Halloween Events

The Halloween Events at Disney’s theme parks are varied as the locations. Usually held between mid-September and early November running through the Halloween season. In all cases, Mickey, Minnie, and other athmosphere characters have worn special Halloween-themed costumes.

Disneyland Resort
At Disneyland Park, Halloween Time features the “Haunted Mansion Holiday” overlay at The Haunted Mansion featuring characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas, continuing into Christmas. Starting in 2006, the main theme park was decorated with pumpkins, including a 12-foot Jack O'Lantern shaped like Mickey Mouse in front of Main Street USA and smaller pumpkins around the Walt Disney-Mickey Mouse “Partners” Statue representing each of the theme lands with a character from Disney or Pixar canon. Fantasyland is represented by Tinker Bell, New Orleans Square by Jack Skellington, Tomorrowland by Buzz Lightyear, Frontierland by Woody, Critter Country by Winnie the Pooh, Toontown by Roger Rabbit and Adventureland by Tarzan. A celebration of “Dia de los Muertos”, Mexico’s “Day of the Dead” in Frontierland was added in 2007. The 2008 events will run from September 25th until October 31st.

At Disney’s California Adventure, a hard-ticket event, “Mickey’s Halloween Treat” is held allowing guests to dress up in costume and go trick-or-treating for candy supplied by Mars, Hershey's and Nestle at stations manned by costumed cast members. In addition, the “Golden Dreams” theatre hosted an all-villain show called “Golden Screams”, which was discontinued after 2007 as the theatre will be closed and torn down to make way for the Voyage of The Little Mermaid dark ride. The Mickey’s Halloween Treat event was moved from Disneyland Park in 2005 to DCA after an hiatus. The dates for the 2008 edition of Mickey’s Halloween Treat are found in the current events section under “Disney’s California Adventure”.

Walt Disney World
At the Magic Kingdom, a hard-ticket event called “Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party” features Mickey's Boo To You Parade, featuring a pre-parade ride by the Headless Horseman, a stage show featuring Disney’s villans, other character meet and greets, dance parties with Stitch in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland characters at Ariel’s Grotto, trick-and-treating featuring a trail on the bridge between Mickey's Toontown Fair and Tomorrowland based on Alice in Wonderland called “Alice and Mad Hatter’s Treat Party”, and a Halloween-themed fireworks show titled “Happy Hallowishes: A Grim Grinning Ghosts Spooktacular in the Sky”, based on the Haunted Mansion attraction. Like Halloween Time at DCA, guests are encouraged to dress up in costume and join in the fun. Dates for the 2008 series are September 5th through October 31st, and the MNNSHP dates can be found in the current events section under “Magic Kingdom”.

In addition, Downtown Disney in Lake Buena Vista and Pleasure Island have special Halloween events on October 30th and 31st.

Disneyland Paris
Since 2005, the theme of the Halloween events has been a battle between pumpkin men trying to paint the main park orange and pink witches freezing most of them. In 2006, Stitch of Lilo and Stitch fame was added as the central character of the activities, which have included truning Frontierland into “Halloweenland”, stage shows and parades. The 2007 events (which will be repeated in 2008 from October 4th through November 2nd) includes a special preliminary event with Stitch, the Pumpkin Men and the Pink Witches prior to the “Once Upon A Dream” 15th Anniversary parade, stage shows with Minnie in a Pink Witch outfit and a group of magicians called “The Bat Boys” and Goofy making pumpkin soup at Frontierland/Halloweenland along with a stage show in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, featuring Disney Villains along with the aforementioned Pumpkin Men and the Pink Witches. An annual “Hard Ticket Event” soiree (party) is held every October 31 featuring a fireworks show with a Halloween theme; the 2007 theme a tribute to Disney villains. New for 2008 will be their version of the “Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party” hard ticket event on October 10th, 17th, 24th and 28th, and will be held only in the Fantasyland area.

Tokyo Disneyland
Every year, Tokyo Disneyland has a new themed Halloween Parade and other events. In 2007, activities included a “Haunted Mansion” parade and “Spooky Street” show. Even though the 2007 events were billed as a “spooky” event, there was nothing but “nine hundred and ninety-nine HAPPY haunts” in this playful celebration as the daytime parade lyrics explained that “It’s all a game, so do not fear.” There will be no new parade in 2008 as TDLR will continue with its’ 25th Anniversary “Jubilation” parade as part of the silver anniversary events, however the Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare layout will be in place. Halloween activities will run from September 12th through October 31st in 2008.

Hong Kong Disneyland
The first Halloween events at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2006 was a mini-parade with the characters in costume, a band and dancers. An expanded schedule for 2007 included “Main Street Haunted Hotel”, the new home of the former Rocky Point Haunted House in Salt Lake City, Utah, a nighttime glow-in-the-dark blacklight parade featuring Jack Skellington and the DLRP Pumpkin Men, a Ghost Galaxy layout for Space Mountain and a talking haunted tree in Sleeping Beauty Courtyard akin to Disney World’s much friendlier talking palm tree at Animal Kingdom.

See also: Christmas Events