That house was bafflingly bad...but that was...a different director
They have a new one now that seems to be doing well *looks at Stranglewood*
Howl-O-Scream 2022 (Busch Gardens Tampa)
- Thread starter GAcoaster
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They have a new one now that seems to be doing well *looks at Stranglewood*
- Nov 9, 2019
- 969
- 1,937
Stranglewood is seriously an S-Tier house. In fairness, I haven't been through Dead Man's, but WOW, this house was amazing, beautiful & intense. It felt like Haunted Mansion & Dead End, but longer and maybe even more intense.
After attending the event on Sunday the 18th September. I concur that Stranglewood was the strongest house IMO, solid houses all round and a lot of fun. Fiends was a good show, even though the stage seemed a long way from the audience, which was not a good thing from my perspective lol. the 50/50 show was an absolute train wreck, didn't watch the other shows. Scare zones were fun especially the one right at the front which was close to being an outdoor maze, discovered it when heading out. Iron Gwazi was five minutes wait towards the end of the night, and was absolutely mind blowing in the back at night. Great fun event without the massive crowds over at HHN Orlando.
My wife actually finds HHN more intense than Howl O Scream, because of the way they do audio and how big the crowds get. It's really confining for her, and it makes it not as enjoyable. She also said that Stranglewood was her favorite house, because she could actually appreciate the sets and not everything was an insanely loud trigger.
Just like Not-So-Scary, your Howl-o-Scream ticket automatically grants you early access to the park. They'll give you a wristband at the gate, so you don't have to worry about being corralled at a specific location beforehand. As long as the attractions you want to do are open before the park closes to day guests, you can enjoy them.
I did the thing and did BGT HoS for my first time ever on the 24th! Admittedly I wasn't able to enjoy myself quite as well as I had hoped as I was completely drained from two days of Uni and HHN back-to-back and that was after a half day of driving from Orlando to Tampa. Everything here for me is completely new and fresh so it was fun to check out! Here's a review of everything I've done in order:
Stranglewood Estate: Did early entry and lined up for this one first. The set design was very well done and had lots of cool detail in here. I'm glad we did this first as the line was about two hours after we got out. This was the newest one from what I understand so it was great! Very simple concept but delivered on scenic and scares!
Overall: B+
Deathwater Bayou: It's not HoS without a Deathwater Bayou clone. I wonder if they're going to simply port this over to SWO's HoS once it's done? I guess that's where all the leftoverBGT HoS houses go lol. I understand that everyone is sick of this house, but ironically, this one turned out to be my favorite one. I got a fantastic runthrough of this as the scareactors were on it for this one! The stiltwalker at the very end got me good! Scenic was also very solid in here!
Overall: A
The Forgotten: Okay, the entrance situation was really REALLY annoying. I go up to what I thought was the entrance only to find out that it was Quick Queue. They tell me to go all the way around Sheikra and then find the entrance. That hike to the entrance was so annoying but whatever. It was kinda cool seeing the old loading station for Python though. Everything was very tight-spaced on compact and the drop panel scares were great! Don't have much else to say other than I enjoyed this one. It's my second favorite house.
Overall: A-
The Residence: Home form the Holidays: The longest line I've waited for and ironically the weakest. I understand that this was a revamped repeat? Well it was fine. Got a couple of good jumps but this one was okay. Liked the amount of detail that was in here.
Overall: C
Witch of the Woods: I heard people talk about how good this was but I was just a little bit underwhelmed. I still liked it though. I liked the small village aesthetic they created here. There were some good scares but it was the last hour of the event and the cast seemed out of it.
Overall: C+
I didn't bother with any shows as I just wanted to get the houses done and ride Cheeta Hunt as that was the one ride I wasn't able to experience during the day. As for food, I got the BBQ brisket and pulled pork nachos, which were amazing. Excellent treat.
But overall I enjoyed my first-ever HoS at BGT. While I probably wouldn't go out of my way again for the event itself, I had a lot of fun! I went by to check out the park as I haven't been since 2004. I was overdue for a trip to BGT and I thought I would check out the event while I was there. Out of the HoS events I've been to such as San Diego and Orlando last year and then this, I think this is the best of the HoS events. There was a lot of entertainment to choose from and there was clearly effort put into the houses. The cast is always excellent, though I notice that the talent seems to go all-in on the first few hours then kind of exhaust themselves into half-hearted scaring as the night goes on. This is strictly antidotal as I noticed the talent seemed to cool off the more houses I went through.
Stranglewood Estate: Did early entry and lined up for this one first. The set design was very well done and had lots of cool detail in here. I'm glad we did this first as the line was about two hours after we got out. This was the newest one from what I understand so it was great! Very simple concept but delivered on scenic and scares!
Overall: B+
Deathwater Bayou: It's not HoS without a Deathwater Bayou clone. I wonder if they're going to simply port this over to SWO's HoS once it's done? I guess that's where all the leftoverBGT HoS houses go lol. I understand that everyone is sick of this house, but ironically, this one turned out to be my favorite one. I got a fantastic runthrough of this as the scareactors were on it for this one! The stiltwalker at the very end got me good! Scenic was also very solid in here!
Overall: A
The Forgotten: Okay, the entrance situation was really REALLY annoying. I go up to what I thought was the entrance only to find out that it was Quick Queue. They tell me to go all the way around Sheikra and then find the entrance. That hike to the entrance was so annoying but whatever. It was kinda cool seeing the old loading station for Python though. Everything was very tight-spaced on compact and the drop panel scares were great! Don't have much else to say other than I enjoyed this one. It's my second favorite house.
Overall: A-
The Residence: Home form the Holidays: The longest line I've waited for and ironically the weakest. I understand that this was a revamped repeat? Well it was fine. Got a couple of good jumps but this one was okay. Liked the amount of detail that was in here.
Overall: C
Witch of the Woods: I heard people talk about how good this was but I was just a little bit underwhelmed. I still liked it though. I liked the small village aesthetic they created here. There were some good scares but it was the last hour of the event and the cast seemed out of it.
Overall: C+
I didn't bother with any shows as I just wanted to get the houses done and ride Cheeta Hunt as that was the one ride I wasn't able to experience during the day. As for food, I got the BBQ brisket and pulled pork nachos, which were amazing. Excellent treat.
But overall I enjoyed my first-ever HoS at BGT. While I probably wouldn't go out of my way again for the event itself, I had a lot of fun! I went by to check out the park as I haven't been since 2004. I was overdue for a trip to BGT and I thought I would check out the event while I was there. Out of the HoS events I've been to such as San Diego and Orlando last year and then this, I think this is the best of the HoS events. There was a lot of entertainment to choose from and there was clearly effort put into the houses. The cast is always excellent, though I notice that the talent seems to go all-in on the first few hours then kind of exhaust themselves into half-hearted scaring as the night goes on. This is strictly antidotal as I noticed the talent seemed to cool off the more houses I went through.
Really trying to enjoy my first night of the event but has it been this severely understaffed all season? At what point do you get rid of the actors in zones and put them in houses? Witch of the Woods had about 6 scare actors with 2 on raised platforms just watching. Death Water and The Forgotten were about the same from what I remember. The Residence and Stranglewood (Best house HOS has done in years) were well staffed but the others were honestly just embarrassing.
I’ll save specifics for the review we post but I thought it was one of their strongest years. I enjoyed all the houses, and really hope the “Final Phase” means FINAL. All the zones were good, too (outside of the clown one)
Stranglewood gave me a ton of hope for the future
The clown zone is their attempt at a "photo-op" zone which HOS has never really done well with
I would much rather them just be wreaking havoc in Pantopia lol
- Nov 9, 2019
- 969
- 1,937
The photo op zone is honestly really smart, they have the land and space for one so why not?
Still got another 8 zones to enjoy.
Hey guys. I’m attending my first HOS this Sunday night and I purchased the Front of Line Extreme pass. Does anyone know where we pick them up at? Also, how have the lines been with the FOL pass? The Express Pass at HHN a few weeks ago still had us waiting in 30 min long lines most of the night.
You shouldn't have any issues. I went on Thursday and the most I waited was 5 minutes.
My Gf and I went for the first time last night and absolutely loved it! We sprang for the Express, but probably didn’t need it.
We loved the fact that they pulsed the houses. We were pretty much alone in all of them and both agreed that the amount of scares we got vs HHN were night and day. I was legit about to buy a “No Boo” necklace.
We arrived around 5pm and picked up the Express from the ticket window and rode a few rides. I probably wouldn’t arrive early again though because the day time guests left a lot to be desired. I wish the staff would have been more vigilant about kicking day time guests out at 6. That’s one thing I Iiked about MNSSHP.
We were able to do all the houses with no waits and then did The Residence twice with the second time being completely alone. I think we went through Witch of the Woods during a cast change or something because there weren’t many scare actors. The whole park did seem severely understaffed though.
As for rides:
Cheetah Hunt - 4
Kumba - 3
Skeikra - 2
Tigris - 2
Montu - 2
Cobras Curse - 1
Iron Gwazi - 1
So after doing HHN, MNSHP, and HOS we agree that we had the most fun at HOS. Again, this was our first year at HOS so all of this was new to us.
We loved the fact that they pulsed the houses. We were pretty much alone in all of them and both agreed that the amount of scares we got vs HHN were night and day. I was legit about to buy a “No Boo” necklace.
We arrived around 5pm and picked up the Express from the ticket window and rode a few rides. I probably wouldn’t arrive early again though because the day time guests left a lot to be desired. I wish the staff would have been more vigilant about kicking day time guests out at 6. That’s one thing I Iiked about MNSSHP.
We were able to do all the houses with no waits and then did The Residence twice with the second time being completely alone. I think we went through Witch of the Woods during a cast change or something because there weren’t many scare actors. The whole park did seem severely understaffed though.
As for rides:
Cheetah Hunt - 4
Kumba - 3
Skeikra - 2
Tigris - 2
Montu - 2
Cobras Curse - 1
Iron Gwazi - 1
So after doing HHN, MNSHP, and HOS we agree that we had the most fun at HOS. Again, this was our first year at HOS so all of this was new to us.
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