cedar points haunted houses

I was wondering if anyone knew about any ways cp could take there haunted houses and spice them up a bit. I think adding more fright zone area and werewolf caynon was a great idea. I would like to hear all your suggestion. ( sorry about posting this in march)

TTD was built

TTD was broke

TTD is alive

I could give you a 1000 ways for CP to make theirs better. I could give your probably a 1000 more ways to make PKI at least seem like they are having a halloween event. The whole thing from what I understand in CP's perspective is what cliantel are they trying to draw in. Do they wanna scare the "Bejeebers" out of someone or do they want a little boo and a few girls to cry just because it's dark (though I did see some Highshcool Senior football crying last year which was quite hysterical)?

IMO all parks need more spider webs, which are very cheap.
Take all the trash or ride parts that don't work and spice up the working rides.
Make the park(s) look run down.
Find a part of the park where people are use to "just walking by" and scare the crap out of them there or make them look and have a feeling about it.
LOTS of fog...CP use to do this but cut WAYYyy back now (with the exception of Fright Zone.) But the whole park use to have it.
MUST have scary sound effects everywhere. Kennywood and SFWoA do that best.
GET RID OF THE WHITE LIGHT CP!!! It makes a HUGE difference if the park changes all their light bulbs (or at least some). Make them red, green, orange, etc. Just look at what it did for Kennywood. White light makes it like any other summer night.
Halloween food. Sumores/Hot Cider/etc. This year CP did a pretty good job at that.

As for the haunted houses themselves I have been to well over 200 of them now, and know quite a bit from the good and the bad. There is 1000's of things parks can do but in short I would say get away from the average human behavior. Most people stick their arms out in front and just walk and look around. MAKE the person go up, make them go down, make them smell, make them feel things, make them crawl. When a haunted house does that, THAT is when people come out going "WOW!!" PKI actually started to get a good feel on that this past 2003 season.

Soooo many things Sooooo little time to scare people.

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

You've pretty much just described Universal's HHN.

Maybe you need to head to Orlando in October.

Ahhh I've been there...GREAT time of year! That park is totally changed and a new experience.

I'm sure most parks can say, "Well we don't have that kind of money." But there are SOOoo many ways to be creative at Halloween and have just as good if not better of an experience.

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

RollerCoasterGod:

Since you've been to so many haunted houses, what is your favorite house or Halloween theme park event? Thanks.

Yea, but how many people would you alienate by changing to that kind of extreme Halloween event? That kind of scare-you-every-second atmosphere would certainly keep me away from any park at Halloween. As it stands, I visit CP at least 6 times, if not 8 or 10 during Halloweekends and although I have a season pass, I still pay parking and 4 or more of those times I'm bringing someone with me who pays gate ... plus food, etc. Not that that is really all that much money to the company, but figure 1 in 5 people at that rate (or more) would stay away from the park if it was that intensely Halloween (since CP attracts so many families at Halloween) and you're talkin that you need to attract more than 21% more people just to show an extra profit (that extra 1%).

I agree on the lighting and the fog, but keep the scares to the haunted houses and trails. The whole world doesn't enjoy being attacked by something oozing blood and guts ...

While they may not be the most thrilling houses out there, I do think they are fun. Kids and families seem to sure love them!

-Michael

CP's Fright Zone is one of the best Halloween attractions I've ever encountered, and I've encountered quite a few.

CP's Haunts are pretty good, but I can easily tell that they don't use the "Pickle theory of haunted house design". If they would just invest in a few of Mr. Pickle's instruction books, about $60, CP's huants would be 10 times more effective. They've got some of it right, but it doesn't take a lot of brains to figure out what REALLY scares people.

One major reason CP's haunts aren't great is that they are sometimes understafed. It's no fun when you are traversing winding corridors awaiting to be startled and nothing jumps out at you.

I don't see much wrong with the outside decorations and scenes. They really add a nice touch.

Last I was there was '99 and 2000. I remember there being a lot of colored gels over the white lights (heck, I remember putting them there, as I was on the decorating team). Has they not been doing this recently?

Having designed and worked in my local haunts in my younger years, and being lucky enough to be able to work at CP's "Toxic Tunnel of Terror", and Universal's "RUN", I can honestly say that CP's haunts are well done but just not the best. It would do them some good to go to a few haunted attractions to get some ideas.

Egyptian aliens do not scare me.

I will balance the last statement with, toxic sewer monsters do scare me. Don't think for one second that I am bashing CP.

fright zone is the best at cp i go to halloweekends every year and decided to go to werewolf canyon this year so i waited 2 hours on a saturday night and it was a joke the best part was watching them wrestle while i waited in line on the way out i went through the toxic tunnel of terror with the kids and it was better

Lol, Mr pickles thery on haunted attractions is so outdated.

His layout is good, but the scares and length of his designes are terrible.

Trust me, I know first hand about this.........Ive worked with him.