#halloweekends

[one-time-i-dreamt]

My friends and I went to HalloWeekends hosted at Cedar Point and when we were walking back to our cars, a haunt actor came up behind us to try to scare us. I started making out with the actor.

[notanotheramusementparkblog]

[halloweenmagick]

[tailgatebeauty8]

[phantasmicphasm]

Our first Halloweekends together! And in less than two weeks we’ll be in Disney 😍 @itsmartinbruh

[promisedangel]

Cedar Point Vs. Kings Island- Haunt

This year, as my group’s last hurrah of our spring/summer of coasters (we went to a total of five parks throughout the year), we attended the Haunts at both Kings Island and Cedar Point in back to back weekends. Time to see which of Cedar Fair’s Ohio parks has the superior spooks.

First Impressions/Park Front

Kings Island: The first thing you’re bound to see is that the fountains have turned red and occasionally spout fire. Then you see the Eifle Tower have giant red eyes staring down at you. Then you realize the entire park is filled with creepy music and deep fog effects. Fantastic

Cedar Point: You see a bunch of pumpkins at the top of the main entrance. You see they turned the water in Ocean Motion (called Ocean Potion during this time) a green color. You can see some fog effects but it never becomes as thick. While you walk down the midway, you see a lot of skeleton and tomb decorations, while some are awesome, they don’t particularly scare. There is some music, but it’s more spookish songs than creepy music.

Winner: Kings Island. Better theming hands down to get you into the spooks. Cedar Point is probably the more kid-friendly of the two parks, as the spooks are more inclined for kids.

Scare Zones

Kings Island: Spread throughout the park were four scare zones; Coney Maul, Wasteland, Dance of the Macabre, and Pumpkin Eater. Macabre was small and not as interactive this year, as there wer actors in only corners of the tower. Wasteland wasn’t as good this year, too. However, Coney Maul and Pumpkin Eater helped ALL of that. These two zones had awesome theming and the number of props for Pumpkin Eater alone was astonishing. It really gave off this vibe of a great pumpkin patch with scares hiding in its depths. Meanwhile Coney Maul is a haunted carnival, excellent in its execution and even the props got a scare from us. Because these zones were all spread out, though mostly around the left side of the park, you can go around most of them. However, you needed to go through at least one to get to a couple of rides.

Cedar Point: The scare zones are; Harvest Fear, Trail of the Forsaken, and Tombstone Terror-tory. The lack of scare zones is made up by the fact there are more outdoor confined haunted houses my friends and I like to call ‘Scare Trails’, but I’m grouping those in with the haunted houses. All outdoor scare zones are pushed to the back of the park. You absolutely cannot reach Maverick or Steel Vengence without going through a scare zone or two, especially on Friday because the train wasn’t running. This puts the major spooks in the back of the park, meaning you have to walk at least ten minutes to reach the first area. Sadly because of the rain and our group’s timing, we never got to see how Harvest Fear was. Despite this, actors in the other zones proved to catch us off guard once or twice with some things to hide behind, including fog. Not as many props as Kings Island, but it’s probably just so they don’t crowd the walkways.

Winner: Kings Island. Cedar Points scare zones feel all claustrophobic with barely any room to breathe since they’re all in the back of the park. While the ones in Kings Island felt stretched out despite three of them being relatively small in size. Yet, what they lack in size they make up in theming and good actors. My absolute favorite would have to be Pumpkin Eater.

Haunted Houses

Kings Island: The houses here are; Kill Mart, Backwoods Bayou, Blackout, Field of Screams, Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror, Chaos, Slaughter House, Urgent Scare, and Wolf Pack. Some were meh, but some were very good. Shout out to Urgent Scare and Slaughter House for upping their game this year. Field of Screams is CONSISTENTLY good, but try to get there early as the line can get VERY long for it. Chaos was new this year and while I felt it was good, felt like something was missing to push it into great.

Cedar Point: The houses here are; Deprivation, Fearground Freakshow, G.A. Boeckling’s Eerie Estate, Hexed: Light’s Out, Slaughter House, Zombie High School, Blood on the Bayou, Cornstalkers, and Cut Throat Cove. Shout out to Deprivation and Hexed for doing some very interesting things. Also, I should mention that Hexed, Zombie High School, and one other one (can’t remember) all have daytime versions for the kids and those with less scare tolerance to enjoy. This is a REALLY great idea to get kids aclimatted to such an envrionment, and my group and I were talking about such an idea while exploring Kings Island. This should be implemented in every Cedar Fair park.

Winner: This time I’m giving it to a single attraction, rather than a park. Cedar Point’s Deprivation. We only got to experience it once throughout our two days, but every single actor got us on our way through. We even ran into another group near the end. And for some reason, they had a chainsaw dude at the end WHO ENDED UP CHASING ME! T.T Why do the chainsaw guys always go after me?

Actors

Kings Island: This year Kinds Island upped their game with its actors. They brought in more actors to man the attractions. I remember last year Field of Screams had this room where you could have 3 actors and yet there was only one. This year there were FOUR actors and most of them got us. Some of them seemed tired as we got to them (Backwoods Bayou), although some attractions that were meh last year were made great by the actors going all out (Slaughterhouse). There was also this guy in Coney Maul with a ventriloquist dummy that we had fun watching and interacting with. We watched as he climbed up on one of the ledges of the flower beds and sneak behind these three girls who were on their phones. He got them so well, one of them almost dropped her phone. There was also this woman in Dance of the Macabre sitting at a table. Four 12 or 13 year olds were trolling her, so she just screamed at them and they ran away. It was great.

Cedar Point: Special mention here to the actors who were skulking through the LONG line for Fearground Freakshow. My tall brony friend decided to troll the actors with this lovely exchange:

Friend: Sorry guys, but you’re not the biggest freak here (Proudly display his Rainbow Dash t-shirt under his jacket) I’m a brony. I belong in there.

Actor: (gives a look) Wow... I feel sorry for you.

My friends and I busted up laughing. We actually did a lot more trolling with the actors at Cedar Point, but we ended up getting comeuppance for the trolling a number of times. Actors in the manor were also good at misdirection and got us good. While the actors in Zombie High School didn’t go for us, they did go for the group of teenage girls behind us (prime scare targets) and gave me a good bit of entertainment.

Winner: Unfortunately, I have to give this one a tie. The actors at both parks were a lot of fun so I can’t decide.

Miscellaneous (annoyances)

Kings Island- I don’t know why, but barely any drink refill station was open. I remember my friends and I walked around the entire park just to find the one near the Coney Maul was the only standalone station open that we could find. We COULD have gone to a restaurant, but many of them had long lines and we only wanted a drink.

Cedar Point- The drink problem followed to an extent, but with arguably more food placed, the drink situation wasn’t as dire.

No winner here.

And by a 2-0-1, the overall winner is none other than Kings Island! If you still have time and you can make the drive, I’d recommend Kings Island for your spooks and thrills in an amusement park this year!

[nolaughingottercosplay]

Squad up! #nolaughingotter #tlaaoram #liveactionadventuresofrickandmorty #friends #cedarpoint #halloweekends #selfie #halloween #cold #drunk #squad #cosplayersoutofcosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/BpHkq2dDuSY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4jycyusxi1tx

[abrunetteandabackpack]

I almost took some home. #pumpkins #fallthings #cedarpoint #halloweekends #pumpkinpatch #thegreatpumpkin #fall #decor #homedecor #happy #farm (at Cedar Point) https://www.instagram.com/p/BouoikDBDOH/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16k3tfyoesr2u