Busch Gardens Williamsburg Howl-O-Scream 2023

Attraction Lineup​

Haunted Houses​

1. Death Water Bayou: Full Moon
   • Located in Festa Field behind Roman Rapids
   • Updated version of the new-for-2022 house, Death Water Bayou
2. KILLarney DIEner: Infested
   • Located in the Killarney simulator building
   • Updated version of the new-for-2021 house, KILLarney Diner
3. Lost Mines: The Descent
   • Located below Escape from Pompeii
   • New house for 2023 (replacing 2022's Inferno)
4. Nevermore: Chapter 3
   • Located in Drachen Fire's station building
   • Third iteration of the new-for-2021 house, Nevermore; replaces 2022's Nevermore: Chapter 2
5. Witch of the Woods: Scorched
   • Located in the woods behind Festhaus Park
   • Technically the second iteration of the new-for-2021 house, Witch of the Woods though Witch of the Woods was reversed in its second season without a name change

Terror-Tories​

1. Fest-Evil [New] (Festa Italia)
2. Gorgon Gardens [Returning] (Da Vinci's Garden of Inventions)
3. Meat Market [Returning] (New France)
4. Scary Tale Road [Returning] (Rhinefield)
5. Ripper Row [Returning] (Banbury Cross)

Other Scares​

1. Hack Pack [Returning] (Roaming)

Shows​

1. Jack is Back [Returning] (Killarney)
2. Monster Stomp on Ripper Row [Returning] (Globe Theatre)
3. Phantoms of the Festhaus [Returning] (Das Festhaus)
4. Skeletones [Returning] (Il Teatro di San Marco)

BOOze Bars & Bites​

1. OktoberTaps [New] (Oktoberfest)
2. Stone-Cold Spirits [Returning] (San Marco)
3. Pete's Provisions [Returning] (New France)
4. Jack's Nightcap [Returning] (Killarney)
5. Frost Bar [Returning] (Oktoberfest)
6. BarKastle Spirits [Returning] (Oktoberfest)

Official Website​

Howl-O-Scream: Virginia Halloween Event | Busch Gardens Williamsburg

The spirit of Halloween is unleashed at Howl-O-Scream! Find haunted houses, escape rooms, scare zones, live shows & roller coasters if you dare.

buschgardens.com

 

[horsesboy]

Ahh, hopefully the lower attendance overall wakes them up for 2024. We talked about the new guy overseeing HOS, hopefully this gives him the reigns to pu,po some much needed energy into the event, guess we’ll see in about 300 days

To be fair it's not just the Howl-O-Scream quality that is an issue. Hear people all the time complaining about food quality, price, customer service, cleanliness and I could go on and on. BGW has a fairly major public image problem right now even among the locals that use to be diehards. I understand that pass member numbers have started to fairly noticeably decline and a coat of almost $120 dollars once you figure in parking and admission for none members I don't think even a Halloween Horror Nights level entertainment event would draw huge crowds without fixing some of these other issues. I think the town hall next week could be very interesting and I hope someone gets video since I can't be there in person Saturday.

 

[Zachary]

Not a capacity night at the park, but it's definitely very busy—and, more importantly, far busier than the park can handle in its current operational condition.

The number of closed snack and drink booths was astonishing tonight. Even themed, Howl-O-Scream-spesific bars that BGW is advertising on their website as being part of the event were closed. Not a good showing at all.

 

[horsesboy]

Not a capacity night at the park, but it's definitely very busy—and, more importantly, far busier than the park can handle in its current operational condition.

The number of closed snack and drink booths was astonishing tonight. Even themed, Howl-O-Scream-spesific bars that BGW is advertising on their website as being part of the event were closed. Not a good showing at all.

Maybe BGW could go the KD route and start staffing with volunteers.

 

[Aidansn07]

Maybe BGW could go the KD route and start staffing with volunteers.

What do you get for volunteering at KD?

 

[horsesboy]

What do you get for volunteering at KD?

I don't know all the details but different non profits recruite volunteers to work for the culinary department in exchange for so many volunteer hours KD then make a financial donation back to the group. All those people that you see in more or less plan white shirts working the restaurants with generic stick on name tags are either volunteers or in some cases temp employees hired through an agency and not actual KD employees. So while this was park joke it was also part serious suggestion on how to get more stuff open.

 

[Zachary]

Yeah, it's absurd that a park would need to resort to it, but it is legitimately a very clever, novel idea. Doubly true for a park in the middle of nowhere like KD.

Sadly, from what I've heard though, a lot of BGW's staffing problems are very much self-inflicted. This isn't a staffing shortage, this is profiteering.

 

[warfelg]

I mean with something like that it’s definitely profiteering for KD too. They get to do lower staffing by payroll while being fully staffed.

 

[bill s]

Doesn't sound like profiteering to me, just bad management. If you want to make the money, you've got to have the people to take the money.

 

[Mushroom]

I mean with something like that it’s definitely profiteering for KD too. They get to do lower staffing by payroll while being fully staffed.

They still pay for the volunteers just like they would any other employee. The “volunteers” are volunteering for whatever organization they’re part of — not for KD.

 

[warfelg]

They still pay for the volunteers just like they would any other employee. The “volunteers” are volunteering for whatever organization they’re part of — not for KD.

That wasn’t my point. It’s likely costs less for them to donate and have volunteers from that organization than to just pay people in the first place.

 

[Gavin]

My understanding is that they pay the same for temps or volunteers, the only difference is who gets it. KD also pays temps more than what regular employees make.

 

[warfelg]

My understanding is that they pay the same for temps or volunteers, the only difference is who gets it. KD also pays temps more than what regular employees make.

Both save them a ton of money.

 

[Gavin]

It. does. not.

Back in 2018 when I was working at KD, I got paid $10/hr. Didn't matter how many hours I worked, but since I was seasonal I always made $10/hr. Aside from park privileges, I had no additional benefits provided to me by the park. At that time, KD was paying the temp agencies $18/hr for their temps. There is no way that it costs KD more than $8/hr to hire someone off the street. I was always told by people I knew in HR that it was always cheaper for them to hire than to outsource or even hire J-1s.

If it was truly cheaper for them to hire temps and volunteers, why don't they do it year round then?

 

[warfelg]

It. does. not.

Back in 2018 when I was working at KD, I got paid $10/hr. Didn't matter how many hours I worked, but since I was seasonal I always made $10/hr. Aside from park privileges, I had no additional benefits provided to me by the park. At that time, KD was paying the temp agencies $18/hr for their temps. There is no way that it costs KD more than $8/hr to hire someone off the street. I was always told by people I knew in HR that it was always cheaper for them to hire than to outsource or even hire J-1s.

If it was truly cheaper for them to hire temps and volunteers, why don't they do it year round then?

There’s backend costs other than just hourly pay that goes into hiring someone. The amount you pay people to train them, the HR time to do their tax forms, the time for hiring managers to do all of that factors in. For the amount of time they might need it - like covering a particularly busy weekend - temp agencies are 100% the way to go. On top of that with its volunteer that’s done the way @horsesboy said of making a donation, there’s tax breaks that come with doing so, which saves them money in the long run.

There’s plenty of information out there to support this:

The Real Costs of Recruitment

Soft recruiting costs include the time departmental leaders and managers invest in supporting the HR-specific roles of the hiring process. When these are added to the hard costs, the price of recruiting skyrockets.

www.shrm.org

How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Employee? - businessnewsdaily.com

Learn the costs of hiring employees and how to keep your expenses manageable when recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new team member.

www.businessnewsdaily.com

From Recruitment to Onboarding, What's the True Cost of Hiring Employees?

Before posting a new job, use our research to estimate and budget for the cost of hiring employees.

www.bamboohr.com

 

[Mushroom]

There’s backend costs other than just hourly pay that goes into hiring someone. The amount you pay people to train them, the HR time to do their tax forms, the time for hiring managers to do all of that factors in. For the amount of time they might need it - like covering a particularly busy weekend - temp agencies are 100% the way to go. On top of that with its volunteer that’s done the way @horsesboy said of making a donation, there’s tax breaks that come with doing so, which saves them money in the long run.

There’s plenty of information out there to support this:

The Real Costs of Recruitment

Soft recruiting costs include the time departmental leaders and managers invest in supporting the HR-specific roles of the hiring process. When these are added to the hard costs, the price of recruiting skyrockets.

www.shrm.org

How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Employee? - businessnewsdaily.com

Learn the costs of hiring employees and how to keep your expenses manageable when recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new team member.

www.businessnewsdaily.com

From Recruitment to Onboarding, What's the True Cost of Hiring Employees?

Before posting a new job, use our research to estimate and budget for the cost of hiring employees.

www.bamboohr.com

How exactly is that profiteering?

 

[Zachary]

Whether or not it costs more or less doesn't matter here though. The point is that BGW doesn't even have the staff on site to manage days that are nearing capacity and that's unacceptable. It's the park's job to solve the issue. The impact on guests is unchanged.

 

[warfelg]

Whether or not it costs more or less doesn't matter here though. The point is that BGW doesn't even have the staff on site to manage days that are nearing capacity and that's unacceptable. It's the park's job to solve the issue. The impact on guests is unchanged.

I don’t disagree with what BGW did is unacceptable. I was more saying what KD did was a very cost effective way of opening up more what didn’t nearly cost as much as just hiring more people. Instead of fully staffing 1 stand with their own people, they can staff 3 at the highest level with their people and fill out easy tasks with volunteers/temps.

 

[greyson]

Are there any areas of the park that the hack pack don’t/can’t go into?

 

[EdK]

Went to Howl-O-Scream this year on Saturday/Sunday and this past Thursday. I don't think I'll ever go on a weekend again. The lines were crazy long. This past Thursday was great - everything was pretty much a walk on and we cleared the park in just four hours.

My wife noticed that there wasn't much in the way of decorations compared to previous years. She also still misses the troll they used to have next to the bridge (past Escape from Pompeii).

 

[cricket]

She also still misses the troll they used to have next to the bridge (past Escape from Pompeii).

You can still hear the voices of the troll and his victims on the bridge!