From Ben Sutton on October 5, 2009 at 8:25 AM
Thanks for the review, Russell. I'm hoping to go sometime this month. The mazes and scarezones sound like alot of fun.

From 70.186.202.127 on October 5, 2009 at 9:07 AM
You are absolutely right about the whole review. We go to the park almost everyday they are open and was thinking the same thing. Thanks for your review.

From 128.172.55.91 on October 5, 2009 at 9:28 AM
I was quite disappointed that the train is no longer part of Howl-O-Scream. I cannot handle loud and abrupt noises, so all the mazes are "out" for me; since the train was consistently loud with only music, I really enjoyed riding it. How hard is it to put some music on a train and maybe a few ghosts around the track? Pretty lame to remove one of the few family friendly parts of the park!

We thought the Frankenrock show at Festhaus was the best we'd ever seen at BG in terms of overall consistency and general quality. Often the band outshines the singers and dancers, and even more often, the singers are downright pitchy. Not the case with this production, and we have pretty high standards coming from backgrounds in music, theatre and dance. You are correct that the seats at the "back" of the Festhaus were not select; that would have been a fairly simple choreography adjustment to at least make those of us in the cheap seats feel more included on a consistent basis.

We just missed getting inside the theater for Monster Stomp by about 15 people, but have been only mildly impressed with this show in the past so we didn't even try to go to the later show. Will try to make it before the end of the season based on this review.

From 205.188.116.69 on October 5, 2009 at 9:47 AM
I went the first week also and my review would have been exactly as yours, with exception of the Sesame street show which I did not see. I went back twice this past weekend and have to say that with more scareactors in place, the scarezones and mazes were improved, especially the Catacombs and Cave of Darkness (corkscrew hill) were MUCH better. Catacombs was my favorite. First visit last week I left thinking "great decor but pretty lame", this visit I walked (barely) out of there laughing and with tears in my eyes at the same time. Cursed however left much to be desired. It has a great layout and decor, but the scareactors weren't scarey enough. There's only so much a witch can do. They basically just stood there as you walked past and maybe mumbled a few things at you. The old theme was much, MUCH better with the Jack the Ripper, black plauge, etc.

FrankenRock I just didn't understand, or care for. I did give it a second try and didnt see any improvement to make me go a 3rd time. I had LOVED the previous shows in the festhaus and the performers in them. I think this years show feels like an afterthought such as "Well we've got to put SOMETHING in there".

Monster Stomp ReVamped is indeed the best show in the park. Got in twice to see it so far. I LOVE that they brought back the Skeletons!!! Too bad they don't have a bigger venue to move the show to.

My family of four (two kids 7 and 17) loved that the park had more scarezones as you walked around. It tied the areas together so that you didnt feel like you were ever walking OUT of the howl o ween areas. It made it feel more on par with the other theme parks halloween scare events. Yay! to BG for finally getting into the big leagues with Howl O Scream!

From Frank Forrester on October 5, 2009 at 12:17 PM
I went the other week and I will have to say I thought they did improve the feel a lot this year. I liked the Frankenrock show better then what they have had previous years. I agree that Monster Stomp Revamped is the best show and I did notice that most of the show was the same as last year except for one scene which was changed. My favorite maze was Cavern of Darkness. I was disappointed with Catacombs as even though the maze looked great the night I went there was not enough scare actors in the maze. I liked The Hunted better then Bitten and of course if you don't have a Quick Queue you will want to wait till almost park closing unless you want to wait in the longest line for any of the mazes. I did like Cursed this year as it seem to me to be better then Wicked Woods which was there last year.

I did noticed that they are offering tours this year and the one that was sold out the night I went was the Night of the Dead Tour. This tour gives you an inside look at the costumes, make-up & special effects along with a lot of other stuff.

From 96.238.94.8 on October 5, 2009 at 12:18 PM
After visiting the Park for the last ten years, my family and I were disappointed with the overall themeing as well as the lack of shows. We would eat and Italy and watch the band. The film lacks the excitement of a live performance. The train was a great way to get around the Park and enjoy fun songs with somewhat child like lighting but that added to the camping feeling of the season. We left the Festhaus after a few minutes as a waste of our time. We are pass holders but don't see the need to fight the crouds and waste our time. We will check out other areas this year.
I miss the pig boys..............what a waste in putting them in Scotland.
You missed the boat of this one.
If Howl-O-Scream is the standard for the Christmas season, I'll save my money for another evening out.

From 68.230.252.54 on October 5, 2009 at 5:34 PM
I was very dissapointed this year. They took out alot of the stuff that they had last year. It looks to me Bush Gardens has been hit by the bad economy bug also. The " monsters" just stood there and barely did anything. At one point we even seen Mngmt arguing with some of the cast members out in public. To sum it all up, if you have ever been in the past you will be very angry that you wasted your money and time this year.

From James Rao on October 6, 2009 at 2:56 AM
Great review, Russell, you made me wish I still lived in Annandale!

From Charles Reichley on October 7, 2009 at 1:09 PM
We went the 25-26, the 1st weekend. We werent' all that scared by any of the zones, although I did like the walkthru in COrkscrew Hill. Maybe we'll have to go back down if it's scarier now that they have more actors.

Although it also sounds like it's much more crowded. Being there on the 1st night, I was able to do all the scare zones twice, once while it was still light, and a 2nd time after dark.

Monster Stomp is still our favorite, but I really missed the Rockin Hallow's Eve show.

One new thing (I think), they were doing pictures with cast members, so I got my picture with a couple of witches from the Monstor Stomp show.

We did Dorney Park Saturday night, and their Fangs show (which apparently is almost like the Fangs show from Knotts Berry Farm last year) was very entertaining, but it took forever to get through some of their scare zone lines, so we weren't able to do the entire set of scare zones in one night.

I don't like that the CP parks are only opening walkthroughs after 6pm, doesn't give you enough time to get through everything; the should open the indoor building walkthroughs at 4pm or so to help with the crowds.