- Sep 5, 2018
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I know. I did not know until this year they released a full POV of the first year. now I don't sound crazy to my friends.
Knott's Scary Farm 2023
- Thread starter deadbydawn
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- Dec 14, 2020
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I'm simply surprised they are not offering it, unless it's because that they think they'd have to price it so high that it would be incongruent with their pricing structure (e.g. $100 one day ticket and a $500 pass would make them look bad).
Perhaps I'm just wrong about the popularity of the event and management is satisfied with attendance. Universal offers a pass to fill in off nights but I suspect that may be on life support given the sold out status of last year. It just seems strange to not offer a $350 pass and collect that incremental revenue. Sure, some people will go more than three times, but you're collecting three times as much money because otherwise they would only ever buy a single day. I fit into this category, and I may start going only ever two or three years at this point, which means your revenue is now significantly less.
I'm not expert in yield management, but even Disney manages to make this work, and then they just sell more Genie+.
I think ultimately it comes down to supply and demand, and the last few years I have seen a lot of demand and hardly any supply. If they want to move away from the pass system for the event that is their call to make, but it seems like a Cedar Fair decision and not one from management in the park and I don't think it's a good long term move for their core audience. We've talked about this before, but raising the price and making it a Season Pass add-on only seems to be the way to go to incentivize their sales and make people happy.
We’re losing a week. Starts Sept 21 now. Previously announced to start Sept 14. From the website.
Huh, a little unexpected, but better to know now rather than much closer to the event. Thankfully it doesn't affect me since that's the weekend I'm planning to visit.
- Sep 5, 2018
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- Dec 14, 2020
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I'll be honest. This looks bad.
This is the other heavyweight in Southern California, no question about it. If you're cutting dates when your competitor is selling out every single night, something is wrong. I get that labor is expensive and it's hard to source people right now, but if you're not selling enough tickets to cover costs, that could very quickly be a death spiral for the event.
This is the other heavyweight in Southern California, no question about it. If you're cutting dates when your competitor is selling out every single night, something is wrong. I get that labor is expensive and it's hard to source people right now, but if you're not selling enough tickets to cover costs, that could very quickly be a death spiral for the event.
- Oct 9, 2016
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I mean if I'm not mistaken this is 6 weeks right? That's the same as last year. Maybe the 14th was just a placeholder?
Odds are since Halloween falls on a tuesday, week 6 is gonna be a 5 night run, and I imagine similar to last year they'll add a couple more wednesdays to fill in for the cut 7th week.
Only way I'd really find this particularly concerning is if we don't see those extra days pop up once a full calendar actually comes out, though I also wouldn't consider it surprising, since properly staffing the mazes last year was a total nightmare for them, and even the ones they had staffed were really inconsistent. Could just be a move to reduce nights to make it easier to find people that are able to be there every night so theres less risk of off nights where mazes are missing half their casts. That said, thats also kinda a sales thing too I guess, since if I'm not mistaken last year near the end of the run they started offering select performers nights off despite the gaps in staffing, likely to avoid paying as many people in the face of extremely slow crowds.
Yes, 6 weeks. Same as last year, but 2021 started Sept 16 so 7 weeks that year. Couple months ago, they tweeted that it would start Sept 14 this year (which has now been deleted). Just looked at the calendar and the only Wednesday added is Oct 18. Monday, Oct 30 has no hours set. Of course, this is all subject to change.
Someone on the build team mentioned that they didn't think they could turn around the Calico Mine Stage in time from Summer Nights to Scary Farm. I don't buy that, though. Ten days is plenty of time to convert that stage if they really wanted to.
Two things I think will make or break this event.
- Will the chaperone policy get reinstated? It seemed to hurt attendance so bad last year so I feel they're gonna do whatever it takes to NOT implement it. Beef up security and work with BPPD and neighboring PDs if you have to. It was so bad that they ended up lowering the passholder tickets by $10 and offering free chaperone tickets with 5 paid tickets.
- Will they bring back passes? Ongoing chatter seems like they're not going to, which I think is a huge mistake. Raise the price to $149-199. I know Knott's doesn't do passes with blackout dates, but maybe it's something they need to consider for this event. How about $99 with Fridays/Saturdays and the last two weeks of October blacked out. Offer an all-season Scary Farm dining plan for $99.
The date push is weird. I've also seen people that work in operational departments say that the 14th just wasn't possible, and even the new date isn't really that much better for them. I don't have any insider knowledge about that, but I'd assume staffing issues are a huge problem still.
FWIW, Summer Nights ended September 5th last year and ends on the 4th this year. Scary Farm started on the 22nd last year and now starts on the 21st. Like you mentioned, the same amount of weeks as last year. Maybe they had similar operational staffing concerns in 2022 that we didn't hear about. Regardless, the premature date announcement is strange.
The chaperone policy was obviously never intended to be a permanent fix, and judging by those promotions last year towards the end of the end of the event, I don't see them implementing it prematurely this year. I believe what you've outlined here is pretty much what we will see.
I don't think we'll see the return of the Scary Farm pass this year, either. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I also think that is a huge mistake and they are leaving money on the table. Your idea of a pass with block out dates is interesting. I mean let's face it, that pass was way too cheap for what it offered, especially when you factor in parking being covered if you have that on your regular Season Pass.
I know I said this only a month ago, but raising the price and making it an add-on for the Season Passes seems like a win/win. They make more from the pass, have more people at the event, and incentivize regular Season Pass sales which in turn leads to visits outside of Scary Farm. They've always marketed the pass as "limited" anyway, even going back to when it was first introduced. Make it a limited, 50th tie-in with some kind of commemorative pin or lanyard and I guarantee they will sell. The demand is there.
- Feb 7, 2014
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The money left on the table last year was that the Scary Farm passes ended up ONLY going to season pass holders. People who were not Knott’s annual passholders but only attended under the Scary Farm pass would have had to pay for parking EVERY TIME, meaning they lost $30 per car.
Knott’s passholders also receive a small food and drink discount while the event is running, so they lost a small percentage due to that as well.
If they were smart, they would tier their passes
Regular Pass: Thursday/Sunday
Plus Pass: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday
Deluxe Pass: All nights
Knott’s passholders also receive a small food and drink discount while the event is running, so they lost a small percentage due to that as well.
If they were smart, they would tier their passes
Regular Pass: Thursday/Sunday
Plus Pass: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday
Deluxe Pass: All nights
Please redirect me if I am in the wrong thread, but I intend on attending Knott's Scary Farm for the first time this year (coming over from Orlando in late Sept.) and for those of you who attend regularly, is there anything I should know or keep in mind about the event?
- Jun 27, 2017
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If you want to ride most the and get on all mazes get the Fast Lane Upgrade. It will be worth it
They also do day/night combo's and also there is a Buffet option that lets you in around 5 PM and you eat and then kinda have a head start on getting to whatever maze you want first.
- Sep 5, 2018
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if you do the booffet, you can get away without the fast lane upgrade. but, the fast lane is 100% worth it if you want to marathon the whole park almost 3 times over depending how fast you walk haha
- Jun 27, 2017
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Agreed but it does include rides as well
If you go during the day and then the Boofett then yes, not as many reasons to get the fast lane.
I love night time rides so I'd say get the fast lane so you can do Ghost rider at night and walk on the log flume ride
If this is your first time ever going to KSF, I would do Boofet. I haven't done it before, but that's because as a local, I always like to go multiple nights (Most likely will this year being it's the 50th), so I don't feel like shelling out the extra $$$ for it. Someone correct me if they don't do this as *again* I have yet to do Boofet, but I believe you can also ride Ghostrider. That would make it worth it right there. Also if you do Boofet, after you knock out the backstage houses, you can get a headstart for the back.
I really don't think there's a necessity for Fright Lane, unless you really want to do rides. Even then I would just hit those up during the day if you can. But if you don't, I would do Bloodline first as that will get backed up quickly, whatever maze is going to be behind Bloodline, then go to do Grimoire and then Mesmer. Then go from there. Again, if this is your first time, I would do Boofet to get the most out of your experience.
Another thing to think about: There is a solid possibility they may be bringing Trapped back. They've been doing some haunt construction inside the arcade below Bear-y Tales where it was in 2012. It's too small for a regular house but it's just right for something like that. If they do bring it back, you will most likely have to make a reservation to do it, and it will probably be $60 for up to six people. Keep that in mind if it happens and you decide they want to do it.
worth noting that given the demographic makeup of knott's scary farm (read: hella tweens and teens), the fast lane queues for rides can be worse than the standby queue during daily operation. that is especially true with ghostrider, particularly with xcelerator down. personally, I'd go during the day to hit the rides and then focus on the mazes during scary farm. last year fright lane was (imo) not necessary because of the chaperone policy. we'll see how that shakes out, but I'd keep that in mind.
Knott's Network is reporting that something is being built in a section of the arcade area under Bear-y Tales. Not sure how big the footprint is, but it looks like either an additional maze or experience is coming.
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