singforfood

I know that Haunt makes a TON of money, but if guests were speaking with their dollars...they wouldn't have to offer a $75 pass good for EVERY night. The event would sell out on its own merits. The reason no one complains about HHN is because long wait times are posted and unfortunately have always been part of the event since its return in 2006. So it's part of the HHN culture (on both coasts). Unfortunately. Haunt suffers from the opposite. People have known Haunt to have lots of mazes and shows in certain locations for many years, so those missing areas make wait times much more noticeable at Haunt. Let's call it what it is and not try to sugar coat it...the decision was most likely a cost cutting measure. I highly doubt that the lack of fiesta village stage, bumper cars, balloon race, and some of the front entrance plaza (which could now make a great queue for infected standby if not a maze entrance...) were upsetting day operations guests so much.... If it were 10 NEW mazes every year, then I doubt anyone would complain. That would make for an incredible event. I meant speaking with their dollars at Universal. An event with 7 mazes was booming while Knott's with 13 was waning, so why wouldn't Knott's try to cut some costs and trim down the number of mazes? The trends were showing that people didn't care about long wait times and few mazes, if there was production quality. The posted wait times at HHN aren't always even right. Because they sell so many front of the line passes, the posted times can be off by 30-60 minutes sometimes. Also, I think Knott's really needs to get back to soft sellouts, though I doubt that will ever happen, seeing as how Cedar Fair has dollar signs burned into it's eye balls and Haunt is responsible for nearly half of the park's annual revenue.

Work is continuing up at Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. Expect an announcement for the new attraction in about 3 weeks.

The park is going in a "quality over quantity" direction that most guests seem to be asking for in reviews, and encouraging with their dollars, given the boom in Universal HHN's attendance in the last 5 or so years. Even with significantly throttling back the number of mazes from the old standard 13, Knott's still has more to do than Universal and MUCH shorter average wait times, but nobody ever seems to complain about those things at Universal, just at Knott's.

It was an experiment. Infected's capacity was a serious issue for guests, and it may not may a return for next year because of it, but I'm proud of Knott's for trying something new and out of the box.

The hardest part of "conga lining" the attractions is it's very difficult for the actors to remain in character for so long. It puts a lot of stress on the attraction itself (to run every single air powered effect at once takes a lot of air pressure). And it gets harder to try and watch cameras. You go from a few groups (6-8 for us) to groups in every camera. It's hard to see stuff. Not to mention the fact that we get people who are too scared to keep moving forward. Which slows everyone down and it feels like you're still in line inside the attraction. I was a maze supervisor this year, and we really dislike having to do a continuous flow of people, but sometimes the crowds dictate that we need to.

When I first rode Scream, I thought it was a BORE. Then I rode in the front row at night, and it was a total game changer.

In my humble opinion as someone who has worked as a monster.... Guest service doesn't go out the window just because it's Halloween. Working for a Halloween event instead of daytime operations doesn't magically make it okay to swear at park guests or insult them crudely. Filing a lawsuit is a little ridiculous, but I 100% do NOT agree with the "well what did she expect?" mentality people have been expressing. Guests go to these events for the same reason they visit theme parks during regular hours, and they should receive the same level of service.

Based on your opinion? It doesn't fit the character of the park to have coasters stacked upon coasters. Cedar fair is in the thrill business, and I get that, but it seems like the move toward more and more coasters is making the park lose some of it's old charm. Also, squeezing in a 1,500 ft long wooden twister coaster isn't really the same thing as fitting in a B&M hyper.

Maybe I should have been more specific.... no room without making it an eyesore.

As much as I agree that seatbelts are (generally) stupid, I'm pretty sure the one on YOLO saved my life. My first ride on YOLO TL;DR -- The unique design of the lap bar left an enormous gap between it and my actual lap, and I actually felt the seatbelt supporting my weight during the hang time on the loop. It was kind of legitimately scary.

I work at Knott's Scary Farm and every single night, a guest asks me how to get to "the Asylum maze". Asylum's last year was 2010, but there is one small decorative painting on the side of a fence that was never removed, and they'll stand in front of it searching their maps to find it and then ask me. Maybe I'm expecting too much from them, but... there's a list of attractions on the map for a reason.

I tend to agree with this post, come out with a killer dark ride in 2015 and then a new thrill coaster in 2016. The dark ride is a no-brainer, since they already have the building and it's always nice to escape the heat in the summer. My family has really enjoyed the recent park additions and revamps the last few years, but 10 years between thrill rides is just too long. I think the loss of Windseeker has hurt the park because that was a new and exciting ride that nobody else in California had. With Harry Potter coming to Universal in 2016, I think Knott's needs a major attraction of their own. I'd love to see a giga like Carowinds is getting, but a winged-coaster or a mini hyper like some have mentioned would be welcomed additions as well. You two have been to Knott's right? Where the hell would they put a Mega or GIGA coaster? The park is built out.

Unfortunate side effect of having a huge new operation like Special Ops: Infected. It took a lot of resources to get up and running, so there wasn't the budget or the time to build shows. Hopefully next year will bring some more entertainment back since Infected won't be so brand new.

I agree, and the launch is so much powerful now I like the sensation of being launched forward better than backward, but I think facing downward at the top of the tower, and seeing how high up you really are, makes the ride experience much more interesting. And the fact that they actually turned the launch back up to 100 mph helps too.

I'm really glad you liked Trick or Treat! We've had HORRIBLE luck with staffing for the entire run so far (one night, we had 1/3 of our talent out) , and some of our special effects still aren't working properly because Infected and Voodoo keep pulling the technical staff away.

The first time I went on YOLO at SFMM is the only time I've ever legitimately been afraid of falling out of a coaster. For those unfamiliar with the lap bars on Yolo, they have an extra piece of padding that goes against your shins to keep your legs more secure inside the train. I circled the thing in red in the picture. You can see how well locked in the whole bottom half of a rider's body is... supposed to be... HOWEVER... I have very long legs, and the shin-guard piece actually prevented the rest of the bar from lowering as much as it could, leaving the top piece about halfway between my lap and my knees (a good 10 inches from my hips). I was convinced that they were going to kick me off, but... lo and behold, the ride op pushed down and pulled up, and then said "clear dispatch". The top of the loop was terrifying, and I could feel myself being supported by the seat belt. I'm totally guilty of not pushing my lap bar down that one last click on some rides (as I'm sure many of us are), but this was a whole different feeling.

I would pay SO much money for a run like that.

I have bad shoulders, so it's hard for me to lift my arms straight above my head. On a huge drop, or major airtime section, sometime I'll let them fly up on their own. For the most part, a light to moderate grip on the handles.

Seriously, Rob.... that's your high-tech, park approved video mounting equipment? Duct Tape?

It's a special Halloween overlay. The park decided to go minimal, so not to interfere with the ride during day time operation, but still give guests some kind of haunted ride experience. I do miss the days of Red Moon Massacre at Log Ride and Army of the Underworld at Mine Ride, but I understand the decision.

I noticed something weird when I went to HHN on the Saturday of the first weekend. Having worked at Knott's before, I 100% understand that the first weekend isn't the best, but the lack of character scaring was extremely noticeable and disappointing. Considering that most of their talent is aspiring actors, I would expect at least some level of interaction or dialogue, but I didn't hear a word come out of a monster's mouth in any maze. Some of them didn't even make sound of any kind. Did it get better during week 2?

After an excruciating ride on Bizarro this summer, I beg to differ. My butt was firmly in my seat the whole time, and my thighs were throbbing. The ride op literally did a physical wind up before pushing the bar down... leaned back, and then shoved using his body weight.

Every time you pass a large empty plot of land, you imagine what kind of coaster you'd build on it.

Assuming they don't have the Ride Ops lower the bar for you and staple you down, like Xcelerator when it opened or Bizarro at SFNE now.

My understanding is that you don't get to "let loose." You'll have a "squad leader" that takes you through the various encounters/vignettes. I believe there is two "operations" per route with some other stops along the way. This is correct, your squad leaders will lead you through the two routes.