My Fright Fest 2012 review (hint: it's bad)

[WillyWonka]

The Simpsons sums up my impression of Fright Fest pretty well:

We waited 3 hours for 1 maze, and the experience in the maze was about 5 minutes long. After coming out and barely getting over the "that's it?!" sentiment, security guards came up to our group and accused a kid in our group of hitting an actor, so they took him into the backstage area to question, and no one else was even allowed to accompany him. Maybe they were mad that no one in our group was scared by them just jumping around?

So that ended up being our only maze there, not only because we felt so disgusted by the experience, but we exited the maze by the time the park closed anyway, even though we got in line at 9pm.

Backward Colosus was fun as usual, but running only one track on a Saturday is unforgivable. And as we all know, MM doesn't have employees seating the rides, so often trains would depart with seats empty, adding to the wait time and frustration.

We anticipated the lines so we wanted to give Flash Pass a try. That wasn't so easy, either. The system is not only so expensive, but it's so complicated that you're required to watch a 3 minute orientation video of how it's supposed to work. Oh, and if you want X2 on your Flash Pass it's extra. Forget it.

I just can't imagine spending full price for the park and the mazes here. Not for this kind of experience. It's a park run by high schoolers so I guess that's what you get.

So please, if you're looking for a Halloween theme park to go to, just go to someone who knows what they're doing, like Knott's. Six Flags doesn't even try to hide that they copy and paste Knott's mazes to their park (just compare the mazes theme and titles between the 2 parks--nearly identical!). Except that something was definitely lost in the copying.

But at least we were scared by the high school security guards.

Magic Mountain: the most disappointing place on earth.

[JerrodDRagon]

Re: My Fright Fest 2012 review (hint: it's bad)

What Maze was it?

Also while yes..the mazes can get big lines...if you plan right...30 mins is the mazes my friend and I waited last Saturday...i do agree about colossus needs to have two stations open during the haunt

But if you do the rides/mazes in the right order..there not that bad...my friends and i even did X2 in the normal line in under 30 mins

[madmonkeygirl]

Re: My Fright Fest 2012 review (hint: it's bad)

When I went X2 line was 15-20 minutes during FF Tatsu had NO line. The mazes regular lies were long (Blackout, Willoughby's, AfterMath, Jokster's) all seemed the longest. However I disagree with the scariness factor. Which made did you go in anyways? I felt Chupacabra, Black Widow, Willoughby's, Blackout, and Aftermath all exceeded Knott's especially Chupacabra. We even I'd all the mazes except for Slaughterhose twice.

Then again we had the Express Pass for the mazes and that I'd help. We have season passes so admission is free, our level of pass has free parking so the only extra charge was for the Maze Express Pass. If you are paying to attend FF on a Saturday you definitely needed the Express Pass. I would NOT pay or Flash Pass but if mazes were of importance then the Maze Express Pass would be the way to go.

Mind you the mazes at Six Flags have a more controlled line control than at Universal or Knott's making the regular line take longer than usual. Not sure if you were aware of that. I think that's what made my experience so much better than Universal or Knott's where they just push you thru.

Colossus backwards was running all day long. Even with one station there were two trains. When we rode during the day the line was maybe 30 minutes tops. During FF Lux Luther Drop of Doom was 15 minutes. Then again we went on the first Sunday they offered FF so that could have had an impact on the crowds.

I am sorry that you had such a bad experience. I know that I put up my trip report as well as had advice from others regarding FF so I knew wht I was in for.

[JesterMn]

Re: My Fright Fest 2012 review (hint: it's bad)

Exactly how long did you expect the maze to be? Even the longest maze at HHN (aside from the Tram) is about 5-10 minutes, if you walk slowly.

That "complicated" system you had to use for Flash Pass is used at a lot of other parks, including Dollywood if I'm not mistaken. It is a bit more complicated at first, but once you use it, it's way superior to the Disney FastPass, IMO. You can reserve for virtually any ride from anywhere in the park. So much better. Not sure why you're knocking it.

Granted, X2 is extra, which is unique to SFMM. But the ride itself is pretty unique, and loads extremely slowly. Sadly, to include it with the regular Flash Pass would slow it down even more.

If you had gotten the Express Pass for the mazes, you would have had very little wait.

It is too bad someone in your group got called out. But at least security is active. When you have a lot of security, mistakes sometimes happen. Better than that not enough, and you have people cutting in line, smoking weed, drinking, etc. In fact, in my report on SFMM Haunt, I was in line for a maze. Someone was using a laser pointer, aiming it up to the Skytower. Within 30 seconds, security had it taken from them. I commend them.

It is frustrating when they only run one train for Colossus backwards. But they have so many trains to work with, and they're pretty old. Not an excuse so much, but at least understand the situation.

And it's not surprising they're similar to Knott's. In a way, they're all similar to Knott's. Knott's is the original Haunt Park, and grandfather to all the Haunt parks we see now. Of course there's going to be similarities.

We spent full price, did all the mazes (a few multiple times), and had a great experience. To each their own.

[JerrodDRagon]

Re: My Fright Fest 2012 review (hint: it's bad)

When I went X2 line was 15-20 minutes during FF Tatsu had NO line. The mazes regular lies were long (Blackout, Willoughby's, AfterMath, Jokster's) all seemed the longest. However I disagree with the scariness factor. Which made did you go in anyways? I felt Chupacabra, Black Widow, Willoughby's, Blackout, and Aftermath all exceeded Knott's especially Chupacabra. We even I'd all the mazes except for Slaughterhose twice.

Then again we had the Express Pass for the mazes and that I'd help. We have season passes so admission is free, our level of pass has free parking so the only extra charge was for the Maze Express Pass. If you are paying to attend FF on a Saturday you definitely needed the Express Pass. I would NOT pay or Flash Pass but if mazes were of importance then the Maze Express Pass would be the way to go.

Mind you the mazes at Six Flags have a more controlled line control than at Universal or Knott's making the regular line take longer than usual. Not sure if you were aware of that. I think that's what made my experience so much better than Universal or Knott's where they just push you thru.

Colossus backwards was running all day long. Even with one station there were two trains. When we rode during the day the line was maybe 30 minutes tops. During FF Lux Luther Drop of Doom was 15 minutes. Then again we went on the first Sunday they offered FF so that could have had an impact on the crowds.

I am sorry that you had such a bad experience. I know that I put up my trip report as well as had advice from others regarding FF so I knew wht I was in for.

Hmmm well...gonna disagree with the Chupacabra comment....the maze has some good energy but really not that good of a maze....its pretty cheap

I would say Blackout, Aftermath and the Willoughby's are worth it and the rest are just....ok mazes that need some work next year