Is It Worth Going to Disneyland During September-Early October
Halloween Costumes, Events, and Decorations:
In both Disneyland and California Adventures, the characters are dressed up in costumes such as Lighting McQueen as a superhero, Mater as a vampire, and Mickey as a wizard. One Disneyland change is before you enter the park, pumpkins of Mickey and friends above the gates as you enter for Halloween. The Mickey statue in the middle of Main Street U.S.A. inside Disneyland changes to a larger-than-life Mickey Mouse pumpkin. All the lamp posts have a pumpkin Mickey that says Halloween time in bright orange and yellow colors with leaves around it. They also have Halloween fireworks. Now, the bigger changes to the park are on the other side in California Adventures. Where we see Oogie Boogie and other Disney villains take over the land. This only takes place on select nights at Disney California Adventure during the Halloween season and requires a special extra ticket. The party includes an exclusive Halloween parade with an appearance by a horseback-riding headless horseman, trick-or-treating, and more. An area that changes the most is found in California Adventures Cars Land, as we see some of the gardens become car graveyards or full of evil pumpkin gas cans. We see the streetlights become monsters with big cone teeth and tire eyes. The cone motel rooms in Cozy Cone Motel become evil cones with scary faces carved on them. Mummy tractors, spider cars, and more with all of this paired with the lights that Radiator Springs is known for, a sight you must see when visiting.
Attraction Changes:
Multiple attractions change for Halloween, some small and others big. The small changes are on little rides like Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. They change the carts for the rides by wrapping them like mummies, changing the music, and the line for the attraction is Halloween-themed. They also changed the name of the rides to Mater's Graveyard JamBOOree and Luigi's Honkin' Haul-O-Ween. Another small change is to Space Mountain, calling it Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy with you going into hyperspace, and then a ghost messes up your jump by having you transported to a galaxy full of ghosts trying to catch you in the dark. A pretty big change is to the thrilling drop coaster of Guardians of The Galaxy mission Breakout, now being called GOTG Monsters After Dark. You and the guardians run through various rooms in the building, evading the monster with big drops. The biggest change to an attraction in the whole park is the re-theming of the Haunted Mansion ride during Halloween, as seen in the image above. It changes to Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which changes the outside of the ride, the line, and the ride itself to tell the story of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It starts with us entering the dune buggies and following the events of the movie, like Jack discovering the land of Christmas, Jack and Sally on the snowy hill together, and taking over as Santa Claus, and ends with Oogie Boogie spinning the wheel and us taking a spooky gift home.
Halloween Merchandise:
There is always new Halloween merchandise at the Disney Parks. A lot of the Disneyland merch will be based around the more Halloween movies such as Haunted Mansion, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Hocus Pocus. But that doesn’t mean you won’t see Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, and Marvel Halloween merch. One of their newest pieces of merchandise is a glow-in-the-dark Mickey Mouse Lounge fly backpack. They have placemats for Halloween that have Mickey and friends trick or treating outside of the Haunted Mansion with the singing head and Madam Leota and a moon with Jack Skellington’s face on it. They have Halloween countdown calendars with Mickey and Minnie outside a haunted house with the countdown in the middle. We see pins all around the park, ones with the evil Sanderson Sisters, Grugru from Star Wars sitting inside a pumpkin, and more. They have exclusive sippers, such as Donald Duck in his candy corn costume, Mickey in his Skeleton costume, and Minnie as Winifred Sanderson, all holding the drink inside with the straw coming out their head area. We also see popcorn buckets like the Mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas in his vehicle with the trick or treat up top, Jack holding onto the back, and Sally storing the popcorn inside the vehicle by flipping the top open. Another popcorn bucket has Mickey dressed as a mummy, with it storing the popcorn in the back. They also have new Mickey ears, with some of them taking the ears and replacing them with Mickey Mouse pumpkins or some having the image of Jack and Oogie Boogie on them.
My Opinion:
In my opinion, I think it is worth it. I don’t know about the Oogie Boogie Bash because it does cost quite a bit of money, even though it already costs quite a bit to go already. There's lots of merchandise that is only out for about two months and then gone and rarely comes out the next year unless it was super popular. Many new things that you don’t see while going around other times of the year. It is also worth it if you have a younger sibling or kids because they get to see their favorite Disney characters in Halloween costumes when taking a picture with them. Not only is it worth it cause it’s Halloween-themed all around, but it’s colder outside, so you're not walking around all hot and sweaty; it’s one of the cooler times of the year. Also, most kids are in school this time of year, so you see shorter wait times on rides and less of a crowd.