So- first thing to know- there is fire.

I'm not talking about a little torch in the queue or something, I mean a full on fireball. You'll feel the heat as a fireball erupts just to the left of the train just before you dive into the Demon's cave. 

Second thing to know- there's blood, and lots of it. 

Just like the park didn't hold back on the fire, they certainly didn't hold back on the blood. The Demon's waterfall has returned, but this time with some sinister red coloring. 

The combination of the fire, lighting effects, and blood red water makes for a colorful, spooky ride through the Demon's wooded area. 

The fog and lighting really elevate the atmosphere. Aside from maybe The Matterhorn, is there a better looking Arrow coaster out there?

I can't think of any. 

The tunnel that immediately follows the double loops also got decked out with some eerie interior lighting. 

A train whizzes through the Demon's cave, with a bloody waterfall just above the rider's heads. So spooky and awesome. 

Another train flying through the corkscrews in the dark. 

The Demon cave also features projection mapping, but it was hard to capture a picture that did it justice in the dark. 

But fire... did we mention fire? Yeah, it's pretty rad. 

It's dark, it's spooky, it's bloody, it's fiery, it's The Demon: Re-Ignited.  Check it out during Haunt at California's Great America. 

Huge thank you to the wonderful team at Great America who made this update possible. You guys are doing so many exciting things, and it's always a pleasure to come down and check them out!

​Related Updates: 

• Knott's Scary Farm Opening Weekend - The Original is still the best 
• Cedar Fair Announces All New Attractions for 2018 Season
• California's Great America Debut's Single Rail Rollercoaster for 2018
• Trip Report: Canada's Wonderland - A Beautiful Park with two Top 20 Coasters
• Red, White and Brews at California's Great America ​​

​If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

If you have any comments, please share them below

Welcome to Dark Harbor 2017 where the chef is waiting for you ... 

Shots, Shots, Shots, Shots, Shots!! 

This years cast of demented characters 

After a quick stop at the VIP Lounge it was time to start checking out the mazes. First up was Soulmate 

Amazing character just as you walk in 

Dude got me 

We then moved over to B340 and I have to say, this was probably the best year for this maze yet. Incredibly fun and scary. 

These "walls" creeped me out

"Go this way, I promise you'll be ok" 

Lullaby ... always a favorite 

Probably the favorite picture I took all night (Gregg) 

Being on the ship is always creepy enough 

Last up was the all new maze, Feast 

Some behind the scenes, glamorous no? =) 

I'm starting to think we shouldn't eat here 

INTO THE OVEN!! 

Seriously, into the oven!! 

Some great views of Deadrise 

The swings were back!! 

Another one of our favorites 

They moved this out of the come this year (in fact, no mazes were in the dome) and combined some of the sideshow acts 

Yes, we are worthy!! 

Hidden bar!!! 

Of course we had to get a drink!! 

I promise, I hadn't had a drink prior to this ... lol. 

I'm about to get scurred .. 

Our favorite monsters at the exit of Deadrise 

Last maze of the night was Intrepid 

This was kind of a mishmash of intrepid and voodoo ... it had some decent scares although the theme kind of got lost somewhere. 

This was an awesome room

Slider Alley!! 

Amazing props! 

As sharp drop and a sudden stop ... 

Thank you Dark Harbor for another amazing year!! 

Be sure to check out Dark Harbor 2017. One tip, be sure to research parking prior to going. 

You can find more info on Dark Harbor here. 

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Walking up to the park, you are greeted by this gateway just outside of the entrance plaza. 

People are literally dying to get into Gilroy Gardens ;-) 

The Halloween @ Night map gives us a sense of what to expect from the evening. 

The first thing we came upon was the fire pit. They had entertainment going around this area throughout the evening, and the setup was really nice.
​
Tip: this is towards the front of the park and was very busy with children early on. the fire pit was empty and relaxing later in the evening. 

The only ride open for the Halloween @ Night event was a special spooky edition of the South County Backroads, the park's extensively landscaped car ride. The ride features two tracks: one in 1920's antique cars, and one in hot rods. 

The antique cars seat four, while the hotrods only seat two. If you find yourself here on a busy night, note that the antique car line moves noticeably faster. 

The car ride had a long queue early in the evening, but was a walk-on later on. I would recommend saving it for the end of your night.

The ride featured several Dia de los Meurtos characters and spooky lighting packages throughout the course. It was really cute. 

After taking our laps on both car tracks, we ventured into the greenhouse to take on some of the spooky theming. Can't go wrong with black lights and fog!  ​

We were starting to get a little hungry, so we ventured around to see what halloween snacks were available. 

Pictured above are some of the various menu boards I saw around the park. I grabbed a Milk Tea and a Graveyard Pudding. Both were yummy :-) 

All the snacks were really cute and kid-friendly. I had a tough time deciding between my Graveyard Pudding and some PB&J spiders :-) 

It's worth noting that beer and wine were also available in the park. Thumbs up!

After wrapping up snack time, we went by to check out the beautifully lit Bonfante Falls. 

Certified: LEDs and fog make everything better. 

There are pathways and a tunnel that run underneath the falls. Make sure to check out the best "Backside of Water" in Northern California! ;-) 

After checking out Bonfante Falls, we took the trail down to the waterfront. The park's central lake looked a bit "World of Color" tonight, which is a good thing!

I was really disappointed to find that the park removed their classic Rock Maze in favor of a water play area expansion. They did have this cute hay maze as a consolation though. 

Heading back towards the front of the park, the nice fall touches were noticeable. We had one final section to check out before wrapping up our evening. 

This way to the starfield! 

Our final stop of the night was Claudia's Garden, which was transformed by lasers, fog, and funky lighting. It was pretty trippy! 

The park is already promoting its upcoming @ Night events. Particularly intriguing is Harvest @ Night, which appears to be the park's attempt at a Food & Wine style event, and is advertised as having gourmet food, craft beers and fine wines, and live entertainment. Interesting to note that the Harvest @ Night website says that it's intended for 21 an over, while the Halloween @ Night was clearly geared a lot more towards children.

​Anyone want to be our drinking buddies at Gilroy Gardens in November? I think we may hit that one up!

Overall, Halloween @ Night made for a nice evening at Gilroy Gardens. I would love to see this event grow in the future to include some more themed rides. We loved that a Great America Gold Pass got us in for free, and we'd recommend checking it out if you're a passholder located in South Bay. 

Thanks for a nice evening, Gilroy Gardens! We hope to be back in November!

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First let's take a look at Star Wars Land ... 

Soon we'll only see the backs of buildings 

We first headed into Disneyland. We wanted to spend our morning in Fantasyland and it's always fun to do a whole bunch of rides in a row when the park is slow in the morning. 

We also set up our MaxPass and while we were walking to Fantasyland and got to get FastPasses for Space Mountain. 

Hey Walt, long time no see ... 

We skipped Peter Pan because, well, that line is just crazy and headed first to my favorite Fantasyland ride ... Mr Toad. 

Video of this classic!! 

Snow White's Scary Abrupt Ending Adventure's 

Snow White has her Adventure ... Pinnochio has a Journey 

Oooh, Matterhorn 

Some fun on Ghost Galaxy ... one of the cool things about MaxPass is the free photos 

While in line for Space Mtn we got some fastpasses for Star Tours, and then for Buzz ... Maxpass was working great so far. 

After getting FastPasses for Haunted Mansion Holiday, it was time for a happy cruise 

Headed to New Orleans Square, we had to check out the new stuff 

Star Wars Land ... we'll see it in 2029 or something. Honestly, even though we are Southern California Locals I'm placing bets that we visit Star Wars Land in FL before we visit it here. 

Love the changes to the RR 

While waiting for our HMH fastpasses, we took a Pooh 

And grabbed some Splash Mtn fastpasses ... we got soaked. 

While I personally think they should keep the regular Mansion open through Halloween (haven't done the normal mansion since 2011 because all our visits have come during Holidays) I can't deny how fun this is. 

LOVE the updates to the Railroad 

While on the Railroad the parks got crazy busy ... seriously, between 11 and 1145 fastpasses for Soarin' went from 1:00pm to 9:00pm, Guardians fastpasses sold out (due to Monsters after dark) and the parks just seemed a lot busier. 

Mermaids!!! 

The longest line of the day ... we didn't wait for it. 

This is the AP problem in a nutshell ... 

The Halloween decorations in CarsLand are AMAZING!! 

I have to admit, this ride is growing on me 

Love these posters ... wish they sold them

As close as we'd get to riding this ... sigh. 

So, unknown to us, they cut off FastPasses for Guardians because Monsters After Dark was set to begin at 5:00. They closed Guardians at 4. Yes, their brand new ride, closed for an hour. 

We tried to get Fastpasses for Monsters after dark at 3:00 when those were available ... which broke the MaxPass/FastPass system because so was everybody else. 

I'm not sure if they've fixed this since (apparently everything was fine last Saturday), but the system was down for hours, which kind of messed us up fore the rest of the day. 

What they SHOULD have done was made FastPasses available for both all day. And people could pick one or the other. For us, as infrequent visitors we would have picked Guardians in a second. While I have to believe most AP's would have picked Monsters After Dark. By trying to "reset" FastPasses at 3:00 for this one ride, it messed up EVERYBODY. Both MaxPass and FastPass users. 

We did totally love the decorations at DCA 

Hi Mickey!! 

Hi Heady!! (No, Headley) 

So we left DCA without being able to ride Guardians or Soarin' Over The World. We had planned on just doing Single Rider on Soarin', but they don't offer it anymore for some reason.

We'll catch them in 3 more years I guess. 

Because it was snack time we figured we'd enjoy a dole whip in the quiet courtyard of the Tiki Room ... boy, we missed the news of the huge queue in there now. No more quiet courtyard. :( 

Pure Disney Magic 

Luckily the FP system came up so we got to get some FP's for Indy and Big Thunder ... 

Side Note: We had totally forgotten they had made the updates to Indy ... loved them!! 

We always love the Halloween Tree 

LOVE they still do the swing dancing on Saturday Night!! 

Jungle Cruise at night is the best!! 

After Jungle Cruise and Pirates we exited just in time to catch the fireworks. We didn't know they did projections on the river now, they are awesome and we enjoyed it more than in front of the castle (less stress too). 

We enjoyed a perfect unexpected family moment thus there are no pictures. Sorry. =) 

So how did the MaxPass work for us? Watch the video below to find out. 

We had a truly memorable day at Disneyland. We all agreed that we miss visiting Disneyland more often ... we don't miss the oppressive crowds however. 

Because we are planning on making a few trips to FL over the next 18 months we may spring for the Premiere Pass next year to squeeze in a few DL visits, but we'll see. 

Hope you all enjoyed our trip report and all of the videos!! 

Let's head to Magic Kingdom for one of my favorite events, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Time to pick up our bags and start getting some candy. 

​Pumpkin cheesecake dome at Gaston's Tavern? Yes please!

​Happy Halloween from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! 

​More Halloween treats in Fantasyland.

This year's MNSSHP Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom card features the Country Bears. 

​Trick or treat! There are so many amazing snacks and desserts at MNSSHP. I wish there was more time to try them all!

​The headless horseman riding through the streets before the parade is something I always look forward to.

​Mickey's Boo to You parade is still a favorite of mine, featuring all of your favorite Disney characters, especially the villains. 

​Being a huge Haunted Mansion fan, that section of the parade is awesome, especially the dancing grave diggers.

​Loved the view of HalloWishes from the train station on Main Street 

Plenty of Oogie Boogie popcorn buckets available at MNSSHP at Magic Kingdom. 

Exhausted and full of candy after a fun night at MNSSHP. Thanks WDW for an always amazing event!

Welcome to Knott's Scary Farm

This year unlike the past few years, the entire park is full of decorations 

Look at that beautiful glorious fog 

New for this year, Trick or Treat Light's Out 

They've taken what was already one of our favorite Scary Farm mazes and improved it by turning the lights off and giving everybody flashlights. 

Back for it's third year is Paranormal Inc 

The maze is still amazing. Only thing we'd say here is maybe for next year a different pre-show storyline. They've done an amazing job of freshening up mazes with tweaks and this one could use a couple of tweaks to make it even better than it is. 

Still one of the most technologically advanced mazes at the farm 

A behind the scenes look at how we film and shoot Scary Farm 

Welcome to Knott's Berry Farm by day 

Dark Ride by Night!!! 

Honestly, we aren't sure what we can say about Dark Ride that wouldn't make it sound like we were just blowing Haunt Fog up Jon Cooke's ass 

This maze is simply perfect. Take everything we love about amusement parks and scary events and mash them together. 

We really felt like we were in an episode of Scooby Doo (not the crappy movie, the awesome original cartoon). It was just fun and scary and perfect. 

We know a lot of you don't like scary things, but we implore you, go to Scary Farm ... walk through Dark Ride. You'll fall in love with it. ​

So a couple final thoughts on Dark Ride: 

First, we can't believe this wasn't a concept that wasn't thought of before. It seems kind of like a no brainer. Why it hasn't been done before is beyond us, but we're glad it hasn't been because this feels fresh and fun. 

Second, the cool thing about Dark Ride is, and I'm sure it's something the maze designers have already thought of, they can keep the general "theme" of the maze but they can change out the actual "Dark Ride" part of it. I mean, could you imagine them re-creating Knott's Beary Tales as the "Dark Ride" part? People would freak, in a good way. 

All in all this is probably in my top 5 Scary Farm mazes of all time. And that's saying A LOT. Because there have been some amazing mazes throughout the years. 

Ghost Town in the fog is always amazing 

New this year 

Daytime POV 

Nighttime POV 

It's simply brilliant and fun both during the day and at night

Surprise, she's still here!! 

Sometimes it's the little touches that make this an all around amazing event 

Red Barn ... we really enjoyed it last year, some small tweaks and it's even better this year

Let the bodies hit the floor 

Amazing decorations in The Hollow 

You'd think after the heaps of praise we just did on Dark Ride that would mean the other new maze for 2017 Pumpkin Eater would have been a tremendous let down. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

The amazing 1, 2 punch of these new mazes using classic scares scattered with new technology are amazing. You can really feel the difference between the two given their two designers but yet they both totally work in the grand scheme of Knott's Scary Farm as a whole. 

So some final thoughts on Scary Farm 2017 ... 

We know it's still early in the season, and we have a LOT of events to go to still, but it's going to be REALLY hard for any event to top Knott's Scary Farm. From the time you walk through those gates you are immersed in everything scary. 

The team this year has really outdone themselves and the original quite frankly is still the best. 

We were hard-pressed to come up with a maze ranking this year because everything was so solid. Even a couple of mazes we were kind of 'meh on last year had comeback years. It honestly seems almost unfair to rank these mazes.

Yes, Dark Ride was obviously our favorite, but everything else is really a solid #2. There is not one "bad" maze. We didn't have one bad experience in any of these mazes. All were filled with fun and scares. Each time we went through the mazes over our two nights of Scary Farm they were all solidly on-point.

So do yourself a favor, get to Knott's Scary Farm. You won't be disappointed. 

​Related Updates: 

• Cedar Fair Announces All New Attractions for 2018 Season
• California's Great America Debut's Single Rail Rollercoaster for 2018
• Trip Report: Canada's Wonderland - A Beautiful Park with two Top 20 Coasters
• Ghost Town Alive Makes a Triumphant Return to Knott's Berry Farm
• Red, White and Brews at California's Great America ​​

​If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

If you have any comments, please share them below