If you've been reading my blog, you know that last year I attended Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. This year Laurie and I went to Disney's California Adventure for Mickey's Halloween time. Here's this year's report.
Laurie and I arrive at Disneyland dressed the same way we did last year. Laurie dressed beautifully as Cinderella and I'm dressed as Disney Dork. Basically a silk Goofy shirt with big floppy foam mouse ears.
We enter the park at 6:25 and the event starts at 6:30. We need to go to guest relations to pick up an alternate entrance pass. When then head to Candy Corn acres. We soon hear an announcement that the event has begun and everyone is released to the park and everyone heads directly to Hollywood backlot.We foolishly do the same thing. One little tip. Get a map and schedule and try to come with some plan. We, of course, did not do this.
We spend a lot of time just trying to figure out what to do.In addition I have three friends to hook up with and they are arriving later in the night. Laurie and I are walking to the Hyperion theater because there's a photo opportunity. Hey everyone, it's the Little Einsteins. Yeah...sigh. We move toward Monster's Inc and get in a candy line. Then we head to the Animation building for more candy. They had a candy trail through the animation workshop.
There's a new candy that I've never seen, called Kissable. I'm not much of a candy person, but I think is just small hersey's kisses. I also appreciate the fact the Disney is handing out apple chips, apple slices and raisins.
While going through the Animation Workshop, my friend calls me and I tell him to meet me in the building. Lo and behold their he is. We head immediately to Tower of Terror. Found out that it really doesn't make a difference to use the alternate entrance pass for rides. The lines are so short tonight to everything.
As I'm walking through the park, you see a few touches of a Halloween event. These touches are pretty portable. Photo sets that are on wheels. Ghost balloons that inflate quickly and lights shining spooky images. For example, Grizzly Mountain had a giant light shining a spider web on it. Done.
Tower of Terror had a bellman's luggage rack with Mickey luggage on it sitting in front of the fountain. Done. That's it. Anyways, I'll still take small lines. We walk almost immediately to the library and then straight into a loading area.
Now another friend has arrived and we eat over at the Taste Pilots grill. Yum. Here we decide to come up with a plane. Basically, we go into all candy lines and then watch the parade.
After dinner, we head over to Soarin'. We walk directly onto Soarin. For the first time, I'm sitting on the top row center. Awesome, definitely the best place. I will say I got a little queasy on the Los Angeles section. The film is very shaky.
Sitting in the same row as us is a high school girl who is dressed exactly as Laurie is. She's not happy. Awkward.
Now we head to candy lines. There's one by Soarin'. We head to Grizzly Rapid and there's a candy path with 5 stops. We then head to Redwood Creek and there's another path with 6 stops.
Again, I'm not a huge candy person, after I'm done with Grizzly, I really don't want anymore candy. Will that stop my wife? No. She continues to collect more candy and collect candy for me. That's OK, I'm content just shooting video and pictures. I hope to have this up soon on my website.
Now we head over to Paradise Pier. There's a lot of action at the Golden Screams theatre with a Villains photo op. We continue to Ariel's Grotto and find a princess photo area. Cinderella leaves for break and the line is huge, so we pass.
I then try to get Laurie to go on California Screamin'. No dice, Laurie wants candy. Hey, the midway games are free. So we play a few. No prizes are handed out, just more stinkin' candy. Paradise pier is running all of its ride except for the Maliboomer.
There are about 3 candy spots. Ugh. We swing around toward the Zerphyr and I spot a hat stand. I need to pick some up for themeparkshopper.com. Laurie heads ahead to get more candy. Once I'm done with the hats, the parade begins.
There's a few clear areas and I stand with my camera and I'm up front. The parade comes by with a song that kind of cute. Just as good as "boo to you" from WDW.
There are three float elements to this parade. The beginning banner. Center float with the Fab Five and the Ending banners. There's a few characters, dancers, fab five. Not bad, but not great.
As the end of the parade passes and I see the Disneyland security, I decide to follow the parade until I see Laurie. I march about 50 ft and there's Laurie, so I'm pretending to be a part of the parade.
As we're talking I notice that the parade is stopping in front for the Paradise pier. I bet their going to have a little show. I'm right. The parade stops for a little dance party. The characters are pulling kids onto the parade route. Flick is in front of me trying to get a kid to dance, but nothing doing.
I'll have this on video soon.
So the parade passes and we head over the Pirate's Wharf. We get a picture with Chip and Dale. There's a craft area for kids and a dance area. I get on the dance floor and Laurie video tapes me. Maybe you'll see this.
We then head to Bug's land and there's two talking scarecrows. Very funny and then back to the entrance where the parade made it's third stop.
We take my friend back to the Hollywood backlot because Laurie wants to get more candy at the Animation Building. I decide to get more pictures and video.
We then ride Monster's for the last time and head back to candy corn acres for final photo ops. When we get back on the tram to get to our parking spot, we sit with a redneck family complaining about the quality of candy.
That was our night. Here's few random thoughts.
The majority of costumes worn were either Disney or Star Wars related. We did see a lot of Wizard of Oz as well.
I have way too much candy. Maybe it's because it was the last night, but Disney was incredibly generous with candy. I can't possibly eat all of this, nor do I want to. We measured the candy at 10 pounds.
Overall the event was fun. It's worth the $27 that I paid for it to get onto rides fast and have a unique experience. It's nothing compared to WDW. They have a better parade, fireworks shows and more rides. My hope is that this gradually grows from year to year.
Alan Ng
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