Fright Fest 2013

[UWW-10]

I've learned that going the first weekend of FF is like going opening weekend in May and expecting everything to just function normally without any hiccups. I'd say the park is usually about 90% ready in terms of props/decor by the first weekend, but then there's always those last-minute details that they make a note of and go back in during the week to fine tune. While the actors do get a chance to practice/rehearse on preview night with the employees, it still isn't exactly a whole lot of time to perfect what they need to do.

I also feel like adding additional haunts/areas is always nice, but then you begin to spread the setup crew too thin meaning you have more to do in the same amount of time.

[BackwardsBlue]

I have now been to Fright Fest both of the past weekends... There is still nothing in the seven deadly sins cemetery you would think if you are going to name a whole section after it those would be the highlights? Also I am not happy at the fact there was no DJ in the Terror Twister 2. That was a little upsetting to see.

[DeathbyDinn]

^ They did put the names of the sins back on. I wouldnt expect to see any big changes until next year if they bring it back again. As for the Terror Twister DJ, he hasn't been in for a few years. Not sure why.

[Ilovthevu']

Just to update my question (I asked before but no one knew the answer) about seats for the Dead Man's Party, I would say that there are around 100 - 150 "portable" folding chairs. These chairs remind of the type of chairs when you go to a carnival, and that's what they have. They feel fine, but I'm just mentioning it. I didn't see anybody standing at the performance I went to, but it wasn't completely packed either.

[sfgam1]

At the park now, they now have the seven sins on all seven of the mausoleums in seven sins cemetery.

I really don't understand their thought process with Sevens Sins. First in 2010 they covered all the sins (just with some twine) and brought in Voodoo characters. Then in 2011 they redid all the tombs to remove the sins and added references to voodoo bringing one united theme to the area. Now this year the tombs are the sins again, Rue Le Dodge still has the voodoo theme, and the characters are just Orleans type zombies. It's like they had three ideas for the area but couldn't decide on one so they did them all.

On a positive note - I had a much better experience this weekend then I did last weekend. They've added some more decorations, atmosphere was much better and the actors were still doing great.

The idea fits an authentic New Orleans theme. (I.e. The above ground cemeteries; voodoo being a common thought when people think of New Orleans)

[DeathbyDinn]

^ I know it's all New Orleans stuff, but if the theme of the area is New Orleans then they should give it a name that reflects that. If they're going to call the area Seven Sins Cemetery, then the theming, rides, characters and whatever else is in the area should relate to the Seven Sins, just like how when the area was Bayou du Vaudou everything in the area related to voodoo. I know I'm really looking far into it, but I'm a huge haunt person so for me it's the same as when people complain about rides not fitting into their themed areas. I just don't get why they even brought back the Seven Sins idea after it seemed like they went to all the trouble to get rid of it, but they need to bring it back in it's full form, not the mishmash it is now.

[Bob O]

Where are the Bush people this year?? I didn't see them in necropolis.

[BURTONxBLUNT]

Where are the Bush people this year?? I didn't see them in necropolis.

one of them is in Bermuda triangle and the other ones are supposedly in a haunted house

[DeathbyDinn]

^^There's one at the end of Necropolis by the drunk zombies and one in Abyss. The one in Bermuda Triangle is a sea monster.

I went back to the park yesterday, and this was easily the highlight of my visit.



It was hilarious watching them together, especially when the little one was chasing people twice as tall as him. This an amazing idea and everyone who walked through the area was stopping to take pictures and watch them scare.

[AirTimeDaz]

^^There's one at the end of Necropolis by the drunk zombies and one in Abyss. The one in Bermuda Triangle is a sea monster.

I went back to the park yesterday, and this was easily the highlight of my visit.



It was hilarious watching them together, especially when the little one was chasing people twice as tall as him. This an amazing idea and everyone who walked through the area was stopping to take pictures and watch them scare.

Aww a demented evil clown and his Mini Me. How precious!

[franksilk32]

was at the park today and I do not think I have ever seen it that packed. I honestly do not think there was a parking spot left in either lot and there were cars on the grass/weeds in the back lot. While it was crowded the cooler weather made it easier to tolerate the crowd and we still were able to enjoy FF

[Ilovthevu']

^I think there are a bunch of reasons why it was so packed today. No rain as compared to Saturday & last week it was forecasted rain for Friday & Saturday, so I'm sure a lot of those people stayed home & decided to come the week after (which is this week). Than you have no Bears game, on the warmer side, and today is acting like a Saturday (rather than a typical Sunday would) since some people have Monday off. So, they can stay later.

[GoBears]

^The main reason why I went yesterday was because of the fact that there was no Bears game since they played Thursday night. It was definitely the busiest I've ever seen it at Fright Fest. Almost the entire afternoon the cars were all the way out from the booths onto Grand Avenue trying to park.

[KevinM]

I visited on Saturday and had a terrible experience. I understood going in that it was a Saturday in Fright Fest, the park is going to be extremely busy. I was expecting full queues for everything. What I was NOT expecting was the utter lack of efficiency that I saw. I worked one season at SFGAm and the rides supervisors had great pride in being the fastest/highest throughput park in the chain (there are numbers to prove this but they are not made public). Some of the crews I saw on Saturday were absolutely NOT living up to that reputation.

I will start by commending the X-Flight crew. They were working faster than I have ever seen and that line really flew. Especially with the limitations on Flash Pass, I was a happy camper in the standby line.

But now I must turn my attention the APPALING Raging Bull crew. This should be the highest throughput coaster in the park. I have ridden this coaster for years in crowds large and small. With a rock star crew, a full queue should take about 60 minutes. Realistically, it takes about 90. I waited 135 minutes. They had all the ingredients for smooth operation: three trains and a grouper. Unfortunately, neither of these pieces had ANY effect on capacity. The crew was routinely stacking all three trains. The grouper left TONS of empty seats. I even saw a train go with rows 6, 7, and 8 EMPTY and only two guests in row 9. SERIOUSLY?

Even worse, no attention was paid to Platinum Flash Pass or Rider Access Passes. They had row 4 completely roped off for RAP guests, but there were just SO MANY of them that they were using multiple rows on most trains. No effort was made to tell the grouper of this fact, which meant that guests were waiting for these rows, and had to be told that they would have to wait for the next train. This held up the entire train and is likely the source of the constant stacking. (My particular train was dispatched at 160 seconds, which is just abysmal.) I noticed a girl on the crew advising the guy doing this to "just hold the gates", which may save a few seconds over talking to the guests, but not much as it still holds up a majority of riders. If the grouper were just told not to queue any guests in these rows, there wouldn't be an issue.

Flash Pass just compounded all of these problems. I'm not a big fan of Flash Pass, but I'm not a huge opponent of it either. The Lo-Q system is smart and is designed to keep line-skippers limited and spaced out. However, it doesn't account for slow crews. By my count, on a very busy day, FP riders should make up about 20% of each train. The employee at the "integration point" is supposed to wait until the stairs are half-empty before allowing the standby line to fill it up. With the glacial pace of the crew, the stairs rarely got empty, and FP guests just kept coming and filling it up. I stood maybe 20 people back from the integration point and watched maybe 50 FP people cut in front of us. The amount of FP riders on each train was easily over 50% which is just plain unnacceptable, and it's why the standby line took twice as long as it should have. Even worse, the grouper did not account for Platinum double rides. (I maintain that the double-ride policy is the worst, most anti-guest policy SF has ever come up with. I don't mind standard and gold FP, but the double-ride situation is horrendous.) My group was queued into row 7, and we had to wait an extra cycle as the two platinum guests took up the whole row. Awful.

Frankly, the Raging Bull crew and SFGAm should be embarrassed at this. I understand it's not easy to get top-notch employees over Fright Fest, but stacking three trains shouldn't happen. The crew, grouper, and Lo-Q person all could have made some simple changes that would have easily cut our wait by 30-45 minutes. It's up to the supervisors and leads to make sure these things are being done, but on Saturday, they failed miserably.

[Ilovthevu']

^As long as we are talking about capacity for coasters, maybe the Eagle crew is slower, but maybe there is a reason why they are slower. I think the problem with the Eagle is the same problem with Superman. Neither of these in my opinion have bad capacity, but both can easily be much improved. What I see in Eagle is that they only have 2 people checking the restraints on each side. Eagle is NOT a small train. It's a 30 person train. This is the same thing I see with Superman. To me, both rides should have more people checking restraints. I think Eagle should have 3 (10 restraint checks per person) people checking + control, and Superman should have 4 workers checking + control. Superman does have 4 workers, but one is control, 2 check seats, and one just worries about the handicap people. Why can't they add another worker, and multi-task with the handicap people?

[DejaVu2001]

Superman does have 4 workers, but one is control, 2 check seats, and one just worries about the handicap people. Why can't they add another worker, and multi-task with the handicap people?

No. Just no. Having someone checking restraints AND handling Equal Access Passes (EAPs) would make it much worse. No matter how many people are checking restraints, they need to have someone who is ONLY handling exit issues. Trust me, I've worked on rides when they've had 4 checking and as soon as the first EAP comes up, the whole ride grinds to a halt.

[Muck Finnesota]

They had all the ingredients for smooth operation: three trains and a grouper. Unfortunately, neither of these pieces had ANY effect on capacity...The grouper left TONS of empty seats. I even saw a train go with rows 6, 7, and 8 EMPTY and only two guests in row 9. SERIOUSLY?...No effort was made to tell the grouper of this fact, which meant that guests were waiting for these rows, and had to be told that they would have to wait for the next train...If the grouper were just told not to queue any guests in these rows, there wouldn't be an issue...The crew, grouper, and Lo-Q person all could have made some simple changes that would have easily cut our wait by 30-45 minutes...

[scottm13]

I visited on Saturday and had a terrible experience. I understood going in that it was a Saturday in Fright Fest, the park is going to be extremely busy. I was expecting full queues for everything. What I was NOT expecting was the utter lack of efficiency that I saw. I worked one season at SFGAm and the rides supervisors had great pride in being the fastest/highest throughput park in the chain (there are numbers to prove this but they are not made public). Some of the crews I saw on Saturday were absolutely NOT living up to that reputation.

I will start by commending the X-Flight crew. They were working faster than I have ever seen and that line really flew. Especially with the limitations on Flash Pass, I was a happy camper in the standby line.

But now I must turn my attention the APPALING Raging Bull crew. This should be the highest throughput coaster in the park. I have ridden this coaster for years in crowds large and small. With a rock star crew, a full queue should take about 60 minutes. Realistically, it takes about 90. I waited 135 minutes. They had all the ingredients for smooth operation: three trains and a grouper. Unfortunately, neither of these pieces had ANY effect on capacity. The crew was routinely stacking all three trains. The grouper left TONS of empty seats. I even saw a train go with rows 6, 7, and 8 EMPTY and only two guests in row 9. SERIOUSLY?

Even worse, no attention was paid to Platinum Flash Pass or Rider Access Passes. They had row 4 completely roped off for RAP guests, but there were just SO MANY of them that they were using multiple rows on most trains. No effort was made to tell the grouper of this fact, which meant that guests were waiting for these rows, and had to be told that they would have to wait for the next train. This held up the entire train and is likely the source of the constant stacking. (My particular train was dispatched at 160 seconds, which is just abysmal.) I noticed a girl on the crew advising the guy doing this to "just hold the gates", which may save a few seconds over talking to the guests, but not much as it still holds up a majority of riders. If the grouper were just told not to queue any guests in these rows, there wouldn't be an issue.

Flash Pass just compounded all of these problems. I'm not a big fan of Flash Pass, but I'm not a huge opponent of it either. The Lo-Q system is smart and is designed to keep line-skippers limited and spaced out. However, it doesn't account for slow crews. By my count, on a very busy day, FP riders should make up about 20% of each train. The employee at the "integration point" is supposed to wait until the stairs are half-empty before allowing the standby line to fill it up. With the glacial pace of the crew, the stairs rarely got empty, and FP guests just kept coming and filling it up. I stood maybe 20 people back from the integration point and watched maybe 50 FP people cut in front of us. The amount of FP riders on each train was easily over 50% which is just plain unnacceptable, and it's why the standby line took twice as long as it should have. Even worse, the grouper did not account for Platinum double rides. (I maintain that the double-ride policy is the worst, most anti-guest policy SF has ever come up with. I don't mind standard and gold FP, but the double-ride situation is horrendous.) My group was queued into row 7, and we had to wait an extra cycle as the two platinum guests took up the whole row. Awful.

Frankly, the Raging Bull crew and SFGAm should be embarrassed at this. I understand it's not easy to get top-notch employees over Fright Fest, but stacking three trains shouldn't happen. The crew, grouper, and Lo-Q person all could have made some simple changes that would have easily cut our wait by 30-45 minutes. It's up to the supervisors and leads to make sure these things are being done, but on Saturday, they failed miserably.

I think the Bull crew definitely learned how to handle large crowds better on Sunday. At most points of the afternoon there were 6-7 people up there, 4 checking the train, an operator, and 1-2 extra employees handling the mass amounts of EAP passes. They were moving much faster on Sunday than Saturday and didn't stack nearly as much.

[IzCoaster]

How bad do ya'll think the crowds will be tonight?

[BURTONxBLUNT]

How bad do ya'll think the crowds will be tonight?

probably 15-30 minute waits tops! especially since it has rained all afternoon and is a chilly one there shouldnt be much people! but if you do go dont forget to stay for the xflight ert from 1030-11!

[Big Frank]

*First time posting in a while... Im SFGAM76 on You tube and I now work at Asylum Xperiment in Villa Park I use to work at Dream Reapers. My character's name is Jimbo. He's a demonic zombie. Anyway Fright Fest was just ok this year. The houses were hit or misses.
I'm in the haunt industry so I know what Im talking about so dont give me a hard time.

All the areas were hardly decorated, the actors were just ok, two of the six haunted houses were absolutley terrible. The rest were just ok barely. The classic Fright Fest music was playin which was good.

Now this is what i would of done.
I would keep most of the scarezones the same except put more decor and themeing into it and make the street actors more scary. I would get rid of deadwood grove and put those actors in Necropolis and have one of them be a chainsaw guy at the end of Mot and change Seven Sins Cemetary actors to either the seven sins or back to werewolves and vampires. Move back to two Haunted houses one in Necropolis and one in South west Territory. Why this? Well because there will be longer with more scares and better themeing instead of a 5 minute walkthrough at the most like ive been seeing the past few years. I would bring back the Boo line but i would make that an additional charge with the two houses cause before the boo line was costing money to run it. THe two houses and the boo line would be 25$. I would scrap the Bermuda triangle and put deadman's party in the stage in southwest territory. I would make the pumpkin head guy the new icon of fright fest even though he's the grand marshal I just think he deserves more attention ( replacing Mayor Slayer). I would add more fog to add to the atmosphere.

[Bakercat13]

I'm planning on going to the park today. How should the crowds be?

[aesthyrian]

It's Saturday and the 2nd to last weekend of operations.

Don't expect light crowds...

[DejaVu2001]

Historically, the second to last Saturday has been the busiest day of the season. Last year it was the busiest day in 10 seasons with 49,200 guests. Today was much slower though, I'd be shocked if they go much over 35,000 today.

[BBH]

Hopefully next Saturday isn't too terrible. I'd love to close out the season on a high note.