HalloweenTime at DLR Superthread #4

[CassieF]

For those asking about non party villains, Cruella has been out around Town Square recently, despite conjure a villain going on. Also, rumor has it the Evil Queen will be back in FL next week, as they are bringing out the characters that were cut at the beginning of a summer. I have seen Fairy Godmother out a few times this month, and seen pictures of Genie out again as well.

 

[Diszona]

For those asking about non party villains, Cruella has been out around Town Square recently, despite conjure a villain going on. Also, rumor has it the Evil Queen will be back in FL next week, as they are bringing out the characters that were cut at the beginning of a summer. I have seen Fairy Godmother out a few times this month, and seen pictures of Genie out again as well.

We saw Cruella, Fairy Godmother and Genie out last week as well as Captain Hook out and about last week. We didn't see the Evil Queen.

 

[bouds]

Non-Party Villains: We saw the Evil Queen and Malificent walking around, but i'm not sure where they stopped for M&Gs (we just saw them coming and going.) Jack Skellington is around all day near HMH. We saw him around 9:30 am Monday, and the line was about 10-15 mins (also, at that time there was no line for HMH). Lines were much longer in the evenings. He is well-worth meeting (totally in character and funny.) Of course, you can conjure a Villain at the Carnival at Big Thunder Ranch. We saw Cruella there, who was wonderful. Took a long time, both waiting outside the tent and once inside. But she is entertaining while you are waiting to meet her. If you are there with kids, one adult can wait in line for Conjuring, while the rest wander around the rest of the carnival.

A note on the carnival: I thought the magic show was pretty lame (only saw about half of it.) But there was a dance party just before it started with Mickey, Minnie, pumpkin Donald, Chip, Dale, and Goofy. That was good fun for the kids. This was at about 11-11:30 am on Monday.

 

[eileenkeeney]

Almost all of the parties for October, are showing sold out (including the one I am attending).

Who would have guessed that October 29th would be the last party (in October) to sell out (or maybe the only one that won't sell out).

I am not able to see what sold out (or did not sell out) in September.

How crowded is the DL party, when it is sold out?
How much below park capacity, do they set the party Capacity?
How does this compare to a typical fall day crowd?

 

[Sherry E]

Almost all of the parties for October, are showing sold out (including the one I am attending).

Who would have guessed that October 29th would be the last party (in October) to sell out (or maybe the only one that won't sell out).

I am not able to see what sold out (or did not sell out) in September.

How crowded is the DL party, when it is sold out?
How much below park capacity, do they set the party Capacity?
How does this compare to a typical fall day crowd?

eileenkeeney --

The party immediately before Halloween hasn't sold out for the last couple of years (or, if it did sell out it was at the very last minute), so this year is just repeating that same pattern with 10/29 remaining open!

The one surprise this year in the sellout patterns is that the second MHP of the year -- 9/30 -- appeared to have not sold out, when it has sold out in every other year.

No one knows how many tickets are sold to the parties, and if the same number of tickets is sold for all of the nights. So when a party sells out we don't know what that means in terms of numbers. I have read "guesses" and speculation that ranged anywhere from 10,000 tickets to 40,000 tickets per party, but there could be more or fewer than that sold on any given night.

All of the MHP sellout info for this year (as far as which dates sold out and when they sold out) can be found in this post from page 1 of this thread, this post from page 1 of this thread and also in figment_jii's separate tracking post.

Many of the reports that have come in about the MHP up until now have reported fairly substantial crowds either at the MHP itself, or in the 3 hour overlap period of MHP guests and non-MHP guests, or both. However, no one has really said that the crowds were so daunting that they had a bad time. I think that the MHP is, more or less, manageably crowded. Personally, I feel that too many tickets are sold and I wish that it felt a little more exclusive. Other people are not bothered by the crowds at the MHP, though.

 

[pycees312]

Yup that was my group at Catalina Island and we had a blast. Boy you sure are a wealth of info with a great memory!! The tickets were sold out last year while i was planning and we just went anyway just not the party. I do not know if i'd pay to go to DCA so now i am even more glad we are going now!!I have skimmed all the important threads now and i feel much much better lol. When in doubt always go back to the Dis Thanks again for everything and all the pics from everyone are fantastic!!!

Well, hello there, pycees312! Welcome!

Thank you for the kind words!

You know, I think I mentioned you in my Catalina/Free Catalina Express boat ride thread (it's in the Southern California forum) quite a while back, as I was telling people that I had been looking at the photos from your trip on Facebook, and that you and your group seemed to be having a great time!

Am I imagining it, or weren't you trying to go to Mickey's Halloween Party last year? I am guessing I am remembering incorrectly, or your plan just fell through. I remember that you posted in the previous Halloween Time Superthread and had been considering the party.

You know, I just peeked over on MiceChat a while ago, and I noticed that someone claimed to have overheard a CM saying that this is the last year of the Halloween Party at Disneyland, as it is supposedly moving back to DCA next year. Of course, the person who reported hearing that could have easily misunderstood or misheard the information, and everyone who replied in that thread seemed to have a bit of doubt about it. So it is very much a rumor and not factual for now.

Nonetheless, next year IS Disneyland's 60th anniversary, and it could be possible that the Halloween Party moves back to DCA for at least one year while Disneyland focuses on more anniversary-specific things. Goodness knows that DCA is lacking in any and all Halloween fun and it needs something. So they would have to roll out a whole Halloween decorations package for at least a couple of lands in DCA (like A Bug's Land or Cars Land??) to make the atmosphere festive if that were the case.

In any event, it's a good thing you're finally going to the MHP in Disneyland -- just in case it happens to move back to DCA in 2015!

I don't know if you caught the post in which I had compiled all of the MHP reviews so far this season (from everyone who has kindly provided them), but if you didn't see it I will re-post it, so you can glance at some of the reviews and get an idea of what to expect!

 

[Sherry E]

Yup that was my group at Catalina Island and we had a blast. Boy you sure are a wealth of info with a great memory!! The tickets were sold out last year while i was planning and we just went anyway just not the party. I do not know if i'd pay to go to DCA so now i am even more glad we are going now!!I have skimmed all the important threads now and i feel much much better lol. When in doubt always go back to the Dis Thanks again for everything and all the pics from everyone are fantastic!!!

pycees312 --

You're very welcome!

Be sure to report back here and let us know how your first-ever MHP goes, if you think it's worth it, not worth it, etc.!

I still wonder if the MHP would actually move back to DCA, even for one year, although... when TSMM first opened in 2008 there was information that came out to indicate that TSMM was set up to receive both a Halloween overlay and a Christmas/Holiday overlay of some sort, and all it would require would be an easy swap of the games in the ride to more theme-specific ones. Also, apparently there is already Halloween and holiday-themed Mr. Potato Head banter that was recorded years ago and then shelved for future use.

Not only that, but one or two Disney technical wizards said of World of Color when it opened that it, too, was set up to easily receive overlays. We've already got Winter Dreams, but if a Halloween party were to move to DCA for a year, a Halloween version of World of Color could be a selling point, along with a Halloween TSMM.

I have thought all along that Cars Land could get away with some very cleverly executed Halloween décor since it showcases the Holiday season décor so well.

 

[Kerri D]

We're headed over for our first Disneyland AND first MHP experience in 3 weeks! I've got tickets to the 29th party (which i'm excited hasn't sold out yet).
I just want to say this forum is an absolute wealth of info and i'll be trawling it in the coming weeks finding out all the tips and tricks!

We land at 6.30am on the same day we're going to the party so I think we will be quite tired, but i'm hoping the adrenalin will kick in and keep us going throughout the night! We're backing it up with a visit to the park the following day, unfortunately this is the only time we're able to use, so I am trying to get the most out of our limited time there!

I like the idea of being able to see the core characters in their costumes during the day. Are there any of the rides that people highly recommend doing during the party/night time hours??

 

[Princess13.1]

of all my years of going to Disneyland I have NEVER been to this event. I am going on Friday and i feel like such a newbie! i am so excited and have no idea where to start lol. Even looking at this thread is overwelming lol. I am so happy to finally get to experience it now that all my kids are older, i figured i better go now as my last lil guy is now 11 and on to Universal Studios now. He is being a trooper and going with me for this last trip. Bitter sweet but im sure it will be a super blast!! Thanks Sherry for all your hard work throughout the years!!!

I feel the same way! Totally overwhelmed with all of this great info. We get there Thursday and are attending the Friday party.

 

[maleficent55]

I'm beyond excited to meet Jack! My 4 year old daughter is as well. I was wondering, as far as Jack staying in character....does he speak? Is it the same inflection and almost accent as in the movie?
Ohhhh sooo excited!

 

[figment_jii]

I like the idea of being able to see the core characters in their costumes during the day. Are there any of the rides that people highly recommend doing during the party/night time hours??

None of the rides have anything different about them during the party, so I would focus on doing rides during the day and then doing party specific activities during the party hours.

I'm beyond excited to meet Jack! My 4 year old daughter is as well. I was wondering, as far as Jack staying in character....does he speak? Is it the same inflection and almost accent as in the movie?

He does speak...he sounds close to me, but I haven't watch NBC really recently so I don't know how close he is to the movie version. perlster had a video linked in his post from the start of HalloweenTime:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52270211&postcount=1584

 

[Kilala]

Some of you have been saying that you got yogurt covered raisins. I saw the Milk Chocolate covered raisins. Where can I find the yogurt covered raisins?

 

[figment_jii]

Some of you have been saying that you got yogurt covered raisins. I saw the Milk Chocolate covered raisins. Where can I find the yogurt covered raisins?

I think it's hit or miss at any of the station that had the Crasins. I don't know if they're initially mixed or not, but often the stations had them mixed together so it was just luck of the draw which one you got. Other stations only had one type (when I was there, it was mostly the yogurt covered ones). I don't think there was any pattern to which stations had the chocolate or yogurt ones, so it's just a matter of looking and asking at every one.

 

[kkmcan]

I just wanted to give a mini trip report on here about our MHP on 10/3 and our DCA day on 10/4.

We entered DL at 4:00 ish and it was busy but the line moved quickly. We noticed on the wait board at the end of main street that Indy on had a 15 minute line. I didn't believe it so we walked by to check it out. The sign did indeed say 15 minutes but the line was clear out to the walkway so we decided to grab fastpasses with a return time of 5:15. We then headed to check out pirates and by passed it because it had a 30 minute line. Headed straight over to Big Thunder which had a 15 min line. Rode that and then decided to head over to Haunted Mansion. That had a huge line so we backtracked and did Pirates with a 20 min wait. We went back to Indy to use our fp but it was down. While we were standing there trying to decide what to do next they re-opened it and we ended up on the second car out!

We hit Space next. It had a 15 minute wait time which turned out to maybe 10. Then we headed to Splash to meet up with our friends. The kids all wanted to ride that together. The wait time was 75 minutes and I didn't want to wait but everyone else did. We timed it and it ended up being 25 minutes. Not to bad at all! We jumped in line to get our Zero popcorn buckets (just a 5 minute wait) and then onto HM. HM had a 30 minute wait still but we hoped it wouldn't actually be that long. It went down while we waited in line. We decided to stay in line as many people exited in hopes of it coming back up soon. We probably waited 20 minutes and it came back up and we were in the second elevator.

Lines for candy were long and we weren't ready to wait so we headed over to Plaza Inn for dinner. We watched the fireworks and then jumped in line to trick or treat at Pixie Hollow. We went through several treat trails in tomorrow land and near Matterhorn. Then headed to Alice. That had a 30 minute wait which we weren't willing to wait for so we headed through Fantasyland and did the treat trail around Dumbo. Went through the trail from Fantasyland to Big Thunder and jumped on BTMRR with no wait. Went to try and do HM again as it was near the end of the night but there was a 35 minute wait so we got on Pirates with no wait. Hit the treat trails that were in the area and headed out right as they party was ending.

We were extremely happy with crowd levels and ride waits. I didn't expect it to be like that at all. Our candy bags were full and we rode almost everything we wanted to except Small World and Buzz.

The next day we had a 1 day 1 park ticket that we used for DCA. We didnt' make it to park opening, missed it by a half hour as we were exhausted from the night before. We got to DCA and grabbed fp's for RSR with no wait, headed for Toy Story Mania. It quoted a 10 minute wait and that's pretty much what it was. The wait was the same after exiting so we jumped in line to do it again. We have never in all our years of DL trips ever made it onto TSMM in 10 minutes and we have never gotten to ride 2 times in a row!! That made our entire trip!

From there the kids rode Screamin, Swings, Goofy's Sky School and Jumpin Jellyfish. Alll no wait. Then we jumped on LM and waited 10 minutes for GRR. Grabbed fastpasses for Soarin and went to do our RSR. That was even better than I remember (from 2 years ago... our last DL trip). Went back to do Soarin and had lunch at Whitewater Snacks. Warning..... the nachos are smaller and they don't make the amazing brownie that we used to get everytime we went. Booo!

After lunch it was time for a break so back to the hotel we went. At 5:30 we headed back to DCA to do Monsters, HTH and see the Aladdin show. I forgot to mention we had grabbed fps for RSR for the evening so we did that, ate dinner and the kids rode GRR again 3 times in a row. They were soaked!! We also rode Luigi's and Maters.

For a super crowded weekend without much park time I feel like we got everything done we wanted to. We were completely exhausted though. The adults were hurting But so happy! We couldn't have been happier with our short trip and are planning on doing it again next year.

 

[eileenkeeney]

None of the rides have anything different about them during the party, so I would focus on doing rides during the day and then doing party specific activities during the party hours.

Extra fog?

He does speak...he sounds close to me, but I haven't watch NBC really recently so I don't know how close he is to the movie version. perlster had a video linked in his post from the start of HalloweenTime:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52270211&postcount=1584

Awesome.
My sister, niece, and nephew are dressing as Christmas elves. My Dad as Santa, his wife as Mrs. Clause. I was going to make a costume for the snowman from Christmas Town, and then one for Olaf. But my sister made elf costumes already. (I had Olaf about half finished when she told me that the nephew wanted to be an Elf, and that she had already made the elf costumes).
I think that they are generic elves, not modeled after the movie.
But it will be cute.

 

[figment_jii]

Extra fog?

Sorry, I don't quite understand. They have extra "fog" on the Rivers of America to make it seem more spooky, but none of the River boats are operating.

 

[CassieF]

Sorry, I don't quite understand. They have extra "fog" on the Rivers of America to make it seem more spooky, but none of the River boats are operating.

That is correct...no boats are running, but the Cadaver Dans do float around on rafts for a few minutes each hour singing halloween songs. It gives the area great atmosphere, even if you don't get to take a ride on the river.

 

[Newsiemj]

So if the MHP starts at 6, Toontown pre-party starts at 5?

 

[figment_jii]

Is anyone else getting the "Someone Ate the Page" message for the MHP ticket site? I just went to check and I can on longer access the page either through the link I had bookmarked or the link on the ticketing page. The regular ticketing page is fine. I don't know if these means anything, but if folks were thinking about getting tickets for the 29th, you might want to give the phone lines a call and see what is going on.

 

[perlster]

Apparently, you reached the page before the new version was uploaded.