Now that IllumiNights’ removal is nearly complete, the park is finally able to get started with Howl-O-Scream’s install. Considering that Busch Gardens Williamsburg has just a mere three weeks to bring together what is marketed as the most extensively themed event in the park’s history, I’d say they have a lot of work ahead of them. While the majority of the park’s houses have been under construction for a few weeks now (the main exception being Catacombs), the park still has a ton of work to be done elsewhere. Naturally the park’s new Terror-tories and other hamlet theming efforts make up for a large chunk of that work but we shouldn’t forget about the shows, shops, and eateries that have to be completely rethemed as well. Especially considering last year’s extremely disappointing opening weekend, I sure hope the park has their ducks in a row when they open the gates on Friday, September 13th. To be completely honest, looking at the park right now, I’m a bit worried about their ability to bring everything together in time.
Anyway, before you continue, if you have yet to read BGWFans’ post summarizing everything you need to know about Howl-O-Scream 2013, I highly recommend you do so before continuing on with this update. Not only does the post provide every last bit of information you could possibly want to know about this year’s event, but the rest of this update is written with the assumption that the reader already knows a good chunk of the information that can be found in that post. So, with all that said, onto the update!
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Rhine River Bridge
In what is a very uncharacteristic move, the park has chosen to theme the bridge between Oktoberfest and San Marco to a specific theme represented in this year’s event instead of theming the bridge after the event itself as has been done for years now. To be honest, I’m not a fan of the change but they did a good job with the decorations regardless.
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Bitten
Not much at all to look at on the outside right now, but it would seem that things are happening on the inside.
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Cut Throat Cove
The Cut Throat Cove site has been buzzing with activity over the last few weeks. While I’m still a bit uneasy about the house, it does seem a fair amount of time is being spent on it.
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Root of All Evil
Getting pictures of Root of All Evil is tough as nails, but I managed to grab one for you. As you can see, plenty of work happening back here as well.
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13: Your Numbers Up
Because of the unexpected early closure of Europe in the Air this year, the entertainment department has actually been working on Thirteen’s install for a long time now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s basically done at this point.
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Demon Street
There’s really not much of anything to see in Aquitaine right now, but Voila’s archway has been put back up on the New France side of the Royal Palace Theatre.
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Inoculation Station
Inoculation Station’s stage has begun to take shape but there is clearly still a fair amount of work to be done.
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Open CASKet
Like Inoculation Station, the bulk of Open CASKet’s structural work is complete, but a ton of work is still needed to get it looking like it should.
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Heatherdowns Pumpkins
As we leaked a while back, Heatherdowns will have its massive collection of floating pumpkins once again this year. As of yesterday, only the valley between Banbury and Heatherdowns was complete, but I suspect the rest will go up rather quickly.
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As always, if you’d like to keep closer tabs on the progress being made on this year’s Howl-O-Scream installation, I recommend following the Howl-O-Scream thread on the ParkFans Forum, here.