Forget Christmas in July; It's Halloween in December! - Days in the ParkCast Banzai #2

Hangin' with the Pumpkin King

You’ve heard of Christmas in July?  Well, since it’s actually Christmas month now (December), we’re celebrating Halloween instead!  In this special Banzai episode of the ParkCast, we’re travelling back in time to October 21, 2011 to relive a special Day in the Park at Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland.  Come along with us as we take a walk down memory lane (or Main Street U.S.A. if you prefer) and talk about all of the wonderfully creepy and fantastic things this one-of-a-kind Halloween Party at the Happiest Place on Earth has to offer.

Pull up a chair, sit a spell, and listen along; we’ll be happy you did!  You can listen to our ParkCast on the Days in the ParkCast website or in iTunes!

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Originally recorded: 11/26/11

Final Edits and Release: 12/08/11

Hosted by: Chad & Mark

What we’re talking about in this episode!
Halloween is one of our favorite times of the year at Disneyland, and this year we attended Mickey’s Halloween Party to get in on the fun.

Just what is this shindig all about? Gimme the deets! (Mickey’s Halloween Party)
-Give us some dates, hours, and most importantly, the cost!

“We’re gonna need a bigger bag…” (MHP Trick or Treating)
-The bags are a tad small; if you’re candy-lovers, you may want to invest!

-Loads of both candy AND healthy treats to be had

-Awesome trick or treating locations and the lines fly (Village Haus Restaurant)

Halloween-themed attractions abound!

-Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy

-Haunted Mansion Holiday

-Give us “it’s a small haunted world”!

-Creepy atmosphere along the Rivers of America and the old Mine Ride Through Nature’s Wonderland

Sing along with us! “I… love a parade…” (Mickey’s Costume Party Cavalcade)
-Short, but a very specific parade designed JUST for Mickey’s Halloween Party

-Cop and Robber Chip and Dale? Sold!

-Miss Piggy invades a parade! “Kissy Kissy…”

Everybody scream! Everybody scream! It’s the Pumpkin King! (Halloween Screams fireworks/pyro)
-Special fireworks extravaganza created just for Mickey’s Halloween Party starring Jack and the gang

-Loads of Disney Villains, and the Big Bad Wolf!

-”Dark” fireworks and lighting on Sleeping Beauty Castle – definitely worth a view!

“Look Ma! It’s Maleficent!” (Character Greetings)
-We finally get to meet Jack Skellington in person! And he sounds just like Prince Humperdink!

-Marilyn Manson in Disneyland!

-Villains Character Greetings in Fantasyland; we’d love to see more! Maybe in the Princess Fantasy Faire?

-Maybe we should dress as Eddie Valiant and Judge Doom next year; Mark’ll shave his noggin!

Last Thoughts…
-Ultimately, with the extra cost, is it worth a look?

Contact us about the Days in the ParkCast!

-Email us at parkcast@daysinthepark.com

-or call us on Voicemail at 520-DAYS-CST (329-7278)

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Trick or Treating at Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party

Mark's ready to go!

What Halloween Party would be complete without a whole slew of tricks or treats?  Certainly not Mickey's Halloween Party!  We have to admit, in spite of all the cool things we've shown you so far, like parades, fireworks, and characters, that one of the things we were most looking forward to was the treats!  One of Mark's favorite parts of the Halloween Party when it was still at Disney California Adventure Park was the trick or treating stations, and we were both psyched to be able to trick or treat around Disneyland Park, as neither of us had before.

The premise was really quite simple: grab your bags, and wander around The Park to her many trick or treating stations, open your bag, and accept your goodies.  Pretty simple, right?  The great thing about it was there were stations set up all over the place!  If you wanted a little candy, go through the line and then find something else to do with the rest of your evening.  If you were like us and you wanted enough candy and sweets to outlast an alien invasion or some other apocalyptic event, Disneyland allowed you to go through the lines over and over again.  Our bags were literally becoming too heavy for the handles to, well handle, on our way out at the end of the evening we had been through the lines so many times.  Which is a good thing, believe us!  We especially liked how every single "Land" within The Park had a station, and sometimes two(!), in which to trick or treat.  It certainly kept us moving all over the place, and we liked that a lot!  The only one we didn't check out was the one in Critter Country, but we were talking after and we think we hit every other line that there was.  It was a pretty successful evening for us, no doubt!

Loved the Mickey balloon (lit!) outside of Tomorrowland

Another touch we thought was very nice was the healthy options that they offered at each and every trick or treat station.  Alongside all of the wonderful sweets such as Skittles, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, M&Ms, and Twix, one was able to ask for (and receive) Craisins, raisins, apple slices, and bags of Mickey's Apple Chips.  It came in especially handy in our group since we were trick or treating with our friends at FindingMickey.com, and Rosemary had to watch what she was eating because of her pregnancy (Disney princess incoming!).  We thought it was a great way to at least pretend to keep us healthy, and when we took stock of what we had later, we had a pretty good stock of healthy treats alongside our not-so-healthy ones.  We honestly enjoyed both!

Lots of attractions were lit up with special Halloween "decorations" for the occasion

Our first trick or treat station near Space Mountain, Tomorrowland

Our favorite trick or treat station in Village Haus restaurant, Fantasyland

One other really cool highlight of the evening had to be the decor.  Whereas other parks such as Six Flags and Knott's are pretty much intentionally out to scare you witless, Disneyland doesn't go quite to that extreme, but they did have some pretty creepy things going on down in Frontierland.  We've always been big fans of the Halloween Tree (taken from Ray Bradbury's novel of the same name) and, as always, were really glad to see it again this year.  The Rivers of America were really rocking the fog, as well!  When we first saw it it looked much like the picture below and some of it was still visible, but by the time the night ended, it was almost completely covered in the stuff.  Who knows what creatures might have been lurking in that dank morass?  And we think the area of the cave, which was once part of the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland attraction, was just absolutely awesome (and way creepy!) with its lights shining out over the pond.  

The Halloween Tree, Frontierland

Creepy fog along the Rivers of America, Frontierland

Mine Train cave all lit up, Frontierland

On the whole we had a really amazing time at Mickey's Halloween Party this year, and we're already making plans to attend again next year; it was so much fun!  There was tons to see and do, the Cast Members who were working The Party were amazing, and it was just a great time all around.  If you've never had the chance to attend The Party yourself, or you've kind of been on the fence about it, then we highly recommend it.  We know that the cost of the event can be a little off-putting, and we debated it ourselves a while for just that very reason, but ultimately in the end we think it was well-worth the price of admission.  Halloween at Disneyland?  What's better than that?  And if you're doing it with friends or family, that just add a whole other element of fun to the equation.

We hope you've enjoying strolling around Mickey's Halloween Party with Days in the Park!  We've tried to include loads of pictures, some detail, and just enough commentary to hopefully sell you on the entire thing.  We'll be back tomorrow with a few more pictures, some last-minute stragglers if you will, but it's been a lot of fun for us over the last few days to relive Mickey's Party.  We hope to see some of you out there next year!  Thanks for coming along with us!

Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade at Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party

We're continuing our frolic around Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland Park today with more pictures! So far people seem to be really enjoying roaming the streets of Disneyland with us during our trip out last week, so we're going to keep going through all of the different highlights of the Party with a look today at a very special parade held just for this event!

Much like "Halloween Screams", which we highlighted yesterday, Disneyland also puts on a very special parade just for Mickey's Halloween Party called "Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade".  When we first bought tickets for The Party, we didn't know that a special parade was included, but when we saw it on the schedule for the list of events, we just knew we had to check it out!

We did enjoy the parade, quite a bit in fact, but it was extremely short and nowhere near elaborate as the parades which we typically see at The Resort.  It's not a bad thing, and we're not complaining about it, just simply stating fact.  It was probably about five minutes long (we weren't really counting) and it was there and gone in a flash!  Chad sort of looked at Mark with a "Is that it?" look on his face when it was done.  However, it was still well-worth seeing and a cool part of our evening.  The parade went off twice during The Party, once in the early evening and once later in the evening, and we were fortunate to pick the second show to see which allowed us to watch it from quite near The Hub on Main Street USA.  We did very much enjoy seeing the characters and costumes in this one, and we do have some pictures from the parade to share with our readers today.  Truthfully?  The show was over before we knew it, or we would have taken a lot more!  But, tis what it tis and we hope you enjoy what we have!

If you're ever at Mickey's Halloween Party, make sure you check out "Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade".  It's a great way to slow the evening down a bit, hear some great music, and see a lot Disney characters to boot.  Definitely comes recommended!

In keeping with the costume theme...

A pirate pumpkin with an earring? Pretty sweet!

Just before Captain Hook attacked the paparazzi...

Woody, Jessie, and Cowboy Pumpkin. Yee-haw!

Code 2319!

Daisy, Mickey, and Minnie interacting with all of the happy parade-goers

Chip & Dale (as cop and robber) and Stitch

Mark's favorite part of the whole parade. Who knew Miss Piggy would be there?!

Halloween Screams at Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party

One of the events (within the event) that we were most excited about this year during Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party was definitely the "Halloween Screams" fireworks show special to the Halloween season inside The Park.

"Halloween Screams" debuted back in 2009 at Disneyland, and was originally just a special fireworks show which "aired", if you will, nightly at Disneyland.  It proved so popular, however, that Disneyland quickly decided a change was necessary to help deal with crowd-control during the show.  Last year Disney decided to move the show into Mickey's Halloween Party during its first year at Disneyland, and as a result you can now only see it if you buy a ticket for the Halloween Party yourself.  We've already mentioned we didn't go to Mickey's Party last year, and as such we missed the show, of course.

For those who may be unfamiliar with it, "Halloween Screams" is G"hosted" by Jack Skellington, in the form of a great big balloon behind the castle, who takes everyone on a playful romp with several of the best known Disney Villains through music and fireworks.  Each segment, if you will, of the show highlights a different Villain, who also appears on the balloon and talks to the audience alongside the music and fireworks.  Some of the Villains highlighted during the show (and some of our favorites) included: Cruella de Vil, The Big Bad Wolf, Ursula, Maleficent, and of course, Oogie Boogie.  It's really quite an amazing thing to see and experience and definitely something well-suited for this time of year.  And who doesn't love a specialty fireworks extravaganza?  We've been dying to see it again since we hadn't since it debuted, so it was definitely one of our "musts" for the evening.

And wouldn't you know it, we were lucky enough to be able to grab some decent shots of the show to share with you!  Fireworks can be tricky things (as anyone who has ever tried taking photos of them can attest) so we took about 100 during the show, and these are some of the ones that we liked the best.  If you ever get the chance to attend Mickey's Halloween Party, we highly suggest making "Halloween Screams" a part of your evening; Disney obviously put a lot of time and creative effort into the show, and it's well worth seeing.

Enjoy!

Character Greetings at Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party

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When we first started blogging, just a little over a year ago at this point, it was right around Halloween Time 2010 at the Disneyland Resort.  One of the things that we tried to do was jump right in feet-first and go for the gusto so to speak.  As such, one of the earliest posts we did highlighting the season was to attend the Happiest Haunts Tour with our friends at FindingMickey.com.  It was an awful lot of fun (you can go back and read it to see for yourselves), but what we didn't say was that when we decided to do the Tour, it was a choice between that and Mickey's Halloween Party.  Each and every year, the Disneyland Resort hosts the Halloween Party, where guests are able to go into Disneyland (only if you purchase a special ticket) and watch a special Halloween fireworks show, see a special Halloween parade, see special Disney Villains and characters in some great meet and greets, and go through various trick or treat stations around The Park and get all the candy your little heart can stand (figuratively and literally).  So this year, we knew it was going to be a must for us to attend Mickey's Party; under the guise of it being an official blog assignment of course!

Mark had been to The Party a time or two in the past with his niece while it was still being held at Disney California Adventure Park, but had never attended it since they moved it inside Disneyland Park last year, and Chad had never been period, so it was a new experience of sorts for both of us!  So over the next few days, leading up to Halloween, we're going to share some of our experience (and photos!) with you, our faithful readers.

We decided to go with our friends FindingMickey.com (again!) this year and attended Mickey's Party on the 21st, which was a Friday.  Of course, being the only weekend day when The Party is held, it was crazy crowded with loads of people, but we did manage to do everything we planned on doing.  Part of the problem (if you can really call it that) with Mickey's Halloween Party is that it's only 5 hours long (7pm until midnight), and with so much to see and do, choices have to be made!  We knew we wanted candy (who doesn't?!), and we knew we wanted to see Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade (parade) and Halloween Screams (fireworks), which left us deciding what characters we wanted to see and what attractions we wanted to ride; not to mention the amount of time it takes to navigate the crowds and move around Disneyland at night.  There was just no way to do everything, unfortunately.

So, looking over our choices we decided to make our way to two different character areas over the course of the night to try for some photos.  Everywhere else had characters that were out fairly frequently anyway, so we opted for some of the more "rarified" ones and decided to try our luck with the Phineas and Ferb Character Greeting (we love that show!), and Jack Skellington and Sally later in the evening in New Orleans Square.  We had originally wanted some pictures with some of the Disney Villains, but when we went by their area they were pretty standard ones you could see any of day of the week, so we were pretty much thwarted in that regard.  But as you can see, the ones we did want to get, we did!  And we're sharing those with you today.

Meeting Phineas and Ferb was just plain awesome.  These guys, of course, really know how to throw a party and if we've learned nothing else from them and their cartoon series, it's that summer shouldn't be wasted and childhood is for the enjoyment of it all!  Can't think of any better characters to have wanted to take our picture with, so score!  

But we got a bonus with this one! Our little calendar of events for the evening said nothing about Agent P, and yet there he was!  Awesomely cool to have our picture taken with possibly the greatest secret agent on the planet?  We think so!

Maybe the coolest (and certainly the funniest) part about the entire thing though was Mark's costume.  He decided to go to The Party as Agent P, and his costume was a hit with pretty much everyone who recognized him during the night.  Simple, yet hilarious!  The Cast Members loved it too, as is evidenced by the fact that they made both of our platypuses turn around and show off their tails.  Probably one of the funniest things we saw all night, and definitely something not everyone got to experience.  We love those special touches!

The picture we most wanted, though, and the one that Chad has coveted the most for such a long time was a shot with Jack Skellington and Sally.  Unfortunately, Sally was a no-show when we finally got over to the line around midnight on our way out of Disneyland, but the Cast Members did a really cool thing in leaving the line open a little past when The Park closed, so we were able to get our shot with Jack.  He was seriously cool to interact with, and even shook Chad's hand and told him he loved his choice of wardrobe.  Although Chad wasn't in costume, he was rocking a Jack T-Shirt, and a compliment from Jack made the whole thing worth it.  And we think that we got a great picture to boot!  It was also, we think, probably the only time we'll ever hear Marilyn Manson inside Disneyland, singing "This Is Halloween" as they spun the "Nightmare Revisited" CD for this particular Greeting.  Too cool!

So there you have it! Our Character Greetings experience from Mickey's Halloween Party.  We think we made some good choices with who we opted for, and we hope you enjoy looking just as much as we enjoyed having the pictures taken.

We'll be back with more fun from The Party over the next few days (featuring the fireworks, parades and more) so stay tuned!