Just starting the talk of howl o scream 2026, and I can’t help but wonder why my howl o scream, SeaWorld Orlando cut multiple days this year. It’s going on for a shorter time period which is a bit wierd as I thought they were very profitable from each night. I hope one day they can expand howl o scream to the whole park. Or atleast to manta and kraken as I’d love those to be included in the event.
Event SeaWorld Orlando Howl-O-Scream 2026
- Thread starter Roller_coaster11111
- Start date
First Announcement
Everything Must Stay
“For six years, one suburban home has sat unsold while every open house ends the same way: terrified buyers fleeing from things they can’t explain. Tonight, those unseen forces awaken, and you’ll find yourself trapped inside for the worst showing imaginable”
Everything Must Stay
“For six years, one suburban home has sat unsold while every open house ends the same way: terrified buyers fleeing from things they can’t explain. Tonight, those unseen forces awaken, and you’ll find yourself trapped inside for the worst showing imaginable”
Attachments
They hired the same company that does BGT, I forgot what it’s called but they do work for HHN too. They made M.A.R.S, Stranglewood, Wonderland and Circus Of Fear. So I’d say it’s in good hands
Unless you think those houses are the mentioned trash lol
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Sorry, no, I was responding to @MrBradferd's Williamsburg comment. I'll move those posts over to BGW's thread.
Circus of Fear, in its first year at least, was a masterpiece. Easily one of the best non-HHN house builds I've ever seen—right up there with Ghost in the Machine at Dorney. Incredibly sophisticated work. Wonderland was also very good. Haven't made it out for M.A.R.S. yet.
If they're contracting that company (do we know a name?) for SWO's IP house, I'm definitely intrigued. Could be a major improvement for SWO's HOS which I believe has also trended far more amateur-ish than BGT's over the years.
Circus of Fear, in its first year at least, was a masterpiece. Easily one of the best non-HHN house builds I've ever seen—right up there with Ghost in the Machine at Dorney. Incredibly sophisticated work. Wonderland was also very good. Haven't made it out for M.A.R.S. yet.
If they're contracting that company (do we know a name?) for SWO's IP house, I'm definitely intrigued. Could be a major improvement for SWO's HOS which I believe has also trended far more amateur-ish than BGT's over the years.
honestly haven't seen much buzz or construction updates on howl o scream orlando but its looking like a promising year to me.
More shows i mean i loved monster stomp but it's exactly the same every year. Very excited for what they do with i know what you did last summer, and rave yard is a welcome addition.
Dont know how the other houses will turn out But all i can hope for is for no shortage of scareactors. Had that happen to me before. honestly some scarezones returning look like they have a few more props this year which is good to see for immersion, and i hope they just bring a noticeably larger budget to the event this year in all there houses. Not to say hhn level but I just hope there isn't a major drop in quality between i know what you did last summer and the rest of the houses. High hopes!
Lastly i hope they can just really fill in that dead space they have around there park, at least with some sort of music and ambiance or something.
More shows i mean i loved monster stomp but it's exactly the same every year. Very excited for what they do with i know what you did last summer, and rave yard is a welcome addition.
Dont know how the other houses will turn out But all i can hope for is for no shortage of scareactors. Had that happen to me before. honestly some scarezones returning look like they have a few more props this year which is good to see for immersion, and i hope they just bring a noticeably larger budget to the event this year in all there houses. Not to say hhn level but I just hope there isn't a major drop in quality between i know what you did last summer and the rest of the houses. High hopes!
Lastly i hope they can just really fill in that dead space they have around there park, at least with some sort of music and ambiance or something.
I'm actually very interested to check out the event this year. It has been a couple years since I've been and I left WILDLY unimpressed previously, but with four new houses this year, the event looks almost entirely new on paper. And, on paper, the lineup of house and scarezone themes look both novel and well-thought-out. There's the makings of something potentially quite strong here I think—but we'll have to see how much money and talent went into these house builds and whether or not SeaWorld has grown the ability to hire and train quality casts. Of all of the park visits I have planned for this haunt season, this is the one I'm most intrigued by.
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Yea I’m just always interested in seeing howl o scream SeaWorld Orlando each year becuase it’s newer with this being its only 6th year and they seem to be growing each year. I do hope the quality boosts up even more this year especially in the scare zones which in my opinion need it most but and a simple fix like a more consistent amount of scare actors for the haunted houses would be great.
Per multiple people in the park, there is no stay and scream.
Edit: Guest Services was wrong. There is a stay and scream.
Edit: Guest Services was wrong. There is a stay and scream.
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I was gonna say lol, it should be there
slugBehold….. The face of true terror….
All of the houses at this event range from normal-chain-park-haunt-event-mediocre to bad-event-bad except for I Know What You Did Last Summer which is actually quite strong—even amongst the best non-HHN events. I'd compare it to one of Hershey's best DarkNights houses scenically and atmospherically, but with a far more competent cast. Really strong showing. Does make the rest of the event look extra bad though.
Whatever contractor they brought in for this new flagship IP house though, excellent work. Good effects, a ton of simple animatronics for distraction scares, excellent environmentals and lighting—feels like Horror Nights Lite which is exactly what this event should be delivering. Build one house a year of this quality, keep the previous quality houses online, and this event could be topping tier 2 of the industry five years from now. There's real potential.
Whatever contractor they brought in for this new flagship IP house though, excellent work. Good effects, a ton of simple animatronics for distraction scares, excellent environmentals and lighting—feels like Horror Nights Lite which is exactly what this event should be delivering. Build one house a year of this quality, keep the previous quality houses online, and this event could be topping tier 2 of the industry five years from now. There's real potential.
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I am here to explain how amazing SWO’s HOS truly is! I have never laughed so hard at a haunt and had a fantastic night. In the past, this event seemed to be nothing but sex workers and booze. Tonight, however, whether intentionally or not, the strippers and bars were overlaid with things that were ironically and darkly hilarious. I am choosing to believe that SWO decided to make fun of serious, scary haunts and that I am laughing with them.
Before I go any further, I want to say that the casts across the board were great. They were telling the stories, interacting in character, and making a real effort. I also seriously believe that the scare zones (as in the past) stood out as the strongest aspect of the event.
That said, OMG, I really hope the event is laughing at itself, because it would brilliant if SWO were in on the joke.
Also! Kudos to whoever structured the path. Guests are clearly meant to visit the houses going counterclockwise around the loop. The mazes are even numbered 1-5. (We actually went backwards, which worked much better for lines.) The houses are pretty much in order from best to worst if you going in counting order. Since there are bars and kiosks selling booze everywhere, that means that you go through the best house when you are the most sober and by the time you get to The Slug House you are too drunk to notice how fundamentally stupid the premise is and blank the walls are.
Anyway, the comic genius of SWO’s HOS cannot be overstated. Just a few examples of why I laughed from beginning to end:
1. The Slug House! There is an entire maze that seems to be themed to people being attacked by giant, plush slugs. Best monster ever!
2. Speaking of plushes. The house that is either about an estate sale with haunted items or the sale of a haunted house (it is unclear which) had several rooms with creepy dolls, including plushes. But more importantly, there were two rooms that you could see into that were completely covered in plushes. SeaWorld leaned into their preference for using plushes in their theming! This has to be self-aware, right?
3. The maze themed to a rave that I guess woke the dead in a graveyard had the best on-liner of the night. As we entered, a girl apparently leaving the undead rave said, “you don’t look like my Uber driver.” Honestly, everyone in that house seemed to have a sense of humor.
4. There is a trailer park scare zone! We were called “rude” for walking across someone’s yard and not saying “hi.”
5. I was propositioned multiple times by men in leather in the fan fic scare zone. Yes! They have a fan fic scare zone. At an event that has simulated sex workers everywhere! 10/10
Anyway. To summarize. Great casts. Sex workers. Alcohol. And hilarity, because there is no way this is meant to be a serious haunt.
One caveat: The I Know What You Did Last Summer house was legitimately good, and even sometimes intentionally funny.
Before I go any further, I want to say that the casts across the board were great. They were telling the stories, interacting in character, and making a real effort. I also seriously believe that the scare zones (as in the past) stood out as the strongest aspect of the event.
That said, OMG, I really hope the event is laughing at itself, because it would brilliant if SWO were in on the joke.
Also! Kudos to whoever structured the path. Guests are clearly meant to visit the houses going counterclockwise around the loop. The mazes are even numbered 1-5. (We actually went backwards, which worked much better for lines.) The houses are pretty much in order from best to worst if you going in counting order. Since there are bars and kiosks selling booze everywhere, that means that you go through the best house when you are the most sober and by the time you get to The Slug House you are too drunk to notice how fundamentally stupid the premise is and blank the walls are.
Anyway, the comic genius of SWO’s HOS cannot be overstated. Just a few examples of why I laughed from beginning to end:
1. The Slug House! There is an entire maze that seems to be themed to people being attacked by giant, plush slugs. Best monster ever!
2. Speaking of plushes. The house that is either about an estate sale with haunted items or the sale of a haunted house (it is unclear which) had several rooms with creepy dolls, including plushes. But more importantly, there were two rooms that you could see into that were completely covered in plushes. SeaWorld leaned into their preference for using plushes in their theming! This has to be self-aware, right?
3. The maze themed to a rave that I guess woke the dead in a graveyard had the best on-liner of the night. As we entered, a girl apparently leaving the undead rave said, “you don’t look like my Uber driver.” Honestly, everyone in that house seemed to have a sense of humor.
4. There is a trailer park scare zone! We were called “rude” for walking across someone’s yard and not saying “hi.”
5. I was propositioned multiple times by men in leather in the fan fic scare zone. Yes! They have a fan fic scare zone. At an event that has simulated sex workers everywhere! 10/10
Anyway. To summarize. Great casts. Sex workers. Alcohol. And hilarity, because there is no way this is meant to be a serious haunt.
One caveat: The I Know What You Did Last Summer house was legitimately good, and even sometimes intentionally funny.
No. It starts with really in-your-face, confusing, climate-policy-related political messaging that I can't make heads or tails of (but left me very uncomfortable in a bad way) and then it's sorta a largely random-feeling collection of vaguely cyberpunk, minimally-themed rooms. There is a bit that literally feels like a direct, bad knockoff of Cybergoria, but timeline wise, that doesn't make sense. Maybe Uni fired someone mid-Cybergoria development? If you do both houses, you'll see it instantly—the one scene is basically identical. I also feel like Darknet just isn't done yet (same opinion re: the slug house, for the record)? The casino and bar rooms are like 75% empty. What is done though is extreme levels of amateur hour. I'd put it on par with a mid-level, recent BGW house build (read: feels like it was designed by someone who lied on their resume, has never seen a quality house before in their lives, but gave it the ol' college try—ultimately failing to produce anything passable).
I know this is going to be a useless comparison for 99% of people as the number of folks who have done both is absurdly small, but I put SWO's event overall on par with Kennywood's. Like Kennywood, it has casts that are really dedicated to their performances and it has an outsized focus on story, but the house builds are, on average, bad, the environmentals, on average, are amateur-ish, most of the houses aren't built to scare at all, and the resulting product is, similarly, super mediocre. The issue, of course, is that Kennywood is a non-upcharge event at a regional amusement park while SWO is running a crazy expensive, upcharge Halloween event at a destination-ish theme park down the road from BGT and Uni.
Can't in good conscious recommend this event to any non-locals right now, but, as I said in my earlier post, I Know What You Did Last Summer is really very good and, if SWO stays on that new course in the years ahead, we could be having a very different conversation a few years from now.
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