There is an old photo of my dad from the 1980s wearing a "Caddyshack"-esque outfit, literally donning a white golf cap and a pastel striped polo shirt, holding a branded soda cup, all while standing in front of a live peacock. "Where was this taken?" I asked my mom while nodding to the photo, almost mystified by the bizarre circumstances of it. "That was . . .," she takes a moment to recall, "Williamsburg, Virginia at Busch Gardens. We drove down there once back in 1987." I quietly nodded my head and pursed my lips. While I flipped to the next page of the photo album, the kitschy photo of my dad remained in the back of my mind for the foreseeable future.
It wasn't until fall approached this year that the photo of my dad came to the forefront of my mind again, alongside the nostalgic desire to take a weekend trip down to Busch Gardens Williamsburg [1]. I often forget the adrenaline rush of a roller coaster and the satisfactory first bite of a carnival corndog until I'm in the thick of it again amidst a literal dizzying rush of joy. That's the thing about theme parks: they really inspire you to enjoy the present moment — something seemingly more and more difficult for me to do as I get older.
So, making an autumnal weekend out of it, I made the eight-hour drive from New York down to Williamsburg in a 2026 Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid [2], in silver no less, just in time for "hoa hoa hoa [3]" season (i.e. "Twilight [4]" season, for the uninitiated). In true Cullen fashion, we traveled in style to our final spooky destination that laid ahead, all thanks to Volvo for letting us take a test drive.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg invited myself and two guests to Howl-O-Scream, an annual nightly Halloween [5] event transforming the park into a late-night party with five haunted houses, five scare zones, and live shows running from Sept. 11 to Nov. 1.
On opening night, we attended a private event within the park that boasted Halloween-themed catering, such as anaconda shaped pretzels and cakes (to promote the new Anaconda: Dead on Arrival haunted house attraction) as well as margaritas served in IV bags.
After the event ended, we were able to explore the park with VIP passes that allowed us to utilize the Quick Que line to beat the crowds. As the sun set, we meandered along the various pathways in what felt like a medieval forest covered by an eerie canopy of trees lit up with red lights. The park transported us with its assortment of European-style villages filled with scare actors dressed in old time-y garb who routinely jumped out to spook park attendees (myself included) with exaggerated Cockney accents, shrill screams, and sudden movements.
Waiting in line for the several haunted house attractions reminded me of being a teenager waiting for hours in lines that wrapped around a literal cornfield during a chilly fall night in October, all just to scream our brains out as we ran through the town's local "spooky walk." What a time.
A Howl-O-Scream highlight was the live show, Fiends, located in the Abbey Stone Theatre. The premise of the show is that the "naughty nurses" and Igor help "Doctor Freakenstein" unleash his newest invention: an AI assistant that will help him become immortal. The show includes musical numbers with contemporary music (Britney Spears [6]! Tame Impala!) and culturally relevant jokes around the takeover of AI, the state of politics, and pop culture, at large. The show was so refreshing, entertaining, and really funny – we thoroughly enjoyed it.
The first and only thrill ride that I actually went on alongside my sister-in-law was the DarKoaster, North America's first all-indoor straddle-style roller coaster, which travels across 2,454 feet of track and evidently travels at a speed of 36 miles per hour that, to me, felt more like 105 as we accelerated into total darkness. By the time the ride ended, I was disheveled but laughing as tears streamed down my cheeks from hypothetical whiplash.
After exiting the ride, we walked to the inescapable digital display of mid-ride flash photography to search for our glamour shot. We laughed when we spotted it – both of our eyes pinched closed with our fists clenched onto the handlebars in front of us, as the look of what appeared to be pain was evident across both of our faces. I smiled at the photo and decided to purchase it, happy to have my own kitschy photo from Busch Gardens to add to my photo collection, alongside the one of my dad from the 80s.
This night, and this trip as a whole, reminded me of what it feels like to be young again, to feel present and to let out a scream (literally). As a lover of Halloween, horror films, and the like, this was the perfect weekend getaway to ground myself in fun, all alongside people that I care about. Until next year, happy Halloween!
Emily Zirimis [8] is the associate creative director at Popsugar. Before joining the PS team, she worked as Creative Design Director at Teen Vogue for nearly six years. She holds a BFA in Communications Design with a minor in Art History from Pratt Institute and has been working in the digital media space since 2014.