Hello & welcome back to our Halloween celebration. Strap in folks, this is going to be a long article. Join me today, as I take a look at how Halloween is celebrated at the Disney Parks. Let's get this very long article started. Now, I should mention that I won't be looking at all of the events.
Haunted Mansion Holiday - Disneyland/Tokyo Disneyland
Perhaps, one of the most famous things done during Halloween at the parks is Haunted Mansion Holiday. Yippee. Yeah, I don't like this idea because I HATE The Nightmare Before Christmas and all Tim Burton films in general. Sorry, I think his work is terrible. Anyways, let's get on with it. Haunted Mansion Holiday is set after the events of the film. The story is that Jack Skellington decides to bring his twisted Christmas presents to The Haunted Mansion to the 999 ghosts inhabiting the Mansion. The Mansion is decked out with both Halloween and Christmas decorations. You see, this is both a Halloween and Christmas event. It lasts from September to January. The guests go through the normal rooms as they would in the regular version of the attraction but just with a Holiday twist and characters from the Tim Burton adorning the room. One nice feature is that each year per request of Tim Burton, there is a different Gingerbread House as part of the celebration. Here's this year's.
I have to say with the popularity of Nightmare, I'm surprised that this hasn't come to Disney World and at the same time, relieved because as I mentioned, I don't like this movie and in my opinion, The Haunted Mansion is fine as is, it doesn't need a Holiday lay over. The Haunted Mansion along with Tower of Terror are the perfect Halloween attractions as is. I know that this film is a cult classic and if you like it, great but I think it is overrated. If I ever go to Disneyland during this season, I just know to avoid Haunted Mansion Holiday. Now as you saw, this is also at Tokyo Disney, where they have a painting of Jack changing form the Pumpkin King into Sandy Claws. That's a nice tie-in and through the rides, in the different rooms, Oogie Boogie, Sally, and Zero make appearances.
Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy - Disneyland/Hong Kong Disneyland
OH MY GOD, this looks awesome. Yep, Space Mountain also has a Halloween layover and before I go on, does anyone think that this sounds like the title of a John Carpenter film? Nah, that's probably just me. To get the full experience of this AWESOMENESS, head to YouTube and search for a ride-through of Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy. It is creepy, you have ghosts chasing after you and it feels as though, they are out to grab you. There are scares to be had everywhere and they go all out, I mean in the queue, there is a screen saying signal lost and the signal is found eventually. I cannot express how cool, this one was. I should mention that this first debuted at Hong Kong and then came over state-side in '09. You get the feeling of the ghost actually chasing you. I honestly can't express how cool, this is.
Main Street Haunted Hotel - Hong Kong Disneyland
This one seems to tie back into the original plans for The Haunted Mansion to be a walk through. The story goes that guests walk through the hotel, where there are living haunts and Victoria Maxwell from 1889, who had haunted the place for fresh victims since then. This is quite the departure from some of the other things, but not as much as something, we will get in a bit.
Demon Jungle - Hong Kong Disneyland
I couldn't find too much info on this one but it appears to be another haunted walk through and from what I could gather, it seems to play people's fears of being lost in the jungle. Which is something different. That's kinda cool.
The Revenge of The Headless Horseman - Hong Kong Disneyland
This replaced Demon Jungle at Hong Kong Disney in '11 as The Headless Horseman was the central theme for their Halloween event that year. It's hosted by The Headless Horseman. It's a haunted circus. Uh, why? There was no circus in Sleepy Hollow and for this being called Revenge, I would've thought that Ichabod Crane would've been involved somehow. I don't know, this one just confuses me.
Terrorific Nights - Walt Disney Studios
This is perhaps the most interesting Disney event. it ended in 2012 and it is a stark contrast to what Disney offers here state side. Some set up, Disneyland and Disney World as you'll see like to offer Halloween events that take a much a more family friendly approach that serve as an alternate to theme park events such as Universal's Halloween Horror Nights and Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream. As those are much more intense and adult-oriented Halloween events. Terrorific Nights is un-Disney in every sense. It can be, it is much more like Disney's competitors, Halloween events as it had multiple scare zones, zombies roaming the park and scarers chasing you. This is an interesting idea and it is nice to see a Disney park take a different approach to doing their Halloween event and I could've seen working in Disney's Hollywood Studios but part of me wonders if they don't want to do something like this because when it comes to their Halloween events, they try to stand out as the park offering a family-friendly event and I have no qualms with that. Speaking of which...
Mickey' Not-So-Scary Halloween Party/Mickey's Halloween Party - Magic Kingdom/Disneyland
These two are the same basic idea, as I said above, they are family friendly Halloween events and they offer trick-or-treating at the parks. This year at Magic Kingdom, there was a villains' mix and mingle. While at Disneyland, they offered at Monsters U party and a Scare Off. Magic Kingdom has the Boo To You Parade led The Headless Horseman and there is trick-or-treating to be done. It's cute and simple, nothing wrong with that. I've never been to Not So Scary but I've seen Magic Kingdom decorated with Halloween decorations and it was cute to see. I would like to go back and actually partake in this event.
There you have it, my brief look at some Halloween stuff in the different parks. I may do another one of these next year. Join me tomorrow as we break from the Halloween articles for my Third Year anniversary review. yay!
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