Lost in PA somewhere, but the trees were pretty
Us lost
Well, after that snafu, we got back on track and headed to our hotel in NJ (It was less expensive). I might want to mention that we are from a small city where rush hour traffic is maybe a 10 min. wait b/c there is a stop light and on ramp in the same area. Yep, that’s right. We forgot rush hour traffic. I guess traffic is common there, so common that they have road signs letting you know how long your wait will be. As we stared at the sign that said 40 mins. we had to make a decision. The whole reason we wanted to go to the hotel first was to drop most of our stuff off, so we didn’t have items in the car that could be stolen. If you are from Philly, I’m sorry if I offend, but we were told that the area we were going to wasn’t the nicest and so we were trying to be smart. But we had a ticket time for TBTW for 7pm (I’ll explain that later) and so we made the decision (well Carma just took the next Philly exit) to be there early.
Here is the catch. You can’t park at ES, you have to park in the “Zoo” parking and take a trolley to ES b/c they have limited parking. We got there before they had opened the parking area. Now we were circling around a not so familiar neighborhood with about 30 mins to wait…AND we had to pee. After trying to park a few places we finally pulled into a school parking lot. Was it legal, probably not? Did we care at this point, NO. Now that the fear of being hi-jacked had passed (Again sorry if its offensive, but this is truly how we felt and it was mostly likely b/c we come from such a small city) we remembered that we all had to pee and no where we felt safe to go pee at. So, I started calling the TBTW number to see if they had facilities.
We finally decided to roll around again to see if they had opened the parking lot yet and I finally got through to TBTW and the very, very, very nice and polite man on the phone said they had port-a-potties, which at that point was like a prayer answered. Then we pulled up and they were parking cars, so we had another pray answered. When we got there, they had big spotlights in the parking lot and workers everywhere, we didn’t feel as bad leaving our stuff in the car (Note: ES was the one who warned about leaving stuff in the car.). There were port-a-potties in the parking lot, but they were loading up the first trolley (Technically, it was a Ghost Bus, but it looked like a trolley and I like typing trolley) and we just decided if we had held it that long….
It was about a 10-15 drive, in traffic, over there, but they have an actor on the bus to tell you stories and such. He also gives you the rules. DON’T touch the actors! NO flash photography ( I was upset b/c I left my camera in the car figuring they wouldn’t allow any) and they gave us a safe word just in case it got too scary.
Okay, I’ll explain the tickets now. You can purchase tickets online and I HIGHLY recommend this b/c not only will you get a discount, but you get VIP status, which lets you move to the front of the waiting line. You also have to purchase tickets for parking. Its $20 a piece for the 7-11pm tickets on weekdays, $25 for 7-11pm on Friday and $30 7-11pm on weekends. The parking is $12 pre-pay and $15 pay at the lot. These are current prices. Their season starts September 17th through November 6th this year. There are five haunted houses that they weave into a “storyline” approach into one massive haunted house, which takes about an hour to get through depending on how fast people are moving through. They try and put you through in your groups and stagger you, so that you can’t hear the screams and know something is coming. They have actors outside to entertain you if you have to wait. The ticket money and other things you buy goes mainly to supporting the restoration and budget for ES. Here is the website.
http://www.easternstate.org/halloween/
We had the first ticket time available and I think this was the best b/c we didn’t have to wait in line, in fact, we went straight through and were the first to walk through for the night.
Let me walk you through (Note: they may change this.) We got there and well…used the port-a-pottie (Thank God! No one was gonna make me pee my pants!) and then showed our ticket to the first ticket booth at the main entrance. Then you have to stop and sign a waiver form (they have like 10 set up, so not a big problem) and then they usher you into the courtyard and have a zombie photographer take your picture (which you can purchase at the end-again proceeds going to ES). If you don’t have a gaggle of…what are they called now…tweens (13-15 yr olds) running through and almost knocking your photographer over (btw, why were they running, no one was there, yet.) then it is quick. Then you line up in a roped off serpentine and wait. We were divided into two lines. VIP’s and regular tickets. We talked to our Zombie prison guard while we waited and she talked candidly about doing the haunted house and told us that her b/f was inside where the masked people were. All the while the tweens were next to us goofing around and being annoying. Now, I don’t know if the zombie photographer sent this guy over or if he was simply doing his job, but he scared the be-geezers out of these kids. He looked like a dead Hannibal Lecture and was REALLY good at his job.
Note: These actors are volunteers, but they pick the best of the best and these guys love doing their thing. They are AWESOME! Be nice to them.
Note 2: The only bad thing about getting there early was that a lot of what you see on the video on their website doesn’t happen b/c they are just opening up and you really don’t have a long wait, so the actors aren’t out in full force. We did get to see some of it on our way out though.
Back to the tweens. This guy was spooky. Got up in their faces and just stared…lol. He tried it with Carma and I, but as a theatre major myself, I knew what he was doing. It’s called breaking the forth wall and it can be intense. Just about that time our zombie guard said we could go through and as we walked away from the tweens we heard them exclaim as we walked out of sight…..”Why do they get to go through first?!” to which Carma so eloquently replied, “B/c we are old enough to have credit cards.” Priceless!
TBTW let me lift some pictures for my blog (See how that works, ask and you shall receive). Some are from their Facebook, which I think were taken by actual cast members and then a few professional ones taken for publicity.
There is that scary Hannibal guy.
The haunted house was really well done. Lots of twist and turns, ups and downs and varied dimensions. One part, they give you a little key chain flashlight that you have to hold to make it light up and that’s all the light available. Another area is in 3D and things are hidden in the walls. They have people throughout to make sure you keep going in the right direction. The actors really put a lot of effect in it and interact with you. When we first walked in I started talking out loud saying, “I’m a theatre major..you guys are awesome.” And when we went through the masked area (the zombie guards b/f was in there) Carma and I said, “We met your g/f and she said you’d be nice.” They weren’t nice, lol. I'm not going to tell anymore b/c it ruins it.
Night Watch section
3D section
Okay, here is one of my favorite stories. A couple of weeks before I had seen Zombieland and if you have seen it then you know there are rules to Zombieland. Well, we were at an outside point (you go in and out of the actual prison) and entering in a new section. There was a zombie guard outside and he said, “Don’t lose any fingers.” I looked at him and said, “I won’t, I know the rules of Zombieland.” As I entered the doorway, I said out loud, “Rule 1 of Zombieland, Cardio.” As I rounded the corner and actor popped out of the wall and said, “Rule 2, Double Tap.” Hahahahahaha, I LOVED IT! They were talking back to me! Apparently, they have walkie talkies and communicate to each other behind the walls and such. It was great.
We came out at the end and there was a tented area with music, food, and souvenirs. So first bought our picture from before (actually Carma bought it and then gave it to me for my birthday) and then we bought a few souvenirs. I was still checking out when Carma came over to me all excited. I walked over to her and she very excitedly said, “Brooke! Oh my gosh they have fried Oreo cookies!” (Now for this to be funny, you may have to have been there and you also have to know that we are both on Weight Watchers (Carma doesn’t need it, but whatever)) I looked up, apparently deadpan and loudly said, “Does it look like I Need a Fried Oreo?” There was a brief pause and Carma and Matt burst into laughter and so did the workers who were in earshot. Guess you had to be there.
We walked back outside and back to the trolley (oh make sure you scan your parking pass at the booth next to the trolley) and rode back with just us and an actor. We told her she didn’t have to put on a show just for us, to just save it. So she talked to us about Philly and told us where to get a real cheese steak. She was very helpful.
Oh, before we left ES they had a part of the museum open and we went into the “visiting” room that you have probably seen on several ghost shows and I took this picture with my cell phone…the only one that turned out actually. Spooky.
We got back to the parking lot and we were lucky to get the time we did b/c the line just to get on the trolley was ridiculous! We showed our parking ticket as we left and made our way to our hotel in NJ. Carma got us a suite for like $130 with two bedrooms. We checked in the hotel and went to a Chilis down the street b/c we were hungry and tired. We talked about how much fun we had had so far. We then went back to the hotel and threw ourselves into bed after making some phone calls.
Our hotel room (I remembered this time)
Well, we were all tucked in for the night and still debating (after our 1st experience) on if we would go back to ES for a daytime tour.
Next up: Cheese steaks and Gargoyles.
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