Fear What? The Lines? Maybe the Price?
Written: Oct 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The Mummy's Revenge
Cons: the lines, the price, Freak Show
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| CJsMommy's Full Review: Paramount's Kings Island |
If you had talked to me last Saturday at about 11:00, I would have told you I was going to write a scathing review on Paramount's Kings Island's Fear Fest , and it was getting one star. Luckily for them, the last attraction moved my rating to three stars. I very rarely give bad ratings to things, especially amusement parks, but Fear Fest left me very upset, and none too pleased.
My husband and I finally got to go out by ourselves for the first time since having my son a year ago. Since it's October, we thought going to a haunted house might be fun. I had heard about Fear Fest on the radio. It was being held at King's Island, and was sponsored by one of our local radio stations. What could be more fun, I thought? A dark and spooky amusement park!
The tickets were $20, but we managed to find coupons for $2 off. You can get these at any Ameristop gas station, if you are still interested in going after reading my review:) When we got to the park, we found that we had to spend $7 just for parking. Now, mind you, the park was only going to be opened for 4 hours for Fear Fest , but we happily paid the money. We find parking, and took the shuttle to the entrance. That's when we saw the huge crowd of people.
As we approached the line, we found that we had to wait just to get in the gate. 45 minutes later, we were finally at the ticket window. Then, another 10 minutes later, the man working finally figured out how to work the computer and scan our credit card. I told the girl behind me that she had better tell the man her card didn't scan, or she would be there forever. She did so, and made it through much faster than we did.
Well, we were finally in the park! Unfortunately, all of the maps were gone, so we were on our own. We decided to check out the Museum of Horrors first. Why you may ask? Well, the line was shortest. About 20 minutes later, we were in the building. The attraction is very similar to the Haunted Mansion in Disney World. You sit in cars that continually move around the building. Periodically throughout the ride, people jump out at you, but there is nothing especially scary. For part of the ride, you are in complete darkness, which was the worst part for me
When we got off of that ride, we headed towards the other side of the park. We ran into something called "Freak Show" which turned out to be a short movie. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT waste your time on this show. It is only 6 minutes, but it is very stupid. If you are looking for a place to sit down, you can try it because you will get right in, but the movie is not scary, and it will just waste precious line-standing time.
After the freaky flick, we got in line for "The Sewer". We heard this was one of the better attractions. Of course, the line was over an hour long. We figured everything would be this long, so we mine as well wait. By this time, it was almost 11. We had seen 1 attraction, 1 stupid movie, and would have to leave in an hour? How ridiculous. It was at this point that I was creating my scathing epinions review:) Luckily for King's Island, right at that point, they announced that they were keeping the park open an additional hour to accomodate the crowd. That meant we could possibly see one more attraction. $20 for 3 attractions, and one lame movie....plus the $7 for parking. Hmmm....worth the money? You decide.
Anyway, we finally got to "The Sewer", which was housed in one of the restaurants. We noticed people purchasing prism glasses, which were supposed to enhance the attraction. Now I don't know about you, but after spending $20 to get it, I thought they could probably give us those for free. Needless to say, we did not purchase the glasses. "The Sewer" consisted of a maze which was painted with a lot of glow-in-the dark colors. All the characters had similar makeup on. Again, I wasn't too scared in this one. The lady in front of me did say the glasses helped a little, but still not all that great.
The last attraction we saw saved the whole evening. It was called "The Mummy's Revenge". It looked like it was housed in a warehouse behind a ride. A number of creepy characters were wandering around the line, which added to the tension. The theme, of course, was Egyptian, and unlike the other attractions, there were items placed around the line which helped set the mood. Once you got to the inner line, you could hear loud claps of thunder. Finally, we entered the tomb. I won't give away all the scary parts, but I will say I screamed and jumped all the way through this one. The atmosphere was perfect....the characters were frightening, and the special effects were outstanding. The people were very difficult to spot, unlike the other attractions we went to, so when they jumped out, I definitely wasn't expecting them. Some of them even whispered creepy things in your ears, which set me on edge. I ended up running out of the entrance, because one of them was following me! *giggle* I'm such a wimp:)
Finally, we were done. It was one in the morning by this time. We still had to wait in line to get out of the parking lot. I was so tired of lines at this point!
Just a few additional notes. A few of the roller coasters like "Son of Beast", "Face Off", and "King Cobra" were running, but they appeared to be shut down for most of the night. My husband is deathly afraid of roller coasters, so I didn't get to ride any. It was also a very busy night. I guess the park winded up selling out, which could explain the extremely long line. Basically I just want to warn people of what to expect. I would also not recommend this for younger children. They suggest 12 and over, and I definitely agree. There are some creepy characters wandering around, and they might scare younger children. The attractions are also not geared towards them. There is a family event that Kings Island holds prior to Fear Fest that you might want to check out if you want to bring the whole clan, but save this one for the older ones.
Some of the attractions we missed were "The Freezer" and "Tower of Terror". I wish I could tell you what they were like, but their lines were even longer! Some even being as long as an hour and forty-five minutes!
Next year, I hope they have some way to control the crowd. The lines weren't set up very well, and I noticed a number of people cutting because the ends of the lines weren't formed at all. They need to stop charging for glasses for the attractions. We've already paid to get in with the assumption that we paid to enjoy the attractions, not that we would have to pay even more for certain ones. They also need to do something about either letting people in earlier, or opening more ticket windows. Waiting 45 minutes just to get in the gate is not how I wanted to use my time, and I'm sure no one else did either. I don't believe you could buy tickets ahead of time, so maybe doing that would help as well.
All in all, the attractions weren't spectacular. If you do end up going, make sure you don't miss "The Mummy's Revenge" though. That attraction saved the whole evening, and left me shaking! And skip "Freak Show" in order to save time for more worthwhile attractions. Fear the lines and the price at Paramount's Kings Island's Fear Fest if you know what's good for you!
Recommended:
No
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CJsMommy
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Member: Jennifer Boyle
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
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