GL Halloween Haunt (with photos)

Last night after jumping out of a plane with Kara (ST Chick) and Jeff (CedaRIT), we headed over to meet Sarah Jackson at Geauga Lake for a couple hours to see how the Halloween Haunt is going. I was impressed immediately.

The front fountain is just awesome. It's complete with a "phantom diving board" that moves up and down and causes a spash in the water below with a seemingly invisible diver, a skeleton lifeguard who periodically blows a whistle at swimmers, some skeletons lounging around in inner tubes who squirt water from their mouths, and other spooky occurences. They did a really good job creating a Halloween feel the second you walk in the gate.

The area leading to Double Loop and Villain (just past the log flume) is The Fright Zone, and wow did they ever have the fog turned up. There were times we seriously worried about running into something because you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The ratio of screamsters to guests was a little off; there were times we had two or three of them trying to scare us at once. They could also use a new scare tactic, as the tin cans just weren't very intimidating. What *was* effective, however, was the person they had hiding under the exit stairs on Villain. It was hilarious to see people walk down the stairs after exiting the ride, only to be scared out of their minds by that guy jumping out and yelling at them.

Perhaps the best themeing in the park would be their tribute to enthusiasts: the Alien Coaster Enthusiasts rocket ship. The back fin on the rocket also appeals to the tool in us all, with its' subtle yet hilarious reference to Disaster Transport.

Not much else exciting to report, we didn't have time to do the haunted houses, but it looks like they had a good start on things and I'll definitely be making another visit when I have more time to kill. Villain in the fog was a lot of fun. :) *** Edited 9/25/2004 5:00:22 PM UTC by Kristin Marie***

*I'm glad you edited that or else I was going to ask if I had to imagine these photos in my head.

Yay for skydiving and you know how excited I was to hear you were alive!! You conquered your fear and I feel like a wimp for not even riding a skycoaster yet... And being freaked out by drop rides bigger than a Frog Hopper!

Hopefully FearFest will be scarier and more fun next weekend. Er, it will be since I'm going to be there. More fun not scarier because of me.

+Danny, I "less than three" you

*Follow each section with a ;), I didn't want to overdo it... (insert one here too)

That was an awesome -- and memorable -- jump! Until Intamin builds a 10,000' coaster (Carbon Nanotube: The Ride?), high-altitude smooches don't get much better than that... ;)

As for Geauga Lake, I came away very impressed and glad I went. As discussed above, the themeing was top-notch, creative, and went above and beyond my expectations. Combine that with the park being enshrouded in a dense layer of fog (holy freakin' pitch-black Villain rides!), no crowds, as well as some highly enthusiastic employees, it would have been difficult to not have fun there. While not the best Halloween presentation I've seen, you won't come away disappointed if you visit. Kudos to John Taylor, Bill Spehn, and everyone else involved with the GL Haunt!

-Skydivin' Jeff

"Welcome to Geauga Lake, where the fun is positive!"

I was glad to hear all about your jump earlier, Kristin. Jeff must be having a very "high" influence on you.......;-)

Your photos ROCK I can't wait to do it myself, once I get the time and money. :-D

That "Alien Coaster Enthusiast" pic is hilarious!

-Tina

<---who lusts heights and would jump out of a plane in a heartbeat. *** Edited 9/25/2004 11:18:04 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

Kristin,

Congrats on your first jump! Feels good doesn't it?

I have been wanting to jump again since I took my first jump last February. Last weekend a group of co-workers went skydiving for the first time. They were so scared. If I would have had the day off, I would have gone with them.

Jeff,

One of these days I will jump with you. Tina needs to go as well.

-Sean (who originally was going to be landing in Orlando on Sunday morning but a b*tch named Jeanne decided the trip wasn't going to happen) Flaharty

Hey Sean....

You too were going to be in FL this week? I was suppose to fly down this morning. And my flight go cancelled last night. Now I'm sitting here with 1 week Disney Passes (at least they don't expire). But I also have 4 sets of tickets for Universal's Halloween celebration for Friday :(

I'm one who is at least happy that GL kept the Gatekeeper, that guy is awesome. Though I'm a little upset that all the cool monsters who were VERY good actors are gone from the midways this year.

Matthew,

Yep, I was supposed to be at Animal Kingdom and Epcot today for a couple of hours. Luckily, Southwest let me re-book my flight with no charges added. Now it looks like I am heading down there in less than a month.

-Sean

I was there on Saturday as well. The park looked great. Still not high attendance though. All of the haunted halloween stuff seemed to be towards the middle of the park in villian area and back. It was great though. I got in all of the haunted houses. They were not the best but really good for being free. I had alot of fun in them. Cant wait to go check out Cedar Point this year :). The Alien Coaster Enthusiats was funny i looked at it for a good 5 minutes. But that area of the park was kinda dead if you ask me. I had fun though.

I was there on saturday and compared to other days in the season It was really busy. At times there were small waits to ride the coasters. Not something you see all the time. Stay tuned to http://geaugalake.coasterbuzz.com for a 48 picture feature on the event

Kristin jumped out of a plane!!! Ahhh! I was talking to Kara today and she seemed still in awe, haha. I'm so glad you went through with the jump. I'm sure you'll be up there jumping again sometime soon!