This year Magic Mountain decided to focus on improving the overall event instead of just adding a few (really awesome) mazes as they did in 2014. 

Most of the time when a park takes away it's best scare zone and replaces it with a new theme you'd have to question it, but not for this park.

Sinister Circuit remains one of the best Scare Zones in any of the theme park haunts. 

The talent here has been together for so long and have so much fun. During opening night and our return visit the following week we spent a lot of time here just enjoying the monsters. And we'll probably head back just to hang out in the scare zones at least once more before the event is over. 

Not to be outdone, the new scare zone near Twisted Colossus "Terrortory Twisted" is probably the best new Scare Zone the park has done ... ever. It really raises the bar for this event and we can't see what they do with future scare zones. 

The other scare zones are great as well with our favorite being Nightmares. They've done away with some of the smaller scare zones and seem to be concentrating more on the larger ones. With Aftermath leaving (more on that below) we're very interested to see what they do with the scare zone in that area and obviously depending on what happens with that area will impact that scare zone. 

But the mazes themselves are still amazing. I think our favorite of this year was once again Aftermath, which has been near the top of our list for any event since it's inception. 

Six Flags Magic Mountain announced last night that this would be the last year for this particular maze, which of course starts rumors as to what is to become of this area. We simply don't know, it could just be for a new maze or for a new attraction for this area of the park. This is a huge plot of land so it will be fun to see. 

Red's Revenge was pretty much the breakout maze of last year and this year is absolutely no exception. We still love the crowd control that the park does that insures a smooth walk-through and no stopping in the maze. 

Be sure to check out our walk-through of Red's Revenge below. 

Vault 666 and Toyz of Terror are also back and remain crowd favorites and although they are polar opposites in terms of theme they are great mazes with lots of scares, great sets and amazing talent. 

Willoughby's Resurrected was also back and for us, this was probably the best it's been since it was, well, resurrected. The talent, effects and theme really worked great and when your son get's scared this much ... well, it makes for a great time. 

The last two mazes Chupacabra and Garden of Darkness while still fun need some updates. They simply are the "older" mazes of Fright Fest that haven't been upgraded to the new modern sets and design. 

While we think Chupacabra needs to be retired (and it's possible with The New Revolution coming next year) we do like the theme of Garden of Darkness, but it just needs more "garden" and not just walls. Still, these two mazes are still fun and the talent in each is fantastic. 

And this of course doesn't even get into the rest of what the park offers and that's the rides, coasters, re-theme's of rides and more. 

Be sure not to miss Fright Fest this year, only 9 days left!!! 

We're going to start off with the outside of the park today which is absolutely beautiful in and of itself.

In an effort to make these updates fun we're going to let you, the loyal readers of Park Journey vote on which update you'd like to see next, so be sure to take the poll at the bottom of this update. 

Our journey starts in Sunny Bay where we board the Disneyland Monorail. 

Time to jump on the Monorail to Hong Kong Disneyland

Ahhh, nice to see it's not only those of us in the U.S. who have their faces stuck in their phones at all time. =)

The Disney touch ... 

It's the end of the Lion ... =)

Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort!!! 

This is a beautiful approach to the park. 

Mickey and Minnie fountain 

Looking back towards the exit

What's that in the distance? Looks like it could be some kind of train station ... 

The entrance to Disneyland ... if there was a tree on the left side of this picture you could almost think you were in California. 

Mickey and Minnie come out to say hello!! 

As the Disneyland Railroad approaches we'll leave you shivering with antici.......pation. 

Thanks for visiting

Thanks again to Inside Universal for all the great pics. Be sure you are following them on Social Media for all kinds of great updates from the Universal Parks. I think they'll be having some great ones coming up. =)

Be sure to vote in our poll below and let us know which Hong Kong Disneyland update you'd like to see next ...

Below you'll find some pics from Saturday night (cell phone ones, we went to enjoy the event), all of our video's from opening night as well as some pictures the park sent us of Elvira officiating a wedding last weekend. All in all, a great spooky update from Knott's Scary Farm.

But first, we'll start off with a look at the daytime event, Knott's Spooky Farm. Enjoy!! ​

It's nice to see them expanding the family offerings for Halloween outside of "Camp Spooky" but we were quite surprised to see nothing in that area of the park, at least what we could tell. 

But having stuff in ghost town is great as it gives the younger set more time to spend in the awesomeness that is ghost town. =)

Next up was our Pre-Scare dinner and if you are going to Scary Farm on a weekend night, the Pre-Scare is an absolute must!!

Not only is the food great, not only are the monsters in the pre-scare great, but getting that head start on the General Admission Crowd for the event means that you can get some of the mazes done quickly and make the most of your night. 

Once the event starts one of our favorite places to just sit and relax is Fog Alley (just outside Ghost Town Grill). Despite the heat the talent here was amazing as always. 

If you want to do My Bloody Clementine best to go early

Mmmm, Haunt Fog!!! =)

Below are all of our videos from opening night of Knott's Scary Farm. I put these in the order we did the mazes this past Saturday night so you can hopefully plan your trip if you are going to the event the next two weekends. We'll also add in additional thoughts about each maze. If you missed our opening night maze rankings, click here. 

Paranormal Inc: The general consensus among our group was this was once again the maze of the night and the best of the event, and maybe the best among the theme park haunts this year. It's simply amazing. 

Doing the Pre-Scare allowed us to go through this maze twice in the first 15 minutes of the event going through both sides. (warning: If you haven't done the event, this video does contain spoilers)

The Toothfairy: We didn't do an opening night video of Toothfairy as it came out very dark and we didn't want to over-saturate it. While we did enjoy this maze more on Saturday than we did on opening night it seems to be lacking something from year one. It's still great and amazing but it needs "something" and I'm not quite sure what. 

Voodoo: This maze has been great in the 5 or 6 times we've gone through it and Saturday night was no exception. Just fun, creepy and beautiful to look at. A definite must on every visit. 

Forevermore: We skipped Trick or Treat to come back later as that line was terribly long. I think it's because everybody see's that maze first. This turned out to be a great decision as we were able to walk right into Forevermore which had an hour+ wait later in the day. 
Forevermore was once again great but this one really depends on hitting the poem narration right on. 

Pinnochio Unstrung: So opening night we were pretty harsh to this maze as it just didn't do it for us. We hate doing that because we know how hard the talent works in these mazes. 

We're very glad to say that on Saturday we had the total opposite experience and the maze was amazingly fun. I'm still not sure if this one needs to return next year but we were very glad to see the maze and talent working so well. 

Dead of Winter: This maze is the perfect example of why you don't want to just go on opening night or the first weekend of an event like Knott's Scary Farm. 

While some mazes simply click from day one (Paranormal Inc) other mazes it takes awhile. Maybe it was the air conditioning but we had so much fun in this maze on Saturday night. 

Only issue we have is that there is still no facade or sign or anything for this maze. A light mapping like they have for Black Magic (see below) would be perfect for this maze. 

Gunslingers Grave: We loved this maze on opening night and we loved it on Saturday night. This maze consistently delivered for us and had the shortest lines on Saturday night which meant we went through multiple times. 

I'm wondering if people just gave up on this maze or if it's just one of the higher capacity ones. Either way, don't pass it by, it's a lot of fun. We also don't have a video for this one due to it being very dark. 

Black Magic: The general consensus is that this maze may be on it's last year since it's only one of two returning mazes that didn't receive any improvements this year (the other being Pinocchio). If that's the case then it's going out on a high note as it was once again one of our favorites of the night.

Trick or Treat: We went back to Trick or Treat about 12am and found the line to be about 35-40 minutes which is what it was earlier in the night. This maze had some great updates for this year and is in our opinion better than it's ever been.

I had originally anticipated this being the last year for Trick or Treat and maybe being replaced with a Deadly 7 maze, but with the improvements I think this one may be back at least one more year. 

My Bloody Clementine: This was the only haunted attraction we didn't do on Saturday as the line was hovering at just about 2 hours throughout the night. We'll definitely be making sure we hit this early on Halloween. But below is our ride-through from opening night. 

Lastly, some fun pictures below that the park sent us of Elvira performing a wedding a couple of weekends ago. Looks like a fun time and congrats to the lucky couple!!! 

On Saturday, October 3, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, officiated her first-ever wedding at Knott’s Scary Farm for actress and model, LeeAnna Vamp and her fiancé Cameron. In honor of the Halloween season, the lucky couple united their immortal souls in the 2,100 seat, Charles M. Schulz Theatre, where Elvira’s all-new show – Elvira’s Asylum, takes place every night of Scary Farm.

Overall Knott's Scary Farm continues to shine even after 43 years of scaring us (well not me). The overall event is as great as ever although we do anticipate some changes coming next year as they continue to deal with what to do with Camp Snoopy. We didn't even attempt to do Infected and we may not do it at all this year. I don't think we're the only ones. 

Have you been to Knott's Scary Farm or Knott's Spooky Farm this year? Be sure to let us know your thoughts below. 

Before I start, I want to go into some depth onto why the A.D.A. (Americans with Disabilities Act) is important to me - and why it is now being abused badly. 

The A.D.A. was created to finally fix a lot of the access problems that had been left behind via a lack of thought for the most part. All buildings of note had to be equipped to handle people with access issues (wheelchairs, visual impairments, mobility issues). The A.D.A. also improved access to transport, and just about any major project since 1994 has been impacted by these laws. And in 90% of the cases, you probably don't even notice these things, outside of the lifts installed in older buildings or ramps for chair access. 

At the same time, a can of worms was opened up. Theme parks around the USA had to adapt to these new rules & regulations - by adding bathrooms & other functional features to allow handicapped access to all places. Many parks which were older grandfathered in rides & attractions as needed, but in many cases this meant major changes to how handicapped guests were handled. Where applicable, access to rides & attractions became a sore subject as ride passes were enacted that allowed handicapped guests to bypass the general wait in line. 

In 1998, the A.D.A. was altered to include a wider range of handicaps, including mental faculty issues and a whole raft of new potential issues. Parks had to again comply by these policies, which is where the A.D.A. becomes an all-access pass to a nightmare parks are now subject to. Just about anybody could now get an A.D.A pass at a park - for everything from PTSD to full paralysis. Parks were now handing out passes to bypass the lines left and right. 

How bad did it get? In some cases, the A.D.A. access lines would be 3x longer than the general queues. On one trip to Disneyland in 2012, the wait for access to Space Mountain extended to nearly THREE HOURS. And in line there were nearly no guests with visible impairments to mobility. Disney was handing out their access cards to anybody who blinked. It was shorter for me to go in the standby line than it was to use the accessible rockets themselves. 

And it wasn't just Disney suffering: All parks found that these problems were cropping up all over. And in fear of being sued, they had to start handing out A.D.A. passes to anybody who asked for one. 

​Six Flags had a system in place to start handling these, by issuing a return time for an attraction. Guests would bring their pass to the exit, a time would be issued, and you would return. No muss, no fuss, and guests would wait before riding. Very simple, very clean, very effective. Disney adopted a more advanced system which now uses the ticket itself as a way of tracking times for return to a ride. A sensible way of doing it, I used this recently at Disneyland and found it totally acceptible in every way. 

[As a side note: The only time I use A.D.A. access for a ride is if the line exceeds 45 minutes - or the attraction has stairs which I have a difficult time negotiating. Beyond that, I'm in line with everybody else when riding.]

So now Six Flags has decided that people need a note from their doctor to use the A.D.A. access program. "Get a note from your doctor, or no A.D.A. pass." is basically how the letter stated things. Here is where I raise an issue - and a red flag warning, especially in light of my most recent trip to a Six Flags park.

Using a doctor's note is a double-edged sword. First, it will cut back on the amount of people using the A.D.A. to line jump. That's all well and good, but for those of us who visit parks frequently, this gets to be a HUGE pain. Considering my own G.P. charges me every time I visit -whether for actual work or for a doctor's note, this becomes expensive. For some of us, we NEED to use the access points as we can't negotiate stairs easily - or for that matter, stand for long periods of time. 

Related to this was the way the passes were handled on a recent trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Whereas in the past I could get a return time for an attraction, this didn't apply anymore. Simply put: a time was assigned for the first ride I wanted to go on... and once I'd completed that ride, I'd have to wait 60 minutes before going on the next ride. Here's the rub: for the most part, the general access lines were less than 10 minutes wait for most of the attractions in the park. So now A.D.A. access users were being penalized heavily for having to use the ramps to get to a ride. Thankfully, I was able to get the rides I wanted with little wait due to the lack of crowds that night, but I can say I'm still a bit miffed over it. 

So what is the solution? Reasonably speaking, the request of a doctor's note by Six Flags will  last until the first lawsuit happens - and it will happen. Guests who aren't aware of the policy (and there will be more than a few) will get to the park and be turned down for an A.D.A. pass. And those who most need it will be the ones getting burned the worst. 

So who does Six Flags new policy impact the most? Well, Q-bot sales for one: Since the policy on A.D.A. is irrelevant to Q-Bot sales, people will either choose to go find a doctor's note, or plunk down good money to bypass lines - at Six Flags profits. I don't know of a single handicapped person who carries a doctor's note with them to parks, as many do not visit parks often. So now they will be given the option: Fit through the main queue lines (which in a chair or on canes can be challenging at best) or pay Six Flags to be able to use the ramps/access points. And if they can't do stairs, they're out of luck: No ride for you. At parks with older rides or attractions that are elevated, this could eliminate nearly half the rides in the park easily. 

​Disney's system is the most refined - and the most useful. By having a return time scanned in for an attraction, guests may bypass the line... but not the wait time. With some attractions having lines extended to 2 hours, bypassing the line means nothing here. People are less likely to use the A.D.A. system as they'll end up waiting just as long. Effective, simple & easy to do with little energy. And in the end, you find more people using their fast passes and standing in line, freeing up access for those who need it. 

The A.D.A. is needed at parks - no question - but Six Flags has made a mistake with their latest move to cut down on A.D.A. abuse. Further revision will happen sooner rather than later. The problems will still be there - but until parks revise policies better and adapt to more intelligent plans, they will not fully cope properly. Either way, Six Flags needs to re-think their entire strategy from the ground up, and ask the people who need it most how to work it: The truly handicapped. 

R.D.

Update: We received the following update from Magic Mountain today who wanted to clarify the policy a bit regarding the need for a doctors note. Thanks to the park for reaching out. 

Six Flags offers an Attraction Access Pass (AAP) for guests with disabilities who might not otherwise be able to enjoy rides in our parks.  Beginning November 7, 2015, due to growing abuse by others, guests who are unable to wait in ride lines due to a mobility-related disability or other disability within the meaning of the ADA, will need to provide a doctor’s note to receive an AAP.  Our goal is to accommodate guests with disabilities while reducing the number of guests who abuse the policy.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause certain guests and thank you for helping us meet our goal of creating a more enjoyable visit for each and every Six Flags guest.


A doctor’s note will only be required for the first visit.  We will make a notation in our system for all future visits.  The doctor’s note must include the doctor’s name, address, phone number, medical license number and signature along with a statement indicating the guest has a disability or other qualifying impairment under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or applicable state law that prevents the guest from waiting in a standard queue.  Please note that the nature of the disability should not be provided in the doctor’s note.  If the disability is of temporary nature, the doctor’s note should state the time period of the temporary disability.


Our new policy is in full compliance with both HIPPA and the ADA.  We will not require guests to share the nature of their disability.  We only require a signed doctor’s note indicating that the disability or other impairment prevents them from standing in a ride queue for extended periods of time.


The safety and well-being of our guests and employees is our absolute highest priority.  This policy was implemented to better serve guests with disabilities and other impairments and ensure they have equal access to our rides and attractions.  Our goal is to provide a safe and enjoyable visit for all our guests while accommodating their wide variety of needs.

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Enjoy this look at Ghostrider, they really aren't wasting any time on hopefully bringing this amazing coaster back to it's glory days. And we couldn't be happier. ​

The entrance, doesn't appear to be any changes here yet, and there may not be which is fine. They aren't needed. We'd rather they focus the work on where it's really needed, the track. 

Wood ready to be put to good use. 

At this point it appears all of the existing track is gone and they are already starting to re-build. 

Most of the work seems to be concentrated on the track, nothing in the queue has been touched from what we could tell. They are using the lower queue building for the Knott's Scary Farm maze Trick or Treat. 

Some heavy duty work going on here. 

Ghost Track on Ghostrider!!! 

A look at the lift, all of the lights on the ride still turn on at night which is funny. 

Moving outside the park as really, most of the ride is backstage or outside the park borders. 

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how massive Ghostrider is since you can't see most of it from inside the park. 

First Drop ... it'd be a pretty steep one right now. 

Flyover Grand Ave. 

The turnarounds are sans track ... 

Moving around the other side towards Crescent St. 

LOTS of wood. Lots of new, fresh, not going to break your neck wood. =)

New Track!!! Well, the actual track doesn't appear to be on yet, but new wood that will eventually support the track. 

Somebody more geeky than me will have to determine if this looks wider than the old track. It kind of does to me but it could be because there is more wood here for support? 

We are crazy excited for the ride to be back to it's former glory. 

And we'll leave you with one final shot of the structure. 

But as I said above, we are crazy excited for this. While we love what parks have done with their existing coasters making them hybrids, we love that Knott's and Cedar Fair is keeping Ghostrider wood. It would have been very easy for them to just change the whole thing. 

For me, Ghostrider when it first opened would probably still be my #1 wooden coaster. Yes, more than El Toro or Phoenix. And if this new retracking can make Ghostrider be THAT good again ... simply can't wait. And I hope all of you who didn't get to enjoy Ghostrider when it first opened will enjoy it. 

Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this update that is the massiveness that is Ghostrider. 

We'll have more from Knott's Spooky Farm and Knott's Scary Farm later this week as we had another great night in the fog this past Saturday. 

We should have another Ghostrider update in a few weeks as we'll be headed back to Knott's Scary Farm to spend Halloween with all our monster friends. 

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Because of the nature of this event it's strictly 18 and over (ID is required) as it does contain some elements that are more adult in nature (which we'll get to below). 

Here is a walk-through of the attraction from the other night. Keep in mind, this was more of a "dress rehearsal" of sorts and it will be different when it opens. But dress rehearsal or not, we had an amazing time, the talent was spectacular and the location is kind of awesome too. 

I also have to apologize as our video camera died just before going through the maze so the video below was shot on a cell phone, but we think it came out alright. =)

Arriving at the event, none of us really knew where to go, so we hung around for a bit with our fellow theme park/haunt bloggers and had a great time as always. 

About 8:30 we were led upstairs to spend some time with the Drunken Devil.

The room is great, just a great place to hang out, have a few drinks, listen to people get scared and catch a burlesque show (again, more on that below). 

Q: What's the one thing Theme Park/Haunt Bloggers like more than theme parks and haunts? 
​A: Free Booze!!! (but the other stuff is still cool)

Enjoying a Coffee Liqueur with the Drunken Devil. 

What else would the Drunken Devil have for decorations than a Bobblehead Jesus? 

​Me taking a picture of Norm from Horror Buzz taking a picture of Bobblehead Jesus. 

Later on there was a picture of Jeff Heimbuch taking a picture of me taking a picture of Norm taking a picture of Bobblehead Jesus. We had plans to try and get about 10 sites to be taking a picture of taking a picture of ... well, you get it. But it never happened. 

And as I'm writing this, I'm thinking you may have actually had to be there. =)

Before the show and the walk-through Matt came out to welcome us all to the amazing event. 

​So every night during the event, Drunken Devil does a twice nightly Burlesque show. It's very good, Very, we'll say PG-16 so because it's a bit more risque than our other updates we'll put a Break below ... 

​Some of these pictures may not be safe for work ... you've been warned. =)
​(No nudity or anything like that, which is why we said PG-16)

The show was very entertaining and fun to watch ... 

Overall the event is a lot of fun, and that's all the matters. We're looking forward to going back on the 17th to see the changes they've made and have another Soirée with the Drunken Devil. 

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