I'm a little late on this but as a bit of a last hurrah for Halloween, I decided to do a quick write up about my last visit to HOS Tampa and what might be my last visit there for a while. I've always been a fan of Tampa's event, but this year felt way off.
The mazes
Forgotten - this one was meh. Zero staffing, zero energy from the actors. Its a shame because it was great last year
Witch of the Woods - another dud unfortunately. Zero energy, theme is meh. I thought Williamsburg had the more intense version funny enough
Circus - Dead Water Bayou was getting really long in the tooth so I'm glad they changed it out. This maze was pretty solid. Actors didn't really do much unfortunately
Residence - a solid maze this year. Actors were pretty good here. It was decently staffed as well.
Straglewood - this is the park's signature maze right now. Unfortunately, the actors here weren't as good as last year's event.
Scare zones all kinda blended together TBH, the park removed all the bean shakers so that was a huge negative. The Vegas one was great. I liked the Scarecrow one a lot too. The others were forgettable.
The biggest problem I had with the event was that it was weak. The actors mostly have no energy so the scare zones and mazes suffer hard. If I'm paying $55 to attend a haunt, I expect it to perform really well. It really shows too because what used to be a fairly crowded Friday night in October ended up being a virtual ghost town. One of my drinking buddies experienced the same thing last weekend. A Sunday this close to Halloween shouldn't be THAT dead, especially when HHN is pulling record breaking crowds.
This park really needs to change their Halloween setup. Either include it with park admission, lower entry prices or pay their actors better. I remember not even a few years ago when the park had 7-8 mazes. They've been slowly cutting back over the past few years and it really shows.
The mazes
Forgotten - this one was meh. Zero staffing, zero energy from the actors. Its a shame because it was great last year
Witch of the Woods - another dud unfortunately. Zero energy, theme is meh. I thought Williamsburg had the more intense version funny enough
Circus - Dead Water Bayou was getting really long in the tooth so I'm glad they changed it out. This maze was pretty solid. Actors didn't really do much unfortunately
Residence - a solid maze this year. Actors were pretty good here. It was decently staffed as well.
Straglewood - this is the park's signature maze right now. Unfortunately, the actors here weren't as good as last year's event.
Scare zones all kinda blended together TBH, the park removed all the bean shakers so that was a huge negative. The Vegas one was great. I liked the Scarecrow one a lot too. The others were forgettable.
The biggest problem I had with the event was that it was weak. The actors mostly have no energy so the scare zones and mazes suffer hard. If I'm paying $55 to attend a haunt, I expect it to perform really well. It really shows too because what used to be a fairly crowded Friday night in October ended up being a virtual ghost town. One of my drinking buddies experienced the same thing last weekend. A Sunday this close to Halloween shouldn't be THAT dead, especially when HHN is pulling record breaking crowds.
This park really needs to change their Halloween setup. Either include it with park admission, lower entry prices or pay their actors better. I remember not even a few years ago when the park had 7-8 mazes. They've been slowly cutting back over the past few years and it really shows.