Trip Report: Halloween Time at Disneyland

Last week, Scare Zone made the trip out to Anaheim to visit Disneyland and experience their Halloween Time offerings. As always, it was a magical adventure.

Halloween Time really offers only one attraction (Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy) plus a whole bevy of Halloween decorations and special treats for sale. Haunted Mansion Holiday is also open and definitely has the Halloween theme going, but because it’s open until January, we don’t consider it specific to Halloween Time. However, we’ll include it in our trip report. (We did not experience Mickey’s Halloween Party, so you won’t find anything about that here.)

We visited after work last Thursday, since it was one of the only weekdays in October that Disneyland was open past 8 pm. (With all the other haunts we’ve been attending, we just didn’t have the time to go on a weekend.) The park was pretty full but not overwhelmingly crowded, with wait times for Haunted Mansion at about 30 minutes and Ghost Galaxy at 50 minutes. We started with Haunted Mansion Holiday.

Haunted Mansion Holiday

The attraction is pretty much the same as in previous years, with a few different details (such as an added effect across the moon in the Doombuggy loading area and a cool new Leota effect). There’s also a strong scent of gingerbread in the ballroom scene, and the gingerbread house is another winner this year. This is really one of our all-time favorite attractions at any theme park (anywhere), and it never disappoints. The holiday overlay is marvelous, and we hope that it comes back year after year.

Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy

Again, the same as last year. We had heard rumors earlier in the year that they might be adding some new effects, but that didn’t happen. We also wish they’d consider theming the queue to make it a bit more sinister (and also doing away with FastPass, but that’s a different discussion altogether). Nevertheless, it’s still a great attraction with some really cool effects (and a very good soundtrack). Last year, we visited during the day only, so experiencing the lighting effects on the outside was new for us this year. And it’s really pretty impressive.

The Rest

As always, the decorations throughout the park are fun and evoke the spirit of Halloween. There’s just something so magical about Disneyland at nighttime, and Halloween Time only adds to that. Disneyland is truly the master and the standard by which all other theme parks are judged. We look forward to visiting again soon.

Share on Facebook