15 hours ago, super7 said:

Herschend is able to operate almost daily from April until New Years by attracting that demographic    Perhaps Cedar Fair is finally realizing theat they  have more operating days by marketing to a different demographic   
 

Cedar Point kept the haunt portion to the Frontier section    They seem to be trying to attract people that aren’t interest in gore or scares by keeping the majority of the park free of scares   

 

Winterfest is gorgeous    A pumpkin  and friendly monster version in orange green and purple lights would be equally gorgeous   

 

Another perk if they limit the space of the more extreme Haunt is that they could have more scarers and decor in the given area versus what was there before. Often times the scare zones and mazes have felt fairly devoid of scare actors. If they cut back to like 6 haunted houses and half the park decorated for scary stuff could mix decorations from other areas to fill in mroe space and get double the scare actors per zone. Granted they would still need some people to cover the family event as well but there would be a lot more you could do with static decor and jack o lanterns.

I'm not saying bring back the "Half Pint Brawlers" as they called them at KI, but a return to the early-CF level of Haunt hours. Shows like Ghouls Gone Wild or Graveyard Shift in Festhaus during Tricks and Treats hours, and then back to more "mature" shows, perhaps even rebooting Dead Awakening or Hot Blooded themselves, during the actual Haunt hours, and increasing the intensity and overall atmosphere. Even with less actual mazes, they could counter that with more outdoor, open scare zones and improving the props.

I for one appreciate the “cleaning up” of the more extreme, scary stuff just littered all around. It looked ok at night under lighting in the dark, but often times just looked trashy during the day. Now that they are actively programming the day as a festival (not just “being open until haunt”) I think we will continue to see that stuff going away or being cleaned up and toned down. I’d be for having some more contained areas be outdoor scare zones that open up in the evening where  it wouldn’t matter as much what it looked like during the day. I wish each area had one indoor maze, one thematic outdoor scary zone and one family friendly aspect that each related to the theme of the area. They do this with coney and did with Rivertown Reaping, but what the hell do pirates have to do with a Drop Tower, when there is a swinging ship in another area of the park that could tie into.