Haunted Mansion Holiday Overlay?

[DoOverDreams]

Hello DL experts. Question for you all. Has anyone heard yet whether or not there is going to be a HM overlay this year? What with the 40th anniversary of HM and all.

We missed it last year by one week and were so bummed. We were planning on coming back again this year and see HM and the new IASW (since that was closed when we were there too).

Its so hard to plan in advance!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Haven't heard anything-I would think (just my opinion) with the popularity of the overlay that DL would keep doing it. But I guess only time will tell.

 

[S. S. Columbia]

FWIW, last year Disney announced the dates (to install the HMH overlay) in early June.

 

[Sherry E]

DoOver Dreams, I guess you have missed the other dozen or so threads we have had about this topic??

We are no more certain now than we were in the last ongoing discussions about HMH. Unless a CM wants to tip us off early, I don't think anyone here will know for sure until at least May and probably more like June. Dizneydaz is correct in that HMH is very, very popular at DL. In fact, when it first debuted in 2001, it was only supposed to be up for one season and that's it, but due to the overwhelming popularity, it has come back every year since then, I think, and become a real selling point of DLR's "Halloweentime," which they have only begun to hype in recent years. The only reason DL would NOT put it up in 2009, I feel, is because it would interfere with honoring the 40th Anniversary of the original HM, not to mention the fact that there is a HM anniversary event on 9-9-09, and that would normally be a time that HM would be closed for the holiday overlay. Otherwise, in this terrible economy - which will get worse before it gets better - Disneyland would be wise to bring HMH back because - like it or not - it DOES attract a LOT of people (money) to the parks during that time of year, and on to January. All of us who stood in the lines for HMH know how many other people were lined up to see it too! It is a very big draw, and I know that angers the people who despise it, but it is true.

I personally can't see how or when DLR could possibly do HMH this year if they truly want to acknowledge the 40th anniversary - unless they do a really fast overlay after 9-9-09, which seems unlikely, to get it ready by when Halloweentime season starts. Or, they could begin the overlay set-up later than usual and get the HMH up by October 31. Or they could put it up at the same time as IASW Holiday, to run through the holidays (though I am not even sure they will put up IASW Holiday in 2009 either). It depends on how much of a draw they think it is for crowds each year. From a financial standpoint I think it would be wise for them to bring it back and bring in the visitors, and from a personal standpoint I hope they bring it back in 2009 because I love it. But, I can see where it would conflict with the 40th anniversary and so it would make sense if they skipped HMH in 2009.

 

[fairycat]

Sherry E, I have started to have a weird idea about what might happen with HM, now this is all just me thinking, but it's one idea. Since many people have stated that they are building up to the HM anniversary, that they are doing things throughout the year for the anniversary. What if the 9-9-09 party is the grand finale instead of the start? What if they chose to push the HM during the year and then close it after the party for the overlay? It could almost make sense since mostly only the party goers and some others will be aware of the actual Anniversary date unless Disney pimps the whole thing really hard.

I also think it might make a bigger bang at the party if you get to be one of the last people to ride the HM in '09!

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry E, I have started to have a weird idea about what might happen with HM, now this is all just me thinking, but it's one idea. Since many people have stated that they are building up to the HM anniversary, that they are doing things throughout the year for the anniversary. What if the 9-9-09 party is the grand finale instead of the start? What if they chose to push the HM during the year and then close it after the party for the overlay? It could almost make sense since mostly only the party goers and some others will be aware of the actual Anniversary date unless Disney pimps the whole thing really hard.

I also think it might make a bigger bang at the party if you get to be one of the last people to ride the HM in '09!

Fairycat, that would make sense timing-wise! It may not be such a weird idea after all! Have we heard anything yet about people seeing 40th anniversary merchandise being sold in the parks? I know there were photos of merchandise being sold in conjunction with the upcoming events, but I didn't know if anything is being sold in Le Bat en Rouge yet!! I know you and I agree on the HMH and that it would make financial sense in these times for DLR to pull out all the stops and bring out every trick in the book to keep people coming back to the parks ALL year long, so dropping the HMH this year would be a mistake, I think. (And, of course, I personally want to see it come back but realize that there are some who strongly oppose that sentiment! )

 

[fairycat]

Some people have mentioned HM pins that are being released throughout the year. I would think more pieces would come as we get into the Summer peek periods. I can imagine there will be merchandise also in the Fall as even with the HMH up, there is usually HM merchandise since that is the season they sell the most Ghosty merch no matter what the theme.

And with everything else you said

 

[pixiewings71]

Ohhh fairycat! Good idea!!! And the Gift w/purchase pins for the first 6 months are HM themed!!! I bet you're right! Then it's the best of both worlds!

 

[DoOverDreams]

Sherry E,

I swear, I did try searching! Thanks for the info, and the great history lesson! I'm still such a newb when it comes to DL....

 

[Tasmen]

OH wow..I didn't even think about the anniversary when I booked our trip for this coming December. I have to admit, part of the reason we are going is so for the holiday overlay. I *heart* it so much.

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry E,

I swear, I did try searching! Thanks for the info, and the great history lesson! I'm still such a newb when it comes to DL....

No problem! First of all, the actual Search functon doesn't always work properly, so you can't always find a thread when you want one anyway. That's happened to me. Then, on top of that, when thngs get hoppin' on the board here and many new threads start up, the old hot ones from even just a day or so ago disappear into the murky depths and it can be a pain trying to find them. Even if you subscribe to a thread, you don't always get the e-mail update that a new post has come through. So I think most people do what you did and just start a new thread!! I can't say I blame you!

And fortunately, because everyone here on DIS loves to talk about all aspects of DLR, we do cover a lot of the same ground (in every subject) repeatedly, but we LOVE it! So even if we have all chimed in on what our favorite DLR restaurants are 20 times in the last month, we will gladly keep doing it because it never stops being FUN!!! Same thing with Haunted Mansion Holiday!!

 

[kaoden39]

Sherry E, I have started to have a weird idea about what might happen with HM, now this is all just me thinking, but it's one idea. Since many people have stated that they are building up to the HM anniversary, that they are doing things throughout the year for the anniversary. What if the 9-9-09 party is the grand finale instead of the start? What if they chose to push the HM during the year and then close it after the party for the overlay? It could almost make sense since mostly only the party goers and some others will be aware of the actual Anniversary date unless Disney pimps the whole thing really hard.

I also think it might make a bigger bang at the party if you get to be one of the last people to ride the HM in '09!

That's what I was thinking myself. The timing is perfect for it. That is around the date they close it every year for over lay.

 

[DisneyNic]

Sherry E, I have started to have a weird idea about what might happen with HM, now this is all just me thinking, but it's one idea. Since many people have stated that they are building up to the HM anniversary, that they are doing things throughout the year for the anniversary. What if the 9-9-09 party is the grand finale instead of the start? What if they chose to push the HM during the year and then close it after the party for the overlay? It could almost make sense since mostly only the party goers and some others will be aware of the actual Anniversary date unless Disney pimps the whole thing really hard.

I also think it might make a bigger bang at the party if you get to be one of the last people to ride the HM in '09!

I know we are all just speculating right now on what will happen, but what are everyones grand speculations (assuming fairycat's theory is correct, and I think it just may be) on when they will open HMH?? Will they be able to open it up around the same time they usually do?? Anyone want to guess??

 

[Sherry E]

I know we are all just speculating right now on what will happen, but what are everyones grand speculations (assuming fairycat's theory is correct, and I think it just may be) on when they will open HMH?? Will they be able to open it up around the same time they usually do?? Anyone want to guess??

Hmmm...let's see. In 2007, the official Halloweentime season at DLR began on Friday, September 21 (the next to last Friday in the month). Last year, Halloweentime began - with the official opening of HMH - on September 26, the last Friday of the month - one week later than it did in 2007, basically. So, let's assume DLR WILL do the HMH this year (fingers crossed). They would likely begin Halloweentime officially on Friday, September 25th. If they started the overlay process on September 10th, that would only give them 15 days to get the HMH up and running. Last year, I think they took about 2-1/2 weeks to put it up, maybe even three, just to give them enough time to install everything and test it out to iron out any bugs there may have been. It would be cutting it very close, but I guess they could do it IF they shut down the HM on September 10th, but seems unlikely.

So I wonder if maybe Halloweentime itself may start a week later than it did last year? Perhaps they will begin it on Friday, October 2nd this year and thus, have a little extra time to put up the HMH overlay right after the 9-9-09 event?? I know they could technically skip Halloween altogether and just put the overlay up in time for the Christmas holiday season, but seeing NBC is a theme that celebrates two holidays and HMH is such a big selling point of Halloweentime at DLR, then I would think they will either have it totally up and installed by the start of the Halloween season or not at all.

But as you said, we are all just speculating!

 

[pixiewings71]

They wouldn't need to do everything Halloweentime later. They could do everything else and open the HMH a bit later.

 

[erinbev]

Sherry E, I have started to have a weird idea about what might happen with HM, now this is all just me thinking, but it's one idea. Since many people have stated that they are building up to the HM anniversary, that they are doing things throughout the year for the anniversary. What if the 9-9-09 party is the grand finale instead of the start? What if they chose to push the HM during the year and then close it after the party for the overlay? It could almost make sense since mostly only the party goers and some others will be aware of the actual Anniversary date unless Disney pimps the whole thing really hard.

I also think it might make a bigger bang at the party if you get to be one of the last people to ride the HM in '09!

haha, like alla-y'all have been saying, its all speculation, but I do love a bit of speculation now and again! woohoo! (Plus, I'm probably going right around that time this year, so I'm invested!)
I think that if they do HMH (it does bring in a lot of people, but they might want to promote the original all year, so who knows), then it would make the most sense to just open HMH later than they usually do, like maybe the beginning or middle of October. I know that's cutting it close, but I also think that, hypothetically, IF I had planned my vacation around the celebration on 09-09-09, then I would probably be visiting for more than one day, and IF I loved the original HM enough to shell out for a top tier package (or whatever), then I would want it to be open for at least the rest of the week...! That's money, too!
Does that make sense? Anyway, its all speculation at this point! I can't wait to find out!

 

[DisneyNic]

........So I wonder if maybe Halloweentime itself may start a week later than it did last year? Perhaps they will begin it on Friday, October 2nd this year and thus, have a little extra time to put up the HMH overlay right after the 9-9-09 event??......

Oh, Sherry, I so hope you are wrong about this speculation!! We are going to be in DL Sept 25-Oct 2 and we specifically chose that time frame to (hopefully) see all of the Halloweentime decor since in all of our trips to DL, we have never seen any of the Halloween or Christmas decorations. I know there is still no guarantee that Halloweentime will start on Sept 25, but that was my guestimation from last years schedule. Oh well, I guess we will all just have to wait atleast a few more months before we really KNOW anything.

 

[fairycat]

haha, like alla-y'all have been saying, its all speculation, but I do love a bit of speculation now and again! woohoo! (Plus, I'm probably going right around that time this year, so I'm invested!)
I think that if they do HMH (it does bring in a lot of people, but they might want to promote the original all year, so who knows), then it would make the most sense to just open HMH later than they usually do, like maybe the beginning or middle of October. I know that's cutting it close, but I also think that, hypothetically, IF I had planned my vacation around the celebration on 09-09-09, then I would probably be visiting for more than one day, and IF I loved the original HM enough to shell out for a top tier package (or whatever), then I would want it to be open for at least the rest of the week...! That's money, too!
Does that make sense? Anyway, its all speculation at this point! I can't wait to find out!

While I totally get what you are saying, if you went for HM and spent money for the event and/or just to be in the parks you would most likely arrange your trip to do the most time on HM. In that case if you knew that the HM was going down on the 10th then since the 9th is a wednesday you would probably schedule to be in the parks the weekend before not after.

Since it is all speculation, and sometimes I wonder if even Disney knows what they are going to do I am still wondering if they are going to push the "you will get to ride it last for '09 angle", in the way they use to have events for the opening of HMH (be the first to ride it!). I think it might make some people feel extra cool to have that honor.

My next guess is maybe since the event is on the Wednesday, maybe they will wait till Monday the 14th to take it down just to finish off the weekend crowds and start the overlay then.

My other guess is that if Disney needs to get it opened earlier they will. They can put more people on the overlay to get it finished faster. Or another thought is that maybe they will do a layered decorating, getting the large pieces out and then going back in and doing the details after the event has been opened.

Again this is me just thinking out loud. I might so be off in left field, but these are some of the things I have been wondering.

 

[Sherry E]

Oh, Sherry, I so hope you are wrong about this speculation!! We are going to be in DL Sept 25-Oct 2 and we specifically chose that time frame to (hopefully) see all of the Halloweentime decor since in all of our trips to DL, we have never seen any of the Halloween or Christmas decorations. I know there is still no guarantee that Halloweentime will start on Sept 25, but that was my guestimation from last years schedule. Oh well, I guess we will all just have to wait atleast a few more months before we really KNOW anything.

Ooooooh! I hope I didn't jinx anything by saying that! I hope I am wrong too - I am SURE I'm wrong! I was actually a little surprised that last year Halloweentime began a week later than it had in 2007. I don't know why they did that, unless they needed more time to get HMH up and running or whatever. Maybe they felt that starting Halloweentime on September 19th would have seemed too close to summer, so 9/26 was the better choice. I am sure they will start Halloweentime on 9/25 this year, and as Kerri (Pixiewings71) said, maybe they will just open HMH a little bit later if they can't swing it by 9/25. But hopefully everything will be all up and running - including HMH - by the 9/25! I hope some nice CM's will post on here and give us the advance scoop as soon as they know!

Yes, you definitely have to get to DLR to see Halloweentime and especially the Christmas holiday season! There's nothing like it! It's so magical.

 

[Gisele]

And then maybe it really will not be the end of the world, if hmh is not held this year. The entire year should be dedicated to the Haunted Mansions 40 th Anniversary.