Rawkin and coastin mad master thread

At last year's King Louie's Winter Walkthrough event, I remember Ed Hart saying they had considered staying open in the season longer and running a Halloween event but didn't think they would do it because it wouldn't be cost effective to them, so I was psyched when I heard that Kentucky Kingdom was putting on a Halloween event. I made plans to attend on the opening night, and my coaster buddy, Adam, joined me.

At the gates and ready to go!

Adam had attended the Halloscream media day the night before and had done the haunts, but besides Kentucky Flyer (which he had ridden at that media day), he had never been on any of the coasters. Storm Chaser was going to be his #50th coaster, so we went there first.

First train of the day, first row, and ready to go!

Even though Storm Chaser was only running one train, there were no lines and the ride ops let us stay on as long as we wanted until someone came to our row, in which case we could just switch it up. We rode 5 times before deciding to hit up the other coasters. Next up was Thunder Run.

Another KK coaster with surprising airtime!

No lines!

Second weather-themed coaster of the day

The park had done some retracking since the last time I rode this, so the coaster was running much more smoothly. We even hit some surprising ejector air on some of the hills!

After Thunder Run, Adam wanted to credit whore a little so you know where we went...

Dirty dirty credit whores

Not gonna lie, I've whored this before

Train to ourselves!

I knew what would be coming next, so I grabbed one of my free drinks and we headed to face the inevitable.

Is it just me, or is this Mardi Gras man a little too happy to see us?

His smile will never be the same after riding this coaster

T3 will break you

I should have chosen the bench instead

I didn't think it was possible... but T3 was even worse than I imagined it would be. After the lift hill, it was all downhill from there. Seriously, T3 puts all SLCs to shame with how bad it is. The restraints make it impossible to brace, you end up sliding forward and wedging your legs in a horrible thigh crush, and the level of shakiness and roughness is unbearable. Not even joking, I hurt the rest of the day and into the next day from one ride on this thing. NEVER AGAIN.

After riding that death trap, I needed a little break, so we looked at some of the Halloscream decorations.

Each skeleton represents one of their two mazes: zombie for Zombie Wasteland!

Even before dark, the park had scareactors wandering about and scaring people. They were actually quite good and got us a few times as we posed for pictures.

Da Queen!!

This sign is actually referring to the fact that you can get to T3 from here

Wait, are we at WDW?? (Too soon?)

Big a$$ chair do do doo-doo do do

After not making it on America's Got Talent, Bernard found this gig

What do you see, giant mardi head?

AGHHH!!! (This was my favorite thing to pose with. The clown also got us good after this

A must visit for any alkies

This dude wanted to dissect me... kinky?

It's alliiiivveeee!

Did you get dissected too??

When we were ready to try rides again, we hit up Kentucky Flyer, the newest coaster at Kentucky Kingdom.

New credit!

Kentucky Flyer was the only coaster running two trains, but with smaller trains I definitely think it was necessary

It's a smaller, family wooden coaster but packs a punch! There were some surprising mini-ejector airtime hills that even hurt my thighs a little, or was that just leftover pain from T3? Anyway, this coaster gets two thumbs up and I think it's a very nice addition to the park!

Next, we hit up the ferris wheel to enjoy the view before heading over to the other side of the park.

They won't let you use your phones on the wheel, so we had to enjoy the view the old fashioned way

Ooooohh

With the airport so close, you'll frequently see planes flying overhead

We survived T3, so how much worse can the haunt be?

If you've never ridden Lightning Run, then what are you waiting for? This coaster proves that you don't need record-breaking heights to make a fast, fun, and airtime-filled coaster!

Lightning Run looks awesome at night!

Cyclos was a solid "no" for me

Night rides on this are the shizz!!

After Lightning Run, I dragged Adam onto my favorite flat and then rode it twice more while he rode Cyclos. I still had a headache from T3 and didn't want to push my luck with another ride that would likely make it feel worse.

My favorite flat!

My evil look when I'm about to try and snap the shizz out of this thing (Spoiler: I got a few but nothing extreme)

Next, we hit up "Drop Zone" (per the KI fanboy) which I think is the scariest drop tower I've ridden in recent years. Seriously, compared to Drop Zone and other drop towers I've been on, there is NO warning as to when this thing is going to drop, so the fall takes you especially off guard. We rode it twice, then headed for Friday the 13th, the "5D" Iwerks experience.

Who doesn't love Jason Vorhees?

There were some younger kids who were promptly ushered out by their parent after watching the gory pre-show video and realizing that PG-13 is a pretty loose rating for this ride

We bout to get killed

***SPOILERS????*** I haven't seen the newest Friday the 13th, but I'm pretty sure this movie just took all the death scenes from that and added 3D, wind, and motion effects. I definitely prefer first-person 3D rides, but it was still a lot of fun. The best part about it was the guy dressed up as Jason who wandered around the theater scaring people.

I love how they themed the gift shop!

There's a scary animatronic in this picture

We're gonna die laughing, but not until we get our final rides on Storm Chaser!

With our last half hour of rides operation, we went to Storm Chaser for some night rides.

This thing at night is bonkers!

It didn't matter that it was only running one train all night, we still got 9 rides in!

There were more people than in the first hour, but even with one-train op, we still got four rides in.

I have to say, this was probably one of my craziest experiences on an RMC to date. I hope I'm not going to get anyone in trouble saying this, but the ride ops were letting us keep the lap bars up pretty high. Maybe I'm just used to Six Flags (and even CF parks) stapling us every chance they get, but it's been a while since I've ridden a coaster where the ride ops were all for giving you extra space in the lap bars for extra airtime. That, and given that Storm Chaser doesn't staple you so much during the ride (meaning the lap bars stayed relatively put during the ride cycle) we got some INSANE airtime moments. Seriously, even though the airtime isn't as intense as Steel Vengeance or some of the others, the extra lap bar space made a big difference.

With the rides now closed (10:00), we then headed over to do the haunt stuff (open until 12).

Time to get scared!

But first: some zombie liquid courage

Even waiting for your food, you're not safe from the scares!

The Mardi-GRAVE dance party was a fun way to entertain the kids while their parents sipped drinks or went through the haunts. I thought this was a killer idea!

First up, Die Laughing : A Clown Funeral

Time to die laughing

You can choose to enter through the vagina or through... the other entrance

I'm always down for a good clown maze, and this one was definitely not short on the scares! You start by walking through a vagina (the maze attendants thought it was hilarious when I called it that) and ducking under some heads and body parts. It had some fresh ideas including one maze portion where some of the carnival flaps are exits and some are walls and you have to find your way out. There were chainsaws, scary animatronics, creepy clowns, and all sorts of macabre and creepy terrors! It made it even better that we didn't have to be part of a "conga-line" and basically walked through the entire maze on our own. That meant that all the scares were targeted for us, and we walked out feeling very thrilled with the experience.

Last but not least, Zombie Wasteland!

Let's get wasted!

While another oft-repeated haunt maze theme is zombies, this maze had some fresh ideas as well! There were more heads and body parts to duck through, lots of scary animatronics (if you've never read a haunt TR from me, I'm TERRIFIED of animatronics), and at one part Adam and I got separated and the zombie followed behind me for a while. As with the clown maze, it was nice being the only ones going through and having all the scares to ourselves.

Overall, even though there are only two mazes, don't let that deter you from visiting, because both mazes were very well done, IMO. I'd rather have two well done mazes that you can go through alone than 5-10 mediocre mazes, waiting 30min - 1 hour each, going through them in a "conga-line", and coming out feeling "meh" about the experience. Fair warning, though, if you have a season pass you'll have to pay $10 per maze. If you buy a Halloscream ticket, you'll get into each maze once. But don't let that stop you! Come out and support the park so they can continue doing this event year-after-year.

I definitely recommend people visit KK this October, if anything for the night rides on Storm Chaser and Lightning Run.

Thank you for reading!

Nice report! Hopefully this event is successful enough they continue it in future years.

I think Storm Chaser depends on the op. Someone rode behind me back in May and asked if he could get a ton of room. The op pushed his down real tight after that.

Looks like a fun event! Agreed on Cyclos and the Flyers. Love all the Mardi Gras stuff...very cool.

Great report, I was there Friday night, you got me and my girlfriends in the sunset shot on the Giant Wheel, " pic " that is me and my girlfriends. It was good for their return to a Halloween event, I hope it returns next year, even though I'll most likely visit another time or two. The crowd was minimal, like you said, no real wait for anything. I hope it picks up and turns out to be a hit.

This is my first time in this thread. Great TR's. Their simplicity is painless and I like how you have a ton of photos. Looks like KI takes the cake again for The Haunt. We've been three times throughout the past four years and we love it. It usually involves a BAD hangover the next day. This year is a no-go for us. We can't go to anymore parks this year. Sucks.

Great trip report! I love Kenucky Kingdom, and I was hoping to make it down for Halloscream, but it won't be happening this season. Looked like fun though.

I felt like posting in the KI thread this time, so here is a recent mini trip report from KI Haunt!

Bonus photo because you all are the best!

Nice report! Hopefully this event is successful enough they continue it in future years.

Agreed! I hope it works out well for them. I would love to see them gradually expand it and add more haunts.

Looks like a fun event! Agreed on Cyclos and the Flyers. Love all the Mardi Gras stuff...very cool.

It was! And I liked all the Mardi stuff too.

Great report, I was there Friday night, you got me and my girlfriends in the sunset shot on the Giant Wheel, " pic " that is me and my girlfriends. It was good for their return to a Halloween event, I hope it returns next year, even though I'll most likely visit another time or two. The crowd was minimal, like you said, no real wait for anything. I hope it picks up and turns out to be a hit.

Small world! Hello, delayed!

This is my first time in this thread. Great TR's. Their simplicity is painless and I like how you have a ton of photos. Looks like KI takes the cake again for The Haunt. We've been three times throughout the past four years and we love it. It usually involves a BAD hangover the next day. This year is a no-go for us. We can't go to anymore parks this year. Sucks.

Thank you for joining the madness

Also, I don't know how you guys manage to drink so much at KI Haunt every year. Everything is so horribly priced, it's hard to rationalize more than two or three. But maybe because I go so often, if all my beer purchases were reserved for one night instead of spread throughout the month, I would definitely get wasted.

Great trip report! I love Kenucky Kingdom, and I was hoping to make it down for Halloscream, but it won't be happening this season. Looked like fun though.

Hopefully you can next year! There aren't too many opportunities to ride Storm Chaser at night, but it was a ton of fun!

Bonus non-theme park report: USS Nightmare.

I've never done a true non-theme park haunt (local haunt, standalone, whatever you want to call it) but I've been wanting to try one. After reading some of the horrific descriptions of some independent haunts and having a few bad experiences at theme park haunts, I was very nervous to try a standalone haunt and wanted to build up my courage over a few years of successfully going to theme park haunts before branching out.

I decided this was the year and when I saw an ad for the USS Nightmare, I knew I wanted to try it. The story of the USS Nightmare is that it was a commercial dredge boat called the William S. Mitchell that operated in the 1930s on the Ohio river. The captain had his young daughter, Anna, on board with him. One day, in what is termed as the "Mitchell Massacre", the boat went out of control and hit into a bridge. When local authorities were finally able to gain control and board the vessel, they found mutilated bodies and burned clowns aboard. Many people died, but the daughter was never found.

So yeah, pretty f-ing creepy if you ask me, but I loved that there was a supposed true story to feed into the haunt.

I found a friend who was down to go, and we got some liquid courage downtown before going to the haunt.

First of all, they were only open until 11 but said as long as you had your ticket and got in line before 11, you were good to go. We barelyyyy made it in time, but we were definitely the last ones.

SPOILERS??? The experience starts out with them telling a little about the history, and then putting you in an "elevator" that thumps around for a bit. During the course of the experience, you travel between both decks and there are various parts where you can choose paths and some maze-y parts where you can get lost. I think because we were the last ones, the actors sort of ushered us through more quickly, because in some of the maze-y parts they jumped in to tell us which way to go. Of course there were creepy clowns, plenty of scary animatronics and jump scares, and some pretty cool effects including a mechanical ledge that "dropped" us a little. There were some very dark portions where you had to feel around, ducking through doorways, fog that looked like water, strobes, the whole nine yards. Some of the animatronics were a little off and triggered just after we walked past, and it seemed that there were more that didn't go at all. There was a HUGE one that we passed twice (once on the lower deck and once on the upper "drop" deck) but the second time it wasn't moving at all. I'm kinda okay with this though because animatronics scare me a lot.

All in all, I thought it was a really cool experience with some cool effects and sets. However, even though I definitely got jump scared, I didn't actually find it as scary as my mind had built it up to be. My friend isn't easily scared and didn't get scared even once. The website says the experience takes 30+ minutes but it took us more like 25. I wonder if that's because we were the last ones and they wanted to get us through faster.

Hopefully I'll get to visit more of the local haunts this year (and maybe even try the more extreme USS Nightmare "RIP Experience"??), but I would definitely recommend this as of now. $20 isn't too bad and even though it might not be that scary to a lot of people, it was still a lot of fun!

I figured I wasn't allowed to photograph inside, so I just took photos of the outside.

So I've been terrible terrible at doing TRs in the last year and around one year ago (January of 2020) I got to join FYE Coasters on a special tour of the Gravity Group factory in Cincinnati and I never got around to making a TR of it until now.

Downside is I have a TERRIBLE memory so I'm really not going to remember much of anything they said or any details, but I'll still share the photos I took with you all!

Front entrance! It was kinda hard to find the place.

Picture displayed in the lobby.

This is the dude who gave us the tour. I can't remember his name ATM but the wooden thing is a cross-section example of their wooden coasters.

This was a front car they had designed to show at IAPPA in 2019. My friend, Adam, is an editor at FYE Coasters and the little guy is his son.

The pirate car was really detailed! They also had a really cool dragon car but I didn't take any photos of it because I wasn't sure if they wanted us to.

Adam and I testing out the car.

I broke it!!  (JK, it had velcro on the bottom and detached).

Cost-a-sur was their side company that they had recently opened to sell coaster parts. They were also modeling the Cincinnati Brake.

IAPPA 2019 crate

I don't remember what these were called but IIRC they were to show how the wheels and upstop wheels worked.

Anti-rollbacks and lift pieces.

They explained how the chain dogs worked.

Ahhh the familiar click-clack sound we all love!

Close up

Superrr close up!

This was my profile pic for a while 

Me with our two tour guides and the (Timberliner?) wheel they gave us

Here's the whole group who took the tour! We were all super thankful for the hospitality that the Gravity Group guys showed us! It was a really fun tour to take and of course we loved the swag!

My post cards are displayed on the wall next to my HHN poster right now! I've been on three of these coasters.

Great report!

That's really cool they provided a tour for a bunch of enthusiasts.  Awesome report!

Gravity Group really nails their lead cars.  Roar-O-Saurus and Oscar's Wacky Taxi are two of my favorites, but that pirate one looks amazing too.

Cool to see! I got to make a visit there back in 2013 or so when they first came out with the TimberLiners. Looks like they're still in the same spot and doing well!