General Info
Be sure to install the Disneyland App before you head to the park.
Matterhorn & Tiki Room are closed for refurbishment.
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| Spot a photopass photographer by their uniform |
Your Halloween Party ticket entitles you to photopass photographs. If you see a photopass photographer walking or standing with no line, ask if they are available to take pictures. Ask them where they’d recommend and be super awesome to them and they will take amazing pictures of your family with their great cameras and the pics will be available to download in the app usually within an hour.
Between 4 & 6pm, while the crowd is still mixed, lines will be long for everything good/fast/big. So during this time, you’ll either only be able to get on one or 2 big rides OR you can hop on smaller attractions in Fantasyland: Pinnochio’s Daring Journey, Scary Adventures of Snow White, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, King Arthur’s Carrousel, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Alice in Wonderland, Mad Tea Party, Storybook Land Canal boats.
Just open your app, zoom into Fantasyland and pick by shortest lines.
Toontown closes early because of fireworks so if this is a priority, do it before the party, between 4&6, instead of Fantasyland. In toontown you’ll find extremely long lines for character meet & greets, a bunch of playhouses to run around in, and 2 rides: Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin (which I think is overrated for the length of the line) and Gadget’s Go Coaster, which is a very short ride but cute and only worth it if the line is less than 15 minutes.
Rides During The Party
The longest line will be for Haunted Mansion, second longest will be Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy or Peter Pan.
Plan to do Haunted mansion at 8:45/9 pm, during the first parade. Once done, you can take the Disneyland Railroad from New Orleans Square to Tomorrowland (to avoid cutting across the parade/huge traffic jam) and then ride Space Mountain. OR reverse this if you’re closer to Tomorrowland just before the parade.
To do the rides in the park most effectively, try to tackle all the things in one section of the park that you’ll want to do that day before moving on to the next area. If something is closed, it’s likely temporary, so just move on to the next closest ride you want to do and check back when you’re done with that ride. Especially avoid crossing the hub (the center of the park, near the castle) more than necessary on party nights, this is where traffic builds up from parades and shows on party nights.
So this means if you start in Fantasyland before the party, then hook around behind to ride Big Thunder at 6, then keep going to Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Splash Mountain & Winnie the Pooh, you’ll be near Haunted Mansion right around 8:45 if you got some candy along the way and stopped for dinner at Zocalo or Bengal BBQ (outlined below).
Then you can do the Tomorrowland side of the park, where you’ll find Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, Star Tours, (if they’re into star wars, I also recommend checking out Star Wars Launch Bay, even though it’s not a ride, for some good meet and greets and neat star wars stuff to look at) Autopia, Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, Astro Orbiter, Finding Nemo’s Submarines
Candy
Lines for the treat trails are long at first, so don’t bother until after 7pm. Then just jump in line for the treat trails that look less busy. They give out apples and carrots and stuff too so the adults won’t starve. BE OPPORTUNISTIC here. There are treat trails all over, if you see one and it doesn’t look busy, by all means grab candy as you pass.
Food
Sitting down at a restaurant will likely take too big of a chunk out of your party time 4pm-11pm goes by VERY quickly! So stick to the quick service counter style restaurants for best food with minimum time commitments.
I recommend getting dinner from Bengal BBQ and getting an assortment of skewers and if you go here, try the Jungle Julep. It’s my favorite little slushy drink. Could do with some rum, but hey!
Quick service restaurants I recommend:
Rancho Del Zocalo: Mexican, better than you’d think
Red Rose Taverne: Has some unusual options
Hungry Bear Restaurant: If you’re looking for a burger/nuggets/mac n cheese
Bengal BBQ: Don’t miss the Jungle Julep or pork belly skewer!
I do NOT recommend Galactic Grill or Pizza Planet, they have the most unimpressive food in the park and some of it is downright bad.
Here is the Halloween Foodie guide (these things are only available until halloween)
It looks like all candy at first, keep scrolling, there’s real food, I promise. Also pay attention to where it turns into food in Disney California Adventure (DCA), the Halloween party only gets you admission into Disneyland.
Everything Else
The parade is only worth seeing if you get there an hour in advance to sit on the curb along the parade route. It's great, but don't bother from a distance. The fireworks are great, but it's tough to get a good spot where you can hear the music, see the projections on the castle/buildings of main street, so I recommend if you want to see them, catch them at Small World, where the crowd is thinner and the view is still good and there are speakers to hear the music. The Disneyland Railroad is closed for fireworks, so you'll have to hoof it, and it's pretty out of the way. Skip these if they're not as important to you as rides.
There are some excellent shows and character meet and greets that are exclusive to the party. I love seeing the Dapper Dans reanimated as the Cadaver Dans, and bumping into villains, but for this stuff I just recommend rolling with it, not planning it out. So if you see something cool, like the Dans singing on the Rivers of America, stop for a couple minutes to have a listen, then continue on. Disneyland is so much more enjoyable when you stop for the little, unexpected things like this.
