Dark Harbor 2016: Mazes

Queen Mary, Long Beach, CA

Our Halloween season coverage keeps on trucking, and today, we head over to Long Beach for a look at another one of our favorite haunts, Dark Harbor, at the Queen Mary.  This festive and action packed haunted attraction is basically one big spooky carnival, with a cast that pours passion, heart, and soul into their work.  While Dark Harbor is not blessed with the budget and production values that Knott's Scary Farm and Halloween Horror Nights own, they make do with a very intimate and unique set-up that features three mazes on board the Queen Mary herself along with three on land.  For those who believe in the spirits of the ship, this brings an added dimension of fear to the experience.  Furthermore, unlike Knott's and Universal, Dark Harbor generally makes an attempt to space out groups so that guests are more isolated as they explore the nooks and crannies of each maze.  This allows the talent to hone in on select individuals at a time and reset before the next set of guests, and it is the one major haunted attraction where I get the most actual startle scares each year.

Westcoaster was once again on hand for Dark Harbor's opening night / media night.  This year, Dark Harbor debuted a brand new maze in Intrepid but also completely redesigned Circus and partially redesigned Deadrise and Soulmate.  These reconfigurations gave the returning mazes some novelty and definitely improved the enjoyability of the mazes.  Lullaby and B340 remained mostly the same, but were enjoyable in their own ways.  Lets jump right in, folks! 

Oh, and for the record, each maze will have a spoiler-free review int the text write-up, while spoilers may occur in the captions to the photos (so if you want to avoid spoilers, then skim through the photos without perusing their captions; the photos themselves might be visual spoilers, though, of course).  This will apply to all haunted attraction updates henceforth.  And of course, the images contain simulated gore, so they may not be safe for work viewing.

Intrepid

New for 2016, Intrepid tells the story of the Iron Master, who built the Queen Mary herself.  One dark night, a mysterious train appeared and whisked him away on a journey that brought him face to face with unmistakable horrors and apparently also granted him immortality.  What those horrors now are unclear, but he's back to reclaim the ship that he believe should be his!

Because it was new and figured to have the most amount of people curious for the unique offering, Jim and I tackled this maze first.  In total, we ended up going through it three times, with each run-through slowly improving.  The maze begins with a split sequence that splits groups into two courses--one "upstairs" and the other "downstairs."  These follow a generally similar footprint but offer different experience before converging at the back half and running through a single path.  It took us a couple of walks, but we eventually figured out that maze was taking guests back in time, with the ship becoming more and more deconstructed, to bring the journey back to the Queen Mary's origin. 

Unfortunately, overall, Intrepid proved to be a little disappointing compared to past new mazes.  This may be attributed to first night newness, because as the night wore on, the talent did seem to have better timing and actually succeeded in a few unexpected startles.  But the theming itself seemed less inspired than usual, with a plethora of chainlink fencing, scaffolding, and unfinished-looking partitions surrounding scattered heaps of theming.  There were moments that were visually impressive--a cauldron pouring molten metal, welding sparks flying off the ship's hull, and blind scares assisted by piercing spotlights, for example.  But overall, the maze did not seem quite as intricate and cohesive as the others.  Surprisingly, newcomer Intrepid proved to be our least favorite maze.

Welcome to Intrepid.

Intrepid is one of two mazes located inside the Spruce Goose Dome (Circus being the other).

Our first sign of slight disappointment came with the main facade, which looked hastily thrown together and not permanent.

The lines were completely empty early on, mostly because the first two hours of our visit were media-only and closed to the public.

But shockingly, throughout the entire night, a line never seemed to form.  We even went back around 11pm and found a complete walk-on, as though no one knew this maze existed.

This left us scratching our heads, since Circus, on the other side of the dome, had a healthy hour+ line.

The fateful train serves as the entrance.

The first half branches into two different paths, so lets take the higher route first.

Immediately, we encounter a hostile creature.

Gazing across, we see the casualties of ship building.

The route takes guest around a squared U-course, then back downstairs, where they must craw through this tube.

I guess we have to crawl, lest we end up like half-torso guy up there.

The talent certainly gave their best effort.

But the predominantly open partitions didn't provide a ton of hiding spaces.

Still, I appreciated the energy and effort during our second and third trips through.

Jumping back to the front, we take the lower route.  The conductor decides which of the two routes we take for us.

Returning guests wishing to take a different route from their first time may politely ask to pick their preferred course.

Fog and blinding light mark a heightened portion of this side.

Various creatures are on hand to look sinister.

This cast member had a pretty interesting look and lurked at the end of a blinding fog tunnel.

Elsewhere, this worker was busy constructing things about of body parts.

Lets... not interrupt him.

In retrospect, there were a decent number of monsters in this maze, but they were spaced in a manner that felt sparse.
 

This was one of the cool visuals within the maze.

But most of the maze looked more like this.

A body tied up and tangled.

More theming seemingly haphazardly thrown together.

As the night progressed, the monsters did seem to find a bit of footing.

And--possibly due to the quietness of the evening at this maze, took on some prankish playfulness.

Silly slider is silly.

Lullaby

Fortunately, the remaining mazes were closer to par with what we expected.  Lullaby, last year's new maze, provided a lot of fun with its telling of the story of Scary Mary, the girl who drowned in the Queen Mary swimming pool but wasn't as innocent as she might have appeared.  Although 2016's Lullaby didn't quite live up to 2015's fluid, seamlessly transitional storytelling and character interaction, it still provided some amusing moments with each Mary acting adorably murderous toward guests.  There were a few instances where the Mary's bunched up and were seen more than one within a room--dislodging the cohesiveness of the story, but this might be attributed to opening night spacing concerns that will be worked out as the run progresses.

Overall, even though Lullaby was largely the same as last year, it provided some humorous and enjoyable moments, with some nice startle moments along the way from monsters lurking in the shadows of the ship.

This is the domain of Scary Mary.

Like last year, we begin with Mary's funeral.

But Mary was not as lovable as everyone thought.

It turns out she was rather petulant and had quite a temper with those who refused to play with her.

A temper that was sometimes murderous, as this victim discovered.

The maze takes on a similar watery theme as its predecessor, Submerged.

And it features plenty of appearances of Mary's.

There's a Mary.

There's a Mary figure.

There's Mary's handiwork.

Hmmm... if that's how she treats her stuffed animals, imagine how she's like to humans!

Quite bloody indeed.

Last year, the multiple Mary's would feed off each other, handing off each scene to the next and seemingly continuing the same dialogue seamlessly.

But our experience this year lacked that cohesion, unfortunately.

But there are still plenty of scares to be had.

This slightly tweaked scene features Mary's nursery.

Encountering restless spirits and unhappy nannies.

Mary does not play nice.

Continuing on...

This character was quite unique.  A stuffed animal for a head?  I haven't seen that one before.

There's something a bit disturbing about this.

And it seems that by this point, we are unwelcome.

Perhaps we should check out?

If Mary lets us.

She prefers to play forever and ever...

One of my favorite moments comes at the end, with this character and puppeteer.

That is a ferocious Scary Mary!

And if guests are unlucky, there might be another ferocious Scary Mary waiting for them after they think the coast is clear.

Bye, Mary!

B340

Returning for another year is B340, featuring Samuel the Savage and his descent into murderous rage and madness.  Yes, the story is that one evening, Samuel, hearing voices in his head, attack and kills several passengers aboard the Queen Mary ship.  He is locked up until the ship reaches shore, but when he is checked upon, Samuel is found dead, having ripped himself to pieces.  Savagery indeed--and no protests on this maze so far.  We'll see how long that lasts...

With a pretty much identical layout to last year, B340 did not offer anything new.  Our trips through may have caught it on off times, but we didn't feel that the energy or scares here were as great as in most of the other mazes.  And like the other mazes aboard the ship (Lullaby and Soulmate), it was almost unbearably stuffy and humid throughout most of the layout.  It must have been pretty uncomfortable for the talent, and I hope they were able to keep hydrated.  Once a favorite, B340 ended up ranking in the lower tier of mazes for us, though it was by no means bad.  Just middling.

It's time to enter B340!

The maze explores the recesses of the mind.

Is that a face pushing out of a wall?  Why yes.  Yes it is.
 

As with last year, guests being with a descent into Samuel's brain.

We pass scenes depicting some reference to mental institutions and such.

The big mystery is, what is B340?  Clearly, Samuel has tried to figure this out.

Up the spooky stairs, one of many in the ship mazes, which are not ADA friendly.

This is a familiar progression for returning Dark Harbor visitors by now.

The nun will see you and teach you some murderous alphabet recitation.

And... oh.  Oh, that's a mess.

It seems that Samuel has gone on a bit of a spree.

This character was one of a few who stood out.

His slow, plodding back arch walk was incredibly creepy.

And then we encounter Samuel the Savage!

He certainly seems unstable, no doubt driven mad possessed by the spirits of the Queen Mary ship.

Heading down the home stretch, we find this frightful child.

Unfortunately, due to idiot guests, this position had to change from a live actor position in its original year to a mannequin, since guests had a habit of slipping into the bed with the usually-female actor in this part.

Here, we see the gruesome discovery of Samuel the Savage after he ripped himself apart.

It's kind of an impressive feat, if you think about it...

Soulmate

The last maze aboard the Queen Mary was Soulmate, which has actually been significantly redesigned this year.  For starters, the layout is somewhat reversed, with scenes at the beginning of last year's attraction near the end and vice versa.  Also gone are is the grand ballroom scene, much to the disappointment of some of the guests we overheard.  But overall, the redesigned seemed to breathe some life into the maze.  Our first trip in was full of great energy from the cast and lots of screams echoing through the course.  Our second trip was a little less thrilling, mostly because, for once, instead of guests isolated from each other in small groups, the maze turned into a walking haunted line, which made the usually-effective startle scares much less so. 

Of the three ship mazes, Soulmate also proved to be the stuffiest, which was definitely a little detracting from the scare experience.  Still, this story of Graceful Gale and her quest to find the perfect mate by killing, dismembering, and then putting together combinations of her suitors was an overall strong performer and one of the top mazes of the night.

It's time to visit Graceful Gale!

One improvement Dark Harbor has made for this year's event is the incorporation of entertainment at the queue for every maze.  Lines can build very long at Dark Harbor because of their insistence of sending groups spaced 30-60 seconds apart, so it's nice that the event is providing some distractions for those waiting standby.

New this year, guests start off Soulmate by walking through the Propeller Room of the Queen Mary!

This is a first for the event.  The only other time this room was accessible at Dark Harbor was for the up charge "Encounters" maze a couple of years ago.

Early on, guests run into Gale in her human form.

Here, she is shy and slightly overwhelmed aspiring starlet.

She and a lucky (or not) guest set a date to meet later on at the top deck of the ship.  Take that date if you dare.
 

The maze goes through parts of the ship that have not previously been open during the Dark Harbor event.

A view of the "outside" might provide some surprises.

Some of the inhabitants down here may have surprises as well.
 

The bowels of the ship offer some unnerving and eerie scenes.

Guests eventually make their way upstairs and into Gale's chambers.

Here, Gale is graceful, but more than a little murderous.

Onto the fitting room, where Gale's perfect husband is being assembled.

Try a human suit, why don't you?

It turns out Gale has had quite a list of victims.

This one's head was not perfect, so it was left here.

More skin, to be used as "fabric," perhaps.

The entire maze is quite gory!

This gentleman might be lucky to escape with only that wound.

Others don't escape at all.

More imperfects. Ah well.

Of course, when you accumulate a collection of corpses, you need plenty of body bags.  But beware who hides here.

Is this Gale's Mr. Right?

Outside, Gale waits for more suitors.

She is a far cry from young, innocent Gale.  But then again, Gale was never that innocent to begin with.

Deadrise

Deadrise was originally introduced to serve as the backstory of The Captain, but lately, it has switched to feature the story of Half Hatch Henry, a shipsman who met his end in a grisly accident when the 13th hatch suddenly slammed closed on him as he was partially through it, working on ship maintenance.  Of course, as a spirit of the Queen Mary, he can't simply take that lying down, so his spirit haunts the ship and gathers additional undead warriors to support The Captain in his quest to conquer more than just the Queen Mary!

Last year, Deadrise was redesigned and repackaged into a tight, cohesive, and intensely scare-driven maze with plenty of action and a cast that clearly had the timing down.  This year is much of the same, with high energy and great, out-of-nowhere startles.  As a result, Deadrise was one of the top mazes of the night.

Deadrise is completely outdoors and located on the land side of Dark Harbor, but thanks to its creative layout, you wouldn't really realize it.

The maze makes plenty of use of shipping containers to provide enclosure and intimate encounters.

The cast is pretty great in this maze.  They've been together for several years now and display some fantastic chemistry together.

Whether it be perfect pop-out timing or great coordination on double-team scares, the monsters here are constantly entertaining.

There is also fire in Deadrise.  Fire good.

One warning though: They do have a Halloween Horror Nights moment.

In fact, it's as though they took all the potential HHN moments and combined them into one massive water-splosion.  Hit this part at the wrong time, and you WILL get drenched!

That will only make the undead crew laugh at your misfortune.

Now, as with any ship's crew, food and provisions are needed.

Outside of the story, it seems like more than a few props from last year's Voodoo Village maze found their way over here.

Guy Trapped Under a Boat is back this year.

As are the hatch doors.

And finally, the best finale of any maze at Dark Harbor returns.

Guests stroll through this fogged out shipping container, blinded by the strobe in their direction.

The monsters have clear view and get people coming out pretty much every time.

For good entertainment, just stand outside the exit and watch guests come out shrieking.

It's hilarious.

Circus

By far our favorite maze of the night was Circus, which has been completely redesigned.  Located inside the Spruce Goose Dome, Circus is basically one giant carnival clown maze.  But it's also the maze where the designers threw all the tricks and gadgets and misdirection into one insanely fun package.  If the lines were any evidence, this was the hit of the night for everyone as well, as lines for even just the Fast Fright front of line entrance reaced 20-30 minutes for most of the evening.

Last year, Circus surprised guests by making them go through a full on actual ball pit (coincidentally, The 17th Door also featured a ball pit last year; funny how these parallels seem to happen across haunts at the same time).  Well, the ball pit is back due to popular demand, but so are a host of other demented features that one might associate with a circus--clowns, a mirror maze (that actually works), puppets, and more.  The environment is twisted zaniness, and even if guests aren't afraid of circus performers, they'll have a blast just going through the absurdly playful and ridiculous maze.

Circus time!  Lets go inside!

Circus is back for its fourth year, and after the way this version went, I hope it never leaves.

Some spooky iridescent clown the makes things cozy.

The stage between the queues of Circus and Intrepid provide entertainment in the form of acrobats and aerialists.

Lets go inside...

No pushing through vaginal air bags this year, but that's ok.

Instead, we get a "choose your own adventure" setting right off the bat.

The mischievous clowns invite you to pick a path. 

Beware, most don't really take you anywhere.

It's funny to see guests get lost here.

But two of the paths lead to the BALL PIT!!

Hooray!! Balls!!

This area is seriously absurdly fun.

Eventually, if guests can find the correct route, they'll make their way to this gentleman.

Or perhaps this one, who has a great head fit to be framed!

The monsters do make attempts at scaring, but we were too busy having fun and enjoying the silliness to actually get any frights.

Interested in puppets?

It's all rather zany.

Onto the funhouse!

Beware if you go in.

You might not come out.

Pictures don't do the maze design justice.  In three dimension, the approach and angles of many parts of the this maze create some cool and disorienting illusions.

Circus also has the rare mirror maze that actually gets people lost!

There is plenty here that might make guests wonder how the designers got away with this.

I don't care.  It's all incredibly entertaining.

And we end with a spinning tunnel.

Be a little careless, and you will lose your balance!

Though I wasn't initially too excited by the maze line up going into Dark Harbor, the opening night experience certainly turned my thoughts toward the positive.  All of the mazes ranged from enjoyable to incredibly fun, and even the disappointing Intrepid made strides as the night went on. 

Dark Harbor will always have the advantage of an authentic creep level with its mazes aboard the ships, and its land mazes have shaped up to be pretty addictive as well.  But, as I've mentioned before, the maze lines do get pretty long, and I highly recommend purchasing a front of line pass to make the experience a lot more enjoyable.  This is similar to what guests encounter at Halloween Horror Nights, and having to wait in standby could definitely decrease guest satisfaction.  The difference is that a front of line pass at Dark Harbor is about 1/3 the cost of one for HHN, and it is unlimited use, so it's much more justifiable to obtain.  Guests can save even more money by purchasing a regular general admission ticket during one of Dark Harbor's many sales, then upgrading to a front of line pass on site.

That does it for today.  We'll look at everything else at Dark Harbor tomorrow.  In the meantime, haunt season is in full swing, and we have already covered quite a bit of content.  If you're looking for something to do around SoCal, check out our Southern California 2016 Haunted Attraction Guide!  It also serves as an index of all the haunts we visit and review this year!