For this haunted house, different attractions were given different sections of the queue to decorate as they wished. Kilimanjaro got the very first section, which is entirely outdoors and weaves among rocks, bamboo, etc., so our theme was that the plant life had come alive and was possessing anyone who dared to venture in. However, Kilimanjaro has the largest amount of CMs out of any other attraction (more than 200), and we had way more volunteers than would fit into just the queue scare zone. Only eight Kilimanjaro CMs worked in the actual queue, and the rest of us were given an entirely different zone in Asia...an unannounced scare zone that was spaced in between Dinoland and the entrance to Kali. Our theme for the area was 'Execution Everest'; some people were the 'horde' that was being controlled by the Yeti, and some were frostbitten mountain climbers whose ropes had snapped and had been reanimated by the creature, and (of course) the Yeti himself.
Edit: I stole a super-unflattering photo from my coworker Ryan; unfortunately, I don't have the makeup on, this is just an in-progress shot of my costume being torn up.
You'll notice how puffy the front of my jacket looks...they just bought some cheap tracksuits, and stuffed the fronts of the jackets so they looked like puffy snow jackets. And then the costumes were torn up, which made it awkward when we were chasing after people in the scare zone and stuffing was leaking out of our clothes.
I'd never really had experience scaring anyone before, but it was awesome! Not to brag....but I was pretty good. I think it's because I myself hate being scared that it's so easy to know what will creep out other people. My voice wasn't too hot by the end of the night (lots of screaming at people), luckily I had no trouble today spieling. I mentioned my costume was a snowsuit, and we had it all torn up and a rope tangled around my shoulders with a carabiner at the end that I could drag behind me or strike it on the ground in front of people.
Anyway, we were stationed in the walking path just past Expedition Everest and Kali, and it was pretty well lit (kind of a scary-mood killer), but there were a few places we could hide in the shadows so it worked. For a while I would act as the distraction, spinning the carabiner around so it made this whirring noise so two other scarers could sneak up behind people to freak them out, but after a while there was just too many people walking around, so we all kinda did our own thing. My best moment was when a girl was walking with her friends and saying loudly, "Oh, I went to Halloween Horror Nights, this is going to be nothing". I let them pass by me without doing anything, then I followed behind until I got right behind her and screamed, making her scream and jump in terror. Her friends definitely gave her a hard time after that :)
Those of us working in the Yeti section later went on a brief break to see what the haunted queue looked like. It was pretty cool, but a little disjointed since all of the different attractions went with different themes for their sections.
Afterwards our manager treated us to some food, and by the time I got home it was about 10:30, but I'd had a pretty long day because I went to Universal Studios that morning/afternoon. Hence the reason for this weird blog title; the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is in Universal Studios, after all!
Something else that was weird...their nametags are nearly identical to ours at Disney. They are definitely more lenient in terms of how their workers appear, I couldn't help but notice the multiple piercings/ hairstyles that Disney definitely would not have allowed. There really is more of an 'adult' air to the place; sure, there are certain sections that are catered towards kids, but the general sense is that of a more mature audience. This was helped by the tons of posters we saw for Halloween Horror Nights, the evening event held at Universal during September and October. Basically, a bunch of haunted houses/ scare zones are set up all around the park after six, and there are 'scarectors' placed around the streets (and in the haunted houses) to terrify people. There's actually quite a few people from Kilimanjaro who work at Halloween Horror Nights as scareactors; my own trainer Echo acts (along with several other girls) as a deranged, chainsaw wielding prison escapee.
Universal was definitely wise to give JK full control over how the WWOHP was designed...Disney offered to do just one ride, while Universal offered an entire land for Harry Potter. And seriously....it's doing so well they're already working on expanding the land so it extends into Universal Studios (the main park) as well.
Anyway, nothing especially exciting on the horizon, at least until Dad and Julie come to visit...
Oh! I almost forgot; new animals have been added to Kilimanajro! We got some sable antelopes back into the savannah (we had them a few months ago, but they were taken off so the females could have their babies, and now they're all back on the ride permanently), and a couple days ago we got zebras! Zebras used to be in the ride from the beginning, but they've been in "time out" for a few years because they actually chased down a baby antelope until it died. Yeah. Zebras are vicious.
I don't know if any of you guys remember that Kilimanjaro used to have that storyline where our truck was supposed to be chasing down poachers because they stole a baby elephant? That storyline has been gone for almost a year now, and in the place of the big finale scene (where the trucks would drive through the poacher's camp to rescue the elephant), it's been renovated into a new habitat for the zebras. So now they've finally been put back in there, and so far they haven't gotten in the way too much.
That's about it!
Kwa herini!
