Haunt Season 2014 - Event #2 - Dark Harbor (Queen Mary)
Fatigue, late nights, starting to take it's toll. I feel like a zombie from one of those mazes. But I continue on, and having a blast.
Last night met up with even more friends that the night before. That's what haunt is all about: friends and scares. In addition to Doug, Shannon, Robert and Mike, met up with Jeff, Dusty, Norm and Alonzo from work. Alonzo's girlfriend was there, and I feel terrible that I keep forgetting her name. But going through a haunt with her and Robert, awesome fun.
So the biggest bummer of the night was the price of parking. If you are going, please be warned that the parking is a whopping 20 dollars. Compared to Knott's 15, it was kind of shocking. A lot of people were taking taxi's home last night, so I'm guessing the alcohol was quite popular.
For this event, I joined up with the MiceChatter's who got us into the VIP section. Free food and booze, what could go wrong? Not being a huge drinker, I stuck to primarily diet soda, but did have a margarita that was quite potent.
Along with the VIP access, we got front of the line access, just like at Knott's. I've been spoiled by front of the line access, and I don't think I could go to one of these events without it. For Submerged, I'm pretty sure that we went through all the mazes, then came back and did Submerged a second time before people in the back of the line even did the maze once.
MAZES OUTSIDE THE BOAT
The layout was awesome. There were three mazes and the Freakshow outside of the boat with a carnival theme. A huge swing ride and tons of carney food filled the area. Shannon told me to film it and send it to the State Fair committee and tell them this is how it should be done, and I couldn't agree more. The smells, the sounds, just awesome.
CIRCUS
This was our first maze of the night. The maze had a lot of different ways you could go through it. So there were often times we saw people going the opposite way, or people who were behind us, popped up in front of us. The clowns were spooky, but nothing that really passed the scary mark. There was one clown that looked and moved like a puppet. This guy caught Shannon's attention, and pretty much stopped her in her tracks. The coolest part for me was the very end where you walked on these moving squares. So it felt like you were walking on a slippery floor. After getting use to it, you could learn to slip and slide, and it was pretty cool.
Went through this maze twice.
DEADRISE
Probably my least favorite maze of the day. You walked through a sunken boat with people in the dark coming to get you. The environment of this maze was just not interesting. Dark areas, sometimes parts of the boat were kind of cool, and here was this huge fire launch coming from the boat that lit up the night sky.
My favorite part of the maze was watching the guy who roamed on top of the maze. From the VIP section, you can watch walk back and forth, and sometimes reach down and try to grab people. At one point of the night, he got down and was watching people. One poor lady was looking up to see him and he snuck up on her at ground level and said "I'm not up there." Freaked the crap out of her, lol. People would sit on benches and watch his work, very entertaining.
Went through this maze once.
VOODOO VILLAGE
This was my second maze of the night and it blew me away. I would say it was at the same level as Knott's, if not a little bit better. It was one of the longest mazes I have ever been through, and each environment was better than the last. The candle's brought a spooky mood, while the bricks and the cement blocks on the walls made it feel like you were in some cavern or tunnel.
The best part of the maze was the bayou scene. A person in the chair would yell at you, while mist covered the floor so you couldn't tell if there was alligator filled watter lurking below. After the boardwalk, it switched to a dirt, mesh type of floor. Swamp thing type figures hid in the bushes. At one point a guy jumped over the rope and ran up the stairs, freaking me out. The last time we walked through this maze, the mist wasn't working.
Another great scene was the Mardi Gras scene. A girl was holding her bra telling us she was working for beads, and no she was not nude. Further on, a character fake vomited on Jeff, not realizing he was there, and gave him beads to apologize.
A very dark and awesome maze. I'm not sure how many times I went through this maze, three or four times.
FREAKSHOW
Freakshow caught all of our attention when we first arrived. It also had a huge fire launch from the top of the building. Inside, you got to see many "freaky" items, like the bones of a Siamese twin, bottles full of weird indescribable things, and cages full of items that currently have left my exhausted memory.
Further in, you got to see little scenes of characters: talking skeleton, Siamese twins who want to go to Hollywood, a man with a small head (quite silly), and a woman who pounded a nail into her head. After the characters, you entered a couple of dark hallways that got darker and darker until finally you couldn't see anything. Those dark hallways were my favorite.
I believe this is an upcharge maze, but I wouldn't go through it again. But glad we saw it once.
STAGE SHOW
In the middle of the carnival, there's a stage where a DJ plays music, a live band will play, and the scareactors that are wandering around put on a play. I thought putting the scareactors in a performance was a really cool idea, but the story was lacking and I was frankly bored. Some great picture shots of the whole group, which I'm going to guess we'll be able to view on MiceChat.com in the coming days. If it does, I'll post the link here. But for me, I'd skip this and do the mazes, that's where the fun is.
Also, some of the walk around characters were freaking awesome. I didn't get my picture taken with the big hairy guys, but they were amazing puppet figures. And some of the sliders (guys when metal on their knees and feet) would spark up the night as they slid by you. Seen these guys at Knott's too. My knees hurt just watching them.
INSIDE THE BOAT
In order to get into the boat, you have to line up outside. When you see the lines trying to get on the boat, you are very thankful for the wristband around your wrist that lets you not wait in line. In the line for Submerged, I heard one poor guy ask "how much extra for one of those wristbands?" Telling you folks, pay the extra price for these bands and skip the lines. Unless you REALLY like the people you are with, lol.
SOULMATE
Soulmate was the first maze we went on inside the Queen Mary. All three mazes are long mazes that make you climb and descend spooky staircases. Soulmate has this beautiful woman in white that just stairs at you from a top landing. As you got further into the maze, her dress is less white, and she is covered with more and more blood. In the final scene, she is dancing with a head.
It's a bizarre maze, and fun to walk through. At the end of the evening, I realized I had only done this maze once so I decided to go again. The second time I was alone, and the maze was quite empty compared to earlier in the evening. The couple who was in front of me...well, the guy in the couple freaked out and asked for me to go first. I ended up getting way in front of them and did the whole maze by myself, with no one in front or behind me. That was spooky, especially when I didn't see a single scareactor for a long period of time.
My favorite character was a guy who would measure you, then say you weren't worth it, move on. Skin and appendages hung from the walls. It was quite creepy.
Went through the maze twice, not my favorite on the ship.
SUBMERGED
This was probably my favorite maze on the Queen Mary. Unfortunately, I don't really know the history of the boat and Shannon's sister would let us know what she found on Google. It would be cool if the Queen Mary gave some kind of background on the ghosts that we might run into, especially in the VIP section.
You first enter by the boat where Screaming Mary, I think that's the ghost's name, stood on the other side of the swimming pool area. This was a great scene: a deserted pool with a spooky slide that ended in empty space and a creepy child pointing at you. I pointed back and she followed me. I put my pinky to my ear and my index finger to my mouth and mouthed "call me", she sprinted at me, and a scareacter jumped out from another corridor freaking me out, awesome.
The maze was full of loud sounds, creepy hallways, and great actors. On Instagram, there's a picture of a red hallway which I absolutely loved. There was a woman walking around in it which made it even more creepy.
Lots of water effects also filled this maze, which is weird on a boat, right? If you know me, I love water effects, and this was simply awesome.
In one of my walk thrus, there were a group of young ladies behind me that screamed quite a bit. If you've walked through a maze with me, you know that I walk slowly. Well my group got in front of me and the group of girls behind me caught up with me and before I knew it, they were hiding behind me. Then one latched onto my arm "I don't know who you are but I'm staying with you." And I walked the train of girls through a good chunk of the maze. Hilarious.
Went through this maze at least 4 times.
B340
If there was a spooky, creepy maze this is it. According to our historian, B340 is a room on the boat that is no longer rented out because of spooky things that happen in that room, like a sheet flying off of you for no reason.
It seemed like we were following the thoughts of a murder as we walked through this maze. B340 is written over and over on the walls, clocks ticking everywhere, a room with a woman screaming for help because "he's here to get me." Then the next room is covered in blood, a body on the bed ripped to shreds, and a knife wielding freak pacing around the room. Great scenes.
SPOILER: I hate ruining things like this for anybody who is planning on going to the maze, but there's a chance you might miss it. Which I did the first time I walked through the maze. Others experienced it, so we went back to check it out again. There's a bridge in this maze that goes over a huge warehouse like section. The first time the lights were on, the second time it was dark and spooky. There's a button on the bridge that needs to be reset, so it doesn't go off every time you go over it. But if you are lucky enough to be on the bridge when it goes off...the bridge drops and it is probably the freakiest thing I've ever been on. Everybody screams that experiences it, a great effect in a very creepy room.
Went on this maze 3 or 4 times.
That's the mazes. A big downfall of the event is the porto-potties. That kind of sucked. But the mazes were well done and the event was awesome. If I had tons of money, I'd be eating tons of the fried food or maybe a huge sandwich, or a waffle cone, or how about those fried twinkies!! Great event, check this one out if you are in the area. Come early, or get the front of the line pass.
Well, got home at 3:30 last night, woke up at 11. Now time to get ready to meet the gang again for another fun filled night. Hopefully I'll be able to write up the next event tomorrow morning.
Again, sorry for no editing...too much to do.
NEXT UP: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS - HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS
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