[Chris]

I chuckled.

[Stayseeliz]

Interesting comparison to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. I grew up near Orlando and I went several times. It was truly terrifying. One year a character basically terrorized one of my friends the entire night. He'd walk around looking for her and chase her. It was intense!

[FamousAmos]

Tonight wasn't very busy, but it was busy enough to where I never got bored at any time.

[pproteinc]

It's never busy in September which is why I'm taking my young ones tomorrow night. Now when October hits that's a different monster.

[Stayseeliz]

I went last night with my fifteen and twelve year olds. We had a great time. They had never been to anything like that before so they thought the first haunted maze (Defex) we went into was the scariest. We went straight from Defex to Dark Harvest and my twelve year old was gripping both of my hands for dear life during the whole maze. I didn't think any of the mazes were particularly scary but I was in the back of our group of three so typically the scarer would jump out in front of someone in front of me, not me. I think 7th ward was my favorite maze and Psycho Circus was my favorite scare zone. The giant evil clown in Psycho Circus got me twice and the other ghouls were good at taking advantage of my distraction and making me jump too. Oh Mass Acres got me a little spooked too. Watching the ghosts roam around from a distance in the fog was creepy and the little girl who looked like the chick from the ring was not cool. We loved London Terror too. We talked to Jack the Ripper for awhile. They were funny. We can't wait to go back!

[arby]

My wife ant I went last night and had a good time. First I want to mention the Carowinds food truck - it is by Hurler selling fritters:

Cinnamon Sugar Apple Fritters
Pumpkin Pie Fritters with Maple Bourbon Icing
Red Velvet Fritters with Cream Cheese

Neither of us are huge fans of pumpkin but those Pumpkin Pie Fritters have to be the best fritters I have ever had. There is a flavor in them I am still trying to figure out that really elevated them and they had a subtle pumpkin flavor. I think it was unsweetened cocoa. Regardless, they are exceptional. Nothing less than you would expect from a food truck.

Moving on to SCarowinds, I found it really good this year. Some of the new Scaractors were clearly a bit uncomfortable but they will continue to improve.

As far as the mazes go, it seems that gone are the Scaractors banging on walls. Yay! A lot of them stayed in character in the rooms making some of them more creepy that way. Our favorites, in order, are Slaughterhouse, 7th Ward, and Silver Scream Studios.

Moving on to the Skeleton Key rooms. They have improved since last year although we skipped the one in The Playground (because the content last year was not appealing to my wife). The guy working the room in Scary Tales was quite exceptional. The London Terror room was also very good, with a somewhat different story line from last year. We remembered the lady in the Mass Acres room, which was the best one last year and continues to be excellent despite the same experience. The Phycho Circus room was very fun and a reminder that simple can also be very good. The gentlemen in the Bloodyard are much better than what we experienced last year.

Moving on to what is really new this year - a very noticeable increase in security. There were bomb canines and officers patrolling the front plaza, there were security guards everywhere we turned in the park, and increased security screenings at the front gate (they even asked me to open my wallet). The CMPD portable security tower is also set up in the bus parking lot.

Over all it was a great experience.

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

Scarowinds last night was insanely busy, as it always is on Saturdays (even in September). Apparently something happend in the playground that made hundreds of people run in panic to harmony hall... I dont know what I was at dark harvest at the time. When we got done I walked through the playground and all the scaracters were gone from there as well as london terror... Dont know what happend, does anyone else know what was going on? I left the park around 10 30 ish..

[Jonathan]

There are a couple references to a fight on Twitter, so maybe it was that?

[tarheel1231]

Well that's just wonderful.

[arby]

...which brings me back to a comment I made a year or two ago - make SCarowinds a completely separate ticketed event and not included with gold passes. It seems there are growing issues each year with groups of teens, which may be minimized if they all don't come out every Saturday to SCarowinds with their gold passes.

I understand the flip side that the haunt events are a big money maker for Cedar Fair.

Just to note, I have no issues with teens, in fact I like going through the houses with them, especially ones who are more easily scared than I am.

[RollerBee]

SCarowinds has its own season passes or it did last season....
Turns out apparently the event has a following that doesn't Coke the rest of the year.

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

Ive never seen it as crazy as it was last night really... Security even had to get all the teens in a line for Chick Fil A as everyone seemed to want it at the same time... The parking lot was full from Preferred all the way to the south gate.

[Edwardo]

I was there Saturday. I wouldn't call that insanely busy, but definitely busier than early saturdays in the past. The massive amounts of security, I feel, were a response to the recent shooting at the park. SCarowinds can get rowdy. They didn't want to get caught with their pants down having another incident this soon.

Walking up, I saw Pat, Jerry, and someone else in the front plaza near the bridge over Fury taking it in and looking prepared. I heard Pat ask Jerry if the app had the SCarowinds information on it, and Someone (I can't remember if it was Jerry or the other guy) was pulling it up to look. I like her. She's on it. Every time I see her in the park she is busy doing something, even if it's just putting life vests back where they belong. Glad to have her here. And of course, still glad we have Jerry.

I thought the new maze (which we did during the day, not long after opening) was very good. The park was more 'coherent' this year, I felt, for SCarowinds. I like that basically the whole (soon to be former) County Fair area belonged to the clowns. And they were very good. All of the Scare Zones were on point. The park looked great. The opening ceremony was a little more this year (I didn't get to see it last year, did they add pyro to the show last year or is that new this year?). Blood Drums was good. I still need to see Skeleton Crew. I'm glad Eternal Jamnation is (Hopefully) Eternally gone. That show sucked. And I'd rather have an empty theater if the show is going to be the same suck for three years running like that one was.

Of the other Mazes, we didn't get to do Zombie High. It's where we went first, but they were having issues opening, and we never went back. Also didn't do Defex. I'll get them next visit.

But the park looked great, and SCarowinds seems to be moving in the right direction. Can't wait to go to Knott's Scary Farm next week to compare!

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

Well if the parking lot being full isnt insanely busy, plus the huge line of drop offs, i dont know what is. The park was oddly uncrowded during the day never saw no lines at 2 in the afternoon... On a Saturday...

[Edwardo]

But none of the rides has more than a 30-45 minute wait and the haunts all had about a 25 minute wait. Insanely busy, that's not. I've been to scarowinds with hour plus waits for everything.