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Post by skinnyguy on Oct 17, 2011 20:19:21 GMT -8
^We went on Saturday, and it was busy, but not terrible - we got on everything at least once (just had to work the park correctly, IMO). I'll post more details later, but I thought it was overall better than last year. A lot of things are the same, but everything has changed just enough to keep it still interesting, I think. I thoroughly enjoyed every attraction, and I'd be happy to go back if I lived closer. I gotta say though...it was FREEZING!!!! The crowds had really thinned out by about 11pm...might have had something to do with the fact it was in the low 30's!
My guess is that people think it's not as good because so much is the same. Last year it was so new to a lot of people, but this year...it's like watching a scary movie for the second or third time - doesn't have the same 'effect', but I don't think that means you can't still enjoy it. Again, I'll post more later, but I don't think you'll be disappointed - just dress warm!
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Post by monkeybeast on Oct 17, 2011 20:28:09 GMT -8
I think no TRs or new posts on Scarywood here or elsewhere is a bad sign. I have heard that Scarywood was decorated well and the actors had great effort, but the event seemed to have taken a few steps backward from last year.
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Post by Mike & Chris Pettey on Oct 19, 2011 21:59:20 GMT -8
Hey RCA Community! We just posted our photo trip report from our visit to Scarywood last weekend: Click here!Enjoy! Your friends, Mike and Chris Roller Coaster Alley
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Post by jspider on Oct 20, 2011 22:30:13 GMT -8
Great review I can't wait to go this year. I find it funny how many linkes this site's getting for that review. I've also noticed a few videos are starting to hit youtube from Scarywood which is cool. It does still feel like less people have gone this year or at least bothered to create any kind of formal review. I'm glad to know what Mind Warp is now so that I can properly adjust my expectations for it lol and also know how to plan my trip.
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Post by skinnyguy on Oct 21, 2011 11:17:40 GMT -8
Okay, finally got a chance to post more details about my trip to Scarywood last weekend. There'll probably be some spoilers, so read on with caution...
As I mentioned before, it was FREEZING COLD at the park this year. Dress warm - granted it was really nice in the afternoon, but it got cold really fast. They let people in the gates a little bit before 7:00, so the earlier you get there, the better.
We first hit up Timber Terror, and walked on it twice. After that, the line started to really fill in. No differences from last year - TT backwards is one of the best things the park has ever done - it's so much fun!
Then, we hit up Terror Canyon Trail. Line was still short - about 20 minutes. The beginning is the same as last year (which I love by the way - the whole 'scouts got attacked' thing is pretty cool, and there's a lot of different directions the park can take after that, so it doesn't always have to be the same story every year), but the new theme was cool. A lot of it was pretty disgusting and gory, but overall I thought it was much better than last year. Lots more actors inside the trail this year, and WAY more decorations. I still think the beginning lacked a bit, when you were walking through the 'maze' portion - they could have had some people banging on the walls or something. And this year there was no chainsaw guy at the end. At this point it was only 8:00 and we'd already done TT twice and Terror Canyon.
Then we did the train. This year it was a lot more action packed, and had a lot more swearing. They also brought back the explosion effect out on the train tresstle, which was cool. Again, though, all the anamatronic zombies were pretty lame - even Nick Norton was still making fun of how few there were in that section of the ride. They also had another "attack" before the air strip, and it was just cardboard cutouts with strobe lights behind them...I'm thinkin' the park could do a bit better than that. But it was great to see how much more the train ride offered this year. The best part - they turned the lights COMPLETELY OFF whenever there was any action outside the train. BRAVO SILVERWOOD!!! This made it so much easier to see outside the cars, and this alone made the show so much better. So, great improvement. I loved the zombie attack at the end of the air field - all you saw was the searchlight from the train sweeping the empty field and catching glimpses of zombies running after the train...then getting mowed down by the guns. It was pretty creepy. They also had the 'ghouls gone wild', which I think is just so incredibly silly and pointless, but whatever. So, to sum it up the train ride rocked this year - Nick Norton is truly a great entertainer, whether he's doing the magic show or not - he just really knows how to work a crowd. Well done! We waited about an hour for it (when we got in line, I hopped out to go check the other lines, and both other haunts had no wait that I could see at this point).
I really paused this trip to reflect on just how truly unique the train ride at Scarywood is. I can't think of any other halloween event at a park that does anything like the Zombiewood Express. It may not be the scariest thing in the park, but I just don't think you can do anything like it anywhere else. It's what set Scarywood apart from the rest, I think.
When we got off the train, we did the new maze since it had no line at all. It's okay - just okay. I think it's too short, but for what it is, they did a good job. And it is indeed different from the rest of the haunts, so that's probably a good thing. I guess I was just expecting more - it didn't seem up to par with the rest. But I liked all the different sections of it - the "doors" section was cool, and the maze part was incredibly easy. I thought the walk back to the park was kinda lame. After you go thorugh the spinning room, you just walk back on that long path back to the train station, and it's just kind of boring. But, since the line was non-existent, we just hopped right back on it for a second time. And, it was the only attraction that got my wife to scream, so I'll give them props for that - the actors seemed to just come out of nowhere!
I'm thinking they could totally do more with this in the coming years - there was so much unused space out there that they could use to expand this and make it a lot bigger. But for now, it is what it is. Expect a fun little maze, but it literally only takes about a minute or two to get through the entire thing.
Finally, we did Blood Bayou, for which the line had grown to about an hour. It was totally worth it, too. I expected much of this to be exactly the same, but when we were going through it I found there was a lot of stuff that I either never noticed last year, or was completely new. I loved the actors that were suspended from the ceiling and would fly over you as you walked under them - that startled me! Couple other things - the big stack of barrels that tips over and looks like it's all going to come crashing down on you was great! And I was happy to see that they actually did something with the last room this year - instead of a souvenier store, it was actually still part of the walk-through, and was themed as some sort of zombie funeral/wedding. Much better effect than a store.
So, at this point it was about 11:15, and so I went over and did Tremors to finish the night off. A lot of people were leaving at this point, mainly I think because of the temperature. Tremors was about a 15 minute wait. I liked the strobe lights/fog in the first tunnel - they should do that on the other tunnels as well. And, can I just say again that the re-tracked parts are AWESOME! This ride really is running so much better, and has jumped several notches up on my list.
I've noticed that so many people are complaining about the crowds this year - I think the key is to head to the left when you get into the park. Everyone heads for the three haunts at the front of the park first. Get back to Timber Terror right away, and then to Terror Canyon. Then, when everyone else heads back that way, you go back to the front of the park, and hit up the rest. You're likely to get everything in if you follow that method, I think.
If the park really wants to cut the crowds down, it needs to add more attractions that are on par with the train and Blood Bayou. The new maze was fun, but not good enough to get people away from everything else - it was clearly not getting much attention, and didn't take many people out of the rest of the park since it was so short. So - keep adding more stuff, but make the new stuff rival what is already there.
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voodoobones
Thunder Canyon
It's not that life is so short, it's that you're dead for so long!
Posts: 180
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Post by voodoobones on Oct 22, 2011 12:08:38 GMT -8
Great report Skinnyguy. I went last night and I would agree with most of what you said. The Bayou had some neat additions but I found it lacked in actors. It was very thin this year. Also they stopped our group at the elevators and waited until they could pack the elevator and then finally sent us through. This was a bad idea because not the group was so big that the effects were being triggered way before you got to them which in turn had less of a impact. They had the Skydiver and Panic Plunge running which helped a little with the crowds. The crowds were pretty big last night (Friday 10/21/11). The train was a 2 hour wait. Now for the big part of my report. I get in line for the train and these two girls and a boy get behind me. They are very vocal and felt that the more profanity they used and the tougher they talked the older they thought they appeared. The girls, I found out while they were talking, were 12. I won't go into the language they were using but it was pretty immature and foul. I know truckers that swear less. After about a half hour of waiting and listening to their idiotic conversation while they continually bumped into me they found out from their mom after calling on their cell phone that they might not be old enough to get on the train. So they turn to the 19 year-old couple behind them and ask them if they would act as their parents so they could get on the train. Bad move because the 19 year old dude start to hit on the 12 year old girls. Then I get to hear the 19 year old girl claim that she always gets mistaken for Kim Kardashian all the time. Then she begins to brag about her Audi with heated seats. After an hour and a half of this, all the while being bumped into, we get through the station and we are now standing by the platform with the actors walking back and forth. The 12 YO girls start yelling at the different actors and try to get their attention. I guess this is what happens when they don't get enough attention from their parents. They start messing with the haz-Mat guy and he is a good sport about it until they pull a severed head from his backpack and place it on top of his helmet. The 12 YO boy starts yelling racial slurs at the actors. Then one of the soldier actors comes walking by with his 12 gauge. I guess a lot of people don't realize that the actors are using real guns with blanks. They also don't realize that blanks can still be deadly if you're not careful. One of the 12 YO girls reaches out and start to pull out the soldier actors pockets as the other one reaches out and... Yup, you guessed it, the idiot 12 YO girl pulls the trigger on the shotgun!!! Unfortunately the soldier actor had chambered a round and the safety was off. There was a very loud blast and every one around them had their ears ringing. It was luck that the gun was pointing down at the time or someone could have been injured by the blast of the blank!!! Security was called and they started to have a talk with the girls when a guy behind them a few places begins to go off on security. I thought there was going to be a fight. The loud mouth guy was finally put under control by his girlfriend who kept grabbing his face and telling him to, "Stop it!" Here's the kicker. No one was thrown out!!! But other than that I had fun.
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Post by Bud Parsley on Oct 22, 2011 20:37:25 GMT -8
Wow...voodoo...what a story. It sounds like something out of a movie! Did this make the local news?
It's sad to see that kind of behavior (the obnoxious people behind you in line). But it is unfortunately all too common in today's society. What's worse is when no one is held responsible. Sounds to me like several people should have been thrown out of the park that night.
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voodoobones
Thunder Canyon
It's not that life is so short, it's that you're dead for so long!
Posts: 180
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Post by voodoobones on Oct 23, 2011 15:19:07 GMT -8
It didn't make the news. I talked to the guy who had the shotgun at the end of the night. He was standing with a security person. I told both of them I would be a witness if they needed one. The security person was shocked that the other security people didn't throw anyone out.
Hopefully they learned from this. They really need someone walking the lines looking for obnoxious people. I also saw several people cutting line despite all the signs that warned against line cutting. No one was thrown out for that either.
They did yell at a few people that were smoking in the wrong areas though.
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Post by skinnyguy on Oct 25, 2011 17:06:28 GMT -8
^That's a crazy story, voodoo! I, too, can't believe no one was thrown out, but wow. It's bad enough how slow the line goes for the train ride; that kind of thing really can destroy your entire experience. How did you like the new maze?
I've noticed a LOT of people complaining on Silverwood's Facebook page about how disappointed they were with the crowds/event this year. Most people are just saying they were upset that the lines were so long they didn't get to do but 2 or 3 things (including the rides). I have a couple thoughts related to this:
1) People need to understand this is not your typical visit to the park. You don't go to Scarywood to ride Panic Plunge, Corkscrew, the Trabant, etc., AND expect to get to do all the Halloween stuff. I think it's good that the park has those rides open, but people need to set reasonable expectations. Halloween events at theme parks are (from my experience) usually VERY crowded, and you have to have a plan for getting in what you want to do most. When I went to Knott's six years ago, I had never seen crowds like that at that park, ever. I was used to 20 minute waits max for the coasters. During the Haunt? All coaster queues were completely full - 2 to 3 hour waits for everything (glad I listened to a park employee who advised completely avoiding the rides all together). Not to mention the lines for the haunts themselves - pretty short early on, but grew to an hour or so later on. So, I think people need to set more reasonable expectations, get to the park early, and get in as much of what they want first. It's what I did, and I got all four haunts in, mind warp a second time, timber terror twice, and tremors and corkscrew, with time to grab a churro in the middle; on a Saturday, nonetheless.
2) Despite those points, the park does need to make some improvements to stay ahead of the curve, or this event will get out of control crowd-wise (some may argue it already has). They've got to stay open later, and possibly add more days to the event. But most of all, they've got to spread the crowds around better, and I think the best way to do that is to add more haunts that are on par with Blood Bayou and the train.
Mind Warp was a good addition, and I think a lot of people have found it to be really fun. But, compared to Blood Bayou? It was an incredible let-down. More so, due to the short length, it never had a line, and maybe had 10-15 people in it at any given point. Bottom line: it didn't really take anyone away from the other attractions, and the lines grew to ridiculous lengths for the other haunts.
To truly create a more enjoyable event that people won't complain about as much, the park needs to focus on having more consistent quality amongst the attractions than this. Mind Warp is bursting with potential, IMO, so I hope they don't drop it all together, but instead work to make it something unforgettable, like the others. Then, add a couple more attractions that are of similar quality, and you've got a good mix to even out the crowds for the level of demand this event seems to generate. I think they are capable of doing this, they just need to make it happen next year.
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Post by jspider on Oct 25, 2011 20:35:08 GMT -8
I haven't been yet but it'd seem that word of mouth from last year probably boosted this year quite a bit this time around.
didn't the event open at 6:00 last year? It seems like they should be able to manage a 6:00 or 6:30 opening the final weekend at least (or the final two). I'm assuming the sunsetting is the biggest issue for these events. I'm sure if they stayed open beyond midnight the crowds would run their natural course though I'm guessing the actors and employees might be burning out pretty bad around then?
From everything I've read Mindwarp REALLY needs to grow. I guess the more they can automate some of the scares the better depending on the attraction. They gotta keep all these walkthroughs fairly well staffed and if they build out too many they might find themselves hurting for actors. It sounds like you can't really get LOST in Mind Warp. So if there was more maze to it and perhaps a few more funhouse type effects like the tunnel at the end, it would be more effective. Mind Warp does sound like it'd require less staffing to me at least if they can get the maze idea running better.
It also feels like once again the coaster issues would be much alleviated if Tremors and Timber Terror could cycle two trains. Of course if crowds are TOO heavy this might just create bigger lines for the mazes so I'm not sure.
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