Halloween season at Disneyland is the bomb. After all, no one is as good at imaginatively decorating as the folks in Anaheim. At the park this week, I saw tons of beautiful pumpkin displays, whimsical adjustments to existing structures, and a few completely revamped rides: most notably, the Haunted Mansion.
Walking around, you’ll see plenty of hat tips to the season—sometimes literally, like the entrance gates topped with Donald Duck wearing a misshapen pumpkin as a beret. But the first surprise is that Disney California Adventure Park actually does Halloween better than Disneyland.
For instance, the Plaza de la Familia at California Adventure, which is up until November 2, honors the spirit of Día de Los Muertos with interactive storytelling, dance performances, an offrenda protected by the dog Dante, a place to honor those who have passed at the Árbol de la Vida (tree of life), and even a standalone Recuérdame (remember me) pavilion which shows the artifacts from Coco’s family from the 2017 movie Coco.
Seeing that the giant bear sculpture outside the Grizzly River Run was holding its own trick-or-treat pumpkin shows the effort involved in making whimsical and yet difficult touches. And the fact that the already-terrifying Guardians of the Galaxy ride (formerly, Tower of Terror) has a Halloween-themed “Monsters After Dark” version that lasts until Octobeer 31 is awesome—its presence on Disney’s website is one of the few pages that asks, “Is it too scary?”
So it’s worth doing a Park Hopper ticket or even devoting a day to the other park across the courtyard. Plus, the Incredicoaster at California Adventure was declared the overall favorite ride of most of our group.
The second surprise for visiting Disneyland this time of year is that the Haunted Mansion is actually less spooky when revamped for Halloween. The ride has never been a true nail biter, but at least the atmospherics lent a subdued, creepy vibe. Maybe this is a controversial opinion, but when they convert the mansion over for Halloween, it’s not as cool as it is the rest of the year. This was somewhat disappointing on the heels of the live-action movie that will be bringing in hordes of new riders.
For Halloween, the mansion is themed for the Nightmare Before Christmas. My favorite part—the ballroom dancers—is incongruous in the scene that is now Nightmare-oriented. When you depart the ride in your “Doom Buggy,” you are supposed to see a ghost reflected in the mirror with you, a fun little jolt of surprise the first time you ride. Instead, we saw a wrapped Christmas present that completely covered my fellow rider’s face.
Although the Nightmare before Christmas is a fantastic movie, the converted attraction just doesn't do a good job of conveying the Tim Burton aesthetic, and I prefer the New Orleans feel of the normal ride. A long list of names on a scroll of Santa's list just isn't fun or scary. I did like seeing Zero the dog wafting through scenes, but for the most part, the ride is less successful at a time of year that it should be rocking the Spooky Season.
To be fair, the folks at Disney are thinking of kids, and the events of August, September and October are branded as Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I think the scariest part of both parks is hearing the yeti roar and pursuing you inside the Matterhorn.