Howl-O-Scream Williamsburg 2022

Official Website​

Howl-O-Scream: Virginia Halloween Event | Busch Gardens Williamsburg

The spirit of Halloween is unleashed at Howl-O-Scream! Find haunted houses, escape rooms, scare zones, live shows & roller coasters if you dare.

buschgardens.com

Attraction Lineup​

Haunted Houses​

1. Inferno [New] - Location: Pompeii (?)
2. Death Water Bayou [New] - Location: Festa Field
3. Nevermore Chapter 2 [New] (Updated & Relocated) - Location: Drachen Fire Station Building (?)
4. Witch of the Woods [Returning] - Location: Oktoberfest Woods Maze
5. KILLarney Diner [Returning] - Location: Ireland Simulator

Terror-Tories™​

1. Dead A-head [New] - Location: France
2. Gorgon Gardens [New] - Location: Italy Gardens
3. Scary Tale Road [New] - Location: Rhinefield
4. Meat Market [Returning] - Location: New France
5. Ripper Row [Returning] - Location: England

+ Roaming Hack Pack [Returning] - Location: Where you least expect it​

Shows​

1. Jack is Back [Returning] - Location: Ireland
2. Phantoms of the Festhaus [Returning] - Location: Festhaus
3. Skeletones [Returning] - Location: San Marco
4. Monster Stomp® on Ripper Row [Returning] - Location: Globe Theatre

+ ZomBeats [Returning] - Location: France?​

Party Zones​

1. DJ Marie Antoinette Party Zone [New] - Location: France
2. DJ Masquerade Party Zone [New] - Location: Festa Italia

(These are listed as new, but seem to be in the same areas as the party zones in 2021)

BOOze Bars​

1. Stone-Cold Spirits [New] - Location: Italy Gardens
2. Pete's Provisions [New] - Location: New France
3. Back Alley Bar - Location: England
4. Jack's Nightcap - Location: Ireland
5. Frost Bar - Location: Oktoberfest
6. BarKastle Spirits - Location: Oktoberfest

 

[WDWRLD]

Korean BBQ in Festa.

 

[Aidansn07]

Korean BBQ in Festa.

View attachment 27816

The park would make so much more money if they just opened Marco Polo. They would no longer need the food trucks in the park.

 

[WDWRLD]

Update, Korean BBQ truck is out of everything but rice.

 

[Diamond Dave]

Update, Korean BBQ truck is out of everything but rice.

Shame, but good for them though, that means they've done good business. Probably will have more stock next time.

 

[WDWRLD]

The parks a mess…..we did find Sprite and Cokes in the bottle at the shop across from Darkastle……but they were warm. Glad we ate before we got here but I guess next time we need to bring drinks too……

What a absolute joke…..it’s 10pm, park closes at 11pm. Festhaus is closed.

This is just a snippet of how nasty Trappers is right now, right after they saw me filming they closed the doors. Debating if I will include this in tonight’s video or not. The mountains of trays in the flower bed is horrible, team
members were just looking at it. I understand people are pigs and shouldn’t leave their trash everywhere but come on…..don’t just leave it there.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

The Bibimbap at the Korean BBQ food truck is delicious! I prefer this dish in a stone pot (Dolsot Bibimbap), but the ingredients were very tasty and balanced.

 

[WDWRLD]

I must have missed the free pumpkin member perk……

 

[JoshH97]

I don’t normally comment here but found this to be particularly interesting so thought I would share!
Spoke to security tonight while in line at griffon around 9pm and he said so far they had had over 30 fights, 300 people banned, and someone came out one of the actors with a knife in witch of the woods, just tonight! He said they were being escorted out of the park right then and facing criminal charges. (as they should!) This had me and my fiancé wondering: 1. What’s the policy for something like that? Do they clear the maze or just keep it going and pull the affected people? 2. How did someone even get a knife in and really how safe are we? 3. How much worse is it gonna get since it’s only week 2

 

[horsesboy]

I don’t normally comment here but found this to be particularly interesting so thought I would share!
Spoke to security tonight while in line at griffon around 9pm and he said so far they had had over 30 fights, 300 people banned, and someone came out one of the actors with a knife in witch of the woods, just tonight! He said they were being escorted out of the park right then and facing criminal charges. (as they should!) This had me and my fiancé wondering: 1. What’s the policy for something like that? Do they clear the maze or just keep it going and pull the affected people? 2. How did someone even get a knife in and really how safe are we? 3. How much worse is it gonna get since it’s only week 2

My understanding based on conversations with several different people recently is that those numbers are correct but don't tell the whole story. BGW has adopted a fairly strict policy on addressing issues early and has been grabbing quick to evict and ban trouble makesrs. Those fights have been largely minor scuffles between I and two people not the all out braws we saw last year. Overall the event feels much safer to me this year.

 

[warfelg]

This is a clear as fuck sign that shit is getting overmicromanaged. The face that Kevin, and his departments, have zero flexibility to order drinks and give food trucks a heads up of what to expect.

I’m expecting there’s going to be a day where BGW is going to have to give out so many Busch Bucks that it’s going to piss off Scott to the level that he fires everyone or the board fires him.

And I really feel that’s the collision course we are heading for. Sure, I bet Scott loves to show those far away pictures of a crowded bar to make the board think it’s really packed, but when the bottom line starts to fall, despite pictures like that, somethings going to hit a make or break point.

 

[Jonesta6]

Doesn't Scott represent the majority shareholder, which is his own company? Something tells me he's not going anywhere

 

[warfelg]

Doesn't Scott represent the majority shareholder, which is his own company? Something tells me he's not going anywhere

Even though he’s the chairman, the board can still hold a vote of no confidence. As far as I know Hill Path Capital only owns 35% of SEAS (which makes them the majority), however if members of it’s board plus the 65% get together they can push him out.

 

[horsesboy]

This is a clear as fuck sign that shit is getting overmicromanaged. The face that Kevin, and his departments, have zero flexibility to order drinks and give food trucks a heads up of what to expect.

I’m expecting there’s going to be a day where BGW is going to have to give out so many Busch Bucks that it’s going to piss off Scott to the level that he fires everyone or the board fires him.

And I really feel that’s the collision course we are heading for. Sure, I bet Scott loves to show those far away pictures of a crowded bar to make the board think it’s really packed, but when the bottom line starts to fall, despite pictures like that, somethings going to hit a make or break point.

I honestly think you are making a huge leap in assuming that these things happened. Food trucks running out of stuff on a fairly busy day doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know what to expect. Also being out of drinks could have occurred for any number of reasons beyond Scott telling Kevin he couldn't order them. I am no fan of many of the changes that appear to have been forced by Scott and Hill Path but I honestly don't think you fan blame them for every issue that we see in the park

Even though he’s the chairman, the board can still hold a vote of no confidence. As far as I know Hill Path Capital only owns 35% of SEAS (which makes them the majority), however if members of it’s board plus the 65% get together they can push him out.

It's possible but as long as the returns continue to be good it is highly unlikely.

 

[WDWRLD]

I never thought I would see HOS needing a stroller parking area at each house but it has come to that. Every house last night had strollers parked at the entrance, we also encountered a couple where I guess the parents though they could push them through and were told no at the entrance. Then holding up the line for them to get kids out and park them while everyone waited. Another issue I see if face painting, while i’m sure they made good money last night I don’t think i’ve ever seen the lines at face painting as long as last night and it was all young kids. By having things that interests kids to the event to me makes it the parks fault for this increase in kids that shouldn’t be there.
Now on to the food and drink situation. All the small drink stands are closed. Festhaus had a line out into the lobby and they were enforcing standing in that just for soda refills. Trappers had a extended queue set up, Marco is closed. Pretzel
world had a extended queue, the bar across from Darkastle had a looong wait. The bottled drinks at the places we checked were running out and the ones we found at the shop across fromDarkastle the drinks were warm from either just being refilled out the cooler isnt working. Festhaus closed a hour before the park, trappers closed 45 minutes before the park closed, the candy store was closed and completely dark a couple
minutes after 11 and there was no where else in england open except the photo key and Emporium….i’m fact the candy store had already mopped the floors and dumped the soapy water into the street making it super slippery. The houses however had long lines but we never waited more than about 20 mimutes even though posted waits were at times 60 minutes. We finished all 5 houses easily by 10pm and saw show in Italy and all the scare zones. The roaming hordes were definitely getting the scares last night and the scare zones were just so so. The Bones show in San Marco was really good way better than the Gesthaus show IMO. Not only are the songs halloween themed but the audio is much clearer so you can actually hear the words. I know they parked across the street early in the day but we arrived about 4:30 and parked almost front row in preferred parking and there was plenty of spots around us. Coke market in Festa looks to have been updated but wasn’t open, actually there is t much HOS theming in Festa at all. By the end of the night the park was trashed and no one from the park really cleaning up anything. All in all a fun night and good to see the work packed again.

 

[warfelg]

I honestly think you are making a huge leap in assuming that these things happened. Food trucks running out of stuff on a fairly busy day doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know what to expect. Also being out of drinks could have occurred for any number of reasons beyond Scott telling Kevin he couldn't order them. I am no fan of many of the changes that appear to have been forced by Scott and Hill Path but I honestly don't think you fan blame them for every issue that we see in the park



It's possible but as long as the returns continue to be good it is highly unlikely.

I wish we had a shrug emoji because this isn’t the first time we’ve seen reports or low on drinks and outsourced stuff being run out of. I can’t really see how over time things would get worse from the same person in charge who’s in the field.

 

[JoshH97]

I never thought I would see HOS needing a stroller parking area at each house but it has come to that. Every house last night had strollers parked at the entrance, we also encountered a couple where I guess the parents though they could push them through and were told no at the entrance. Then holding up the line for them to get kids out and park them while everyone waited. Another issue I see if face painting, while i’m sure they made good money last night I don’t think i’ve ever seen the lines at face painting as long as last night and it was all young kids. By having things that interests kids to the event to me makes it the parks fault for this increase in kids that shouldn’t be there.
Now on to the food and drink situation. All the small drink stands are closed. Festhaus had a line out into the lobby and they were enforcing standing in that just for soda refills. Trappers had a extended queue set up, Marco is closed. Pretzel
world had a extended queue, the bar across from Darkastle had a looong wait. The bottled drinks at the places we checked were running out and the ones we found at the shop across fromDarkastle the drinks were warm from either just being refilled out the cooler isnt working. Festhaus closed a hour before the park, trappers closed 45 minutes before the park closed, the candy store was closed and completely dark a couple
minutes after 11 and there was no where else in england open except the photo key and Emporium….i’m fact the candy store had already mopped the floors and dumped the soapy water into the street making it super slippery. The houses however had long lines but we never waited more than about 20 mimutes even though posted waits were at times 60 minutes. We finished all 5 houses easily by 10pm and saw show in Italy and all the scare zones. The roaming hordes were definitely getting the scares last night and the scare zones were just so so. The Bones show in San Marco was really good way better than the Gesthaus show IMO. Not only are the songs halloween themed but the audio is much clearer so you can actually hear the words. I know they parked across the street early in the day but we arrived about 4:30 and parked almost front row in preferred parking and there was plenty of spots around us. Coke market in Festa looks to have been updated but wasn’t open, actually there is t much HOS theming in Festa at all. By the end of the night the park was trashed and no one from the park really cleaning up anything. All in all a fun night and good to see the work packed again.View attachment 27823

I noticed when we arrive around 3:30 they had already been parking Bavaria early in the day but not Germany or Ireland. Wondered why? The only thing we came up with was if people arrived at 10am they probably weren’t gonna stay until 11pm so the park wouldn’t need as many trams going to Bavaria at park close. Sure enough this seemed to be the case as about 11:15pm the tram line for Bavaria was significantly smaller than the regular line. Maybe this was a small logistics attempt to fix the transportation issues they faced last year. Anybody remember the outsourced greyhound buses?

 

[WDWRLD]

It’s done to avoid a huge crowd that will arrive just before HOS starts needing trams. It spreads the people out over the day because the day guests arrive over time and HOS crowds arrive around 5pm

 

[Coasternerd]

It’s done to avoid a huge crowd that will arrive just before HOS starts needing trams. It spreads the people out over the day because the day guests arrive over time and HOS crowds arrive around 5pm

Also if y’all remember, there is a lack of drivers with CDLs- probably easier to start parking in Scotland/Bavaria, which only has one tram stop, versus 3 lots with 2 tram stops.

 

[AlpenChrist97]

Several if the fairly gruesome Meat Market props are clearly visible today. I seem to recall BGW doing a better job hiding them before 5 last year. I saw at least one child that was not happy with the site.

Builds character

 

[basseyfish]

This park just sounds like an absolute mess this year. Jesus. Guess I know what im skipping for 2 years in a row lol I feel like Hunt Club is better at this point and theyve had the same line up for the last 10 years