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In The Parks was invited out to Six Flags Magic Mountain last weekend to get a walk-through of some of their Fright Fest mazes.
Note: Six Flags Magic Mountain does not allow photo's or video to be taken inside mazes, we were given special access and were escorted through the mazes. Please follow all park rules regarding photo's and video.
Fright Fest is being touted as "Bigger and Better" than ever. Let's take a look around the park and through the mazes and decide for ourselves.
The park entrance is all decked out in Halloween during the day and through the evening.
Unlike other parks, the park does not close prior to Fright Fest starting, so warnings are posted for families.
Access to the mazes is only $10 ($8 for Season Passholders or if you purchase in advance online) in addition to park admission
Most people don't know this, but this fog machine near revolution is the source of all the Fright Fest goodness.
Fright Fest Starts at 7pm so there is plenty of time during the day to see what Fright Fest activities are available as well as check out the decorations throughout the park.
Returning this year is Colossus Backwards
Due to the recent re-tracking done on the ride, it's much better than in years past
As always, the over-sized Black Widow is a part of Colossus
Over at X2, X2:Area 19 is back this year
Unfortunately this Alien has seen better days
There are props throughout the queue line as well as a new video and audio on the ride.
Also new this year is "Fright Feast", this is the parks answer to the Pre-Scare dinner at Knott's. The All You Can Eat Buffet in Mooseburger is good, but the highlight are the monsters walking around and the singers from "Off with your head" serenading you while you eat.
Fright Feast is $25 if you purchase at the park, or $20 if you purchase online before your visit.
The Monsters are very interactive and will actually come and join you for dinner.
The singers from "Off With Your Head"
As Sunset begins, the park starts getting a little more "scary".
The evening starts off with a show in front of DC Universe with some interesting characters. All of the shows that we saw at Fright Fest had fantastic singers.
There are 5 scare-zones at Fright Fest, the biggest is City Under Siege in DC Universe
The Talent in this scare zone is very awesome
Like many Haunt type events, this area has the very popular sliders
The Mazes
Shortly after Fright Fest began, we started our walk-through of the mazes. As a reminder, MiceChat had permission and an escort through the mazes. Magic Mountain does NOT allow photo's or video of their mazes.
Let's start off with the new mazes
The Aftermath
To say that The Aftermath is the biggest and best maze that Fright Fest has ever done would be an understatement. If this is the direction that Fright Fest will be going in the future, they are heading in the right direction.
The outskirts of The Aftermath are the new scare zone "The Wastelands"
As seen during the day
And at night
The entrance to the maze
The maze utilizes the "Action Sports Theater" and all it's available effects.
The Maze starts off with a very disorienting dark hallway filled with fog which sets up the "Aftermath" theme very well.
Once inside the maze, the talent has a LOT of room to work their magic.
One thing that Magic Mountain does better than the other Haunt events in Southern California is crowd control. There are no "Haunted Lines" here. They let no more than 10-15 people through the mazes at any given time, with generally a minute or more between groups.
There is always room for the talent to work when it's not wall-to-wall people
The Aftermath has a post-apocalyptic theme
Yes, there are fire effects inside the maze ... something no other maze in So-Cal can claim
Bonus points to whoever can tell us where this prop came from (yes we know, we are asking you)
One of the other new mazes for this year is "Cursed". This is the same spot where the Zombie maze was last year so it's really more of a "walk-through" scare zone. That being said, I did think the theme worked better than the Zombie maze last year.
The Cursed Maze contains a lot of fog, which is always a good thing
The last new maze of the year is Chupacabra, located (fittingly) in Baja Ridge. For those of you familiar with the park, the maze utilizes the old Revolution Queue. There isn't a whole lot of room to work with, but they have done a great job
The maze is sponsored by Fanta
Beware the Chupacabra
This truck is supposed to be filled with Fanta, maybe by this weekend
The facade at night. I love how they've used the existing facade and really changed the look of it at night.
Inside the maze, the talent was great
Once again, a fog-filled maze = a good thing
Heading up the hill to Samurai Summit are the two permanent mazes, Willoughby's Haunted Mansion and Bite II ... as well as the Exile Hill scare zone.
Willoughby's Haunted Mansion, now the 2nd best maze at Fright Fest
The Butler greets you
Also up on the hill is Bite II, which seemed a bit shorter this year, but was still great
Bite II is, not surprisingly, a vampire theme maze
The Exile Hill Scare Zone
The talent up here has the best hiding spots
The last maze on our tour is another returning maze, Lecter's Slaughterhouse. This maze seemed much longer and much improved over last year.
The Talent in this maze was really great
Overall, Magic Mountain has really upped their game with Fright Fest this year, and the added mazes and scarezones are worth the price increase for the bracelets.
The park also offers a "Premium" bracelet for $25 which will give you front of the line access to the mazes.
In addition, they are offering a special deal for those of you without Season Passes.
For $99 you get park admission, Premium Maze Bracelet, Fear Feast and Free Parking. You can find all of the information regarding the mazes, scare-zones, ticket prices and more at the Fright Fest website.
Fright Fest 2011 at Six Flags Magic Mountain
We are hoping to head up to Fright Fest again before the end of their run to get some more pictures of the other scare zones.
Note: Six Flags Magic Mountain does not allow photo's or video to be taken inside mazes, we were given special access and were escorted through the mazes. Please follow all park rules regarding photo's and video.
Fright Fest is being touted as "Bigger and Better" than ever. Let's take a look around the park and through the mazes and decide for ourselves.
The park entrance is all decked out in Halloween during the day and through the evening.
Unlike other parks, the park does not close prior to Fright Fest starting, so warnings are posted for families.
Access to the mazes is only $10 ($8 for Season Passholders or if you purchase in advance online) in addition to park admission
Most people don't know this, but this fog machine near revolution is the source of all the Fright Fest goodness.
Fright Fest Starts at 7pm so there is plenty of time during the day to see what Fright Fest activities are available as well as check out the decorations throughout the park.
Returning this year is Colossus Backwards
Due to the recent re-tracking done on the ride, it's much better than in years past
As always, the over-sized Black Widow is a part of Colossus
Over at X2, X2:Area 19 is back this year
Unfortunately this Alien has seen better days
There are props throughout the queue line as well as a new video and audio on the ride.
Also new this year is "Fright Feast", this is the parks answer to the Pre-Scare dinner at Knott's. The All You Can Eat Buffet in Mooseburger is good, but the highlight are the monsters walking around and the singers from "Off with your head" serenading you while you eat.
Fright Feast is $25 if you purchase at the park, or $20 if you purchase online before your visit.
The Monsters are very interactive and will actually come and join you for dinner.
The singers from "Off With Your Head"
As Sunset begins, the park starts getting a little more "scary".
The evening starts off with a show in front of DC Universe with some interesting characters. All of the shows that we saw at Fright Fest had fantastic singers.
There are 5 scare-zones at Fright Fest, the biggest is City Under Siege in DC Universe
The Talent in this scare zone is very awesome
Like many Haunt type events, this area has the very popular sliders
The Mazes
Shortly after Fright Fest began, we started our walk-through of the mazes. As a reminder, MiceChat had permission and an escort through the mazes. Magic Mountain does NOT allow photo's or video of their mazes.
Let's start off with the new mazes
The Aftermath
To say that The Aftermath is the biggest and best maze that Fright Fest has ever done would be an understatement. If this is the direction that Fright Fest will be going in the future, they are heading in the right direction.
The outskirts of The Aftermath are the new scare zone "The Wastelands"
As seen during the day
And at night
The entrance to the maze
The maze utilizes the "Action Sports Theater" and all it's available effects.
The Maze starts off with a very disorienting dark hallway filled with fog which sets up the "Aftermath" theme very well.
Once inside the maze, the talent has a LOT of room to work their magic.
One thing that Magic Mountain does better than the other Haunt events in Southern California is crowd control. There are no "Haunted Lines" here. They let no more than 10-15 people through the mazes at any given time, with generally a minute or more between groups.
There is always room for the talent to work when it's not wall-to-wall people
The Aftermath has a post-apocalyptic theme
Yes, there are fire effects inside the maze ... something no other maze in So-Cal can claim
Bonus points to whoever can tell us where this prop came from (yes we know, we are asking you)
One of the other new mazes for this year is "Cursed". This is the same spot where the Zombie maze was last year so it's really more of a "walk-through" scare zone. That being said, I did think the theme worked better than the Zombie maze last year.
The Cursed Maze contains a lot of fog, which is always a good thing
The last new maze of the year is Chupacabra, located (fittingly) in Baja Ridge. For those of you familiar with the park, the maze utilizes the old Revolution Queue. There isn't a whole lot of room to work with, but they have done a great job
The maze is sponsored by Fanta
Beware the Chupacabra
This truck is supposed to be filled with Fanta, maybe by this weekend
The facade at night. I love how they've used the existing facade and really changed the look of it at night.
Inside the maze, the talent was great
Once again, a fog-filled maze = a good thing
Heading up the hill to Samurai Summit are the two permanent mazes, Willoughby's Haunted Mansion and Bite II ... as well as the Exile Hill scare zone.
Willoughby's Haunted Mansion, now the 2nd best maze at Fright Fest
The Butler greets you
Also up on the hill is Bite II, which seemed a bit shorter this year, but was still great
Bite II is, not surprisingly, a vampire theme maze
The Exile Hill Scare Zone
The talent up here has the best hiding spots
The last maze on our tour is another returning maze, Lecter's Slaughterhouse. This maze seemed much longer and much improved over last year.
The Talent in this maze was really great
Overall, Magic Mountain has really upped their game with Fright Fest this year, and the added mazes and scarezones are worth the price increase for the bracelets.
The park also offers a "Premium" bracelet for $25 which will give you front of the line access to the mazes.
In addition, they are offering a special deal for those of you without Season Passes.
For $99 you get park admission, Premium Maze Bracelet, Fear Feast and Free Parking. You can find all of the information regarding the mazes, scare-zones, ticket prices and more at the Fright Fest website.
Fright Fest 2011 at Six Flags Magic Mountain
We are hoping to head up to Fright Fest again before the end of their run to get some more pictures of the other scare zones.
:monkey: 
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