Typically Haunt Saturday`s the park can get close to capacity.  I know when I worked there back in 2013 and 2014 at Skyflyer during Haunt season, employees had to park out in the softball fields (past the water park) and they would shuttle us in, so that there were more spots for the guests.

19 minutes ago, jbeast said:

My son and I went last Saturday afternoon. Got on The Beast around 6pm and by the time we were walking down the exit, the bottom que lines were already full. Went over to Adventure Express and it was about a 30 minute wait. Then went over to Orion to be greeted by a completely full que line. It was insanely crowded more so than I can remember. The fog was in effect but it was a bit breezy. We decided it was just too crowded to enjoy any longer, so enjoyed watching people getting scared in Coney Mall (Where it was really foggy), grabbed a bite to eat and headed out. The attendance and lines were just insane. I expected it to be busy of course. But we were both taken back just how crowded the park was.

Right!? I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen the line just to get in the park stretch down the parking lot midway. I figure with all the spelling errors made by the Comms Dept, people wouldn’t come. 

3 hours ago, jbeast said:

My son and I went last Saturday afternoon. Got on The Beast around 6pm and by the time we were walking down the exit, the bottom que lines were already full. Went over to Adventure Express and it was about a 30 minute wait. Then went over to Orion to be greeted by a completely full que line. It was insanely crowded more so than I can remember. The fog was in effect but it was a bit breezy. We decided it was just too crowded to enjoy any longer, so enjoyed watching people getting scared in Coney Mall (Where it was really foggy), grabbed a bite to eat and headed out. The attendance and lines were just insane. I expected it to be busy of course. But we were both taken back just how crowded the park was.

And this is exactly why they have the mentality of not having to spend any more on the event - people come regardless...

I mean, it's a strategy. Why invest heavily into something so absurdly popular? Makes more sense to put money into maintaining what they have.

I'd prefer they drastically jack up prices to throttle crowd levels, given that I'm very much of the opinion that their gate integrity sucks chain wide.

With the shift to more of a family crowd (in the sense of the younger guests showing up and how the park seems to be adjusting to them) could we see Kings Island shift to all-day Tricks and Treats and no Haunt like Valleyfair or California's Great America?

Presumably the Haunts at those parks were just as well-attended on their own terms as Kings Island's but there were strong enough reasons to drop the "scary" nighttime offerings.

I think HalloWeekends should be how our park is modeled during the fall. At CP, they have the back of the park with Frontier Trail and Frontier Town as a dedicated scare zone while the rest of the park is more family friendly with other haunts being indoors near GateKeeper and the arcade.

If KI were to replicate this, a part of the park would be strictly Haunt while others would be most Halloween atmosphere. (This is just an example, don’t tar and feather me):

 

Also, I love the atmosphere at HalloWeekends- everything just screams Halloween. I understand CP can go all out because they don’t have another seasonal event to get ready for like KI does with Winterfest but I wish our park did things a little differently- for example, letting the troll near Diamondback operate during the day as well as night.

On 10/29/2023 at 6:04 PM, SonofBaconator said:

I think HalloWeekends should be how our park is modeled during the fall. At CP, they have the back of the park with Frontier Trail and Frontier Town as a dedicated scare zone while the rest of the park is more family friendly with other haunts being indoors near GateKeeper and the arcade.

If KI were to replicate this, a part of the park would be strictly Haunt while others would be most Halloween atmosphere. (This is just an example, don’t tar and feather me):

 

Also, I love the atmosphere at HalloWeekends- everything just screams Halloween. I understand CP can go all out because they don’t have another seasonal event to get ready for like KI does with Winterfest but I wish our park did things a little differently- for example, letting the troll near Diamondback operate during the day as well as night.

I’d be down for this. While I like what can be done with RiverTown for HAUNT, it would be nice if they played up the whole Harvest Celebration idea. I think IS and Rivertown coins have some “creepy” elements, but maybe not all out scares, then really ramp it up in the other half.