PTR: Conneaut Lake Park's Ghost Lake 2012

[Philrad71]

Hi folks,

Been a while since I posted my last trip report, so I figured I would post one for the final night of Ghost Lake at Conneaut Lake Park in NW PA.

 

I knew that if the rain held off, it would be the perfect evening to get some decent photos at one of the already creepier amusement parks in the US. It did for the most part and although I was disappointed with the way some of my photos turned out, I was able to play with an old school version of Picture It to give the photos an eerie feel in order to try and capture the overall chilling effect of the event for you, the viewers.

 

While CLP doesn't have anywhere close to the budget that just about every other park in the world has when it comes to Halloween events, I feel that they do an amazing job with what they are given. A lot of the sets are already natural so they don't have to spend months building them all up.

 

I still feel that if they had more of a budget to work with, this could easily become a prime destination for haunt enthusiasts in the North Eastern US. Even so, they seemed to be pulling in a decent amount of people at $20 a pop despite the cold temps (low 40's) and sporadic drizzle.

 

The Haunts

 

1. Clown Town

2. Rot's Funeral Home

3. House of Fear

4. Maze of Terror

5. Insanity

6. The Un-Fun House

7. The Devil's Den - walk through of the famous dark ride

8. Blue Streak

 

As soon as you buy your ticket at the gate, you enter the park through one of those disorienting spinning tunnels with the crazy lights with someone standing at the end ready to scare the crap out of you as you exit. Basic, yet very effective.

 

From there, you sort of have to figure out your way around because you are told at the gate that you must do all eight events in order. Because it's not a huge park and some areas were benched off, it wasn't overly difficult to find the first haunt: Clown Town - which is in the Kiddieland section. I liked the orderly idea because it kept a pretty good flow through the park versus everyone rushing to their favorite one & clogging up lines.

 

I won't review every haunt, but will say that most were pretty good. Nothing completely over the top, but sometimes just the small stuff is enough to creep you out & get your heart pumping.

 

For instance, at the 2nd haunt (Rot's Funeral Home), the employee at the entrance asks which one in the group get's scared the easiest. When he get our names, he called up the stairs: "We got Michael and Phil coming up...Michael will be the one in the back and he's scared sh%tless!!" Then of course, the scare actors just focused on stalking him for the entire walk through...grabbing at his arms and legs, honking horns, screaming in his face - fun times indeed.

 

At one point, we got so turned around in the Maze of Terror that we ended up with four teenage girls all terrified & clutching me (as well as Michael) as we tried to figure a way out in pitch blackness. I won't spoil as to what you had to walk through to get out, but it was definitely unlike anything I had ever been through and if you are at all claustrophobic, this WILL scare the crap out of you!

 

Yes folks, this is a good old school haunt with actors chasing you around with chainsaws, screaming at you, grabbing you, monsters stalking teen girls until they cried and begged them to leave them alone, obscenely loud death metal in some of the haunts as well as a live death metal band grinding out the kind of crazy music I haven't heard since I was 25 - wow. I'm sure the folks living in the neighborhood must love this time of the year!

 

Hearing Deicide's 'Dead By Dawn' at an ear piercing level while you had to walk through another one of those spinning, light filled tunnels was yet another crazy effect. Even better was if you tried to grab the metal handles to hold on, they actually shocked you. Is this safe? My guess is no...but that just made it that much cooler in my book.

 

Toss in a ride on the Blue Streak in the cold, rain and complete darkness to complete the 8th haunt and you have an all around very crazy & unique event. Think of it as one of those awesome ghetto traveling carnivals (complete with some carnie ride op look-alikes thrown in for good measure) running scare zones. Well done, Conneaut Lake...well done!

 

Of note, this is definitely not an event for small children and I personally wouldn't recommend anyone under the age of say 14 or 15 to attend. I saw plenty of scared younger kids that were so freaked out by the first couple of haunts that they wouldn't go in any of the others. Probably didn't help that the parents were siding with the siblings and calling them chicken and trying to drag them in anyway. Wonder how mentally stable they'll be in later years?

 

Now come my children...come along if you dare!! HEHE!

Welcome to Conneaut Lake Park's 'Ghost Lake'

Who's ready for a ride on a classic, scare the sh%t out of you coaster?

Best. Logo. Ever.

Eat THAT theming Universal!

I wondered if this thing would even be operational & if so, would it be safe?

No signs of life as of yet.

Bloody Easter Bunny with an ax. He was also equipped with a built in radio playing death rock

Front entrance forces you to take the spinning tunnel of hot death to get things kicked off

All flat rides were idle, but some were lit up and beckoned us to come for a ride

Spooky

Water park w/crystalized vapor ghosts flying through the air. Yep, this place is haunted.

The ride op told me they ran this in a snowstorm last year - be very scared.

Some of the clowns brought their own real snakes to the party. Ambulances and EMT's were on site...just in case.

First haunt...who's afraid of clowns?

Are you afraid of clowns?

Scary-Go-Round.

Okay, that was lame, but still a good shot. One of the few that didn't need re-imaging.

Paranormal Activity 32 will be begging me for this footage in 2034.

They purposely want you to gaze at the creepy rides before scaring the living crap out of you

Haunt 2.

Haunt 3. Something tells me that isn't a Breast Cancer Awareness light bulb on the porch with Grandma inside baking oatmeal cookies.

Haunt 3 Blair Witch style.

Natural theming - no set up required.

Haunt 4 - this is good.

Haunt 5 - Insanity.

Haunt 6. They were filming a movie to include the soapy suds you had to walk through at the end of the maze.

Classic haunted flat 1

Classic haunted flat 2

Final Haunt - ride on Blue Streak in the pitch black darkness.

I can honestly say that I WAS scared going up that lift when you could feel the car wheels shifting on the track.

Happy Halloween - thanks for reading.

Edited October 28, 2012 by robbalvey

[chadster]

Seems like the park operator continues to do a lot with a little. I hope one day the financial end gets sorted and the politics are eliminated to help this old school park flourish like it should. So much potential.

[ajfelice]

I'm glad to see you enjoyed yourself, but my experience the last couple years with this has been pretty bad. My first experience in 2010 was great, they really put on a good event with some very creative stunts. 2011 was disappointing in which little attempt was put into scaring people, and the haunts seemed to be stripped down in terms of detail. 2012 was such a horrible experience that I felt the need to write to them. This year had 8 haunts instead of 9, and there was zero effort put in by the people running the event and by the people supposed to be scaring.

 

For me to go back again there are a few areas of critique:

1. I don't mind the huge crowds/lines, but do not stuff people inside a haunt where no one can move, and absolutely no one is scaring anyone.

2. Try to scare people! Don't just sit there!

3. Check tickets. I could have done this for free since no one checked my ticket after I purchased it. You want to make money right?

4. Very unsafe and unprofessional that Blue Streak operators can't put down the cigarette to operate. Very rude to have the station attendant and lap bar checker blowing smoke at you as you enter the ride and have your lap bar checked. While waiting in line for almost an hour, there wasn't one time when the operators were not smoking. If you need a break for your habit, step off the platform then smoke. (I understand Blue Streak is operated by CLP and not Ghost Lake, but when it's a part of the Ghost Lake haunts, it reflects badly on the Ghost Lake event.)

 

Once again, I'm glad you saw value in this event, but I was thoroughly disappointed because I have seen this event go from awesome to embarrassing in three years. For all of the other TPR members out there, Ghost Lake is not run by CLP directly, so don't expect the majority of the money from this goes to CLP restoration.

[Philrad71]

^That's interesting...do you know the company that runs Ghost Lake? I had no idea that the park wasn't running the event. I wonder what the profit margin will be for the park?

 

As far as the scares, I thought that most did a good job although it could have been the fact that it was the final night and we went in right as the gates opened so the scare actors were perhaps more energized. I only saw a couple that I thought needed a kick in the butt...most were all over us though and did a really good job of freaking us out.

 

Regarding the lines - I thought that they did a good job of only allowing groups in at specific intervals & most checked our tickets. This could have also been because we got there early and crowds weren't that bad. If they were to get over-loaded with people, I could see them giving up the entrance intervals, particularly if guests started getting unruly - this is rural Pennsylvania after all.

 

Can't say that I blame you about the smokers on Blue Streak. Very unprofessional and could possibly set the whole damned place on fire again - especially when there is ummmm...lot's of wood and dead leaves everywhere.

 

Not that anything would have burned last night with all of the rain we have gotten lately, but it's still not the right thing to do. Perhaps they should look around and see all the other areas of the park that have been burned down because of random idiot arsonists over the years.

[kidcoaster 2]

^That's interesting...do you know the company that runs Ghost Lake? I had no idea that the park wasn't running the event. I wonder what the profit margin will be for the park?

 

Ghost Lake is run by Mid America Events out of Niles Ohio. They also operate the Canfield Scaregrounds. The park does get a pretty decent sum for the event.

[Philrad71]

^Thanks for the info....I just assumed that it was run by CLP.

[Taylor Finn]

Always wanted to check this out. I can see why someone would wanna operate a haunt event here. It's perfect. The creepy flats just add. How was the devil's den? And what about the haunt inside the bumper cars ride?

 

Thanks for the TR and review, by the way.

[Philrad71]

^Thanks for the nice comments!

 

Devils Den was the final walk-through haunt before Blue Streak and was probably the tamest of them all. Just red lights and people jumping out at you when you took the corners. Being that the building isn't all that big, it was also one of the smallest of the haunts - you didn't walk up or down the incline hill either.

 

There was no haunt in the bumper cars this year. The Insanity haunt in another building was close to what the bumper car haunt was like when I was there a few years ago.

[rollin_n_coastin]

This is great! The park is so creepy on its own that I'd pay to just walk through in the dark at night with lanterns. That coupled with the fact that you feel like you will die on Blue Streak, especially when riding the back seat, and you have the foundation for a great haunt event.

 

I'm glad to see you enjoyed yourself, but my experience the last couple years with this has been pretty bad. My first experience in 2010 was great, they really put on a good event with some very creative stunts. 2011 was disappointing in which little attempt was put into scaring people, and the haunts seemed to be stripped down in terms of detail. 2012 was such a horrible experience that I felt the need to write to them. This year had 8 haunts instead of 9, and there was zero effort put in by the people running the event and by the people supposed to be scaring.

 

For me to go back again there are a few areas of critique:

1. I don't mind the huge crowds/lines, but do not stuff people inside a haunt where no one can move, and absolutely no one is scaring anyone.

2. Try to scare people! Don't just sit there!

3. Check tickets. I could have done this for free since no one checked my ticket after I purchased it. You want to make money right?

4. Very unsafe and unprofessional that Blue Streak operators can't put down the cigarette to operate. Very rude to have the station attendant and lap bar checker blowing smoke at you as you enter the ride and have your lap bar checked. While waiting in line for almost an hour, there wasn't one time when the operators were not smoking. If you need a break for your habit, step off the platform then smoke. (I understand Blue Streak is operated by CLP and not Ghost Lake, but when it's a part of the Ghost Lake haunts, it reflects badly on the Ghost Lake event.)

 

Once again, I'm glad you saw value in this event, but I was thoroughly disappointed because I have seen this event go from awesome to embarrassing in three years. For all of the other TPR members out there, Ghost Lake is not run by CLP directly, so don't expect the majority of the money from this goes to CLP restoration.

 

To be fair, it seems like even parks as big as Universal are charging the same or more and giving much less compared to prior years. I don't think it'll change until the economy improves. It sounds like they are doing as much as they can with their resources and hopefully collecting an appropriate portion of ticket sales.

[OISU8P]

This is a very good trip report and as someone who has been at the park before I can adjust to. I will admit, I am one that that thought the park was completely doomed.

 

I honestly think this status of the park doing well with haunts should be a possible focus for the near future. Maybe instead of the park focusing on summer for operation they should look at Halloween only. Let the beach be the beach for a few years. They can take a few years off of summer and create a nice fall event that gets publicity and grows overall revenue and expand on that.

 

They have an awesome hotel over there that will bring in the people that believe the place is haunted. This really looks like an opportunity for them if they can try it with a plan for the next few years.

[Philrad71]

That coupled with the fact that you feel like you will die on Blue Streak,

 

Yes, riding it in drizzle when it's 40 degrees in the pitch black made me even more nervous. But to be honest, once we crested the first hill, I actually had a fairly smooth and overall fun ride. After learning my lesson about riding this in the back, we nabbed the front seat this time.

 

As with a lot of old wooden coasters...what a difference the front seat makes!

[rollin_n_coastin]

Truth be told, I wouldn't trade that Blue Streak back seat ride for anything. Legitimately scary and thrilling

[ajfelice]

I don't like bashing things like this, but I was not alone in my opinion of how poor this event was. I gave it two second chances after a great experience in 2010. I am an extremely easy scare, but they couldn't scare me or the two girls in the group. It's not that I have become immune, they simply didn't try. Blue Streak is great, but I wish another park had it. Despite the excessive smoking, I was not pleased with their boarding rules. I get it they were very busy and they want to fill all seats and have no single riders. They said to us that our group would be split. I said, "ok no problem." Somehow it ended up that I was the cut in the group to the point I was seated next to a single rider, they told me I had to go, "fine ok I am not peoplephobic." Sure enough, the next ride had my friend who I thought I was sitting with sitting alone, and there was another rider alone. For $hits and giggles I watched another train go out after with a couple single riders. Weird how I got picked out.

 

I never questioned or confronted on any these issues with the ride ops, as I am not a confrontational person unless I'm in danger or my job dictates it. I wrote to them about the smoking and the lack of effort in the haunts, and I got a response saying they can't please everyone and I just happened to be one of them by luck of the draw. I was not looking for a refund, and I understand not everyone can be pleased, but they responded very unprofessionally with a lame excuse.

 

I will probably patronize Blue Streak in the future out of love for the ride itself, but Ghost Lake has lost my business if they keep up with status quo.