The calendar might still say "summer," but Disneyland already is calling it fall. The resort kicked off its Halloween Time event Friday - the earliest start ever for Disneyland's annual fall festival.
Pushing Halloween into August might help fill the parks during back-to-school season, but it doesn't make fall weather arrive any earlier in Southern California. Or maybe it does, as cooler temperatures Friday provided some relief after what had been a warm week across the area. Still, this ain't sweater weather yet - just "not so sweaty" weather, instead.
The Halloween Time line-up this year will remain familiar to most long-time Disney fans, with just a few tweaks to the entertainment and culinary attractions. Among them is the daytime debut of Mickey's Trick and Treat in the Disney Junior theater at Disney California Adventure park. This show previously had played only during the after-hours Oogie Boogie Bash.
It's a cute show, especially when watching Mickey, Minnie and friends trying - and pretty much failing - to tell a spooky story. This is the crew for bright sunshine and butterflies, not creepy nights and bats, but they try their best to get into the Halloween spirit. Where the show maybe needed a rethink was with its build-up toward collecting candy. Rather than ushering kids into bag-busting Oogie Boogie treat trails, guests are handed a single, small bag of Life Savers or Skittles gummies upon exiting the show. It's always nice to get a freebie at Disney, but Mickey's Trick and Treat hypes the kids up for a bigger haul than that. Parents be advised. You might need to temper some expectations here.
Ther is no daytime parade for Halloween Time this year, but Disneyland is presenting a Mickey and Friends Halloween Cavalcade, featuring several Disney villains.
There will be a new Coco-themed show over at DCA at Plaza de la Familia for that park's Día de los Muertos celebration, but it won't debut until next Friday. Otherwise, for entertainment, Disney California Adventure welcomes the return of Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark in the evenings and the Haul-O-Ween attraction overlays in Cars Land all day long: Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree and Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween.
And over at Disneyland, we have Haunted Mansion Holiday, which opened last month and will continue through the New Year.
It's Virtual Queue only for Mansion, until its new physical queue is ready later this year. But in the evenings, everyone can watch Halloween Screams, the fireworks show that returns to the skies above Disneyland for select nights during Halloween Time.
Disneyland also is serving a new menu of tastes and treats for Halloween Time and Día de los Muertos. I can no longer endure stuffing myself with overly sweet and spicy foods, so you will have to settle for my review of the Fantasyland Garlic Cheesy Brat [$12.99] and Alpine Almond Delight [$5.49] at Edelweiss Snacks.
Offering plenty of flavor without the heat that defines most Disney Halloween specials, the brat was one of the best things I have eaten at Disneyland in years. If you're someone who has hopped aboard the bandwagon of stuffing the cheesy garlic bread from Maurice's with a Bengal Barbecue skewer, you'll get the concept here. It's a delicious brat inside that tasty, cheesy garlic bread - a wonderful fall snack that just needs a football game to watch to make perfect.
The pastry was nice - a rare sweet at Disneyland that's not too sweet. But its texture brings it closer to a thick cookie rather than a flaky pastry. Yet even at a somewhat small size, we found it more than enough for two people to share.
As for drinks, we tried two. We gave a hard "no" to the Caramel Apple Cold Brew from Cafe Daisy [$6.79]. Caramel apple and cold brew might be two great tastes, but these are not two that taste great together. The acidic cold brew and sharp apple clashed rather than complementing each other, leading us to dump the whole thing after just two sips. If the brat was one of the better tastes we've had at Disney in recent years, this cold brew stood alone as the worst in our book.
Better was the Pumpkin Pie Chai Tea from Galactic Grill [$6.99] - but only if you drink it through the creamy foam topping. That cut the sweetness of the chai enough to make it enjoyable. Using a provided straw to drink from the bottom of the cup set our teeth on edge. With any foam-topped specialty drink, forget the straw, embrace the inevitable foam mustache and slurp away to get all the flavor at once.
The last four months of the year are the new high season at Disneyland, and for good reasons. The seasonal decor and specials continue to delight, while the weather turns more comfortable. Just keep in mind that Disneyland is reverting to a pre-pandemic crowd pattern, where easy, uncrowded weekdays turn into jam-packed evenings once Magic Key annual passholders arrive en masse after work. Get there early when you go.
Halloween Time continues at the Disneyland Resort through October 31, with the Plaza de la Familia celebration continuing through November 2. For discounts on tickets to the parks, please visit our partner's Disneyland tickets page.
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