Warning! I have gone every year since 1994. Went this year and obviously very few ghouls were employed to haunt the inside trail and the hay ride. Worst it has ever been. Even the props seemed to be at a minimum. Every year they owners keep cutting back on the production of this event and also their Phantom's Feast on the Minnesota Renaissance Festival grounds. For the Phantom's Feast, the exact same dinner performance was done this year as was done last year. I know it's not the performers fault...but somebody controlling the purse strings must have made the decision to cut back on all fronts.

Of course the price is still the same to get in. Word of mouth needs to get out of poor haunt productions from businesses who are competing for our hard earned and limited income. You want my money...you need to wow me.

Valley Fair consistently puts on a great production of their four trails and their other outdoor walk ways. Not to mention you get the rides.

I would love to go to Buck Hill's new haunt this year. It looks like they put a lot of effort into the grounds, props, and actors.

Simply put, save your money and do not go to Trail of Terror. If they are not willing to give you a good production they do not deserve your money.

The Soap Factorys Basement haunt is supposed to be the scariest in MN< 18+ and they give you a "safety word" to make the ghouls stop tormenting you.

Was going to go but I"m saving all my $$$ for Crypticon Bloomington in 1st week of November.

Now it's really not fare to say that a specific haunted attraction sucks.
There are so many factors that go into building a haunt from the ground up. All the hidden costs that go into making them happen each year, that patrons aren't aware of.

Yes, I used to attend TOT each year.
But after attending more then two years in a row, my friend & I both noticed trends. How things didn't seem to change, even though the theme did. The main haunt doesn't change it's configuration, it's just re-themed. Vending food tends to be priced too high.

Tried to attend last year after missing several years. Parking was directed to the Renaissance parking lot, instead of the usual parking. Everyone directing traffic up to that point was very professional. When I got closer to parking, that guy could care less & was preoccupied visiting with others. He said park anywhere & line up for the bus. That's all it took to say forget it, turn around & drive back home. I did send a email to MidAmerica Fesivals who own both the Renaissance & Trail about it. They were happy for the feedback & sent me a free pass to either, to make up for it.

More feedback from patrons to management needs to be sent. Either in the form of email or simply calling them. Your voices need to be heard! If they don't listen to their patrons, they will be forced to close. Poor word of mouth will do this as well. I'm a non-profit Haunter & attend haunted attractions all over, & know exactly where your coming from.

My issue is they used to put a lot of creativity into their trail. Back in 1995, the first year it was held in the shed, they had a mid-evil battle field full of bodies with the surprise of real zombies coming out of holes in the ground. I don't know what happened to all the props from years past...but I'm not seeing any of them now...nor have I for years.

The few number of actors they now put into the trail have little to no passion for interacting with the customers walking through the haunt. I understand they are probably paid little and treated like **** by management and probably numerous drunk patrons...but if you've gone to Valley Fair their staff are working it. I walked down Blood Creek Cemetary at Valley Fair with my daughters last Thursday night and we had every zombie breathing down our necks trying to scare us or just creep us out. In the Vampire House there are gals hanging down from iron gates hissing at you. The Trail of Terror has given up trying to impress people and are just putting on a non-creative event that they know tends to draw a lot of customers.

As I also stated they put on the same exact show for the feast as they did last year. The actors aren't responsible for that. I'm sure Mid-America Festivals gave the word to not do a new performance because it costs more to learn a new skit and put new costumes together. Whatever the reason, this was my last year to just blindly go to the Phantoms Feast. With networking such as this and Facebook, I will first get feedback from my peeps on whether or not Mid America Festivals gave a hoot about putting on a top notch haunt.

We went to Buck Hill over the weekend (Friday). Even with the weather the way it was, I thought that they did a great job. There was only one performer that was out of place through all of the 4 haunts. And it was supposed to open at 7pm, but it was more like 7:15 before we were allowed to walk through the haunts. It was a light night for guests and since we were there at opening we had the lurking entertainers continually interacting with us.

All in all. I thought the effects and props were great. The entertainers looked pretty good in costume. And the "scare" factor acceptable, for the wife, I was too busy looking at every detail to jump at a "Boo" or scream.

We will be returning next year. And we almost went to the Trail of Terror instead.

__________________
"I am as unpredictable as the nervous park squirrel!"


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Agreed! The TOT was just uninspired this year. The lines were long, the main haunt was ok, (the vertigo tunnel was pretty amazing!) but the trailers were lame, and the hayride was the worst I've ever been on. We were going to go to Screamtown, but this one won the coin toss. I won't be going back next year.