KingSmono
Enlightened
It was one of my friends 21st Birthdays, so to celebrate, a bunch of us (10 people altogether) took her out to Halloween Horror Nights. HHN is at Universal Studios here in Orlando, but there's a catch... It's not your normal every day theme park during HHN. Every night, for the month or so leading up to Halloween, they turn Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, into a SCARY Halloween amusement park, with tons of Haunted Houses, and tons of people dressed up in exotic, bloodcurdling costumes. They pump spine-chilling music, and an eerie fog throughout the whole park. You can still ride all the rides and everything, but it's very dark and creepy out, and you never know when someone's going to jump out and try to scare you! (You can read more about it here)
So anyways, since I knew it would be very dark out, I figured I should bring along a light… my HDS EDC U60 seemed like a good candidate. My only concern was that security was not going to allow me to bring it in the park. (For obvious reasons... the Haunted Houses are very dark, and someone with a flashlight can easily ruin the atmosphere for everyone! Not to mention blind their employees). They had a surprisingly thorough security check-point set up at the park entrance. I had to completely empty my pockets, and walk through a metal detector. Before I emptied my pockets, I set the U60 on the dimmest possible setting (triple-click). The Security Guard asked me to place everything into a little basket so he could examine it all... I had my cell phone, wallet, keys, and U60. Immediately, he asked what the U60 was... I picked it up "Oh this? This is just a little flashlight..." I turned it on, and it was hardly bright enough to even see the beam. He just chuckled, and said "Okay... move along" and gave me my stuff back. It was funny, because he was using a cheap plastic Chinese LED light to check everyone's belongings with, and he LAUGHED at my light! I swallowed my pride, and kept walking.
The U60 was PERFECT for looking at the Park Map by... seriously, it was so dark out that it would've been almost impossible to see the map without the light. On too bright of a setting though, the beam would bounce back off of the glossy map and blind us all. Happened more than once…
The first Haunted House we went in was called Cold Blind Terror. It was more of a psychological thriller than anything else... it was designed to mess with your senses more than scare the be-jeez-us out of you. The first room you walked into was pitch back. As soon as your eyes adjusted to the darkness, BRIGHT WHITE LIGHTS all over the room kicked on! They were so bright that you could feel the heat coming from the lamps. The entire room was painted white... ceiling, walls, floor, everything. So, you were temporarily, COMPLETELY blind! Then get this… they would have somebody wearing a white suit come stand in your face. Their skin and hair were dyed white as well. So, by the time you would finally start to get your vision back, you'd realize that there was a person standing right in front of you!! And, then the lights would shut off... leaving you blind once again! It was really freaky because you know there's a dude standing right in front of your face, and you can't see him now! Then in another part of the house, they had people jumping out from behind corners with flashlights. They'd shine it at your face, take away your night vision, and they'd disappear. It took some discipline to not shine them back with the U60… The very last room of the house was very trippy. It was a maze, that was painted with white and black designs all over the walls, ceiling, and floor. The only illumination was provided by very powerful strobe lights. There were people in the room wearing suits designed with the same white and black patterns as the walls, making them almost invisible! I don't know how the employees could stay in that room for long periods of time… I had a head-ache from the strobe lights after about 30 seconds!!
After we left that haunted house, we went on to the next one… The name of it was Terror Mines. This one was supposed to be an old mine shaft. It was very clever actually. They only let one group go at a time… and they gave ONE person in every group a Miner's Helmet with a LED light mounted on the top of it. On top of that, there was some circuitry in the light that made it randomly shut off every so often. So, we're walking through this haunted house, and then the light would just shut off, leaving us in complete pitch black. I didn't turn on the U60 for two reasons. First of all, it was WAY brighter than the miner's helmet and would've blinded all of us… and second of all, it would have completely ruined the mood and atmosphere!! This house was very exciting though… by far my favorite of the night. Only bad part was that now I have claw marks in my stomach and sides from this girl who buried her face in my back through the entire house! She was absolutely terrified.
We went in a couple other Haunted Houses, and we rode a roller coaster or two… Overall it was a very fun night! If you're in the Orlando area in the next couple weeks, and you're up for a good, SCARY time, I recommend it!! If you go in "Cold Blind Terror," be on the look out for a guy with a Pelican M6 LED HAIII. He's one of my friends, and he was fed up with the little fifty-cent flashlight provided to him by Universal… so he came to me. He knew I'd hook him up with something small, and incredibly bright! He tells me that everyone he works with is extremely jealous…
-Allen
So anyways, since I knew it would be very dark out, I figured I should bring along a light… my HDS EDC U60 seemed like a good candidate. My only concern was that security was not going to allow me to bring it in the park. (For obvious reasons... the Haunted Houses are very dark, and someone with a flashlight can easily ruin the atmosphere for everyone! Not to mention blind their employees). They had a surprisingly thorough security check-point set up at the park entrance. I had to completely empty my pockets, and walk through a metal detector. Before I emptied my pockets, I set the U60 on the dimmest possible setting (triple-click). The Security Guard asked me to place everything into a little basket so he could examine it all... I had my cell phone, wallet, keys, and U60. Immediately, he asked what the U60 was... I picked it up "Oh this? This is just a little flashlight..." I turned it on, and it was hardly bright enough to even see the beam. He just chuckled, and said "Okay... move along" and gave me my stuff back. It was funny, because he was using a cheap plastic Chinese LED light to check everyone's belongings with, and he LAUGHED at my light! I swallowed my pride, and kept walking.
The U60 was PERFECT for looking at the Park Map by... seriously, it was so dark out that it would've been almost impossible to see the map without the light. On too bright of a setting though, the beam would bounce back off of the glossy map and blind us all. Happened more than once…
The first Haunted House we went in was called Cold Blind Terror. It was more of a psychological thriller than anything else... it was designed to mess with your senses more than scare the be-jeez-us out of you. The first room you walked into was pitch back. As soon as your eyes adjusted to the darkness, BRIGHT WHITE LIGHTS all over the room kicked on! They were so bright that you could feel the heat coming from the lamps. The entire room was painted white... ceiling, walls, floor, everything. So, you were temporarily, COMPLETELY blind! Then get this… they would have somebody wearing a white suit come stand in your face. Their skin and hair were dyed white as well. So, by the time you would finally start to get your vision back, you'd realize that there was a person standing right in front of you!! And, then the lights would shut off... leaving you blind once again! It was really freaky because you know there's a dude standing right in front of your face, and you can't see him now! Then in another part of the house, they had people jumping out from behind corners with flashlights. They'd shine it at your face, take away your night vision, and they'd disappear. It took some discipline to not shine them back with the U60… The very last room of the house was very trippy. It was a maze, that was painted with white and black designs all over the walls, ceiling, and floor. The only illumination was provided by very powerful strobe lights. There were people in the room wearing suits designed with the same white and black patterns as the walls, making them almost invisible! I don't know how the employees could stay in that room for long periods of time… I had a head-ache from the strobe lights after about 30 seconds!!
After we left that haunted house, we went on to the next one… The name of it was Terror Mines. This one was supposed to be an old mine shaft. It was very clever actually. They only let one group go at a time… and they gave ONE person in every group a Miner's Helmet with a LED light mounted on the top of it. On top of that, there was some circuitry in the light that made it randomly shut off every so often. So, we're walking through this haunted house, and then the light would just shut off, leaving us in complete pitch black. I didn't turn on the U60 for two reasons. First of all, it was WAY brighter than the miner's helmet and would've blinded all of us… and second of all, it would have completely ruined the mood and atmosphere!! This house was very exciting though… by far my favorite of the night. Only bad part was that now I have claw marks in my stomach and sides from this girl who buried her face in my back through the entire house! She was absolutely terrified.
We went in a couple other Haunted Houses, and we rode a roller coaster or two… Overall it was a very fun night! If you're in the Orlando area in the next couple weeks, and you're up for a good, SCARY time, I recommend it!! If you go in "Cold Blind Terror," be on the look out for a guy with a Pelican M6 LED HAIII. He's one of my friends, and he was fed up with the little fifty-cent flashlight provided to him by Universal… so he came to me. He knew I'd hook him up with something small, and incredibly bright! He tells me that everyone he works with is extremely jealous…
-Allen
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It could've gotten interesting if the security guard took the time to play with the light! But, there was a pretty long line, so he was movin' people right along. I figured WORST case scenario would be that I would have had to walk ALL the way back to my car to drop off the light...
