grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize....

So now that it's officially done, I thought I'd do a wrap of what Halloween was like here in Anaheim. Disneyland Resort celebrated Halloween September 17th - October 31, (though there were still decorations up for a few days after) so there was plenty of time to enjoy the season! However, starting the middle of October, Christmas decorations were already popping up, causing a bit if an overlap. Some nights you'd see Jack-o-Lanterns surrounding the Partners Statue with a snow-capped castle in the background. All in all, it was quite an exciting time!

Buzz's jack-o-lantern on Main Street

DISNEYLAND \\    Disneyland was fully decked out for the holiday! The park had a Halloween party every Tuesday and Friday night, which were separately ticketed events. They featured the chance to dress up in costume, trick or treat through Disneyland, see Halloween themed fireworks and a parade and have much shorter waits than during the day. I saw many creative and homemade costumes, right down to a stroller that had been turned into a full blown pirate ship with a mast and lights and 3 year old Peter Pan and Tinkerbell at the helm. Interestingly, I saw a TON of Mario/Luigi (and one group that were each a Mario Kart character, and full detailed karts around them, and even one person as a "?" box) and Ghostbuster costumes. And, of course, quite a few little Buzz Lightyears!  

Frontierland's entrance

A couple of Disneyland's attractions had Halloween overlays - Space Mountain became Ghost Galaxy featuring an alien-like ghost and nightly projections on the building and scary sounds. Over in New Orleans Square, Jack Skellington invaded the Haunted Mansion for Haunted Mansion Holiday, and will be staying until January. The main entrance to the park featured huge pumpkins that looked like Mickey and his friends, and Main Street was home to over 300 pumpkins all carved by one (apparently amazing) man in the Resort Enhancement department. And of course, there were all kinds of Halloween treats and food throughout the park! Frontierland was also home to Ray Bradbury's Halloween Tree for the month and half.

Frontierland also featured Dia de la Muertos decorations through out HalloweenTime and through November 2nd for All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The decorations were up in the area next to Rancho del Zocalo, a Mexican restaurant. There was a face painting station as well as a really neat informative plaque letting guests know what Dia de la Muertos is (hint: it's not Halloween).

Above: some of the residents of Rancho del Zocalo. Below: a traditional Dia de la Muertos altar

 

The beginning of November also brought with it a really exciting opportunity - I got to tour the Haunted Mansion after park closing on November 2nd! Our tour guide was really fun, and gave us all kinds of information on the Mansion's history and what Walt's original plans were for it (like entering through an abandoned church and continuing to the house).We got a walking tour with the lights on, and learned about the background on the holiday version of the ride. It w(as incredible to be able to see how some of the effects are done in the ride, and how much like a movie set the attraction really is. We were able to walk down the "never-ending hallway" where Zero the ghost dog floats (a candelabra in the normal version), peek in the ballroom, and even see where the original pet cemetery is located at.


Our tour guide also spent some time debunking urban legends about the house. I can tell you the ones that are false - that's not a real seance table in Madam Leota's room, there's no seance book underneath it, no one died of a heart attack from the ride being too scary originally, that's not Brigham Young's hearse outside, and there's not Satanic rituals held there during Halloween (that one makes me laugh). One neat thing I learned about the overlay - in a few of the scenes, singing red Venus flytraps can be seen. These have nothing to do with the Nightmare Before Christmas, and are just from one of the designers' favorite movies - Little Shop of Horrors and are called the "little Audreys". It was probably one of my favorite events I've done during this program. It was super fun to see the historical side, and to see behind the scenes of the holiday version, since its based on one of my favorite movies!

KNOTT'S BERRY FARM HAUNT - UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS \\   It's been my goal for a long time to make it to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights, and it finally happened! Before that, I also got to go to Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm. This turned out to be quite interesting, as I haven't been to Knott's since I was five years old. My first experience back involved it being utterly dark, foggy, and filled with monsters! We were able to do some of the rides as well, and I was chased into the bathroom by a ghoul. As you can tell in  the picture to the right, I also got completely drenched on the log ride, which was themed for Haunt as Sleepy Hollow. (also, notice the epic photo bomb behind us in the picture).


I got to go to Universal a few weeks later. The place was insanely busy - it took us around a half hour just to get through the main gates and security. It definitely did not disappoint! The "scareactors" are pretty relentless in their chasing of you. I don't think I will ever forget chasing after two chasing wielding clowns who were chasing my sister and then watching them keep her pinned on the ground with them. I also will probably always be scarred for life after discovering the person pulling at my pant leg was a child (or child sized adult) dressed as Chucky. There was a lot of laughs and screams, and the event is amazingly well done. There's something to be said for being able to make people feel beyond nervous and shaky because they have to leave the store they're in and go back outside into whatever crazies with chainsaws are waiting outside. We planned fairly well and made our longest wait about 50 minutes (pretty good for a night that saw 120 minute waits), which was for the maze themed after Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses. The house used 3D "zombievision", which turned out to mean much of the house and props were blue and red. I didn't leave my glasses on, mostly because they prevented me from seeing what direction things were coming from and therefore what direction I needed to run. The maze had really cool detail - it really was a house we walked in through the front of, and traveled through the living room, bedrooms, backyard, and underground tunnels. There were some pretty horrific scenes in it but also some pretty good use of humor. My best scare of the night happened in this house in the form of what I thought to be a fake headless body in the corner. As I walked by, it stood up and came after me. All in all, I would definitely want to make a trip back again!

CARVING PUMPKINS \\  Of course, Halloween wouldn't be complete without pumpkin carving! My room mate Ellen had never carved pumpkins before, so it was really fun! The store was out of orange pumpkins, so we grabbed white ones which turned out really neat anyway. I made roasted cinnamon - nutmeg pumpkin seeds, and watched the premiere of the show that is my new addiction, 'The Walking Dead". I do miss October and Halloween in Wyoming quite a bit - especially how everything smells, and the scenery. But being able to carve pumpkins out here made it a little easier. While I'm not the best pumpkin carver ever, I decided to claim mine (on the right) was supposed to be my Ali cat's face :). (speaking of which, I sure miss that kitty!)

yay! So proud of myself.

Effectively, my program is just two holidays - Halloween and Christmas. Now that one half of my program is done, one holiday is done and the next is moving in. November 12th officially starts Christmas Time at the resort - and I'm assigned to work events that day and help out with the lighting ceremony for "it's a small world". Even though I loved Halloween, I'm looking forward to Christmas!

Until next year!