I'm really not sure how I feel about this..

[LittleDollClaudia]

If It’s October, It Must Be Disney’s HalloweenTime! Disneyland Resort to Become Fall Playground for Little Boos & Ghouls of All Ages

A Family-Friendly Tradition of Fall Fun Begins Sept. 29 With All-New Seasonal Event

ANAHEIM, Calif.- - The witching hour of midnight on Sept. 29, 2006, will mark the beginning of Disney’s HalloweenTime, an all-new seasonal event at the Disneyland Resort with whimsical décor, costumed Disney Characters, and interactive Halloween activities the whole family will find frightfully fun. Continuing through Oct. 31, the first-ever event will allow guests to enter a family-friendly world of Halloween delights.
“Disney’s HalloweenTime will be a wonderful opportunity for families to come together and enjoy the make-believe aspects of the holiday,” said Matt Ouimet, president of the Disneyland Resort. “We hope families will begin a new holiday tradition of celebrating Halloween with us here at the Disneyland Resort.”

The autumn motif will be immediately apparent as Guests approach Disneyland park where charming jack- o-lantern creations depicting Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy will adorn the rooftop of the Main Entrance. Upon entering the park, Guests will see the familiar imagery of the “Mickey Planter” below the Main Street Train Station transformed into a canvas of pumpkins and a masked Mickey face, featuring a skin-tone and ears created with real miniature white and orange pumpkins.

On Main Street, U.S.A. festive orange and yellow bunting will grace the quaint Victorian buildings while fall will be in full bloom in the flowerbeds and streetlamp flower boxes with a floral palette of green, purple, orange and yellow. A centerpiece of Town Square will be a 12-foot tall Mickey Mouse jack-o-lantern, complete with pumpkin ears. The carved Mickey image will greet Guests with a smile as they stroll down Main Street and will give them a playful wink as they depart while casting a warm glow at night.

The Central Plaza of Disneyland will also be specially decorated with Disney Character-inspired jack-o-lanterns surrounding the famous “Partners” statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. Additionally, the Disney Characters themselves will get into the “spirit” of the occasion, wearing their favorite Halloween costumes, while meeting and greeting Guests in Town Square and the Central Plaza.

At the Halloween Round-Up in Frontierland little ones visiting Big Thunder Ranch will have fun enjoying crafts and listening to a few tall, and possibly spooky, tales. The round-up will also feature an array of tasty treats to satisfy the most monstrous of appetites including cotton candy in Halloween colors, plus little frights can participate in some Spooky-Kookie-Cookie decorating.

As part of Disney’s HalloweenTime the popular seasonal attraction “Haunted Mansion Holiday” returns in New Orleans Square to delight guests by showing what happens when the traditions of Halloween and Christmas collide, resulting in holiday mayhem. Inspired by the innovative animated film Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, “Haunted Mansion Holiday” depicts a holiday season as taken over by Jack Skellington and his friends from Halloweentown.

Across the Disneyland Resort esplanade, Guests to Disney’s California Adventure park will instantly be immersed in the spirit of Halloween fun as they encounter the iconic 11 foot tall “CALIFORNIA” entranceway letters - - now seemingly made from giant pieces of candy corn. Once inside the park Guests will thrill to meeting an assortment of Disney Villains on the prowl while enjoying the enhanced atmosphere décor in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.

Looming 183 feet high (the tallest attraction at the Disneyland Resort) and tempting guests to leave reality behind is the Hollywood Tower Hotel, site of the terrifying, other-worldly experience that is “The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.” The park’s popular supernatural adventure, based on “a lost episode” of the classic Twilight ZoneÒ television series, will take on an even more ominous presence with enhanced décor and creepy staff (such as the hotel maid whose shift never ends!).

Disney’s HalloweenTime, a new seasonal tradition, will be presented throughout the Disneyland Resort from Sept. 29 – Oct. 31, 2006. Information about vacations at the Disneyland Resort is available at http://www.disneyland.com, by calling (877) 700-DISNEY, or by visiting local travel agents. Additional insights can be found on the Official Disneyland Resort Audio Podcast at http://www.disneyland.com/podcast or via the Disneyland Resort Video Podcast that can be accessed thru a “Disneyland” search on the iTunes Podcast Directory.

Now for my two cents..In theory, it sounds like fun. But like most things at Disney, will it live up to the hype? Only time will tell. I am going just like I went the first year they had HMHoliday. The best year IMO. But the biggest thing that makes me laugh about the whole deal is that they dressed up VMK just like that for last Halloween. If it even comes out a smidgen close to that, I will be impressed.

[pixiedust]

I am really surprised by this.. and happy too. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I could see Disney not hyping the holiday up because of the criticisms they will recieve from the part of the religious community who thinks that all things Halloween related are devil related as well. It was this mindset that made elementary school on halloween suck for the rest of us (cause we could no longer dress up), so this kinda makes me happy, regardless of the fact that I am in my 20's now.

:piratefla

[PirateJohn]

I worked in Entertainment Art during the final Halloween Treat held in Disneyland in 1997. After Halloween night, I was there in the wee hours of the morning cleaning up the hundreds upon hundreds of pumpkins we had set up weeks before.

We were cleaning up pumpkins near the Photo Supply Co. and had borrowed a stakebed truck from maintenance to toss the pumpkins. Only problem was that the pumpkins weighed about twenty pounds each, so we couldn't toss them farther than a few feet from the edge, so the back of the truck quickly filled and there was a lot of empty space toward the front of the bed.

"I'll handle this," one of the maintenance guys said at about 3 am as we were all standing around trying to figure out a way of cleaning up the rest of the pumpkins. The guy hopped in the truck and backed it up all the way to the flagpole.

VROOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!

He ended up gunning the engine and sped up Main Street, probably getting up to 25 mph.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!

He slammed on the brakes, left a nice tire track in the middle of Main Street, and all the pumpkins got thrown to the front of the bed. He then drove the truck back to the cove next to Photo Supply and we finished filling it up with pumpkins.

[LittleDollClaudia]

Hey, is that a Smashing Pumpkins joke?? :p:
Actually, that sounds like a great time..I want to volunteer for the clean-up crew this year!!

[techie-13]

My parents are heading down there with my niece and nephews for this. Mom's excited about it. They'll be down there around Oct. 22nd.

Wish I was going!