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 and San Diego close on Halloween night (October 31). Tampa, Williamsburg, and San Antonio run through November 1.
This is a shorter, more synchronized calendar than 2025, when the parks opened on staggered dates in early September. 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 publication.
What Howl-O-Scream is
Howl-O-Scream is United Parks & Resorts’ Halloween event brand. The event has run at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay every year since 2000, 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 | 23 | Separately ticketed | 5 houses, 6 zones, 5 bars, 2-3 shows |
| Busch Gardens Tampa Bay | Sept 11 – Nov 1 | ~15 | Separately ticketed | 5 houses, 5 zones, 2 shows (2025 baseline) |
| Busch Gardens Williamsburg | Sept 11 – Nov 1 | Not published | Included with admission | 5 houses, 6 terror-tories, 4 shows |
| SeaWorld San Antonio | Sept 11 – Nov 1 | Not published | Included with admission | 6 houses, 8 terror-tories, 2 shows |
| SeaWorld San Diego | Sept 11 – Oct 31 | ~25 | Separately ticketed | 6 houses, 5 zones, 6 bars + 5 speakeasies, 1 show |
Included with admission: Williamsburg and San Antonio’s Howl-O-Scream is bundled with regular park admission and season pass access. These are the “best raw value” Howl-O-Scream events by any calculation.
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: Select nights September 11 through October 31, 2026. Twenty-three event nights. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., event begins at 7 p.m.
Orlando has the deepest 2026 announcement to date. SeaWorld has named one all-new haunted house, Everything Must Stay (a suburban-open-house horror concept), and one all-new scare zone, Just One More Chapter (a gothic-garden cursed-romance zone). Both were revealed on July 9. The park has confirmed a framework of five houses (four all-new plus one returning), six scare zones (four new, two returning), five all-new themed bars, and two live shows (Throttle featuring the 2025 icon Havoc, and Monster Stomp at Nautilus Theater).
Returning scare zones Trailer Park Tragedy and Woodrot Hollow carry over from 2025. Three houses, three zones, and all five bar concepts remain unnamed, and the park has teased what it calls an “event-redefining” reveal still to come. Single-night tickets start at $34.99 during the current Sinister Sale, $29.99 for Pass Members. The Unlimited Scream Pass runs $112.99.
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: Approximately 15 select nights, September 11 through November 1, 2026. The event runs 7 p.m. to midnight, with park access from 5 p.m.
Tampa’s 2026 season shifts off its historic Labor Day weekend opening. The park briefly listed a September 4 start before settling on September 11, and the published night count has contracted sharply from roughly 31 nights in 2025 to a Visit Tampa Bay-listed 15 nights for 2026. The park has not yet announced its 2026 lineup.
The only 2026 marketing content Busch Gardens Tampa has released is a medical-themed teaser campaign, running since June 18. Social posts and in-park merchandise have featured a bloody vintage nurse’s cap, a stethoscope, a syringe, and a clipboard, all with the tagline “The doctor will see you now…” Trade analysts widely read this as the return of Fiends, Tampa’s long-running Dr. Freakenstein stage show that ran from 2001 until its retirement, which would fit Tampa’s history of “mad doctor” characters going back to the 2000 debut icon Dr. Livingsdoom. Busch Gardens has said only that fans should “stay tuned.”
Tampa’s 2025 event ran five houses (M.A.R.S., Raven’s Mill, Stranglewood Estate, Shadows of Wonderland, D.H. Baggum’s Circus of Fear), five scare zones (The Pestilence, Breadcrumbs to Nowhere, The Murders at Buckshot Ridge, Sawgrass Slaughter, Ragnar’s Wrath), and two shows (Cirque X-Scream, The Reckoning). All ten attractions could return in 2026, but Busch Gardens has not confirmed.
Single-night tickets from $34.99 during the Sinister Sale, four-packs from $37.99. Combo tickets with SeaWorld Orlando are available.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Dates: Select nights September 11 through November 1, 2026. Included with regular park admission and season passes.
Williamsburg has not published a 2026-specific lineup as of publication. The park’s Howl-O-Scream page currently displays 2025 content. The published framework is 5 haunted houses, 6 terror-tories, 4 sinister shows, with 10 coasters running at night. Parental discretion is advised after 6 p.m., and the family areas (Sesame Street Forest of Fun, Land of the Dragons) close at 5 p.m.
2025 lineup baseline includes the houses Bloodshot (vampire dive bar in the Pompeii ruins, tied to the Big Bad Wolf coaster area), Werewolves: The Wolf’s Revenge, Clown Town, Death Water Bayou: Morte, and KILLarney Diner: Condemned. Scare zones (“terror-tories”) included Bavarian Bloodshed, Disgrotesque, and Wicked Wunderland (Krampus) as new for 2025, plus returning Ripper Row, Stalker Street, and Fest-Evil. Shows included Monster Stomp on Ripper Row, Fiends, Skeletons in Your Closet, and Spirit Spellabration.
Whether any of this carries into 2026 has not been confirmed. 2025 was Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 50th anniversary season. Haunted House Quick Queue upgrades and six BOOze bars are typical add-ons.
SeaWorld San Antonio
Dates: Select nights September 11 through November 1, 2026. Included with regular park admission and the 2026 Season Pass ($92.99 promo).
San Antonio has the largest raw house-and-zone count in the Howl-O-Scream chain (6 houses, 8 terror-tories, 2 shows in 2025), and it is included with admission, making it arguably the strongest per-dollar value in the chain. The park has not published a 2026-specific lineup.
2025 baseline houses: Bunny Bradley’s Ice Cream Shoppe, Milton Creek Manor, The Swamp at Blackwater Bayou, Zombie Horde, Dis-Assembly Line, and Atlantis: The Cursed Chasm (all returning from prior seasons, with no new house added in 2025). 2025 terror-tories included the new Colleen’s Dollhouse plus returning Ripper Row, Vampire Point, SINdustry District, Blackwater Bayou, Water’s Edge, Nightmare Midway, and Till Death Do Us Party. Shows: Monster Stomp and Sirens Song.
The park also runs Día de los Muertos programming and the daytime family Spooktacular event as part of its broader fall calendar. A Howl-O-Scream Zombie 5K is listed for September 21, 2026.
Quick Queue and Front Line Fear upgrades are typical, alongside an Ultimate VIP Tour.
SeaWorld San Diego
Dates: Select nights September 11 through October 31, 2026. Approximately 25 event nights. Gates open at 6 p.m., event begins at 7 p.m.
San Diego’s 2026 event has a fully announced framework of 6 haunted houses, 5 scare zones, 3 vile vignettes, 1 live show (Monster Stomp), 6 themed cocktail bars, and 5 speakeasies. The centerpiece is Area 64: MOTHERSHIP, an all-new prequel to the returning Area 64: Alien Outbreak with what SeaWorld describes as the largest haunted-house show scene the San Diego event has ever created, including an 80-foot-long alien mothership façade. A sixth all-new house has been teased with the line “emerging from the murky depths of Mission Bay.”
Three all-new scare zones (Red Moon Revelry, All Hallow’s Harvest, Carnival of Chaos), three all-new vile vignettes, and one all-new bar (Fanta Fright House) round out the 2026 additions. Single-night tickets start at $41.99 during the current sale, $56.99 for the Any Night Ticket, and $106.99 for the Unlimited Scream Pass.
The Howl-O-Sprint 5K runs on Saturday, October 18.
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 runs at Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio. The Ripper Row scare zone appears at San Diego, San Antonio, and Williamsburg. Jack the Ripper is the single most widely shared concept in the Howl-O-Scream family.
- Deathwater Bayou / Death Water Bayou. A bayou voodoo horror concept appears at both San Diego (Deathwater 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, Tampa’s 2025 The Pestilence (Mob Doctors), San Diego’s Nightmare Experiment Sweet DreamzZz, and Orlando’s former Water’s Edge Wellness Center all 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
Best raw dollar value: SeaWorld San Antonio and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Howl-O-Scream is included with regular park admission or with a season pass at both properties.
Most granular pricing: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s Sinister Sale offers four-packs from $37.99 (about $9.50 per night), plus combo tickets with SeaWorld Orlando.
Highest volume of dedicated content: SeaWorld San Diego’s ~25 event nights and full 6-house, 5-zone, 6-bar, 5-speakeasy framework offer the deepest single-park experience for guests who plan on multiple visits.
Longest-running park event: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, since 2000.
Event details across the parks
- All parks share: September 11, 2026 opening. Mature-audience programming (13+ recommended). No costumes or face paint permitted for guest safety.
- Orlando + San Diego: Separately ticketed. Close on Halloween night, October 31.
- Tampa: Separately ticketed. Runs through November 1. Roughly 15 nights based on published listings, which would be a sharp contraction from 2025.
- 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
Coverage of Tampa’s 2026 lineup, Williamsburg’s 2026 lineup, and San Antonio’s 2026 lineup will follow as each park releases official 2026
