St Albans Sanatorium — Attraction in Radford City

this evening i was invited last minute to go through this haunted attraction, and despite being advised by multiple people not to go, i decided to give it a chance just because it's october. i would like to preface this spiel with that i absolutely adore halloween events and am incredibly familiar with the etiquette of haunted house.

when we arrived at the front, it seemed as though everyone was tired but excited to have their last group come in. we went through around 11:20 or so, but before going in we got the standard briefing of "please don't touch the actors, watch the use of any foul language, we use strobe lights and fog, we also don't scare guests on any of the staircases, so those are the best places to recoup (nothing about no phone use, which i will simply say slipped the speakers mind because it was almost 11:30 and i am sure other guests kept her busy)". they were both friendly and personable, and my friends and i enjoyed talking to the people in front.

the first 15 minutes of the attraction was entertaining, even i got scared a few times. when we got into the FNAF area of the building, things took a turn. being under the impression phones were allowed (as i was never told they weren't and no signage leading up from the lot indicated that phones weren't allowed), i recorded the room upon entering.

immediately after, i had a worker come up to me and say "excuse me, phones aren't allowed and neither are recording". immediately after i apologized profusely, turned off my phone and had brought up the fact it was not once mentioned while entering. i shrugged it off and continued on.

at the end, just in the gift shop, i was greeted by a woman saying that it was brought to her attention that i was recording and that she needed to see all of our phones to physically watch us delete it. mine was saved on snap chat, so this woman physically saw me turn on my phone, open snap chat and delete the video from there. i obliged to this as it was brought to my attention that the minors in the show couldn't consent to being recorded, which i completely understood. i have younger family of my own and completely agree with this sentiment of keeping them safe, however; how could i have known had no one said anything?

we had no issues following any other rules that were given to us, so why would we suddenly not follow just one more? i had no attitude with either confrontation and apologized profusely, but in the end was incredibly embarrassed and berated for people not informing us of all the rules earlier on. i apologized for violating rules i was not aware of, and honestly, it just ruined my experience for me and all my friends tonight. we were interrogated and made to feel as if we were in the principals office. this was handled so poorly and...

Don’t do it!!! We waited almost three hours in line behind maybe 100 people. For long periods of time, they didn’t let people in, the line never moved.

While we waited in line, the typical teenager with a leatherface mask walked around and tried to scare us with a chainsaw. After almost three hours, we left because the live just stopped moving.

I tried to get my money back, but, as is typical, they couldn’t figure out how to refund us. They said they don’t usually do that, they would need to call the administrator, and then she couldn’t do it, she had to get someone else also. They tinkered around with the computer for another long wait. Finally, we just left. What is wrong with people that they offer nothing, and expect to still keep your money? This crew does not deserve to run a place with this potential. They have the taking of money figured out, but not the actual entertainment or refunding. I’ve done haunted houses myself, and I can tell you this place is a mess.

What a waste. The tin can speakers torturing us while we waited in line was another added benefit. They should use the money they swindled from us for a new one.

This is not the level of attraction deserving of this setting. This is more like a low-performing high school with an incompetent...

We did the public investigations and how I feel is it just wasn’t great. The people who run it are super nice and the guide was ok. Two things I really dislike about it. First the guide gives you no information like at all. They tell you halfway what the rooms are and say go explore. We did Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum a few months back and the guide walked us through everything what floors we was on and who’s rooms and what the history was behind everything. I didn’t know much about St Albans when we went in and didn’t know much when I came out. Just basically reading the signs on the doors. My second and last pet peeve is all the stupid Halloween decorations scattered all over the building. Again not trying to compare it to Trans Allegheny but that building was beautiful and rooms felt creepy because they felt like the stood still in time and it’s like your walking into someone’s room. When I walk down a hallway in St Albans it’s like 4 out of the 10 rooms was filled with decorations they had nowhere to put and every other corner you turned was a big Halloween statue. It just took away from the ambiance. Our female guide did seem to have activity on the bell device she had if your into that but as far as noise or seeing anything we didn’t have...