There's Magic Out There: Seaworld San Antonios Howl-O-Scream 2013

This past Friday after school we followed our tradition of visiting Seaworld for Howl-O-Scream! If you know my family then you know we are major Halloween fans. My Munchkin is 4 and he loves monsters! He loves scaring people, costumes and scary movies! So of course as soon as we knew Howl-O Scream was opening we knew we had to go!

For everyone whose seen the commercials and follows Seaworld on social media there are probably lots of questions on the changes. Many of the questions I've seen all revolve on children attending. Well.... Yes we were warned that this year Seaworld was switching up there Howl-O-Scream style from the previous years and making it more for the older kids (13 and up) but I thought how will we know if its too spooky for him if we don't check it out? Every person and child has a different threshold for what they can handle. And my son had been through the Haunted forest every single yr before when some adults thought it too spooky and he happens to be very brave so why not give it a chance?

As soon as we got there we were greeted with this awesome display of pumpkins and the Howl-O-Scream banner that are prefect for pictures! So snap away!

Every corner had fun skeletons and more pumpkins and stacks of hay to add festive touches to the park.

Since this was Friday after school mostly all kid friendly activities had already taken place sadly. But luckily there was a show on the schedule we knew for a fact was very kid appropriate. So we started off with a Clyde and Seamore Halloween Show.

As soon as the haunting hour {which is 7 clock and one hour later than the yr before} came we headed to the scare zones! There were clowns and vampires and more walking around scaring people, It was a lot of fun! They are very friendly to the smaller ones and will stop and pose for pictures but if you are an adult they will jump up behind you and have a blast trying to scare you.

Near The Rio Loco area they created a Vampire Bar! Yep like out of True Bloods "fangtasia". There were vampires all over the area!

We saw that the line for The Haunted forest was short so we got in line. As soon as we got there the staff was very friendly and reminded us of the changes to Howl-O-Scream this year and that if my son became too afraid and needed to get out immediately from the haunted forest that we should look for employees wearing a vampire cape and they would get us out! We thanked them kindly and off we entered.

{Thank you so much Seaworld for trusting a parents judgement and being friendly about it while at the same time offering to rescue us in case we made a horrible mistake. It means a lot to me as a parent that you have our backs}

Let me also mention that before entering and even before going to the park my Munchkin as always was reminded that the monsters he would see were all regular people in costumes with paint. That its pretend and that they cant touch him or hurt him. This is very reassuring for a child. A quick trip to a Halloween costume store can help them see how this is possible.

Once inside the Haunted Forest I could definitely tell that Seaworld had stepped up there game in the creepy department. There were more monsters than ever jumping out at you and the scare was everywhere. I will admit my kiddo initially did not like it so we stopped and let people pass us. We had a quick talk and I told him he was very brave and if he wanted to get out he could. He chose to stay and finish and we did! He got out of the Haunted forest running away with his screaming aunt as a monster had jumped out at her and we laughed about it as we walked away.

Will I take him through the Haunted Forest again on another visit? No! Not this year at least. Will I take him to Seaworlds Howl-O-Scream at night again? Yes! He loves wearing glow in the dark fun items and the spooky monsters walking around. He loved all the fun sweet treats and have I mentioned hes a night owl? They still have a fun Shamu show at night and our favorite Jack is Back show right after. He loves to dance and see them dancing so this is always a treat for us all.

Overall we had a blast! We ended up going back again more times during October to go Trick or Treating and do some more fun events with friends!

Here are some more pictures of our visits to Howl-O-Scream this year: