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Vocal Fry and Scream Parks
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Kelli is turning into a zombie!!! ...or is it just sickness season? We've got updated house ranking from additional HHN visits plus even more haunt event reports! Enjoy a recap of Buzzed Bars' Wobble in the Woods including Knoebels and the much anticipated Lehigh Valley Scream Park - was it actually good?! Also reports from Dorney Park, Six Flags Over Georgia, and the Orlando parks during spooky season. We had a great time with listener questions this week and we'd love to hear more from you! What are your favorite local haunt events? Which one of the hosts would die first in a horror film? Any special guests you'd like to hear from?
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Thrills, Chills, and Spills'
00:00:00
Speaker
i
00:00:09
Speaker
We're going to play a little game we call Spill the Tea.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome back to Thrills, Chills, and Spills, where we spill the tea on all themes theme parks, special events, and especially spooky season. We're back, and we're actually going to talk about some other haunts this time besides HHN, since we've managed to get to some.
Universal's Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket Demolition
00:00:29
Speaker
um But before that, I'm Joey. I'm Kelly. I'm Tyler. And I'm Rafa. And this week, we have some spills. Mine has just been continued delight in slowly watching Hollywood rip-ride rocket disappear from the universal skyline over the course of HHN.
00:00:50
Speaker
I feel like because... It is so close to the queues of HHN that we are getting all kinds of lovely footage of its demise. um And it is kind of hilarious to me seeing like the station being torn apart and the track all twisted up in piles of dirt.
00:01:07
Speaker
It's hilarious. um I, again, like I didn't even hate the ride that much. I just think like the people that are freaking out about it being gone when it's going to get replaced more than likely by a much superior Intamin, like cry me a river.
00:01:19
Speaker
Like, I can't wait for what's coming in its place. So bye. it looks so weird. Like, it's so weird not seeing it there. The whole loop is gone. Yeah, that's crazy. Like, Universal, when they remove something, they're like, bye.
00:01:33
Speaker
It's, we're done. Yeah. And they already started pouring footers for the new ride. That's impressive. Yeah. Meanwhile, Disney just put up a bunch of walls around Rivers America and everybody is complaining about it and it's going to take them forever.
00:01:44
Speaker
You know it's going to take them forever. It's going to take like 10 years.
Film Review: 'The Black Phone'
00:01:48
Speaker
So anyway, that's mine. What's up, Kelly? i really germs.
00:01:58
Speaker
germs I preach. Yeah, it's um it's that time of the year when, you know, children go back to school and i have children and I have no functioning immune system because at work I wear a mask all day, every day for the last five years.
00:02:19
Speaker
So now i get every single thing that my children have. So enjoy my voice today. um My real spill is that um This past weekend, Tyler and I watched The Black Phone, and that was the first time that we both saw it.
00:02:38
Speaker
um I haven't seen like a ton of Blumhouse films. I feel like the ones that I have seen, I haven't been super impressed with. And this one isn't that much different. Like I thought that there were some interesting parts and like the little spoiler alert, the little twist at the end with like, the two houses was kind of cool. Like it was like,
00:03:00
Speaker
filmed well and was cool. But there's just a lot that I don't get about what is going on in this movie. Like, I don't understand what's going on with the phone and maybe I'm just not supposed to but it felt really slow the first three quarters of the movie. And then like everything happened at the end.
00:03:19
Speaker
I don't know. i think it's one of the better. um but oh god but i also just don't really get like, the character, the grabber, I don't really understand him. I don't understand what his motives are.
00:03:34
Speaker
Like, well, there's just a lot I don't know. There was just no character development whatsoever. Like, even the main character, the boy was his name, Finn. Like, I think so.
00:03:46
Speaker
We barely know anything about him. We don't know about the grabber, what his motivation is. We don't know why these dead kids are able to call this phone. Like, it just doesn't make sense.
00:03:57
Speaker
There was not. I think the problem is that you're looking for answers in a horror film. Yeah. So much of it is always. I enjoyed a little bit more. Yeah, like I feel like they leave so much to interpretation always and don't.
00:04:10
Speaker
But I am in agreement with you because I prefer those. I don't even want to necessarily call them horror films, but like horror suspense, maybe where they do give you a little bit more depth to the storyline. I love those much more than the just generic like bad things are happening.
00:04:27
Speaker
It's kind of weird, but we don't fully understand it type situation. I think I was also expecting a more supernatural type of film. And obviously there's a little bit of that with Bone and the kids, but I think it is much more just a murder mystery type of movie, which I just, I wasn't expecting it to be that.
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah. I think they play into that more in the second one that's coming out soon. Cause mean, I've only seen the trailer a few times, but like they, they, like the grabber's back. So clear, you know, obviously it's something supernatural. So maybe we'll get more out of that. I don't know. I mean, I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was one of the better Blumhouse movies, but um the second one seems to be what explains what exactly. I mean, I'm, I will definitely see it. I'm interested now that I like saw the first one. And I think it also helped me appreciate.
00:05:18
Speaker
We went back and watched the walkthrough of the EJ Jenhouse that they did.
Cedar Fair's Haunted House Pricing Strategy
00:05:24
Speaker
like however many years ago that was four years ago or three years ago. um And it was really well done. I mean, it was like scene for scene. yeah Well done. i just, and when I went through it, I had no idea what was going on obviously because I hadn't seen the movie. So it was forgettable to me then, but I appreciate it a little bit more now.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:45
Speaker
Yeah. So Tyler has a spill as well. Yeah, so as we talked about on a previous episode, the Cedar Fair parks are now charging for their haunted houses. You have to buy a pass.
00:05:59
Speaker
They advertised it between, I think, $10 and $40 is what they said, with the $40 being the ah the busier Saturday nights on the weekends. Well, they quietly, at least at King's Dominion, I think King's Dominion Worlds of Fun, maybe the others, i'm not sure, but they quietly lowered every night at King's Dominion to $10.
00:06:21
Speaker
So that I think is very telling of the response that they've gotten. I don't think anybody's buying the passes personally. i I mean, anecdotally, I've heard from a lot of people at the events that they've definitely seen less traffic at the houses, less queues at the houses than there have been in previous years.
00:06:41
Speaker
I was literally just listening to Invertive Creative and they were talking about that adorning just that it did not look like it used to with the queues. Yeah, I mean, the Kings Dominion ones used to pull hour and a half, two hour lines sometimes on Saturday night.
00:06:56
Speaker
So, yeah, I think that's very telling. i have not made it over there yet. I hope to at some point the season. I feel like $10 I should probably buy it, but I still just don't want to out of principle.
00:07:11
Speaker
That's fair. They definitely didn't play it right. They should have waited for next season to to introduce that. but at least they're realizing they need to make an adjustment because that's what a smart business should do.
00:07:22
Speaker
They probably should have just backed off on it completely. But $10, I mean, it's that's nothing. That's pretty fair, I would say. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely not the not the money. It's the principle. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:37
Speaker
Okay. Giraffa, did anything pop in your head or no spills this week? Okay. Sorry, not this time. Okay. So we're going to rely on you next, next episode. You have to have a really good one now.
HHN House Rankings and Changes
00:07:51
Speaker
number Okay.
00:07:53
Speaker
All right. So ah moving on, everybody except me has been to additional nights of Halloween Horror Nights and has some updated thoughts about their visits. um Have houses changed in your rankings? Have they not? Have things been cemented?
00:08:10
Speaker
What do you think? Yeah, my rankings changed a bit. um So I went back additional an additional two nights. um And let me see. Okay, so...
00:08:23
Speaker
What changed the most in my list, I had Terrifier at number three, and it actually went down to six. Oh no. Rafa.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So my reason behind that, I feel like Terrifier is still ah an incredible house. Like it just because it's six does not mean that I don't adore that house.
00:08:46
Speaker
It's incredible. But I just feel like after the walkthroughs that I had the second weekend, it felt as if there wasn't much else they could do to better that house.
00:08:58
Speaker
Like, I don't like it's already a very strong house, but I just feel like there were definitely some improvements in the other houses that made me appreciate those houses like WWE w e went up.
00:09:09
Speaker
So that's number three. No, I'm sorry. Galkin went up to number three and then WWE went up to number four and Jason actually is number five now, which I know that at first I was like, okay, you know what? Jason is not for me. Like, I just feel like it's just a bunch of Jason's jumping out.
00:09:28
Speaker
It is. What was that? It is. That's all it is. I mean, it is. Okay. But like, the thing is, like and actually somebody asked a question about, i don't know if I can answer to this, but Tim, okay. I'm actually going to add Tim's question here. So Tim asked, budget aside, what makes a good haunted house slash attraction to you?
00:09:48
Speaker
And this kind of ties into my Jason run throughs. Like what I loved in Jason was that they amped up that energy so much more. The actors were on it. Like I, maybe cause I got a bunch of scares that moved up on my rankings, but they were on top of every single scene. Like I did not like there wasn't a single miss on both walks that I had during that weekend.
00:10:11
Speaker
So yeah. So because of that, that made a huge um difference in my ranking. So now I had, so one and two remain the same. I have Hatchet and Chains at number one and I have LRT as number two, but instead of Terrifier being number three, I now have Galkin because that's, that house is incredible.
00:10:33
Speaker
um And I, the scares were even better, you know, the next, you know, that weekend. And then i have WWE at number four, Jason at number five, and then Terrifier at number six.
00:10:46
Speaker
um And other, change or difference that I see here was FNAF is not number 10 anymore. It's actually number eight for me. Oh, okay. Yeah. and that's what happened oh Now i actually have fallout last.
00:11:02
Speaker
Now that house is just not hitting for me. i don't know what it is. it just, it feels so lifeless in there. And I think after like really,
00:11:14
Speaker
you know paying closer attention to the scenes in there. like They really did nothing of that show. like They didn't do any justice for it, in my opinion. I feel like it feels very stale. It feels like the scares are kind of awkward, like the awkward, like Lucy's just jumping in and like just, and it's not even like a scare, it's more just her jumping into place and it's supposed to scare you because of a loud sound effect or a random strobe light.
00:11:41
Speaker
It's just, it feels like a very awkward house. So that, yeah, I dropped that one. And then Dolls is at number nine. um That house, it's another one. It's just not doing it for me. I just think the concept is a little cheesy and I don't see it getting any better for me.
00:11:58
Speaker
um But Grave of Flesh is actually number seven. And I had some incredible runs in that house. um That's another one where the energy just, was a completely different energy compared to the first night that we went um or the first weekend that we went and yeah i mean that one was really good so i don't know i and like looking at these rankings like i know i can like jumble them around but i don't know i feel like that's that's what it is how about you guys you guys went back what how do you guys feel about the rankings
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, I went back only one night um and I actually went with my mom who loves spooky stuff too. So we went on a Saturday. it was only like two weeks after the first the weekend that we were all there.
00:12:46
Speaker
And for me, my rankings, I think, stayed completely the same. And I think that's probably just because like I had already had like four runs through every house the first weekend and I was only getting like one additional run. There were definitely some things that I noticed that changed, but not enough to, I think, like sway my rankings.
00:13:06
Speaker
So Hatchet and Chains is still my number one. I was actually considering, like do I like Galkin more, which is my number two right now. I had an incredible run in Galkin. i like the last night of the first weekend and then the weekend that I went with my mom again, just like an incredible amount of scares. And I feel like I'm starting to appreciate the set a little bit more and the design.
00:13:30
Speaker
i think initially it felt a little bit forgettable to me, but I think it's one of those houses where the more time you spend in it, the more you recognize. And then Like the scares are just being amplified every time. Like I really feel like it's just getting better and better. So it'll be interesting to see after our last weekend, like how things shake up.
00:13:47
Speaker
My hatchet and chains runs have always been great. Like I know some people are getting not as great of runs in there and that scares me because I haven't had that experience yet. um Let's see. ew WWE stayed at three. I had some really good scares in there. um Artista and Terrifier.
00:14:07
Speaker
We're kind of fighting over that number four a spot. And right now I have it i still have it as Terrifier, but I did have my worst run in there. I just felt like there were missing some like arts that I previously remembered being there. it just kind of seemed like a little bit of an empty run. And Artista, I'm just waiting to have a great run. i can I still agree that it's like such a beautiful house and they do so much in there, but like it just doesn't scare me and doesn't feel...
00:14:37
Speaker
like I want to feel on edge the entire time. And that house doesn't like evoke that feeling for me, like ever, like I'm just ah enjoying the scenery and that doesn't make it a bad house. It's just like, not for me.
00:14:50
Speaker
And the rest kind of stayed the same. I have six, Jason, um, seven fallout, eight grave of flesh, and then nine dolls and 10 FNAF.
Review of HHN Houses and Experiences
00:15:01
Speaker
Um, We did, my mom and I did stay and scream. We did eight of the 10 houses because we actually had to fly out in the middle of the night to get back the next day. So we, instead of the, we missed um five nights and we also didn't do grave just because.
00:15:22
Speaker
We needed to get some rest, but I have heard some more positive things about Grave and I am excited to revisit that house now that I know a little bit more about the backstory and hopefully get a better run.
00:15:34
Speaker
I think that one has maybe the most potential of any to move up some spots. I really don't think five nights will move. I really don't enjoy dolls, even though I had a better run. It's still just like not what I expected the house to be. And it just, it feels massive and empty at the same time. And I just don't think that it like is an effective way to scare people the way that the house is designed.
00:15:59
Speaker
Some people love it. I just can't get on board with it. And then i think the top five are going to stay the top five, just a matter of like what shifts around. I had a fried Uncrustable, obviously.
00:16:12
Speaker
i saw Nightmare Fuel again. This is the first year I've seen Nightmare Fuel more than one time, and now I've seen it like four times. I'm freaking obsessed with it. Like, it's so good. I think about it all the time. Yeah, it is. It's really good this year. Oh, you know what? This was a spill that I probably should have brought up. You guys were hating on the workers that were like hyping up the crowd, right?
00:16:34
Speaker
Yes. yeah Okay, first off, like, I don't think it's that bad. Like, yes, is it corny? Yes, it's corny. But they're bringing up the energy. They're exciting the crowd.
00:16:45
Speaker
ah Maybe after watching it, I think I saw it two times. Yeah, I saw it two times the second weekend. And i don't know, it was just fun. Like, added on to it. Everybody was very pumped and excited. so I being a little bit of a hater on that. They were kind of fun. I'm definitely a hater about crowd interactions every time. I'm like, oh, really? Are we going to do that thing? No.
00:17:06
Speaker
Okay. It's corny. Yes, it's corny, but it's not that bad. Like, come on. was so much worse. It was so much worse when I went with my mom. They had like six of them lined up in the front with a choreographed routine. Oh, no, no. See, that's not correct. don't know about that. But everybody was doing like their own thing on the two nights that we were there. So I was okay with that.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah. When I saw it, this like skinny little white girl turns around and starts trying to twerk. It was so cringy. I'm pretty sure i like visibly cringed when she did that.
00:17:38
Speaker
yeah I stand by what I said. We're just going to be haters. It's fine. have my mother I have my mother's rankings if anyone's interested. It's very similar to mine and I went in without telling her anything. So yeah, to go for it. Completely unbiased.
00:17:55
Speaker
So obviously this is just eight. It doesn't include grave and five nights, but her number one is hatch and chains. Two is Galkin just like me. Three is artista.
00:18:06
Speaker
Four is WWE five was terrifier. Six Jason, seven dolls and eight fallout. so Okay. So Sherry knows what's up. Yeah. She knows what she's talking about.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So what changed for you, Tyler? um Not a ton of change. So my top four stayed the same. I still have Patchett, Terrifier, Galkin, Artista.
00:18:32
Speaker
So the ones that moved a little bit, WWE and Jason both went up. I think WWE, I'm actually starting to understand it a little bit now. I think it took three or four run throughs before I'm starting to get it, but
Food and Drink Highlights at HHN
00:18:47
Speaker
I think every time I go through, I like it a little bit more.
00:18:51
Speaker
And Jason, I've got it at number six. I had an incredible run through. It sounds like a pretty similar one that you had, Rafa. Just every single scare was hitting.
00:19:02
Speaker
So much enthusiasm coming from them. So, I mean, if we were ranking on scare actors, it'd probably be like top three easily. But just based on the...
00:19:14
Speaker
The lack of a plot and the subpar set, I just don't see it moving much further up than six. so And then the ones that move down i moved I think I moved Graves down like one.
00:19:30
Speaker
that's just doesn't do much for me. And I moved Fallout down a little bit. So from the top, I've got Hatchet, Terrifier, Galkin, Artista, WWE, Jason, Graves, Fallout, Dolls, and Five Nights.
00:19:49
Speaker
It's interesting that we are like not 100% in alignment, but Pretty close. Top half, bottom half. have different tastes, I think, but we none of us are super outliers from each other. Whereas I look at some opinions that are out there in the HHN community and like some of it just kind of blows my mind, like Dolls number one.
00:20:11
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah yeah. Dolls has this following that I just don't get It Yeah. um And obviously there are people who like are in love with the Five Nights IP who have put that as number one. I'm like, okay, like I get that.
00:20:26
Speaker
um But yeah, some of these houses are getting like, I will say I'm starting to see Fallout becoming Pretty unanimously at the bottom of people's lists. That is the one thing I'm seeing consistently.
00:20:42
Speaker
Which is interesting. I've seen Hatchet at like 8 and 9 for people. which Oh yeah, that too. was amazing but yeah I it. I feel like mine's... I feel like I've solidified mine pretty well.
00:20:54
Speaker
Things could move maybe one two at the most around, but it's not going to move much. I mean, i've had six nights there. I feel like I have a pretty good feel for everything. Yeah.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. For me to have hatch one and then people to have it eight or nine is just so crazy. After that many nights, like it's crazy. Yeah.
00:21:16
Speaker
Very interesting. Maybe these people only went one night and then they didn't get a good run. And that's why it's all the way at the bottom. I think it's very but locals are saying that. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's like our our star that other people just don't seem to like for whatever reason.
00:21:32
Speaker
yeah Did anybody? Excuse me. Did anybody see the Lagoon show? I'm guessing no. I caught like five minutes of it. but Okay. Yeah, it didn't do much for me. And I was getting wet because it was windy and all the water was blowing onto the sidewalk. Okay. did we Did any of our feelings change about scare zones?
00:21:55
Speaker
So the the roaming Art the Clown, I don't know if it's because they have more security around him. It's a little bit better. People aren't following him around as much.
00:22:06
Speaker
So that's been improved, which I'm happy to see. um I'm glad they didn't just take him away and just didn't you know move forward with that. But yeah, that that was pretty good. The Scare Zones, Cat Lady still remains at the top for me.
00:22:21
Speaker
and That does not change. Yeah, I unfortunately didn't spend again very much time in the scare zones and I keep saying I want to do it but every time I go with somebody different I our priority is to get through the houses so I feel like that really might not even change even though I've been there for like many nights this year compared to normal.
00:22:40
Speaker
um For me everything kind of has was similar in the scare zones. Yeah, I haven't moved anything because, like you said, Kelly, I haven't really spent much extra time in them.
00:22:51
Speaker
um I could see Masquerade moving over Cat Laney, though, if I'm able to spend a little more time there. and think it's It's really good. It's a bit grander. It's a bit more spread out.
00:23:04
Speaker
um They have more... Like action pedals, you know, where stuff is actually happening rather than just the one cat lady stage. So um I haven't moved it yet, but I could definitely see it happening because I have, I don't know, two ish more nights left. So we'll see. I did try some new food, though.
00:23:24
Speaker
That's what I was going to ask. Where are we out on the food? I know that Kelly had more fried PB&G. She's obsessed. I don't know if she'll try anything else at this point. Right. But I tried the art cookies.
00:23:36
Speaker
So it was like $8.50 or something for two cookies. No. I could have driven to the grocery store and gotten something with the exact same quality. Not worth at all. That's giving like ah Instagram moment because they look cute. Like they're the sunglasses. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:52
Speaker
That's literally all it is. Yeah. And then I did try the Five Nights Pizza, the spaghetti and pizza. With the spaghetti on top? Oh, It was surprisingly really good.
00:24:03
Speaker
Was it? I liked it a lot. So it's not like it's not a pizza. There's no way you can pick this up and eat it with your hands. Okay, that's what i was going to say. How did you eat it? Because yeah it's it's super floppy. There's no possible way. Everything would just go in your lap.
00:24:17
Speaker
You have to eat it with a fork and knife. But okay. um Yeah, it was like super garlicky. um Honestly, it was more just like a spaghetti and meatballs with like a bread base. It wasn't much. Yeah, so I guess. But um yeah, meatballs were great.
00:24:37
Speaker
Solid amount of cheese on there. Very garlicky crust. I really enjoyed it. It is pricey, though. It's $15 for that one slice. hmm so i don't think i'll do it again but i am glad i tried it yeah rough and nothing new okay i stuck to the same things i tried the um did you guys try the carrot cake no i wanted to but it wasn't open when i was over there oh yeah you guys gotta to do it next time next time that's on my list for sure for next time but i had that again
00:25:08
Speaker
And I had pizza fries, which I don't know, maybe the one that I got just wasn't that great. So, i mean, it was fine. It was good, i guess. think pizza fries are heavily reliant on how fresh they are. Yeah. That makes sense.
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, 100%. But yeah, besides that, I mean, I didn't really try anything new. i Somebody tried, I think Bethany had tried the um I think you guys mentioned it. It was like a, was it like a creamsicle like drink or something like that?
00:25:37
Speaker
Oh, the vanilla vodka one? Is it that one? That is so freaking good. Yes. I think Bethany tried that one and she was like raving about it. She loved it. That tracks.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah me I think that was the one that she got and she really enjoyed it. I had a sip and it was very good. I have to, you know. I will be getting it when we go back. Yeah. have to try my own. I feel like we're going to end up at that booth regardless because it also has fried peeping J's.
00:26:03
Speaker
So there we go. Wait, before we move on, I think, Tyler, you should talk about your attempt at changing up the plan because we gave people our our recommended plan to accomplish HHN. You tried some different stuff.
00:26:18
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah. um Before I get into that, I was going to say something about the drinks. I stopped in the Dead Coconut Club, which was super cool. It's coven witch themed.
00:26:30
Speaker
um I didn't have a drink, just kind of looking at all the directions. But we went in there like 9 p.m. on Saturday. It was like a full club. Like there's a dance floor, DJ.
00:26:41
Speaker
There's fog, decorations. It was awesome. The DJ's great. Yeah. Yeah, I think we should spend a little bit of time in there when we go back if you guys want to. It's really fun. Yeah, I really enjoyed it too. I went there on my first night when I went back and I was very surprised. I'm like, holy crap, this is actually really cool.
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah. It was a really fun little spot. If you have a souvenir cup, you can bring your souvenir cup in and get the refill price, which I think is $14. Yeah. which I think that's pretty good for like an actual like bar club type atmosphere.
00:27:17
Speaker
So we'll see. But yeah, I did switch things up a little bit on my third night just because I kind of kept the same plan the first five nights and ah wanted to see how the different
Impact of Horror Films on HHN Experience
00:27:31
Speaker
approach would work. So we actually started Stay and Scream back at Fallout.
00:27:37
Speaker
Now, we didn't get there like at, 4.05 or whatever. We didn't bother doing that. We got there like at 5 because we figured it wouldn't be very busy. It was busier than I thought.
00:27:48
Speaker
So that house opens at 5.15 and then Galkin right next door opens at 5.45. We got in line about 5 for Fallout. We got in about 5.30 or so.
00:28:00
Speaker
So that was, honestly was expecting like 50 people in line. I didn't think people were going to be lining up for Fallout. It was longer than I thought. um got out around 530, went back in line and got in Galkin.
00:28:14
Speaker
um And that had ballooned to about a 30 minute line as well. So I think what happened, everybody got out of fallout and just went to Galkin. But so we did two by like 615.
00:28:30
Speaker
six fifteen We did both of those, which isn't terrible. But the problem is, Once they burned through that initial line, there was nobody coming. So by the time we were about to go into Galkin, there was no line for a fallout. People were walking straight into the house.
00:28:47
Speaker
And then by the time we ended Galkin, it was like maybe one switchback or two switchbacks. So it worked for us that night because those were the two that we missed the night before. And we really wanted to make sure we hit those on the third night.
00:29:00
Speaker
But if you only have one or two nights total, do not recommend that unless you just, you know, those only two houses you care about for some reason. So...
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, i think we got lucky the day that we all went there, but it almost feels like because we started with Terrifier, of squeezed in Artista, got in Jason somehow right before it went crazy.
00:29:22
Speaker
And then it feels like we we hit those two back tents, maybe as that like low period was coming to an end. But I remember that it wasn't too crazy back there yet when we got back there.
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, it was dead until like 645, 630. ah six thirty And then it started to pick up a little bit. So I still think I've tried three different plans. Now I tried stay and scream for five nights also.
00:29:47
Speaker
But I still think the best plan is Terrifier. And then after you finish Terrifier straight into WWE, w it's not going to have a long line. Hit Artista if it's short and then straight to Jason.
00:30:01
Speaker
And then you have four done by 630, 645. Yeah, did that plan with my mom and it was very busy the day we were there. And we did have to wait a little bit longer for Jason, which put us at the back houses a little bit later.
00:30:16
Speaker
yeah so you tweet it was the same for us. Yeah, but I think that is the move. So. Cool. Well, we have some HHN related questions as well. um This is more of a comment, I suppose. but But Caleb said, i finally watched the first Terrifier movie.
00:30:34
Speaker
Only question W2F is wrong with y'all. ha I guess he wasn't prepared for the level of gore. yeah i guess he wasn't prepared for the level of go Yeah, i don't think he's going to watch two and three. I can't imagine. There's so much better, though. There's actually a plot if you care.
00:30:52
Speaker
That is true. Yeah. and Yeah. The first one, definitely you can tell that the budget was not there because the second one has like multiple locations and more of a plot. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
And I feel like you get to know Art a little bit better in 2 and 3 and like his quirkiness. The first one is just so much straight murder. It's like, what is going on? Yeah, that is true.
00:31:14
Speaker
That is true. So I don't know what's wrong with us, but we find it entertaining. Yeah. I mean, they're a one and done for me. Like, I don't have to go back and watch them, but they're fun. They're fun to watch. Yeah. I feel like if I were to go back, I would be doing, like, getting on YouTube and being clip reel of art.
00:31:33
Speaker
Like, being goofy. You know what i mean? Yeah. Just going to those highlights rather than the whole thing. I actually rewatched the first one the other day. really Really? Yeah, because my friend I was with, he had never seen them before, so
Six Flags and Dorney Park Haunt Reviews
00:31:45
Speaker
we just watched them in the hotel so he would know a little bit more for before he goes in the house, so.
00:31:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like when we watched them initially, i was kind of like, eh, this isn't very good. But like as time has gone on, I've appreciated it more. And I like just love the character in the house. So.
00:32:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. the The character is really what makes it work. If he wasn't. We're all fine, Caleb. We're fine. Well, Caleb went into that house without watching the movie um prior to entering the house.
00:32:17
Speaker
and And they didn't have it ranked pretty. They didn't. He didn't have it ranked pretty high. I think he had it on the lower end. um So I think I feel like once you watch the three movies, you kind of start to appreciate art as a character.
00:32:29
Speaker
and like you see his charm and the wittiness and all of that. Yeah. yeah going into blind see You have no idea what this is. It would not have been as fun for sure. Yeah. Okay. We have another one from Murph.
00:32:43
Speaker
Even though this event isn't over yet. Not quite there yet. We still got like a month left almost. um What IPs do we hope come next year?
00:32:55
Speaker
i honestly don't even know because I don't keep enough track of horror IPs to know. You know, Rafa. I only watch horror movies number one forever. HHN or number two when I'm with you guys and we want to watch a scary movie. Let me, let me go to my letterbox and see what I've rated.
00:33:14
Speaker
so i watched the strangers chapter two yesterday. wasn't a very good movie. So I hope that's not there. The conjuring is at six flags. So I doubt that'll be there. yeah Um,
00:33:26
Speaker
Well, know you guys didn't like the first Black Phone, but the second one seems to have that snowy setting. um And also they did a pretty good job when they had the Blumhouse house a couple years ago and they had that small part, you know, for that movie. So I feel like Black Phone 2 would be a good one.
00:33:43
Speaker
um Stranger Things. It came back to me. Oh, gosh. It will be that. It will be there. It'll be the final season. I'm sure.
00:33:54
Speaker
that was my answer. The final season comes out in November. So I'd actually be really surprised if it's not there next year. Yeah. Yeah. I think that I can see them bringing that.
00:34:06
Speaker
I'm curious if they will ever actually do Megan house. I don't think they will. Kind of over it. And I feel like 2.0, like nobody talked about it. Yeah. Came out. Right. It happened. Yeah. I think it did. Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:21
Speaker
She is on the merch, though. Yeah, I don't know. Her dancing horde. It was just the dancing horde had a following, I think. Yeah. all Her little dance, which is the same all the time.
00:34:37
Speaker
I see we don't have a lot of ideas yet, but. Yeah, no. We will though. Once the event is actually over, we'll start thinking about it more. We'll talk about it. Yeah. All right. um So now we are going to step away from HHN talk about some of the other haunts that we have visited for spooky season.
00:34:57
Speaker
Um, so I recently visited Six Flags over Georgia's Fright Fest with Simon. Shout out, Simon. Um, we were very fortunate to attend, um, like a very informal ace event where, uh, Six Flags gifted haunt wristbands, the VIP haunt wristbands to us. So we had like the skip the line and where we didn't have to pay for the houses,
00:35:25
Speaker
Um, and that was definitely part of the reason why I went because I didn't really feel like paying $35 to be fair, to get into the event based on my previous experience. I think two years ago with the event, I was kind of like, i don't know if this is like worth how much it costs.
00:35:41
Speaker
Um, So that's kind of what I went into this year with. I will say that I was very happy with how it was looking this year.
00:35:52
Speaker
There was more decor around the park. They had refreshed some of the scare zones and added additional theming, or they had completely changed the theme and added new decor that wasn't there before to the park.
00:36:06
Speaker
The scare zones were all staffed with more scare actors than I've seen in the past. And there was like the lighting and they had sliders and they added a show this year that wasn't there previously to like the main entry area.
00:36:23
Speaker
um so all that was really positive. And then the houses were, They are definitely lower budget than Halloween Horror Nights. However, I think part of the reason why I had a good experience was we went on a Sunday and there were just no lines.
00:36:42
Speaker
We didn't even need, even though we had the VIP skip the line thing, there was only one house that it actually made any kind of measurable impact on. There was just very, very few people um queuing for these houses, which probably isn't a great thing. But Sundays are usually kind of the slowest day.
00:36:58
Speaker
um for these hot weekends. I know that Fridays at that park get and Saturday, sorry, Saturday gets really bad. um But anyway, so running through them really quickly, one of them is called nyctophobia. It's basically just a pitch black house.
00:37:13
Speaker
And periodically a black light comes on and there's a line on the floor that shows you where you're going. So when it turns off, you're just like, touching the walls trying to figure out where you're going and they put weird fuzzy stuff on the walls and stuff in your way that you run into.
00:37:29
Speaker
This was good the first time we went through because it was daytime and like the eyes adjustment, you know, like it's really bright outside and you go into a super dark house. You just can't see it all where you were going.
00:37:41
Speaker
But there were only maybe three scare actors in it. So most of the experience of like being unsettled was just because you didn't know where you were going and it was so dark when the black light turned off.
00:37:53
Speaker
um And then we did it a second time once it actually did get dark out and my eyes were adjusted. So it's like I could see so much better that I was like, this is lame. um That was the worst of them, I would say.
00:38:05
Speaker
ah They also had one that was their... in their um Basically, the queue for the Rapids ride, because the Rapids ride has gone down for the season, they use that. And then they also use the station for one of the houses. So it's super long.
00:38:23
Speaker
It's the only um like partially outdoor one. you walk up the queue all outdoor with little scenes along the way, go into the station, which is kind of indoor. And then you walk out of the queue and go all the way out, which has scenes um on the way.
00:38:36
Speaker
So the length of it is super cool, but the outdoor parts are very spaced out. um I will give them credit. There was one part where most of the scenes are just taking place like past the the fence of the queue.
00:38:48
Speaker
But there was this one part where the the slasher character of the who was the enemy kind of of the house. He took a whole piece of fence off the queue and like threw it to the side and ran into the actual queue with us. And I was not expecting that.
00:39:04
Speaker
and That was awesome. um But that one was just OK. Like they they actually scared me a couple of times, like jump scares. But the set was um just like, OK.
00:39:15
Speaker
um I just appreciated how long it was. Then we have the other ones. um There was one that's been there for years, themed to clowns.
00:39:26
Speaker
um I'm not particularly scared of clowns, but I will say it was staffed super well. And they had multiple setups where people would come at you at the same time from different directions or like set up the whole one, two, three punch type scares.
00:39:42
Speaker
um And I really had a fun time in that compared to previous years, I think because it was better staffed. I think the last time I saw it, it maybe had five people in it. And this time it felt like it had 15 or something. There was so many more actors in it, which was awesome.
00:39:57
Speaker
I feel like I'm missing one right now. Oh, Saw. That's the one i'm missing. So they have two IP houses. One of them is Saw. which has been there. this is the third year and they've been making tiny tweaks every year.
00:40:09
Speaker
I had never actually been in it before because I hadn't paid previous years. so it The set was pretty good. They had some like interesting gags kind of straight out of the films.
00:40:20
Speaker
It wasn't as scary, I feel, because some of the hallways were wide, but there was definitely budget that was put into that. And again, it was staffed well. There were lots of actors in it. um The highlight of the night was The Conjuring House.
00:40:34
Speaker
which is brand new this year. And you could tell that it was kind of, I said to Simon afterwards, it was HHN light because it wasn't quite as grand, but the set design was super cool.
00:40:48
Speaker
um Much more immersive than any of the other houses. There was even a bit of a pre-show. You walked in the first room and like, there was like this tour guide with the doll. And then all of a sudden the doll escapes and she's like, go, go.
00:41:01
Speaker
And you go through the house. um There was some, pretty crazy stuff happening. Like there was somebody that jumps from above on a bungee. There was a massive puppet that came at you at the end.
00:41:13
Speaker
um a scene where like she's carrying a lantern and then it just goes out you're dark room. There was a lot of really cool stuff in that. And I was not expecting it to be good. based on my history with like Six Flags IPs and stuff. But I was super pleased with it. And we ended up doing it again because we were like, yeah, that's super cool.
00:41:32
Speaker
um And we were glad to see that that IP had gotten like the level invested investment it needed to be successful. So that that was pretty much it. I mean, I had a much better time than I was expecting based on my previous visits and considering it's a Six Flags. And but at the end of it, both of us were like, yeah, we definitely wouldn't have bought the VIP because I think the VIP skipped the line is like 70 something dollars.
00:41:57
Speaker
But neither of us would have been super upset about paying like the 30 bucks or whatever for the haunts because we thought the quality was elevated over previous years and the staffing was so much better than I've seen in a previous years, like legitimately getting jump scared throughout because there were they were staffed as well as they were.
00:42:15
Speaker
um And the other thing about that is unlike HHN, because the crowds are not as crazy, they can pulse you through the houses. So a lot of them, it was just the two of us going through together. And, you know, they actors could kind of focus down on these smaller groups and attack them. So that was cool.
00:42:32
Speaker
yeah that's six fags over george's right fest i've always appreciated when these events do like the like the pulsing with the the groups because you get you get all the scares like and it's like a lot more it's creepier because you're not just following a line and seeing like five people know up ahead of you like getting scared or something like that i always appreciate that yeah like you don't get the telegraphing in front of you of like something's coming you don't know exactly yeah yeah I'm glad they're starting to do the IPs a little bit of justice, though, because I know in past years, some of the IP houses at Six Flags Parks have been, I mean, pretty much is laughable. so Yeah.
00:43:13
Speaker
Simon said, because he did the Saw the first year it came out, and he said it was pretty terrible, and I think one of his least favorite. But this year, he was like, they definitely improved it over previous years.
00:43:24
Speaker
So they're getting there. I think they're figuring it out and just spending the right money. You know, I'm sure that like the conjuring house is probably a contractor, like nothing to do with internal six flags, but that's good. Like spend the money on a contractor who knows what they're doing to, to build that house.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah. So Kelly, you went to Dorney's event. I did. um i have been to Dorney's haunt many times, many, many times since I was young.
00:43:50
Speaker
Um, I went this year with my daughter, actually, who is seven. And she was feeling super brave that day. She got her ears pierced and was ready to conquer the world. So she had been begging to go check it out.
00:44:04
Speaker
And our plan initially was just, we both have season and passes, just to kind of walk around and like check out the scare zones and the food and kind of see what the vibes were and see if it was too scary for her and like if she liked it.
00:44:18
Speaker
So we did that. And at first she seemed like kind of scared. we We watched a lot of the scare actors coming out like while was still daylight. She's like, they're really scary looking and like props to the makeup team always at Dorney because they do a really good job with their costuming and makeup.
00:44:34
Speaker
But then... As it was getting darker, she would like walk by people with her arms crossed and be like, you're not real. She was hyping herself up to not be scared.
00:44:46
Speaker
So we did that. We rode some rides that she could ride. She loves Iron Menace, rode that, Thunderhawk. And then she's like, mom, can I please try a Haunted House? And I was trying to explain to her, we can't just go in these houses for free now So like if we're going to purchase...
00:45:03
Speaker
you know, the past to get in the houses. I would hope that we could do more than one, but I don't want to like overdo it. You know, she's seven. She's never really been in a haunted house. I've been to Dorney's Haunt before. All of their houses are the same that they've been in the past couple of years.
00:45:19
Speaker
So I'm like thinking to myself, like which of these houses is appropriate for me to take my seven-year-old So we went and bought the house pass. um It was $10 per person, which like honestly was not that big of a deal. I had thought that it was more. I was unaware that they did the price lowering thing that Tyler mentioned in his bill. So we bought that.
00:45:37
Speaker
And I saw actually when I was on the website purchasing them that the express or skip the line was only like $30 a person. So if I was going there with somebody For one night, and our plan was to just do one night and do the houses, i would probably buy that. $30 is really not that big of a deal to just like walk in all the houses. They have seven houses at Dorney.
00:45:58
Speaker
so We first did Necropolis, which is like an outdoor maze, graveyard-themed. You like kind of walk back behind where Steel Force is, where they used to have like the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit.
00:46:11
Speaker
And it was really good. Like it was very well staffed. um There were, you couldn't take a couple of steps without seeing somebody. They pulsed us in a group. it was just me and her and a couple of like old te older teenagers that were like really sweet and encouraging of her because they heard it was like her first haunted thing. And It was cute. She screamed a couple of times, but like was laughing. So i was like, this is going well. I love this. out And then we did a house that was nearby um called Trick or Treat, which is like classic, like witchy trick or treat vibes.
00:46:41
Speaker
She was also scared in there, but really loved it. And I'm like, okay, this is going great. So then... Just because we were by it, we went to Ghost in the Machine, which was the only house that really had any type of wait without Express. We waited probably less than five minutes for everything else, but like 30 minutes for Ghost in the Machine, I'd say, which is their premier house. It's much better than the rest. The din designers came over from Knott's to help with that. When they were marketing Iron Menace, they designed this house to go with the theme of Iron Menace. And it is really well done and definitely a step up in the scares.
00:47:14
Speaker
And that's where we found Amelia's seven-year-old limit. She cried in there and wanted to leave. So we made it through. i kind of like held her and she closed her eyes and we walked out.
00:47:26
Speaker
um But then afterwards she said it was fine and she wanted to do it again. And I was like, no, no, no, no we're not doing that. So um we walked through some more scare zones. We got some ice cream um,
00:47:38
Speaker
um she wanted to do one more house before we left and of the ones that were remaining one of them was i forget the name of it but it's dark like the one that you described joey where you just like walk through darkness and i knew she went like that there was one that was like really gory like butcher themed i was like no that's probably not good so then i gave her two choices one was like um tourist trap and that one's like a world's fair um with a bunch of like different legends in it. And then the other one is Blood on the Bayou, which is like what it sounds like. French Quarter, there's Demons, there's like Murky Water. She picked that one. And it was top notch. like i was actually I was scared in it multiple times from jump scares. And it was just so well staffed. They had people they had somebody dressed up like branches of a tree and like came out of the tree out of nowhere at the end. And I was like, what the heck?
00:48:33
Speaker
And we we both really enjoyed that one. so um Yeah, Dorney's Haunt is really good compared to... I haven't been to a ton of park haunts, but I grew up going to that and it's still getting better and better. um i do think the quality of their houses is absolutely worth worth the current pricing. Now, when that inflates next year, I don't know you know how far they can push it.
00:48:55
Speaker
But the attendance was the attendance in the park was high, but the attendance in the mazes was not. So it'll be interesting to see. um But we had a really good time. and i i enjoyed it a lot and i'm glad i have a spooky child
00:49:12
Speaker
yeah i i'm not surprised she got scared and goes to the machine because i walked in that with no scare actors in it and i was like oh dang this thing like kind of intense um so zach had a question kind of related to this um why do you think dorney and worlds of fun some of the smaller regional parks have a better haunt experience than Cedar Point or King's Island.
00:49:34
Speaker
I've always enjoyed the smaller events way more and they seem to have more effort in the houses. It's an interesting question. um I haven't looked into the history of this, but I'm wondering if Dorney actually has like a ah legacy of having that event longer than Cedar Point or King's Island. I'm not sure.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah, i was just going say, I'm not really sure. I haven't actually been to any of the larger park, Cedar Fair Park Legacy ha ah low legacy Park haunts. I've been to like some Six Flags ones.
00:50:01
Speaker
um And I've been to Dorney's a ton, but I don't know the history. I know Dorney's been having a haunt for years and years and years. And I think just to speak on behalf of like Dorney, their park in general, although it's part of a large corporation, still maintains a lot of like hometown feel that it's had since I was a kid. So I think there's just a lot of like care and attention from locals trying their best to run that place. Like it feels like a family owned park still in some aspects. And I think that spills over into the haunt season. So yeah.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm wondering if it's it's also a budget thing where these larger parks like Cedar Point and Kings Island have a lot going on in the park itself beyond the event.
00:50:45
Speaker
And if you kind of give a smaller park the same kind of allocation for a haunt event, they can actually go further with it than big park that's kind of focusing on more than just that. I don't know, maybe that has something to do with it.
00:51:00
Speaker
I wonder if the smaller parks have to actually just put in more effort to get people to go. i mean, people are going to Cedar Point no matter what. They're going to go ride the coasters. How weekends?
00:51:12
Speaker
Now, granted, it's been like probably almost 10 years since I've been, but it was not good at all. Yeah. Yeah. But people are going there, they want to ride the coasters in the dark, and then the houses are of just an added bonus. so Those parks kind of have the attraction of the park itself, whereas some of the smaller regional parks have to put more of an effort into being like, here's a reason to come back for this, you know, beyond the summer.
00:51:39
Speaker
That could be part of it, yeah. I think it is true, though, that like we we see that and it could just be commitment from the teams to like if they have a history of having a good event and then the team is really committed to it at those parks. They just kind of keep it going. Yeah, comparatively.
00:51:55
Speaker
i wonder if there is like the Cedar Point and Kings Islands teams just aren't as kind of invested in in that event for the same types of reasons. It's like, do we really need to put as much effort in when we're already pulling in so many people, regardless of how good it is?
Orlando Parks Visit and Crowd Levels
00:52:12
Speaker
Cool. Okay. And Steven also asked, related to Dorney, why is Thunderhawk Pennsylvania's worst wooden coaster? um I don't know that I would say it's the worst wooden coaster in the state of Pennsylvania. um It's not the best by any stretch. It's nowhere near the best, but I enjoy riding it. And both of my kids, shout out Benny, who's now 48 inches, can ride Thunderhawk.
00:52:38
Speaker
By the way, talk to Benny. It does have airtime. It has airtime. I don't know if he knows what airtime is, but he dec declared that Thunder All Cats. There is one pop, to be fair. I don't think it's intended, but it happens. yeah And he um got really mad at Tom for telling him there was no airtime. Yeah.
00:53:00
Speaker
Okay. If it's not the worst, what is the candidate we're putting up for worst in Pennsylvania? Cause I could throw some smaller ones out there. Like, um, what's the one at Dutch wonderland.
00:53:12
Speaker
It's not joust. It's the one right next. I actually really enjoy that. I think that's fun. So wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say that one. Roller coaster is kind of fun, but it's pretty small.
00:53:25
Speaker
yeah, The one at Lakemont is not Oh, Skyliner. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that that is very rough. Although it is currently defined. five. It just doesn't do much.
00:53:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um I could see that. Lakemont. Yeah. They have a decent number because you have Kennywood, too, that has a bunch. But I feel like Kennywoods are they're all pretty good. pretty good All right.
00:53:49
Speaker
Moving on. um Tyler has some reports from Orlando. Yeah. Yeah, same trip where I was at Horror Nights down in Orlando. went to a couple other parks.
00:54:02
Speaker
I went to SeaWorld one day. Probably the deadest I've ever seen that park. It was great. Perfect weather. Got a bunch of rides on Mako. um Got on Manta. Manta was posted at like 50 minutes. We walked right on. So I don't know what the deal with that is.
00:54:22
Speaker
uh missed pipeline it went down when we were in line we just never made it back over there and journey to atlantis was closed with no water or anything so i don't know if they're refurbing or what it seems like a weird time to refurb orlando i thought they just finished one that's weird yeah just no activity over there whatsoever so i'm not sure I did the new for 2025 attraction Expedition Odyssey, which I've heard some hate on this. Do you guys know about it or...
00:54:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's a mock sliding theater. Yeah, it's basically a Soarin' knockoff. but Well, I wouldn't even call it a knockoff. I feel like it's pretty much the same technology, just on a smaller scale.
00:55:09
Speaker
Obviously, that technology is fairly old at this point, but I really enjoyed it. It's much better than what they've had there in the past. And we also only waited about 10 minutes for that. So hopefully they maintain that and you know update the video every...
00:55:26
Speaker
every few years or so because I could see that getting old, but I did enjoy I think that's all for SeaWorld. I went to Epic also.
00:55:37
Speaker
My third visit to Epic and my second visit with Stardust closed to no one's surprise. Yeah. Such a streak of luck.
00:55:48
Speaker
Yep. Other than that, I think we had a pretty good day. um Crowds weren't terrible. Got two rides on ministry, which was good. We went there right when we got there because we walked in So we actually went there late. We decided to not a rope drop the park. We didn't get there until around 2 because I was looking at times the night before around like 9 because it was a 10 p.m. close.
00:56:14
Speaker
And ministry was like 10 minutes. Hiccups was like 5. So I'm like, why don't we go later in the day? Because if we rope drop it, we're going to get bored at like 3 and want to leave.
00:56:24
Speaker
Let's go later in the day and then we'll have some night rides and then hang out till close. And that ended up being a good idea. we waited maybe 75, 80 minutes for ministry the first time, which I think isn't terrible for middle of the day. And then we got on it right before close again, wait about 10 minutes.
00:56:48
Speaker
Hiccups, maybe 20 minutes. Werewolf, about the same Yeah, I don't really have too much to say. um Everything seemed to be working except for Stardust, which...
00:57:02
Speaker
That's obviously unfortunate. My friend that I went with, he's the one that I went with the first time also. And this was our return ticket that we were using that they gave us because we had such a bad day.
00:57:13
Speaker
So he's now 0 for 2 for Stardust. And then... So he was there the first, like on your first like... Yeah, crap yeah. our first We rode three things in 12 hours. That was with him.
00:57:26
Speaker
So he's the bad luck. Maybe so, yeah. Sounds like it. ah Because you had a pretty good day the the second time yeah like you went.
00:57:38
Speaker
Yeah, maybe Kelly's a good look. I don't know. but and And yeah, and now Stardust is back open like three or four days after we went. It is now back open. So he was not happy about that at all.
00:57:53
Speaker
He was like, i wonder if they'll give me a third day because of this. I'm like, no, I think you're pressing your luck there. needs like an express pass to walk in the park, ride it and leave. Yeah. He has to escorted in just for stardust. Then he's out the park.
00:58:09
Speaker
Right. One on each side and then leave. I'd be down with that. Right.
00:58:15
Speaker
um And then, yeah, did Universal. Yeah. we kind of Our focus was horror nights, so we got there pretty late to the park, like 10 or 11 every day.
00:58:26
Speaker
But, you know, just kind of did the rounds. um Very quiet in both parks. Our one day at Islands was Velascoaster was posted 10 and Hagrid's was posted 40, which that's the lowest I've ever seen.
00:58:43
Speaker
i think, Joe, you had a ah similar day when you were there recently. Yeah. yeah kind of Yeah, that was great. Got a few rides in on Jurassic Park before they start that refurb in, I think, November.
00:58:57
Speaker
So yeah, overall, besides missing Stardust, some very good days in the Orlando parks. Nice. It definitely seems like September, October, once you get past like the school time, at kind of cleans out a little bit besides HHN and and those parks. It's not a bad time to go. Yeah. I do think Islands gets very busy around like four to six because everybody's coming from studios the Islands that doesn't have HHN tickets.
00:59:25
Speaker
Yeah, that makes Obviously, studios closes earlier. so Yeah. Yeah. The hours aren't great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the crowd, when we went, i went, the first night that I went on my second weekend, I arrived, well, I did early park admission that day, which was, I was dead by the end of the night, but did early park admission.
00:59:49
Speaker
We got through, because I went with one of my friends that had never been to Universal and Islands, and so we did park to park. We got through everything at both parks, or at least all of the important rides in both parks, like by 1.30.
01:00:04
Speaker
Like by 1.30, we were done with everything, which I was so surprised about. So I don't know. k Crowds have been pretty great. Normally during Horror Nights, I feel like it's always really busy, i guess, because of Horror Nights. Like everybody's just going to the parks because they're going to Horror Nights later as well.
01:00:19
Speaker
um But I don't know. This year I've been noticing that they're a lot lighter on the crowds at the parks during the daytime hours,
Buzz Bars Event at Knoebels and Fall Activities
01:00:27
Speaker
which is pretty great. and Yeah.
01:00:30
Speaker
All right. So our last little bit wobble in the woods this past weekend, the last buzz bars event of the year. And unfortunately, Rafa was not there.
01:00:43
Speaker
I was not. So fill me in. to know Yes. So um on Friday night, we went to Knoebels. We missed the fall colors by a little bit. They were just starting, it seems like.
01:00:58
Speaker
um But the park was all decked out for their Hallow Fun event, which is always cool. I love Knoebels at that time of year because their decorations are fun and kitschy. And um it's always nice to like ride those rides at night um in the dark. and Kelly, Tyler and I were with Kelly's kids the whole time and we were having a fun time riding rides with them.
01:01:21
Speaker
I'm not sure there's anything particularly notable to talk about, um but it was a good time. Yeah. ah We finally got Tyler the the proper pierogies. Yeah. There's two types of pierogies. You got to know where to look.
01:01:37
Speaker
Not the frozen ones in the back. yeah I will say that they were only open six to 10, which for the crowds that they had, it was not enough time to do everything yeah that you wanted.
01:01:48
Speaker
Especially one train ops on both Twister and Phoenix. Yeah, yeah. The lines weren't like crazy long, but it would have been nice if they had both out or had longer hours for sure.
01:02:01
Speaker
Both were running really well, though. Like that's the I go to Knoebels pretty like regularly, at least once a year. And feel like recently Twister was getting a little bit rough and it wasn't at all. It ran really well and it felt fast. So.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think as soon as like things start to go downhill there, they they fix it up pretty quick. therere They're good on their their wood coaster maintenance. um And I got a ride on flying turns earlier because we we rope dropped that more or less. And that was fun and per usual.
01:02:29
Speaker
I think it had a pretty long line the rest of the night. um Yeah, the park looks really cute. The food was good per use. The rides were good per use. um yeah It was a good time. And Amelia rode a drop tower for a big one for the first time, I think. Nice.
01:02:46
Speaker
How'd she like that? Did she like it at all? no It was hilarious, though, because she was so hyped for it. She was like, we want I want to do it. I want to do it. I want to do it.
01:02:58
Speaker
it was completely her idea. We did not the worst or anything. She wanted it all. Like we were shocked. Thank you. Thank you for saying that in case anybody thought that I was that kind of a parent. No, no. She was asking to do it repeatedly. Yeah. She asked like for over an hour and then she was fine going up.
01:03:18
Speaker
She was even fine. Well, she was freaking out a little bit, but she wasn't crying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She started to hyperventilate a little bit when she asked me if we were at the top and we were like a quarter of the way up. I was like, Oh no. Yeah.
01:03:31
Speaker
Yeah. To be fair, that thing does go on forever. Yeah. And you can't see the top because of the way that the... yeah It's shielded. yeah shield yeah Once we got above the trees is when she started to be like, oh, this thing is taller than I thought. And she started to rock up.
01:03:48
Speaker
yeah Is it one of those that like go up and then just drop you right away? that Immediately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah So like she was so caught off guard, I think, by the drop that it went all the way down and then it was like,
01:03:59
Speaker
a couple moments of silence and then she started to cry because she was like processing what just happened but she was over it in like five minutes yeah should it everyone in the line because we our seats were facing the queue were like hyping her up beforehand because she started to look nervous and then we got down there and they were like clapping for her and then she started crying and they were like oh We just told her wish she was brave, which she was. was i was proud of her for writing that. and wouldn't have written that at seven years old.
01:04:29
Speaker
oh say no No way. ah Or Impulse. Or Impulse. yeah else through And she did that later. She was kind of iffy on it earlier, but then when we got over there, she was mostly worried about the drop and we were like, girl, it's like not as much as Iron Menace. Iron Menace is dropping. loves Iron Menace. She loves it. and her Her favorite part of Impulse was the the hang time slow roll, which is like the opposite of ah someone else we know, which is so funny.
01:04:59
Speaker
and Yeah. Yeah. We did try to do the chairlift. Yeah. And they were already closed. It was only 945. So I don't know what the deal with that was, but I want to tell the trip is long.
01:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, I guess. But ah It's less than 15 minutes, I feel like. so we Yeah, probably. could been on and back before closing time, but I was hoping to see all the fog and lights and stuff from the trees. but That would have been cool. That's all right. Overall, was an enjoyable night.
01:05:33
Speaker
We did Haunted Mansion, and that was fun. Yeah, that was fun. It's nice weather. the car or not the car like The truck that comes at you, that scared the crap out of Amelia. She was next to me.
01:05:46
Speaker
But she had fun on it. She had fun on it for sure. Yeah. no Yeah. So that was Friday night. Yeah. Beautiful weather, like you said. um And on Saturday, we kind of had a chill day for the majority of the day. um We were hanging out at various breweries. And then we also went to It's not actually called a pumpkin patch is it it's called like Grimm's family farm or orchard which yeah, um but it's it's basically a pumpkin patch. So we went there and we had some what was it apple cider hard slushies delicious.
01:06:21
Speaker
delicious good smell it was also like 80 degrees so having a so ah slushy was nice um we may or may not have made the ill-advised decision to go through a corn maze in the 80 degrees um and it took us 30 minutes to get through the corn maze um so that was fun some of it too yeah we even cheated we went through an unauthorized trail but we were like you know what that's fine It was kind of cool though that they had the clues through it. I haven't seen that before. Like they had little questions through the way and it was like left or right for the right answer. And you had to pick the right one. It's basically just advertisements, but it was fine.
01:07:03
Speaker
Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. what else did we get there? I don't remember. Apple donuts. Um, the kids played on the play sets, uh, and got a lot of pumpkins.
01:07:17
Speaker
Um, what was the name of the the first brewery we went to that day? Cause that was, that was cool. Uh, rising river, rising river. Yeah. That was really cute. It's like along a Lehigh Creek or something of that nature. And yeah, it was really pretty down there. And,
01:07:31
Speaker
they had some We went out open and it was very empty. Every time I've been there, it's been like so many people you can't even find anywhere to sit or stand. It's like wild how different it was during like the morning. But it was fun.
01:07:43
Speaker
It was kind of a little bit liminal because there were so few people there. It's like yeah kind of we had it to ourselves. But that food truck was pretty good actually for yeah breakfast. and um And then what else? What happened? We took a break after the pumpkin patch. Yeah.
01:07:59
Speaker
and we did. Some people went to t Wishful Thinking, another brewery in Bethlehem. Yes, and the ah Wishful Thinking pizza and beer reviews were good. Everybody seemed to enjoy their time there.
01:08:11
Speaker
And then we met up at Retriever Brewing. which was super weird. i had been there one time before and it was also weird. It gives, it gives um community center attached to the public library vibes. yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. Like I think John Mike said that like, it looks like a church group should be meeting there or something. like Yeah. yeah That's fine. It was empty at,
01:08:37
Speaker
like 6.30 p.m. on a Saturday night. So what does that tell you? The reason we chose it just to like, you know, vouch for ourselves is that it was across the street from our final destination the screen park. It's more of a gathering point than a destination.
01:08:51
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. um But I will say that they had a ah food truck there and the pizzas off that food truck were pretty good. So yeah I was not mad about that. Pizzas were good. I think people enjoyed their beers. It was just the space was a little off.
01:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, was weird. We sat outside like around a fire pit that was not on. was' nice I was about to turn nothing on myself just for the fun of it. um Yeah, so the whole day was kind of leading up to to the night. um we I think there were about 10 of us. Is that right?
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah. So 10 of us got tickets to the Lehigh Valley Scream Park, which you may recall, Kelly um did a little bit of a review of that last year. um But this time, the three of us all went with our friends as well, which was super fun.
01:09:38
Speaker
um We got really lucky to get like the early ticket deal. So we had the VIP tickets, which normally you have a timed entry, you just kind of hang out.
01:09:48
Speaker
in this general area and then you have a timed entry entry to go in. But we have the flexibility with the VIP to just go whenever we wanted. um So we went in and we hung out in the kind of hangout area.
01:10:01
Speaker
the waiting area if you will and they have food and bonfires and drinks um what did we all have i got fresh fries they're literally like it this is a farm by the way lehigh valley screen park is on a farm and they had their own potatoes and they were like fresh slicing them for fries so i had some of those that were really good kelly got ah tell them what you got um i got well it said that they had jello shots so i was like i mean yes i will yeah the only, it was only one flavor choice, cherry. And I was like, that's kind of medicine-like. And then they handed it to me.
01:10:38
Speaker
it was in a syringe and I didn't even know. and it was like a double. I was like, okay. And I also got at the exact same time, apple pie moonshine drink. So I'm like double fisting jello shot in my drink. yeah And because we had decided to enter the, like the haunt part of the event, like a half hour later, I was like, I'm to
Lehigh Valley Scream Park Adventure
01:11:00
Speaker
hurry up. So I was Feeling good for about 10 solid minutes and then I went away, but it was fun while it lasted.
01:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, that gel shot was wild. It was like hard to- You guys were calling me out. What was I doing? I was being fine. don't know. I had the moonshine break too. You were laughing at me.
01:11:18
Speaker
and was good. Yeah, it was good. Um, apparently the music vibes were off because last time yeah like they were spookier and it was kind of yeah, they were really good last time. I was like a DJ, like doing spooky music this time. it was just like pop songs. Yeah. how long yeah Um, I feel like I should have the thing.
01:11:38
Speaker
I'm sure Kelly knows he's up. So anyway, the, the way that this, this works is you go in and you start out with a hayride and then you go through a half outdoor, half indoor corn maze type house.
01:11:52
Speaker
And then there are two more houses after that that are kind of back out in the, um, main loading area. So you can kind of pick and choose which of those you do, but you have to start with the hayride. Um, which is called hollow of horror.
01:12:04
Speaker
There it is. We got all the names. Hollow of Horror. um So the first thing that caught me off guard with this hayride is the tractor pulls up. Well, we got to see a group go before us, but the tractor pulls up and they're like, okay, get on.
01:12:18
Speaker
And everybody's getting on with their butts like on the edge of the bed. It's like a flatbed. of the flatbed like there's no hay you know how a hay like a hayride usually has hay bales and you sit on the hay bales well you just sit on the edge of the truck with your legs dangling off the side of it by the wheels and I was like okay this is kind of like sketchy but I'm so here for it honestly
01:12:44
Speaker
but yeah um what did you guys think of it I thought it was great. I'll be honest. I was a little skeptical about this place because you pull up. The parking lot is like small. There's not that many people there.
01:12:57
Speaker
You walk up to the building. It's like a warehouse that just says Lehigh Valley Screen Park on it. i'm like, where are we going? We get on this like sketchy hayride.
01:13:09
Speaker
And then i loved every second of it. So what it does, it takes you through the woods. And I thought it was just going to kind of take us through the woods and then drop us off at whatever the haunt is.
01:13:19
Speaker
But the Hayride is a haunt itself. So you pull up to the set pieces and then it stops for maybe 30 seconds, a minute. And you have almost a little show going on.
01:13:31
Speaker
So there were different... um different sets. so you had like the bayou, you had the circus, you had like the junkyard and there was a you know, they'd cut the lights off and then somebody would run out from the bushes at you. They all had dialogue.
01:13:48
Speaker
ah They would jump on the hayride as it's moving also and like go down the line and try to scare you. It was great. I loved it. Yeah, it was not. I know Kelly's done this before, so it wasn't really a surprise for you, but it was not what I was expected because I don't know. I'm used to it being a lot more. You just kind of move by scenes or like static displays of things.
01:14:13
Speaker
And I wasn't expecting it to be as much of a almost theatrical experience as it was. um And then the other thing I wasn't expecting was to get so scared like. There were even in between the scenes, the main scenes that were happening, they had some people really well hidden in the bushes and they would just jump out at you and all, you know, you're just hanging off the side of this but of this truck thing. And they got me like three to four times. They jump scared beyond that, um beyond just like intimidating us from from the sides of it. Yeah, it was really fun.
01:14:45
Speaker
Yeah. And they get really close to you, too. Yeah. Yeah. like there are no limits with these haunts. Like maybe because like I have HHN here and I'm there most, you know, for the most part for haunt season, like whenever, like last year we went to, um, Trail of Terror. Yeah. yeah That was a completely different experience for me. Like you don't know what to expect. You don't know who's in these woods or you don't know where the hell you are. Like, I don't know. Like, I think just the uncertainty of it all makes it an even spookier experience.
01:15:16
Speaker
For sure. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It's pretty That's what made it so fun. Like it was, it's unique, you know, it's not a house, but it is, it is an, it's like scare attraction. So that's what makes it fun. Yeah. And I, this is my second year going. I went for the first time last year and the four experiences are unchanged, but I still had an absolutely amazing time. And I was actually, like, I was legitimately scared multiple times and not to like toot my own horn, but it's like pretty hard for me to get jump scared.
01:15:42
Speaker
yeah. i and just really love it. And like you like Tyler said, you pull up and this is somebody's like family farmland and you're expecting this like really low budget haunt. And then I just remember last year, because we you always start with the hayride, just being so blown away by where is this budget coming from? like what How do they have all this stuff? And like it's just kind of wild yeah and really well done for a local haunt. And it wins some more awards. Yeah.
01:16:10
Speaker
hmm. Like all the scenes on that. Hey, right. Have like lighting design and sound design and like things being triggered at certain moments. And almost every scene had three to four, maybe even five scare actors like that. Yeah, it was.
01:16:24
Speaker
Yeah, it was impressive. And they work to have like personal interactions with you. They're not just like, like one was like literally like in my face, teasing me and I was dying.
01:16:37
Speaker
Yeah, that was hilarious. Yeah. was That was the, what would you even call that? Hillbilly station. Yeah. um So they they bring you to the next house, which is not like you can't even see it really from, from the main area.
01:16:56
Speaker
This one's called psychopath. um And that's the partially outdoor, partially indoor. And the outdoor parts are kind of like through ah cornfield type situation.
01:17:07
Speaker
um So this was kind of the first real house experience we got. um i was super impressed by it. They it was very well staffed again, like there were so many actors in it. They were being interactive. There were jump scares. There were.
01:17:24
Speaker
unique scares and some of it was just uncertainty too like I at HHN you pretty much always know which direction you're going sometimes in this you're kind of like where am I going like is it this way is it that way you have to crawl through like a pipe thing at one point and so there's some things they're doing to kind of throw you off it was it was really fun yeah I really enjoy this part it might be my favorite not I don't know it's tough to choose my favorite but I really like the mix of the indoor and outdoor. There were some parts that were like completely dark where you couldn't see anything.
01:17:56
Speaker
um Obviously they pulse you through and like smaller groups. So we did everything in groups of like five or even smaller. The last one we did just the three of us, which was really fun. um I think what makes these local haunts unique to to themselves rather than like a park haunt or like, you know, um a higher budget haunt is,
01:18:19
Speaker
The scare actors don't have a script, so they can really like say and whatever they want, feed off of how you react and what you say, which makes it really fun too. Yeah, they'll like they'll pick on you.
01:18:32
Speaker
as well i think it was this house where we were in like a greenhouse type situation and i walked up to because i thought i was going the right way and like the scare actor just walked right in front of me and was like where do you think you're going i was like i don't know is this the right way he's like you might need some eyes out the back of your head because i was literally like behind me was where i was supposed to be going yeah yeah that was funny What else? So then um after that one, back out in the main area, we did Purge.
01:19:05
Speaker
This one started out pretty interesting because they kind of like hype you up for this military, like the virus escaped experience. And you go in and it feels like it's just going to be a house at first, but then they load you into this room.
01:19:21
Speaker
And they do like special effects and stuff. That was interesting. um The first one caught me off guard for sure. Because they like pretend like they're injecting you with something. And the whole seat that you're sitting on like has this thing that pokes you.
01:19:34
Speaker
was getting flashbacks to... Tough to be a bug. Is that what it was when... yes then Yeah, yeah. Oh, no. Somebody said Nemesis of Terra, too, and I was like, yeah. yeah um But then after that, you go, and then, like, the rest of it was more of a traditional, like, house experience.
01:19:55
Speaker
Although I will say there were parts of it where the direction to go was super confusing, and I feel like we were just following where people had went before because it was just, like, barrels and, like, dark.
01:20:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely an interesting concept with some like high tech features, but like definitely the weakest last year and this year for me of the four.
01:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, I agree, but still really fun. Yeah, it has a consistent theme for sure. I think it just felt like the least scary of them. And then the last one was Condemned, which the facade is super cool. It's a basically looks like a haunted house. It's like this condemned old rickety building.
01:20:40
Speaker
And you walk through the garden into the front door when you first start. um And they are very specific that you can only go through with a group of three or two. for this house. So like our group of 10 got split into like these tiny little groups to walk through it.
01:20:54
Speaker
um And having been through it, I understand why now, because it's designed in a way to creep you out. And if you had too, too big of a group, it wouldn't really work. um This was my favorite just because there were some super effective, unsettling things that were going on in there.
01:21:13
Speaker
um like they there was a part where you went to the second level of the house and then you were walking on a platform and they like pushed it or something and the whole platform just starts wobbling around and then you're walking like crouching down to to get through a section um kelly's favorite part pitch wait did they have the inflatable thing No, actually, I didn't. They had that in the.
01:21:40
Speaker
But they have something similar because they they put you in this pick pitch black room and you're just navigating like I was in the front. So was navigating with my hand. I was in the front first and then I just couldn't go because i was like, I can't I can't do it. I can't see. And then that girl was upside down.
01:22:00
Speaker
Literally, yeah she turned the hallway and the girl's just upside down and she's like, nope.
01:22:07
Speaker
Uh, so yeah, I'm like in the front, just like running my hands along the walls in this pitch black dark area. and And then you hit this section where there's like stuff on the walls and it's, it's up against your shoulders and it's like forcing you to like crouch down and then the walls start tightening on either side of you.
01:22:24
Speaker
There was a super claustrophobic effect that like just, and it was pitch black. you couldn't see anything. And it's just getting tighter and tighter and tight. And you're like, how small is this going to get? Like, how do get out here? It was so dark. It was so dark.
01:22:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um But it was also not just going fast at first. I was like, no, no. But yeah, so but yeah it was no space between me and for anyone to get in there. Because yeah, there was there was a really effective scare in the middle of that pitch black section to where they like strobe lights you and of course I was right there and I was like, Oh, gosh.
01:23:04
Speaker
ah What did you think of that one, Tyler? Yeah, that was also my favorite. um Just complete darkness with no direction, nothing at all was just insane. And it felt like it went on forever also. Yeah.
01:23:21
Speaker
I felt like we were in there for 20 minutes.
01:23:24
Speaker
Yeah. We probably were because we were walking so damn slow. Yeah, we might have been. I'd love to see a lights on tour of that though, just to see exactly how it's done. I'm sure it's nothing complicated at all, but yeah. Yeah.
01:23:37
Speaker
It was very interesting too. Like it it felt like it went through multiple kind of areas because the beginning was very much the sets were all the house and they were actually pretty like detailed and had like props all over them and were well decorated. And then you like go up into the attic and it's weird up there. And then you're going to the pitch black hallways.
01:23:56
Speaker
There was even like a little outdoor section, wasn't there? Because that's where the like the funeral type thing was. oh yeah. it It had everything. really yeah Yeah, it was really good. and Maybe that is my favorite.
01:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. anyway And then they like chase you with a chainsaw on the way out. Literally. He was not pleased that we weren't bothered by the chainsaw. It's like we are veterans of this scare. So try harder. Right. Literally.
01:24:22
Speaker
but yeah, I think that's, you know, I for sure that night got jump scared probably like three times as many times as I do in a night at HHN just because, you know, smaller groups and more unexpected things happening that Universal would never do because it's probably dangerous kind of or like just legally, maybe not something i would want to try, especially with a conga line. But yeah, it was it was really, really fun.
01:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, agreed. And Brayden asked if there are any haunts that we like that are rarely talked about. This definitely falls into that category for me because I've never even heard of it except for from Kelly last year.
01:25:04
Speaker
And I guess it is relatively new, right? You said like maybe three or four years. Yeah, I think so. um But I've never heard anybody talk about it. And I think it's up there with the best that I've ever done. Yeah. Yeah.
01:25:17
Speaker
I think that's what you find throughout the haunt industry is that the ones that everybody knows aren't necessarily the best. Like there are some that are kind of very local, but they're actually super good.
01:25:32
Speaker
And you kind of have to do a little bit of internet digging to find them. Like they'll have good reviews and sometimes they'll be in like the, there's like haunted attractions, websites that will rate them and stuff. But you kind of have to search a little bit locally to see what might be good that's around.
01:25:47
Speaker
It's not even talked about locally here. Really? Yeah, I grew up going to a lot of like outdoor haunts in like the Lancaster area or like closer to Philly. like there's There's ones that are well known that the name is like on billboards and stuff.
01:26:03
Speaker
But like last year, I was like, I want to try something different. like i really I remembered when I was in high school, we went to my friend and I went to a haunted house that was just a standalone haunted house. And that was like the most scared I've ever been in a house. And I was like, I want to find that. Like, where was that?
01:26:18
Speaker
So I just started searching for like haunted haunted attractions in the area and came across this as like Pennsylvania's like highest rated haunt over the last couple of years. And I was like, what the heck? It's 20 minutes from my house. Like, how is nobody talking about this? What is wrong with people?
01:26:33
Speaker
So I made Tom go, he hated it. No, he didn't. you know And I just like loved it so much. I was like, this is going to be such a fun thing if we could ever get like a group of people to go to. And that's kind of what like sparked my idea to have an event around here, especially because it's generally pretty here this time of the year, nice weather, pretty
Planning Around Local Haunts
01:26:55
Speaker
colors. So you all doubted me.
01:26:58
Speaker
it was good. ah It was very good. And I hope they are able to stay open because it it wasn't quiet, but for a Saturday night in October, I feel like it should have been busier. Also, it's opening night, which was a little strange because I remember last year we went in October and I think it was open a lot earlier in the season. I don't know for sure, but um I don't know if maybe that scared people away that it was its opening night or what the deal was because it was definitely busier when I was there last year.
01:27:30
Speaker
I imagine it'll definitely get busier as it gets closer to Halloween. i hope so. That's one of those things with local haunts. A lot of times they have a super compressed schedule because people don't even think about it and until October. You know i mean? Yeah, people are like us.
01:27:44
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. like You have to build up a serious reputation in order to get people coming like in September and stuff and to be thinking about that even. um Oh, yeah. Yeah.
01:27:55
Speaker
So Ethan was with us as well, and he asked how we would rank the four attractions from the Scream Park um and how it compares to other Scream Parks that we've experienced or like other local haunts. um I think, I mean, Tyler and I seem to agree that Condemned was our favorite house. I think it's probably mine too.
01:28:14
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that. And then the the corn maze one. psychopath the hayride and then bio purge agree but I think Tyler has a hayride higher Yeah, I'm going to go Hayride 2 and then Psychopath 3.
01:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. There you go. um And how does it compare? Honestly, out of... I haven't done a ton of local haunts, um but out of this one, Trail of Terror and um Netherworld, which is a very popular Atlanta haunt, this is my favorite.
01:28:51
Speaker
For sure. High praise. yeah Yeah. It's definitely... I think it might be mine too. I mean, Netherworld is incredible, but it's this is just such a unique and different experience. It's hard to compare.
01:29:04
Speaker
Yeah. and even though the attractions stay the same, like the four haunt haunted attractions are the same as last year, like I said earlier, I still had such a good time and it's not something where I would say like, oh, I've been there before. I'm not going to go back. Like I see myself going every year probably. And I even considered like, oh, could I make it back this year and take somebody else that hasn't been before? Because I just really enjoy It's so fun.
01:29:28
Speaker
Yeah. I need to know. We're definitely going to be on the lookout for more of these types things. We should we should be like what if we're going to a different. Please let us know if you have a local haunt that I think the past couple of years, as far as the fall buzz bars events have been concerned, is we've tried to tie it into something spooky.
01:29:47
Speaker
So if you have a local haunt that you feel is really good, let us know. Maybe we'll try to get there next year. Absolutely. Absolutely. I know there were a couple of people talking about some some interesting ones around. So we are very interested to hear about anybody else's haunt experiences this season.
01:30:05
Speaker
Any recommendations? All right. So now it's time for questions. We already had a couple kind of peppered throughout, but we have a couple more that we would like to get to from our favorite listeners.
01:30:17
Speaker
um We kind of talked about this earlier. I wonder if there's a little bit more to add. um Tim asked, budget aside, what makes a good haunted house slash attraction to you?
01:30:28
Speaker
um i think for me, honestly, the biggest thing is just the scares. And the screen park executed that very well. um Because like it's it's hard to address budget without talking about set design and things like that.
01:30:43
Speaker
um So if you if you take that away, like what makes it good is is did it scare me?
01:30:49
Speaker
It scares me most.
01:30:54
Speaker
Yeah. Energy for sure. The scares and the energy. hundred percent. Yeah. Like I love a jump scare, but I want to walk through the attraction feeling scared the entire time. Like I want to feel on edge. That's what I like.
01:31:06
Speaker
So whatever they can do to accomplish that in whatever various ways. Yeah. Just the, uh, just the ah The quality of the scary actors, whether they're enjoying their job, enthusiastic, that's by far the most important thing.
01:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, that was a big part in in screen part two, I think. i mean, it was opening night, so we were definitely getting like peak energy levels from them. I'm sure they were excited to have people finally like at their attraction.
01:31:37
Speaker
um But they were all so invested and saying all kinds of nonsense at us and and being aggressive with the scares. It was great. I feel like that's harder for HHN. It's harder to feel that energy because you don't get like the vocal. You get like the pre-recorded vocals and and sound effects.
01:31:56
Speaker
So the only way you can kind of get the energy of the scare actors is how physically aggressive they're being. Yeah. which you can You can feel that sometimes. But without like the organicness of the voices being involved, sometimes like you lose a little bit of that in some of the like more, I don't know, repetitive boo-hole houses like like Jason, for example. Like you can tell when they're being super aggressive. But...
01:32:16
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know how these actors like do this for the whole entire month. Like they, i would sound like this after one night of doing that job. Literally.
01:32:27
Speaker
Yeah. yeah It's insane to me. I used to, when I used to work at um the Bush Gardens haunted attractions, I asked them about it. I was like, and some of them were like, especially towards the end of the events, some some of them were getting super hoarse.
01:32:40
Speaker
um But part of it as well is that a lot of these ah local haunts, especially will only run like Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So they have several days to recover. Whereas if you, if you work at HHN, that's like, I think one day off, right? One or two days off. to monday too Yeah. So there's a lot less time to recover. And i think that's part of the reason why HHN uses the,
01:33:00
Speaker
the recordings to help like with the stability of their, their performers health. All right. From CPred. Do you prefer to have an IP based house where you are familiar with the story or can relate to movie or characters? Or do you prefer a unique based house where you discover it as a new experience?
01:33:21
Speaker
That's a good question. it is. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like overall, like, ah like a unique, theme is the way to go for the most part, unless like you're really big into the IP, like if you have like some sort of connection to that IP, you know, that amplifies the experience. But I feel like overall, like, and especially with my last visit, like seeing how much they've improved, like these original houses, I feel like there's a lot more freedom.
01:33:50
Speaker
um When it comes to like what they do with the houses, like what they might want to add or remove, like they're not really working with a property that, you know, removing something would affect the story or whatever the original source is. I feel like overall, the ah unique original houses are my go to.
01:34:07
Speaker
That's what I would prefer. Yeah, I agree with that. I think like When we're talking about going into an HHN season specifically, like my hype list usually has some IPs up higher because it's just hard to be hype about an original if you don't really understand the story or know what it's about ahead of time.
01:34:25
Speaker
But at the end of the season, I end up usually with my highest ranked houses being originals. I agree also. ah i don't like feeling like I have to do my homework before I go to even understand what's happening in the house.
01:34:40
Speaker
That's kind of what's going on with Fallout. Yeah. and seen I feel the same way. and Like there are certain IPs like Terrifier that get me excited. But on the whole, it's the unique non-IP things that end up being more interesting.
01:34:56
Speaker
And when you talk about local haunts, that's pretty much all they are. Like a lot of them don't have the money to spend on acquiring like rights to do the IP thing. So sometimes you'll get IP adjacent, but you know.
01:35:07
Speaker
and Well, some of them don't care about rights and they just do That's true. That's true. But I'll give credit to Screen Park. I really didn't see. it Well, besides the beginning of the Hayride, I didn't really see too much like copied from from any IPs. They kind of did their own thing, which was great.
01:35:23
Speaker
All right. From show, any thoughts or recommendations for Mickey's and not so scary Halloween party? First of all, has anybody actually been to this? No, this is my biggest embarrassment as a Disney adult.
01:35:37
Speaker
You haven't been. No, i I would love to go, but I just haven't. Do you know what it is, though? Because I, to be honest, don't.
01:35:48
Speaker
Like, they don't have haunted houses. So what is the what is It's like a whole it's a whole Magic Kingdom does a lot of like after hours type events. throughout the year seasonally. It's basically an add-on where it is themed to Halloween. You can dress in costume. They have like extra parade, I think, for it. The rides are open later. Basically, you get access to the park like later at night.
01:36:16
Speaker
um I'm sure there's more stuff. I don't know the details of it because I've never looked into it to go. And also it would make me jealous, but I think that's it what it is. Yeah, they have, um well, at least they used to, they had a Hocus Pocus show by the castle.
01:36:32
Speaker
The parade has like a headless horseman with a real horse. It looks really cool. I would love to go. Lots of themed snacks and everything, but I have never been, unfortunately.
01:36:43
Speaker
So I saw something on social media about the pricing for this. And I just out of curiosity was like, why is that a problem? So I'm looking at HHN right now.
01:36:55
Speaker
And the most expensive night is $135 right now or 140 for a single night ticket on a Saturday for Mickey's not so scary. It's $229. That's the most expensive. Yeah.
01:37:10
Speaker
that so the most expensive Yeah. Or that's the bait. like oh That's the most expensive. What's the cheapest? So let me look let me look for the cheapest. So the cheapest, there were only two nights of the event for Not So Scary that were $119,000.
01:37:27
Speaker
And the cheapest currently for HHN is 96. So on the low end, it's similar, but there were really like, I would say the average price that I'm seeing here, because it gets more expensive as you go into October for Not So Scary, is ah about 160, it looks like. And for HHN, it's like 100. And for how long? How long is the event?
01:37:50
Speaker
think it's shorter. August 15th through October 31st. No, but like the hours, like how are their hours? Oh, that's a good question. I'm not sure. think it's like seven to one or something. It's the hours or less.
01:38:04
Speaker
That's interesting. Yeah. I don't have a midnight, 7pm to midnight, five hours. hour that's so I don't know what the base, I don't, I don't currently know what the base price ticket for like a day at magic kingdom is though.
01:38:19
Speaker
So you have to like consider that too, I guess. Well, this is like completely separately ticketed. Right. Or do you have to get right But like you're, you're getting access to like most of the magic kingdom thing. Oh yeah. yeah so I see what you're saying.
01:38:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. I just thought that was an interesting comparison because you don't get any houses out of it. You just kind of get the like parades and shows and overlay. But obviously that's priced that way because there's demand. Like it's sold out. You cannot currently buy tickets for it at all.
01:38:48
Speaker
So yeah, I guess if you want to go buy your tickets early. Yeah. That's our advice. And last but certainly not least, from Shay, if the four of you were in a horror movie, rank who would be the least and the most likely to survive?
Surviving a Horror Movie Debate
01:39:06
Speaker
um um I hadn't read that before. I feel like we all have to answer this separately. Oh, gosh. Oh, no i have no idea. and You're making us judge each other now. This is terrible.
01:39:24
Speaker
Kelly, I feel like you would survive just because you're the only woman. So they would. Yeah. You're like the final girl. We can't be final girls. Yeah. I feel like a lot of women die first though.
01:39:36
Speaker
Oh, so Kelly dies first. I don't know. No, I actually was going to say Kelly towards the top because she can run, you know, ah can run.
01:39:48
Speaker
I have baseline of massive anxiety. So I've prepared for these situations in my head already. Yeah. Okay, so she's surviving. That's the thing. Like, she's got a plan and she can run. So I feel like she would do pretty well.
01:40:01
Speaker
I wouldn't put myself... highlightrates are you were It's going to be you were you or me that dies first, for sure. Why? I think I would. I don't know. i just feel like... I don't know. I feel like I'd die first. I don't know.
01:40:15
Speaker
i like yeah You know what? like I'm done with this. I'm over it. Just off me right now. I'm done. i can i can see i could potentially see you also just like being too nice for it. You're just like, whatever. but i was going to say. you guys are both too nice. You would just like sacrifice yourselves to protect us.
01:40:33
Speaker
i know I think I'd sacrifice myself because I'm done. i'm like I'm not going through this mental bullshit right now. Yeah, don't be so sure about that. I might save myself.
01:40:45
Speaker
I was going to say, i think Tyler should be at the top of that list too, because in some ways he's, he's also very prepared for this. It's true. Yeah. he's I was thinking more about what the writers would do if we were the four. like Oh, that's how i was looking at it.
01:41:03
Speaker
So what you think they're not like our actual skills, I got to save the redhead. Like, yeah, they might kill the ginger first. Yeah. Ginger's the killer. Oh yeah, maybe I'm a killer. I don't know. That's true.
01:41:18
Speaker
If we're going by that, I would easily be the first one dead. There's like this whole, um like, you know, that website that does all the movie tropes. There's this one that's like kill the gays and they always do that.
01:41:32
Speaker
I'd be done for. it that our answer? If we're going to put us in order then. So, okay. So I think we all agree that Kelly's going to survive. Mm-hmm.
01:41:43
Speaker
I don't know. I don't take it. You're either going first or last. I don't know which one. I don't think I would die first, but I don't know if I would be last. I have confidence in myself to some extent.
01:41:57
Speaker
Well, I'm thinking about the writers, though. Like, are they going to kill off the blonde girl? They might. Or they might bring you to the very end and you can be the hero. I don't know. That's what I'm saying. First last.
01:42:09
Speaker
What is the writer's room doing? Yeah. I feel like you've got to keep the female energy in there for a little bit. Right. So your final two for sure.
Future Guest Opinions and Podcast Interaction
01:42:20
Speaker
i think so. The girl and the gay, Joey and Kelly, they make it to the end. And then she kills me. Oh my gosh.
01:42:33
Speaker
I could see it. That'd be fun. Okay. I guess my order will be Kelly surviving, then Joey, Tyler, and myself.
01:42:47
Speaker
I love that you just threw yourself under the bus there. i feel like I would die first. I don't know why.
01:42:56
Speaker
i think I would initially have a really hard time keeping myself calm, but I think my instincts from work would kick in. Like I would just be like, I have to do this. Yeah.
01:43:07
Speaker
If we're just talking about like our personal selves and survivability and stuff, I think I'm living personally. Yeah, I do too. And I think I'll probably die too. Yeah. mean I think it would be, I think it would be you for sure, Tyler.
01:43:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry guys.
01:43:28
Speaker
That's good question, Shay. Thank you. Any serial killers that are listening out here, Rafa's an easy target, apparently. Fuck off!
01:43:40
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't I didn't curse. Don't worry, Kelly, it's been me like the past like four episodes. That's Rafa's second one of night. That's the second one. have been so well-y. Oh, yeah, I did say. I didn't curse earlier.
01:43:56
Speaker
ah So yeah, tell us tell us in the comments what your ranking is. Yeah, you guys rank it. Of our survivability. would love that. Okay.
01:44:08
Speaker
Well, that's it for this episode. um So the next episode is TBD. We shall, we shall figure it out. um But at the very least, there's definitely more HHN coming as we have another visit planned towards the end of October.
01:44:22
Speaker
So we will report back from that. And maybe we'll have some additional reactions of some other, some other people who are also. Maybe we should do that in between. We should yeah a guest episode. Would you guys like that? If we had some guests on.
01:44:37
Speaker
Sure. I think we should do it. Let's get some other opinions on here. Have them tell us the dolls is like amazing.
01:44:46
Speaker
No, we would remove them. Mute. Edit them out. I do have that power. Okay, so anyway, um go ahead and follow us on Instagram at thrills, chills, and spills so you don't miss our episodes. And i guess you can comment there about your your rankings for us. um Follow us on all of ah your favorite podcast platform.
01:45:09
Speaker
On Twitter, we are t underscore C underscore S pod, my favorite handle ever. um And thank you so much for listening and stay spooky.
01:45:21
Speaker
Bye. Sorry about the vocal fry. but i Bye. That's tea, actually. <unk>