Post by wolfblood on Oct 5, 2008 0:20:33 GMT -8
Hello everybody, I just got back from the opening night of Wild Waves Fright Fest.
Before I start, I will give a fair warning to those that are planning to attend that this TR will contain spoilers of both Haunted attractions.
Alright then, this has been my 5th or 6th trip to the event. I've seen the place change a lot and I have to say I was impressed with PARC entertainment running the event last year, I have to say this year is strangly better in some places but not as good in others.
To put things in a quick overview here's a pro and con list.
Pros
-Both Haunted attractions were quite entertaining, Scream Factory was a good house and the all-new Trail of Terror surprised my parents and I in several different ways.
-The new ride for this year (Disko) was pretty fun, a nice addition following the park adding Kang-A-Bounce.
-The weather was a nice surprise by just being a bit cool and blustery, with it only misting once during the time we were there.
Cons
-Lack of hot food. While I liked the bread bowls that were offered last year, they were nowhere in sight this year. That and pretty much every food area only sold funnel cakes, popcorn, candy etc. This was not the best of things on a cool day where I want something hot to eat, strangly enough the coffee stand that was usually at the park was absent as well.
-Not enough staff in Haunted attractions. While most of the talent in the Haunted attractions were good, both attractions did have some dead spot's and areas where they could have more talent.
Now onto the opinions of the two Haunted Attractions...
Scream Factory (Main Haunted House)- When the website announced this one, I had a feeling it would just be a renaming of the past Haunted house (Masoluem Madness) with most of the house remaining the same.
Thankfully the park proved me wrong, most of the scenes that remained from the past were just hallways. The majority of the rooms were changed up or all new, and I have to say this is my favorite year for the house so far due to several reasons.
In the past the greeter at the front of the house would just group various people up and send them in, while this did move the line nicely it did have some problems. The main factors were..
1. A lot of the scares were directed to people in the front of the group so the rest were left out.
2. If there were little kids in your group, well all their crying was a big mood killer.
3. There would be times someone would be scared and it held up the group, sometimes causing other groups to be held up as well.
This year however, we noticed the line was moving a bit slower...the reason why was the greeter was sending in personal groups. Plain and simple, whoever was with you at the time...that would be the number of people that was sent in.
While the downside was the line went slower, it has a major upside with you going through the house with just your family and friends....no annoying people or little kids, and all the scares are hidden until they go for you.
This made the experience much scarier since no one was in front of my family and a lot of the scares got us pretty good. The memorable rooms were the checkerboard room, the dot room, and the surgeon area.
But the two big scares came from about the middle of the house and the very end. Somewhere in about the middle of the house is a room that is very dark, somehow I made a wrong turn and went into a dead end...after a few akward moments we found the right path, only to have a strobe light go off and a actor slamming the plexiglass wall right next to us! That was a very well-done scare that was totally new for this year.
The second big scare came at the very end, it's pretty much themed to a junkyard with rubble and red demons scattered about (The red demons are actually props that are a favorite of mine.) When we entered the area a guy wearing make-up that looked like one of Joker's henchmen in the Dark Knight was reving up a chainsaw and pushing it out a wall far away from us.
I didn't think much of it since the wall was surrounded by rubble, so I kept walking. All of a sudden I hear the chainsaw again, this time louder...I looked back and there he was, running right at me.
My Mom said she never saw me run that fast before, seriously I booked it out of the way with the actor and my parents laughing pretty hard.
So overall it was a lot of fun, and if the crowds weren't so big I think they would have let us go again.
*New for 2008* Trail of Terror (Outdoor/Indoor attraction)
This was the brand new attraction for the event, now I admit I didn't think the park had enough space for another attraction. Well I was proven wrong once again as they had plenty of space in the picnic area deep in the woods next to TimberHawk.
By the time we got to it at night, we ended up waiting 45 minutes to experience it. While we were waiting in line it was pretty easy to notice the line was moving slower then Scream Factory's. We also noticed the amount of people exiting the attraction was random, sometimes there was a small amount of people exiting while another time a huge group of people were leaving. This will soon be explained.
Once we finally made it up the hill the greeter grouped various people and sent them off. The group before us was 7 people and the group I was in was 5 people (Myself, Mom, Dad and a couple that was with us in line.)
The theme of Trail of Terror is a campground gone horribly wrong, the way the attraction flows is you walk through some outdoor areas and into the various picnic tents. (Some where in the open while a few where totally enclosed.) I'm happy to say they did actually have a couple areas themed to a campground, there was a tent with a log fire, a mess hall where you had to zig-zag through the tables etc. However there were a few random scenes such as a graveyard, some kind of dungeon with a gallows and gullitione....even a section with a mecha-robot.
Even though the theming of the rooms did stray a bit, they were fun to walk through and it was pretty big. Though the best room came at the very end...
Remember when I mentioned how slow the line went and I saw small and large groups randomly exiting the attraction? Well the last room is the reason why...
It's a actual Maze with dead ends...and boy was it tricky to go through!
Plain and simple, all the walls were black, and the only light scource was a strobe light set on a unique setting. What it would do was it would do one big flash that lasted a few seconds, then turn off for a few seconds and repeat. The sensation is like walking through a stop motion picture with a few frames missing in between each movement.
To top it all off, one section of the maze has mirrors and there are also live actors inside it as well. So it was not only disorienting, but also very scary with the actors inside. Some people actually had to be rescued by the staff since they couldn't find their way out!
So overall it was a very nice attraction, while me and my parents do agree there could have been more actors and less wide-open spaces...it was still a good first-year effort.
Even with the downsides, my parents and I had a great time. I certainly look forward to seeing how the Trail of Terror will evolve over the years since it does have good potential and with a few improvements it can easily rival Scream Factory.
Oh yes, if you are going to the event. Wait to hit the attractions till the sun goes down, daylight can mess up both attractions pretty easily. (Especially Trail of Terror which has a bunch of outdoor sections.)
Yes there will be lines, so I'd advise hitting the attractions back to back. With Trail of Terror being the first to hit due to the line that can be very slow.
Before I start, I will give a fair warning to those that are planning to attend that this TR will contain spoilers of both Haunted attractions.
Alright then, this has been my 5th or 6th trip to the event. I've seen the place change a lot and I have to say I was impressed with PARC entertainment running the event last year, I have to say this year is strangly better in some places but not as good in others.
To put things in a quick overview here's a pro and con list.
Pros
-Both Haunted attractions were quite entertaining, Scream Factory was a good house and the all-new Trail of Terror surprised my parents and I in several different ways.
-The new ride for this year (Disko) was pretty fun, a nice addition following the park adding Kang-A-Bounce.
-The weather was a nice surprise by just being a bit cool and blustery, with it only misting once during the time we were there.
Cons
-Lack of hot food. While I liked the bread bowls that were offered last year, they were nowhere in sight this year. That and pretty much every food area only sold funnel cakes, popcorn, candy etc. This was not the best of things on a cool day where I want something hot to eat, strangly enough the coffee stand that was usually at the park was absent as well.
-Not enough staff in Haunted attractions. While most of the talent in the Haunted attractions were good, both attractions did have some dead spot's and areas where they could have more talent.
Now onto the opinions of the two Haunted Attractions...
Scream Factory (Main Haunted House)- When the website announced this one, I had a feeling it would just be a renaming of the past Haunted house (Masoluem Madness) with most of the house remaining the same.
Thankfully the park proved me wrong, most of the scenes that remained from the past were just hallways. The majority of the rooms were changed up or all new, and I have to say this is my favorite year for the house so far due to several reasons.
In the past the greeter at the front of the house would just group various people up and send them in, while this did move the line nicely it did have some problems. The main factors were..
1. A lot of the scares were directed to people in the front of the group so the rest were left out.
2. If there were little kids in your group, well all their crying was a big mood killer.
3. There would be times someone would be scared and it held up the group, sometimes causing other groups to be held up as well.
This year however, we noticed the line was moving a bit slower...the reason why was the greeter was sending in personal groups. Plain and simple, whoever was with you at the time...that would be the number of people that was sent in.
While the downside was the line went slower, it has a major upside with you going through the house with just your family and friends....no annoying people or little kids, and all the scares are hidden until they go for you.
This made the experience much scarier since no one was in front of my family and a lot of the scares got us pretty good. The memorable rooms were the checkerboard room, the dot room, and the surgeon area.
But the two big scares came from about the middle of the house and the very end. Somewhere in about the middle of the house is a room that is very dark, somehow I made a wrong turn and went into a dead end...after a few akward moments we found the right path, only to have a strobe light go off and a actor slamming the plexiglass wall right next to us! That was a very well-done scare that was totally new for this year.
The second big scare came at the very end, it's pretty much themed to a junkyard with rubble and red demons scattered about (The red demons are actually props that are a favorite of mine.) When we entered the area a guy wearing make-up that looked like one of Joker's henchmen in the Dark Knight was reving up a chainsaw and pushing it out a wall far away from us.
I didn't think much of it since the wall was surrounded by rubble, so I kept walking. All of a sudden I hear the chainsaw again, this time louder...I looked back and there he was, running right at me.
My Mom said she never saw me run that fast before, seriously I booked it out of the way with the actor and my parents laughing pretty hard.
So overall it was a lot of fun, and if the crowds weren't so big I think they would have let us go again.
*New for 2008* Trail of Terror (Outdoor/Indoor attraction)
This was the brand new attraction for the event, now I admit I didn't think the park had enough space for another attraction. Well I was proven wrong once again as they had plenty of space in the picnic area deep in the woods next to TimberHawk.
By the time we got to it at night, we ended up waiting 45 minutes to experience it. While we were waiting in line it was pretty easy to notice the line was moving slower then Scream Factory's. We also noticed the amount of people exiting the attraction was random, sometimes there was a small amount of people exiting while another time a huge group of people were leaving. This will soon be explained.
Once we finally made it up the hill the greeter grouped various people and sent them off. The group before us was 7 people and the group I was in was 5 people (Myself, Mom, Dad and a couple that was with us in line.)
The theme of Trail of Terror is a campground gone horribly wrong, the way the attraction flows is you walk through some outdoor areas and into the various picnic tents. (Some where in the open while a few where totally enclosed.) I'm happy to say they did actually have a couple areas themed to a campground, there was a tent with a log fire, a mess hall where you had to zig-zag through the tables etc. However there were a few random scenes such as a graveyard, some kind of dungeon with a gallows and gullitione....even a section with a mecha-robot.
Even though the theming of the rooms did stray a bit, they were fun to walk through and it was pretty big. Though the best room came at the very end...
Remember when I mentioned how slow the line went and I saw small and large groups randomly exiting the attraction? Well the last room is the reason why...
It's a actual Maze with dead ends...and boy was it tricky to go through!
Plain and simple, all the walls were black, and the only light scource was a strobe light set on a unique setting. What it would do was it would do one big flash that lasted a few seconds, then turn off for a few seconds and repeat. The sensation is like walking through a stop motion picture with a few frames missing in between each movement.
To top it all off, one section of the maze has mirrors and there are also live actors inside it as well. So it was not only disorienting, but also very scary with the actors inside. Some people actually had to be rescued by the staff since they couldn't find their way out!
So overall it was a very nice attraction, while me and my parents do agree there could have been more actors and less wide-open spaces...it was still a good first-year effort.
Even with the downsides, my parents and I had a great time. I certainly look forward to seeing how the Trail of Terror will evolve over the years since it does have good potential and with a few improvements it can easily rival Scream Factory.
Oh yes, if you are going to the event. Wait to hit the attractions till the sun goes down, daylight can mess up both attractions pretty easily. (Especially Trail of Terror which has a bunch of outdoor sections.)
Yes there will be lines, so I'd advise hitting the attractions back to back. With Trail of Terror being the first to hit due to the line that can be very slow.