Berry/Scary Farm thoughts:
-Got to ride in the front of the Galloping Goose before the park closed for Scary Farm, and that was definitely an experience. Like a school bus on rails, but with super rudimentary controls.
-My ankle was really acting up on Day 1, so I focused primarily on shows, although I was also able to do every maze at least once. It was easier than I thought it was going to be to get into some of the smaller venues, but I imagine Thurs. vs. Saturday would be a huge difference in this regard. It was noticeably more crowded on Friday vs. Thursday.
-Hanging: As with the previous incarnations of the show I've seen (2018 & 19), I like the idea of The Hanging much better than the reality/execution. Happy that those who loved it get to enjoy a Scary Farm institution, but for my own tastes, it might have been better if it had stayed dead.
-Dr. Cleaver-I loved this, actually. Hilarous hammy acting done so well that it truly felt longer than its 15 minute running time, in a good way.
-50th Musical: I can't tell if the problem are the jokes that were written or the MC himself, but as has been said by others before me, the musical numbers work very well; it's just a slog to get to them and through all the "comedy bits." Perhaps others more familiar with the former hosts/marquees of Scary Farm than I am would disagree, but it really felt more like mockery than tribute in tone. The humor was a bit crude for my tastes as well. Yes, it's a show for adults and is billed as such, but if ALL you tell are dirty jokes, there's a point for me where it starts to feel a little lazy. Clearly in the minority though because many in the audience ate it up. The lady in front of me whistled so loudly that I thought I was going to go deaf. Go for the musical numbers, bring airpods for the talky bits.
-Carneval du Grotesque: decent enough show with talented performers. Some crazy stunts, especially near the end.
In terms of new-to-me mazes, I loved Chilling Chambers (the MVP of the event), Cinema Slasher (#2 or 3), and Mesmer, but felt that Room 13, Grimoire, and Bloodline were a little muddled. Additionally, Room 13 was clearly built in the back of the arcade, and so light from that bled into the maze in a way that I found incredibly distracting. Origins is still a heck of a maze that I'm not sure they'll be able to ever fully top to my satisfaction, everything about it continues to work so perfectly.
The Calico Mine Ride overlay was new to me, and cute. Log Flume overlay was good too, I just really hate the new logs Knott's has on the ride now. I was struggling to get in the newer, smaller logs (which I have gotten into succesfully in the past) when they said that I if I was willing to wait they could get a 'lumberjack' (read: fat person) log. This was much more comfortable, but they didn't bother loading anyone else in the boat with me, so I just ended up feeling really embarassed, which is really nonsensical because they had logs that were perfectly fine and insisted on swapping them out to logs that were less accommodating. I do wish parks would stop fixing things that aren't broken and/or to be less accommodating than they were before.
Gauntlet didn't really work in practice for me. Very few set pieces, very few actors. They would have been better off just keeping it The Hollow, especially since Chilling Chambers isn't really in that area at all.
Atmosphere was great, especially Ghost Town. That said, the event has sort of a Disneyland problem in that very little of value is on the right side of the park. So many of the houses, shows, and things of value are on the left side of the park that it just ends up feeling super unbalanced.
It's still a great event, I just wish that more of the new mazes worked better for me.
