Six Flags vs. Cedar Fair (and other) haunts?

Alexx Argen said:
Cedar Pint

If it's a pint, shouldn't it be Cider Pint?

Universal and Knotts also have the advantage of being in LA where actor types abound, and that could make up for the quality and commitment in performance. I know guys and gals looking for work that look forward to the haunt gigs for guaranteed cash in their pockets. I don't know what union issues there might be out there, but I doubt that Knotts Scary Farm is an Equity house. Likely stage show performers are different than the guys out on the trail.

And I suppose CP might have a toned down version, but as mentioned it's not a separate event and is less immersive than those others. Cedar Point will probably never consider a separate gate for the haunt if for no other reason than they'll have grouchy guests sitting around in 4 resorts and a campground with nothing to do unless they pony up for the night time festivities. Judging by the numbers, I'd say everyone is ok with it.

Alexx Argen said:

Cedar Pint it a toned down version of knotts. They do spend a lot of money and do put good time in effort to cp. but it is a family park so it will always have to be toned down.

In my opinion Universal is the best overall but its a separate charge. But being in the haunt industry I will say it actually is worth price.

Six flags started charging when they started the Alice cooper Haunts.

From what I see here, in Jeff's video:

http://vimeo.com/2023494

it seems Cedar Fair/Point puts a ton of work into their Halloween stuff - when compared to Six Flags. That corn walk thing is amazing! I'd be pretty darn freaked out.

Also: Club Blood
http://vimeo.com/2711653

...and general fall stuff:
http://vimeo.com/7254711

I was at HHN one week ago, and for all the hype it gets, I found it to be a little disappointing. The theaming and decor of the indoor haunts was top notch, and you could tell a ton of time, energy and money goes into designing them. However, for the most part, the actors were terrible. You could tell most of them had been told "just stand here, and when your cue goes off, jump around a little bit." There were no standout characters and no sense that any of them had any ownership over what they were doing. It felt very much like when CP used to staff their indoor houses with random "volunteer" college groups who really didn't want to be there anyway. Which brings me to my next point...

Alexx Argen said:
Many of Cedar Points actors are college kids that do it for a class or charity. They are not paid and many of them are don't put into much effort.

This has never been true for the outdoor scare zones, and it's not been true for the indoor houses for the past couple of years. Most of the bad reputation that still lingers about the indoor houses comes from the fact they used to be staffed this way. If you haven't seen the houses recently, they are now all staffed by fully employed Screamsters who love what they're doing, instead of a different random group of college kids every week.

And yes, all the Halloween attractions at CP are included with admission. There haven't been any houses selling 3-D glasses since Pharaohs Secret was replaced with Toy Factory in 2009.

I'm all for the environment of the park/haunt; the charm, shall we call it?

I like the scary, gross and freaks walking about. But I don't like to be pounced and screamed at. Only for the 5-10 minutes I may be in a haunted house/special 'scare' walkway.

I really gotta get to one of the Cedar Fair haunts.

The CF haunts I've done in the last few years have been pretty good. Dorney was the only one this year, and I was fairly impressed. In the last couple years, I've done KD and CP as well, and while they're not up to Universal's HHN, I don't think they're too far below BGT's Howl-O-Scream. Could use a few more walk-thru scare zones at the CF parks, but overall I think they're doing pretty well - particularly when you take into account the liminted schedules of their parks during the Halloween season (Knott's excluded).

Two quick puzzlers: First, when did the apostrophe disappear from Hallowe'en (showing my age there)? Second, just wanted to note that one possible anagram of "scream" is....Scare'm. ;)

^^ I'm heading to Dorney tomorrow for Haunt. Last year's tableaux impressed the hell outta me, especially Cornstalkers and the Asylum.

I assume Thunder Canyon is closed?

^I was a fan of the hotel, Cornstalkers, and Backwoods (Camp C U Die - or is that Camp Cootie?). Never a fan of seeing ThunderHawk sitting idle every time I'm at the park.

Thunder Canyon was closed when we were there PPP weekend - not sure if that or T-Hawk runs during daytime hours, but somehow my limited October daytime hours up in NJ/PA area are usually spent at another park...like, I dunno, Knoebels? ;)

^^I can't believe I omitted Camp Cudie. It's a blast. One of my favorite parts of Haunt is telling the little kids on line with me that it's See You Die, not "Cutie," which is how they pronounce it...although I like your "Cootie" too, Gator.

Thunderhawk is my second favorite coaster in the park, so I miss riding it too.

I've not done the hotel.

*EDIT* Now I have. Well done. And ThunderHawk was open for a while. I don't think it opened with the park at 12, and was scheduled to close at 5. I did get one ride. And Thunder Canyon was, in fact, closed.