Holy smokes…6 events
so far and we aren’t even half way done with the month. Got some catching up to do so I’ll have three
posts today or over the next couple of days.
See how I do with the typing, the writing, and keeping my eyes awake.
Discovery Kingdom’s
Fright Fest was probably the weakest of the haunts I’ve done so far. And the crazy thing is, I have nothing but
compliments for SFDK for what they accomplished this year. You can tell they put a lot of money and
heart into this event and I’m sure that it will continue to get better with
each passing year.
The fountain in the
center of the park is still absolutely amazing.
The blood water, the skeletons, and now a huge burst of flame from the
center is freaking awesome. It’s one of
my favorite things to check out each year.
The scareactors that
roam the park have doubled, possibly tripled since last year. And some of the scare zones have even more
props than last year. It’s the first
sign that SFDK has turned a corner from just a simple event, to one they are
putting some love into. Unfortunately,
the scare zones are still lacking, and the big spider one we were looking
forward to seeing wasn’t even working.
Non-haunt related,
Superman at night is still freaking awesome.
I think the most
shocking thing of Fright Fest was the lack of people. We didn’t really need our front of the line
passes, most had no lines. Even Superman
was a walk on. Now this might be because
it’s still early in the month, but it was still surprising.
NIGHTMARE MANOR
A very creative
haunted house themed maze. Before you go
in, they take your picture with a little scare, which of course we had to
take. Robert ended up buying the picture
which was sold for only 10 dollars. Not
too bad.
Inside the maze, you
went through rooms and hallways, stuff you would see in a house. Of course this house is filled with creatures
and blood covered spirits. I remember a
baby carriage with a skeleton that jumps out of the carriage, some large
animatronic creature…but my memory is unfortunately vague when it comes to this
maze. I know it was in my top 3 at SFDK.
THE BOATHOUSE AT BLOOD LAKE
This is my favorite
haunt at SFDK this year. The boathouse
is actually a building for the queue line of one of their water rides. They added some rain effects which I thought
was a cool idea, but it stops and goes so there’s a chance you might miss
it. Inside the maze, you go through the
boathouse with victims and killers. Some
begging for help to be released, others trying to trap you. There’s one really cool room with tv’s on
showing static and rain falling down with a guy just outside of the
windows. It was an awesome effect, if
you know me water scores a lot of points.
At one point, a head
falls down from above and hit Doug on the head.
Thought this was pretty cool, but that head was hard!! The maze continues outside with a moss
monster, limbs in a tub, and the family that owns the boathouse selling some
chum in buckets at the exit. Nicely
themed maze, we actually went through this maze twice.
CAPTAIN BLOAT’S SHIPWRECK OF HORROR
This maze is themed
inside of the Shark Experience in the back corner of SFDK. The first thing that caught my eye was a
skeleton head that pops out of a chest and talks. It was amazing, but I unfortunately missed
most of the introduction. But what I saw
of it was really well done.
The maze seemed
familiar from the year before, but the scareactors seemed to stay with us
longer and continue to freak Robert out.
Also this year, I felt like even though I was in the back, I still got
to see all of the scares because the scareactors waited for the whole group to
be in the room before attacking. I
thought this was really cool, I’m just not sure if they did this because the
clouds were so small.
Through the maze we
went, close to the aquariums surrounded by pirate ghouls with blood all over
their bodies. At one point, we came upon
two boys that we thought were scareactors but turned out to be just two teenage
boys scared out of their minds. “You got
to man up if we are going to this”; “No you go to man up, you are being a sissy”;
“sissy, we can’t be doing these if we can’t even walk through them.” The boys snuck into our group and held on to
me at times just to get through. Ahh,
love haunt season.
The finale was
pretty cool. A large Squid Man, probably
9 feet tall. He was supposed to be scary
and we were supposed to run out of there, but instead we stood and admired the
figure. Probably confused the poor kid
inside the costume.
SCRAPYARD OF THE DEAD
I think what amazed
us about this maze this year is that they extended the maze walk without adding
any space to it. The same junk cars with
crazy mechanics running through the maze, but there’s a point that you go back
and forth in this small area, filled with fog, so you easily get
disoriented. Then you get chased by a
guy with a chainsaw and you are out. A
fun maze filled with loud noise and music.
BLOODBATH BAYOU
A free maze, and we
skipped it this year. Had some large
crocodiles and maybe zombies and a moss monster, who we ran into while walking
around.
SLAUGHTER HOUSE PIG FARMS
When you walk up to
this maze it was completely dark. AND I
MEAN COMPLETELY DARK. You weren’t really
sure where you were supposed to go, and you haven’t even entered the maze
yet!! In the maze, you see some
butchers, have a walk through outside with a car that starts up and the lights
come on, and some creepy walkers. Inside
the Slaughter House you come upon rednecks in overalls, knives, and usually
cutting something up. In one room there
was a head on top of a grinder that turned the body into ground beef. Outside again, more walkers and a chainsaw
guy. Pretty entertaining, but I thought
it was longer last year. Doug said that
the maze went backwards this year.
MASSACRE MINE
The queue for this
one was filled with creepy guys. Some running
far faster than we the customers are allowed to walk. The mine was cool but I think it would be far
more effective inside a building to give it more of a creepy walk through. We met up with a guy and his pet spider,
which was cool. The bouncing guy from
last year was missing, but we did have a couple of miners that walked with us a
majority of the way, slamming against walls and screaming at us as much as
possible. Another fun maze.
NO BOO STICKS
On the way out of
Massacre Mine we ran into a bunch of kids caring these light sticks in front of
them. I asked the Six Flags Rep that was
with us and he told us about No Boo Sticks.
These sticks can be bought for $5 from any store and kids, as well as
adults, can carry them in front of themselves to prevent any monsters from
attacking.
Now normally, I
thought this idea was absolutely stupid.
If you are going to an event like this, leave the kiddies at home. But if you really think about it, this park
is open all day for families and doesn’t close for a hard ticket event like
other parks. Families can stay the whole
night and skip the extra fee haunts.
With a father of two who are interested but still a little frightened of
these events, it would be cool to bring the boys with me, get them the sticks,
and let them experience the event in a safe and scare free environment. So bravo Six Flags.
CONCLUSION
As mentioned
earlier, this isn’t an event that you are going to walk away with your head
blown. But if you only experience this
one event every year, then you are definitely going to see some major
improvements and I’m REALLY looking forward to what the event holds for us next
year.
NEXT UP: Opening night of Cematarium
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