how does this event compare to the version they run in tampa? thinking about trying this in october, but i’ll have a rental car and could go down to tampa instead.
Went to HOS Tampa last year for the first time, and personally it blew Orlando completely out of the water. Far better houses with a bigger lineup; far better coasters with a bigger lineup. The Tampa park itself just fits HoS far more than SWO does. BGT is a mammoth of a park, and the foliage is decades old. So many more places for scare actors to hide naturally into the scenery.
Especially compared to USF, the zones were legitimately really solid last year. The size of BGT and the lower attendance compared to HHN leads to a far more spread out crowd, giving the performers a lot of space and freedom to create set pieces and generally just perform their scares. Every zone felt like a completely different thing from the last in a way that was really cool. SWO tries too hard to push the "Ocean" theming and a number of offerings feel same-y. The pathing doesn't work anywhere as well, and it's compressed into a decently reduced chunk of the park, meaning that the spread-out nature of BGT doesn't transfer over to SWO. Orlando just generally feels a ton more budget, and just overall not worth the asking price imo.
But that's my first time impression, and I walked out that night thinking that if I were to return this year, it wouldn't hit the same way. That's because a good bit of the appeal was it
all being brand new to me. If you've been within the last few years, it likely won't hit quite as hard as it did for me. I still believe Tampa to be far, far superior though, and if it's been a little while, I'd say give BGT a shot.
Food was dreadful though. Gave me 2 small "chicken tenders" in a lil cardboard tray for $15. They were somehow simultaneously the dryest and slimiest pieces of "chicken" I've ever had lmao. Scariest part of the night. The show they had going on as I "ate" was a real stinker too.
