show, but here's a video: M4H03152_Trim.mp4 As it still wasn't 8:00, and Cornered (their lone outdoor maze) had not yet opened, I grabbed some more pictures of the decorations... ...and then took in part of the Monster Rock show, held in the Festhaus. Fun Fact: They legally cannot call it "Monsters of Rock," which would be a much more fitting show title, as the name is trademarked by a company that puts on classic rock shows on cruises. Anyway, this was kinda "meh" I guess. It was entertaining enough, but I swear the acoustics of the Festhaus are not suited for this and the vocal talent just isn't there. How Kings Dominion holds such a domain over musical Halloween shows over the rest of the Cedar Fair parks is beyond me. That said, enjoy some videos...perhaps you'll find it better than I did. VID_20221014_200532006.mp4 M4H03167_Trim.mp4 M4H03168_Trim.mp4 With those two shows out of the way, it was suitably after 8:00, and was now time for Cornered. This was a vast improvement over previous years' Cornstalkers mazes, with plenty of wide open areas and a distinct lack of actual corn. It was very long with a lot of actors, with no narrow corridors of corn walls, and was the surprise of this trip. That said, I'm still totally over this theme. Now it was finally time for some rides! First up? Nerd shot. I had a 5 train wait for front row (both trains running). I can't remember the last time I rode this at night, and let me tell you it was awesome. Almost completely black. See? A bat train actually passes right in front of the camera in this video. M4H03180_Trim.mp4 We can all add The Bat to KIs list of awesome night rides. Now it was time to take in the Coney Maul section of the park, their carnival-themed scare zone. Zephyr looking all foreboding... So you see those trees that are all lit up in red? Yeah, not just red! I guess this is where the pixel mapped lights from Kings Dominion's Winterfest ended up. Anyway, it was really cool. M4H03184_Trim.mp4 I always love the light packages that CF parks have on their Troikas. I then took my second laps through Hotel St. Michelle and Madam Fatale's Cavern of Terror, both now pure conga lines. Very poor showing. This was the walkway between Coney Mall and Rivertown, where the Pumpkin Eater scare zone was last year. Are we sure it's not Winterfest already? Ah, here we go! The Beast, at night, front row! 25 minute wait. It took me all fucking year but I finally got my front row night ride, and it was incredible as always. So, so good. Nice little advertisement for the painters of the Eiffel Tower. I didn't realize it had only been repainted three times. The Squishmallows store is back, but moved further down International Street near the Auntie Anne's pretzels. Which, by the way, I took this picture in line for. A rather substantial line...It took me 21 minutes to get to the counter. It was right around 11:00 at this point, and having been up since around 4 AM, it was time to head back to the hotel for a well-needed rest, wrapping up Day 1. Stay tuned for Day 2!

It can get quite a line at the start of the day, being the first or second ride most people see. For the non-coaster-enthusiast crowd, it's kind of a draw. It always seems to have somewhat of a line whenever I pass by it.

The latter. I'd be happy with buzz bars.

Well, nothing too surprising. Just sounds like a near-complete re-tracking. If you click through for the pictures, it does look quite extensive. No mention of who's doing the work. They also mention rebuilding the PTC trains, which is kinda a bummer...was hoping for Millennium Flyers. https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2022/the-rebirth-of-the-grizzly---part-1

Well, we'll soon know what all that Grizzly lift hill nonsense was about... No hints in the comments.

Mediocre at best. Bloodbath was entertaining enough, kind of a rehash of the old Club Blood theme with a little hotel mixed in at the end (which didn't quite make sense - wouldn't you start in the hotel?). In Eerie Estate, I didn't notice anything new aside from the introduction room with the Ouija board. Hexed was probably still the best one from an artistry standpoint. Slaugherhouse and Cornstalkers were their normal tired selves. Blood on the Bayou took longer to walk to it than it did to go through it. Cut Throat Cove was pretty decent. All were severely lacking in actors. Kings Dominion had the best CF Haunt this year out of the four I went to, followed quite distantly by Kings Island, CP, and then Dorney. That includes shows in the calculations, too. I swear I'll get my TRs up from KI and CP's Haunts one of these days soon.

If Zamperla has anything to do with whatever is happening to Dragster, I will be very sad.

Edit: I'm an idiot who can't read. Wednesdays should be the slowest, then gravitating out from there towards the weekends.

So, I just wrapped up my trip to Cedar Point (full report coming in the future), but there was one thing I had to share: (God damnnit I thought the picture came out better). Anyway, that is all Dragster related merchandise at 50% off. Definitely looking at least at a new name.

In the smokers' defense, KD did not create a smoking zone inside the park during the "No-Reentry during Haunt" period, as every other CF park did, so it's kinda on the park - they didn't leave any option for smokers. When I was there at the end of September, several security officers told me they thought it was dumb too, and just told me to not smoke right in front of them.

Nice little mini-TR! I hope to get back down to the Orlando parks sometime in 2023, after SWO opens Pipeline. I missed out on Montu due to mechanical issues and IG wasn't even close to opening then. Scorpion is a classic and I'm glad you enjoyed. These Schwarzkopfs are a dying breed and really need to be appreciated as much as we can while we still can. I think the issue with Cheetah Chase being so hyped is that Florida locals that don't travel don't know any better, so to them it's an "insane OMG balls to the wall ride !!1!1!" I enjoyed it, but was similarly disappointed. I kinda thought of it like a Maverick-lite. Shame you had a bad experience on Kumba. When I visited in February 2021, they were only running one train too, but the park was completely dead an everything was a walk on. The ride really blew me away (especially in the back-left B&M "magic seat) and quickly shot into my top 10 steel. I am also with you 120% on the "lockers should be free if they're required" thing.

Decided to make this a thread for all of my Halloween park trips. I'll be posting my Kings Island Trip report next week, but for now enjoy the above Kings Dominion report and my one from Dorney Park here.

Looks like a good addition; that part of the park is always kinda dead. Though I'm not a fan of Endeavors (weird since I love Enterprises) or tea-cups-style rides, they will take crowds from other rides, which is always good. I am very excited about the changes to Adventure Express.

I'm with Elissa on this; you can always bundle up for the cold, but there's no escaping sweltering heat. I'm very curious what the ride lineup is going to look like during these winter months, especially given CF's reluctance to operate rides outside of manufacturer recommendations. Last Winterfest they shut down Dominator when it hit 40 degrees.

Yeah it is. And it's a different game each showing, too, I think. The NyteWalkers show this year was pleasantly entertaining too.

They've moved the Corn maze this year; it's now back behind Drop Tower in the underside of the splash boats ride. Better than years past, since it's more than just a narrow hallway of corn that is doused in way too much flame retardant, but still kinda meh. My full report from this past weekend is coming soon, but KD on the whole blew KI out of the water this year when it comes to Haunts. I hope you're able to swing a trip, though. A bad CF Haunt is still worlds better than any SF Fright Fest.

More than zero and less than 101 percent. No one knows dude.

Nice Mini-Report! CF is really particular about temperatures. If it was too cold they won't run the coasters, especially the B&Ms. The weather is looking good (no lower than 50*) for my trip there this weekend, so hopefully I won't run into the same.

Worlds Tallest (tied, but you don't need to know that). I think SF does the same thing with some of their giant frisbees.

If there is any justice in the world, it was struck with a wrecking ball.