[Haunts] Busch Gardens Williamsburg Leaks Howl-O-Scream 2014 Dates and a Few Other Things

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I'll take the word of the guys over at BGWFans to be pretty accurate most of the time. Recently a few members started to get mailers about events later in the year and one couldn't help but share the dates for this year's Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

This year's event will run on weekends (Fri-Sun) from September 12th thru October 26th. However, unlike last year, it looks like they're finally listening to us a little on the hours they'll be open. From Sept 12-October 3rd the event will be open until 10pm. From October 4th until the 26th the park will have days where it's open until midnight. Not bad, right?

Howl-O-Scream Dates:

• Sept: 12,13,14,19,20,21,26,27,28
• Oct: 3,4,5,10,11,12,17,18,19,24,25,26

Well, they're still being ham headed about this since it only appears to be Saturdays will be open later. That's only 4 nights that the park is open later out of a total of 21 nights, not nearly enough. Seriously, get with the program here folks. Also, why not open for the 31st-2nd of November? I get that it's after Halloween, but tons of haunts stay open out there. With Halloween on a Friday this year, take advantage of it! This is the 16th year that the event will be running and honestly it seems like they still don't get it at times.

Compared to their sister park, Busch Gardens Tampa, it's just a head scratching move. Down in Tampa they're open until 1am Thurs-Sat. The Williamsburg property seems hellbent on sabotaging their own event by only being open for 4 hours 80% of their operating nights. This is 2014 people, wake up a bit! We saw lines during our visit last year that were 2+ hours long. How do you expect people do and see anything? Midnight, or later, every night or bust.

Honestly, we love Busch Gardens Williamsburg and visit several times a year. However, every time I look at what they're doing for Howl-O-Scream, I want to bang my head against a wall. Last year they were saying that they wanted to be less family friendly for the event, but don't clear out the park (like Tampa does) or make it very clear that it's 13+. They also put in the Port of Skull, that turned out to be more corny pirate schtick for kids than it was scary.

While they have done some things right, like more creative drink and food options for adults (Blood Banquet is truly amazing and will be returning!) along with new and interesting scare zone theming, but they keep contradicting themselves in other areas. It's an exercise in the very definition of insanity to try and figure out just what they're thinking. There is so much potential with the theme and atmosphere of the park, the fact that they aren't using it to it's full advantage is mind blowing.

I'm hopeful that this year improves upon last year and that we'll get a chance to see it first hand during their media event again. Until then, I'm trying to remain optimistic about the whole thing. Maybe this is the year that things fall into place more.