It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well, for me at least! I love the month of October. Everyone’s in the holiday spirit, counting down the days ‘til the holidays begin. I also have to mention that autumn is such a beautiful time of year; the chilly weather, spooky stories and fun events. In Florida, we usually don’t get much chilly weather but hey, we have Halloween Horror Nights and/or Howl-O-Scream to look forward to!
During October, my friends and I usually decide to visit Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios located in Orlando, Florida. It opens during mid or end of September and doesn’t end until early November, so folks have plenty of time to go get scared! Another great spooky park to visit this October is Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, where they host Howl-O-Scream. I’ve only been once before, but it was such a great time!
What to expect?
Plenty of spooky folks, scares, drinks and a good time! A few of the park rides stay open in Universal’s HHN, so you can enjoy those between your time at all the scare zones and haunted houses. “Scare zones” are areas filled with entertainment and actors that mimic scary movie scenes, shows or just a scary set-up in general. Just keep in mind, someone or more like something may come out of nowhere and spook you!
October is peak time so there may be long wait times, especially at the new or most popular houses during that year. Fortunately, the park doesn’t close until around 2am, so you have plenty of time to go around and try to visit as many houses as possible.
Similar to HHN, Howl-O-Scream opens up at the end of September to early November and you can also ride most of their rides; so you can get on all those thrilling roller coasters! Say hello to SheiKra and Cheetah Hunt (two of my favorites). Howl-O-Scream has a few attractions and performances to enjoy and the houses are just as scary! You won’t regret your trip there.
We usually attempt to have an early visit to the park and stay until closing since the lines die down right beforehand, so you can run through the last few houses you missed. Also, bring comfortable shoes since plenty of walking is involved!
Halloween Horror Nights 
Squad shirts from Etsy 
Howl-O-Scream
Halloween Horror Nights
HHN usually has houses which involve new movies that came out that year or classic scary movies. Universal has some great rides as well and the production for Halloween Horror Nights is just massive! They go all out for this large scale event, which means it’s pretty popular and gets crowded. They have many scare zones and amazing actors. But with all this, comes a heftier price tag.
Howl-O-Scream
I’ve only been to Howl-O-Scream once but I’ve been dying to go back! I’m not sure how crowded it gets nowadays though. Howl-O-Scream seems to be a smaller scale production than HHN but like stated before, you also have the roller coasters available to you, so take advantage! They have great spooky attractions and it comes with a much lower price tag. Keep in mind, you’ll be in the Tampa area rather than Orlando, so plan accordingly if you’re interested in checking out a Disney park as well during your visit.
These are just a few things to think about if you’re debating going to one of these parks. But, why not do both?! That’s what I did one year and it was an epic weekend filled with double the scares! What’s your favorite: Halloween Horror Nights vs Howl-O-Scream? If you haven’t visited these before, is there another one you suggest folks should check out and where?
