I attend World's of Fun Halloween Haunt this past Saturday night. This was my second year attending their haunt. I have attended Knott's Halloween Haunt tons of times and worked Knott's Scary Farm once.
Theming: Overall WoF needs to improve their theming year round but last year's Haunt decor around the park impressed me. This year I felt like decor around the park was lacking. The mazes felt well decorated through and through. I was very pleased with the Pumpkin Eater update.
Cast: What is going on at WoF? They must of been short staffed or have a hard time getting actors. Mazes felt extremely lacking. At Knotts we (almost) always had 1 scare actor per room (10-15 per maze) but at WoF there were barely 5-6 monsters per maze. Most of the scare zones felt empty too. We saw 2 or 3 cowboys in Out-Laws Revenge and only 1 clown! Malice in Wonderland was improved greatly from last year!
Immersion: Last year my biggest complaint about WoF's Haunt was that you can see the monsters out of character. This year wasn't as bad but I still saw multiple cases of this happening. At Knott's you are absolutely not allowed out of character in guest view but at WoF, especially by Ripper Alley, the "monsters" are on their phones outside the maze taking a break! It's so annoying! My coworker even told me that when she went a monster got her so bad she fell on her butt... the monster broke character and asked if she was ok! Also why do we have monsters acting like their regular selves at the head of the line explaining the maze rules and counting groups? This should be a lead or a blackout. They need monsters scaring the line. They don't need a monster telling you they use strobe lights outside every maze.
Food: I did not try any of the special Haunt treats but the seasoned fries from Gorilla Grill were great! Unfortunately most of the soda fountains were out of syrup resulting in only 2-3 choices of what to drink.
Overall World's of Fun needs more love from corporate. From an Entertainment Perspective, they need to double cast all of their mazes. This would stop mazes from feeling empty because half their cast is on break. Pay your actors better or give more incentive to work there and do a good job. They also need more leadership. Each maze and scare zone should have their own "Stage Manager" if not one and an assistant/lead. A leader per group would improve cast moral, and therefore performance, greatly! And please build your cast a break zone out of guest view!!
Tweet
This discussion has been archived and is no longer accepting responses.
Thanks for sharing this! It's always fascinating to see which Scary Farm mazes or concepts get ported out to other parks (Pumpkin Eater, in this case). Enjoyed reading!