Howl-O-Scream 2018

[Dylon]

The last house we did was Dystopia, while I liked the set for Deadline more.....I think this worked pretty well. It took a second go through to get a feel for the story a little more, but I am liking it. Final ranking for me tonight with the mazes that we’re open:

4: Frostbite (Trash)
3: Demented Dimensions (GREAT, lost story)
2: Dystopia (GOOD, better story)
1: Vault XX (GOOD, mainly cause the nostalgia)

Ps: I honestly don’t know how I feel about 5 out of the 7 houses being literally on top of each other. I’ll hold my opinion on that until they are all open and running. Peace✌?

 

[jornor]

By a surprise turn of events we got to go to HOS XX's (sort of) opening night tonight and had a great time! We got to do 3 (out of 4 open houses). 0 shows, 6 coasters, really fun night. (Still have yet to get to do Frostbite, but now reading reviews it was TRASH? ?). Favourite maze was probably either The Vault XX (for nostalgia alone if anything) or Demented Dimensions, both houses were really well done. Dystopia was sick as well (always a sucker for Pompeii mazes) but I think we did it when it was too early in the day.

 

[basseyfish]

I wish the park did more with chainsaws then just demon street, like have 5 of them just walk through the park, those always make for 10/10 scares

 

[BGWScream]

I wish the park did more with chainsaws then just demon street, like have 5 of them just walk through the park, those always make for 10/10 scares

I agree. I would love for their to be an unannounced chainsaw horde similar to Halloween Horror Nights. Speaking of which, I watched youtube videos all weekend of HHN's opening weekend. Despite the huge crowd, looks like alot of fun. I wish HOS could be the same quality event will never come close.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

I looked at what I could find about Dimensions in Tampa. First I would like to correct myself in that the order of the rooms is mostly the same. What I did find out was that most of the rooms were larger, had more set pieces, more visual effects, and what looked like transition rooms that took you through space time stuff.

Would all that have saved the maze? No. I'm wondering why the larger rooms weren't implementes considering the excessive amount of space you walk through at the end.

 

[Zachary]

I wish HOS could be the same quality event will never come close.

I'm sorry, but I think this is the wrong attitude.

Kings Dominion is designing houses that play in the same legue as Horror Nights as far as scenic goes (Blood on the Bayou and Trick or Treat). Busch Gardens Tampa is/was designing houses that feature new, clever, innovative scares and top-notch environmentals—often hitting and sometimes surpassing Horror Nights levels of scares and immersion.

There was a time when BGW's event wasn't trash. There was a time when it could actually hold its own against events that try to grab at the coattails of Horror Nights.

Hell, remember Dead Line? I remember Dead Line. It featured some of the best scenic Virginia had ever seen up to that point. At the time people kept pointing to it as "Horror Nights-like." Compare Dead Line's house design to anything open last night. It's laughable. Busch Gardens Williamsburg's house design has gone to complete shit since then.

What's worse is that somewhere along the line the community just started accepting a subpar event from Williamsburg. We decided that BGW shouldn't even be expected to keep up with the (much cheaper) haunt event down the road in Doswell. We need to correct that thinking. Why should one of the former crown jewels of the Busch Entertainment Corporation ever be worse at anything than the mid-to-low-tier Cedar Fair park in the middle-of-nowhere Virginia?

The house we stole from Tampa looked great. It was an asinine house thematically and I understand that it had a lot of its effects gutted in the move, but overall, Distorted Dimensions is still one of the most interesting houses Williamsburg has seen in a long, long time in my opinion.

The other three new houses (I am counting new Frostbite) were a joke. Downright embarrassing. I've seen better scenic at Six Flags America's Fright Fest than I saw in Vault. I've never actually experienced a house more poorly designed than new Frostbite.

Dystopia was the only non-stolen new house last night that was even the slightest bit presentable in my opinion. It has a few well-conceived rooms that tell fractions of its story, but it looks as if the park ran out of money when it came time to build the other 2/3rds of the maze.

Anyway, overall, last night was bad and Busch Gardens Williamsburg should feel bad. I'm not saying anything about the rest of the park because it's so far from being ready it's not even worth commenting on. The indoor houses were supposed to be done though and... God I hope they aren't.

I may post more detailed thoughts about the houses that were open later on, but for now...

/rant

 

[warfelg]

Ok my morning after $0.02 as a non-haunt person on this:

Blah.

Ok more in depth. I'm a non-haunt person and I didn't feel it. It was haphazard and strange at times. The rooms seemed to jump some. Some of the themes I didn't get. The actors were making the best of what they had so kudos to them.

BGW felt like 'haunt on a budget'.

I think they tried to do too much to be honest. Too much new stuff. What's wrong with keeping things that are working?

How I think they could improve:
1) They need 2 "Ultimate Scare Zones". Take Festa Italia and Festhaus Field (the 2 dead ends) and label them as "Not Kid Friendly" and go all in on some of the scariest shit you can.

2) Invest in 1 or 2 IP's that you can build a haunt around. In the DarKastle building, invest in the rights to Brothers Grimm "Fairy Tales". Then build a "Forest of Grimm" haunt where the legends of the stories are true. "Can you make it through before the wolf gets you?" Invest in another IP on a franchise with scare elements and put it up in another area. Something like Zombieland or I Am Number Four. Maybe Hunger Games.

3) Cut back on the houses, mazes, and experiences. Sometimes less is more. Less houses built out to a higher quality would do more for you than more houses built out to an average quality.

4) Rename/Retheme some of your standard rides. ZombieR. Invader with Zombie Vikings. I'm blanking on others. But make the queue part of the experience.

 

[Nicole]

I am going to withhold judgement on HOS, until the park actually finishes it. (Although, I am really digging Demented Dimensions, despite its asinine name.)

I will say that I thought the actors in both Demented Dimensions and Vault XX were doing a great job. I experienced distraction scares, and was herded into startles more than once in both mazes. Equally importantly, all four houses were well-staffed. Hopefully, that continues throughout the entire event.

I do hope that none of the houses I experienced last night were actually finished, however. If they were, BGW should think seriously about adding theming, effects, and audio to all of them. (I agree with Zachary: there is no reason for BGW to put on a JV event.)

All of that said, I honestly don't understand why on earth HOS opened last night. I would have preferred flim flam about Florence keeping them closed to trekking all of the way from and to NOVA for what wasn't even a dress rehearsal. The best things I can say about my BGW visit yesterday are that I got to spend time with several great people, and I had time to credit run the park (excluding Tempesto, which we all know isn't a coaster).

One other note: I am perplexed by my Escape Room "experience." We went to Rhinefeld to reserve a time, and found "Please Pardon Our Dust" signs and very little else. We went up to the front to ask customer service, who told us that as an inside attraction, the Escape Rooms shoud be open, and they even listed available times. I could have bought tickets right then. We went back to Rhinefeld multiple times, and could never find any sign of life at either the Escape Room station or the associated bar. So, I have two (rhetorical) questions:

1. Why weren't they open, since they are indoor attractions?
2. Why didn't customer service know they were closed?

I really hope that I have a completely different experience next weekend.

Ok my morning after $0.02 as a non-haunt person on this:

Blah.

Ok more in depth. I'm a non-haunt person and I didn't feel it. It was haphazard and strange at times. The rooms seemed to jump some. Some of the themes I didn't get. The actors were making the best of what they had so kudos to them.

BGW felt like 'haunt on a budget'.

I think they tried to do too much to be honest. Too much new stuff. What's wrong with keeping things that are working?

How I think they could improve:
.

I would recommend against drawing any conclusions about BGW haunts, based on yesterday's event.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

Yeah I honestly don't think the park should have been open. That first impression was awful and they didn't have the normal traditional HoS festivities like bars or glow stands.

 

[Icer]

For my own curiosity, which house seemed to be the longest in length? I'm sure Dystopia is about that of Dead Line, but otherwise I am curious.

 

[Zachary]

Dystopia is shorter than Dead Line because the house features multiple path splits (I have a whole rant dedicated to this coming soon probably...)

Frostbite felt the longest, but that may have been because I was experiencing actual physical discomfort from breathing in whatever off-brand fake snow mix they were pumping into that house last night.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

I don't think that Dystopia should use the split paths anymore. It has a thematic purpose, but the quality of the different rooms varies by which path.

 

[Nicole]

Admin Note: I have created threads for the new mazes. So, if you are discussing the event as a whole, or multiple attractions at HOS, please post them here. Otherwise, please use the specific house thread, all of which can be found under Seasonal Attractions.

 

[warfelg]

I would recommend against drawing any conclusions about BGW haunts, based on yesterday's event.

Fair enough, I should have given a "with a grain of salt". I'm going to be going in mid-October. Possibly get a deeper look at it.

 

[bill s]

I thought the sets were excellent in appearance. But have the actors even been trained yet? Are they just all supposed to stare at you when you go by, or just stand there? I don't see why opening a bit premature would cause this. Maybe they substituted decaf.

I enjoyed the night still a lot, after a whole weekend off I needed to ride again. Hopefully the last humid sweatbath night of the year though..

 

[wombat96]

Just curious, I didn't make it out last night and I've heard varying opinions on the houses. Ranking them from a Root of All Evil 2012 opening night fiasco, to a fully staffed Deadline 2011 quality where would these houses fall? Also, I'm still very confused by the theme of Dystopia, for anyone who has gone through the house what is the setting like?

 

[Zachary]

I thought the sets were excellent in appearance.

Which sets? And compared to what?

Just curious, I didn't make it out last night and I've heard varying opinions on the houses. Ranking them from a Root of All Evil 2012 opening night fiasco, to a fully staffed Deadline 2011 quality where would these houses fall?

New Frostbite was Root 2012 levels of bad in my opinion. It was almost certainly the worst house I've ever been through at BGW.

Vault had the cheapest, laziest sets I've ever seen at BGW. It made Cut Throat Back Cove look like a thematic triumph.

Dystopia is a random mish-mash of industrial-esque stuff. Scenic is roughly similar to that of a house like Lockdown at Kings Dominion. Pretty minimalistic overall with a few rooms that are worthwhile.

Distorted Dimensions feels radically different than other BGW houses simply because it's so clearly designed by professionals. Scenic quality is roughly Bitten/Hunted level in my opinion.

 

[bill s]

^^-- I think it was DD that had me saying "wow" at spots and Dystopia was good because the Pompeii set really helps, also costumes in both were good. I would agree there was little sense of conclusion, and Frostbite sucked. I did that last, didn't find Vault didn't care by then, my sense was that it was me finding it worse the more I did them. I can't really offer detailed critique, my point is the lack of SCAREacting is the weaker link, last night very weak indeed.

 

[BenWilkerson]

Here’s my day after review of last night, Vault:XX imo was very fun and was the longest wait(1 hour w/ fire alarm fiasco) Frostbite seemed lackluster after last year, DD was really fun and atmospheric, and Dystopia seemed like a cheap version of Deadline. The splits really killed Dystopia imo.

 

[mtorange]

I’m going to hold back a bit because I have not been to the event at all yet, so I cannot judge the mazes myself. I just want to say that Busch CLEARLY had the upper leg this year in Virginia theme-park Halloween events (marketing-wise) and they blew it in my mind. I feel bad because this will always be remembered as the start to the 20th anniversary of the event. They should’ve marketed last night as an open “preview” of the new mazes since it sounds like that was the only thing going on (other than the shows).

With that being said, I hope that I can make my way over to Williamsburg this upcoming Sunday. I’m still excited for my hopeful annual visit, but I hope they can fix a bunch of the problems that I’m hearing about before then.... especially Frostbite. Yikes.