King's Island Fearfest

I'm considering going down to PKI on Saturday, September 30. Never having been there before for Fearfest, can someone describe how busy, etc. it is? Is the setup similar to the Haunted Trail at Cedar Point with ghosts and ghouls all along? Just curious, as the website does nto reccomend this event for anyone under 13.

Well, first off the park will not be open that weekend, so you need to reconsider. The first weekend of fearfest is Oct 6th and 7th.

WRONG. FearFest starts September 30 this year.

http://www2.paramountparks.com/kingsisland/special/fearfest/index.html

Hey Walt perhaps I can help you a bit,

PKI's FearFest the good and the bad:

The ONLY bad thing I can say is that the park needs to be DECKED out. PKI could EASILY be one of the best in the World if they decorated the park. Throughout the time you'll see just a handful of decorations. If you want more info on that stuff I wrote a detailed trip report somwhere back awhile on the place.

The GREAT is that their haunted houses are AWESOME they have one of the best mixes of styles I have seen anywhere. Try to hit everyone...if you can.

The problem with trying to hit everyone:
PKI is almost ALWAYS packed for this! I've tried every way to avoid the crowds, and they still are there. The ride lines are bad, but the mazes can get rediculous. Last year at one point the haunted mazes were 2 hours average. You do the math in how many haunted houses you can do.

My best suggestion would be try to do any of the inclosed ones as EARLY as possible (even if it's light out)and then try to hit the outdoor ones as soon as you can when it is dark.

People down in S. Ohio seem to love their haunted houses.

I do wish PKI would do an all day thing or open some of their stuff up during the day (much like CP has some indoor haunted houses open during the day.)

If you can, try to go on Friday night (most Ohioans are enjoying thier football) then go to PKI the next day for the thrills. Though I do know you said you're going on the 30th.

As for the 30th, I don't know how mush PKI has being doing their advertisement for this thing, but if worse case, I found it's usually the best to go on their first day of any haunted thing.

And remember..unlike other parks...PKI park goers come out rain, shine, hail, tornado, snow, earthquake, world ending, etc.

Rollercoastergod is right on. The park can be VERY busy even in the afternoon people just wait around for the houses to open. I really enjoy Fearfest and considering I have a pass it would make no sense to pay $10 for one haunted house when I can go several for 5 hours for free.

Last year, most of the indoor houses open around 3 PM. If you are looking to do as many as you can, get to your top pick around 2:30-2:45 and get through one fast. By night, lines can become crazy, 2+ hours. Also, last year there were a few attractions with fastpass, this ended up saving my family at least 2 hours. We ran around and got all the passes. Saved SO much time. We actually got through every single house before the end of the night! Definately take advantage of that, but they go fast!

Also, it seems they have 3 walkthough haunted areas which so be interesting to see what they do with it. Last year the "scarecrow" area was kinda lame. My favorite house is The Asylum (I think that is what they call it). It has tons of smoke and mirrors and stobes. The rest are decent.

As with when to go, I'd think Friday would be by far the best. Plus it only costs $20. Not a bad deal. Make a trip, you'll enjoy it.

If your taking kids they have aton of things to do during the day for them. Hopefully they'll start opening some of the houses for the big kids during the day like CP.

Friday nights are key! Just as mentioned above. There are probably 10-12 schools in the area and they all have their games on Friday nights, and the park is pretty empty most years.

I just wish they'd bring back the psycho ward they used to do on top of the Eifel Tower. That was so awesome! A haunted trail through the ward 300ft. above the ground!

This is an old psot now, but thought I'd followup with a mini-trip report. We did end up going on September 30th. We got there just as the park opened (missed the walkback by 5 minutes or so). It was basically empty during most of the day. 5 straight rides on the Beast in the morning, and we hit all of the major coasters by 12:00 noon (excepting Italian Job, which wasn't up yet)... Things got busier as the day went on, but we never had more than a 1/2 hour wait for anything in partticular (though as I say that I think the first Italian Job wait was 45 minutes or so, though only 2 trains were running). The crowds got a bit bigger as the day went on, but they were still managable. And, we had the Beast basically to ourselves from 10:30 or so to 12:00. Maybe it was the possibility or rain which loomed over us all day, or the fact that it only got to about 65 during the day, but it wasn't crowded by my measure (at least relative to Cedar Point's Hallow Weekends on a Saturday). I did love the Pumpkin Express train ride for kids. Something neat and different...