An Exclusive Interview With GHOST SHIP Creator Melissa Carbone

Fans of Theme Park Adventure no doubt know that we love the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and the team that operates that each season in Griffith Park here in Los Angeles. Over the past few years, we have watched Melissa Carbone and her staff grow the Haunted Hayride into one of Southern California's premiere haunted attractions. Each year, the operation has grown in leaps and bounds, and so it was expected that Melissa would continue to expand her haunting business.

What wasn't expected, was that she would make the jump from a hayride attraction to an incredibly unique, logistically-challenging haunt: an actual boat that will take terrified passengers out to sea from the posh community of Newport Beach in Orange County, California. Talk about a 180-degree change in haunting method! The news about Ghost Ship broke in June, and since then, the haunting community has been buzzing about it, mainly with questions as to exactly what the attraction will be.

Rick West went below decks into the rotting bowels of Ghost Ship and sat down with Melissa for an exclusive interview about the ship and what her team has in store for this October. As our flashlights flickered on and off (we used brand new batteries - must have been the salty air), and the hull of the old ship creaked loudly, Melissa opened up and gave us insight into one of the industry's most-anticipated new haunts in this exclusive TPA interview...

Rick West: Melissa, you are a very busy girl! The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride has been a growing success in Griffith Park - an event that we love and support here at Theme Park Adventure.

Last season, your operation in Griffith Park was really impressive - the main attraction of course, but everything else, from a maze to full-blown carnival with rides and various vendors to a large hay maze, complete with roaming monsters. It was great fun for everyone! And it was also very apparent that your business is booming, and that expansion would be inevitable. I say that also in knowing that you're a go-getter that is constantly looking for bigger challenges and business opportunities.

That said, it's no surprise that your operations have expended. What is a surprise, is the where and what aspect of your expansion! A haunted boat cruise in Orange County is about as different from a hayride in Los Angeles as you can get!

Tell us about your background, how you got into the haunt business, how the Hayride came about, and then how you've arrived at Ghost Ship.

Melissa Carbone: My background is actually in the advertising industry, which may not seem relevant, but is actually incredibly relevant, because the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride is built on advertising and imaging of our content.

I spent the last 10 years of my life at Clear Channel Communications, most recently as a General Manager in their Los Angeles market. Being from the East Coast, I had been waiting for a hayride to pop up one day, but it never did, so I said to my partners, "How hard can it be?"

(Laughter)

Let me just tell you; HARD! Really, really hard. However, it's been a bunch of fun. We've now introduced Ghost Ship, because we really get inspired by new concepts. We wanted to try to create a new blueprint that diverges from maze, hayride, haunted house, and theme park. Don't get me wrong, there are some sick attractions out there that will scare the pants off you and put your jaw on the ground when you see the production quality, but something that really feels new is what gets our blood flowing, and keeps us up at night with excitement. We can only get others excited about the things we ourselves are truly excited about.

West: What are some of the unique challenges of bringing a haunted attraction onto an actual cruise vessel, and have there been some aspects that have come up that you hadn't thought of as you began this venture?

Carbone: The biggest challenge at this point, is making sure we're being attentive equally to both Ghost Ship and Los Angeles Haunted Hayride. Los Angeles Haunted Hayride is still very new as well, so having two major attractions be planned, operated, and executed at the same time has taken some big people power. Aside from that, utilizing the layout of the ship the best way possible is a major task. We have so many ideas for content, but at some point, choices have to be made based on what makes the most sense on the decks of the ship. There are things that come up every day that we hadn't thought of. That is unavoidable. I just have to have faith that we have the right team in place to manage through, and make it a smashing hit with the public. We want people to really feel like they've experienced something special when they get off the ship. Part of that is to send people into natural environments like parks, woods, or the ocean. I think there is something magical about that.

Carbone: This is the hardest part. If we give too much away, people won't get as scared as they will if we keep quiet about what's in store, but we know this is what everyone wants to know.

The experience is going to be intense because for starters, there is nowhere to go, so the idea of being trapped for 75 minutes starts the fun. Since everyone's tolerance for being scared is different, we are not telling people how to experience the attraction. They can move through the ship at their own pace. This means, if someone gets freaked out in "The Execution" and doesn't want to do the "maze", they don't have to. And conversely, if someone loves the maze and that's all they want to do, they can do it again and again.

"Inmates", as we like to call our paid guests, should expect extreme darkness in the gut of the boat. There, our maze - Ward 7 - leaves guests with only their hands in front of them to find the way out. They will see characters who were left hooked up to their CPAP machines so long, that other creatures have found residence inside of their body cavities. There are those who were left in the hydrotherapy tanks, and their skin hasn't just pruned, but now slinks off their bodies completely. And you may think that because it's dark you won't be able to see them, but I assure, you it's even scarier when you can feel them... all around you.

The middle floor for me is the best of all, and what I think will be the crowd pleaser, because it appears to be a lounging deck where one can grab a cocktail, take in some black magic or watch a dead ballroom singer. It really gets people to let their guard down. And that's all I'm saying; trust me, that is the way people would want it...

Our top deck "Public Execution Viewing" is theatrical and interactive. We will really push some limits here by creating something that feels real, which should make it uniquely disturbing. Patrons should be suspicious of everyone, because whether it's the captain, the servers, or the girl sitting next to you, there is no guarantee that the clothes they're wearing are really theirs.

West: Ghost Ship will feature a bar serving all types of... spirits. How will your crew discern which guests are 21 and older? Will you have drink wristbands, or how will that work? And how will you ensure that guests won't get drunk and stupid while at sea, endangering not only themselves but more importantly, your staff and other guests?

Carbone: Bartenders will be carding everyone, regardless of how old they look. We have a robust security staff comprised of off-duty police officers and ex-members of the CIA, who are onboard on all floors at all times. They're pretty intense. Additionally, the way the experience is designed, it will be difficult for someone to get drunk if they want to experience the attraction. A person would have to basically hold up at the bar drinking, instead of going to the other levels, which to us, would be quite a waste of money. Why not pull up a stool at the local pub, if that's all they want to do? Every inch of the boat is part of the experience, but you do need to keep moving if want to see it all. Ghost Ship has been sponsored by Vampire Vineyards so we'll be serving Vampire Wine, and blood-red Vampyre Vodka, which I am really excited about, because it brings the horror detail right down to the liquid in your glass. That being said, there will be those who stay on the middle level, because they're just escorting their teen to the attraction; but all I say to that person is... hold onto that drink! Tightly!

West: Tell us more about the specific design of Ghost Ship. Who has headed that team, and what are some of the challenges of creating a haunted attraction within the confines of a working boat as opposed to land-based haunt?

Carbone: The Ghost Ship team is headed by Trisha Fox, who works for Ten Thirty One Productions, but the design has come primarily from Alyson Richards, Keith Greco, and Justin Meyer, who are kind of creative geniuses in all different ways.

Alyson is the person who actually created this whole concept of "horror at sea". She also comes from Clear Channel, and has an incredibly innovative brain.

Justin is a horror mastermind that designed the content of the maze, the Execution, and a lot of the characters.

We've actually enjoyed working with a definitive amount of space. It's very different from the Hayride, where the challenge is definitely the amount of space we need, so this has actually been refreshing.

West: With a haunt in Los Angeles and another in Orange County, how much time do you foresee bouncing back and forth this season to keep tabs on both of your attractions? Will you spend less time in Los Angeles this season, since Ghost Ship is the baby?

Carbone: Honestly, they are both babies. I will be in Los Angeles. Trisha Fox, who's been with us since year one, will be managing the day-to-day operations of Ghost Ship.

West: How much staff has this expansion added to your operations team?

Carbone: Roughly, a 30% increase in bodies.

West: A lot of TPAers love attending haunts, and will no doubt, be all over Ghost Ship this year, as well as Haunted Hayride. At the same time, we have lots of readers who want to be a part of these things. Are you going to have open casting calls for either attraction this season? And if so, what are your requirements? We know for the Hayride, you specifically look for adult actors who are really actors, right? Does that same type of requirement carry over to Ghost Ship? If you are looking for talent, how soon will you be holding auditions, and how do people go about contacting you?

Carbone: They are open calls. Auditions will be held August 15-19, 2011, and will be posted soon.

People can also email us at info @ ghostship.com (remove the spaces) or info @ tenthirtyoneproductions.com (remove the spaces), and we'll add them to our casting contact list.

Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and Ghost Ship will also have an exhibit at Comikaze Expo in November, which is the new monster comic/horror/fantasy expo in L.A., and we'll be casting for that as well!

If people email us, they should send headshots and related experience. It's a rigorous job to be an actor at an event like this. Rick, you know, since you did it with us last year for one night. So applicants should know that before pursuing this; it's grueling at times and takes some good endurance, but we play hard too, and have a lot of fun with our staff during the season.

West: Melissa, as usual, it's been a pleasure. We are so pumped about this new attraction and cannot wait to experience it ourselves this coming October! You guys definitely know how to bring it hard to the haunted attraction industry, and I know our readers are going to be freaking-out-excited after learning more about Ghost Ship! Thank you so much for your time. Get back to work, because October is coming quickly, and the tide in Newport is slowly turning red...

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