Halloween Time at Disneyland and California Journey has returned! The spook season occasion is again with frightfully enjoyable experiences and leisure all through the remainder of August, September and October 2024. This publish shares what to anticipate and our experiences with crowds, characters, and the digital queue for Haunted Mansion Vacation.
We’ve had an opportunity to spend a while having fun with Halloween at Disneyland and DCA, and need to share our expertise to date. One factor we must always begin by noting is that this publish won’t be complete–we’re principally specializing in what’s totally different as in comparison with final 12 months. And truthfully, that’s not an entire lot!
Disneyland has taken a “don’t repair what isn’t damaged” mentality with Halloween Time, which might be for the very best. In any case, try our full 2024 Information to Halloween at Disneyland Resort in case you want complete planning recommendation and proposals for spook season. With that out of the way in which, let’s dig into what’s new for 2024…
The large information right here is that Halloween 2024 at Disneyland begins in August–the primary time ever it has ever kicked off that early. The everyday cadence for Halloween is it beginning the primary Friday in September, generally with a comfortable opening on the Thursday earlier than that. That implies that, following the historic sample, Halloween ought to have began on September 6, 2024. That’s late, however per previous precedent (together with 2019, when it began on September 6).
Disneyland is actually beginning Halloween two weeks early with the August 23, 2024 begin date. Whereas sooner than ever at Disneyland, that is nonetheless later than the beginning date of Halloween at Walt Disney World (by nearly 2 full weeks!) lately. There are positive to be complaints about this from diehard Disneyland followers who suppose it’s “too early” for Halloween. We strongly disagree.
From our perspective, this all comes all the way down to demand. Halloween Time crowds have been getting worse and worse, to the purpose that mid-September till late October is among the busiest stretches of your entire 12 months. There’s a component of seasonality to this with fall breaks at West Coast college districts. A giant a part of it, although, is just that Halloween continues to develop in recognition.
Certain, some Disneyland diehards will complain about Halloween beginning in summer time, however that’s going to occur regardless. The fact is that Halloween attracts enormous crowds and Oogie Boogie Bash offered out in document time final 12 months. Including extra dates–each for Halloween as an entire and the arduous ticket get together–is just the good transfer and a great way to even out crowds all through spook season. It’s profitable for Disneyland and higher for visitors–a uncommon win-win state of affairs!
Towards that backdrop, let’s flip to crowds.
This summer time at Disneyland kind of paralleled our current crowd studies from Walt Disney World, besides with larger numbers within the California parks. For these skeptical of those reported developments, the corporate itself has acknowledged as a lot, attributing it to an exhaustion of pent-up demand that’s lagging at Disneyland since California reopened later.
There’s by no means consensus relating to crowd reporting. (It’s higher at Disneyland than Walt Disney World, because the extra local-centric parks imply extra followers with weekly expertise, reasonably than yearly, which presents a a lot higher body of reference.) It doesn’t matter what the info reveals, there’ll at all times be individuals who declare the very same dates had been really the ‘busiest they’ve ever seen the parks’ or ‘least busy they’ve ever seen the parks.’ Apart from vacation weeks, these responses occur just about with out fail.
We pop into Disneyland regularly, normally at the least as soon as per week.
These aren’t all-day visits since we’re driving in and in addition making an attempt to keep away from visitors, that means going late and infrequently leaving by round 6:30 pm (threading the needle between lacking visitors and never disrupting child’s bedtime routine). Due to this, we additionally intention to do a weekend within the parks with a resort keep about as soon as per thirty days (that additionally helps refresh resort opinions).
We just lately did a prolonged stretch in Anaheim for D23 Expo, which included just a few partial days at Disneyland. We additionally did an extended weekend at Disneyland with a number of consecutive rope drop to park closing days.
Anyway, our observations from these visits are that weekends proceed to be a lot much less busy than weekdays. There’s a very noticeable distinction between Sunday and Monday, with the latter being far worse. It’s really so apparent that there in all probability could be consensus on this.
There are just a few causes for this. Magic Key Annual Go blockouts on the weekends and tiered ticket pricing are the large ones, which push individuals in direction of the weekdays. In terms of August, particularly, there was additionally the lifting of the summer time blockout in mid-August, which precipitated a small scale or localized model of pent-up demand has additionally simply performed out.
Los Angeles and Orange County faculties are already again in session–as is most of California and the West Coast–however there are nonetheless some stragglers. In any case, all of this explains why crowds have remained elevated into mid-August, particularly on weekdays, at the same time as that is the guts of low season at Walt Disney World. All of that is per what we noticed final 12 months at Disneyland.
Final 12 months, the early fall low season basically arrived proper now, which might be the large purpose why Disneyland moved ahead the Halloween season. Unfold out demand in order that mid-September via late October aren’t fairly so loopy, whereas additionally rising crowds through the low season.
Regardless of the beginning of Halloween, what we just about noticed is that it’s nonetheless low season at Disneyland. Wait instances had been low all through the day, with a crowd stage of 1/10 and common of 18 minutes on August 23, 2024 per thrill-data.com. That’s actually low. These numbers made this the slowest day at Disneyland since February on just a few days that, if I recall appropriately, had storms.
We fully imagine this. This was the least busy Disneyland has felt in a very long time (we didn’t go to on these February days) and there was a time through the center of the day when the longest wait time in your entire park was half-hour. Even with an 18 minute common, you’d count on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Indiana Jones Journey, Matterhorn, and many others., to be properly above that.
Seems like crowds weren’t a lot worse. Our concern was that even with low wait instances, there could be lengthy traces for meals and simply normal congestion given it was the primary day of Halloween. Nevertheless, that was not the case. We ate rather a lot of Halloween snacks (opinions coming quickly), and by no means had any points with traces–Cell Order return instances had been instantaneous for every little thing besides Bengal BBQ.
We’ve executed the Haunted Mansion Vacation digital queue a number of instances because it debuted a month in the past, however haven’t but reported on it extensively, so now’s nearly as good of a time for that as any. It’s fairly simple.
Take into account that the Haunted Mansion Vacation digital queue exists not due to demand or journey reliability, however attributable to ongoing building of the bodily queue. Though demand is pretty excessive for this seasonal attraction, it’s additionally a individuals eater. Due to this, it’s normally pretty easy to affix the VQ, even lengthy after the park opens. I’m positive it will change deeper into September and past, however for now, it’s high quality.
We joined the digital queue for Haunted Mansion Vacation within the early afternoon and bought a callback round 5:30 pm. The method was easy however chaotic. Since there isn’t a lot room for even a return queue–and the overflow spills out right into a walkway–Solid Members had been working round to get visitors checked in shortly. Our precise wait as soon as returning to the bodily queue was like 5 minutes.
With that stated, that is all concerning the daytime hours. Friday was positively ‘a story of two days’ at Disneyland, with a pointy distinction between crowds earlier than and after 5 pm. Once more, this isn’t an enormous shock. It’s the conventional dynamic at Disneyland given locals arriving after work, however particularly through the Halloween season.
Nonetheless, it was surprising simply how dangerous traces had been–particularly to enter–through the late afternoon and night. Above is a photograph of the Downtown Disney safety checkpoint–I’ve by no means seen this aspect get this dangerous. That is at all times the “finest” entry level, so that you higher imagine it was worse on the opposite sides. (As a normal matter, safety has gotten a lot much less environment friendly during the last couple of months. The brand new system is terrible.)
It was the same story to enter Mickey & Buddies, with a line of visitors backed up all the way in which to the freeway. The final time we encountered something near that, it took us nearly an hour to park. Hopefully there have been extra lanes open this go-round. In any case, all of this was a pointy distinction to once we arrived at 9 am, which had no waits in any respect for any infrastructure.
Wanting ahead, count on the same story for the upcoming week with a slight spike for the Labor Day vacation weekend after which the Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon. That ought to be adopted by a retreat for the subsequent two weeks in September, which shall be a good time to go to. Then issues will possible get dangerous, for the explanations mentioned in our September 2024 Disneyland Crowd Calendar.
Day of week developments would be the greatest consideration, adopted carefully by Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Social gathering dates. That’ll trigger some gentle disruptions to attendance dynamics, whereas additionally creating crowd discrepancies between Disneyland and Disney California Journey.
Talking of which, we’ll be attending the primary Oogie Boogie Bash and can report again on our expertise at that. (For full planning particulars, dates, and pricing about this difficult ticket occasion, see our Information to the Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Social gathering.)
Lastly, Disneyland Resort has new-for-2024 Halloween outfits for Minnie & Buddies! Mickey Mouse sports activities a skeleton-inspired go well with and Minnie Mouse and mates will don playful patchwork patterns.
For every of the previous couple of Halloween and Christmas seasons, Mickey & Buddies have been getting new costumes every year for his or her meet & greet appearances round City Sq.. These are an enormous hit with followers, and the costumes are normally actually good for Mickey, Minnie, Daisy & Donald Duck, and particularly Goofy. (Pluto is current, too, however sometimes simply will get a brand new collar.)
Talking of which, assembly the characters for Halloween is usually a tad difficult. All of those meet & greets are in City Sq., however the areas aren’t clearly marked, the characters rotate, and most shouldn’t have PhotoPass. If you wish to meet them, your finest guess is being in City Sq. between 9:45 am and a couple of pm, which is when most of them seem.
We attended a media preview of Halloween Time at Disneyland and had been capable of meet the characters of their new costumes throughout that:
Megatron has now met Minnie and/or Mickey Mouse a number of instances whereas awake. She’s very intrigued by them, besides when she couldn’t care much less about them. This was one of many instances when she was very intrigued by them.
It positively helped that the characters bought inside “grabbing distance.” She is a eager fan of touching no matter is inside her attain, whether or not that be strings, zippers, chest hair, or–on this case–duck payments and noses. The characters shortly caught onto this, and introduced their payments and noses inside her attain. What possibly they didn’t understand was that these grabs serve a objective–placing the issues she’s gotten ahold of into her mouth.
One of many issues that they don’t let you know when having youngsters is that their mouths are magnets, and regardless of how arduous you strive, it’s gonna occur. Clearly, you battle it and attempt to forestall international objects from winding up there. However I had this misguided notion earlier than having youngsters that this may be preventable if solely dad and mom had been a bit extra diligent. How younger and naive I used to be. Suffice to say, I’ve one photograph of an open-mouthed Megatron inches away from making direct contact with Minnie’s nostril.
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Suggestions for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Study on-site and off-site inns in our Anaheim Resort Opinions & Rankings. For the place to eat, try our Disneyland Restaurant Opinions. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, try What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, try our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seaside, and tons of different locations!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Ideas on Halloween at Disneyland? What concerning the new character costumes for Mickey & Buddies? Will you be visiting the parks throughout spook season? Doing Oogie Boogie Bash? Ideas on the post-summer slowdown in crowds at Disneyland? Predictions on crowds for September 2024? Assume subsequent month shall be kind of busy than August? In case you’ve visited final month, what did you consider crowds and wait instances? Do you agree or disagree with something in our report? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
