Wild Waves Frightfest is an Overpriced "Lame Fest"
Written: Oct 22 '09
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: The "alien predator" display is cool, and one haunted house is decent.
Cons: Long lines, rides closed down, overpriced food and drinks, must pay to park
The Bottom Line: The scariest thing about Wild Waves Frightfest is that it emptied my wallet. $5.50 for a corndog is pretty scary too. Other than that, it is a "Lame Fest"
|
|
|
| Paulblow's Full Review: Wild Waves |
I love Halloween and Halloween activities -- haunted houses and such -- and this year (2009) I decided to take a couple of highschoolers out to Wild Waves' annual "Frightfest" -- their special Halloween attraction which is open every October from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM on Friday and Saturday nights in Federal Way, Washington. I've been to Wild Waves Frightfest before a few years ago and while it was expensive I still had a good time -- the haunted house was much better than the norm and I loved how they had the whole park decorated in Halloween decor and flair. It was not bad. However, this year, 2009, the Wild Waves Frighfest turned out to be an overpriced "Lame Fest."
First off, tickets to Frighfest are $25 a pop at the gate (it's advisable to plan ahead and buy them online for $19.99 at wildwaves.com) and on top of that they charge $10 to park in their parking lot. Seeing how there is no off-street parking anywhere near the park you have little choice but to pay to park. So, the price for the three of us right off the bat was $92.50 including tax just for parking and admission.
Wild Waves Frightfest boasts that it has two haunted houses and 30 rides and attractions plus special Halloween entertainment. The first thing we did was check out the first haunted house near the front gate. The line was long but did move fast, we had a 25 minute wait to get in the first haunted house but it was pretty decent with plenty of mazes, strobe lights, weird freaky displays, and mask-wearing actors who roamed about provoking screams from young teenage girls. It took about ten minutes to walk through this first haunted house, so a 25 minute wait wasn't bad.
Next, we walked around the park a bit to check out some rides and attractions. To our dismay we discovered that most of the advertised 30 rides and attractions were closed. It was raining that night, but at the front gate where it listed which rides were closed they only listed two rides when in fact at least half of the rides were closed. The rides that were open had long lines, so we decided to check out haunted house #2 on the far side of the park. On the way we checked out the Halloween decorations and displays in the park, but they were the same decorations they had a few years ago -- nothing new at all! You would think they would freshen up the act a bit, but at least the "alien predator" robot display was still there and that was probably the highlight of the Frightfest.
Upon getting to the second haunted house we found yet another long line, which turned out to be a line to get to the line! We spent 45 minutes waiting in line to get inside haunted house #2 (billed as the Haunted Maze) which turned out to be a major waste of time. The Haunted Maze turned out to be nothing more than a maze with strobe lights and more mask-wearing actors lurking about, and the main disappointment was that after standing in line 45 minutes in the rain it took a mere three minutes to walk through the exhibit. "That was it? Lame!" was my high school friends' reaction when we exited the Maze. Yes, it was indeed lame.
At that point of the night it was around 9:45 PM so we decided to get something to eat and drink. However, after seeing the prices at the food stands ($5.50 for a corn dog, $4.50 for a large soda) all we bought was one soda. Even the pop machines were overpriced -- they charged $3.00 for a bottle of pop. We decided to get food later somewhere else.
We walked around Frightfest some more looking for rides to go on, but our favorite rides were either closed or had closed early. For Pete's sake, if they advertise the park is open until 11:00 PM they should at least keep the rides open until 11:00 PM, not shut them down at 9:30 as they did with some of the few open rides. My two friends spent another 25 minutes in line to ride the bumper cars and after that all we had time for was the merry-go-round, as it was one of the few open rides with no long lines. After that it was close to 11:00 PM so we decided to call it a night and head to Wendy's for some affordable food.
I was disappointed with Wild Waves Frightfest this year and so were my two young friends. For the price of $92.50 we got to stand in long lines in the rain and went on two rides. My young friends both said it was "lame" and indeed it was a "Lame Fest" ... in fact, the scariest thing about Frightfest was that it emptied my wallet, and that is scary! I will definitely not be going back to Frightfest in the future unless they drastically lower the prices and freshen up the act.
If you DO insist upon going to Wild Waves Frightfest this year, heed my advice:
1) Bring lots of money
2) have something to eat before you go to the park
3) be prepared for long lines
4) don't bother waiting in line for the Haunted Maze -- it's a waste of time.
5) Go on the merry-go-round
6) Bring lots of money
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Paulblow
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 106
Trusted by: 34 members
About Me:
Paul Blow: A man for all seasons, a man for all reasons.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.