Back on September 20th, our group of friends ended up going to Howl-O-Scream Orlando (funny enough right after going to Halloween Horror Nights the night before). I’m so late writing up these blogs, but I’m motivated and trying to knock the ones planned out! I don’t have as many pictures since I was mostly taking video on my separate camera, so hopefully I will have time to put the video together for Howl-O-Scream as well as Halloween Horror Nights. Let’s get into it!
NYPD Pizza
One of my absolute favorite spots to eat near the parks is NYPD Pizza. Anything you order there is absolutely fantastic, from the appetizers to the main food. I didn’t get any pictures, but one of our friends ended up getting the garlic knots (which I highly recommend), so Matt and I split one so we could eat our actual personal pizzas. For the pizzas, I got the Rustic Salsiccia Pie, which has fresh mozzarella, Italian fennel sausage, caramelized onions, roasted garlic cloves, grated parmesan, accented with crushed red pepper, and I want to say Matt got the Da’ Bronx BBQ Chicken Pie, which has BBQ and pizza sauce topped with chicken, red onions, mozzarella. Both were absolutely perfect, and the best way of pregaming food for the parks.
Howl-O-Scream
After eating dinner, we ended up getting to the park just in time for opening, although we didn’t realize the gates open at 6:30 but the event starts at 7:00. The first area was the Ashes of the Forgotten, which I feel like were very generic punk looking scare actors roamed. Immediately there was a long line to the bathroom, and so we ended up hopping in the drink lines for our friends which, funny enough, wasn’t as long as the bathroom line. Matt and I didn’t end up getting drinks, but our friends did say that they paid $52 for two drinks including tips, which in my opinion is insane prices (although I don’t know what they ordered exactly).
Once the gates opened, we ended up walking through Blood Light District, which is a returning scare zone. It had a bunch of beautiful vampires in windows, similar to a red light district, and they would hit the windows as you walked through. I loved this area previously, and thought it was just as well this year. The only downside was we went through it while it was still light out, but thankfully we went back through later in the night once it was dark.
We ended up passing the first houses, Collector’s Curse and Rave Yard, due to them being where everyone was headed. We decided to try and go to the furthest houses to knock them out, so we started walking towards Water’s Edge Wellness Center. We had to go through Woodrot Hollow, which I loved the walk through. Every year they bring back the people in the ghillie suits, and they do a great job at it. This is probably the area where I had the most jumps because they actually get in the bushes along the walkway and jump out at you. Once again, it was daytime, and I really wish we walked through at night, but we didn’t get another chance to.
We got to Water’s Edge Wellness Center, which was apparently a returning one. I was expecting like a vacation hotel from the name because I didn’t remember the previous year, but it was more of a mental institution. I don’t think I got scared at this one, but it was a cool concept.
After Water’s Edge, we went to Farm 51, which I do remember from the previous year (last year the tenant made me go separate from the group, which was actually a lot of fun). There was a lot of corn fields and farms, and I actually had a lot of fun with this house! There are some people on bungie jumpers as well, which is a fun touch! This house actually lets out at Space Gate 3, which is the bar that is beside the Waterway Grill! We actually had major kudos to the wonderful bartender there. Matt and I each got a Riot Juice Ale Works, which is fantastic if you like something tart!
After grabbing drinks, we backtracked to go through Trailer Park Tragedy, which was a scare zone that I was looking forward to, because I saw some fun videos of it online. Unfortunately we speed walked through, so I didn’t even get to see much of the area or interactions. It did look like it was well done, though.
A small group of us took a pause to jump in line for Mako, because it had a 5 minute wait. We ended up waiting a little bit extra to get front row, which was really cool! I love doing the roller coasters at night during these events because usually the waits are super low!
Once we got off of the roller coaster, we met up with our friends at Full Throttle, and then went over to The Widow’s Nest. I think this was one of my favorite houses, because it was supposed to be a decaying and insane orphanage. I really loved the building facade of the house, with it being an old building, and I thought the moving stroller outside of it was a pretty cool touch. This house they did a really great job at creepy, which is why I thought this was one of the better houses.
Our next stop was through Cannibal Harbor, which is where they had their chainsaw people as well as a small set up that kind of reminded me of Texas Chainsaw. When I say small, it was tiny. There was only one set piece, and only a handful of scare actors. I feel like it would have been a really cool area if they expanded on it.
We had also cut through the Echoes in the Glass scare zone, which was an area filled with mirrors, which was a cool concept but I feel like it was missing something. One of the scare actors in this area ended up yelling at a girl who screamed, which whether it was in character or not I thought was a bit odd.
Our group decided to circle back to the first two houses that we missed, so we walked towards Rave Yard first. I was really expecting this house to be more neon colors and loud rave music, because the line was playing some fun music! Once we got into the house though it was not what I expected. It was more of a graveyard with some raver scare actors. It was more weird than anything, because I feel like it could have been a lot more fun. There was only one room that was brightly colored and neon, but I feel like because the rest of the house wasn’t the greatest this room didn’t make up for it.
The last house that we did was Collector’s Curse, which I had some personal things going on at this time so I really don’t remember much of this house unfortunately.
Once we got through the last house, we ended up heading towards the exit due to it being close to closing. I do wish we kind of hung out to enjoy more of the houses and areas, but it was a good year! This is the 3rd year we’ve done Howl-O-Scream, and although it’s not as big as Halloween Horror Nights, Matt and I still appreciate the effort that they put in the event. There are some strong parts and some weak points, but it’s still a fun event for the season!