Is the first night of Halloween at Disneyland busy?

[dinosaurjim]

Hi! I hope this information isn't already somewhere else on this FANTASTIC site, but I have a specific question about Halloween crowds at Disneyland. I took my family to Disneyland for the first time 2 years ago in October. We went on a Thursday and Friday in October thinking the crowds would be very light (still trying to find that magical time where you get to walk on to almost every ride...does that ever happen?). Thursday the crowds were pretty reasonable (albeit a bit busier than we expected), but Friday they had a MNSSHP in DCA and we found that the Halloween festivities REALLY brought out the crowds! Especially on a Friday night!

Even in the parts of the park that did not seem like they were directly correlated with the Halloween Party (which if I recall took place mostly in DCA) the crowd levels in both entire parks were so high that I felt like I was there in August! (although the decorations were AWESOME!)

Anyway, back to my original thread. This year, we've decided to try to go a bit earlier to avoid the Halloween madness and we'll be there September 14-16, Wednesday-Friday. Much to my dismay, I just discovered that the third day of our visit (Friday the 16th) is going to be the first night of the Halloween festivities at DLR.

The DLR and DCA calendars do not show much in the way of Halloween activities planned, and I notice if I go to the page to buy tickets to Mickey's Halloween Party on Disneyland's website, I see that the first official MNSSHP date is September 30. Does that mean that September 16, Friday night, the first night of Halloween at Disneyland will be manageable? Does anyone know if there will be anything different going on at the park other than just Halloween decorations? Is there a big party? Do all of the locals come out for this first night of Halloween?

I definitely don't want to be a party pooper, and I know there are probably more than a few of you out there who would chide me for not just enjoying the Halloween atmosphere at DLR and DCA, and I confess, they do a very nice job decking the parks out. Awesome atmosphere, and we loved the pumpkins! But what my kids are all about is just riding rides. Therefore, the biggest question in our minds is how big the crowds will be. Does anyone have any idea if the first night of "Halloween Time at Disneyland" is a big deal or not? Has anyone gone? Are the crowds on this particular Friday night going to be bigger than they would be if we had chosen to go on a Friday night a week earlier? We're not going on Gay Days or Columbus Day, so nothing special other than just this first night of Halloween Time at DLR.

Thanks! I appreciate all of the posts on here! Hopefully I don't offend anyone by caring a little more about crowd levels than the Halloween atmosphere, but when you live so far away and only get to go 2-3 days at a time every few years, crowd levels are a HUGE factor for us in enjoying the park. Hopefully someone else out there understands where I'm coming from.

Thanks all! Keep up the great posts! I've been a silent reader for 2 months now and just registered for the first time today! Acceptance is the first step toward recovery, right?

 

[Albort]

Typically, the beginning of MHT at the start of the month is slower. The closer it gets to Halloween, the busier it gets.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

The only other "unusual" thing going on that I can think of is that 9/16 is when Remember...Dreams Come True fireworks return from their summer break. You might see a few locals come out for that.

 

[Sherry E]

Feel free to join us over in the Halloween at DLR Superthread. There's tons of information on Page 1, Posts #1 and #2. It's a year-round thread with all kinds of information about the Halloween season at DLR.

 

[DisSarahK]

We were there last year for the first day of Halloween Time (and will be again this year)--there was a noticeable increase in crowds as the day went on and it definitely was not our favorite day at Disneyland. It was fun to see the characters in their costumes, but it was NOT fun dealing with the increased crowds. It wasn't wall-to-wall people by *any* means, but it definitely was crowded.

 

[jdb in AZ]

We were in Disneyland the first day the Space Mtn Ghostly Galaxy overlay was introduced and all the locals had to come check it out. The place was a zoo. Love halloween and want to take our grandson to one of the parties when he's old enough but it will be on a week night and not the first night it's offered.