Haunt Tour 2012 Day 4 Part 2

Necropolis 13 & 13th Gate
www.midnightproductions.com
Baton Rouge Louisiana

13th Gate
First off, the VIP ticketing worked like a charm.  As the general admission line wrapped around the block; I was number 2 in the VIP line.   Right off the bat I liked the queuing strategy.  There was a short single file queue line that feeds into short mini-queues lined up in front of a series of elevator doors.  This breaks the line in to groups of 6 or 8.   The elevators are a ruse and everyone down a hallway to the left.  The net effect was to amp up the energy level and the groups enter the haunt at a brisk pace.

This is a huge walk-through haunt and the themes range across all the usual stuff such as catacombs, hospital gone wrong, werewolf forest, etc.  You name a haunted house theme, and it probably exists at 13th Gate.  Every scene is well detailed and kinda leads into the next.  Some of the transitions are a bit strained or jarring.   This happens in established attractions where some percentage of the haunt is changed out.  With a haunt this big and and this old, fitting in the new stuff can be a stretch.

I thought the integration of animatronics into the haunt was excellent.   Many attractions suffer from Trade Show Temptation Syndrome.   TSTS for short.  13th Gate definitely does not suffer from TSTS.

Digression for a TSTS explanation....   Every year in spring there are a series of haunted attraction trade shows.  These include TransWorld, Hauntcon, Midwest Haunters Convention.  At these shows the builders of big expensive animatronic props put on display the coolest props and toys.   TSTS happens when a haunt owner falls in love with a particular prop without any idea how it fits his theme.  The 12 foot tall rock troll is just so cool that he'll figure out how to fit it in his zombie apocalypse themed haunted attraction somehow.   TSTS is a symptom of irrational behavior while away from home.  Think of if as an STD for the haunted attraction industry.  You got it while at the show and now you have to figure out how to live with it.

The eye candy just keeps coming and coming at this haunt.   They did a great bottomless pit room on a scale I've never seen before.   Somewhere towards the end of what I think of as underground land; (a series of cave themed rooms that include ice caves, a full size mammoth, cavemen, and creature lairs.) we entered the cave of the submarine Nautilus.  The set was beautiful but I found the transition a bit jarring.  I was won over by the detail inside the sub and the great integration of the giant eye and tentacle anamatronics.

This attraction had the best implementation of air bags that I've seen.  You pass through a room with shoulder high air bags on both sides.  Attached to the bags are various body parts, just back a bit are two live actors portraying ghouls.   The net effect is that you were wading through a cesspool full of body parts.

This is a huge walk-though haunt well worth the $25 general admission.   Given how incredibly busy this attraction was, I'm glad that I purchased the on-line VIP pass for both attractions for $55.