Disneyland‘s popular Halloween Time is back for its annual run. The offerings are a bit scaled back this year but marquee offerings such as Haunted Mansion Holiday and Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy are ready to scare up some fun. In Disney California Adventure, Disney has gotten an ice-cold response to news that a “Frozen” musical would replace the fan-favorite “Aladdin — A Musical Spectacular” early next year. Has Disney finally burned people out on all things Frozen?
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We’re back after a week off for a full recap of this year’s Halloween Time offerings. Let’s get started!
Welcome to Halloween Time! |
Halloween Time is now in full swing at Disneyland, with Main Street decked out for the season.
After a summer season with none of the traditional patriotic bunting in favor of keeping the 60th Anniversary decorations up, we didn’t expect to see the orange Halloween Time bunting and lamppost decorations to go up. Luckily, they have, and it’s a nice change from the blue-and-white Diamond Celebration decorations.
The Halloween Time lamppost decorations are up at the main entrance but are modified for the 60th on Main Street.
Instead of the Mickey pumpkins and the “Disney’s Halloween Time” logo, the Diamond Celebration D plaques are up along with the fall leaves and orange banners. It’s a nice compromise – a bit of fall color with the 60th decorations still in place.
With the Big Thunder Ranch Halloween Carnival not being offered this year, Mickey and friends are meeting in Town Square in their Halloween costumes.
The Candy Palace (as well as Trolley Treats in California Adventure) has a selection of special Halloween cake pops, rice crispy treats and apples. New this year, Dia de los Muertos-decorated treats. Nice!
The classic Halloween treats are back as well.
Bat-shaped Mickey cookies are available at Market House, Jolly Holiday Bakery, and Fiddler, Fifer and Practical.
Looking down Main Street, the Castle is still dressed up for the 60th.
In the hub, the Partners statue is once again surrounded by jack-o-lanterns representing each land of the park.
With Halloween Time being an annual event for nearly a decade, when will Disneyland’s offerings get a proper refresh? Next year marks a decade of Halloween Time and most of the annual decorations, such as these jack-o-lanterns, have remained the same for the entire decade. Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris routinely get new Halloween decorations — isn’t it time to give Disneyland’s Halloween Time some love?
Below, a few recent Halloween Time headlines from the Disney Parks Blog worth mentioning:
- Complete Guide to Eats During Halloween Time at Disneyland Resort
- Mystical Spirits of the Blue Bayou: New Premium Dining Experience Coming to Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland Park
- Halloween Minnie Mouse Transformation Casts A Spell on Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Disney Parks
In Frontierland, Ray Bradbury’s Halloween Tree is back.
The Halloween Tree is a great idea and a fitting tribute to Bradbury and his love of Disneyland. It’s too bad Disney’s only willing to spend enough to cover some lights and plastic pumpkins with faces drawn on with Sharpies. This little tribute could be so much better.
Zocalo Park’s great little Dia de los Muertos display is back.
It would be great to see this expanded into an entire festival in Frontierland, similar to the ¡Viva Navidad! offerings at Disney California Adventure during the holidays.
In the back of Frontierland, Big Thunder Ranch is decorated for what will likely be its final Halloween Time before Star Wars Land takes shape where the Ranch currently sits.
The Scare-dy Crow Shack is always fun.
Big Thunder Barbecue is decked out for Halloween Time as well
Unfortunately, Disney decided to axe the Halloween Carnival in the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree area this year. With Star Wars Land not starting construction (or demolition) anytime soon, this seems like a penny-pinching move rather than a necessary construction-related omission. The Jamboree area is just sitting unused (just as it did throughout the summer) instead of hosting guests. The absence of the Halloween Carnival means no villains meet-and-greet tent and no live pumpkin carving this year, features which had become a fan-favorite staples of Disneyland’s Halloween Time festivities.
In New Orleans Square, Haunted Mansion Holiday is back for its annual run, which lasts for a good third of the year.
The popularity of this overlay should be grounds for Disney to just build Nightmare Before Christmas its own full-fledged attraction, but since that has yet to happen, the Haunted Mansion celebrates Christmas with the help of Jack Skellington for four solid months every year.
The jack-o-lanterns on the hillside behind the Mansion didn’t return this year. Instead, new landscaping and two new portions of faux brick walls are up. These look like permanent additions, perhaps related to Disneyland’s ongoing fall safety additions?
New magnolia trees added alongside the new walls.
Inside, nothing major has changed aside from the annual gingerbread house.
Unfortunately, the graphics here are still very low-resolution. Shame to add digital projection effects where you can see the pixels of the CG animation.
This year’s gingerbread house is a towering “house of cards” being built by gingerbread men, with the help of spiders.
Below, Disney released a couple of great photos of the new gingerbread house and the Hat Box Ghost dressed up for the holidays.
Below, our on-ride video of this year’s gingerbread house and the Hat Box Ghost.
Outside of the Mansion, Jack Skellington and Sally meet with guests
Nearby, the New Orleans Square popcorn cart is offering a new light-up Zero dog house souvenir bucket
This year’s Halloween Time bucket
And at select dining locations throughout the Resort, this new poison apple souvenir mug is available
In Tomorrowland, Space Mountain’s Ghost Galaxy overlay is back, without any changes.
Refurbishment Round-up |
A look at refurbishment projects underway in both parks…
The walkway between Frontierland and Fantasy Faire is still behind walls…
In Tomorrowland, Innoventions remains closed while the Star Wars Launch Bay continues to be installed inside. Outside, the entire lower level is now painted white…
The Tomorrowland Theatre continues to sit dormant, likely awaiting a Star Wars: The Force Awakens sneak preview
The Starcade is also still closed.
Around 8 p.m. last Wednesday, Disney officially announced that Califonria Adventure’s popular Aladdin musical show would close in January to make way for a new musical production based on Frozen.
The announcement on the Disney Parks Blog was met with overwhelming negativity by readers, and currently features over 100 comments, many of which are opposed to “Frozen” replacing the fan-favorite Aladdin show.
While a great theme park show, Aladdin will be 13 years old by the time the curtain closes one last time. It has certainly run its course, but after a Frozen Summer Fun promotion and two Frozen-based shows currently running at the Resort, it seems like audiences could use a break from Olaf.
Aladdin has been saved once before, when Disney announced a version of the Disney Cruise Line’s “Toy Story” musical would replace the “Aladdin” show in early 2011. Those plans were eventually scrapped and Aladdin has continued to play until now.
Could fans save Aladdin again? With the overwhelmingly negative feedback Disney has received everywhere they promoted the “Frozen” news, it’s certainly a possibility. Below, you can click on the official @Disneyland Tweet of the news to see a strong majority of fans responding negatively to the news.
All new ‘Frozen’-inspired stage musical coming to Disney California Adventure Park in 2016! http://t.co/tu6L094Saj pic.twitter.com/NtEUVTLnle
— Disneyland Resort (@Disneyland) September 10, 2015
If Frozen does move into the Hyperion, hopefully the nearby Frozen Sing-Along will close and the Muppets can return to their theatre.
No visible changes over at the upcoming Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters attraction.
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Weekly News & Information Round-Up | ||
Weekly Theme Park Hours September 14-20, 2015 |
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[B]Disneyland Park[/B] | [B]California Adventure[/B] | |
Monday: 9 am – 10 pm Tue.-Thu.: 10 am – 9 pm Fri.-Sat.: 8 am – 12 am Sunday: 9 am – 12 am |
Monday: 9 am – 8 pm Tue.-Thu.: 10 am – 8 pm Friday: 8 am – 10 pm Saturday: 8 am – 9 pm Sunday: 8 am – 10 pm |
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[CENTER]For a complete listing of theme park hours, visit the Disneyland.com Theme Park Calendar[/CENTER] |
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[center]Closure and Refurbishment Schedule[/center] | ||
[b][center]Disneyland Park[/center][/b] | ||
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[b][center]Disney California Adventure[/center][/b] | ||
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[b][center]Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels[/center][/b] | ||
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September 14-20
The free Mouseaddict app for iPhone and iPad features more than five dozen categories of searchable resort information, weather forecasts, park and show schedules, the latest news and articles from MiceChat, and more. Download free on the App Store or at mouseaddict.com. |
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[center]Headline Roundup A quick look at noteworthy Disney theme park headlines from around the web.[/center] |
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Okay, that wraps up this week’s edition of Dateline Disneyland! What do you think of this year’s Halloween Time offerings? Is it time for a refresh? What about Frozen? Let us know in the comments section below!
Special thanks to our Dateline Disneylanders!
Benjamin, Mark, and Bruno! To help support Dateline Disneyland and get some fun swag in return, visit our Patreon page now! For more Disneyland news, be sure to read MiceChat’s weekly In the Parks blog. And be sure to check out our sister blog, Dateline Disney World – a fantastic weekly photo blog covering Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Thanks for reading. See you at Disneyland! |
FTC-Mandated Disclosure: Promotional consideration for this edition of Dateline Disneyland was provided by the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel & Water Playground. |