I did the thing and did BGT HoS for my first time ever on the 24th! Admittedly I wasn't able to enjoy myself quite as well as I had hoped as I was completely drained from two days of Uni and HHN back-to-back and that was after a half day of driving from Orlando to Tampa. Everything here for me is completely new and fresh so it was fun to check out! Here's a review of everything I've done in order:
Stranglewood Estate: Did early entry and lined up for this one first. The set design was very well done and had lots of cool detail in here. I'm glad we did this first as the line was about two hours after we got out. This was the newest one from what I understand so it was great! Very simple concept but delivered on scenic and scares!
Overall: B+
Deathwater Bayou: It's not HoS without a Deathwater Bayou clone. I wonder if they're going to simply port this over to SWO's HoS once it's done? I guess that's where all the leftoverBGT HoS houses go lol. I understand that everyone is sick of this house, but ironically, this one turned out to be my favorite one. I got a fantastic runthrough of this as the scareactors were on it for this one! The stiltwalker at the very end got me good! Scenic was also very solid in here!
Overall: A
The Forgotten: Okay, the entrance situation was really REALLY annoying. I go up to what I thought was the entrance only to find out that it was Quick Queue. They tell me to go all the way around Sheikra and then find the entrance. That hike to the entrance was so annoying but whatever. It was kinda cool seeing the old loading station for Python though. Everything was very tight-spaced on compact and the drop panel scares were great! Don't have much else to say other than I enjoyed this one. It's my second favorite house.
Overall: A-
The Residence: Home form the Holidays: The longest line I've waited for and ironically the weakest. I understand that this was a revamped repeat? Well it was fine. Got a couple of good jumps but this one was okay. Liked the amount of detail that was in here.
Overall: C
Witch of the Woods: I heard people talk about how good this was but I was just a little bit underwhelmed. I still liked it though. I liked the small village aesthetic they created here. There were some good scares but it was the last hour of the event and the cast seemed out of it.
Overall: C+
I didn't bother with any shows as I just wanted to get the houses done and ride Cheeta Hunt as that was the one ride I wasn't able to experience during the day. As for food, I got the BBQ brisket and pulled pork nachos, which were amazing. Excellent treat.
But overall I enjoyed my first-ever HoS at BGT. While I probably wouldn't go out of my way again for the event itself, I had a lot of fun! I went by to check out the park as I haven't been since 2004. I was overdue for a trip to BGT and I thought I would check out the event while I was there. Out of the HoS events I've been to such as San Diego and Orlando last year and then this, I think this is the best of the HoS events. There was a lot of entertainment to choose from and there was clearly effort put into the houses. The cast is always excellent, though I notice that the talent seems to go all-in on the first few hours then kind of exhaust themselves into half-hearted scaring as the night goes on. This is strictly antidotal as I noticed the talent seemed to cool off the more houses I went through.