Went for closing tonight and wanted to share a few experiences!
- CROWDED for November. Dang, I miss when nobody knew about this, but oh well. Wasn't too heavy, I think the longest I waited was 30-40 minutes, or what would've been KKFOS until...
- The dang ticket system absolutely screwed me over somehow. At approximately 11 PM, I waited 30 minutes until about the exit portion where they cut you off to let some people go and it's a traffic area. Lady asks for our tickets. We weren't given tickets upon entry of the line. Guy just waved us through at the entrance of the maze. People in front of us and behind us apparently had some though -- there was definitely a big lull of people entering the maze at that time we went through since we didn't see anybody in front of us until the back half of the line near The Mummy. We explained that our group didn't get any but she would NOT budge. "I understand, but I cannot let you in without tickets." Uhhhh apparently you don't understand, we didn't get any! We didn't give her any attitude, my group was more confused than anything. I get that it makes us look suspicious, especially just our group not having have tickets and she's doing her job, but it definitely wasn't our fault. As it is a human system, there should be some benefit of the doubt here that things can go faulty. Or else people like us, innocent, end up with their time absolutely WASTED. The first two visits earlier in the month, I've had tickets for this maze -- well-aware that it's a thing, but I also know there's lines they don't care at all like HO1C, or they give them out in random spots in the line, or at a certain time of the night where they just stop doing it, and many cases the ticket person is lazy and doesn't care. I was literally dumbstruck, to be honest, as a veteran of attending not only haunts but this event in particular and attending this year many times in particular. Like obviously she don't know me, but we didn't cut. I even told her to ask the people behind us if we cut and she wouldn't. I don't even think she's the ticket taking person (I don't remember her having a bucket), which if I remember correctly, is the person before entering the maze. We literally stood there for about 3 minutes talking to her, as she held up the line, waiting for us to leave. I was annoyed and my group was disappointed for the rest of the night (especially a friend who had to leave early and that was going to be their last maze). Luckily, we went back right at 1 AM and...
- Man, this maze was BONKERS at closing. The scareactors doubled up in each position -- I guess they all wanted to be involved for the final run through since we were maybe the last 20 or so in the maze. Many of them clearly didn't care and was just doing random crap that their scene didn't entail for them to do. Funny in some regards, ridiculous in others. All in good fun, I suppose. Unfortunate for my friends for their first run through of the maze as they had no idea what was going on, which made it all the more funny, but it also oddly worked with the idea of clowns. Now that I know these type of shenanigans occur, I'll try to make more of an effort to hit the last run through of the season for mazes more often.
- Holidayz is the only maze that I can say not only improved, but stayed consistent throughout the run. US, while my absolute favorite on the very first night, fell quite a bit on later runs. The energy, timing, and momentum wasn't there as much. Maybe they got cocky and decided to experiment with new things, or I don't know, but it never worked as good as that first time. Holidayz, however, just got better and better.
