Haunts Vs. Rides

Went to Dorney Yesterday . On the drive home I got to thinking...we got a lot done. We did every walk-through Haunt (Asylum, Mansion Hotel, and Backwoods were the best) and got at least one ride on all the major coasters, and a handful of flats as well. We skipped Death Trap under Thunderhawk, as that was last year's worst. Some of the zombies in Gravewalkers really went above and beyond the call of duty.

Which brings me to my question: When you visit an amusement park at this time of the year, do you concentrate more on the rides or the haunted attractions Or is it a pretty even split?

At GAdv, I barely perceive the Fright Fest events, especially since they discontinued Wheel Of Fright. I usually try to catch the Hypnosteria show. But I don't do any haunted mazes, upcharge or no upcharge. But at Dorney it's pretty much a toss-up. The only other parks I've been in around Halloween are Hershey, KD, Knoebels (for PPP) SF America, and Kennywood. At all of those, I concentrated mostly on rides. GAdv next Sunday? It's all about closing down Nitro for the season, baby!!! I may decide to go later that day, understanding how crowded it will be during the day. Last year, that day was Halloween itself, but the park was close to emty the last two hours or so. And I'm off Monday...:)

Mike

For me it's both. I love to take in the atmosphere of Halloween and get on some coasters and flats. My favorite is watching the scareactors scaring the crap out of people and chasing after them.

I tend to do more of the haunted attractions, because the lines for the rides (at CP and KI, where I usually go for my haunts) are generally unbearable most of the day Saturdays. And even then, I spend most of the time in the unrestricted walk-throughs, going through the houses once, maybe twice over the course of two days. Most of my evenings are spent taking pictures and doing people watching. The only rides I tend to get are on Friday nights and Saturday morning during passholder ERT, and maybe right before the end of the night on rides like Blue Streak and maXair that don't tend to have a line by that time.

I have little to no interest in the Halloween events at the parks and go for the rides. I have gone through some of the Haunts at Dorney over the last few years and went through the free Lakefront Graveyard at Great Adventure and the free scare zones but other than that, I am there for the rides.

I'm just not a fan of walking through a trail or maze and having people jump out at me, even though the times I have gone through the trails, the scare actors basically ignore me anyway.

I wish more scare actors would come after me. I love haunts more than anything, but they're really lame if nobody makes me laugh.

^ Now now, we each had one good scare over the course of 6 hours. Let's not be greedy. ;)

Three dudes walking together + at the tail end of the tour group = scarefail.

Raven-Phile said:
I wish more scare actors would come after me. I love haunts more than anything, but they're really lame if nobody makes me laugh.

I was at Kings Island Haunt. Seen a bunch of scareactors, and not a single one scared me. One tried by screaming in my ear as I watched someone else try to scare someone. Went through one walk through house (Mysteria), the dumbest thing I ever been in (Frankenstien's castle at Indiana Beach is better). I was laughing at the chainsaw people going through, I knew that they wouldn't have a chain on, so even if one was behind me, doubt they would scare me. I sorta had a laugh at some point, was following the chainsaw guy around with my video camera and he was just walking up to someone about ready to rev the saw and it died.

spaceace12 said:

Raven-Phile said:
I wish more scare actors would come after me. I love haunts more than anything, but they're really lame if nobody makes me laugh.

Went through one walk through house (Mysteria), the dumbest thing I ever been in.

Yeah, mysteria confused me haha. Morphsuits the ride!... Though, I fully intend to recreate the attraction in my apartment... The holiday one this year was hilarious as well (funny or scary are both good for the haunts for me, depending on the spin).

I generally do both rides and haunts, but focus more on the haunts since they're seasonal... but night-rides on the coasters are really awesome too.

birdhombre said:
^ Now now, we each had one good scare over the course of 6 hours. Let's not be greedy. ;)

Three dudes walking together + at the tail end of the tour group = scarefail.

Next time, I'm bringing a wig!

Just to comment on Mike's original post, Hershey hasn't done anything haunted for several years now. They decided to go the family-friendly route and just have Treatville for kids and a few of the shows are Halloween themed. Plus they feature creatures of the night at ZooAmerica. I don't think they drew as many people when they had haunted attractions.

birdhombre said:

Three dudes walking together + at the tail end of the tour group = scarefail.

Your group is the type I spend most of my night trying to scare. The guys who have decided nobody is going to try to scare them. :)

I have never had any interest in haunts at all. I think I went on the haunted house at Rye Playland when I was, like 6, and have never had any desire to try another. I have been through the haunted house at Knoebel's and wasn't freaked out at all, but that's about it.

CP Chris said:

Your group is the type I spend most of my night trying to scare. The guys who have decided nobody is going to try to scare them. :)

Yeah - I think I saw you on Friday and said "hey Cap'n Wart!"

RatherGoodBear said:
Just to comment on Mike's original post, Hershey hasn't done anything haunted for several years now. They decided to go the family-friendly route and just have Treatville for kids and a few of the shows are Halloween themed. Plus they feature creatures of the night at ZooAmerica. I don't think they drew as many people when they had haunted attractions.

I think you are right and people want the haunted attractions. I was very surprised about the lack of crowds last year. I went on a Sunday and it was perfect weather, mid 70's and sunny and the park was empty. Other than Fahrenheit that was 15 minutes and Great Bear that was 10 minutes (1 train running), everything else was a walk on or 1 - 2 train wait, even Storm Runner.

Same thing with Dorney this past Sunday, there was no Haunt that night and the coasters were going out with empty rows on every dispatch.

YoshiFan said:

Same thing with Dorney this past Sunday, there was no Haunt that night and the coasters were going out with empty rows on every dispatch.

Not Saturday night, that's fer sure. But a certain set of circumstances enabled my group of four to bypass most lines.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my previous post. I think Hershey has gotten better crowds since going "haunt-free." I heard their haunted attractions weren't that great compared to other places. And there is plenty of competition with other haunted attractions in the Harrisburg-Lancaster region. The people who wanted to see gore and be scared weren't coming to Hershey anyway.

Raven-Phile said:

Yeah - I think I saw you on Friday and said "hey Cap'n Wart!"

I heard you, but I don't remember if I saw you. I may have been running the other way.

It's OK - at least I was right!

I go for the rides. Halloween is great if done right, but most of these parks go for gore and nothing else. Absolutely hated King's Island's version last year with so much fog you couldn't see anything and people jumping out at you in the midways. But that is how Cedar Fair operates, they go for 1 target market (teens and young 20's).

Hershey's Halloween is nice. The park is themed to Halloween without all of the gore. It was very croweded when we went a couple years ago. They are trying to cater to a wider audience.

Busch Gardens VA had a nice mix last year. They had some walk through haunted attractions without too much gore on the midway. The atmosphere felt great.

I was really impressed with Busch Williamsburg. The haunts, while not as scary as some other parks, were very well done, and yes, the atmosphere is outstanding.