Whisper from The Swamp:

It was a Wednesday night, but damn, it kicked ass!

The crowd was into it right off the bat.  We had them running all night long.

Tonight though, was a bummer.  We lost two good talent in The Swamp.   They will be missed.

Sorry, I really don't know what to say tonight.  It was fun; that's as good as it gets.

GO TO BED!

Whisper from TerrorVision:

A very uneven, unsatisfying Wednesday night.  Boringly slow at first, then pockets of guests followed by 10 minutes of meandering stragglers.   Wash, rinse, repeat.

Wednesdays continue to offer many guests with poor or disinterested attitudes, which just drains energy from a maze and its monsters.  On good nights with enthusiastic crowds, the energy and scares build and build upon each other to reach a crescendo that makes monster duty effortless and our audience highly entertained.  But nights like tonight make getting scares like pulling teeth, and about as welcome by those scared.

I still had several solid, running scares going at times, and got laughs and approval from the other guests surrounding those scares.  But these were exceptions in an otherwise tough night of work that felt exactly like work... the opposite of Haunt at its best.

So, I gladly say adios to Wednesday night; happy it's behind us forever.   On to Thursday night to start fresh again, hopefully with a better vibe in the park to work with.

Whisper from Blood Bayou:

I woke up this morning and thought to myself, f*ck, I don't want to get out of bed.  But all of a sudden, there I was, sitting at my desk cursing my computer, giving dirty looks to people.  Why?

Well, I think it has to do with the fact I would much rather be scaring these people than typing on a computer right now, but alas, I am here.   They pay me well (what a joke); okay, maybe it's just the benefits they give, but I am still here, and I must make the best of it, but I keep closing my eyes and falling asleep.

My boss doesn't like that too much, but I told him, "If you pay me a lot more, maybe I would stop working Haunt," and he said, "How much?"

I told him to put me on salary and give me 90 grand a year and I will quit.  He said no, so I am stuck working Haunt for free soda, 8 tickets and a good laugh every night with the ones I love the most...

Tonight was a great night.  I got to the parking lot at about 4:30 p.m. and I got to hang out for a few with my buddy, KB.  This guy and I always have a good time together.

I made it into the park, at my slow, yet weird hobble I have to do with my back all messed up.  I walked right past the security and did not open my box.  I think he said something to me, but I acted like I could not hear him.  I made it to Warehouse P just to be greeted with a nut shot by a good friend of mine (I will get you tomorrow night).

My night started with a pep talk from our "Break Nazi."  Well, tonight he was the complete opposite of himself; told us he doesn't care about the point race and to just go and have a blast.  Well, this reverse psychology is working well; our maze was on, better tonight than it has been the whole run.  I was having a lot of fun tonight.

After about an hour, I was able to slide again.  It took its toll, though.  I was unable to move my first hour this morning and now I am felling better than I have since last Wednesday, when this shit happened.

I finally made it home and to bed at about 3:30 this morning, so I am running on about three hours of sleep.  Right now, I can tell I am going to be very tired tonight and tomorrow morning.  I must do some work now.  So long, farewell and have a safe night to all you wonderful monsters.

Whisper from CarnEVIL:

Well, my nights are so blending together I have lost where it ends and the next begins.  School is rough and the lack of sleep is already getting to me.  But my nights have gotten a lot better.  My new and improved tag team partner is awesome - a rookie who moves like a vet through a crowd, isn't scared about doing it and scares in a very similar style as I do.  We weave in and out of the crowd scaring as we roam.  We either both get the same person or distract for the other.

My partner had a rough night a few days back, getting hit.  I sat and talked with her about how she has the energy and drive for it; she just needs to get thicker skin when it came to stupid guests.

My night flew by once we stepped it up into high gear, which seems the only gear I move in, so it is great to have a talent who can keep up with me.  It was a great night.  I must say the something I lost last week, is back in me.  I have a very special rookie to thank for it.  See, even us old dogs can learn something new.

Whisper from Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns From Outer Space:

Another week; the sick week.

Being sick at Haunt really sucks, but I still got in some good scares even though we all seemed a bit off tonight.

The night started out slow, but soon a steady stream of guests was flowing through.  Tonight was weird though - we got groups that we couldn't get scares from and then groups that were screaming and falling on the floor; usually it is a little of both all mixed up, but not tonight.

Tomorrow is another day!

Whisper from Jaguar - Temple of Sacrifice:

As compared to most Haunt nights, tonight was pretty lame.  Our talent and our blackout crews were just not into it.  I think that this was as a result of two things...

One talent in our maze, the one we have affectionately dubbed as "The Medicine Man," did not bring his Vivarin - which keeps us all energized and uppity.

The other is the new girl.  One of our talent, that all of us *really* disliked, was replaced as of last night.  The instant the new girl walked in, nobody liked her.  In fact, we all *dis*liked her.  So, there was this horrible tension, and even worse work ethic, all evening.   But, by the end of the evening, things were smoothed out - so I hope.

I just KNOW that our score has dropped down even further.

On a positive note, my dad came to see me.  He came to Jag, then to Curse, then left.  It makes me sad that he missed all the great mazes out there - but he didn't want to wait in line.

Here's to a better night tonight...

Whisper from The Gauntlet:

Well, I just made it in from a loooong weekend of almost no sleep.  Got to Knott's feeling very run down and with a huge cramp in my leg, which means I shouldn't have tried to slide tonight, but we'll see.

At one point in the night I had the box again and security called me in thinking I may be a guest or something; good news is once management came to check on me, my box was officially approved for scaring.  Yay for boxes!  Hopefully, tomorrow night will be a bit more crowded so that we have people to scare.

Till then, good night, folks.

Whisper from Red Beard's Revenge:

Another slow night in the Scary Farm.

It's times like these when one begins to go just a little crazy.  Times like these one one begins to entertain him or herself, doing things like testing out new words to use during scares.  I myself have gotten good reactions out of, "Taco Taco!" and "Pickles."

It's times like these when one uses the "Scary Finger," a well-honed trick.  Thrust an object, cup, spoon, what have you, at a guest and yell, "Scary" whatever.  In my case, I was pointing and screaming, "Scary Finger!"

Sometimes the guests will fall for anything.

Whisper from Hatchet High:

It was a very "so-so" kind of night.  Not much to report, really.  It certainly was busier than I had expected it to be.  We had a steady flow of people until around 12:30 a.m.  Good crowd though; lots of scares.

What is it with Wednesdays?  I just can’t seem to get fully motivated until the last few hours or so.  It’s weird.

My ribs are still hurting from Saturday.  I’m thinking that they may be cracked or bruised.  It still hurts when I breathe.  I’ve been handling it pretty well, actually.  Once I get into character and start scaring, the pain takes the back seat.  I’ve been told that I should take some time off by concerned family and friends, but I didn’t wait around all year for this, just to quit when things go badly.  I freaking love being a monster and no matter what, you can count on seeing me every night of Haunt!

Whisper from Curse of the Spider:

Tonight at Haunt was weird.  People were touchy, and I don't mean that in a good way.  I got pushed, punched and grabbed, not to mention I think I need to start working on some other scares.

The jumping out at people works, but I want to try something new.  We are working our butts off in the maze trying to make guests happy.

I got to see someone drop on the floor tonight that was saying, "Scare my friend!"  And everyone was backing into me tonight; I thought it would be a one-time thing.  I didn't think anyone else would be that stupid.  Fun, Fun, Fun...

Whisper from The Swamp:

Owww!  Seriously, my legs hurt like hell and I have no idea why.   Anyway, lets talk about tonight.

First off, Imp from The Gauntlet is great.

Next, tonight was an on/off night, yet again.  People had their scares on for a bit, then off, then on, then off, etc.

To start off the night, not only did I get hit in the face 10 minutes in, I was hit by one of my own monsters who didn't see me and decided to slide his hand down one of the trees and SMACK!  There's my face.   It's a little bit swollen, but I was good to go again in about half an hour.

I got back from lunch and I was full-on!  I've noticed that when The Swamp was in its place last year, there would be at least once a night when I would be going insane; jumping all over the place, non-stop scaring, the works.  It's a very tiring time, but I'm all over the place and it's such a great feeling knowing that my energy is scaring the shit out of whoever might be nearby.  As far as the current Swamp goes, I have only had one "full-on" portion of a night (tonight).  I think it has a ton to do with the current size of The Swamp.  It's so small that I cant go ballistic without running into someone or something.   It's disappointing, but we'll see.  It happened tonight, it might happen every night now.

I hear that the point system shit will be gone after this week.  I think it was a stupid idea to begin with.  It has only hurt monsters, and, for those who have taken it seriously, has hurt the unity and family values of the Haunt.  Also, since one of the rewards for having the best score at the end of the Haunt is that everyone in that area is going to get jackets, I knew right then and there that Ghost Town would not win.  There's no way in hell that they would buy 100 jackets!  I wouldn't be shocked if the whole thing was a scam to get us to work "harder" and that they had planned to pull the stupidity that is the point system after the third week!  I wouldn't be shocked at all.

Haunt, to me, has always been about the scare, and when you have people helping out, the scare gets better.  Instead, though, one important someone at Knott's has decided to put all the monsters against each other in a stupid contest.  Great idea, man.  Let's throw unity out the f*cking window and bring back the days where mazes hated streets, streets hated mazes and everyone was at everyone else's throats.

Anyway, I'm out.  Tomorrow is a big Friday, so I need my beauty sleep.  Brad Pitt is calling me to bed, anyway.  Sweet dreams, and I'll see you, full of angst or not, tomorrow!

Whisper from Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns From Outer Space:

Being sick at Haunt sucks!

And on top of it, we were really short-handed tonight.

Guess a few people didn't think it was important enough to show up.

Not a lot of scares today, as I really was not feeling up to it.  I basically covered my room when people needed to take a break.  But by the last hour or so, I was feeling so much better I went in and just went all-out.  I was getting great scares even though the stream of guests had slowed to a trickle.

And I actually had one guy at about 12:30 a.m. tell me that I gave him the only scare of the night; he seemed rather pleased about this!

All in all, a good night.

Whisper from Jaguar - Temple of Sacrifice:

Well, tonight was fairly uneventful, minus a couple of things.

The new girl from last night decided not to return to us, because she felt so unwelcome, in addition to a couple of other factors.

I had a couple of confrontations with guests.  One 13-ish year-old girl shoving me to "protect" her friend from my scares, and another grown, well-built man shoving me and another monster to stop us from scaring his girlfriend.  The second one was actually kind of frightening; I thought he was going to hurt us.  He complained about us to Guest Services, and we had to fill out lovely incident reports.   *sarcasm*

Those were the highlights of the evening.  Tomorrow will be great, simply because it is a Friday and we will be packed.  If we could have the increased traffic without increased incidents, that would be even better!

Whisper from Red Beard's Revenge:

Think, think, think...

Winnie The Pooh is a great film.

My scare of the night was as I was trying to calm down a girl I had just freaked out by singing, "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers"   Once she finally warmed up to me, I let loose a snarl and chased her for all she's worth.  This idea has been brought to me most likely by the fact that in the car ride home, every night mind you, for some reason we always end up listening to Disney songs.

It's getting to the middle of the month which only means that the monsters are getting crazier.  Rookies are getting to the point of utmost confidence and vets are trying new tricks that they've cooked up in the past two weeks-worth of late nights.  The terrorizing and heckling is reaching a peak.  I myself had to hang near the security guard at the end of my maze more than once tonight because the internal censor in my brain wasn't working.  Needless to say, my back talking to rude and mouthy guests pissed off more than one person tonight.

Have fun children... it only gets weirder from here on out!

Whisper from TerrorVision:

Much better night: started strong and in sync; scares throughout.  A bit hotter weather than optimal made it a good workout, too.  Now, to see if my nagging injury will last through our upcoming late shifts in the next two nights.  I'm buying stock in Advil tomorrow.

Week three is taking its toll on monster health throughout the maze now.   Lots of scratchy voices, sore throats, coughing, sneezing, stuffy head, fever-so-you-can't-scare sickness.  Two of our monsters left early tonight because they were so under the weather.

I'm just very sore and tired, so a short entry tonight.  Must rest for the next round to keep our hot streak of good scares going Friday.   Get well soon, friends.  Peace.

Whisper from Blood Bayou:

I left work at 1:30 p.m. today.  I had to go to the doctor for my check-up on my back.  This time, a different doctor saw me.  When I showed him my back, he had a sort of grimace on his face and said, "Hummm.  I don't think I have ever seen a hematoma like yours.   Does it hurt?"  I was a little stunned by his question, but I told him only when someone touches it or I bump it.  So what does he do?  Starts poking at it!  He almost put me on my knees; I was not too happy with him, to say the least.

For some reason, I am worn-out and tired like I shouldn't be.  I left the doctor and went to the park.  I took a nap in the parking lot.  It was a 45-minute nap, but it did the trick for me.  When I woke up, everyone was just showing up to the park, so I got up and walked my sister in.  She is a black out in "The Rookie Sacrifice;" oh, sorry - "Jaguar."  But she needed to be there a little sooner than 5:45 p.m.  She was going to make the switch to being a monster, so she did and she loved it!  Yay, sis!

Tonight was dead.  How, I ask is a Wednesday night gonna have more victims than a Thursday night?  I don't understand, but that's how it worked out.  So what could I possibly do to keep myself entertained?   Well, the answer is simple: all I did was heckle guests all night.   Some would laugh.  Some would wanna fight.  But all I had to do was make some corny joke and they would laugh and forget they were pissed off at me.

I stood outside the Bayou for about 15 minutes last night watching one of my good friends do a joke routine he and D-Geezer like to call "Student Monster."  To see these two guys walking around and doing this bit has to be one of the funniest things I have seen them do in a while.

I am going on about three hours of sleep right now, and I have work to do, so I must go.  Good night, good morning - bah - whatever.   I don't know what time of the day it feels like anymore; I am tired and all that matters to me right now is sleep...

Whisper from Hatchet High:

Tonight was a riot.  I had a great time!  Maybe it was the fact that I ate nothing but candy and drank nothing but Rockstar energy drinks and coffee all day.

Needless to say, I was pretty high-energy and was bouncing off the walls pretty much all night.  I’m pretty sure that I lost my mind at some point too.  I fell down laughing when all the monsters in my room starting doing the Teen Wolf dance at the guests.  The guests were confused by it but damnit, it was funny to me and we do need to entertain ourselves on occasion too!

The crowds were good tonight.  They too, were very high-energy and fun.  Lots of easy scares to be had.

Until next time...

Whisper from The Gauntlet:

So tonight was a Thursday night.  It was pretty slow, just like last night.  We managed to get a cage though to stick our birdie and Cletus in.  That was pretty amusing.  I spent much of the night kinda watching everyone else scare - something I don't always get to do.  It's always fun watching Chief and Kane working together.  They truly make great scare and comedy partners.  Tomorrow should be busier and I'll have more to report.

Whisper from Red Moon Massacre:

Well, tonight was my first night back after being off from Haunt.  It felt great to be back scaring everyone!  I had quite a few great scares tonight.

One of them was when I stood outside one of the photo booths waiting for the people to finish taking their photo.  Once done, they opened the curtain and I was there to welcome them out.  The girls screamed and I got a roar of laughter from behind me.  I turned around and didn't realize just how many people were watching me!

The crowds were feisty tonight.  For the most part, everyone was good-natured.  Time for me to go nurture my injury so I can look for you tomorrow night!

Good night.

Whisper from The Swamp:

Yeeeeeap.  I'm tired.

After a non-stop hour of crisscrossing slides with one of my fellow Swampers, I took off my pads and worked the rest of the night without sliding.  Boy, did my legs feel so much better when I took those damn pads off!

Needless to say, my legs still hurt, my face still hurts from last night, and I am dead tired.  So, sleepy time.

Whisper from TerrorVision:

We were told before opening that tonight was sold-out, but it started surprisingly slow in our maze.  Pockets of groups trailing through, then nothing but stragglers for a few minutes.  A bit hard to find our rhythm at first, but it picked up after a while.

Sadly, more obnoxious guests causing trouble and requiring security calls, getting tossed out of the park or worse.  The part I hate the most: more often than not, these idiots are male, and more often than not they harass or attack our female monsters.  Truly the acts of total cowards... even for lowlifes such as they are.  Props to our TCs, our big burly tech and our security for quickly handling these problems and eliminating them from our nights.  You folks take good care of us monsters, and we appreciate it.

Another downer: through a total accident caused by a young guest, one of our cable guys got a pretty serious knee injury which ended his night's duty.  The kid just stepped in the wrong place at the wrong time; no one's fault - just bad luck.  The guest was fine but they wheeled our friend off to First Aid; we won't know his status until tomorrow night.   Heal up and rest easy, brother!

It's been a tough week for our maze's crew, but we're pulling together and scaring 'em all night long.  If anyone questions our devotion and work ethic at TerrorVision, they obviously haven't spent any time with us lately.

Be well, people.

Whisper from The Gauntlet:

So today on the way to Knott's, I grabbed a sandwich and a milk shake.   I got to Knott's without much of a problem, picked up my costume and headed to my area.

The crowd tonight was easy to scare, but they were very rowdy as well.   Everywhere I turned, a monster was being hit, sucker punched, grabbed or harassed.  I came across one of our monsters with a guest in his face, threatening to beat him down.  The smell of alcohol was pretty bad, and this guy's friends were trying to pull him away and apologizing for him.  Security eventually took care of him, making the streets a bit safer.

But throughout the night, not everyone was so lucky.  Some people got hit hard and the person responsible escaped, possibly to nail someone else later in the night.

Tonight overall was one of the hardest nights, I'd have to say.  But scare-wise, I had a blast.  Screams filled the air most of the night as well as the sound of bagpipes and drums, complete with dancing from several of the guests.  Come tomorrow night, I hope things are as good scare-wise, but a little less rowdy.

Till my next report, see you all soon!

Whisper from Jaguar - Temple of Sacrifice:

We were absolutely packed!  Tonight was our busiest yet!  We got a new girl to take over that spot, and she is handling it quite well.   She left Lore to come to us, because she wanted a make-up position.

I scared one girl and she elbowed me.  Then I heard someone use her name, so I started calling her name.  She kicked me in the shins and knees!  Ow!

Another good one was when a girl from my maze with a similar costume to mine was walking with me to the break area.  We would get on either side of our victim and both snarl into their ears.  One girl fell flat onto her butt, scrambled up and sprinted away.

The absolute best scare of the night, and possibly the season, was when I was posing as a statue.  A guy really did think that I was a mannequin, and thought that it would be entertaining to grope me.  He touched my chest, and I growled.  He fell to the floor against the opposite wall screaming like a teenage girl, "I thought it was fake!  I thought it was fake!"

Moral of the story?  Don't grope the mannequins.

Whisper from Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns From Outer Space:

Still sick.  Sitting out a lot of the night, but I did spend a good amount of time in the maze.

It was a very touchy crowd tonight; lots of head slaps and pokes.  Nothing bad, but just rude.

A few of the clowns were hurt tonight; banged up shoulder, bruised ribs and a bent finger.  But we all came together and made tonight a real kick-ass night.  Screams coming from every corner of the maze!

I am overly-tired and will write more tomorrow.

Whisper from Blood Bayou:

I was excited to start work tonight.  The park was sold-out.  We were expecting between 31,000 and 33,000 people in the park.  I am not sure of the final count; I did not ask.  All I know is our line seemed to go on forever.

I got my contacts today, finally.  I am getting compliments on them left and right; they are pretty cool.  They have red around the outside, yellow on the inside and are cat-like in shape; they fit my mask so well.

Tonight was uneventful.  I didn't have any incidents with any guests.   They were all pretty responsive to the scares.  I was in the queue and the exit of the maze most of the night; this is where I do my best work.  I have more room and have a lot of fun entertaining the guests and scaring them also.  For some reason, I like to get people to like me.  That's when they begin to trust me, and when I walk away, they forget I am even in the same room as them; all of a sudden, they feel a gust of wind behind them they turn to look but nobody is there.   They shrug and turn back around and there I am with a surprising click, slam, jump and scream!  Bang!  The guest jumps and screams!  It is a great feeling of satisfaction to see this happen.  They don't think they are susceptible to the scare, when in fact, they have been looking for a reason to be scared all night long.  Now that I have scared them, they high-five me and they get this smile on their face that says thank you, it's about time...

Whisper from TerrorVision:

Sold-out Saturday and busy from 6:30 p.m. on!  Spirits and energy were high after another pot luck night, which our TV gang does to the max.  We were warned ahead of time it was another Power 106 night, but I noticed NO problems in my area of the maze.  Sure, there were some "tough customers" who scowled when you scared them, but we get those every night, so I can't say the 106ers were any different.   Thanks for being cool; hope you treated all the other monsters as well.

It can be tough scaring people on sold-out nights when a constant line of people snake through the maze.  I have to change tactics completely, since I can't jump out and scare folks who've been standing there staring at me for a minute already.  I just stare back, looking for who avoids eye contact and turns away from me - that's my target.

When the line moves on again, I creep up behind them in an exaggerated way so the other guests know I'm going for a scare, then pounce.  Screaming ensues, and the rest of the group gets a good laugh watching it play out.  Many times guests will clap or high-five me if the scare goes particularly well.  I figure if I can't scare them all, at least I can scare a few and entertain the rest.  Seems to work.

Scares were plenty and pretty easy... that is, until the rain washed out two of our rooms and closed our doors.  Our galactically-wise Captain Kirk monster had the foresight to bring his giant, fold-out tent in case it rained and he really saved our night!  We salute you, Jim!  The pot luck remains turned into a quasi-"hurricane" party atmosphere as we huddled under our shelter.  Fun times!

When the rain stopped, our fearless leaders and blackouts mopped out the maze and within about an hour, we were open again.  Kind of hard to get back into our scare groove after that; like starting over from scratch again, but we managed, only to get shut down for good when the heavy rains hit.

We closed about 45 minutes before the park did.  It was a long, very wet walk under the sparse thunder and lightning to Warehouse P to turn in our soaked gear, then slog to the parking lot.  It was POURING by then, followed by a long, rainy drive home, passing three accidents on the way.

The forecast is rainy through Tuesday, so monsters be VERY SAFE out there 'till we meet again (and after, of course)!

Bed beckons, and I must sleep.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Whisper from The Swamp:

There's this stuff!  It's wet!!  And it's falling out of the sky!

Yeap, it rained today.  Don't you just hate it when you pay almost $50 to get into Haunt, just to have it rain, have all the monsters hiding under awnings and roofed picnic areas, and to have all but two mazes closed?   I mean, I have no clue what that's like, so, oh well.

I went and hit the Pre-Scare first, today.  It was a bit strange scaring guests while they were eating at tables set up in the midway of Soak City.  It was kind of funny, actually.  Like being a CarnEvil monster with picnic benches in our area instead of games.

After that, it was back to The Swamp.  My legs were still bugging me from last night, so I did a total of four slides today, one of them being right when the rain began, so I got some good distance in a short amount of time.  That's when I found out it was raining.  From there on out, it was stand in the rain, scare anyone that got close enough, and ask every single guest to give me the plastic ponchos they were wearing.

It kinda blows when the rain starts because the guests get reeeeeeal f*ckin pissy and us monsters have to walk the razor whenever we go for a scare in the rain.  That's why, whenever it starts raining, I stand right in the middle of The Swamp and let people come to me.  Those are the ones who are looking for a scare.

Oh yeah, we tied with GTS in points for the trophy last night.  Isn't that awesome?  NO!  Of course it isn't!  We're right back to how f*cking stupid this point thing is.  How 'bout we get food or gift certificates or candy or anything rather than a dumb trophy and a gold jacket?  It's funny, because with the point system taking a dive, what are they going to do with all the engraving spots on the trophies?  Hmmmm...

Whisper from Curse of the Spider:

Tonight was amazing.  I was really pumped to be working tonight due to me being out for two days because I sustained a knee injury at my other job.  It only bugs me when I walk or put any kind of weight on it.

Well, it rained tonight and we were open and packed the whole time.  And when it's packed, we flourish.  I had a row of people on their backs at one time.

The guests were really cool, except for a couple morons, but I don't really want to talk about them.  You could hear screams coming from other parts of the maze all night.  I don't know if it was because of the waterfalls due to open roofs in some areas, but there were screams nonetheless.

I really don't know what to write except my pants and my shoes are going to be wet for the next three days!  I think Curse of the Spider in whole had a great night.

I wonder how it is going to be tomorrow night; I can't wait!  Wait - yes I can!  My feet, my back, my shoulders, my knee - all hurt like hell!  Ah, I'll be there tomorrow night, ready to tear it up; will you?

Whisper from Jaguar - Temple of Sacrifice:

Last night was going quite well until the torrential onslaught began.   It was raining SO hard, that we started getting nice little lakes inside of the Temple.  Thank goodness we were indoors!  We had a large train of people coming through, if not for anything more than to hide from the rain.  Although I didn't get wet while working, the rain really seemed to dampen our energy levels, as well as those of our customers.  People seemed to scare less easily.

It is supposed to rain on Sunday also.  Let us all pray that it doesn't.

I rolled my ankle and fell on my way back from lunch.  It was just a little sore until I sat still for a minute.  Then, it really started hurting.

I did get some great scares.  Before the rain, I was just getting one after the other.  Like shooting fish in a barrel.  It was quite nice.

Afterward, we all went White Trash Bowling.  That was quite nice, although I couldn't participate due to my poor ankle.

Limping into Sunday night...

Whisper from Red Moon Massacre:

After I checked in to get my costume, I sat and looked around at all the other monsters.  A lot of them looked tired and worn, but still had an enthusiasm for being at Haunt.  I too, was tired sore and still hurt a little but I was happy to be there waiting for the opening of the night.

Tonight, for the most part, was a fun one.  We had a lot of teenagers that were a pain in the butt, but we managed through.

Around 11:30 p.m. or so, it started to rain.  As the night went on, it got worse.  We had to actually shut the Log Ride down for safety reasons.

When we were leaving, it started to rain so hard that at some places, the water was above ankle-level.

One last thing - we got word that one of our monsters was involved in a serious car accident on the way into work.  Our prayers and good thoughts go to you!

Good night 'till the sun sets down again!

Whisper from Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns From Outer Space:

Tonight was packed.  There was a constant flow of people coming through the maze and some awesome scares.  And there were also a lot of people thrown out for smacking on monsters.  I, myself, was very deliberately slapped in the face.  Around 11:00 p.m. it began to rain, so we all went out and grabbed our stuff and brought it in to the back hallway to keep it dry.

As the rain picked up, the maze started to get damp and humid - and wet dog-smelling.  The guests were coming through completely drenched.   As the night came to an end, the rain started coming down hard!

The walk back to Warehouse P was a real adventure.  It seems I managed to find every puddle over 8 inches deep!  I gave up on keeping my feet dry, so with a garbage bag on my head, I tromped through shin-deep water.  Upon reaching the Western lot, I saw the first lightning strike.  This is what's cool about Haunt people - we're all soaked and cold, it is raining HARD, we have to wade across the street, but when that lighting hit, everyone cheered!

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a bit more dry.

Whisper from San Francisco:

Unfortunately, our original voice from The Asylum is unable to finish Haunt due to personal reasons.  A second voice however, has come from the darkness so that their maze will continue to be represented here on Theme Park Adventure.  We admire this enthusiasm and welcome our newest voice, from The Asylum...

Whisper from The Asylum:

Let me start off by saying I've been a Haunt fan for a few years now and this is my first time on the other side of the mask.  Now, on to the night...

We all learned one thing tonight; The Asylum is not water-tight.  We had little rivers running through the whole maze.  Toward the very end of the night, the roof collapsed in one of the rooms and of course, I was standing under it.  I got drenched with rain water!  I learned another thing too - when it rains, the guests become extremely irritable.  Not fun.

Besides the rain, it was a pretty average, sold-out Saturday night.  There weren't as many incidents with guests hitting monsters, so that was a nice change.  When I got home tonight, I had a fever of 103 from being in the rain so long, so I'm not quite sure if I'll be there tomorrow or not.  We'll see.

Whisper from Blood Bayou:

Ah, Saturday night!  Another sold-out night.

Guests tonight were morons.  I scared this guy so bad he thought he would try and keep his macho manhood by trying to fight me, but I just laughed at him which made all of his "home boys" laugh at him and they started to make fun of him.  He got red as hell; this started a chain reaction of the crowd around him.  They were all giggling and pointing at him, so he got so embarrassed, he left the line; he couldn't handle the humiliation!

I have a spot I hide at in the line of our maze and when people walk by, most do not see me.  The ones that do, think I am fake 'till they touch me and the have a hand swat at their hand.  They jump, scream and sometimes, they just yell out, "Oh Shit!"

As of tonight, I am back in full swing.  My back has the movement again and I don't get so sore by the last hour that I have to sit out.   I am glad I healed as quickly as I did so I can bring back my quality of scares...

Whisper from Malice in Wunderland:

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!

I have nothing to say about tonight except for the fact that I had to chase my flip-flop down in a huge flowing puddle behind Warehouse P.  It was lame.  I fell a bunch.  ::sigh::

Whisper from Hatchet High:

Where to begin?  Tonight was one of the strangest nights of Haunt ever.  Having electrical problems in the maze and getting massive amounts of water dumped on us made for an interesting night, indeed.

I got to Knott’s a bit later than usual because I just couldn’t get motivated any sooner.  This is all starting to really catch up with me.

The night started off pretty typical.  Crowds were heavy, but not nearly as bad as I had expected.  Crowd Control at Hatchet was doing a great job last night, even though our line was backed up all the way to Malice in Wunderland.

We’ve been having audio problems for the past two nights.  Music and sound has been screwing up everywhere; it sounds like something is frying out.  It’s weird scaring in silence; it made me realize how freaking loud I am!

Then, around 12:00 a.m., it went dark.  It was kind of like a domino effect as darkness fell on our maze.  I suggested we close down... why this didn’t occur to anyone else is beyond me.  We closed for about 15 - 20 minutes, then re-opened to a very rain-thinned crowd.  It never picked back up again, even though most mazes had closed because of the rain worsening.  Audio still isn’t working right though.

At 2:00 a.m., when they finally closed us, I left Hatchet High to find that everything was under about six inches  to a foot of water.  I was trudging through water that was nearly up to my knees as I was leaving the park.

Driving home was no better, because I almost died 16 times and my car was having a heart attack.

But I can’t say that it was a bad night... just very, very strange.   Looking back, I’m actually kind of pissed that we couldn’t leave any earlier.  It’s not like Knott’s flash-flooded.   The water in the park and parking lot didn’t just happen; it was slowly getting worse.  Having to walk through what would be considered a river in most parts of the world is just ridiculous.  But the best part... it’s supposed to rain more tomorrow!

Whisper from Jaguar - Temple of Sacrifice:

I had a feeling about tonight; that it would not be good.  I was correct.

It didn't really rain very much, but the wet weather did seem to bring everybody down.  The instant I entered our break room before opening, I knew that the night would be a long, drawn-out one.

My ankle bothered me all night, but I kept an Ace bandage on it to give it some support.  Two of our 14 talent called in "sick," and another two left early.  Also, three blackouts no-showed.

At the beginning of the night, the energy level in the maze was surprisingly high.  But, that was short-lived.  After the first hour, it became apparent that everyone just wanted to leave.  There were only about five of us working to scare anyone at all.

On the upside, we did get our incentives tonight - our sexy green boxers and Knott's tickets!  That was awesome!  :)

Looking forward to a better Wednesday...

Whisper from TerrorVision:

Good thing our maze is so close to The Swamp, because that's what it looked like inside when we arrived tonight.  More rains came and went to re-soak the maze, but the weather really washed out attendance.   For the first hour, we were bored silly as a couple stragglers would wander in periodically.

Breaks were a welcome relief from the monotony.  But try as I might, I just didn't "have it" tonight as a monster: lousy scare timing and I was too sore/sick/tired to put forth the maximum effort.  No energy, no mobility and constant coughing if I try to shout/growl makes for a lousy performance.  This was just plain NOT fun tonight... a feeling I really don't like.  I'm so glad it was the end of our week, to put it behind me and move on.  Safe to say, tonight was the low point of Haunt so far; at least for me.

Our injured cable guy returned to duty after subbing as a blackout Saturday night - though he wasn't up to full speed (understandably) and left early.   I was surprised to see him suit up at all, so props for his effort tonight.  Get well over the "weekend!"

More bad weather expected Monday through Wednesday; I can't imagine what the maze will look like when we return, if the rains are worse than it's been already.  But I can't worry about that now; must sleep, recover and heal up - the final two weeks loom large ahead of me!

Peace, friends.

Whisper from Blood Bayou:

Tonight has been a pretty messed-up night.  I had a good friend and long-time veteran of the Haunt quit because people like to bring drama to the park.  I don't even want to write anymore right now.  I am way too pissed-off, and I will keep on going.

So everyone have a good day and a good Monday and Tuesday.  I will see you on Wednesday...

Whisper from CarnEVIL:

First off, I want to apologize to those out there who read Whispers.   I have missed a few nights of submitting and there are other reasons why the Whispering from CarnEVIL has been rather quiet.

My schedule is VERY, VERY large this year and trying to find that happy balance between school, family, relationship,work and most important, sleep, has been a juggling act.  When I agreed to do this, I figured it would be easy.  I never really looked at everything I needed to do, plus add this.

My week has ended.  I'm left sleepy and tired.  The body hurts, the mind aches.  My problems continue to plague me.  I have a new partner in crime out on the streets; a rookie to Haunt, let alone a rookie to streets as well.

Let me say first of all, I work alone for the most part.  I go for scares that no one would normally go for.  I go after the home boys who walk in big groups.  I go for the ones some monster would look the other way from; they give off the vibe of trouble.

But since being paired with a rookie who pushes me to not only perform when I don't feel like it, but also moves faster - it has been a great combo.  I've begun to feed off the extra energy that seems to seep from her very person.

She is good really good at this job.  She probably will turn red if she ever reads this.  She has got the makings of a great street monster in her.  I think with everything that has gone on, she has actually kept me from walking away from Haunt this week.  When she would probably tell you the same about me, to her, I say thank you.

Sunday was a light crowd who's mood matched the weather - raining and piss-poor at best.

I grew very bored and tired of dealing with smart-asses all night long.   I soon had made 15 or so tags saying "I found The Swamp," and began handing them out to anyone who happened to ask where the Driveway of Doom might be found or annoyed me.

I would hand them out and tell them, here, take this.  Find a swamp monster and present this to them and ask for your prize.  And off they would go.  I really thought nothing of it other than annoying fellow monsters and seeing how far it would go.  Well, at the end of the night, I was approached by some 10 year-old boys who went of in search of The Swamp.  They were mad at me 'cause Swamp had sent them after a GTS monster who would like to ring my neck if he knew I started the whole affair!

You would think some monsters are rude.  I wasn't being rude; just pointing out the fact some guests are just that stupid.  They seem to lose their minds once they enter the park.  We are here to entertain, yes, but we are not monkeys to dance for you on command.

So if I didn't scare you, don't be upset by it.  If I did and you got upset, well that's my job.  If you made a remark that I've heard a couple hundred times and I made a remark that left you looking foolish at best, then hey, that's me.  We are still human and do get annoyed under the mask or make-up.

By the way, working in the rain with make-up sucks.  Actually, working in the rain period, stinks.

Whisper from The Swamp:

The day after it rains, it is so hard to slide.  The rain washes away all the dust and stuff that makes our slides a lot faster, so when I slid on Sunday, I didn't get very far or very fast.  So I did it a few times, then took the pads off, all before lunch.

The crowd was bored, bummed and very small.  It's funny how fast a little rain can bring down a group of guests.  Once I got back from lunch, though, well... that's when the "magic" began!  If you have yet to see the "magic" at The Swamp, make sure you come on a Sunday; you'll find out what it's all about soon enough!

Also, watch out for the creatures in the trees.  They like to go for the feet!

Whisper from Curse of the Spider:

Another great night being cursed!  The rain still was not noticeable in the cave, although in the back of everyone's mind was the fear of the large pocket of water falling on someone, dumping about 400 gallons on whomever the unlucky person was that was standing under it.  But, unfortunately, it didn't happen!

It was a fun night, although the people weren't as receptive as last night.  We are having problems keeping some of the monsters in the maze when they are supposed to be in, and it is starting to hurt the rest of us; they aren't going to take us down.

A spider had to turn into a blackout last night; was her first night as a blackout - very sad.

And a friend from The Swamp is believed to have spent her last night at Haunt; 8 years and it is over.  I'm kind of glad I wasn't here on friday; a lot of bad stuff must have happened to get this going.

Well, I got two nights off and when I get here on Wednsday, I've got a fresh start with fresh clean clothes!  I wish I could take this stuff home to wash; it gets stiff on Friday and Saturday.  Oh well, rest time; my feet hurt.

Whisper from Red Moon Massacre:

As I was driving in to Haunt, I looked at the sky and saw how dark it was getting.  I hoped it wouldn't rain like it did Saturday night.   I stayed around Warehouse P for a bit and heard all sorts of stories about how bad it was Saturday night.

Once the night got started, it was pretty fun.  I found that a lot of the teenage guests were very rude.  I had several people yell at me for "scaring them."  HELLO!  You paid to come in and get scared!  I just don't understand those kinds of people.  You pay a lot of money to come to Haunt, endure all of the people, wait in long lines and you don't want to get scared?

We had a lot of great scares.  I have three great scare spots, and they work great!  What, you want me to tell you about them?  NOT!  Once Haunt is over, I may reveal them.  I will tell you that in either of those spots... I ALWAYS see you before you see me, and there is room for me to chase you down if you run!

Time for some slumber...  See you all Wednesday!

Whisper from Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns From Outer Space:

Long week.

We all got pretty wet last night and it showed today; we were all off our game.

Not that tonight wasn't fun - it was, but a lot of the costumes were still wet and the maze smelled of "wet dog" and monster funk.

We got out "incentive" this week - green Haunt boxers.  Most of us wanted to wear them in the maze and run around like half-naked freaks, but it wasn't going to happen.

Personally, I am feeling a lot better and got in some great scares.  The crowds were small, so I had more time to focus on each guest and had a lot of fun chasing them down or scaring them into a corner.

Also spent some time outside, entertaining people, running in circles and dancing with the carhop from CarnEVIL.

It was a good week and we are now over the hump.  Two weeks left.   Damn, almost done!  Part of me is glad, where another part is saddened that it will end soon.  These last two weeks will be the hardest of the run, though; harder then the last three and we only get one day off between them.

My plan for Halloween night is nearly complete.  Trust me, it will be weird, but funny as hell, and I should get some great scares out of it!

Whisper from The Asylum:

Unfortunately, I was way too sick today to go to work.  I think being in the rain all night again might have killed me.  I don't know if we stayed open all night; I haven't talked to anybody yet, but it was raining pretty hard.

Oh well; back to my three-day weekend.

Whisper from Malice in Wunderland:

Well, tonight started off shitty.

In an aftermath of the worst rains ever, I found out my whole box was wet - including my new digital camera.  Just little crap, but a lame, shitty way to start the night.

I think I may have scared Billy Idol, but I don't know.

What was even more awesome in my night was later, when I slammed my hand into the wall in my maze and my fingernail ripped off my hand.  There was a lot of blood, and the uncaring lady at First Aid lectured me on a bad choice of having acrylics.  I'm sorry - are you the nurse, or my mom?  Anyway, I hurt like hell, and I am tired and pissy.

That was my night.

Whisper from Hatchet High:

A lot of people didn’t show up for work tonight after last night’s Great Haunt Flood of ’04.  It was fairly quiet for a Sunday, but still fun, nonetheless.

Hatchet High opened a bit late tonight, at around 8:00 p.m., due to last night’s sound/electrical problems.  Everything is working fine now from what I can see.

Had to tone down my character tonight in an effort to stop people from running and killing themselves.  A few people still fell... no one got hurt, so I guess it’s ok to say that it was pretty damn funny!

It did rain on and off all night, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Saturday/Sunday morning.  I don’t really mind the rain much; it’s having to swim to my car at the end of the night that kinda bugs me!

Two days of doing nothing ahead of me.  I might not even get out of bed if I don’t have to!  See you next week, kiddies!