Nationwide — Howl-O-Scream, United Parks & Resorts’ hard-ticket Halloween brand, returns to all five of its US locations for the 2026 season on September 11. The event runs at SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, SeaWorld San Antonio, and SeaWorld San Diego. Orlando, San Diego, and Tampa close on Halloween night (October 31). Williamsburg and San Antonio run through November 1.
On July 31 United Parks announced I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Final Catch, a Sony Pictures licensed haunted house opening September 11 at SeaWorld Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio. It is the chain’s first three-park licensed film house and, per United Parks, the first time the film has been adapted for a major Halloween event. The 2026 season also shifts Busch Gardens Tampa Bay off its historic Labor Day weekend opening. This guide covers what Howl-O-Scream is, how the five parks differ, and what has been announced for 2026 at each location as of July 31, 2026.
What Howl-O-Scream is
Howl-O-Scream is United Parks & Resorts’ Halloween event brand. The event debuted at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in 2000 and has run nearly every season since, and has since expanded across the company’s SeaWorld and Busch Gardens portfolio. Each park’s Howl-O-Scream typically operates on select nights from mid-September through Halloween or early November, running haunted houses (walkthrough attractions), scare zones (outdoor roaming-monster areas), stage shows, themed bars, and rides after dark.
Unlike Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, which builds many houses around licensed IP such as Stranger Things or Hellraiser, Howl-O-Scream leans on original in-house intellectual property. The event’s houses, zones, icons, and stage shows are developed by United Parks’ entertainment teams and, over the years, cross-pollinate between properties. A concept that debuts at Busch Gardens Tampa may later appear at Williamsburg or San Diego under a variant name.
Howl-O-Scream is separately marketed from each park’s daytime family-friendly Halloween programming. The Halloween Spooktacular family events at SeaWorld and Sesame Street’s Halloween programming at Busch Gardens all run during daytime park hours in September and October.
The five locations at a glance
| Park | Dates | Nights | Ticket model | Framework |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SeaWorld Orlando | Sept 11 – Oct 31 | 26 | Separately ticketed | 6 houses, 7 zones, 5 bars, 2 shows |
| Busch Gardens Tampa Bay | Sept 11 – Oct 31 | 27 | Separately ticketed | 4 houses named so far |
| Busch Gardens Williamsburg | Sept 11 – Nov 1 | 25 | Included with admission | 6 houses named, terror-tories and shows TBA |
| SeaWorld San Antonio | Sept 11 – Nov 1 | Not published | Included with admission | 1 house named |
| SeaWorld San Diego | Sept 11 – Oct 31 | 24 | Separately ticketed | 6 houses (all named), 8 zones, 5 vignettes, 6 bars + 5 speakeasies, 2 shows |
Included with admission: Williamsburg and San Antonio’s Howl-O-Scream is bundled with regular park admission, so no separate event ticket is required.
Separately ticketed: Orlando, Tampa, and San Diego require a separate Howl-O-Scream ticket. Annual passes to those parks do not grant event access, though Pass Members receive discount pricing.
SeaWorld Orlando
Dates: 26 select nights, September 11 through October 31, 2026. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., event begins at 7 p.m.
SeaWorld has named I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Final Catch, the Sony-licensed house opening September 11 across three parks, and Everything Must Stay (a suburban-open-house horror concept), and The Crawl Space (an underground-tunnels house built on a containment failure), plus three all-new scare zones: Extermination Order (an infestation sweep), Just One More Chapter (a gothic-garden cursed-romance zone, revealed July 9) and Nekrosis (a seaside town frozen at midnight on January 1, 2000, revealed July 30). The park has confirmed a framework of six houses (five all-new plus one returning), seven scare zones (five new, two returning), five all-new themed bars, and two live shows (Throttle featuring returning icon Havoc, and Monster Stomp at Nautilus Theater).
Returning scare zones Trailer Park Tragedy and Woodrot Hollow carry over from 2025. The first of the five all-new bars has been named: The Rewind, built on the same 1990s and Y2K hook as Nekrosis. SeaWorld has also added a Howl-O-Scream Terror Tour pairing guests with a VIP guide. Three houses (two all-new and one returning), three zones, and four bar concepts remain unnamed, and the park has teased what it calls an “event-redefining” reveal still to come. During the current Killer Summer Sale, the four-ticket any-night bundle runs $38.99 each and the Unlimited Scream Pass is $112.99, or $102.99 with blockout dates.
The event also stages the Howl-O-Sprint 5K on Friday, September 18.
For the full Orlando lineup and pricing, see HAN’s Howl-O-Scream Orlando 2026 coverage.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Dates: 27 select nights, September 11 through October 31, 2026. The event runs 7 p.m. to park close, with park access from 5 p.m. Event nights are September 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26 and October 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.
Tampa moves off its historic Labor Day weekend opening to a September 11 start, matching the rest of the chain, and closes October 31 rather than running into November as it has in past years. Four haunted houses are named so far, including Anaconda: Fear Has No Escape, a Sony Pictures license announced July 31 and opening September 11. The other three carry two new storylines and one returning.
Stranglewood Estate: RePossessed (new storyline). A séance inside the abandoned Stranglewood mansion wakes Madame Stranglewood and the servants who vanished in its walls, opening a door the park says “will never close.”
Circus of Fear: Killer Encore (new storyline). The circus runs without its ringmaster. Per Busch Gardens: “Our dear Mr. Baggum? Nowhere to be found. And without him holding the reins, this circus has let loose.”
Raven’s Mill: Lambs to the Slaughter (returning storyline). The mill keeps operating after last year’s killings, with butchers dragging victims inside and one word shouted at each new arrival: “MEAT.”
Busch Gardens has not announced scare zones or shows for 2026. A medical-themed teaser campaign running since June 18, featuring a bloody nurse’s cap, a syringe, and the line “The doctor will see you now,” has not been tied to any announced attraction. More is coming, and HAN will add the zones and shows as Busch Gardens names them.
Killer Summer Sale pricing, verified July 31, 2026: a four-ticket any-night bundle at $38.99 each (regularly $125.99), the Unlimited Scream Pass at $112.99 (regularly $205.99), a Thursday, Friday and Sunday only Unlimited pass at $102.99 (regularly $182.99), and a two-park Unlimited Scream Pass covering Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando at $164.99 (regularly $308.99).
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Full guide: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Howl-O-Scream 2026: Everything Announced So Far.
Dates: 25 select nights, September 11 through November 1, 2026. Event hours 6 p.m. to park close. Included with regular park admission and season passes.
Williamsburg has named six haunted houses for 2026, including Anaconda: Dead on Arrival, a Sony Pictures license announced July 31. The park describes the event as taking over the entire park, with terror-tories, sinister shows, and 10 coasters running at night. Neither the terror-tories nor the shows have been named, and Busch Gardens says more is coming.
Werewolves: The Wolf’s Revenge (all-new). Hunters capture a lycan and bring it to a containment facility to study it. Per Busch Gardens, “the hunters have quickly become the hunted,” after the creature breaks its chains inside the facility.
Bloodshot (all-new). A dive bar for the undead uncovered deep within the ruins of Pompeii. The park’s copy has the taps run dry and the vampires needing “refills of A, B, and O-negative.”
Clown Town (returning favorite). Clowns cast out of the Festa Italia village for being “too terrifying” have built their own domain and decide who escapes.
Death Water Bayou: Morte (revamped). The swamp lure becomes a threshold between worlds as the Voodoo Queen closes in on a final sacrifice.
KILLarney DInEr: Condemned (revamped). A boarded-up 1950s diner with something moving behind the walls, now carrying the terror of the 1920s.
Busch Gardens has not published 2026 Howl-O-Scream upgrade pricing.
SeaWorld San Antonio
Dates: Select nights September 11 through November 1, 2026. Included with regular park admission.
San Antonio’s first named 2026 attraction is I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Final Catch, opening September 11. The rest of its lineup has not been announced. The event is included with regular park admission, which means guests who already hold admission pay nothing extra. More is coming, and HAN will add the lineup as SeaWorld names it.
The park also runs Día de los Muertos programming and the daytime family Spooktacular event as part of its broader fall calendar.
SeaWorld San Diego
Dates: 24 select nights, September 11 through October 31, 2026. Guests may enter from 6 p.m., event begins at 7 p.m.
San Diego’s 2026 event has a framework of 6 haunted houses, 8 scare zones, 5 vile vignettes, 2 live shows, 6 themed cocktail bars, and 5 speakeasies. Three scare zones, two vile vignettes, and one live show are all-new and unannounced. All six houses are now named. On July 31 SeaWorld added I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Final Catch, opening September 11. The largest build of the season is Area 64: MOTHERSHIP, an all-new prequel set 30 years before Area 64: Alien Outbreak, an earlier San Diego house that is not itself in the 2026 lineup. SeaWorld calls it the largest haunted-house show scene the San Diego event has ever created, with an 80-foot-long alien mothership façade. A sixth all-new house is teased but unnamed, and SeaWorld says it “will reveal itself from the murky depths of Mission Bay in a few short weeks.”
The five named scare zones are Red Moon Revelry, All Hallow’s Harvest, Carnival of Chaos, Deadly Toys, and Graveyard, with three more all-new and unannounced. Fanta Fright House is an all-new bar. During the Killer Summer Sale, verified July 31, 2026: a four-pack of any-night tickets at $33.99 each, single nights from $35.99, the Any Night Ticket at $56.99, and the Unlimited Scream Pass at $101.99.
For the full San Diego lineup and pricing, see HAN’s Howl-O-Scream San Diego 2026 coverage.
Cross-park shared concepts
United Parks routinely ports haunted-house and scare-zone concepts across its five Howl-O-Scream properties. Concepts that appear in more than one park include:
- Ripper Row and Monster Stomp. The Jack the Ripper-themed rock and rhythm show Monster Stomp is confirmed for Orlando and San Diego in 2026, and ran at San Antonio and Williamsburg in 2025. The Ripper Row scare zone has appeared at San Antonio and Williamsburg, and San Diego’s Summon the Spirits vignette is set there.
- Deathwater Bayou / Death Water Bayou. A bayou voodoo horror concept appears at both San Diego (Death Water Bayou Awakening) and Williamsburg (Death Water Bayou: Morte), with historical appearances at Tampa.
- Mad doctor and medical horror. Tampa’s Fiends and Dr. Livingsdoom heritage and San Diego’s Nightmare Experiment Sweet DreamzZz draw on the same well.
- Alien and space horror. Tampa’s M.A.R.S. and San Diego’s Area 64 franchise both build sci-fi horror around extraterrestrial threat.
- Circus and clowns. San Diego’s Circus of the Damned, Tampa’s D.H. Baggum’s Circus of Fear, and Williamsburg’s Clown Town all share the format.
Park-exclusive icons include Orlando’s Havoc (introduced 2025 as the “Face of Fear,” replacing the long-running Sirens) and Tampa’s Dr. Freakenstein and the Naughty Nurses lineage.
Corporate context
Howl-O-Scream is a meaningful revenue line for United Parks & Resorts. On the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call in November 2025, CEO Marc Swanson said: “Our Halloween events just concluded last week and we saw meaningful year over year growth from our separately ticketed Howl-O-Scream events including record attendance in Orlando and San Diego for these events.”
The 2026 event runs against a broader company challenge. United Parks’ Q3 2025 total revenue was $511.9 million, down 6.2 percent year over year, and total attendance was 6.8 million, down roughly 3.4 percent. Swanson said on the same call: “We are obviously not happy with the results we delivered in the quarter.” The Halloween business is one of the bright spots the company has explicitly called out for continued investment.
Ticket comparison
No separate ticket required: SeaWorld San Antonio and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Howl-O-Scream is included with regular park admission at both.
Most granular pricing: SeaWorld Orlando’s Killer Summer Sale splits into several separate ticket products, topping out at a $164.99 two-park Unlimited Scream Pass covering Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Verified tier pricing is in our Orlando coverage.
Largest framework by count: SeaWorld San Diego, at 6 houses and 8 scare zones, against 5 houses at Williamsburg and 4 houses and 7 zones at Orlando.
First park to run the event: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, in 2000.
Event details across the parks
- All parks share: September 11, 2026 opening. Mature-audience programming (13+ recommended) at the three separately ticketed parks. Costume policies vary by park.
- Orlando, San Diego + Tampa: Separately ticketed. All close on Halloween night, October 31. Tampa runs 27 select nights, 7 p.m. to park close, with park access from 5 p.m.
- Williamsburg + San Antonio: Included with regular park admission. Run through November 1.
For deeper coverage of individual parks:
- Orlando: Howl-O-Scream Orlando 2026: Everything Announced So Far
- San Diego: Howl-O-Scream San Diego 2026: Everything Announced So Far
- Williamsburg: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Howl-O-Scream 2026: Everything Announced So Far
Coverage of Tampa’s and San Antonio’s remaining 2026 lineups will follow as each park releases official details.
Last updated: July 31, 2026. Orlando, San Diego, and Tampa lineups and Killer Summer Sale pricing were verified against the parks’ live pages on July 31, and the Williamsburg section was rebuilt the same day. Williamsburg and San Antonio include the event with admission and have no separate event pricing.
