It sounds as though you've done 2 Christmas trips and this would be your 3rd trip (if you don't choose Halloween instead), correct? Just making sure I have the facts accurate!
Clearly I love both Halloween Time and the holidays at DLR (I have a Superthread going for each of those seasons), so to pick one is like choosing between my children and trying to pick a favorite!
On the one hand I would say that you
should try Halloween Tiime at least once, just to experience it since you already have been there for the holidays twice.
On the other hand, the holiday season is so much more thorough and extensive with the decor. Halloween Time is just not up to that level of all-encompassing seasonal festivity
yet. There is no getting around this. It's not an opinion. It's a fact. The holiday season offers decorations, trees, displays and music in both parks, Downtown Disney and in all 3 hotels. (The GCH and PPH Christmas trees are gorgeous.) There is a tree or decoration of some kind in just about every shop and every restaurant around the Resort (like the aromatic gingerbread house in Storytellers Cafe, for example, and the wacky tree at Goofy's Kitchen).
Halloween Time's decorations are not even close to being that involved thus far. Believe me, I
wish Halloween Time were up to that level. I want Halloween Time to become bigger and better, but the holiday season is treated as a bigger deal by DLR. Cast Members have even told me, "The holiday season is very special at
Disneyland."
So I suppose I am telling you all of this so that, in case you expect to get the same kind of 'specialness' from Halloween Time that you get out of a holiday visit, you know it will not be the same.
Also, this year it is expected (rumored) that Cars Land and Buena Vista Street in DCA are going to get their own themed Christmas decorations. The DCA Christmas tree will be relocated to BVS. I'm not yet sure that we will see too much in the way of Halloween decor in the "re-imagined" DCA, other than Duffy's PhotoPass spot. There have been no rumors of decorations other than a possible "Frankenweenie" overlay at the Muppets theater.
Still, I would say that you should try Halloween Time because it is loads of fun and it is totally whimsical and festive in a different way than the holiday season. The Halloween Round-Up is a gem (see our current Halloween Round-Up Theme Week that is happening in the Halloween Superthread).
If you want a change of pace, go with Halloween Time. If you want to get more bang for your Disney buck, stick with the holiday season.
