scaresfan

My group got there last Friday night and had some different experiences than you did, perhaps because we started at the bottom of the park (after eating at the feast) and break times scattered around, but with the exception of Backwoods and Club Blood, we didn't feel they were underpopulated at all. From our path around the park: MHH was quite good and I liked the extra rooms built since last year. This was also the first time we got to experience the elevator part. I suspect the plans were done by someone with no experience with heavy crowds since people get backed up at that point a lot until they flush people through. But agreed, great length and good scenes. The actors also seemed to be comfortable using the hallways well to surprise people multiple times. We headed over to Death Trap and two of us got to enjoy a "guided tour" with an enthusiastic Mastermind and it was well populated, though most of the group couldn't hear him because he started speaking so quickly with each room (but it was pretty awesome). Age of Darkness by the bathrooms where Death Trap let out was well populated and people were really in character with a jester who tried making rhyming poems at people (credit for decent ones while going off the cuff there. She tried hard!), and they teamed up against a few people while we were there. Due to the design, though, we were surprised to be told no pictures there. The costumes are really good, and the medieval theme looked good when the knight and the queen chased after a girl near us. Grave Walkers is a great concept that I liked a lot. A scarezone with a maze part once you move through with lots of neat spots and really great actors. The rains on Saturday didn't stop them from writhing around and going after people then too. Backwoods was disappointing. The concept is still really good, but somehow the actors were lackluster the two times we went through. I think they need to rethink the path and hiding spots better. Agreed that the paths are just too wide. It's almost as bad as the haunts at Great Adventure where the actors have to run a half mile just to get to you. Not good for scares or the actors. Asylum had the longest lines and is still very well done. Moving the electric chair here was smart, but changing the timing to go off every 30 seconds got old really fast. Terror Square was much better than last year. Shorter with less dead space and good use of the scenery. The lead (I think - the big guy who looks like the sheriff) is enthusiastic. The noise from Demon Drop and the longer walk makes it kind of out of the way and less effective. A shame as the crew did a great job, but the lines just did not get very long. Cornstalkers was still good despite being one of the oldest mazes. The tighter paths were fantastic, and many scarecrows/burlap covered actors did a great job of using unexpected spots. Club Blood feels tired now. At least only a few actors did a good job of scaring people. The dancers and dj just were kind of there, which made the turnaround at the back of the building seem like a boring waste with the dead space and that long pathway of plastic sheets. There really was a lot of dead space this time and felt short. Needs to be rethought, especially since the vampire club theme wasn't that bad in previous years. Psycho Circus was really underpopulated when we went. There are a few actors I think we remembered from last year who do a good job, but they were early in the maze or outside entertaining the line. The maze needs some refreshing here too. It would sell more 3d glasses with a better effort inside. Cutthroat Island was lots of fun. I'm still curious what was used for the canon fire, but a nice mix of mermaid decoys and actors running around and scaring people. They used the fog pretty well, and the ship is truly amazing to look at in daylight as well as in fog. For the shows: Eternal Jamnation started off badly but got better. I've felt the crew are talented, but have had trouble in the past with doing something cohesive. The sound people also really overpowered things with the mikes so the sound felt distorted the past few years. After the first 3 songs, the show was pretty enjoyable. Perhaps moving away from the vampire theme helped too. Harley Newman...nothing really out there to me, though the straitjacket bit was really good. Maybe I've just been desensitized from Jackass stunts in the past, but nothing else was really that memorable to me. Cast in Bronze was a refreshing surprise. The concept is clever and unique and the musician is really talented. It was also a very nice break between lines. I hope they bring him back!

They used to have Ackbar. I only went once, and back then the ride had nobody waiting for it except my group, but we didn't know anything going in and loved the humor and over the top concept of the ride. Unfortunately, it was also extremely bumpy and rough, which likely limited its appeal.

"time periods exceeding 24" will likely be 24 hours, so yeah, I'd assume 24 riders per train.

While Mark Shapiro getting fired was big news after all of the positives we've seen over the past few years, I think it's a crime that Mark Kane being fired from Great Adventure was a bigger disappointment. For those who weren't aware, he had basically made it a point to clean up GAdv after the horrible reputation it has gotten over the last few decades, and made it a good park to go to. Granted, there was still a lot more work to be done (ie more flats and other rides between the coasters and the kid rides), but a huge step up from the mid-90's.

Primeval Whirl did zero for me when I tried it (6 times since we went at a very empty time of the year) and it made very little impression on us too. I recall not much spinning, wondering about the lame theming and cardboard cutout feel of everything (I know it's supposed to feel that way, but just seemed to be true cheapness as opposed themed cheapness), and not much else. Pandemonium at SFNE has kind of tight seats/restraints, but the spinning works amazingly well most of the time due to the way the track twists to get the spinning started.

Made it to Dorney Park's Haunt and Six Flags Great Adventure's Fright Fest. Dorney's Haunt jumped out of the gate big time two years ago, and in its third season has 9 pretty decently staffed mazes and two scare zones with good theming. The only complaints I have is that there aren't enough actors and decorations outside of the haunts themselves to give that full park haunted feel like HHN at Orlando does so well, and the sheer number of haunts sometimes ends up with lots of dead space during shift changes/breaks and more teamwork scares would help a lot. Considering it is still free with the day admission, it's hard to complain. The crowds on Saturdays do make me wonder if they will have to do a VIP line for the mazes, and the new Mansion House Hotel is very well done. Great Adventure was a nice step up this year after a couple of years of incremental improvements (and a whole lot of years of just plain bad), but is severely outclassed by Dorney's Haunt. The cloth covered fencing for walls for the two upcharge mazes needs to be really upgraded to something more permanent, or at least make the walls appear to be themed. The Asylum was nicely done with the props and the signs, but without the appearance of a real building, it loses that immersiveness. The outdoor mazes still suffer greatly from the really wide paths. They really need to narrow the pathways to help the feel of the mazes and make it easier on the actors. I must look into Lake Compounce now. It does look nearly as impressive as HHN!

Obviously, my group enjoys the scary stuff, but ignoring that, everyone above is correct that Dorney is the park you want, especially as it seems the new team seems to be making things worse at the park already. I should mention that if you do not have tickets already that you may want to buy the tickets with the meal off the haunt website. The meal is at 6 and is $6 more than the day rate and you can leave from there out of the park if you prepurchase the tickets from them. They did have actors scaring guests last year at the meal, so that may make you choose against it, but it might be a bit easier on the pocketbook to do the meal before leaving. My group is going this Friday and Sat and ordered in advance after enjoying it the last two years, so I can say the food is not bad and muich cheaper than getting everyone a meal on your own. This is, of course, assuming you aren't already holding tickets or have a season pass. I think it's $10 or $12 at the park, but is an option that way too. The Wild Mice cars are fairly tight to me (the Dark Knight was an exception and felt fairly comfortable to us, but the Hershey and Dorney ones were not terribly comfortable to our large posteriors), but if you split one person in front and one in the back, I think you'll be okay. Just hold on. Those tight hairpin turns will fling you around!

I've ridden tons over the years, from the oldest memories of the traveling rocket ships, where it tilted up and rotated making you believe you were off to see the moon or Mars landscapes. Favorites of the huge variety include the Simpsons Ride, Akbar (better storyline and oddly smoother to me than Star Tours), Mach 1, Shrek, Superstition, and a movie that I cannot recall at the moment that played at King's Island in 2001 or 2002 next to 7th Portal where you were supposed to help defend the base, but things go horribly wrong from the beginning. I just remember laughing the entire time as the ship in front of us blew up trying to exit the closing gate and then we are ready to launch right after them into the closed gate before it aborted.