We left our house on Saturday, 10/13/12 at 7PM and made it to Bates parking lot by
8:30PM. We would have been there by 8PM but
haunt traffic had Rt. 352 backed up about a mile before the entrance both ways. This was definitely a sign of things to
come.
Once parked (surprisingly close to the entrance) we made our way to the ticket line and found two long rows of stanchion completely full. Holy crowds! Despite the huge line the wait wasn’t actually too bad… 15 minutes or so. The pre-paid ticket line of course was empty but for the 5 of us it would have cost $12.50 in surcharges which is craziness. The VIP ticket line was also empty because the VIP ticket is majorly overpriced. Almost double to skip the lines??!! I don’t think so. And honestly I don’t think I was the only person to feel that way since we hardly saw anyone do VIP the whole night.
Anyway, tickets in hand we made our way to the House (our usual order is House, Trail, and Hayride) and found the line completely full and spilling out of the stanchion and into the courtyard. We said “what the heck” and hopped in line only to hop right back out to get away from the group ahead of us which was rowdy, immature and annoying. Idiots.
Westward Trail
We scooted over to the Trail line to avoid the a-holes in
the House line and ended up only waiting 20 minutes. Guests were being sent out in intervals which
was awesome since it allowed for scenes and actors to fully reset between
groups. I think some people were skipping
this attraction which was truly sad since it was, IMHO, the best of the night.
The sets and layout sadly didn’t change much from last year with the exception
of the mine area which is now a circus but both were still good enough for it
not to be a huge problem. The shining
star of the attraction this year was once again was the actors. They were beautifully made up and costumed
and they all played their parts perfectly.
Yes monkey that wiped his ass with my hat… I’m talking to you. Hopefully they’ll totally revamp the sets and
layouts next year while keeping the same quality to freshen this one up. Eh… I’m not gonna hold my breath.
House
After the Trail we again joined the line for the house which
was way less assholey but still outside of the stanchion. The wait ended up being 30 minutes and we
felt glad of this until we got to the door and realized why. They had pretty much abandoned the idea of
groups and were letting a steady line of people stream through the House. This really doesn’t work… it blows to be
blunt… since most of the scenes have to be reset to achieve the desired scare. Luckily I ended up seeing most of the rooms
in their full glory but my poor sister who was 5 people back saw pretty much reset
after reset. She said this completely
ruined the experience for her as all of the scares were spoiled or worse…
totally missed. I understand a long wait
is not ideal but paying for an attraction and only seeing 10% of it is way
worse. Please go back to groups Bates. It IS worth the wait since the house was quite
good this year. There was a lot of new banging
and noises which really worked and also some new, cool lighting effects which
were subtle and spooky. The end room was
a bit underwhelming compared to years past but I think we may have stumbled in there
during the reset. The actors looked
surprised to see us. Haha. I am hoping for some more changes next year
since a lot of the rooms were exactly the same as the last few years but
overall I enjoyed the House. Why I didn’t skip the Hayride this year I’ll never know. We waited 1 hour 30 minutes and it was of course sooo not worth it. Year after year I say I’m going to skip and yet year after year I somehow end up on the damn wagon, in the middle, shaking my head and this year was no exception. I ended up sitting in the middle, cursing the stupid soundtrack and not seeing a single new or different thing.
ATTENTION RANDY BATES: The hayride sets and scares are REALLY tired and predictable. Also, you really need to add sound effects to most of the scenes and scares… a falling sign that doesn’t bang is just plain stupid. Thank you.
Sorry... back to the review... it also seemed that there were less actors in the woods but maybe that was just me. You don’t get much action in the middle of the wagon unless you count people’s feet in your ass. Honestly, I don’t think more actors would have redeemed this one anyway. I did want to mention that the zombie slinking around the line was spectacular and the stuff on the projector was entertaining although with such long lines a longer loop would have been nice. Overall I hated this attraction but then again I always do. Boo! Oh… and I don’t mean that in a good way.
Happily I can say that I did enjoy most of this haunt this year. If it had been less crowded I think I’d be able to say that aside from the stupid hayride I had a great time. Of course that’s not Bates fault. Can’t hate them for wanting to bring in as many people as possible. Oh… a couple of random things… when you go on a crowded night remember to bring your own drinks and snacks. The line for the concession stand was 25 minutes pretty much the whole night. Not even the most delicious hot chocolate on the planet is worth that wait. Sorry. Also, be prepared to secondhand smoke at least an entire pack of cigarettes throughout the night. The smoking in the lines was absolutely out of hand. Hope Bates doesn’t add a surcharge for black lung in next year’s pricing. Haha.
No comments:
Post a Comment