September Planning/Halloween Closures?

[KquinnD]

Hi all!

Please help. Growing up we always went to Disneyland the first week after labor day and it was perfect, we have been planning our first trip with our own kids for September 2019, BUT, we don't celebrate Halloween and I had no idea how early the decorations go up. I know there are cool things about going during that season because the villains are out and there are special skins and what not. If it were just a pumpkin here or there or just a few rides with alterations it wouldn't be a big deal but all of the characters have different costumes and there are different events and I know it can be really fun, not knocking it all, just if you don't partake in those festivities then it really changes the trip. Any way, originally we were planning to go the 8-12 but it looks like the park will be switched over by the 7th so I am looking to bump the trip up to the week before. I guess my actual question is: will a bunch of the rides (Space Mountain, Guardians, etc...) most likely be closed that week? Should we maybe even consider bumping out to either early November or further back to late August? Our boys are little, one will be turning two in September and the other will be a couple months shy of 4 so we are trying to go during a time of lighter crowds. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

MK at least will be decorated for Halloween probably around AUGUST 16th if the first MNSSHP starts around when it did this year.
Bumping your dates back by 1 week won't do much for you if you don't want Halloween decor and events.
WDW attractions don't have elaborate holiday overlays like at DLR so you can expect the attractions to be open.
This year Space Mountain was in the dark and had music, I think teacups had lights and fog?, and POTC had live actors... those things were ONLY during the party not all day.

If you move your dates to early November you will be getting into Christmas decor.

 

[OhThePain]

Halloween parties (and decorations) in the MK start in August these days. For the most part, normal operations will not be any different then any other day of the year. The decorations will not be there one day and will be there the next and after Halloween is over, MK will be Halloween one day and Christmas the next. Villains, characters in Halloween costumes, special menu items, changes to rides, themed parades and fireworks basically only happen during MNSSHP (a pretty pricey hard ticket event). On the days of the party the park will close to non-party guests at 6PM. With the exception of Main Street USA, Magic Kingdom does not get much decoration and the ones on MSUSA aren't overwhelming. I am sure you can find videos of what it looks like. None of the other parks get much of a make over (EPCOT does have the Food and Wine Festival starting the end of August/beginning of September).

 

[sharonabe]

Growing up we always went to Disneyland

If you're going to DisneyLAND in CA and no DisneyWORLD in FL, you may want to scroll down to the DisneyLAND forum and post your question there. The DisneyLAND folks can help you better than those on this forum that are mostly WDW people.

I do know we went to the LAND the week of Labor Day and the only thing down was Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Both were receiving their Halloween overlays at that time. The park was not decorated at all for Halloween yet.

 

[fhtpdw20]

WDW does not do Halloween overlays, They only shut down rides for maintenance.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

If you're going to DisneyLAND in CA and no DisneyWORLD in FL, you may want to scroll down to the DisneyLAND forum and post your question there. The DisneyLAND folks can help you better than those on this forum that are mostly WDW people.

I do know we went to the LAND the week of Labor Day and the only thing down was Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Both were receiving their Halloween overlays at that time. The park was not decorated at all for Halloween yet.

Hmm I may have taken the post completely wrong. I had assumed the OP was saying growing up they went to DLR but they are going to WDW this time but now that I read it again I guess maybe they are talking about going to DLR...

 

[hiroMYhero]

@KquinnD ~ Your thread is now on the DLand Board.

 

[dina444444]

Disneyland Halloween typically starts the Friday after Labor Day but decorations start going up at the end of August. Space mountain only needs a day to switch over to ghost galaxy but some years it’s closed for 3/4 days to also do some minor refurb work. Haunted mansion will close about 19 days before to have the layover installed. Guardians, Maters and Luigi’s are changed overnight but decorations for the latter two will start going up when the rest of the decorations do which is about 3/4 weeks before Halloween officially starts. The characters won’t start greeting in Halloween wear till the day Halloween officially starts but if you come in the week leading up there will be decorations in almost all of the park. They start putting decorations up in New Orleans square in the middle of the summer for reference.

 

[figment_jii]

As dina444444 said, HalloweenTime has been starting the Friday after Labor Day recently. This year, Labor Day was on 9/3 and HalloweenTime started on 9/7. Next year (2019), Labor Day is on 9/2, so I think it's possible that HalloweenTime could start on either 9/6 or 9/13. We probably won't know for sure until late-Spring or early-Summer (they announced it in May in 2018). The official starts of HalloweenTime is when the attraction overlays, special foods, and characters in costumes appear. The decorations and merchandise will start appearing before then (August).

If you move your trip to the week of 9/3 to 9/5, you'll miss the start of HalloweenTime, but Haunted Mansion will mostly likely be down the entire period. Space will probably go down for at least one day (maybe more, as dina444444 said). You'll find the parks are in a state of "transition" at that point; not quite fully Halloween, but not summer anymore. It'll be more than a "few pumpkins" here and there (especially towards the latter half of the week), but I'm always impressed at how quickly things can appear. Also, the parks will likely be operating on shorter hours and less entertainment on the weekdays (this doesn't necessarily matter which week you go). The other caveat to throw in is that all of this is based on how things have been; I have no idea how Star Wars Land is going to impact HalloweenTime.

 

[KquinnD]

Thank you all so much for the help! Yes I meant Disneyland, sorry for the confusion. We are spending 3 days in the parks, so hopefully Space Mountain would be open for at least one of them if it happens to be in transition. Are the first couple of weeks in November usually pretty chill? I am sure the crowds get bigger near Thanksgiving, but walking the kiddos around in 70 weather might actually be nice.

 

[dina444444]

Thank you all so much for the help! Yes I meant Disneyland, sorry for the confusion. We are spending 3 days in the parks, so hopefully Space Mountain would be open for at least one of them if it happens to be in transition. Are the first couple of weeks in November usually pretty chill? I am sure the crowds get bigger near Thanksgiving, but walking the kiddos around in 70 weather might actually be nice.

November is a mixed bag. It can either still be 70s/80s during the day and 60s at night or highs could be in the 50s/60s and lows in the 40s/50s. Your not going to fully win with Halloween restrictions, weather, and wanting certain rides. I would maybe recommend the week between Halloween time and start of Christmas which is typically the second Friday of November. Only rides that are usually down then are it’s a small world.

 

[pharmama]

Halloween decorations don't disappear overnight either. So there will be some Halloween stuff still up in early November though you'll likely notice Halloween disappear more and more each night with Christmas starting to show up instead. We went on Veterans Day weekend this year which was the official start of the holiday decorations and while the parks were fully Christmas Holidays DTD still had pumpkin and fall decorations up so they were still transitioning that area even then.

I think others addressed the closures in September (except I'll add that GOTG doesn't close. They just switch the ride to different versions at night I believe). If you go in early November IASW will be closed to apply the holiday overlay. This year most reports were that the week before Thanksgiving was pretty quiet. Then you'll have full holiday decorations including IASW Holiday.

 

[figment_jii]

In terms of early November, Fall Dapper Days is slated for November 2nd and 3rd, which will probably mean pretty large crowds that weekend.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I agree with the above posters about aiming for November if you want to avoid Halloween Time. The end of August will likely be a very crowded time because of the lower APs returning to Disneyland after their summer blockout lifts. Add to that, D23 Expo runs Aug. 23-25, so that will bring in more crowds for the event itself, but possibly also before and after as attendees try to see SWGE.