Howl-O-Scream Williamsburg 2021
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
BGWFans just posted an article comparing the Howl-O-Screams at BGW, BGT, and SWO.
bgwfans.com
Comparing All Three East Coast 2021 Howl-O-Scream Events – BGWFans
Last weekend Zachary and I flew to Florida and back so that we could experience Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights and the opening weekends of all three east coast Howl-O-Scream events (Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Tampa, and SeaWorld Orlando). Initially, we had...
bgwfans.com
It's funny you should bring that up. My sister took out her camera and I don't think they said anything. If that's the case; I will be super excited about going back on October 30th.
I’m here to film them all tonight so let’s see how it goes. I’m sure in typical BGW fashion results will vary.
FYI….no problem filming and in fact the scare actors really played to the camera. I missed so many jumps on camera because I got them all and there just wasn’t enough time to pan from side to side without making the video unwatchable. Even around the park, the scare actors played up to the camera.
IDK what you guys said or did within the last week, but the event was absolutely on point last night.
Most of the mazes were fully staffed to the gills. Some scenes had 2-3 people when you normally wouldn't see anyone. Most of the scare zones had actors on top of actors. It was ridiculous.
I don't think I've been this impressed with the event since Lumberhack and Cornered were introduced.
Witch of the Woods - really well done. Lumberhack was beginning to feel a little tired so changing this maze up a bit was a breath of fresh air. Some scenes had tons of actors roaming around. The fog was a little crazy in spots so I got a little turned around.
Nevermore - This thing lasted forever. Unfortunately despite the maze being extremely long, the maze suffers from lots of dead space. I was still really impressed though. It doesn't make up for losing Darkastle but its really good in its own right.
Killarney Diner - Another really long maze filled to the brim with actors everywhere. Unfortunately I wish they took advantage of the really long queue at the end and had actors and props in there like in years past.
Dystopia - had a lot more actors than in years past. Maze was pretty intense actually. I haven't seen this many actors in here since Deadline's best year a couple years ago.
Circo Sinestro - This was the only maze that felt like it really needed help. Lots of dead space and probably the fewest actors in the whole park. Preshow is pretty much gone. A lot of the tents felt really empty too. Got turned around in the flashy tent because the people in front of us got turned around. The pirate maze and Fear Fair before it may have had cheap props and weak scares but those were still better decorated compared to this one.
Scare zones were pretty on point too. Hexed Hollow and Meat Market were the standouts. Hexed had tons of actors roaming around. At least 10-11 at any given time. Follow that up with all the chainsaw guys in Meat Market chasing everyone around. While it wasn't as well staffed, the actors pretty much had free roam of the New France area. Ripper Row isn't as intense as it used to be but its still full of actors and I got jumped a couple times. They really need to bring back the umbrella ladies and add a few more Jack the Rippers to the zone to bring it back to the way it should be though. Garden of Souls was pretty devoid of actors. I hope they add more in the future.
I'm glad the park is moving towards a few more set party zones. The France one should be moved back to the old spot by the bathrooms or move it near Griffon's splash zone where the ice cream parlor seating is. The park wasn't that crowded yesterday but that area felt really cramped. The Festa zone was in a slightly better spot, but that suffers from people crowding around the maze entrance so its harder to find. Maybe move it by the Festhaus in the area where the maypole used to be. Oktoberfest always seemed more like a party area to me with all the bars and the rock music playing anyway. Bring back the mini scare zone by Pesto or add clowns back to the bridge.
A lot of the signature props like the headless horseman carriage and the sleeping vampire are gone. Its weird because the park is selling pins based on those but they're nowhere to be found in the park. I miss the spider bridge too. Scotland's spider props are cool during the day but they're really hard to see at night. They should cover up more of the area in webs and maybe play the spider sound effects from the spider bridge to drive the point home.
I'm hoping the park adds more props to the scare zones like they have in years past. Many of the zones still feel kinda bare
Overall a really strong second weekend for HOS. Normally HOS in September has serious growing pains but it seems BGW learned really quickly from their mistakes in years past. Let's hope it stays like this for the rest of the event and into future events.
Most of the mazes were fully staffed to the gills. Some scenes had 2-3 people when you normally wouldn't see anyone. Most of the scare zones had actors on top of actors. It was ridiculous.
I don't think I've been this impressed with the event since Lumberhack and Cornered were introduced.
Witch of the Woods - really well done. Lumberhack was beginning to feel a little tired so changing this maze up a bit was a breath of fresh air. Some scenes had tons of actors roaming around. The fog was a little crazy in spots so I got a little turned around.
Nevermore - This thing lasted forever. Unfortunately despite the maze being extremely long, the maze suffers from lots of dead space. I was still really impressed though. It doesn't make up for losing Darkastle but its really good in its own right.
Killarney Diner - Another really long maze filled to the brim with actors everywhere. Unfortunately I wish they took advantage of the really long queue at the end and had actors and props in there like in years past.
Dystopia - had a lot more actors than in years past. Maze was pretty intense actually. I haven't seen this many actors in here since Deadline's best year a couple years ago.
Circo Sinestro - This was the only maze that felt like it really needed help. Lots of dead space and probably the fewest actors in the whole park. Preshow is pretty much gone. A lot of the tents felt really empty too. Got turned around in the flashy tent because the people in front of us got turned around. The pirate maze and Fear Fair before it may have had cheap props and weak scares but those were still better decorated compared to this one.
Scare zones were pretty on point too. Hexed Hollow and Meat Market were the standouts. Hexed had tons of actors roaming around. At least 10-11 at any given time. Follow that up with all the chainsaw guys in Meat Market chasing everyone around. While it wasn't as well staffed, the actors pretty much had free roam of the New France area. Ripper Row isn't as intense as it used to be but its still full of actors and I got jumped a couple times. They really need to bring back the umbrella ladies and add a few more Jack the Rippers to the zone to bring it back to the way it should be though. Garden of Souls was pretty devoid of actors. I hope they add more in the future.
I'm glad the park is moving towards a few more set party zones. The France one should be moved back to the old spot by the bathrooms or move it near Griffon's splash zone where the ice cream parlor seating is. The park wasn't that crowded yesterday but that area felt really cramped. The Festa zone was in a slightly better spot, but that suffers from people crowding around the maze entrance so its harder to find. Maybe move it by the Festhaus in the area where the maypole used to be. Oktoberfest always seemed more like a party area to me with all the bars and the rock music playing anyway. Bring back the mini scare zone by Pesto or add clowns back to the bridge.
A lot of the signature props like the headless horseman carriage and the sleeping vampire are gone. Its weird because the park is selling pins based on those but they're nowhere to be found in the park. I miss the spider bridge too. Scotland's spider props are cool during the day but they're really hard to see at night. They should cover up more of the area in webs and maybe play the spider sound effects from the spider bridge to drive the point home.
I'm hoping the park adds more props to the scare zones like they have in years past. Many of the zones still feel kinda bare
Overall a really strong second weekend for HOS. Normally HOS in September has serious growing pains but it seems BGW learned really quickly from their mistakes in years past. Let's hope it stays like this for the rest of the event and into future events.
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I am hoping and praying the staffing stays strong throughout the event so when my family comes down in early October they get a good show.
Alright. So it is worth going back on October 30th. I really feel the first weekend of Howl-O-Scream's operation was everyone getting into the groove of things. None to worry. That's every job in America. Who starts off throwing touchdowns out the wood work unless your Peyton Manning. So I can assume it will be safe that the event will be worth it on October 30th.
Alright Bois. Here's my official 2021 Howl-o-Scream review!
Didn't go into any of the houses, but I went into most of the scarezones.
Hexed Hollow: Pretty OK. I don't think there are enough actors to really be a good scarezone. Not saying it's bad though.
Meat Market: I have one word: WOW! Tons of actors, and good ones at that! They actually got me a couple times with the chainsaws. They chased one of my friends because she kept screaming. And don't even get me started about the props. They were cool. I like gore. (I'm dead inside, sue me) and there was lots of it.
That concludes my howl o scream review. I give it 8/10.
Didn't go into any of the houses, but I went into most of the scarezones.
Hexed Hollow: Pretty OK. I don't think there are enough actors to really be a good scarezone. Not saying it's bad though.
Meat Market: I have one word: WOW! Tons of actors, and good ones at that! They actually got me a couple times with the chainsaws. They chased one of my friends because she kept screaming. And don't even get me started about the props. They were cool. I like gore. (I'm dead inside, sue me) and there was lots of it.
That concludes my howl o scream review. I give it 8/10.
New props and decorations from this weekend.
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I think we could have all seen this coming.
My interpretation would be they believe the highest risk bags come with guests only attending HOS, and thus arrive after 4 PM. I guess we'll see.
This is a massive pain in the ass for those of us who have one person in the group with a bag to contain jackets and whatnot. Though allowing those who showed up earlier to keep their bags on helps with this, it starts a new issue. I could see a group showing up at 4:30, being told they can't bring their bags in so they drop them off in the car, and then once they get into the park they see people (who had been there all day) with bags on and be extremely irate with guest relations about what they see as "how come THEY get to have a bag??"
Dumbest policy in the history of policys. Why didnt they just say this....
Dut to the fact we only want to pay one person to check bags and the larger number of people showing up to HOS between 4-6pm we chose to just not let guests bring in bags during that time. If you want to bring a bag get here early otherwise tough luck on you but we need to save that $12 per hour we would have paid a extra bag checker. But not to worry, we have plenty of HOS 2021cinch bags for sale in the emporium you can buy and put all your stuff in once you get in the park.....so no this is not a issue of safety with people having bags in our houses its just a issue of we dont give a shit about you.
Dut to the fact we only want to pay one person to check bags and the larger number of people showing up to HOS between 4-6pm we chose to just not let guests bring in bags during that time. If you want to bring a bag get here early otherwise tough luck on you but we need to save that $12 per hour we would have paid a extra bag checker. But not to worry, we have plenty of HOS 2021cinch bags for sale in the emporium you can buy and put all your stuff in once you get in the park.....so no this is not a issue of safety with people having bags in our houses its just a issue of we dont give a shit about you.
I agree wholeheartedly with @WDWRLD here. The park is just trying to avoid having to adequately staff bag check when pre-HOS crowds start to pour in. SeaWorld Orlando pulled this same shit and expressly said that's why they were doing it.
I hope people are fucking outranged over this policy and make their voices heard. It's fucking fall in the Mid-Atlantic—it's about to start getting really cold in the evenings. Am I supposed to wear a heavy coat into the park at 4pm and just keep it on until it gets cold? It belongs in my bag until I need it—just like my raincoat and umbrella when there's a chance of rain.
Time to adopt the SeaWorld Strat I guess—carry armfuls of stuff into the park and then get a paper bag from a gift shop to put it all into. What a fucked up timeline.
I hope people are fucking outranged over this policy and make their voices heard. It's fucking fall in the Mid-Atlantic—it's about to start getting really cold in the evenings. Am I supposed to wear a heavy coat into the park at 4pm and just keep it on until it gets cold? It belongs in my bag until I need it—just like my raincoat and umbrella when there's a chance of rain.
Time to adopt the SeaWorld Strat I guess—carry armfuls of stuff into the park and then get a paper bag from a gift shop to put it all into. What a fucked up timeline.
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As someone who had to carry a SEAS paper bag of SWO HOS merch through some of Orlando's houses, I can attest to this being a real problem. My SWO HOS experience was made way worse by having to constantly gaurd that stupid bag in houses. That merch would have easily gone into my normal shoulder bag and I wouldn't have had to worry about it hitting anyone, the bag being broken, spilling out in a house, etc.
That will work great on rainy nights when those bags turn to mush.