Another year completed

All in all, this year turned out to be a success which is actually quite shocking...

To be honest, this year was very difficult for us. I'm not sure if our heart just wasn't in it or what, but it seems to be the case with many fellow haunters I have spoken to as well. The planning stages went great! We had great ideas and brainstorming, and decided on what to change and committed to it all. But for some reason, when it came to building, it became a chore this year. We would only work on the haunt because it was already started, and we kind of felt like we HAD to finish it. It lead to a lot of frustration and stress, and we decided that 2010 would be our final year.

We decided to have our first Halloween party which was organized way ahead of time, and I made fancy time-consuming invitations, but we didn't start decorating for the party until about 3 days before. Not to mention my costume mishap (it was shipped to the wrong house) so after some minor bumps, the party turned out to be a HUGE success. We had a great time and we decided that for future years, we'll have the party and no haunted house.

The morning of our haunts opening, we were STILL working on the butcher shop and the dot room. We had to finish a lot of little details and the amount of stress was at the point where it was overwhelming. I was seriously at the point where I didn't even want to open it that night. Being that it was a Saturday night, we were expecting our biggest night to be day #1 instead of actual Halloween. We also didn't advertise because we figured word-of-mouth from previous years would spread, and we didn't want to clog the streets. We were also expecting an entire baseball league. Boy, were we wrong! Opening night didn't even have 50 kids show up, after all that work. At that point, we were SURE it was our last year.

Then comes Halloween morning. My parents were finally home from their cruise and willing to give us some extra hands. Although it was mostly set up from the night before, we had family and friends stopping by to take a sneak peak, and that definitely didn't help matters. By the time we were opening, we were running so far behind, the popcorn machine was not set up and young trick-or-treaters were already coming by for their treats. Well that's when things made a turn for the better. We had 296 kids come through with NO advertising for Halloween night. Word of mouth DID spread. We were constantly busy and had to hold up the line to take breaks. It was as much fun as we remembered and we were having a BLAST!!!

That night, we started taking it down. The next day after work, we were continuing to pull it all apart, and I had already listed the "haunt for sale" on craigslist and floridahaunters.com. Then a woman stopped her car, and said "I know it's a little late, and you've probably taken some of it apart, but do you mind if I walk through real quick?". Once she left, the water-works started. It's SO much work, SO much stress, but it's SO much fun and the thought of selling it all killed me. I was flashing forward to the next year thinking "what the hell are we going to do on Halloween night?". I feel like we were letting the community down. And on Halloween night, it's so much fun that you forget all of the chaos from before.

That's when we decided to keep it. My husband who previous years just was a good participant to keep me happy didn't want to sell it either. It went from being "my" project to "our" project. We came up with a better plan for the future to reduce stress. And I was going to have to let my control-freak ways go, and enlist more help. And after I had promised "no more expansions", there's already talk of one. Let's see what happens haha.

So in the end, we're keeping the Tiburon Terror House alive for 2011. This year we will be advertising like crazy and enlisting all the help we can get, and I promise not to act like a lunatic :)

Thanks to everyone who made Tiburon Terror House 2010: "CarnEVIL of Screams" a success...
My wonderful husband Gustavo This "thank you" list comes from both of us, but I have to give him a special thank you for being so tolerant and helpful of EVERYTHING over the past 3 Halloween seasons. This would be impossible without his support.
Terrance behind the scenes, drop frame actor, builder, and friend who is tolerant of all of my mood swings, who does it sick and all
Dad builder, chain saw guy
Mom who repeatedly tells me I'm nuts, runs the popcorn machine and crowd control
Christina who helped run the popcorn machine, and was enlisted as our hilarious jack-in-the-box on day 2.
Alyssa my brilliant actress who was one of the STARS this year in the cage. Best actress award!
Leo helped us build and was the genius actor in the chop shop, drop frame AND dot room, and didn't mind getting punched in the face by a scared patron. Best actor award!
Jeremy was in our dot room, and even put of packing for his trip to help out
Carolina was our SCARY "worlds largest baby". Kids lost sleep from that cry. Honorable Mention for runner up as best actress.
Emperio was our scary caged beast, and also helped with some props
Kristan was our scary jack-in-the-box on day #1
Maggie was our amazing crazy carnie who was also crowd control, head counter, timing guide, makeup helper, and mood swing tolerator.
Donald painted our AWESOME clown!
Charlie and his wife for helping to paint and build
Donna for providing golf cart shuttle service to cars
Our neighbors for tolerating the noise and chaos that we cause in the neighborhood
Our amazing community for giving us the strength to get through it and the drive to stay open for more years to come. Thanks for all of your support over the years!!!

ENJOY!!!:

13 days to go!

Our entrance and butcher shop are UP! The outside of the entrance just needs to be painted (should take no longer than an hour) and the rest can't be completed until the final weekend.

I just found out my cousin Brianna might be flying down just for Halloween weekend (Friday - Sunday or Monday) so I'm super excited about that! Plus, I have an extra, much needed haunter! :)

This week we're transforming our ACTUAL house for our first Halloween party since Colombia. And once that's done being decorated, we'll switch back to decorating the haunted house. This upcoming weekend, we'll have to finish details and lighting.

We're getting there. Rolling right along! I'll take some clear pictures today and post them up whenever I remember haha.

Still needed: STUFFED ANIMALS!


Lastly, besides our haunted house, here are some other Halloween events in the area:

Fishlips Carnival of Chaos:
Dates: Oct 28, 29, 30, 31
Times: 6pm – ?? (6 – 8pm is kid friendly)
Cost: $10 advance, $12 door, $15 fast pass


Merritt Island Terror Nights: (home haunt)
Dates: Oct 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31
Times: 7 – 10pm
Cost: Free, donations accepted


Haunted Lair @ Eau Gallie Super Flea:
Dates: Oct 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 ,29, 30, 31
Times: 7 – 11pm
Cost: $6 per person, $5 with group


Forever Florida: (Hayrides, Haunted coach safari; Screamline Haunted zipline adventure: 55’ high, 25 mph, 7 ziplines, 2 haunted bridges)
Dates: Oct 22, 23, 29, 30
Times: 7pm - ??
Cost: Free general admission, $5 hayride, $10 haunted coach safari, $85 haunted zipline


Boo at the Zoo:
Dates: Oct 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31
Times: 5:30 – 9:30pm
Cost: $8 on Oct 15th – 17th, $10 other nights


MEG-O-WEEN:
Date: Oct 30th
Time: unknown
Cost: $10 (over 21), first beer or soda is FREE

DESPERATE CALL!!!

I've been posting on facebook for a week, asking everyone I come across, and I know a few other people read this. PLEASE HELP!!! We need an artist by TOMORROW!!! NO LATER!!! Someone who can draw, paint, and/or airbrush or graffiti. We have a project that needs to be completed NO LATER THAN TOMORROW and it's almost done. It just needs a little artistic flair. PLEASE HELP! If we don't have someone by tomorrow, I'm SO screwed! Please ask around and contact me ASAP! Thank you!

19 Days to go!

We're getting there! We're a good 70% done! And by the end of this weekend, we should be at about 90% completion. So exciting!

First off, thanks Dad for all your help and getting new props for us, Dennis for the wood, Diane for searching for everything she can dig up in her house, Kathy for putting us in the community newsletter, Leo for helping this weekend, and Terrance for all his endless hours of dedication for the past 3 years... no matter how many headaches I cause him! With everyones help, we're ahead of schedule this year.

Just to let everyone know, this year we will be accepting donations for the kids of Space Coast Rock-It Softball. Come out and support!

Halloween Horror Nights was GREAT this year. We had a lot of fun, and the speed pass is the greatest thing ever created. I'll write a detailed review like I did for Howl-O-Scream, as time allows.

Today, I'll have to start getting 2 of our props ready for decoration tomorrow. Final peices are all going up this Saturday so everything needs to be done!

This weeks wish list item:
OLD STUFFED ANIMALS!


Thats all I can think of for now! Till next time...

Outside decorations are up!

We did 90% of our outside decorations yesterday. We just need the movie screen and the skulls that we usually have lining the driveway. I need a big prop on that side without blocking the screen. Still deciding what to do. Cemetery is complete and bigger than ever. It took us a good hour to figure out the boarded up windows (we forgot to number them last year). This upcoming weekend we'll do the entire structure of the haunted house (minus the parts that go outside) By the end up this upcoming weekend, we should be at 65 - 70% completion.

Thursday is Halloween Horror Nights, and then I'm granting myself a 4 day weekend, so a lot should get done.

I still need:
Red paint
White sheets
2x4's

Updates and Howl-O-Scream 2010 review

33 days to go! We cleaned out the garage last night, and stocked up on a cemetery upgrade. Today we'll start pulling everything out and sorting through. If it doesn't rain, we can probably have the outside set up today or tomorrow.

UPDATED WISH LIST:
**Old paint** especially black, white, red, off white, and any neon colors
Paint mixers (those little wooden sticks that Home Depot and Lowe's give you when you buy paint. We need about 25. I'm gonna go beg today.
Old "creepy cloth" or tulle netting
Old bedsheets. Especially white.



HOWL-O-SCREAM Review
First off, let me say that I enjoyed it. I didn't know what to expect, but ended up having a great time. I've heard from multiple people and review sites that this is the WORST event Howl-O-Scream has created. If this is the worst year, then I'm pretty excited for the future. Here's my review (There are no spoilers).

We went to the "Freaky Preview" of Howl-O-Scream on Saturday. It was our first time ever attending this event. I went with no expectations being that I know they have a much smaller budget than Universals HHN, and they're not professional set setters. I've heard from some that it's better, some that it's not, so I went with an open mind. In the end, I found it a few steps up from a home haunt. They had a lot of store bought props, and most of the props they made can be made by the average home haunter. This isn't necessarily a bad thing being that HHN sometimes over does it with the elaborate sets sometimes, and forgets to concentrate more on the actual scares. It's just a more "raw" feel.

Before we went, this years HOS "My X" theme sounded kind of teeny-bopperish, and I wasn't really feeling it. I thought the best part about it was the "Behind the Band" recordings they had on their site. Unfortunately, this feeling didn't improve once we were there. I was kind of bored with this theme by the 3rd house (and there's a reference in every single one) Also, if I hear one more of My X's songs, I'm going to cry. Luckily, the theme wasn't the main focus of the night. There were references everywhere, but you can kind of ignore it. I didn't see the band play since I was talking to my Florida Haunters friends. Tavo said they sucked, and coming from a musician, I trust his judgement. They only played 3 songs, so if you're going, don't feel like you need to go out of your way to see the band play.

As far as the scare zones went, I wasn't impressed at all. That's it. Half the time we didn't even know we were in one until we saw a sign as we were leaving the area. Bad. Just bad.

Now onto the houses...
Overall, they were pretty well executed. Home haunt style on a bigger scale. The "My X" house was my least favorite. It was actually kinda dumb. The best part was the dressing room (check out the mirrors - awesome). My favorite regular house was Nightshade Toys. I LOVED it. I can actually use a lot of ideas from it too! Be sure not to miss that one (it's right by the entrance but we did it last). As far as the other houses, they were good. Not excellent, but they were good. It was fun. I don't think I saw a single vampire reference in "Taste of Blood", but it was good otherwise. "DEDer Extreme Rush" was kinda messed up, haha. "Deconstruction", "Death Row Vengeance" and "Trapped" were pretty cool. Awesomely ridiculous moment of the night: I don't remember which house it was, but our "greeter" said a creepy "what's up" to us... of course we returned it with "what's up". We kept going back and forth until it turned into a "whhaaazzzzaaaaaap" fest as we were all cracking up (actor included). Too funny!

Advice on making your haunted house experience more enjoyable:
We had speed passes so we zipped through all the lines (which were pretty long). Be sure to get the speed pass, but take your time! We were done with everything by 10:00 with the speed pass, but it was a preview night so I'm sure the rest of the month will be more crowded. While in the houses, SLOW DOWN!!! Take a minute to look at everything. Let a small space build up between you and the people in front of you. It gives the actors a chance to reset so they can be ready to scare you, otherwise you'll miss out and the people in front of you and behind you will get all the scares.

Now the best part of the night: ALONE
There is a $25 up charge for this house, and you need to make an appointment. If you are going, make your appointment NOW! They sell out FAST!!! You DO NOT want to miss this house. I was thoroughly impressed. I wish all the commercial haunts were like this. Anyone can jump out an say "boo!" but they put so much more into this. The house is about 10 - 12 minutes long, and you should get there 15 minutes earlier than your scheduled time. They let a group in every 5 minutes. You can go in with maximum group size of 4, but if you go in completely alone, you get a T-shirt (which is a logo of the house from the website and says "I did it Alone". They only come in XL and XXL. Also, I've heard that not every trip through is the same. Some people get different experiences and endings. If you go to HOS this year, DO NOT MISS THIS HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In full swing!

It's the most wonderful timmmmmmmeeeeeeee of the yeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!!!

We're back from camping, and it's officially Halloween season. All the Halloween stores are open, all of the regular retailers have their shelves fully stocked, and I'm behind schedule (as usual). We start building the haunt in less than 2 weeks, and I haven't built a single prop! Who's surprised??? Not me! Hehe.

I'm still in need of plexiglas! Just ONE piece (around the size of a small window). I'm also looking for some additional actors this year. We'll need you Oct. 30th and 31st. Anyone? Anyone?

I need to pick up our new hallway soon so it can be painted, and I need to order pieces for the new prop that will go inside. I also need to dig deep in that creative brain of mine to build some more props that will be much needed in one of the rooms. My wonderful husband thinks we have enough already, but what does he know, right?!?!

Anyways, 41 days and I haven't started a thing! This weekend, it's game on!
Ready, set, go!

Halloween Stores opening

Just in case you're wondering, Spirit Halloween will be opening on Monday, September 6th (Labor Day). I said in a previous post that it is at Melbourne Square Mall, but it is NOT. (I know, I was shocked too!) It is in the OLD "Rooms-to-Go" building a few buildings east of the mall. (More space, which is better)

Halloween City is located at the Avenues in Viera, and in the old Circuit City at Melbourne Square Mall. I'm not sure when they open, because they don't update their website or leave any information on their automated message. In fact, according to the message, there will be NO Halloween City's in the Melbourne area... yet there are two. If "Spirit" opens on Monday, I'm assuming Halloween City will also... at least the mall location since they're going to have heavy competition there.

Shoot... Spirit, Party City and Halloween City all within 1/4 of a mile. Talk about 1 stop shopping :)

I got my tickets!!!

We got our Universal Studios "Halloween Horror Nights" tickets... and speed passes, of course! (Thank you, Jim!) We're going on Thursday, October 7th. I'm so excited!!! Let me know if you'd like to join us. I think our group is currently at 11 people. The more the merrier!

Also, We're probably going to go to Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens on Saturday, September 25th during Florida Resident "Freaky Preview". I'm REALLY excited about their haunted house 'Alone'. I don't mind paying the upcharge for a personalized house. If you haven't heard, you pay $25.95 for your time slot. You can only bring up to 3 friends with you. You go into the house completely ALONE. If you go in by yourself (no friends) and make it through, you get a t-shirt. I'm cheap, so I rather Tavo and I share the time slot and skip the t-shirt. Either way, it should be pretty cool.

Getting there... 72 Days!

So we're almost at the 2 month mark, and I haven't done SQUAT! Luckily I work best under pressure. I wanna thank Dennis who will be giving us our extension for 2010, and Diane and Bob who will be giving us some decor and MUCH needed plexiglass. I can probably get the large cardboard box from work. I don't mind a little dumpster diving in a time of necessity. Of course I can just ask, but where's the fun in that??? :)


In case you're curious, but you're not a store stalker like me, Here is an update on the stores stocking Halloween goods. It will be brief, and then edited since I will make my rounds this weekend.

Yankee Candle - has had their full Halloween display up for a couple of weeks. New scents, new cute little creatures. Very nice.

Dollar Tree - I got to pick up some "nice" stuff a couple of weekends ago. Some repeats from last year, some new stuff. Well worth $1.

Old Time Pottery - Nice display on the seasonal side... thank goodness it's not next to the Christmas stuff like last year. No Christmas stuff to report here yet!

Hobby Lobby *SIGH* No Halloween to report, only some fall foliage... but they managed to have their FULL Christmas display up. Trees, ornaments, Santa, the whole works. First thing you see when you walk in is a Christmas tree. What month is this???

Michaels - I heard from my buddies over at Floridahaunters.com that Michaels is fully stocked, but not impressive. I'll check it out this weekend.
*EDIT: Most of their stock is the same as last year. If the Lemax 'Spooky Town' sets weren't so expensive, I'd seriously consider collecting them!

Lowes - Some parts of Florida do have their displays up, some don't. I'll find out this weekend.
*EDIT: Haven't gotten around to checking, but will update when I do.

Cracker Barrel - I heard their general store has tons of stuff! I checked online, nothing worth reporting about on their website, but maybe there's some better stuff in person.

Hallmark - They've had some cutesy stuff out since July... right next to their Christmas stuff. *rolls eyes*

Ross - Last month they were stocking some small stuff in the back, but they finally got enough (and it's close enough to the season) to move the full display up front when you walk in.

Bath and Body Works - I just received my email today about the new "BOO-tique". I love it! Scented soaps, antibacterial gels, a few nice dispensers, and a really nice luminary. I'm definitely going to pick some up!
*EDIT: Got some cute soap dispensers. The scents are nothing to write home about. 'Autumn' was really nice, but I didn't buy any candles.

Publix - Haha minor sighting last night: they added the first Halloween recipe book! WOOHOO!!! They'll be adding Halloween Horror Nights tickets very soon. Keep a look out.
*EDIT: HHN Tickets are now on sale!

Party City - They stay partially stocked all year, but they're starting to stock the good stuff. Check back weekly to see what they've added!

Halloween City - Previously known as Halloween USA, will be opening at the Avenues over by Kohl's. Their stuff is usually pricey and their store is smaller, but you can usually find better stuff than at Spirit. They will be opening soon (Actual date TBD)

Spirit Halloween - Since the Christmas-loving, Halloween-forgetting Hobby Lobby opened, there will be NO Spirit Halloween in Viera. The closest will be at the Melbourne Square Mall, or on Merritt Island. They will be opening sometime between 30 August - 18 September. Keep your eyes peeled. I'll let you know the actual date when they announce it. I'll be there, first one in line on opening day :)
*EDIT: Opening Monday, September 6th (Labor Day)

100 Days till Halloween!!!

Ahhh, almost in double digits! I can almost smell it in the air. A few stores (Hallmark, Michaels, Dollar Tree) have already started putting up their Halloween displays, and a few more are getting ready. We've already started our planning, layout and design and as always, we'll need your help.

2010 Wish List:
People to help build, setup, act, and *cleanup*
Old Halloween decorations (or new, I'm not picky!)
Building materials such as wood, foam and plexiglass
a large cardboard box

more will be added as I think of it...

It's almost that time again...

I'm only 2 days away from being able to say "Halloween" in my house again (a little deal my wonderful husband and I have... He helps me out and puts up with all my Halloween crap, as long as I dont mention it from Nov 5th - July 15th. I'll give him till the 23rd since I cheated a few times this year hehe.) Then let the horror commence!

I've already created the layout for 2010 to include any changes. I also have a list of things to add/move. Also, this year will be our first FL Halloween party! WOOHOO! Lots to look forward to, so keep checking back for updates!