Knotts Haunt...

Otherwise known as Knotts Scary Farm!

It's the most wonderful time of year!  This means fun Halloweeny type excursions!

Our 1st adventure was the play - Jekyll and Hyde at Maverick Theater. Unfortunately I wasn't all that impressed.  Taylor, the boy and I hit up the show one Friday night last month.  It had played the year prior but I missed it, so I was thrilled to catch it this time around.  The acting was decent and the play was alright, but I just wasn't wow'd.  So - meh.

But - Excursion #2 was loads of fun!!!  Haunt!!  Yay!

Now - it was made a hell of a lot more fun with Front of Line passes.  Let me tell you friends - pay the extra dime for the front of line.  It's so worth it!  The lines can get so friggin long, and as much fun as I have at Haunt, a lot of the mazes are just ok.  So if you wait over an hour for a half ass maze - you're going to be pissed.

I must admit - the years past hitting up Knott's Haunt have been quite disappointing.  But last year they really stepped it up and I was thrilled.  This year wasn't as good as last year, but it was still better than years past!

The night started off just lovely with food and libations and laughs at TGIFriday's, which happens to be right there at the park - so hello convenience!  We had a great "Haunting" crew this year.  Taylor of course - my Horror Partner in Crime, the boyfriend and his bestie and his wife (who by the way had their 1st date at Haunt in 1994!).  The wife - she's our people.  This girl loves Halloween as much as Taylor and I.  The 5 of us had such a great time!!

Wine...Food...precious little waiter...great friends...BLISS!

We decided to hit the mazes behind Ghost Rider to start out the night.  1st maze we hit was "Trick or Treat."  This was not based on the movie, but rather actual trick or treating.  They let you in a little groups and your handed a flashlight.  Super cute idea and a very fun maze.  The scares were ok but the decor was great!  Your flashlight also changes colors and goes out every now and again.  Super fun!

Next up was The Depths.  This one was so-so.  The story line didn't quite come across and the scares were meh.

After The Depths we hit up Dark Entities.  Sadly didn't care for this one that much either.  I'm not a huge Sci-Fi fan when I'm hitting up horror stuff I guess.  They also packed ALOT of people into this one so it was a bit crowded.

Next - Paranormal Inc.  Now I was super bummed with this one because it's usually one of my favorites, but it seems to have slacked off this year.  The pre-show bit they usually do was way shorter and didn't even make sense.  The gal flying across the top was and always is super cool but I missed the pre-show story set up.  This one also gets a bit confusing when the two separate directions you can go get merged.

This covered the back corner.  On our way back through the park we stopped for drinks at the bar near Ghost Rider - note - great for beer, not for wine.  It's also a nice little nook to escape the screaming Tweens for a minute.

After that we headed over to one of my all time favorites - Special Ops Infected.  This one you get a gun and are sent in small groups through a maze to kill zombies!  There are soldiers throughout, yelling at you and playing up the screaming "DO WHAT I SAY" soldier types.  The zombies have things on their necks and heads that light up when you shoot them!  I hate guns - but give me fake ones and running around killing zombies and I'm in!  I'm a bit ambitious and tore through the maze leaving my group behind most of the time, so when I'd run up to a soldier he'd yell "Where's the rest of your group!?"  They got yelled at for not keeping up with me. Ha ha!  I'm a zombie killing machine!!  This maze was a favorite for sure - it's so fast paced and fun and the soldiers and zombies do a fantastic job keeping up with their characters!  We actually all even went back later for a round 2 later in the night and the actors were still on top of it!  Props to the talent in that maze for sure!  (PS - I got 22 kills the 1st time and tied with Jose with 13 kills the 2nd time!)

Zombie Killas!!!!

After killing zombies we hit up The Red Barn.  This one is pretty gross.  Some of my group didn't care for it too much but I thought the decor was great.  It really is disgusting but it fits the story line for sure.  They also pack too many people in this one too, so it's kind of like cattle moving through (Maybe that's the point?).  Scares are just meh - but still fun!  And of course you may get chased by a chainsaw wielding dude with a pig head - always good times.

Around this time we wandered into the Halloween Store next to the Arcade and browsed the goodies.  I seriously wanted to buy so many things!!!  They also had a cute little photo op so the boy and I took advantage.

💕💕

I then grabbed a game card to hit some games later when everyone else was on rides.  Sadly a whole bunch of games weren't working in the arcade.  Ack.

We then wandered through the Carn-Evil Scare zone.  The boys all decided to go on the Xcelerator ride, so Mandy and I enjoyed watching the clowns terrify the tweens.  By the way...did you know that Friday nights all the tweens come out?  So many screaming children.  My GAWD.  The boys all gave the ride a thumbs up - so you thrill seekers check it out!

This was also about the time we were able to get our rad group shot!

Haunt Crew 2018

 Next up was my favorite maze of the night - Shadow Lands.  This maze is decorated just beautifully!!  They also only let a certain amount of people in at a time which makes such a great difference.  One of the actresses comes down this hallway in a very "Grudge" "Ring" like fashion - so creepy!!!!  The scares were great!  Some bungee folks, people blending right in with the damn trees and a fantastic giant monster at the end.  This maze kicked ass.  Had it not been in the back corner we may have hit that one up again!

Next up was the Dark Ride maze.  This one, like Paranormal, so disappointed me!  Last year this maze was a favorite but this year it was a mess.  You couldn't even tell the story line, the monsters seemed bored and the fantastic scene in the middle that I fell in love with last year was kind of a chaotic mess.  Plus they let waaaaay too many people in at time and it was so packed.  So super bummed this one was such a let down.

The last maze was Pumpkin Eater.  The scares were meh but the decorations were awesome!  It smelled like you were in a an actual pumpkin!  Very cool concept and the decor was friggin rad.  They also had this really fucked up scary horse at the end that I loved.

At some point in the evening we did go through the other 2 scare zones - Ghost Town and the new one that was a Victorian like themed.  Ghost Town is always a hoot because it's so foggy and people are jumping out of everywhere and all you hear are screams.  Hilarious.  The Victorian scare zone wasn't real scary but the costumes were very cool!  We also wandered through Camp Snoopy which also may be a scare zone...?  There were monsters and I really love how they decorate that area!  So rad!

Re-visiting their 1st date in 1994!!

One point in the evening we hit up the log ride.  They don't have actual scare actors on the ride, but they do decorate it and have neat things to look at as you sail through.  Totally fun and I didn't get too wet being sandwiched between the boys. Ha!

The crew hit up ghost rider while I went and played a few games.  Didn't win.  Ugh!  But they all raved about Ghost Rider - so again - you thrill folks - hit it!

Mandy and Jose had to head out a bit earlier, so we said our goodbyes and Taylor, Pat and I went and played more games - Taylor won me a wolf pillow dude so I did get one new friend to add to my collection.  The boys also hit up Silver Bullet and said it was rad.  I loved sitting out and watching the Victorian folks scare the hell out of the tweens.

We wandered around a bit more, but our feet were starting to bark so we called it a night.  

Haunts is a def a fun night!!  Thumbs up from me!

I had such a great time!  We had a perfect crew and it was a night of Halloweeny Fun for sure!!!  A big Thank you to Taylor for making it all happen!  I fucking love Halloween Time!!!