Opening night and under a flood advisory. The tradition continues.
Every single year… it’s incredible.
Yeah, the park is flooding in spots already lol. Puppet is currently closed due to it. Did Scarey and Wicked, but had to bail on Puppet for now. In line for Icons for now.
Circling back to this now that I'm home, LT ended up being the only house where I actually noticed any SIF.FYI: I’m only 4 houses deep, but the SIF was really overblown by those on preview night. Every single curtain in Icons and Brides were held open without needing to touch it and there was no additional SIF. Don’t recall if there was any in my first two houses.
That would be me, and thank you for your musical analysis of the event.Circling back to this now that I'm home, LT ended up being the only house where I actually noticed any SIF.
I know someone also asked about music in Seek & Destroy and I did notice some instrumental music playing in my last walk-through of the zone tonight. Maybe I was completely oblivious all night, but music did feel a bit sparse throughout the park this year in general. I noticed a few of the same instrumental tracks playing in Production Central and not much else honestly. Just a note.
Well hello there 2am closing every night almost, weird though just went to the site now and it still shows the weekend of the 17th and 24th as 1am closingWould ya look at this? (Srry if posted earlier)
Well hello there 2am closing every night almost, weird though just went to the site now and it still shows the weekend of the 17th and 24th as 1am closing
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre line started all the way up at where the old bus station used to be in the New York Area as seen here:So first impressions look like the Simpsons SS area was 3x more packed than the NY one. If thats the case when I'm there, I may just go to NYC.
Definitely didn't pay attention for SIF in Pumpkin, but that would check out from what I recall. Missed Tooth last night, but really don't recall any SIF in Icons. Either way, definitely less than I expected when I was seeing tweets saying it was back in full force .Pumpkin has quite a bit of SIF, Tooth had some added, and Icons had a little from what I can remember.
Chainsaw roamers are sorely missed. Leaves a very noticable hole in Simpsons.
I think the vinyl sticks out more in BJ as it's a brighter house, so you're more prone to noticing that shiny vinyl if there's lights bouncing off of it (backlighting as well). Also, I know some people recently cast for BJ so there's help on the way there.Random opening night thoughts:
- Moderately busy at best, nowhere near Hell Week, let alone what I'd expect of a sell-out. Rain probably the main factor there. That said, expect to be jammed with 100s of your new closest friends multiple times throughout the night, majority of whom are unmasked. There were no attempts at social distancing anywhere.
- Standby wait times seemed grossly inflated. E.g. BJ posted 75, timed it at 31. At the same time, Express lines seemed overwhelmed, Entered Puppet with a posted 40 minute wait, were at merge in 20; met friends who had entered Express at the same time coming out of the bathroom post-house as we were walking in. So Express saved maybe 2 or 3 minutes there.
- Plastic/vinyl didn't really faze me in Bride/Wicked Growth, was only an occasional issue in LT/Puppet, yet absolutely ruined BJ for me. Hides the actors in that house, not sure why different. Other than the first Bride (like last year), masks were only an issue in LT -- but there they were largely unthemed and took me out of the 40s noire feel multiple times.
- Attrition is going to be the biggest issue this year. Already some F&B was overwhelmed. And BJ still had noticeable holes. Can't really afford to lose people this year, but seems inevitable given the 8-week schedule.
- I still have houses to get to tonight, but consensus is Wicked Growth is the one to beat this year. Bride was as good as last year. Hill House seems to be a sleeper.
- Hard to fully judge zones given rain, but Eddie shaping up to be the one to beat. Gorewood Forest is a Hades/Carnival Graveyard level disappointment.
- Nightmare Fuel was intense. I liked it, but it's overwhelming. As someone mentioned in the employee preview thread, could use a couple breaks in the action just to let the audience catch its breath. Only a handful of magic tricks but really well done. Also, when they say "adult," they aren't kidding. This isn't (just) sexy people dancing, this is sexy people miming BDSM on stage. Not sure how this got past the theme park equivalent of Standards & Practices.
It continues.
Perhaps they’ve allocated everyone who has FFP/RoF is in their numbers and they’re using that to cap the numbers assuming they all appear. Definitely seems odd.I think the vinyl sticks out more in BJ as it's a brighter house, so you're more prone to noticing that shiny vinyl if there's lights bouncing off of it (backlighting as well). Also, I know some people recently cast for BJ so there's help on the way there.
There's just no way they are filling to 100%. I know it's been two years, but there's no international visitors and the only time this event has ever reached capacity before was during hell week.