Our group of six rolled into the parking lot at SeaWorld about 90 minutes before the Howl-O-Scream Orlando gates opened. Although the park would fill up later, the sporadic rain may have kept the crowd away for a bit. The line formed quickly, and while we waited, the excitement built as Howl-O-Scream Orlando came to life: music, lights, fog machines, and scare zone actors could be seen or heard as 6:30 approached.

Once the gates opened, we assembled in the Ashes Forgotten scare zone after passing through the security checkpoint. Scare zone actors greeted their guests with enthusiasm. Two of our little group decided to buy the $15 No-Boo light necklace. Howl-O-Scream Orlando’s website says this accessory will help keep any monsters at bay, though it works best outside in scare zones, adding, “If you wear it inside a house…well, you are on your own.”

No-Boo necklaces on adults were of limited value. Our wearers reported that they didn’t do much in the haunts. In the scare zones they did limit scares, but sometimes attracted different, aggressive reactions from the actors.

Admission began at 7:00 and we hurried into the park through another scare zone, the Blood Light District, inhabited by a collection of vampires radiating the temptations of the flesh. We didn’t linger in our hurry to reach the first haunt, The Collector’s Curse, a new haunt for this year. The wait was about 30 minutes, one of the longer waits of the night. We visited all five haunts and wait times ranged from 7 to 40 minutes.

The Collector’s Curse is actor driven, with a lot of attention grabbing decor and props. It’s also dark, making some of that impressive scenery a little tough to appreciate. The sculptures and funereal scenery were mixed with visual effects like the spinning bridge and well placed actors. We encountered about 15 scares, which turned out to be typical for all five haunts in Howl-O-Scream Orlando this year.

The Rave Yard, another new addition for 2025, was our next stop. One of my friends particularly liked the the gate we opened to enter the house. The psychedelic, black light neon frenzy contrasted well with the house we had just left. When you visit this house, keep your head up no matter how scared you are! This is a highly visual haunt splashed with color. The music pounding as we encountered one scare actor after another. I was struck by the intense ‘dance or die’ vibe, reminding me of this summer’s Abracadabra by Lady Gaga. Or maybe it was ‘dance and die’? This house saved a clever surprise for the very end, and I won’t spoil it here. I enjoyed this house and was surprised to learn it was not a fan favorite this year.

We traversed the Woodrot Hollow scare zone to reach Waters Edge Wellness Center, an established house. The scare zone was dark, creepy, swamp-like, and quiet except when the well concealed scare actors did their thing. We still had one active No-Boo in the group, and that may have limited the scares directed at us. Four of us headed for the haunt while the other two decided to try one of the park’s open roller coasters. Waters Edge was one of two haunts where I ‘got’ the plot of the story. Or at least I think I did.

The scares in the first half of Waters Edge were more interactive than jump. We passed through a room where a staff member creepily recited the promise of the Wellness Center to help us and almost immediately passed to another room or two where patients protested they were not crazy and the staff hectored them, and us, about their condition and future. One of these rooms contained a well-executed camouflaged jump scare that we all admired. Again, no spoilers. Further in, a doctor presented a skull x-ray and informed one of us that the lobotomy must be repeated. A long switch back hallway featured hanging stuff-in-face tubes, but looking up it was easy to see the IV bags they were attached to, leaving me with the interpretation that all the meds in the world are not going to save us. The house transitioned from the well lit clinic to the dimly lit morgue, reinforcing the message to me. This one was a favorite for a couple of us, but was also skipped by two of our group.

We took a short food break before making our way to the nearby Farm 51, somehow managing to hit the houses and zones in map order even though we had no plan. Farm 51, the other veteran house this year, started outside with a trail through the corn and other farm settings. I like how the houses had features differentiating them from each other. Scare actors warned us, sometimes by jumping out from hides, about the invasion, but we kept walking anyway. Along the way we encountered the signs of the alien landing, like egg sacs and slime. A scare actor on stilts and two on bungees got us good during our walk too. At the end, a couple of our group commented that something seemed missing from Farm 51, and that some of the props, like eggs, would have benefited from some animation or a lighting technique that made them seem more alive.

The walk to The Widow’s Nest, a new house for 2025, took us through the Trailer Park Tragedy scare zone. While Ashes Forgotten had an almost friendly menace to it, the Trailer Park was aggressively unfriendly and in your face. The denizens of this scare zone did not appreciate patrons sporting a No-Boo necklace and gravitated toward them with various taunts to express their displeasure.

The Widow’s Nest was our last house. I thought it had the darkest theme of them all. When you visit Howl-O-Scream Orlando, study the outside of this haunt’s facade and drink in the creepiness. What else should a visitor expect from a house featuring a giant spider takeover of an orphanage? But it’s not just a spider invasion, there’s a new Mom in town, and she wants you! The haunt contained the expected spidery props and decor, as well as some unusual scare actors including at least one bungee jumper and the old man at the end who is better seen than described.

All that remained was to cross two scare zones and make our way to the parking lot. The scare zones remaining were Cannibal Harbor and Echoes In The Glass. I’m not sure if we still had a working No-Boo light in the group. We were tired and sort of trudging along in a large throng of people who were also done for the night. We saw a few actors in Cannibal Harbor scaring other people. The props in Echoes In The Glass earned a “That’s cool!” from one of our group, but we didn’t linger to sample the scares.

Howl-O-Scream Orlando is well stocked with scares, of course, but also with hospitality. Restaurants and bars dot the park, along with open rides and shows. We took advantage of some of these opportunities, but mostly we were there for the scares. An informal poll yielded multiple favorites including Waters Edge Wellness Center and The Collector’s Curse.

SeaWorld’s website is packed with all the information needed to plan a Howl-O-Scream Orlando visit. Check it before you go!

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