Mickey's Halloween Party - Disneyland Edition

Halloween in Disneyland

It’s party time!! As we walk up to the gates we see a not unexpected sign:

We’ve got our tickets already though, so onward!

Aren’t the carved “pumpkins” cute?

Mickey has his party mask on.

Mickey Pumpkin projections twirl on the ground.

This huge floating Mickey ghost was so cool.

Spooky eyes blinked and followed you on the buildings.

Sidebar: I adore Halloween. I love the time of year, the fun decorations, the excuse to dress silly, all of it. I do however have one very severe phobia for a web-based-thing that tends to feature heavily during Halloween. It’s a deep enough phobia that we don’t even say the word in my house.

I’ve always loved that DisneyWorld didn’t use these things for decoration because little kids aren’t usually fond of them either. (It’s why I’ve never gone through the Jungle Cruise queue. I’m told there is a massive one in a crate at one point.)

So imagine my dismay, as we’re walking down Main Street, that I look over and guess what is projected ALL OVER THE BUILDINGS. Chris shielded me quickly and I managed not to have a panic attack, but dang. MASSIVE strike for DisneyLAND.

I stop to grab a corndog (which was just average) and take a goofy photo to send to my family.

This shooting gallery was cute. It actually cost you quarters to play though, which I thought was a bit money-gouging.

For MNSSHP at WDW, I dressed in pirate garb. This time I decided I’M BATMAN.

So great with the fog rolling across the water.

I love how they underlit the ship to give it a spooky vibe.

We head over to Pirates of the Caribbean first and as I’d hoped, the line is short and goes quickly. I was really interested to see how this differed from the one in Florida.

I am so in love with this shot. I need to print and hang it.

I couldn’t believe I managed to get this guy lit up by the “lightning”.

Is Jack grabbing the asses of those dresses?

As we pass the tropical islands of the Tiki room I’m compelled to stop for a Dole Whip Float. I’ve heard the lines for this can be crazy as well, but again we don’t have much of a wait.

Yummmmmm. This ended up being one of my favorite images from the trip.

Adorably spooky Jack Skellington apple.

There’s a grip tester in one of the shops and Chris is determined to show his strength. There’s no shots of my attempt because it was predictably awful.

CHAMPION GRIPPER!

Owwww – that’s what you get for showing off.

We pass the Plaza Inn and since we’ve learned there is a underwhelming number of options to eat at compared to what we’re used to, we decide to go in.

The leaded glass doors are pretty.

Inside, food is dispensed cafeteria style. You walk up, pick your foods which are dished out, then you go to the cashier to pay for your choice(s).

Chris had the pot roast with mashed potatoes, green beans and a biscuit.

I got fried chicken with the same sides. Both were quite good considering it’s a quick-service option.

After dinner we head over to ride Star Tours.

So many awesome details in the queue.

This gal ended up in front of me and I asked to take a picture of her mask (which she was wearing backwards on her head). She laughed and agreed. I complimented the super creepy accessory.

Space Mountain was nearby, so we got in line for that.

Listening to the sound effects from outside was definitely unsettling. It really felt like the outside of a downed spaceship, and you could imagine flickering lights and scuttling alien creatures.

Another cool queue experience, but I couldn’t comfortably ride so Chris went alone. They had a Halloween overlay going where a ghost chased your car/sled and Chris said it just came off mediocre.

The themed popcorn turners were really fun to see.

The fireworks went off, and we momentarily got stuck behind safety ropes. I was very cool seeing the unusual view of the explosions over the Matterhorn.

Past the throng of people, we could see a bit of the Castle projection show. You may wonder why we weren’t there watching the show – we knew from WDW that hitting the rides is the best thing to do on a party night. The majority of them are walk on in a way they aren’t usually, and you can see the fireworks from nearly anywhere, like the Matterhorn shot above.

I can watch the full show thanks to other people standing hours for a good view in packed crowds taking video. I didn’t regret trading walk-on rides over standing in a crowd.

I had a few souvenirs I really wanted to get this trip – and this “balloon” popcorn bucket was one of them. No freaking idea how I’m getting it on the flight home but I don’t care. Look how awesome!

The train station had a Villain meet and greet. I wasn’t about to stand in the lines for them, either, but got some fun shots from the sidelines.

“It’s a small underworld, after all, huh?”

“Name’s Hades, Lord of the dead. Hi, how ya doin’?”

I was thrilled to just catch a photo with Cinderella’s evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and two stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. They were on their way back (to crash a ball no doubt) and stopped for me.