ryan s.
Yelp
Group of us went from EHT area, drove an hour. Got there early (6pm, expecting long lines). Had ticket printouts. Lady (employee?) yelling at people getting out of cars "If you already have tickets, just go inside! Dont wait in this line!" Ok, so we breeze right in. Still daylight. Sit around camp fire waiting for sun to set. Multiple employees (EVENT STAFF shirt) walk by. Eventually we wait in line for hay ride, another 45 minutes. Still wondering what we do with our 'tickets'....? Get up to front of line, show 'tickets' to hay ride staff member, and told we need to go out front to the ticket line.... theres two sections.... E-TICKETS, and TICKETS.
So we do that, and now the "online" ticket line is approximately 400 people deep. Wait, let me get this straight. You buy a ticket online. You pay a 'convenience' fee (?? For what? letting the electrons take your money?), you use your own printer and ink, just to show up and wait in a line and exchange it for a movie theater looking ticket? Yeah thats about as convenient as walking around with a gerbil up my butt in a crowded public place. Meanwhile, the regular cash TICKET booth had ten people in line. Who buys tickets at the door? Last minute procrastinators and people who want to pay more (because online is usually cheaper, right?).
The "I bought a ticket online and printed it out but now I have to stand in this line to exchange my fake ticket for a real ticket" line took over an hour. If I was the manager of this place and I saw the disproportionate amount of people in both lines, I'd start having people go to the other line and have the other ticket booth accommodate. Let's think about it... the more people you have inside.. the more stuff you can sell them, right? Or, you already have their money, who cares??
Finally get back inside... finally wait in line, again, for the hay ride. Looks pretty familiar. Time is now 945pm. Let's recap. Arrived at 610pm. Entered at 620pm. Waited until 720pm to enter hay ride line. OVER TWO HOURS TO GET BACK TO THE SAME SPOT I WAS IN.
If you walked past the "I bought a ticket online and printed it out but now I have to stand in this line to exchange my fake ticket for a real ticket" line, you would have heard the tens, dozens, hundreds of people screeching the same confusion... "What?! I have to exchange my ticket for a ticket?"
Granted, it's on the fine print. After the fact, I can clearly see that now. There in lies the problem. I put too much trust into the lady walking around in ghost pajamas sipping on her dunkin donuts 60 oz cream with a splash of coffee drink. C'mon, I know better than that. Question everything, read the fine print. Granted, a dozen of the employees that were walking by could have also gave a friendly shout out "If you bought tickets online, make sure you exchange them for (real) tickets!" What would disneyland do??
Had I thought about it some more, I should have just bought up the entire allotment for tickets and scalped them in the parking lot. I could have took cash and handed out some movie theater looking tickets a lot quicker than it took waiting in line.
Once inside though, it was decent. Good thing I wasn't paying for parking by the hour. The dutch funnel cake was good. I'd expect nothing less from the PA Dutch.
Some of the 'actors' could have used deodorant. Not sure if that was intentional? Monsters are scary and smelly??
The hayride was a lot longer than expected and probably the highlight of the evening. Very entertaining. Glad I'm not paying the electric bill.