Tampa Florida Busch Gardens Howl-o-Scream - Is it Scary?

This October Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida has their annual Halloween theme at night where the entire theme park is turned into an interactive horror park titled Howl-o-Scream. Many people who consider going want to first know if it is scary, and if it is worth the ticket price. Even if you have been to the standard daytime Busch Gardens the nighttime Halloween version is completely different. When you first enter the park you are ‘greeted’ by people who look like they came out of Night of the Living Dead. Once in the park you need to be constantly ready to be scared as many of the people you see (or DON’T see) are really part of the theme park – zombies will come out of nowhere, and morbid clowns (yes, CLOWNS) will warn you to turn back!

The haunted houses and shows include: Trapped in the Walls, Taste of Blood, Night Shade Toys, Deder Extreme Rush, Deconstruction, Alone, Fiends, Death Row, My X Revenge Rocks – this one is part of the music theme with the band My X – You can also see the band play at several times during the night at an open stage in the park.

Club X is the 21+ night club which is near the entrance to Busch Gardens. This club is Halloween themed, serves mixed drinks, and plays constant club music.

As you walk around the park there are ‘scare zones’ which are set up with different themes – many of these you have to walk through to get to different parts of the park. One of the best ones is Spiders and Snakes as there is intense fog and faint lighting. There are real people trapped in spider webs pleading for help. Some of the characters in these zones will jump out and scare you when you least expect it. These areas, like the haunted houses, are great to go through the first time, and scarier when you go through them the second time because you KNOW what things happen, you just don’t always remember exactly when or where because the order of events change each time through.

Even when you are not in a scare zone there are the characters wandering the park while horror movie music can be heard wherever you walk.

If you go to Howl-o-Scream get yourself psyched up by watching a really good scary movie before you go, such as Halloween or Friday the 13th. Walking through the park will make you feel like you are right in one of those movies!

A plus is that the other rides in the park are operational, so you can go on the roller coasters and other rides at night. The park isn’t very busy this time of the year, which is a plus, so you can be first in line for nearly every haunted house and the rides.

So, is Howl-o-Scream Scary? Yes! It runs from 7:30pm to either 1am or 2am, depending on the night (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, plus Halloween night) You can get more info at tampa.howl-o-scream.com

Story written and photos taken October 2010 by www.SharingFlorida.com