I've never really done a review or trip report, so why not start now.
Last night I made the trip to Busch Gardens for the first time since 2022, and first time ever during Howl-O-Scream. After buying a season pass in 2020 for Pantheon, and then having it carry over into 2021 while still being promised the ride opening, I decided not to renew for 2022. I instead used my Park ID from KD to get in for free. Although, the coaster was good, It left me unimpressed after the wait and constant marketing ploy around their yard decoration piece. Leading me not to visit again until last night.
While I am very bias to my home park, I understand that Busch is better with a lot of things than KD. While Busch Gardens has better maintained parking lots, the logistics is not one of them. We arrived to the parking booth around 3pm. By this time attendants were already directing traffic to the overflow Scotland lot. While driving past the closer lots at the front of the park, we saw many empty stalls which made the decision to send everyone across route 60 baffling. After getting back on route 60, we parked in Scotland which was starting to fill up. There was nobody checking parking in lot which meant people could just park over there for free which we saw as we saw cars from the other side of the road enter the lot. It was also crazy seeing hundreds of people cross route 60 when there's no cross walk. I guess that was what the police officer in his car was for? Now the reason for so many people crossing the road was the line for the tram. The line for the tram was filling out the queue and almost going past the first row of cars. What caused this? The fact that we timed 18 minutes since we parked to the first tram we saw arrive. When the trams did arrive, it was in bulk, with four trams showing up at once. It seems crazy to me to be sending everyone to your overflow lot when you have not set up your tram service. Once we made it to the park, the confusion didn't stop there. Security was a breeze, but ticketing was another nightmare. I've heard that the lines can be grueling, but this was just outright slow. After about 10 minutes, we made it towards the front. A employee came out from the ticketing area and said people can scan in over at the exit. We wondered over there with a big crowd of people trying to be first in line for the new scanners, but no one was over there??? We walked into the park without scanning and so did about a couple hundred people. Meaning If I really wanted to, I could park, and walk into BG without spending anything more than gas money.
Moving on to my ratings, I'll lay out my scale. on a scale of 1-5 on Mattatee's was it actually good scale as I progress through my night. I will mention, I have never done any of these shows and mazes before so my rankings may be higher than yours, since I can't compare them to their previous and "better" form.
1 - Rather marathon a Vekoma SLC
2 - Sucks as much as the frozen marinara they served me at Festhaus
3 - I'll do it again only if someone else wants to, but not solo
4 - Pretty entertaining like Let's Get Wild
5 - Best of the day
Pantheon - 4/5
Last time I rode Pantheon, I got off feeling quite let down since I overhyped it so much in my head for two years. This time I rode in the front row, and I thought It was quite good. The Airtime was alright but I felt like the elements weren't anything to rave about. Don't get my wrong, It is still in my top 10 but barely. My favorite part of the ride was the backwards launch and the forces you get. I'd forgotten how it actually is like 7 total launches and are quite forceful.
Apollo's Chariot - 3/5
Wow, This has gotten rough, especially after riding Pantheon. This is still my only B&M Hyper since Raging Bull and "Thunder Road" (Intimidator) were down on my visits to SFGAmerica and Carowinds. The closest thing I can compare it to is Fury 325, which is better in everyway. I got off feeling nauseous due the rattle. For being a one trick pony, he does provide very good floater airtime, but the rattle makes it a one and done for me.
Phantoms of the Festhaus - 2/5
By this point, it was just after 6pm and we just missed the opening ceremony. We grabbed dinner and made our way towards the front of the stage to get a good seats for the 6:30 showing. Thankful this time I didn't grab any frozen food from the line, as my last meal here was mozzarella sticks with frozen solid marinara sauce. I thought the show was alright but nothing to right home about. The singer in the blue suit who sang Ed Sheeran did not have Ed Sheeran vocal range and it showed. At times the mix was a bit too loud to hear what was being and the backup dancers dressed as if they were attending an all black rave were an interesting choice.
Monster Manor - 4/5
Looking back, I can't help but like it?!? Don't get me wrong, this was the laziest so called "Maze" of the night. Poorly decorated rooms, and no cohesive story was the theme here; which makes barely anymore sense after reading the park website description. The first 75% of the maze was mostly dead Busch Gardens employees but the final 25% had some of my only scares of the night. The costume design was amazing on some of these monsters. Probably the best costumes in the state. Even though I knew the lagoon or lochness monster was a promo piece, I was convinced it must have been a prop due to the level of detail and the stillness of the actor. While this was my favorite maze of the night, It still is far from good. I know, I know, how can I give something far from good a 4. This was the only maze at either park this year to actually jump me. While that might be due to monsters always targeting the women in our group, I can't help but give bonus points to the only maze that got my adrenaline up. To fix this maze, they just need to address the tacky and bland set design, the lack of hiding spots that aren't in the walls, more creatures and less Busch Garden employees, less visibility (We did this maze around 7:30) since this building has no full walls, and most importantly make a coherent theme.
Death Water Bayou: Morte - 3/5
This was probably my favorite maze theme. The florescent green and orange and the voodoo theme would be amazing if they actually had enough scare actors. I was generally tense in the room with all the mannequins. There was just no good hiding spots in this maze and I guess it is hard with the entire maze being mostly tents. I know scare actors have to reset and can't scare every single person but so many times I would see an actor and walk past and they just stood at me. For instance the "Voodoo Queen" or whoever was holding a fake candle dressed in all white outside just stood and watched everyone go by. Overall the theme and vibe of this maze was my favorite which is carrying the set design and execution.
Lost Mines: Bloodstone - 1/5
So this maze was the biggest whiff of the night by far. There was two miners standing on the scaffolding talking to us as we went by saying I bet we taste like pumpkin pie. (I guess that was a complement saying we are sweet?) After that we wondered into room after room with no actor until we go to the room with the compressed air. There's no where to hide in the room and the actors were saying lines like look out its about to explode and then we felt the compressed air on our feet. Honestly, it would have been scarier without any actors, that way the compressed air would have caught us off guard. we then wondered through another few rooms with like one monster total and that was it. There was another monster wearing a gas mask sitting on a bed who didn't make a move on us. So overall we had zero scare interactions in this maze minus the air canon.
Monster Stomp on Ripper Row - 4/5
This show was very enjoyable, manly because two of the drummers were people I went to ODU with and played with in the marching band. You could tell they had the loudest applause and this show could quite honestly be better if they only featured them more like the blue man group. A la mode to just being a drummer showcase show. The Glow in the dark skeletons were cute but felt out of place with the rest of the show. The singers were alright but I was so confused because I thought Jack killed the girl and then she's back and singing the next set piece.
KILLarney DInEr: Condemned - 3/5
We got stopped right before we got in which means we had no one in front of us. This means we got every monster to target us right? No. It felt slightly better staff wise to Lost Mines, but the decor was nicer. Overall not a lot good or bad to say about this one.
Fiends: The FREAKquel - 5/5
Hands down the best thing of the night. My friends had no idea what this was going in and when the nurses were reviled, my groups faces dropped. This show is so so good, like hands down how did they get approval to show this again. With all the misses across the board, it was the one part that of the night that made me want to come back and see again. I'm not sure if the jokes are the same every show but there does appear to be some new material that might not have been relevant a month ago. This was the perfect thing to end on, since it was the best of the night.
After watching Fiends: we made it back to the trams. The Tram narrator was great and made some good jokes and small talk. I will note that I did not rate Clown Town as someone in our group has a phobia of clowns, and I did not rate any of the Terror-Tories. The Terror-Tories seemed like a miss for me because it wasn't too apparent you were in one. there was not a lot of theming that made you aware of your location other than the actors themselves.
Overall I had a decent time but I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much if I had to pay the 96 dollars they are charging for a day ticket and the 32 for parking. But then again I assume most people there were season pass holders or like me, friends of season pass holders. The good news is they never scanned my ticket when they pushed people through the exit with no scanners so I have another ticket due to them not checking.
buschgardens.com
