We counted ourselfs lucky to have any kind of Halloween themed experience on our trip to Florida, but when things seemed to down and out for theme park events, Howl-O-Scream announced a all scare zone socially distant event! Now after getting over the excitement of being invited out for opening weekend we started poising questions as how exactly this would work. Would there be extended scare zones? Would they be like houses just without a roof? Well, yes and yes!
The event featured 10 scare zones (there is actually a hidden 11th) keeps their staff socially distant, so instead of scare actors roaming and getting in your face, they are stationary for the most part.
The scare actors will interact with you, but they work hard to keep that six feet of distance. This though does provide for some cool photo ops. HOWEVER while seven of the ten advertised are traditional scare zones, three of them are like big open air mazes! The Junkyard, Shortcut, and Lycan Landing are what you could call a maze considering the circumstances. The Junkyard took you through turns of old signs, cars and scrap metal that allowed the actors to startle with good jump scares from a distance. The shortcut was a very cool black lit that was supposed to simulate you taking a shortcut through a cemetery where some evil religious cult resides. Shortcut was the shortest of the 3, and I honestly wish that it was longer because the style of that path was super creepy!
Lastly, Lycan Landing was a lot of fun and my favorite of the three because I love Werewolves. This simulated a camping resort that had been overran with Lycans and they were definitely on the prowl. Howl-O-Scream also featured the return of The Fiend show which originally wasn't going to come back, but holy shit I'm glad this event had it! This show brought back Bill and Ted feels from HHN of yester year and had the crowd laughing and dancing along with antics taking place on stage. This show really is the corner stone of the modified event, and you should make it priority to to check it out. There are also several rides running during the event, however with no full haunts open, those lines got very long very fast.
The staff did a nice job with crowd management after we were inside. The front gate however was a little intense and don't count of too much social distance before you get inside, however this might be improved upon sense our visit as we were there the second night of the event. Overall is the lack of houses noticeable at this year's HOS? Absolutely. Was this event still a lot of fun and worth checking out if you're looking for a Halloween fix in a theme park? Without a doubt! So go check out Howl-O-Scream in Tampa, they're putting a great event together and helping save the greatest time of the year!