Oct 21 Trip Review
Had to get there super early because half of my family couldn’t get Early Access before it sold out online — waited for it to pop back up on the site and nothing. Went to the box office at around 2:40pm and luckily there were some left. Didn’t realize there was a box office out on City Walk until walking back, would’ve been a lot faster going there instead of going through security, but oh well. Made use of my time, got lunch, and waited for the rest of my party to show up.
Lined up for Early Access at about 4:35. I kinda miss the old style of waiting at the gates, now they just move you further in. If anything, this is the ooooolder style before we sat at the gates (anyone remember when they’d let you in on the side entrance by Waterworld and move you slowly all the way in up to Simpsons?). Right at 5pm on the dot, they let us loose. Was trying to figure out what I wanted to hit first and I was going to do Exorcist, because that line is always the longest on the lower lot for some reason, but I realized it was opening at 5:45pm. Decided to hit Holidays instead and was the third group in line.
Waiting outside of Holidayz the ten minutes before opening was pretty brutal with that countdown going off every 10 minutes, I was going insane there for a bit because it is insanely loud and super repetitive. About 2 minutes before the opening of the maze, the New Year’s Eve girl came out to interact with the crowd, loved her. Going through, I had a great run through. I know a lot of people say it is empty, but I didn’t find that to be the case — it was a fully stocked run. My only issue was I could not see the wonderful set as good as I’m used to because my eyes were adjusting to the darkness — if anything that made it scarier. Loved it!
A-
Headed over to Exorcist and I was like hey, there’s barely anyone lined up! Only to find the zigzags are behind the building. NOW I know why this always has the longest line on the lower lot — the line is visually deceiving. On top of that, the line was moving brutally slow — they opened the maze for I want to say 2 minutes and then just stopped everyone from going in, including RIP and Express. We were stopped for a good 10-15 minutes, it seemed like the maze didn’t reopen until 6:05-6:10. Then, ofcourse they had to rectify the giant RIP and Express line that built up, which was also causing a line back up all the way to Transformers. This area is a bit messy and I think there has to be a better way to fix it. Anyway, just when I was I thinking we may need to leave, even though we were right next to the entrance, the line finally started moving. Again, GREAT run through of this maze, but my first one might’ve been slightly better since I didn’t know what to expect. My biggest gripe the first time was all the scares were the same from the demon boo holes, but this time I noticed there was a bit more variation than my memory remembered. However, there are some amazing spots that could use a scare but are just empty or the scare is just weird — like the flashlight person looking for the missing children, or the empty barn which should be prime for a scare because that spot is so unsettling. Makes the first half of the maze kinda lackluster. I still think this is a fun one though.
B+
Ran back up to the upper lot to be one of the first for Chucky. At this point, it was already 6:40 and I figured we’d be there before opening, turns out everyone was already in Potterworld and onward, so I sensed we were a bit late. Got to Chucky and it was sporting a 45 minute wait at 6:56pm, but got in after 34 minutes, which is honestly not that bad. My first run through was magnificent and this one was a bit softer. The humor doesn’t work as well on the second time, so it needs something to make up for it — which is scares, which are fairly low on this one. In general, this one is just different, so it at least has that going for it, but I wish they amped up the terror factor at points. Also, the water effects in here are overkill — didn’t really notice too many of them my first time, but I think I got every time with them on this one. Also the first time I went through, I didn’t notice all the dolls coming out from two different sides in the big Chucky scene, so that was a nice surprise. Overall, still a fun maze, but the repeat value is a little low.
B+
Headed over to Monsters Unmasked sporting a 30 minute wait at 7:36 and it was actually 25 minutes. I still feel the exact same about this maze — it’s fairly good, but the momentum is ruined between scenes and what we do have feels fairly generic. There’s some standout moments but nothing too beyond what we’ve already seen before. If any of the mazes could’ve used some innovation in terms of scares or set pieces, it’s this one — like some bungee or things coming from below — anything, honestly, to help it stand out. It’s good, but I just want more from it. At least my run through was good and the stilt man at the end got us.
B
Headed back to the park for Monstrous because it was sporting a 25 minute line, which I thought was great for 8:18pm. And honestly, it was just getting shorter in the time I was there — I thought there was a dip because of Purge, but people just skip this area — which seems odd, because I remember being much more crowded at least after Terror Tram, but it was always short. Anyway, had a GREAT run through of this one and got to soak up some environments a bit more because of the conga line. I mentioned this before, but this and Monsters Unmasked have an element of sameness that kinda meshes them together in my mind — I wish they differentiated the two a bit more. I think something this maze is missing is more of a dreadful tone that worked so well with La Llorona. It’s Monsters of Latin America, yet there’s little elements of Spanish that we’d get with La Llorona, even if it was brief in the audio. Needed a bit more just to sell it instead of just “tu” on the end grave — speaking of which, he swung his shovel, which is much more aggressive than I remember that character, so that really gave the finale a bit more of a moment, but I still think the finale needed something other than the giant head — although I did get a very memorable moment there. The scare zone outside was rocking, these guys do so well with such a limited space, easily the scare zone of the night.
A
Evil Dead was sporting a 55 minute wait at 8:53pm, which was a bit longer than I wanted, but I was determined to stick to my path and luckily it was only 36 minutes. AMAZING run through on this one. Only down fall was the bathtub scene didn’t seem to be working. Had a nice gap between me and the group before so we essentially got all the scares. I stand by my first review of saying this has the best cast of the event — they just go SO HARD, even in rooms with multiple scares, it seems they are lavishing in it. Honestly, I’m not mad at this being still very similar too Horror Hotel last year, if they can keep up that energy, then they are doing something very right.
A