Feliz dia de los muertos! The Halloween season has finally come to a close at the Disneyland Resort, and that means we move straight into Christmas mode (Thanksgiving is so neglected in the parks!). As rides like It’s A Small World and the Jungle Cruise close to adopt their holiday overlays, construction rages on in both parks. Let’s take a look back at October!
HALLOWEEN HIJINKS
Mickey’s Halloween Party ran throughout the month, once again to sold out crowds. I attended the October 14th party, and thought it was the best one I’ve been to yet. The Cadaver Dans were spookier than ever, wait times were minimal for almost every ride, and some of the costumes absolutely blew me away. If you’ve never been to a Halloween Party, make sure you go next year! It’s an amazing experience.
You can check out my full recap of the party here.
TOWER OF TERROR – ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR
The Tower of Terror doesn’t technically close until January, but it has already ceased to exist the way we know and love it. First they took away the sign, and now the entire building is covered in scaffolding.
It’s absolutely hideous.
For the last few months of operation, guests go through “final checkout”. They can pose for photos with an abandoned luggage cart, enjoy live singing in the lobby, and experience the elevator shaft in complete darkness. There’s also a Final Checkout SnapChat filter, for my fellow social media nerds!
This event has been one of the most heavily promoted events of the year, but it’s doing nothing to appease irritated guests. As for my opinion? I wrote out a long post explaining my feelings about the tower closing, which you can read here. The only thing I’d like to add is that I think it’s a little ridiculous to work so aggressively on construction before it’s closed. If the ride doesn’t leave until January, leave it alone until January. But that’s just my two cents.
STAR WARS LAND CONSTRUCTION UPDATES
Over by Frontierland, Star Wars Land construction slowly but surely marches on.
Disney recently extended the Rivers of America attraction closure dates, from spring 2017 to summer 2017. No official word on the Land’s opening date, but we have to assume that might be delayed too. In the meantime, you can still see construction progress and the area start to take shape. Pro tip: the best places for a construction view are Tarzan’s Treehouse and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’s second lift.
OTHER UPDATES
I definitely noticed an increased security presence at the resort this month. There have always been police officers in Downtown Disney and plain-clothes officers in the parks, but now they make their presence much more known. Most guests have to go through metal detectors now, and I also saw police with dogs making rounds in Downtown Disney.
On Oct. 30, Disneyland hosted the annual CHOC Walk, the largest Children’s Hospital of Orange County event of the year. The OC Register has a full recap of the event here.
Observant fans noticed that there are brand new projectors along Tom Sawyer Island. A good sign that Fantasmic! will be bigger and better than ever when it returns next year!
Two new shops are on their way to Downtown Disney: Pandora and Curl Surf. Pandora will be a standalone shop, but their Disney collections will still be available in the parks and in World of Disney.
And finally, Radiator Springs Racers’ front entrance closed for a few days this month. Rumors are flying that the brief closure involved the installation of some FastPass+ kiosks. Will the Walt Disney World fast pass system be headed west? Only time will tell.
Beautiful costumes! What fun.
Thank you! 🙂
UGH my poor tower 🙁
final checkout is stupid it’s an “event” they keep pimping that isn’t actually anything.
That dia de muertos display is very cool. Where exactly is Zolcalo park?
Right?! The display really is amazing. Zocalo park is right in the middle of Frontierland, to the left of Rancho del Zocalo. It has a small raised stage, where the display currently is, and some benches. It’s really more of a rest area than an actual park. On very crowded days, the park becomes part of the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!
The ToT stuff still pisses me off. It’s going to be completely redone on the outside I bet, before it even closes.
It’s certainly looking that way. My guess is it’ll stay under scaffolding completely until it closes, but we’ll already be able to see the new color and architecture.