If you’ve been reading my blog for a while then you know I’ve mentioned before that Halloween Time is just about my favorite time of year at the Disneyland Resort. There’s a lot going on, and I’ve already covered some of it in several blogs:
“Haul-O-Ween” in Cars Land
Halloween at Disney California Adventure
Mickey’s Halloween Party

But now I’m going to talk about Halloween Time at Disneyland this year. For me, Halloween Time begins when I ride the tram from the Mickey & Friends parking structure and pass the Halloween display along the tram route.

The oversized character pumpkins are over the park entrance.

On Main Street, it’s the Main Street Pumpkin Festival. Festively carved pumpkins, no two alike, peep out from all over Main Street.

There are pumpkins in shop windows, also.

A very popular photo opportunity is the giant Mickey pumpkin in Town Square.

The Dapper Dans perform sets that include Halloween-themed songs. Lots of clever choreography and corny jokes. I particularly like the way they end “Grim Grinning Ghosts”, the first song in the clip below. They really put on a good show.

In Town Square during the morning hours many of the Disney characters, dressed in their Halloween costumes, are out to greet guests.

Some of the villains are out out, too.

The characters sometimes interact with each other, and that’s a lot of fun to watch.

One of the highlights of Halloween Time is Haunted Mansion Holiday, the attraction overlay where Halloween meets Christmas. Jack Skellington and the Halloween Town gang have been decorating the Haunted Mansion since 2001.

Each year there is a different gingerbread house. This year the house has been infested by gingerbread bugs. Oogie Boogie’s solution is to eat them.

The Space Mountain attraction also receives a holiday overlay, and becomes Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. There’s a different weirdly chilling soundtrack with sudden rills timed to the visuals of eerie space images throughout the attraction – like when the “space ghost” appears to try to grab the rocket vehicles as they pass by.

I enjoy watching the screen in the loading area – the image of a planet occasionally gets scrambled and the signal is lost, demonstrating that something is not quiet right in the sector.

The ride seems even darker to me than the “normal” Space Mountain, and it’s certainly fast and thrilling. There’s signs placed at the entrance and several other places in the queue warning that the attraction may be frightening for children.

In Frontierland is the Dia de los Muertos display. In addition to the displays is a face painting location.

Something new this year is the sale of custom-made floral headbands. The price starts at $30, and goes up depending on the number and size of flowers selected. They were quite pretty – I saw several women wearing them.

Some of the most popular pieces of Halloween merchandise each year are the popcorn buckets. This year there are several. The Mickey pumpkin bucket ($15.00) is available only at Disneyland, at a number of different popcorn carts. There’s also a Villains bucket available only to Annual Passholders. After the initial $15 purchase, refills are available for $1 through October 31.

The Oogie Boogie popcorn bucket ($15.99) is available in both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

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