All things Knotts Berry Farm

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
I'm get wanting to do a big musical celebration show for the anniversary, but I will miss Puppet Up. I'm sure many saw it enough to get sick of it in the time that it was around, but still.

I wish I was clearer on what Dr. Cleaver Returns actually was.

Eh, costs are going up everywhere, why wait? Shutter it now! Or shoehorn in Puppet Up or one of the many, many better mazes they retired over the past several years into that space instead!

Puppet Up should have never been in that giant theatre. Its too small and niche a show to fill that space. Its also a show that exists outside of Scary Farm, so I wouldn't waste my limited Scary Farm time to see a shorter version of a show I could see outside of the park.

Dr. Cleaver is fantastic! He and Ed Alonzo would switch off between hosting at the Goul Time Theatre and Birdcage. Just great classic comedy, magic, and bits with his assistant Wolfgang.

Any ideas of where Room 13 will be? It sounds like it needs to be in the Roaring 20's section, but the only maze location that has been there was the Bumper Cars and that hasn't been used in years. I'd be excited if that was coming back.

I just hope The Hanging is funny. The last few years it was really cringe-worthy.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
The laser water effect and boat were by far the highlights of that maze, and made it a worthwhile trip through by themselves, but boy did the Depths just leave a lot to be desired. It sounds like some of those effects will be present in Cinema Slasher, and I wouldn't be surprised if they also showed up in Chilling Chambers if that sticks around (the premise is real good as a way to hit some highlights of past mazes).
The Depths had such promise with the Lovecraftian inspiration, but the story got too muddled with pirates and such. The elevator didn't work year 1 and they didn't even try to get it for future years and that would have been killer. The laser lake was great, but the same team had done that a few years prior at Dark Harbor (RIP).
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
No Boo Necklace available for purchase this year. Do you think this is a money grab?? or trying to make it family friendly?? Only works in the streets not inside mazes. They also have an interactive lantern for purchase that interacts with mazes, entertainment and around the park.
View attachment 739366

They are once again open on Wednesday Nights in the month of October always a really good night to go for lower crowd levels.
They've had No Boo necklaces at other Cedar Fair parks for years. They've been harmless at the other events, but I have mixed feelings on them being at Knott's. In terms of whether or not it's a money grab or trying to make the event more family friendly, I'd say yes to both. People who have used them seem to enjoy them, and I haven't noticed it causing any real problems at other events, but I could also picture them really throwing off the "nowhere is safe" vibe that makes Scary Farm so special. Hopefully it'll be fine just like it has been at the other parks.

For better or worse, for my upcoming trip I decided to make Wednesday my Universal/HHN day and then focus at least the next two nights on Scary Farm. Hopefully Thursday won't be too much worse than Wednesday.
Puppet Up should have never been in that giant theatre. Its too small and niche a show to fill that space. Its also a show that exists outside of Scary Farm, so I wouldn't waste my limited Scary Farm time to see a shorter version of a show I could see outside of the park.
It appeared to fill up that first year-or at least, it filled the theater MUCH more than the improv show that had been in there in 2018. They could have recycled out some of the staged bits sooner than they did, but otherwise I quite enjoyed it.
Any ideas of where Room 13 will be? It sounds like it needs to be in the Roaring 20's section, but the only maze location that has been there was the Bumper Cars and that hasn't been used in years. I'd be excited if that was coming back.

I just hope The Hanging is funny. The last few years it was really cringe-worthy.
I guess near the Walter Knott theater, if the tagline is to be believed, but I can't really picture how/where that would fit within the area I'm picturing. The last time I was at the event, the Roaring 20s scare zone didn't yet exist.

I didn't think either year I saw The Hanging was great, though I felt the 2019 show was significantly better than the 2018 show. I do think society has changed, and so it'll be nigh impossible to pull of a Hanging that everyone universally adores. I don't think the difference is just that 'people get so much more offended now', although there's some degree of that. The bigger issue is that everyone gets entertainment, news, etc. from their own bubbles and niches, so there isn't much of a 'mass culture' to speak of in the way there would have been ten years ago. So the jokes need to be super big and broad-which increases the chances that most jokes will refer to things that seem super dated/past their prime or go to the obvious targets (i.e. the Kardashians). So even if they really truly go 'we'll take no prisoners with our level of offensiveness', I imagine there's a fair chance that the show will miss most of its targets anyway. It's always been a bit of a luck of the draw or required a certain alchemy for a show like this to work, and it's only gotten harder over time for everything to come together in the way it needs to in a 'pop culture offensive' sort of show. Perhaps they'll really stick the landing this time, but in my view there's a better than average chance that many people will watch the show and wonder if the park would've been better off just keeping The Hanging in the past.

Glad to hear that Dr. Cleaver sounds like a good time. Though I hope he does better than Ed Alonzo-I saw him at Worlds of Fun and I'd say his show was more odd than it was funny or shocking. There was one bit with an audience member that clearly didn't work the way it was supposed to. Hopefully Dr. Cleaver has aged better.
 
Last edited:

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Glad to hear that Dr. Cleaver sounds like a good time. Though I hope he does better than Ed Alonzo-I saw him at Worlds of Fun and I'd say his show was more odd than it was funny or shocking. There was one bit with an audience member that really didn't work the way it was supposed to. Hopefully Dr. Cleaver has aged better.
That's sad to hear. I LOVE Ed Alonzo and he used to be the highlight of my Knotts visits until Elvira came and soaked up every entertainment dollar to simply flop around on stage.

I haven't seen him perform in probably a decade now.
 

D.Silentu

Well-Known Member
The Depths had such promise with the Lovecraftian inspiration, but the story got too muddled with pirates and such. The elevator didn't work year 1 and they didn't even try to get it for future years and that would have been killer.
Amusingly, I realized I've asked you a question like this before, but I'd like to hear more about this faulty elevator effect. I only went through The Depths in later years.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Amusingly, I realized I've asked you a question like this before, but I'd like to hear more about this faulty elevator effect. I only went through The Depths in later years.
The maze was originally designed to have groups load into a motion-based elevator car to take folks down into the mines. To sell the idea that we were going underground.

Curse of the Spider also had an amazing pre-show scene that helped pulse the line.
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Amusingly, I realized I've asked you a question like this before, but I'd like to hear more about this faulty elevator effect. I only went through The Depths in later years.
It worked a little inconsistently, and the first year it was there, I don't ever remember them using it when I walked through. Basically they'd shove everyone into a square "elevator" space, shake you around a bit, and then change some of the walls so that it would appear that you exited into a different space. In essence, it was a low budget, manual version of the transport part of ROTR. I can see why they got rid of it-it wasn't a super great moment of the maze, and undoubtedly slowed throughput.
 
Last edited:

choco choco

Well-Known Member
The maze was originally designed to have groups load into a motion-based elevator car to take folks down into the mines. To sell the idea that we were going underground.

Curse of the Spider also had an amazing pre-show scene that helped pulse the line.

Every time they have tried a pre-show to pulse people into a maze, it has failed. Basically every time. I'm surprised they still try it. And they do, judging by Grimoire doing it last year.

The only time I remember it working was that one where the girl comes out of the flying contraption in that insane asylum maze (I forget the name of the maze). If I remember correctly, that only worked because they had two identical chambers doing the pre-show, so that there was double throughput and lead to less dead time.

I'm a fan of the preshows, so I guess I'm suggesting they should design the double rooms for every maze that wants to do one.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Every time they have tried a pre-show to pulse people into a maze, it has failed. Basically every time. I'm surprised they still try it. And they do, judging by Grimoire doing it last year.

The only time I remember it working was that one where the girl comes out of the flying contraption in that insane asylum maze (I forget the name of the maze). If I remember correctly, that only worked because they had two identical chambers doing the pre-show, so that there was double throughput and lead to less dead time.

I'm a fan of the preshows, so I guess I'm suggesting they should design the double rooms for every maze that wants to do one.
That was paranormal Inc and it only had one pre-show room, but there were two maze paths that met up later.

Almost every Knotts pre-show has been great in my experience.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Room 13 maze is built in the former VR area of the arcade under Berry Tales. I don't know if we are entering or exiting through the arcade. You can definately see maze area beyond. Walter Knott theater gets a musical stage show about monsters. I assume it will be similar to the old Elvira show but without Elvira. I'm glad Puppet Up is gone. It was the same old thing every year.

The Hanging uncancelled will be in the Wagon Camp area. I worry that area is too small for the Hanging. At least they will have the old stunt show props to work with.

Chilling Chambers is under the stage coach are in Camp Snoopy where Pumpkin Eater was before. Cinema Slasher will go where Dark Ride was. I was never really impressed with the Dark Entities maze. It will be good to see something new there next year. I'm not sure if they are taking away the laser guns from Bloodlines 1842. That one had multiple waiting areas in the maze. You kind of ran from waiting area to waiting area and the shooting really didn't matter much.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
The Room 13 maze is built in the former VR area of the arcade under Berry Tales. I don't know if we are entering or exiting through the arcade. You can definately see maze area beyond. Walter Knott theater gets a musical stage show about monsters. I assume it will be similar to the old Elvira show but without Elvira. I'm glad Puppet Up is gone. It was the same old thing every year.

The Hanging uncancelled will be in the Wagon Camp area. I worry that area is too small for the Hanging. At least they will have the old stunt show props to work with.

Chilling Chambers is under the stage coach are in Camp Snoopy where Pumpkin Eater was before. Cinema Slasher will go where Dark Ride was. I was never really impressed with the Dark Entities maze. It will be good to see something new there next year. I'm not sure if they are taking away the laser guns from Bloodlines 1842. That one had multiple waiting areas in the maze. You kind of ran from waiting area to waiting area and the shooting really didn't matter much.
Yeah, Dark Entities was DOA from year one. The laser tag element was great in Camp Snoopy and has gone downhill each time they move it/revamp it.
 

Disneyland/DCA

Active Member
Anyone go in the legacy store at the marketplace yet? Wow. Super cool shop that's also like 1/2 maze and 1/2 museum. When they're slow they'll let you test out the interactive lantern. Lots of good stuff.

Also think it's great they're putting the hanging in wagon camp. Easier for mgmt to say," oh you're offended? Well you chose to go in there even after being told it's potentially offensive." Even though long time fans know the jokes are usually more lame than offensive. Plus the aforementioned stunt rigging already available.

It'd be great if the crypt keeper made a surprise appearance in the monster musical they're doing.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah, Dark Entities was DOA from year one. The laser tag element was great in Camp Snoopy and has gone downhill each time they move it/revamp it.
Laser tag in Camp Snoopy was exhausting because your running all over the place and you get chased. A laser tag maze doesn't really work because the people in the front always kill all the monsters. Still Bloodlines was entertaining from an actor/show perspective. I usually walk thru without shooting.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Laser tag in Camp Snoopy was exhausting because your running all over the place and you get chased. A laser tag maze doesn't really work because the people in the front always kill all the monsters. Still Bloodlines was entertaining from an actor/show perspective. I usually walk thru without shooting.
I enjoyed the scale of it. Not an every year thing, but it was the best version of the concept.
 

Nirya

Well-Known Member
Every time they have tried a pre-show to pulse people into a maze, it has failed. Basically every time. I'm surprised they still try it. And they do, judging by Grimoire doing it last year.

The only time I remember it working was that one where the girl comes out of the flying contraption in that insane asylum maze (I forget the name of the maze). If I remember correctly, that only worked because they had two identical chambers doing the pre-show, so that there was double throughput and lead to less dead time.

I'm a fan of the preshows, so I guess I'm suggesting they should design the double rooms for every maze that wants to do one.

The preshows are usually really good, but they slow the lines down so much that by year two they just get rid of them. Mesmer (the Houdini maze) had a really good one, as did Shadowlands in that space before that, but both of them cut their opening room after the first year. i think I remember Voodoo having a really good pre-show as well that got dropped when they shifted the storyline. I'm half-expecting Grimoire to do the same thing this year, especially because it was already struggling a ton last year.

Paranormal Inc had by far the best version of a preshow because it immediately emptied everyone into two different paths so the room cleared out quickly. Unfortunately, most of the maze spots don't have that kind of space to work with.
I enjoyed the scale of it. Not an every year thing, but it was the best version of the concept.
Special Ops in Camp Snoopy was by far the best version of it but I also understand why they had to move it just from a space standpoint. I'm also at the end of believing that the shooting concept is good for Scary Farm, and think that Bloodlines would work perfectly fine as a non-shooter maze.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Knotts Scary Farm opens tomorrow night. Anyone going?
I'll pick up a ticket for tomorrow and next thursday.
Just got our tickets for next Thursday. Boo-Fet at 5:30 then hitting the park. I used to go every year but haven't been in 4-5 years. I'm very excited as I haven't seen any of the current mazes except for Dark Entities. I'm just eagerly awaiting footage of the Ghoul Time show and The Hanging to see if it is something I would like to block out as these shows can be incredible or cringe-worthy year-to-year.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Just got our tickets for next Thursday. Boo-Fet at 5:30 then hitting the park. I used to go every year but haven't been in 4-5 years. I'm very excited as I haven't seen any of the current mazes except for Dark Entities. I'm just eagerly awaiting footage of the Ghoul Time show and The Hanging to see if it is something I would like to block out as these shows can be incredible or cringe-worthy year-to-year.
This is Dark Entities and the Depth's last year.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom