Howl-O-Scream TR

[KrakenKing]

Well, let me first say this, I know I said this would be a Photo TR, but my friends camera sucks at taking pictures at night, so no pictures will be included.

 

But, about the event. Wow, great job Busch Gardens! ... and no, there was no sarcasm included in there.

 

Of the six houses, only one of them was bad in my opinion... and that's saying a lot seeing as how I thought the majority of the houses at Halloween Horror Nights were just horrible.

 

We got to the park at about 4:45, with the event not starting until 7:30. Luckily we were one of the first people there and one of the first to enter the turnstiles too.

 

Here are my reviews on the houses in order of which we did them:

 

After Hours: Club Muse - This was a very good house, the second best of the six. You start by entering though the old Monorail entrance and walk past a stage set up with dancers upon it. There is heavy dance music, lighting effects, fog effects and lasers everywhere. The walls are graffitied and it looks as if you're really going into a downtown club, this is just the waiting area mind you. When you enter the club there are dancers up on stages, one of which has glow sticks and flings them within inches of your face. Turning a corner a bartender shoots you with club soda (water)... nice scare for me because I wasn't expecting it. A strobe room with scaracters walking around coming within inches of your face. The lounge with people hidden behind or even inside the props, one even hidden nicely on a pile of dead bodies. You walk outside where the monorail repair used to be and walk though a van of some sort with scaracters inside, then you're finally free. I got scared in here more times than I did in all the houses put together at HHN.

 

The 3rd Dementia - Taken straight from HHN. This house gives you a pair of 3D glasses as you enter. The walls are painted with Neon designs making it VERY confusing in some parts if you have the glasses on. The scaracters are dressed in all black and stand against the walls where they're not covering up any of the neon paint. Most of them were very well hidden and popped out of nowhere. The did the "Floating head" room, where neon painted heads are floating, then two or three of them were real people. The best part of this house I thought was the Snake statue on the wall. Walking towards it, it looks like a plaster snake put on the wall. The painting of it was done very well... but when you get to it, it shot air at me and it's fangs dropped, very cool effect. There was also a hallway with red and blue strobing lights that looked awesome with the glasses on.

 

The Hunted - By far the best house at Howl-O-Scream. You start by entering The Boondocks and are taken into a fog filled room. It starts out a little slow but then picks up intensity. They have the "Slamming Slide-down Door" trick in here, where there are panels in the wall that slide down fast to make a loud crash, they got me a few times. Walking though a hallway you think no one is there... guess again, a hand flies down from the ceiling inches from you. Randomly though this girl grabs my shoulder and says:

 

Girl: "Do you mind if I go though the rest of the house with you? I lost my party and I'm freaking out right now."

Me: "No, no problem.... what happened to the rest of your group?"

Girl looking terrified: "I don't know, they got scared and ran ahead, I had my eyes closed and when I opened them they were gone."

Me: "Well, they shouldn't be too far ahead, we'll catch up with them when we get out of here."

Girl: "Yeah, okay, just please stay near me."

 

We continued walking though some more rooms and hallways, scaracters jumping out all around us. Then she screams and tried grabbing my shoulder... "Help meee!" she screams as she gets drug away by a scaracter, she was all part of the act. That had to be one of the coolest moments ever for a haunted house.

 

Trapped In The Walls - The house inside the building that Busch Gardens built just for Howl-O-Scream. A lot of banging on walls in here... of course because the people are trapped inside of them. The Slamming Slide-Down Walls are used in here as well. There was a hallway where there were prop bodies stuck halfway in the wall... but not all of them were fake props. Then you enter the huge mirror room, a lot of people got confused in this room and couldn't find the exit... finally a worker started guiding people towards it. The exit was long and could've used some scaracters behind the walls or something, not all it was cracked up to be.

 

Deathly Departed - Another great house. Themed as a wedding gone horribly wrong it takes you though the church where the bride was supposed to be married and her house. (Yes, I even sung that horrid Panic! At The Disco song). Walking though the bedroom there was no scaracters to be seen... then once again, a scaracter on top of the bed puts a feather in your face... it made me jump, ha. Lots of dead brides and dead grooms, as well as the people from the wedding in here. I got scared a few times in this one, long too for it only having been inside the bumper cars.

 

Freaked - The worst house of the night... great concept, but horrible setup. A lot of peoples worst fears, clowns, are in this one. You start off by entering the "Mind Alteration" side show. Upon entering a scaracter startled me by reaching down from above. You then enter one of those spinning tunnels (Similar to the one in HHN's house). You then go out onto the open path and choose which side you want to walk though (Yes, you have two options). Each are the same length and have the same amount of scaracters, but you have a better chance of being scared if you choose the less crowded side. At the end of the house there are clowns with chainsaws that come out of the fog.

 

From best to worse:

1) The Hunted

2) After Hours: Club Muse

3) Deathly Departed

4) Trapped In The Walls

5) The 3rd Dementia

6) Freaked!

 

The scare zones were set up very well too. The one as you enter or leave Timbuktu (Between Scorpion and Rhino Rally) was awesome. Having fake prop mummies set up with some real "Mummies" thrown in. It was very hard to tell the real from the fake. Between the exit of Freaked and the Brewery (Near the flamingos) there were people down in the bushes that you couldn't see that would randomly shake cans of pennies or something. I wasn't expecting them so it startled me. They had people up in the bushes on bungees that would come flying out towards you, say something like "Come here" and fly back in.

 

I didn't get to see any of the shows, but if I go back this year, I will.

 

Overall I think Busch Gardens won the Halloween Event this year. It wasn't even as crowded as HHN, we did 5 of the 6 houses in about an hour. We also rode Montu, Gwazi and Kumba in the front rows. I hope they can keep it up and throw a few new scares in next year!

[Slacking]

It may not have been as busy as HHN, but there were crowds last night.

 

I was told that the wait for After hours at one point in the night was between 90-120 minutes!

 

Glad you liked the event, and especially After Hours, it's definitely a blast to work.

 

Oh, and one possibly correction. I don't know whther 3rd dementia has one or not, but I'm pretty sure the floating head room is in After Hours.

[munkyknum]

Myself and a group of friends went last night. It was horrible.

 

The waits for everything were over an hour, making it impossible to do all the houses. The park closed at 1, but all the scare zones were closing at midnight.

 

The few houses we went to were good, the 3-d house always sucks, so that was a waste of time.

 

Overall, I don't think I will be going back, the park is just too small and way too crowded. The scare zones are too short and most of the actors were just standing there watching the crowds, not really scaring anyone.

 

I think from now on I'm going to HHN only.

 

The only saving grace for Busch was the show Fiends has some pretty hot nurses. But they couldn't save the rest of the night for us :/

[KrakenKing]

Get there early is all I can say... Even if it has to be 5pm like us. When the gates open run straight ot After Hours, then do the houses in order as we did them... got all the houses done by 8:30. Except for Freaked which we did in the last hour... 10min wait, longest wait of the night.

[munkyknum]

We got there at 630. How much eariler should I have got there? HOS sucked this year, I'm going to email Busch and tell them about it, hoping that they can do something to change it.

 

As for me, I don't think I'll ever be going back. But, that is just my opinion and you know what they say about those.

 

Glad at least you had a good time.

 

edit: What in god's name is going on in that .gif in your sig? That looks insane.

[KrakenKing]

He's doing it wrong, haha. I dunno, I just found it online. Guess he was sliding down and hit the water, which made him turn sideways... then magically he was perfectly balanced on the side during the rest of the slide.

[Slacking]

I was amazed how crowded it was last night. And my last shift on set was insane due to guest behavior.

 

I heard that After Hours and trapped both had 2-2 1/2 hour waits at one point last night.

 

Saturdays are usually the only bad night. Friday's are busy, but not insane like Saturdays are. Thursdays and Sundays are quite empty.

 

The scarezones always close an hour before closing, and I believe that is listed on the map.

[tacoking]

Randomly though this girl grabs my shoulder and says:

 

Girl: "Do you mind if I go though the rest of the house with you? I lost my party and I'm freaking out right now."

Me: "No, no problem.... what happened to the rest of your group?"

Girl looking terrified: "I don't know, they got scared and ran ahead, I had my eyes closed and when I opened them they were gone."

Me: "Well, they shouldn't be too far ahead, we'll catch up with them when we get out of here."

Girl: "Yeah, okay, just please stay near me."

 

We continued walking though some more rooms and hallways, scaracters jumping out all around us. Then she screams and tried grabbing my shoulder... "Help meee!" she screams as she gets drug away by a scaracter, she was all part of the act. That had to be one of the coolest moments ever for a haunted house.

 

Holy crap, I love that. Awesome idea.

[Guy T. Koepp]

I am totally looking forward to this event! I don't know if we have some sort of early scare thing or something. But I will be ready.

[KrakenKing]

I don't know if we have some sort of early scare thing or something. But I will be ready.

 

For $20 you can get a "Front of the line" coupon book for all the houses... $40 include the rides too (Front row). You can buy them inside the park the night of the event.

[tacoking]

$20 for the houses isn't bad at all.

[Slacking]

Unless it is a Saturday, I would advise to save money and not by the coupon booklets.

 

Usually, the lines aren't too bad.

[BarryH]

Forget the HOS Express passes. I'd recommend doing the Fright Feast dinner. You get food and you get to see the HOS show in the Timbuktu area. Best of all, you can hit the houses 30-45 minutes before the general public. This way, you can have the houses all to yourself. I did the Fright Feast last year and got into the houses early. I walked through the Hunted all by myself and nearly every Scare-actor got me! That was a pretty intense experience.

 

The Fright Feast also forces you to get to the park early. I usually try to arrive in the parking lot at 5:30, 6 pm at the latest. During the first year of HOS, I hung around my hotel less than 1 mile away from Busch Gardens. I waited until 6:30 to depart, thinking I'd have enough time to travel and buy tickets. I was stuck in traffic all around BGA until around 8. Then I had to wait an hour for tickets and I was in the park by 9. By that time, all the houses had over a 90 minute wait! I did the same thing on a 2nd visit to HOS during the 2nd year and I was stuck in traffic too.

 

So for HOS, I always try to arrive over 90 minutes early and buy my tickets on time. I remember one year I was at the top of Montu's lift hill at 7 pm and saw traffic backed up on all roads to BGA!

[KrakenKing]

Yeah, when we rode Montu around 8:30ish, the whole parking lot was full, it was insane.

[Slacking]

A friend who attended the event last night told me that they were using the overflow lawn parking lot near Adventure Island, which is insane.