rctneil Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Fantastic report of the trip. It really was a shame to have to leave the TDR resort.
TPDave Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Nostalgia has already kicked in! Great pictures there, looks like you had a good last day
gerstlaueringvar Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Great report! Photos are very nice. Tokyo Disney resort looks amazing.
kidcoaster 2 Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 I have been in the Halloween mood lately so I am going to start my October trip to LA.  my day started with a full shift at work before leaving at 3pm to head to Cleveland to catch my direct flight to LAX. The flight was uneventful but we did fly right over Las Vegas so that was neat. We arrived and the LAX magic started already with us having to wait on a gate. Finally we got a gate (In a different terminal from what we were told originally). I grabbed my stuff at met up with Ryan outside so we could make our way to Long Beach for our first haunt.  Queen Mary Dark Harbor  First you have to pay the parking fee ($20! And people complain about SFMM...) as you enter the lot you instantly see the Queen Mary dominating over everything. Next you have to find the entrance which was like a maze before coming to the security lines. Being from Western Pa I have never experienced the intensity of the security as they have at the LA haunts. It was weird getting a full pat down before entering they were much more thorough as my CDG experience...  Anyway we than met up with Kevin and made our way in. With our fastlanes in had we made our way to our first haunt.  The Village This was the first one you came across and with our fastlanes we breezed right past the line. Now something I didn't expect were how long some of these mazes were and this one was a long one! It had many great actors such as the doctor who was excellent at improving. The "Here piggy piggy" guy was also excellent with the tone of his character.  The Circus Next up we made our way to the new haunt this year which was in the big dome and as I am sure you guessed was themed to a circus with lots of clowns and many performers. The first time through I think we caught the actors during break rotation so I wasn't impressed but the second time was much better with many of the spots filled in.  Containment Next up was our first haunt in the ship and this one was unfortunately my least favorite. It felt like they struggled to fill in much of the attraction with there being several rooms completely empty. Some with an actor and some not. This haunt was themed to an illness going through the ship and had lots of blood.  HellFire The continuing along the haunts in the ship we come to Hell Fire which one again is obvious of it's theming being put to fire. The haunt also takes you through the ship's engine room across a bridge (that may or may not drop) with lots of sparks and heat. Once again several great actors and some hot ones .  Submerged Next up was the last haunt in the ship which was themed to all things water. Many of the actors reminded me of Davy Jones's crew from Pirates of the Caribbean with sea creatures growing on them. Once again many great actors and even had two signature characters first was Graceful Gale who was set up in a large room half way up the stairs. Next was Scary Mary who is based on a little girl who drowned in the pool during one of the ships crossings. She is set up at the ship's pool which the haunt goes through.  DeadRise Next was the last of the 6 haunts and was built around many storage containers. Once again had many good actors but the lighting and fog really made this one for me. Once again this one was pretty long.  Freakshow Having completed the haunts we had time left so we decided to check out the freakshow. Funny since we were going to plan a stop at the real Venice Beach Freakshow but unfortunatly they were out of town. Anyway there was 5 freaks and to see each was a dollar each. It had talking crabs and many cheesy things but the best was for the dark ghost. All the shows were you walk through two storage containers see the freak and come back out the side so we were expecting that with this one too. But that was not the case. It was completely dark and had several turns. With how wide the containers were it was tricky to get through but me and Ryan managed to but we did lose Kevin for a bit .  After that we grabbed a snack and did the Village again aswell as the Circus, Hellfire, and Submerged before making our way out. One more really cool this was the huge party area they had set up in the center of the haunt complete with a DJ and staged. Many of the roaming actors were jumping in an partying along too.  Overall this event blew me away. It was much better than I thought with a very professional set up and a great value compared to the other haunts in the area. I would highly recommend it if you are planning to do an event in the area.  Here is how I would list the attractions. 1. HellFire - The use of the boiler rooms was perfect. 2. Submerged - A very subtle creepy vibe and going with legends was a smart move. 3. The Village - Great actors make this one. 4. DeadRise - Not many actors but good use of effects. 5. Circus - Fun circus theme with lots of clowns but when compared to the rest this one is really short. 6. Containment - A lot of wasted space and a lot of room for potential that was not reached.   On the way out I grabbed a TShirt and said good bye to Kevin and me and Ryan mad our way to our hotel. After checking in we went to check out In and Out which I never had and I was not disappointed. We also drove right by Knott's so it was a nice preview for the next day. We returned to our hotel and crashed. We had a long day of Knott's ahead. Waiting at Cleveland international. First time flying out of here. Shame United is pulling out. I must be at LAX! Las Vegas! Hi Kyle! Queen Mary! A real beauty of a ship! This must be the right place. First haunt! It was a very great set up they had here! Who doesn't like clowns? Time to head into the ship for the 3 haunts! Doesn't get more authentic than this! The infamous pool. It looks nice though! Deadrise! Just follow the blinding lights. Let's check out freaks! We were gonna make a stop at the Venice beach Freakshow but they were out of town so this will have to do. With the haunts complete it's time to explore the rest of the event. The first one we did. They had 5 freaks to see His victim. The Dr. If you can be sure to check this event out! A sneak peek of our next day! Thanks for reading. To give you an idea of the layout of the park. Finally after about 3 hours it was time to head out. Glad we stopped by!
jray21 Posted March 7, 2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Thanks for the update! I had no clue Dark Harbor had that many mazes. I thought they only had one. I'll definitely have to visit it next time I'm there for Halloween. Looks like a pretty well done event.
Xcoaster Posted March 21, 2014 Posted March 21, 2014 Yeah, I was definitely impressed by Dark Harbor. Hellfire was my favorite, in no small part because of the awesome bridge scene. Submerged did a great job of using the history and layout of the ship to it's advantage and was an impressive maze. Deadrise had some great atmosphere and was a lot of fun. Circus was a little short, but I liked some of the gags used to disorient and split up the groups. The Village was a little vanilla in concept, but the actors and long maze length made up for it. Containment did almost nothing for me, except that it had the merit of being the third maze on the ship. Of the freak shows, the Shadow Spirit was by far the best, and close to being an actual maze. With the darkness it was a challenge not getting lost in there. IIRC, Headless Hannah was basically a prop, Human Crab was an actor that wandered around, Sparky was a Sad-Eye Joe sort of thing, and The White Spirit just seemed to be a lot of fog.
XII Posted March 21, 2014 Posted March 21, 2014 Nice Photo TR. I definitely think that Dark Harbor was the best Halloween Event in Southern California. The mazes were very well put together and impressive. I'll definitely have to return to it in the future.
cfc Posted March 23, 2014 Posted March 23, 2014 I've always been intrigued by Dark Harbor. I need to hit the SoCal Halloween events again some day (only one I've visited is Knott's Scary Farm).
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