SFSTL - 10/17/04

[ihauntu2]

A little late, but I thought some folks could use a TR from the south.

I didn't get down to the park till 2p.m. I was still sore from monstering the previous night at a haunted house, so I took my sweet time on the road, and sleeping in a little. Weather was 70 and sunny during the day, cooling off very fast at sunset. Crowds were moderate at best - only half of the lot was full.

First - Rides
I have already described all of the rides in previous posts on this board, so if you are looking for that info, just search my member posts.

Lines for the coasters were non-existant. Screaming Eagle had a 20 min wait due to 1 train op, and Freeze had a 15min wait during the day, walk-on with Rerides at night. B:TR, Ninja, and Mine train were walk ons all day. All coasters I rode seem to be a great deal smoother than they were when I last visited in September, and provided excellent rides.

Now, the real reason I went - -- Fright Fest Shows!

Street Shows - Overall SFSTL continues to lag in quality of monsters and decorations at the park. The make-up jobs were horrible. Vampires had grease paint running down their faces, most monsters looked either sad, tired or just like they didn't want to be there. There were several times I saw monsters sitting down and talking with customers like they were best of friends, not in character. (Clowns & Vampires were very guilty of this). If even half of what I have read on these boards about SFGAM FF is true, then the one at SFSTL doesn't even hold a candle near the job your people do. I really hope that SFSTL isn't JPM, because that would really be giving JPM a bad name, when they seem to be doing so well at SFGAM. I cannot wait to visit SFGAM on Halloween.

LAFF - This is obviously not the same show as SFGAM. Songs and plotline may be the same, but the characters are different. The singing was not the best, but the set was very well done with neat effects and quick changes for scenes. Overall, the show was entertaining even though I had to sit through two RHPS songs being completely butchered. On the plus side I got to hear some random boy band song be butchered in the same way.

Hayride - 45 min wait, but it was ok. There were some neat props, and the automated speaker system worked well. The monsters here were very weak again, but the riders reactions were enough entertainment for me.

Terror Train (Pigman)- This is the exact same show as last year only instead of two brothers being the enemy, it is now the pigman. Even worse, its the same make-up - burn gel that you can buy at any discount store - microwave and apply. It doesn't look anything like a real burn, let alone a horrible accident that changed his face to shape like a pig.
The best part of this ride is the air kicker that simulates machine gun fire at the end of the show. It is so loud that you can hear it across the park, and it is a neat use of pnuematics. Also as you approach the final scene, to the left there are numerous crates that appear to be fresh arrivals packed on pallets. They are too small to be track parts but might be train parts? Anyway its worth noting.

After seeing how lame most of it was, I wasn't even going to waste my money on the Haunted Houses.

If you are going to SFSTL for FF, stay away. If you are going for the rollercoasters, have fun there is very little wait for any of them.

[tafaba]

Street Shows - Overall SFSTL continues to lag in quality of monsters and decorations at the park. The make-up jobs were horrible. Vampires had grease paint running down their faces, most monsters looked either sad, tired or just like they didn't want to be there. There were several times I saw monsters sitting down and talking with customers like they were best of friends, not in character. (Clowns & Vampires were very guilty of this). If even half of what I have read on these boards about SFGAM FF is true, then the one at SFSTL doesn't even hold a candle near the job your people do. I really hope that SFSTL isn't JPM, because that would really be giving JPM a bad name, when they seem to be doing so well at SFGAM. I cannot wait to visit SFGAM on Halloween.

Nope, not JPM...
JPM puts on a much better show than what you are describing. And, some characters are meet and greet type characters that are supposed to interact with guests, like the character taht I am at SFGAM.

However, not all are and they shouldn't be sitting around and chatting.
Just my thought on that.

[ihauntu2]

Thanks for clearing that up Mike, glad to hear its not JPM. Meet and greet characters are at the front of the park, in the plaza. They assist guests with fright fest questions as well as scare random people. No, the idiots I'm talking about were not in character and basically screwing around.

[InsaneNewman]

I really didn't see anyone all day, other than a few meet-and-greet at the front of the park who looked terrible.... see my trip report about SFStL, it's only a few links down in this forum.

[punkbunny24242]

I'm sorry I didn't see this before!! Now I'm a little worried....

We were going to go in Sept like we did last year but we figured we'd check out FF but it sounds like it may not even be worth it!!

[ihauntu2]

The decorations are very cool, especially if your into props like me.

In fact, if your interested in meeting up during FF, I can usually tell you which companies made each prop, what they cost, and how they work.
This comes from my many years from going to the Transamerica Hauntworld show in Rosemont.

Its the monsters that blew. There are only two people in this entire park that were any good. One is a guy that looks like 19th century ringmaster back by the clowns. He uses airbrush makeup and varies his tactics in scaring all over the wide range of tricks. I usually spend 10-15 minutes watching him each time I'm down there. The other was a dead maiden (18th century or so) that carried a black rose, and had such a shrill shreiking voice with that nice haunting quality, that it even made my neck hair stand up a little. I think I may have mentioned both these people before, but they are worth the second mention.

After going to SFGAM last Halloween, I can tell you that SFSTL FF doesn't even come close as a pale imitation of SFGAM FF.

[punkbunny24242]

It should still be fun to see another park at Fright Fest. The thing that I am excited about it that we usually get to the Holiday Inn at 9pm and the park is open til midnight on Fridays so just me and my nephew are gonna head over to the park for a few hours that Friday night. Then Saturday we plan on spending all day 11am-11pm at the park and Sunday we usually stop in for a few hours too just to get the last few rides on Mr Freeze. So that gives me two nights to expierence the park in the dark