Deen on Deck. It's a travel blog.

It’s only when October comes into view that the haunt season truly begins in my heart.  This year, I got the bones rolling with Seaworld Orlando’s Howl-O-Scream: Freeze or Burn (I literally JUST got the pun there). Here are the wins, the losses, and a few tips for YOUR trip that I wish I’d actually followed.

What I paid: $36 per person, plus tax (this post was not sponsored) – that was the passholder discounted price through the end of September.  At press time, tickets start at $48.99, so you’re saving a lot over Orlando’s other Halloween theme park events, and there are still some discounts available (passholder, student and Taco Bell)   

Was it worth it? I’d say… It is. For the price.  It was somewhat crowded, and not super well organized, but our group still had a great time. We were able to do three out of five houses (with waits anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour), all scare zones, and both shows. Mako and Pipeline coasters had no wait.  Front Line Fear Passes will run you an extra $99 pp on a Friday night. We didn’t purchase those, but if we had, we’d have easily been able to do all 5 houses.  Honestly, we probably could have anyway, but we’re old and we got tired.   

The Good Parts: 

1. The BAT SH*T crazy Siren theming.  Did you know that sirens and “other dangerous sea creatures” are REALLY mad at humans for polluting the oceans and we’re gonna pay TONIGHT? Well… they are and I’m here for it.  If, like me, you miss the lunacy of the crazier Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream themes (Raven Twins, anyone? House of Vain Vampire Modeling Agency???) – then you’re gonna like this.  You’re gonna like it a LOT.
2. The Monster Stomp: Slasher Alley show. Everyone raves about this show and it really is that good.  Something about being in Orlando raises the bar a little, I think – definitely a cut above the Busch Gardens Tampa offerings with its great production quality. Who knew the alt-hits of a few years ago would seem so at home in 1890’s Whitechapel?  

3. That little hint of danger… In this litigious world of safe predictability, it’s rare to experience something a little…iffy.  Here, the scare actors don’t seem to stick to a script like they do with some haunts, and the houses aren’t part of any franchise. There were some genuine surprises. Like when a clown grabbed one of our phones and started screaming “Hiiiii, daddy” into it.  I also wasn’t really expecting the Blood Light District scare zone to actually portray, well… who do you typically find in a red light district?  Ladies and gentlemen of the evening, that’s who.

The Bad:

1.  It’s not well organized.  Where to begin with this?  Seaworld Howl-O-Scream doesn’t have its own app and there’s no way to determine wait times.  Not even signs outside of the houses.  You can ask cast members – but when we started hearing estimates anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours, we realized they were… guessing, essentially.   

2. Not enough scare actors.  I know that this is an industry-wide problem, but there were long stretches in some houses with just nothing and no one in them.  Most houses felt quite short. Sometimes we’d enter a scare zone and find ourselves asking : “Has it started yet?  Is this part of it?”  That was disappointing.  

3. They could get you through a lot faster.  HHN catches heat for its “Conga line” approach (not splitting patrons into smaller groups to enter the houses), because of the spoiler aspect of seeing the scares happening ahead of you.  With so few scare actors that the jump scares aren’t really being reset anyway, this doesn’t matter as much here. Use the conga line approach, Seaworld, and cut those wait times in half. 

4. $17 Drinks.  Now, they weren’t bad drinks, mind you, they were actually pretty potent and had fun themes like blood bags, syringes, or being named for a Siren (Flame is the best).  But come on, $17?  The food was also crazy expensive. 

Pro tip: if you’re a bit foolhardy like me and want the gimmicky Siren drinks at any cost, then buy the lanyard.  $40 gets you two drinks and one food item and would’ve been a much better deal than the king’s ransom yours truly paid.  

Pro tip #2: Get there as soon as gates open (official start time is 7, but they really start letting people in at 6) – and head to the house FARTHEST from the gate. Do that first with no wait, and work your way back out to the front.  Did we do this?  Nope.  We went to the very first house we came to and waited for it for an hour.  Don’t be us!  But, those pomegranate blood bags definitely helped ease the pain of our mistakes…