By Charly SHELTON

Halloween is nearly upon us and, to celebrate the spirit of the season, the local theme parks go all out to bring scary fun to boys and ghouls searching for a good fright. So far, we’ve seen all that Knott’s Scary Farm, Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights and Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor have to offer. This week, we look at the family-friendly option – Disneyland.

While the other events are for teens and adults who can handle a good scare, for the tiniest monsters who aren’t quite ready for such intensity, the obvious option is Disneyland. Sure, Knott’s has Camp Snoopy Spooky during the daylight hours, but it’s really not worth spending the money for admission for just a half day’s play in a land with some nice decorations and a dozen carnival rides. Disneyland Resort has two parks of family-friendly spookiness with Halloween-themed ride overlays, a separately ticketed trick-or-treat party and plenty of awesome themed food and merchandise to satisfy all members of the family.

Disneyland usually has the same five presentations every year for its Halloweentime celebration – Haunted Mansion Holiday (a “Nightmare Before Christmas” ride addition overlay at The Haunted Mansion), Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy (a haunted space-themed ride addition overlay at Space Mountain), the Main Street Pumpkin Festival decorations, Mickey’s Halloween Party (the trick-or-treat after-hours party in Disneyland) and pumpkin spice foods at the restaurants. That is what works, so why change it?

It’s not a bad event; it’s just that after eight years without a change in offerings, it feels a little stale. That was until this year. It has now been kicked into high gear with the opening of the other park – Disney California Adventure – and it is a welcome addition. The added Halloween-themed acreage at DCA makes the crowds feel a little less intense by spreading out the fun between the two parks. For me and many like me, those who are in the park for a holiday event like Halloween make those themed attractions a priority because they are limited time events. I can see regular Cars Land any old time; I’m here for the pumpkin stuff. But by adding more Halloween enhancements to DCA, it gives guests a reason to head across the way, which thins out the crowds. Regular old Cars Land being decorated for “Haul-o-Ween” is a cute way to help crowds flow over to the other park.

Disney invited me to the park to see some of the new Halloweentime additions and, I have to say, I am more impressed by this showing than a lot of what the other parks had to offer. Most of the parks maintained the status quo; Disneyland improved. It used the recent success of its newly opened ride “Guardians of the Galaxy- Mission: Breakout” to its advantage by adding an attraction overlay to it at night featuring “Monsters After Dark.” Guests are still swarming the ride because it’s the new thing and super fun. Now to give them an extra bonus at night, a reason to come ride it twice, is genius. MAD is essentially a sequel or follow up to the daytime experience. During the day, Rocket Raccoon breaks the Guardians out of The Collector’s Museum, freeing all the alien monsters and escaping in the chaos. At night, they realize Groot has been lost in the shuffle and Rocket has to break back into the museum, which is now running rampant with monsters and has failing power, all set to a “1970s Rock”-style song by the composer of the films’ score, Tyler Bates. Brilliant!

The new improvements for Halloweentime are everywhere. The new decorations in Cars Land are really cute and worth a look for pictures. Look out for some Halloween surprises in the smaller attractions of that land – Luigi throws a spirited party at “Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-o-Ween” and “Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree” gets into the swing with car-themed Halloween music. The photo ops and decorations out in front of the park feature Oogie Boogie above the entryway and set the perfect tone for what’s to be found inside – bats in the belfry of Carthay Circle, a headless horseman in the planter bed on Buena Vista Street and all the favorite Disney characters dressed in their Halloween costumes.

And the specialty food offerings at both parks is amazing – pumpkin spiced churros, s’mores funnel cake with chocolate-chili ganache and toasted marshmallow sauce, graham cracker crumbs and crushed peanut butter candy, bison burgers with candied bacon, sautéed mushrooms, baby kale and blue cheese tarragon sauce – the dining program is incredible for Halloweentime.

Overall, this is a great event and I think it’s probably the most improved and most impressive Halloween of the year at the local theme parks. Disney does holidays well and this is no exception. Halloweentime runs every day, now through Halloween. Mickey’s Halloween Party with trick-or-treating in the park runs select nights through Halloween.

  Charly Shelton