ABOUT US.

THANKS DAD.

THANKS, DAD.

When I was young, one of my favorite things to do was go to the video rental store on the weekends and find an action movie with behind the scenes footage. It was while watching these movies that I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment industry. Being so young, I didn’t know the  route to this dream, but I knew I could  keep my ear to the ground and listen for an opportunity. Let’s forget this dream for a moment and jump forward several years. I took all sorts of jobs growing up. I “worked” at a pet shop for a couple of years, then landscaping (crashed some golf carts in a spectacular fashion) and assisted with restoring old cabins in the hill behind Azusa, CA. This is where my future began. At the time I did not know this, but the future did. I worked with a very smart, very able older gentleman named Clyde. Clyde owned a famous house in Monrovia, CA. This house was massive, but like in the old-timey sense, and it was the perfect space for a Halloween party. 

I was very much a hands-on kid. I was either taking things apart or putting them back together, and this is who I still am today. I learned to lean into it - I learned it was my form of curiosity. All this to say, Clyde saw this curiosity in me and offered me a project. He wanted a haunted house of sorts built for his Halloween party. So I spent some time distracting myself from college by doodling on paper and designing my first haunted house. It turned out to be more of a tunnel shaped attraction than a house. 

We began construction a few weeks before the party. As I was building people would stop and ask “Hey, what the hell is that thing?!” I would say “Pardon?”. Then they would ask “What are you building?”. I had several dozens of these conversations and what I got to say was my first bit of marketing… “You’ll just have to come back and see!” And they did just that. It was AWESOME! 

The night of the party the attraction was packed. We estimated that somewhere around 1,100 people visited the attraction on the single night we were open This re-electrified my drive to work in the entertainment industry. A few years after designing and building that first attraction I had a conversation with my Dad about what I wanted to do with my life. I mentioned how cool it would be to design haunted houses for a living. This, expectedly, was laughed at, and I get why - but that didn’t take away the sting. A sting that just kind of stuck. 

It would take some time before I was working where my passion was. Although I would get there eventually, it took its sweet ass time. Working for a bank, working odd jobs as a handy-man, working for a credit card processor, and dabbling in the film industry (mainly camera department). These lead to some very memorable moments but it was never the “behind-the-scenes” importance I was hunting for - until I got a call from a friend. 

This call reminded me of that conversation with my Dad, and its where I realized that  the sting was not disappointment in the impossibility - it was motivation. So…

Thanks, Dad.

HOW WE APPROACH OUR CONTENT.

We are not attempting to be a deep dive review site nor a “plan the day for your trip” site. We strive to be an honest, straight-shot, insightful and maybe even thought-provoking site. The reviews that we publish are as long as we think they need to be to deliver the communication that is necessary to make an informed decision and/or opinion.  
We also will try to limit the length of our “runway” to get to the point of our articles. We do not intend to draw out the length of time you are on this site by obscuring the information. We want you to get it and go have fun. 
As for the rating system. Like most, they are subjective in nature and rely heavily on experience. This will most likely be revamped from time to time to ensure that we are giving ratings that are easy to understand, useful and relevant. Ratings are very good for at-a-glance, snap judgements and I am fully aware that a small nuisance to me might be a huge issue to someone else. Please view these ratings as a part of the picture not the whole shebang.

YEAH, OK, BUT WHO ARE YOU.

You bring up a good question. We are a team of 2, a husband and wife team - nothing new there. But I have 10+ years in designing, constructing and managing themed attractions. Also, I feel this is always a point to clear up, no, none have been for Disneyland or Disneyworld. I also do not view myself as the “top” talent. If I was, the previous sentence would probably not be true. But I do understand the process from concept to paying guests. I understand the limitation that any company can come up against and it isn’t always about money. 
The other half of this duo is rather new to the themed entertainment world but is learning fast. The goal is for them to make sure that the articles don’t become too technical or so full of typos that no one can actually use them. They will also provide a perspective that I sometimes have a hard time seeing because… you know… forest for the trees thing. 
Rate of posting will be scheduled around my job and hopefully this produces a large gap in time between posts. Thankfully, though, because of my job I get to visit some pretty amazing places. Fingers crossed. Additionally, I have already visited hundreds of attractions across the US and plan to use this platform to get you in the loop about all the various themed attractions to explore other than the 800 pound gorillas. And by gorillas, I mean Disney and Universal.