Halloweentime!

Yup, it's that time of year again, Halloweentime at Disneyland!  The festivities officially began this Friday, September 12, on what may be the hottest weekend of the year.  Since I haven't been to the parks in a while (I was in Maui!), I paid a visit on Saturday to see what new wonders await.  

 

Priority #1 for me:  the Conjure a Villain tent.  It is here that you can meet the Disney Villains, such as the Queen of Hearts, Jafar, Captain Hook, The Evil Queen (and her alter ego The Hag) and Maleficent.  I cannot tell you how many times I cycled through the tent last year, only to miss Maleficent.  Well, luck was on my side Saturday as I met her on my first try!  For the uninitiated, this is how it works: 1) wait in the queue, sit on hay bales; 2) enter the air conditioned (thank you jeebus!) tent, only about 30 at a time; 3) participate in a brief "show" where a villain is "conjured" via magic spell, you will not be told which villain you will meet; 4) line up for your meet and greet opportunity, line starts on the left.  While there did not appear to be anything new here, I did see a "gypsy" appear in front of the tent on occasion to entertain guests in line.  

There are also games and crafts to entertain guests of all ages if you choose to mill around.  You can check out the pumpkin carvers, I've already seen Groot, Maleficent and Han Solo in carbonite pumpkins and many more.  They continue adding to the collection all season.  The Pirates League is also set up here if you are interested in getting made up for the occasion.  

The Fab 5 and Chip and Dale also make appearances here throughout the day, dressed in their Halloween costumes.  They will stop for pictures and autographs, but every so often they do a Mask-a-Rade where they parade around with the kids and stilt walking scarecrows and witches.  

The newest major feature here is the magic show.  On this day, the magician was John George (not sure if they use different magicians).  While some of the illusions were enjoyable, it was a little bit long and at times slow, especially when we were sitting in 100 degree temps.  Also, little use was made of the scarecrows and witches who mainly just stood in front of the stage looking pretty, or "Zester," who cleared the props and made announcements.  When Sorcerer Mickey arrives, I expected the action to pick up a bit, but that just spelled the end.  All in all, I think the live music they used to have on stage was a better fit.  

We also visited the Haunted Mansion Holiday and Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy.  After all the major updates to HMH last year, we didn't notice much this time around.  The current gingerbread house is actually an iron maiden, with candy spikes.  I thought GG seemed to be even faster than normal, which is not a bad thing!  I'm anticipating seeing all the hysterical children crying at the end of this one.  

If you want to visit the ranch, be sure to get over there before 6pm, as it closes well before the rest of the park.  Fastpasses are not (currently) available for HMH this year, but you can get them for SMGG, so plan accordingly!