Dax
Emma and Christopher's Mommy - Best job ever
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2000
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- 4,171
I went to Howl O Scream (HOS from now on) on October 6, 2011. HOS takes place at Busch Gardens Tampa. This event is not for the faint at heart, and is much like HHN at Universal Orlando. The theme this year was zombies, always a crowd favorite.
The cast of characters for this years event were myself, my DH, and our best friends. The 4 of us can get into some weird situations, but we always have a great time.
The event was scheduled to start for us at 6p, with the Fright Feast. I recommend this to ANYONE who is thinking of going to HOS. For $25, you get a dinner buffet, a showing of one of the shows, and then exclusive house time for 30min. At 7:30p, when the event goes live for the rest of the public, your FF wristband then becomes Front of the Line pass for 1hr. This made a world of difference for us.
We arrived at the park at about 4:50 or so, parked($13, ouch) and headed to the gate. They were just opening up the side gates for admission, so we headed in. We had some time to kill, so we stopped into the new Cheetah area, as it was new to all of us. Very nice job here. We saw the new cub with his new pooch pal. They both have gotten so big! We watched them for a bit, then got in the 20min posted line for Cheetah Hunt. We waited close to 20min in total for this. For some reason, loading/unloading was not efficient on this ride. Overall, an awesome coaster, a nice addition to the BGT coaster roster.
It was getting closer to 6pm, so we headed into Timbuktu area for the FF. We got right in, got our food, and started eating. Standard fare here, BBQ brisket, Chicken Tenders, Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, pasta, salad and new this year, a taco bar! We had our fill, and watched the show…
The Midnight Hour : This is HOS version of a Bill and Ted show. They basically take pop icons and songs from the year, and make a parody show. Overall the show was very weak this year. Skip it if you can.
We were let out of the show at 7p on the nose, and headed into the park. Already the zombies were waiting for us. We ran into a roving band of cheerleaders. They seemed to be all over, just waiting to make us one of them! We followed the crowds, and headed to the first house of the night….
The Zombie Mortuary: This was the overall favorite house of the night by everyone in our group. We ended up here 4 times during the night, having a blast all 4 times. This is one of the new houses for this year, and was defiantly a great addition. Some highlights were the room with the crying woman, and the room with the incinerator. We had a lot of fun messing with the scareactor in that room! Also, while in line, keep a lookout for the wandering zombie dragging a disturbing “pet”. This was a 4 star house. Do not miss it!
After getting out of the mortuary, we decided to ride the wild mouse type coaster, renamed the Sand something or other..LOL..I know it as Cheetah Chase..but whatever. Always a fun ride no matter what. We then moved on to the next house…
Death Row Vengeance: This house has seriously run its course. I have done this house now for 3 yrs, and it has not changed at all! Also because it was still early, there were not a lot of scares to be had. We got through this house pretty quick, and all gave it very low scores…a 1 star house…Skip it.
Just before we got into DR:V, we did run into more roaming zombies. We saw a band of doctors, construction workers, and the ever popular sliders! By now, it was 7:30, and the park was open to the public, so we continued on, using our exclusive FoTL time, and headed to…
Deconstruction:The Dr is out of Control: Again, nothing new here…Same old scares, same old house. Even being with people who not seen this house, they also found it not very good. The regular line for this was close to 35min already, though I am glad I did not need to wait. Again low marks 2 Stars…Skip it if you want
We checked the line for Cheetah Hunt, but was already 45min…No way. Sadly we never made it back for a night time ride. We continued on our way, making our way to…
Nightshade Toys: This also was a 2nd run house, though I still enjoyed it. Very creepy in here, though it suffered from a lack of scare actors again. What scares there were though were good. A solid 3 star house. Worth checking out!
We now had 2 houses left, with about 30min left on our 1hr time…We kept moving, passing a few more zombie groups, though not as many. We did find a wolf pack wandering around. They were very fun to watch. We moved toward Gwazi Park to check out….
Ultimate Gamble: Vampire Casino: This was another new house this year…and was also one of my favorites! There is a vampire barker in the front of the house, who has a headset hooked to a speaker, and he was giving attention to all the groups going in. He is also one of the first scareactors I have seen actively touching you (just hands..LOL). He also was very creepy, setting up the house. He told me I had a pretty NECKlace, and he said my O+ was very sweet smelling..LOL. We did this house 2x, and enjoyed it both times. A solid 3 ½ stars. Do not miss it!
I want to say, Busch did a great job staggering the groups in the houses, to try and prevent the ever present conga line that HHN is known for. At times, our 4 were the only people around, making for great scares!
By now, we had about 15min left on our hour time, so we picked up the pace, and headed to the last house of the night for us…
Nevermore: This was the 3rd new house for this year, based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. I am not familiar with a lot of his works, but knew a few. Overall this was a decent house, some creepy scares to be had. Hopefully this house will be tweaked and make a come back next year. 3 stars, defiantly check it out. We only did this house 1x as it always had a huge line when we looked at it again.
By now, our exclusive time was up, but all of the houses were done. We had the rest of the night to wander, and enjoy ourselves. We rode Sheikra with zero wait, and did a few houses again. Sadly, the zombies tended to be few and far between, or we just kept missing them. We did stop into Club Virus the 18+ club they have set up. We had some adult beverage, and watched the Sliders do a small performance. They are so cool to watch. One did fall during a slide, and looked like he may have been scraped up..hopefully he was alright.
We people watched for a bit, zombie watched for a bit, then headed back to the Zombie Mortuary for a few runs. We ended our night here, leaving the park around 12:30a.
Overall, we had a great time, thanks to the company with us. We would have liked to do Alone, but it was sold out. The crowds were not overly bad, though they got worse the later it got. We never waited more than 10min for a house. We also skipped Fiends this year. Overall a fun event, but needed some tweaking, like more zombies in more places, and more scareactors. Also time to retire some of the older houses.
Hopefully my reviews are helpful to anyone wanting to go to HOS this year.
The cast of characters for this years event were myself, my DH, and our best friends. The 4 of us can get into some weird situations, but we always have a great time.
The event was scheduled to start for us at 6p, with the Fright Feast. I recommend this to ANYONE who is thinking of going to HOS. For $25, you get a dinner buffet, a showing of one of the shows, and then exclusive house time for 30min. At 7:30p, when the event goes live for the rest of the public, your FF wristband then becomes Front of the Line pass for 1hr. This made a world of difference for us.
We arrived at the park at about 4:50 or so, parked($13, ouch) and headed to the gate. They were just opening up the side gates for admission, so we headed in. We had some time to kill, so we stopped into the new Cheetah area, as it was new to all of us. Very nice job here. We saw the new cub with his new pooch pal. They both have gotten so big! We watched them for a bit, then got in the 20min posted line for Cheetah Hunt. We waited close to 20min in total for this. For some reason, loading/unloading was not efficient on this ride. Overall, an awesome coaster, a nice addition to the BGT coaster roster.
It was getting closer to 6pm, so we headed into Timbuktu area for the FF. We got right in, got our food, and started eating. Standard fare here, BBQ brisket, Chicken Tenders, Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, pasta, salad and new this year, a taco bar! We had our fill, and watched the show…
The Midnight Hour : This is HOS version of a Bill and Ted show. They basically take pop icons and songs from the year, and make a parody show. Overall the show was very weak this year. Skip it if you can.
We were let out of the show at 7p on the nose, and headed into the park. Already the zombies were waiting for us. We ran into a roving band of cheerleaders. They seemed to be all over, just waiting to make us one of them! We followed the crowds, and headed to the first house of the night….
The Zombie Mortuary: This was the overall favorite house of the night by everyone in our group. We ended up here 4 times during the night, having a blast all 4 times. This is one of the new houses for this year, and was defiantly a great addition. Some highlights were the room with the crying woman, and the room with the incinerator. We had a lot of fun messing with the scareactor in that room! Also, while in line, keep a lookout for the wandering zombie dragging a disturbing “pet”. This was a 4 star house. Do not miss it!
After getting out of the mortuary, we decided to ride the wild mouse type coaster, renamed the Sand something or other..LOL..I know it as Cheetah Chase..but whatever. Always a fun ride no matter what. We then moved on to the next house…
Death Row Vengeance: This house has seriously run its course. I have done this house now for 3 yrs, and it has not changed at all! Also because it was still early, there were not a lot of scares to be had. We got through this house pretty quick, and all gave it very low scores…a 1 star house…Skip it.
Just before we got into DR:V, we did run into more roaming zombies. We saw a band of doctors, construction workers, and the ever popular sliders! By now, it was 7:30, and the park was open to the public, so we continued on, using our exclusive FoTL time, and headed to…
Deconstruction:The Dr is out of Control: Again, nothing new here…Same old scares, same old house. Even being with people who not seen this house, they also found it not very good. The regular line for this was close to 35min already, though I am glad I did not need to wait. Again low marks 2 Stars…Skip it if you want
We checked the line for Cheetah Hunt, but was already 45min…No way. Sadly we never made it back for a night time ride. We continued on our way, making our way to…
Nightshade Toys: This also was a 2nd run house, though I still enjoyed it. Very creepy in here, though it suffered from a lack of scare actors again. What scares there were though were good. A solid 3 star house. Worth checking out!
We now had 2 houses left, with about 30min left on our 1hr time…We kept moving, passing a few more zombie groups, though not as many. We did find a wolf pack wandering around. They were very fun to watch. We moved toward Gwazi Park to check out….
Ultimate Gamble: Vampire Casino: This was another new house this year…and was also one of my favorites! There is a vampire barker in the front of the house, who has a headset hooked to a speaker, and he was giving attention to all the groups going in. He is also one of the first scareactors I have seen actively touching you (just hands..LOL). He also was very creepy, setting up the house. He told me I had a pretty NECKlace, and he said my O+ was very sweet smelling..LOL. We did this house 2x, and enjoyed it both times. A solid 3 ½ stars. Do not miss it!
I want to say, Busch did a great job staggering the groups in the houses, to try and prevent the ever present conga line that HHN is known for. At times, our 4 were the only people around, making for great scares!
By now, we had about 15min left on our hour time, so we picked up the pace, and headed to the last house of the night for us…
Nevermore: This was the 3rd new house for this year, based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. I am not familiar with a lot of his works, but knew a few. Overall this was a decent house, some creepy scares to be had. Hopefully this house will be tweaked and make a come back next year. 3 stars, defiantly check it out. We only did this house 1x as it always had a huge line when we looked at it again.
By now, our exclusive time was up, but all of the houses were done. We had the rest of the night to wander, and enjoy ourselves. We rode Sheikra with zero wait, and did a few houses again. Sadly, the zombies tended to be few and far between, or we just kept missing them. We did stop into Club Virus the 18+ club they have set up. We had some adult beverage, and watched the Sliders do a small performance. They are so cool to watch. One did fall during a slide, and looked like he may have been scraped up..hopefully he was alright.
We people watched for a bit, zombie watched for a bit, then headed back to the Zombie Mortuary for a few runs. We ended our night here, leaving the park around 12:30a.
Overall, we had a great time, thanks to the company with us. We would have liked to do Alone, but it was sold out. The crowds were not overly bad, though they got worse the later it got. We never waited more than 10min for a house. We also skipped Fiends this year. Overall a fun event, but needed some tweaking, like more zombies in more places, and more scareactors. Also time to retire some of the older houses.
Hopefully my reviews are helpful to anyone wanting to go to HOS this year.
I don't think I would ever attempt this event again without some sort of FOTL pass - it made it so easy!
