Halloween Time & Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland {Travel Tuesday}

Have you ever been to a Dis­ney park dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son? I’ve been once at Christ­mas­time and it’s incred­i­ble. In true Dis­ney fash­ion, the atten­tion to detail can’t be beat. So, it’s no sur­prise that I’ve heard equally great things about Dis­ney at Hal­loween. Vis­it­ing dur­ing this time of year is on my Dis­ney “bucket-list” for sure!All the spook­tac­u­lar fun returns to the park this week! From Fri­day, Sept. 14 through Mon­day, Oct. 31, Dis­ney­land Resort guests will join Mickey Mouse and the Dis­ney vil­lains for some new treats and fam­ily fun at Hal­loween Time.

Hal­loween Time is an oppor­tu­nity for favorite Dis­ney char­ac­ters to dress up in fes­tive, fall cos­tumes and wel­come guests into a park spe­cially dec­o­rated for the hol­i­day. I’ve heard it’s the only time when all the Dis­ney vil­lains come out in the park! Some of the tra­di­tional Hal­loween Time favorites include:

• Space Moun­tain Ghost Galaxy in Tomor­row­land begins as a typ­i­cal Space Moun­tain adven­ture, but sud­denly launches voy­agers into a haunted sec­tion of the uni­verse. Ghosts appear out of the starry dark­ness and swirling galax­ies of Space Moun­tain, reach­ing out as if to grab guests as they speed through space.

• Haunted Man­sion Hol­i­day, in New Orleans Square, is trans­formed to a mix of Hal­loween spook­i­ness and Christ­mas tra­di­tion, inspired by the clas­sic ani­mated film “Tim Burton’s Night­mare Before Christ­mas.” As Jack Skelling­ton returns to take over the Haunted Man­sion, the tra­di­tional Halloween/Christmas gin­ger­bread house rises to a new height in the Man­sion Ball­room; it’s nine feet tall, with spe­cial spooky sur­prises in this year’s design.

• Main Street, U.S.A. in Dis­ney­land is trans­formed for the Pump­kin Fes­ti­val. More than 300 pump­kins will be on dis­play and no two are the same.

At Dis­ney Cal­i­for­nia Adven­ture Park, a spe­cial exhibit in Dis­ney Ani­ma­tion, Hol­ly­wood Land, “The Art of Franken­wee­nie,” fea­tures some of the actual sets, props and pup­pets used to cre­ate the “Franken­wee­nie” film, which opens in the­aters Oct. 5. “The Art of Franken­wee­nie,” which includes an extended sneak peek of the movie, will be on view in Dis­ney Cal­i­for­nia Adven­ture Sept. 14 through Nov. 5. For spine-tingling fun, drop in at The Twi­light Zone™ Tower of Ter­ror, where a “super­nat­ural” event hap­pened on Hal­loween evening, 1939, for­ever haunt­ing the building.

At Dis­ney­land for Hal­loween Time 2012, Disney’s Hal­loween Time Car­ni­val in Big Thun­der Ranch will play host to a lot of spook­tac­u­lar fun. A high­light of the Car­ni­val may be found inside a mys­te­ri­ous sideshow tent where guests are invited to help con­jure one of the Dis­ney vil­lains — Malef­i­cent, Jafar, Cruella, Cap­tain Hook or the Evil Queen from “Snow White” — with a magic spell in “The Astound­ing Caul­dron of Magic.” When the vil­lain appears, guests may join him or her to pose for pho­tos. Else­where in Big Thun­der Ranch, Billy Hill & The Hill­bil­lies per­form spe­cial Halloween-themed tunes as part of Big Thun­der Ranch Hal­loween Jam­boree. As in past years, vis­i­tors to Big Thun­der Ranch also will find ranch ani­mals, pump­kin carvers, Hal­loween décor and activ­i­ties for youngsters.

At Pirates League in New Orleans Square, guests age three and up can live their pirate dreams and learn the ways of the seven seas by choos­ing one of three pirate trans­for­ma­tion options: Jake and the Never Land Pirates, First Mate and Empress (cre­ated espe­cially for all the pirate princesses). Pirates League is at Dis­ney­land for a lim­ited time only this fall (for Pirates League reser­va­tions call (714) 781-STYLE). My boys would LOVE this! It’s a nor­mal attrac­tion at Walt Dis­ney World, so I’m hop­ing we might see this offered at Dis­ney­land more regularly!

Mickey’s Hal­loween Party invites adults and chil­dren to dress up in cos­tume and trick-or-treat — candy and healthy treats — at Dis­ney­land. These party par­tic­i­pants can also arrive before the party to “mix in” with reg­u­lar Dis­ney­land guests for three hours prior to the start of Mickey’s pri­vate bash. The after-hours Mickey’s Hal­loween Party, which has become an annual high­light of Hal­loween Time for trick-or-treating fam­i­lies, takes place in Dis­ney­land Park on 11 spe­cial Mon­day, Tues­day and Fri­day nights (Sept. 28 and Oct. 2, 5, 9, 12, 15, 19, 23, 26, 29 and 31). This is a separate-ticket event and tick­ets are avail­able at www.Disneyland.com/Halloween.

Addi­tional high­lights of Mickey’s Hal­loween Party include the “Hal­loween Screams” fire­works spec­tac­u­lar, hosted by “Mas­ter of Scare-omonies” Jack Skelling­ton and pre­sented exclu­sively for guests of Mickey’s Hal­loween Party; “Mickey’s Cos­tume Party” cav­al­cade; dozens of Dis­ney Char­ac­ters dressed up for Hal­loween fun; and DJ dance par­ties. Just for Hal­loween, those mis­chie­vous Dis­ney vil­lains are plot­ting to take over Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A. Nearly all of the favorite Dis­ney­land rides and attrac­tions will be open to make the night a real scream.

How fun does Mickey’s Hal­loween Party sound? I think the boys would absolutely LOVE it! Plan­ning a trip to do this in a cou­ple of years (when Baby Brother is the age Lit­tle Brother is now) sounds like a great plan to me! I think the boys would be great ages then! So fun!

Have YOU done Mickey’s Hal­loween Party before? Are any of you going to Dis­ney­land dur­ing Hal­loween time this year?

For more infor­ma­tion about Hal­loween Time at Dis­ney­land Resort, see www.disneyland.com/halloween. This site will be updated with fright­fully fun details. *All infor­ma­tion and images pro­vided by Dis­ney­land News. I was not asked to nor com­pen­sated to write this post.