Howl-O-Scream 2017
- Thread starter wombat96
- Start date
MadridBot, park opening ≠ parking opening. Last Friday I was in Heatherdowns before noon on a noon opening. Parking opens AT LEAST 30 minutes before noon. I believe I was even parked before that though (via the employee gate at least).
I asked this quite a while back but now that HoS is in full swing I just wanted to ask again. Can anyone tell me what brand of air brush machine the park uses for their face painting? If not, no problem, I'm going next weekend so I can take a peek myself. I just wanted to go ahead and check out that brand online and order sooner rather than later if it was decent.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Here's whats happened. HOS was at it's peak before CT. Since then, HOS has declined as CT improved.
One goes up, the other goes down. So far BGW has yet to find a way to make both succeed.
One goes up, the other goes down. So far BGW has yet to find a way to make both succeed.
I suppose it's because people are only willing to travel once per that three month period. Does the park really draw that many people from so far outside the region?
Frostbite Week 3: Layout tightened, props work better, actors on their game finally. Much better than the first week.
Pretzel Kaiser said:
Agreed. It felt extremely strong and the staffing was amazing.
Hey guys I'll be at the park all by myself today from about 1 or 2. If you wanna know where i'm at send me a message!
Forest of fun has Halloween decorations now, also lights are up there for christmastown.
Last night was certainly better than my previous visit this season. Vampires were back where the belong, and I counted 7 or 8 of them. I still feel like the decorations could use a great deal of help, but staffing seemed on-point last night in the houses we hit and the scare zones.
Last night they started playing the regular daytime music in each hamlet after the closing announcement. I wonder if this was deliberate or if it was a mistake.
phurst said:
I agree. I counted 8. I felt they got their act together by the third week. Demon Street seemed to suffer a bit. I counted 3 actors at the peak of the night, and only one with a chainsaw.
CastleOSullivan said:
Not to mention they accidentally announced closing at 10. Most of the park emptied out from that. Felt bad for them to be honest.
I took the day off from work yesterday and made a trip up to Busch Gardens for HOS. The crowds were light but picked up later in the afternoon for HOS. Their was less Halloween decor from what I remember the park had last year. What happened to the troll? Did he quit? A few dead areas in the park that could have used a couple of scareactors. That would have improved a big difference.
Terrortories
I thought the terrortories were all well staffed but some lacked in scares.
Sideshow Square - My favorite terrortory last night. I thought the staff did a great job especially the clowns. I saw 2 girls getting terrified over and over again by the jack in the box. I was glad to see Wendy the windup doll return.
Demon Street - I hated Demon Street after it's first year but have grown to like it a little more each year. I'm still not sold on Demon DJ though. The club type atmosphere he provides is just not for me. Though the chainsaw demons were great as usual in France.
Vampire Point - I wasn't too impressed with VP. It had around 8 vampires but I only saw a couple that were on point with scaring the crowd. The others just stood around and hissed.
Ripper's Row - I didn't see enough of it to have a good opinion. I only saw it when I was leaving the park. They had 6 scareactors there from I saw. One of the fan girls got me as I was entering England.
Axe Alley - Worst terrortory ever. I didn't care for Wendigo Woods but this was just as bad imo. I only saw 4 vikings with sticks and shields, no axes. If the vikings were more angry and carrying "bloody" axes, I might have actually liked it.
Italy (formerly Port of Skulls) - Port of Skulls somewhat still exists even though it's not officially a terrortory anymore. I thing BGW could have taken a page from Universal. This year, Universal made an unofficial scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights in the Simpsons area with chainsaw clowns. BGW could have done the same thing in bringing back the pirates to Italy.
Houses
This post is getting long. I will try to be brief with my assessment of the houses.
Frostbite - My favorite house this year. This was the first house I did with a 45 minute wait. It had the most staff out of all of the houses. I think I counted 26 scareactors? I loved the animatronics and the "icy" effects.
Lumberhack - Great house. Plenty of staff that was on point. Very short 15 minute wait.
Cornered - Loved this house as well despite the 45 minute wait. I got a couple of good scares. Did they not use the mirrors this year? I didn't notice them.
Circo Sinistro - Well staffed. This was a 45 minute wait though the cue wasn't as crazy as it was last year. The bungie doll towards the end got me pretty good. I do wish they would cut the intro at the beginning with the ringmaster and the other 2 scareactors. It would help out with the wait time.
Scarlett Unearthed - Wait time was 15 minutes which about to put me into shock; but in a good way. I'm so use to this house being 1 hour or more to get in. Unearthed was terrible. It was half staffed with only half actually doing something. Their was about 3 rooms that were just empty. The last part with the iconic charactors only had 1 which was the zombie. Jack, Trickster and Destiny must have had the night off.
Catacombs - Well staffed but none of them did anything for me. All they did was pop their head out and growled. WTF was that? That was pathetic. I hope this is the last year of Catacombs. I'm ready for something new.
Deadline - See Catacombs. If they can cut both Deadline and Catacombs after this year, I will be a happy camper.
I apologize for the long post. I only come up to HOS once a year since it's a 3 hour trip for me. If HOS continues it's current path with less and less scares each year, this may be my last year. I make the 3 hour trip for a scary Halloween experience, not a kiddy Halloween party. That's what HOS has become more or less.
Terrortories
I thought the terrortories were all well staffed but some lacked in scares.
Sideshow Square - My favorite terrortory last night. I thought the staff did a great job especially the clowns. I saw 2 girls getting terrified over and over again by the jack in the box. I was glad to see Wendy the windup doll return.
Demon Street - I hated Demon Street after it's first year but have grown to like it a little more each year. I'm still not sold on Demon DJ though. The club type atmosphere he provides is just not for me. Though the chainsaw demons were great as usual in France.
Vampire Point - I wasn't too impressed with VP. It had around 8 vampires but I only saw a couple that were on point with scaring the crowd. The others just stood around and hissed.
Ripper's Row - I didn't see enough of it to have a good opinion. I only saw it when I was leaving the park. They had 6 scareactors there from I saw. One of the fan girls got me as I was entering England.
Axe Alley - Worst terrortory ever. I didn't care for Wendigo Woods but this was just as bad imo. I only saw 4 vikings with sticks and shields, no axes. If the vikings were more angry and carrying "bloody" axes, I might have actually liked it.
Italy (formerly Port of Skulls) - Port of Skulls somewhat still exists even though it's not officially a terrortory anymore. I thing BGW could have taken a page from Universal. This year, Universal made an unofficial scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights in the Simpsons area with chainsaw clowns. BGW could have done the same thing in bringing back the pirates to Italy.
Houses
This post is getting long. I will try to be brief with my assessment of the houses.
Frostbite - My favorite house this year. This was the first house I did with a 45 minute wait. It had the most staff out of all of the houses. I think I counted 26 scareactors? I loved the animatronics and the "icy" effects.
Lumberhack - Great house. Plenty of staff that was on point. Very short 15 minute wait.
Cornered - Loved this house as well despite the 45 minute wait. I got a couple of good scares. Did they not use the mirrors this year? I didn't notice them.
Circo Sinistro - Well staffed. This was a 45 minute wait though the cue wasn't as crazy as it was last year. The bungie doll towards the end got me pretty good. I do wish they would cut the intro at the beginning with the ringmaster and the other 2 scareactors. It would help out with the wait time.
Scarlett Unearthed - Wait time was 15 minutes which about to put me into shock; but in a good way. I'm so use to this house being 1 hour or more to get in. Unearthed was terrible. It was half staffed with only half actually doing something. Their was about 3 rooms that were just empty. The last part with the iconic charactors only had 1 which was the zombie. Jack, Trickster and Destiny must have had the night off.
Catacombs - Well staffed but none of them did anything for me. All they did was pop their head out and growled. WTF was that? That was pathetic. I hope this is the last year of Catacombs. I'm ready for something new.
Deadline - See Catacombs. If they can cut both Deadline and Catacombs after this year, I will be a happy camper.
I apologize for the long post. I only come up to HOS once a year since it's a 3 hour trip for me. If HOS continues it's current path with less and less scares each year, this may be my last year. I make the 3 hour trip for a scary Halloween experience, not a kiddy Halloween party. That's what HOS has become more or less.
BGWScream said:
They created a new effect on that bridge this weekend with the "static electricity" lights from Wendigo Woods. The lights were only on the sides of the bridge. It looked really cool, but I would love to see them use fog and lighting under the bridge again. Maybe they will add more later.
Quick question! Sorry for the interruption! Never been to howloscream on Friday and will be going this Friday. How have the crowds been on Friday? We usually go the last weekend of October and on Saturday and usually get all but 2 houses done. Just a wanted to know how Friday’s usually were
So I finally went with my family last night (mistake) but! We all had a pretty good time! Mazes we decent, I always love the look of Unearthed but it seemed like we hit it during a big break for the actors, but I loved the Scarlet in the Tarro room. Lumberhack was good, pretty strong house. Went through Catacombs and saw some drunk try to hit the actors so that experience was ruined for us. We didn't make any other houses since the numbers last night were crazy.
We made it through all the zones! They are always my favorite. Started at Side Show, it was great! I love the ring leaders and clowns, they are hilarious scaring people all around the circle. Vampire Point wasn't that great, had people but I am a stickler for Vamps. As soon as I hear them hiss I leave immediately, it isn't scary of effective. We went through Axe Alley and Demon Street twice, once when it was still light out and once again at night. Demon street is always good but from what I hear they have had trouble keeping their employees there so it was scarce, but still good. They filled a smaller area so they looked stronger in numbers. Axe Alley is way better at night, and when the fog settles in. I agree, if they had actual weapons it could be more intimidating, but yeah sticks and broken(?) shields don't cut it. Although I will say the actors were giving it their all! They know how to work the area(with nothing in it but some wood and half a ship), especially outside the bungee and around the smoke house. I sat and watched for a while, they got a lot of groups so it was entertaining. Ripper Row was awesome, always love leaving the park and watching people get terrorized by dead hookers
We made it through all the zones! They are always my favorite. Started at Side Show, it was great! I love the ring leaders and clowns, they are hilarious scaring people all around the circle. Vampire Point wasn't that great, had people but I am a stickler for Vamps. As soon as I hear them hiss I leave immediately, it isn't scary of effective. We went through Axe Alley and Demon Street twice, once when it was still light out and once again at night. Demon street is always good but from what I hear they have had trouble keeping their employees there so it was scarce, but still good. They filled a smaller area so they looked stronger in numbers. Axe Alley is way better at night, and when the fog settles in. I agree, if they had actual weapons it could be more intimidating, but yeah sticks and broken(?) shields don't cut it. Although I will say the actors were giving it their all! They know how to work the area(with nothing in it but some wood and half a ship), especially outside the bungee and around the smoke house. I sat and watched for a while, they got a lot of groups so it was entertaining. Ripper Row was awesome, always love leaving the park and watching people get terrorized by dead hookers
We went again this weekend, and in my opinion, HOS has really hit its stride. I was honestly a bit worried, since it was a Friday and remarkably crowded, but there was easily enough staff everywhere I went.
There were a lot of actors in both the houses and on the paths. They were using much more fog. The lighting was dim and creepy throughout much of the park. The music and sound were mostly used well to create spooky or chaotic atmospheres. It was just a great night overall.
The Terror-Torres were finally staffed, and the actors scared me several times. Even Vampire Point, which apparently was moved back to Rhinefeld, had undead stalking the paths. I'm not going to claim that I think Axe Alley is well done; they didn't even have sticks this weekend. But the dark carnival in Festa was even better than usual.
I am struggling to rank the houses, because most were so good. Here is what I think I believe right now.
Lumberhack. Once again I tried this house during the day and again at night; and as before they were totally different experiences. I think I have decided that I prefer it at night, because it is much more of a gross out house, when all of the props are clearly visible. On Friday the actors were fantastic. There were a ton of scares; the chainsaw guys were chasing people out of the maze; and the "monsters" even managed to separate me from everyone. I looked around and suddenly realized no one was in front of me or behind me, and then an actor crept up behind me and growled in my ear, "you are completely alone."
Circo Sinestro. I have always said this house has a ton of untapped potential, and to be honest, it still wasn't perfect on Friday. That said, I thought it was great. There were actors everywhere, even in the Room Roulette area, and their costumes all worked. There was also a ton of fog, which really added to the creepy and disorienting feeling. I have come to the conclusion that I love Halloween fun houses, and I think Circo Sinestro is similar to that kind of attraction, which may be why I have such a soft spot for it. I also really like the feeling of exploring the backlot of a turn of the century creepy carnival. I find the outdoor areas especially effective, as you never know who or what will be around the corner. For what it is worth, my friend who doesn't attend HOS (she usually goes to Haunt) liked this house the best.
Deadline. I rarely rank this maze very high, because it tends to be more of a museum than a working house. This weekend, however, there were more scare actors than I have ever seen inside. People jumped out at us from places that I didn't even know were hiding spots. It was truly more effective for me than ever in the past. On another note, what is it about Deadline that attracts rude, drunk guests? And what s a "line beer?" (That last question was rhetorical.)
Catacombs. I was honestly disappointed in Catacombs this week. It wasn't bad. There were still a fair number of actors, and the house still created a lot of tension for me. It just wasn't as fantastic as it had been on Pass Member Night. It felt as if the park had moved people out of its best house to improve the other areas.
Frostbite. I'm not going to say Frostbite was great, because it still seems like a bunch of random rooms, strung together, loosely connected by an ice theme. It was, however, easily the most improved house for me. It seemed as if the staff had figured out their maze and gotten more comfortable using it to scare people. There were several very effective distraction scares, using both the props and other actors. The dragon skeleton funneled me directly into the path of an actor "hiding" in black against the wall. Even the bungee scare worked. I do wish they would just turn off the preshow; it is so bad in so many ways. My friend did suggest a new room. Working from the assumption that Southerners find snow and ice intrinsically terrifying, she suggested an empty supermarket, with actors dashing about fighting over water and milk. (She was joking, of course.)
Cornered. I believe that if I liked corn mazes, I would probably rank this higher, since there were more actors scaring people. On the other hand, maybe the actors are just in the wrong places? Are they supposed to be clustered around the buildings? Are endless rows of corn frightening to other people? I just know I was again desperately bored. I have to give them kudos for their use of fog and for finally staffing it, however. I know my friends liked it more than I.
Unearthed. Ugh. I really hope this maze doesn't return. That said, I have never seen so many actors in this house. And they were scaring people. Unfortunately, without the massive backstory online and the trading cards in the shops, my friend couldn't even figure out what the story behind the maze was supposed to be. It was probably the best performance I have ever enjoyed in Unearthed, but we all agreed it still didn't work.
Despite the bizzarly heavy crowds, I had one of my best HOS experinces in recent memory. BGW seems to have increased their string across the event, and everyone really seems comfortable in their rolls.
There were a lot of actors in both the houses and on the paths. They were using much more fog. The lighting was dim and creepy throughout much of the park. The music and sound were mostly used well to create spooky or chaotic atmospheres. It was just a great night overall.
The Terror-Torres were finally staffed, and the actors scared me several times. Even Vampire Point, which apparently was moved back to Rhinefeld, had undead stalking the paths. I'm not going to claim that I think Axe Alley is well done; they didn't even have sticks this weekend. But the dark carnival in Festa was even better than usual.
I am struggling to rank the houses, because most were so good. Here is what I think I believe right now.
Lumberhack. Once again I tried this house during the day and again at night; and as before they were totally different experiences. I think I have decided that I prefer it at night, because it is much more of a gross out house, when all of the props are clearly visible. On Friday the actors were fantastic. There were a ton of scares; the chainsaw guys were chasing people out of the maze; and the "monsters" even managed to separate me from everyone. I looked around and suddenly realized no one was in front of me or behind me, and then an actor crept up behind me and growled in my ear, "you are completely alone."
Circo Sinestro. I have always said this house has a ton of untapped potential, and to be honest, it still wasn't perfect on Friday. That said, I thought it was great. There were actors everywhere, even in the Room Roulette area, and their costumes all worked. There was also a ton of fog, which really added to the creepy and disorienting feeling. I have come to the conclusion that I love Halloween fun houses, and I think Circo Sinestro is similar to that kind of attraction, which may be why I have such a soft spot for it. I also really like the feeling of exploring the backlot of a turn of the century creepy carnival. I find the outdoor areas especially effective, as you never know who or what will be around the corner. For what it is worth, my friend who doesn't attend HOS (she usually goes to Haunt) liked this house the best.
Deadline. I rarely rank this maze very high, because it tends to be more of a museum than a working house. This weekend, however, there were more scare actors than I have ever seen inside. People jumped out at us from places that I didn't even know were hiding spots. It was truly more effective for me than ever in the past. On another note, what is it about Deadline that attracts rude, drunk guests? And what s a "line beer?" (That last question was rhetorical.)
Catacombs. I was honestly disappointed in Catacombs this week. It wasn't bad. There were still a fair number of actors, and the house still created a lot of tension for me. It just wasn't as fantastic as it had been on Pass Member Night. It felt as if the park had moved people out of its best house to improve the other areas.
Frostbite. I'm not going to say Frostbite was great, because it still seems like a bunch of random rooms, strung together, loosely connected by an ice theme. It was, however, easily the most improved house for me. It seemed as if the staff had figured out their maze and gotten more comfortable using it to scare people. There were several very effective distraction scares, using both the props and other actors. The dragon skeleton funneled me directly into the path of an actor "hiding" in black against the wall. Even the bungee scare worked. I do wish they would just turn off the preshow; it is so bad in so many ways. My friend did suggest a new room. Working from the assumption that Southerners find snow and ice intrinsically terrifying, she suggested an empty supermarket, with actors dashing about fighting over water and milk. (She was joking, of course.)
Cornered. I believe that if I liked corn mazes, I would probably rank this higher, since there were more actors scaring people. On the other hand, maybe the actors are just in the wrong places? Are they supposed to be clustered around the buildings? Are endless rows of corn frightening to other people? I just know I was again desperately bored. I have to give them kudos for their use of fog and for finally staffing it, however. I know my friends liked it more than I.
Unearthed. Ugh. I really hope this maze doesn't return. That said, I have never seen so many actors in this house. And they were scaring people. Unfortunately, without the massive backstory online and the trading cards in the shops, my friend couldn't even figure out what the story behind the maze was supposed to be. It was probably the best performance I have ever enjoyed in Unearthed, but we all agreed it still didn't work.
Despite the bizzarly heavy crowds, I had one of my best HOS experinces in recent memory. BGW seems to have increased their string across the event, and everyone really seems comfortable in their rolls.
CastleOSullivan said:
I saw that lighting before I crossed the bridge. I miss the fog/lighting underneath the bridge as well. I felt like I was walking over a hellish pit.