The Burial Chamber complex has been one of my favorite haunts over the last few years. Unfortunately this year they have slipped a little in my mind. In years past I have attended earlier in the season and earlier in the night, but on this occasion we were out late. Burial Chamber Consists of three sepaerate haunts in one location. Phobia haunted woods, Adrenaline, and Insanity, the last two house style haunts. The biggest problem I saw which could be because of the time of night was the group sizes/ my group consisted of just my Fiancee and I, but for Adrenaline we were put in a group with 10 other people. 12 people in one group! Thats way too many to go through a haunted trail, not to mention a haunted house. Our 5 minute walk through what they called a haunted woods also consisted of a large group that split itself up once past the ticket lady. Lastly, and worst of all we finished the night with 13 other people through Insanity. I understand the haunt is only open until 11:30, but if they want to be out by that time they need to stop selling tickets earlier. It really wrecked the night and they will end up losing credit if they keep that up. As a very satisfied past customer this was an extremely disapointing night for me.
Signage / Visibility / Location
The haunt is not hard to find at all, it's not too far off Hwy. 41 and it's only one turn from there. They have spot lights that shine up into the air that you can see from a pretty good distance. Once you turn off the highway and get to the road you turn on to you easily see the building right away. The big Burial Chamber painted on the side is a giveaway, if all the cars and people haven’t already made it obvious!
Wait Area / Line Entertainment
They have loud metal music playing and have music videos playing on the bigscreen. They have concessions and a tent to wait under. I’m not sure what the tent was for unless they call numbers at certain times. While we were there the only way to get in was to stand in line making the tent basically useless. I would suggest buying VIP if you can afford it or if you simply cannot stand the lines.
Actors' Performance
I would say they did good considering the circumstances. I can’t imagine what it’s like constantly staying in character while hundreds if not thousands of people come thorugh on a given night. On top of that with a larger group size they had to figure out when to jump out so everyone gets a chance to see the effect. They Didn’t break character and most of them seemed to enjoy what they were doing. Have to shout out to Stewart and the baby-both were pretty disturbing. Phobia was a little disapointing. The few actor’s out there didn’t seem to be completely in to it. I have to give them the benfit of a doubt though as our group split up and they probably did not know what was going on either because of it.
Sets Scenes / Props / FX
The set’s were good as always. Phobia doesn’t really have many sets or props, but they use the wooded scene as best as they can. Adrenaline was the same as years past. They always have great sets and some of the coolest props around but after a few years of the same it can get a little tiring. It wouldn’t hurt to spice it up a little bit. Insanity suffered this year from the opposite. Again they have great sets and a great theme as if a city has been taken over by freaks and wierdos, however they made changes to this one while I personally liked it the way it was. It had been repetitive but it was ok that way. Overall the sets and props were great, you can definitely tell they care how this place looks. The only other problem I saw was it appeared that it was a little understaffed and some rooms/scares went empty. Could be a product of group sizes again and that the scares were over by the time we got there but it was late too so who knows? Something just seemed to be missing.
Length
Phobia clocked in around 5 minutes while the other two took about 15. They were all shorter this year, but that can be attributed to many reasons. The time of night and trying to get so many people through. Also how fast your group walks through-if your scared or want to take your time to see everything.
Crowd Control
I honestly was not impressed with their crowd control. We never did run into another group, but being put into a group with 10-15 people is a bit ridiculous. I realize it was late and they were trying to get so many people through but I don’t know how that justifies the issue. It felt like they were taking advantage of the large crowd and then sacrificing the customer’s enjoyment. With people’s discretionary income spread thin, if they decide to spend it on a hauunt they should get their money’s worth. I would like to see it again earlier in the evening when the crowds aren’t so bad-I’m confident that it’s a totally different animal at that point.
Most Memorable Moment
While the large groups is the most memorable, I have to again comment on the big baby. Also, the one point I got to lead through Adrenaline I took a wrong tunr and opened a door to a storage area! It was nice and big, so it’s nice to know they still have room to expand if they would ever want to do so!
I know what this haunt can be like, and I'm really hoping my experiance is not what they are doing all year. I have always liked this haunt and expected much better from them. I know this can't be the way the haunt is really being run, it honestly kills me to say all this about it. I would really like to see how they run the haunt earlier in the evening. I would definitely recommend being out there early, it cannot be as bad as my experience. Pleas note, this is one person’s thoughts on his own experience. This by no means is a representation of every minute of the attractions operating hours. Everyone has different experiences and different thought on situations. This is my opinion, I hope everyone else has a better time in their situation than I did.
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