See? What did I tell you guys! KSF has been killing it with scares lately! They have a wide-variety of scares and they work! HHN needs to learn.
Maybe I should rephrase... KSF has nice little mini shocks. Over and over again. Someone in the dark coming into view. When I get a scare at HHN, it's one nice big one, which in my estimation is worth 3 little mini-shocks. I'd say it's about even, which then makes it come down to...
Uh, what? This argument makes no sense, like at all. With the exception of Monsters and Stranger Things, HHN has really sucked with immersion. KSF houses are SUPER immersive and I think they are superior than HHN's scenic (Monsters is probably on-par) even if it isn't necessarily "movie quality". Why? Just look at the Principal's house in TrT. A nice house surrounded by black walls. Like dude Murdy, you couldn't even at least put a wooden fence there with some tree branches sticking out? Everything there was far more immersive than 3/4 of HHN's houses. Polt has some, but it's ruined by black wallz.
Aesthetic. For me, it's everything. And it makes perfect sense with the way I described it. KSF looks CHEAP... someone I know phrased it perfectly... KSF looks like a bunch of buddies got together and decided they could build some mazes after they got some money. HHN looks like people hired with an education, experience, and the best of the best came in to build. I look at KSF and think, "I could do that if you gave me the money and the resources." HHN I think, "I'd probably have to take some classes, work for a decade, and study for years before I can really perfect that craft." The craftmanship is just on another level. The lighting they use, the colors, the design -- it's skewed towards realism which helps with immersion. One realistic room is worth 1/8 a KSF maze (in MY estimation). And every HHN maze, no matter how many black walls there are between them, has at least 10 rooms.
Even a maze I love, like Paranormal, looks fake af. Like the ghost trapped in the TV during the pre-show is completely the wrong scale. KSF does this year after year because now in Dark Entities, they have a video of a girl stuck in a cryo-tube. What's a giant octopus worth in The Depths if it looks plastic & foam-y? Why does every maze look like cluttered plaster and cheap paint? Why are the vines on the outside of the Pumpkin Eater pumpkin STAPLED onto it in plain site sloppily like a second grader did it? You can have the most elaborate set built 360 degrees crowded with tons of scenic, but if the craftmanship isn't there and it's built from cheap materials, I won't care. And I decided to look down... the markings for the blueprints are still on the ground in almost every maze. Looked up and realized the walls really aren't that high either and some of the mazes don't have ceilings -- at HHN I hardly notice this because I'm always looking straight ahead, here it was hard not to see because they're so low. And don't get me started on the fake water laser effect, which works for a little "ohhh" but doesn't by any estimation look like actual water, so I don't give a flying monkey's poop about it.
It's as simple as this: I am not immersed if I can't suspend my belief. I can't suspend my belief if it looks super fake, cheap, or doesn't look like the real thing. If you can make me believe my surroundings for even a moment like HHN can, then it is already a mile ahead and the scare will hit harder FOR ME. Nothing about any KSF maze that I've ever been through has looked real or delivered the big scares on a consistant basis.
To be fair, HHN does have issues with its wait times as well. I still see some of the Ops at Uni do the same. But I'll give you that, ride ops at Knott's do tend to be slower. HHN has issues with their wait times. Last year, Insidious was posted at 20 min and waited more like 40. ike I said earlier, Uni ain't perfect either.
With a little bad luck, this happens at Uni seldomly, maybe once a night FOR ME. I even complain about the inverse of this at Uni and think they should be held accountable for overestimated waits, which I point out in my reviews. In order to have a smooth experience, you need a good game plan. And a good game plan relies on accurate estimation and constant updates which they are capable of. Disneyland is usually spot on 90% of the time. Universal 65% of the time. Knotts, like 10% of the time. With a short event time, it is absolutely crucial to be updated. And with a park as big as Knotts, you really need to know where you're going next or you're wasting a lot of time just from the walk alone. And Knotts doesn't bother to put on the app their wrong maze wait times. Universal at least has giant boards in optimum spots in the park, apps, and websites you can use to your advantage. Knotts is stuck in the freakin' stone age and it's baffling, considering they've ran this event longer than any theme park in the country.
This happened last night almost 4 times in a row. It is truly UNACCEPTABLE for a line to say 60 minutes but actually be a walk-on. 5-15 minutes? Whatever. I passed by that maze because it said 60 only to see people walking into it for 10 whole minutes while I was stuck in my 30 minute line that was actually 50. It is UNACCEPTABLE to say 35 minutes when it's actually 70 minutes. It is UNACCEPTABLE to hold the GP line and only let in Fast Lane line for 30 minute stretches at a time (which is why I am steering super clear of WB's Conjuring maze because I'd erupt in flames). I am a very calm man, but Knotts operations infuriates me. It's not about one or two wrong waits. "Oh no Universal, you made an oopsie!" It's about ALL THE WAITS being wrong and longer than estimated, happening over and over again. I'm convinced this is what sets off a man to go around swinging a chainsaw!!! Leatherface didn't have a poor child hood, he just went to Knotts and Six Flags over and over again until he went crazy.
Glad you enjoyed the mazes and admitted that KSF is actually scarier than HHN. I'm still kinda baffled how you think all of HHN's bare houses are more immersive than what KSF has. HHN has gotten to the point to where all of their houses feel the same there are so many "black wall" scares.
KSF mazes literally are the same. Even worse, they're the same as the mazes they've done for years. Even something like The Depths, a lot of the cool stuff they've done in there was already done in Red Beard's Revenge. Dark Entities, same thing as Alien Attack meets Alien Annihilation meets Fallout Shelter. One new scare tactic or a cool bungee or a super fake show scene, doesn't make any of their mazes worth it for the same price as an HHN ticket if it looks "meh". $41 is more than a fair price for KSF, even if I only did the mazes. But I wouldn't go much over $50 and nowhere near $60. However, I stil leave KSF thinking even $41 wasn't worth it to some degree. And my thoughts while leaving are always, always, always.... I would have rather been at HHN.