Recently, my wife, Sophie, and I took a mini-vacation to the Disneyland Paris Resort to experience their version of Halloween. What follows is our photos and thoughts to help you decide whether or not you may wish to do the same. Hopefully, it will entertain and illuminate, even if you won’t be taking a trip across the Pond anytime soon.
First, a bit of background. My wife and I live in both Florida and Germany and visit the Disney and Universal parks quite regularly. As a matter of fact, I have visited every Disney resort globally, while my better half is only missing Hong Kong. Both of us have had Annual Passes to DLP for many years but somehow had never visited during the spookiest of seasons. We decided that needed to change this summer and we booked a four-day visit for mid-October.
The most important thing to note is that Halloween isn’t as big a deal in Europe as it is in the USA. Indeed, theme parks and merchandising are pushing the holiday to new heights every year. Unlike Walt Disney World or Disneyland, which basically charge you an ever-increasing amount of money for upcharge parties annually (am I the only one who recalls $19 AP Halloween Party tickets when the event was in DCA in 2007 or 2008?), DLP does not. Everything that is Halloween-related is included with daily admission. There is one upcharge party that occurs on, appropriately enough, Halloween night from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. at Parc Disneyland (that’s the Magic Kingdom-style park). That’s it. That event features things like a stage show based on Big Hero 6 and, no, I am not making this up, a disco party thrown by the Evil Emperor Zurg.
Also, unlike WDW, which has now moved Halloween parties to the middle of August when the heat index regularly approaches 110 degrees — they’ll likely start in July soon! — there doesn’t appear to be any changes to this one-night event in the near future based upon recently released 2019-20 DLP travel planning materials.
Le Festival Halloween runs at DLP from October 1-November 4.
OK, enough of the dry stuff.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”158″]The first thing to note is this is a one park celebration. There is nothing remotely horrific happening at the Walt Disney Studios Paris park, although DLers who miss the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror can ride the exact same version that existed in Anaheim from 2004 until last year when a foul-mouthed raccoon with a big gun and his pals moved in.
The biggest and best part of Halloween at DLP is Mickey’s Halloween Celebration, which has two (both in the early afternoon) performances daily. It is listed as a parade, but that isn’t exactly a good description. The Boo To You Parade at WDW’s Magic Kingdom likely has close to triple the floats. No, this is more of a street party with four beautifully designed floats and an earworm of a soundtrack that you can’t get out of your head, even long after you have left the pixie dust behind. Vive La Vie it is called. And it’s all about having ‘fun in the fall’ … indeed, the celebration is a combination of Halloween and the harvest season, something long gone in the USA as we move from Halloween to Christmas with barely any time to digest the turkey and yams.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”161″]From the start of the pre-calvacade music of “Shine on Harvest Moon,” you clearly are celebrating the entire fall season, including — but not limited — to Halloween. As an aside, I would so like to own this music and DLP has a great history of putting out CDs of music from pretty much any and every special event. Not this one, though. I am not sure if this is due to the Walt Disney Company now owning the resort outright (they didn’t before, but that’s a long complicated and convoluted story) and seeking to standardize merchandise. But they are missing the boat on this one.
The four floats are beautiful and the costuming, especially the skeleton men at the end and the ghost/phantom dancers, are top rate.
The final float, a new addition, that showcases the park’s Phantom Manor — DLP’s very western take on the Haunted Mansion — is a thing of beauty and has Mickey create a bit of magic as he changes costumes on the float three times with a little help from some smoke.
An important note here, Phantom Manor is in the midst of its biggest refurb since the park opened in 1992. Included in this will be new effects and scenes and the return of horror icon Vincent Price’s original narration in English that was used when the park opened but dropped quickly after. It was originally scheduled to reopen this fall and one could surmise the float, which also features the Phantom and his bride, was synergistically designed with that in mind. But, as tends to happen with Parisian projects (or just Disney ones), Phantom Manor’s redo was more intensive than originally expected and it won’t reopen until February of 2019.
After traveling some of the park’s parade route, the event stops in the Hub where four stages are set up. The event then turns into a bit of a dance party/show stop to celebrate … Mickey’s 90th Birthday. Does it make sense? Not really. Is it fun? Yes. So you just go with it.
This is the big event of Halloween at DLP. We were there for parts of four days and saw it four times. It is addictive as many of the YouTube videos will attest.
The other heavily marketed part of the celebration is a Villains show at the Castle Stage that is, appropriately enough, called “It’s Good to Be Bad”, which is kind of my mantra in life anyway. We were there on weekdays, which meant five performances daily. I had seen a fair amount of talk about how wonderful this event was on the Disney Twitter before visiting and from American bloggers looking for free invitations to cupcake parties. Unlike the parade, this was not a hit to us … well, beyond seeing Donald Duck in drag. But we’ll get to that.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”159″]Calling this a show really is not proper nomenclature. The thing lasts all of about eight minutes. Really.
There are two different versions. One that has the world’s greatest Duck on stage dressed as Maleficent. He really does pull it off. The other does not. And, no, the show schedule doesn’t tell you what version you are going to get. As near as I can tell is if Cruella de Vill opens the show, you’ll set the Duck in Drag. If the Evil Queen from Snow White opens the show, no duck for you.
I can detect, even after going and watching videos online, no discernible storyline. It’s largely a handful of Disney baddies, including (depending on what version you get) Captain Hook, Jafar, Dr, Facillier, Gaston, Cinderella’s evil step mommy and sisters, the Queen of Hearts and Judge Frollo coming out on stage to dance around and tout why it is, indeed, good to be bad. The fountains in the castle waterways that are used for the nighttime Illuminations spectacular are used in this show as well, but not to any great lengths. At the end of the dance-off, the baddies come down off the stage and it turns into a meet and greet.
If you notice far fewer pictures of this, that’s because we had very little interest in repeating this. If you are a 37-year-old single dude from Artesia (or Apopka) who has to meet his characters and get his picture taken with them, then this will be paradise for you.
Speaking of character meets, DLP has ‘special’ meets for the season, including Goofy and his amazing candy machine on Main Street, Devil Donald also on Main Street, the Cheshire Cat in Fantasyland (I have no idea why this is special, but it is), Jack Skellington in Frontierland in a new location near Phantom Manor, Jose Carioca and Panchito in Frontierland near Fuente Del Oro and Maleficent behind the castle amongst others.
We are the type of fans, of adults, who enjoy the characters for what they are but wouldn’t get into a line to get a picture with them.
The decorations in the park, which for years (excepting last year when they went missing as DLP celebrated its 25th Anniversary) were largely orange (naturally) Pumpkin Men that some fans found a bit … uh … ah … weird, got a huge upgrade in 2018. Garlands just like the ones that hang across various Main Streets during the Christmas season have been added. Only this time they include pumpkins and lanterns and fall colours and look spectacular. In an era where much of what Disney does often looks cheap, you can tell that a good deal of money went into creating this perfect fall mood.
And while Disneyland has had Halloween decorations extend into other lands of the park, WDW’s Magic Kingdom has basically had Halloween end at the Castle and the same decorations that have been around since about 2004 or 2005. In Paris, Halloween extends fully into Frontierland with the Pumpkin Men back and, in addition, a whole area full of decor celebrating the Disney-Pixar smash, Coco, and the Day of the Dead celebration that inspired the film. The area, which also sees a Miguel puppet show and Mickey and Minnie dressed for Halloween in Mariachi costumes, is amazing during the day and absolutely magical at night when the lights turn on. Unfortunately, it doesn’t photograph terrifically at night when you are using an iPhone.
Halloween isn’t really celebrated in the other lands beyond a few Pirate-themed pumpkins in Adventureland outside, appropriately enough, Pirates of the Caribbean. And Maleficent’s meet and greet in the castle courtyard of Fantasyland with brambles that resemble her dragon form. This is cooler looking than it has any right to be.
DLP is slowly realizing that seasonal food and beverages sell big to many fans, so Halloween treats aplenty abound. But many of them from Day of the Dead cookies to Blood Orange Fanta didn’t excite us. Still, it’s nice to see them trying and expanding offerings. Indeed, when we were lunching at the Silver Spur Steakhouse, absolutely one of the best dining experiences at DLP, a special Halloween menu had been created.
Merchandise is a bit weak. Many of the designs, except for the Coco-inspired stuff, appear to be designs that have been used before. I couldn’t say where or when. But it isn’t unusual for merchandise that appears in say Tokyo Disneyland one year to find its way to DL or WDW two or three years later and then it moves on and so on and so on. I did like the Devil Donald plush quite a bit, but not enough to purchase it.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”157″]I really wish they had themed merchandise to their event. Whether it would have been tees, mugs, prints, postcards, pins, plush etc., we would have bought it. I suspect it would sell by the truckloads, but the focus is largely on generic Disney Halloween designs. Hopefully, that will change going forward.
Overall, we had a great time. Above normal weather (that’s why they call it global warming) helped. Our first day in the parks it was about 80 degrees and remained in the 70s the rest of the week with brilliant sunshine. Crowds were noticeable higher than our last visit in January, but that was expected. School holidays were going on in multiple countries, including Spain and Switzerland, I believe. And France has them later in October. Not having Phantom Manor open was a downer after the spectacular refurbishments that major attractions like Pirates, Small World and Big Thunder Mountain have gotten over the past three years. But we will be back for it.
If you are looking for a horror filled Halloween, DLP isn’t going to do it. Only HKDL comes close to the type of more adult experience that you can get at Universal’s parks or Knott’s. But if you are looking for a fantastic celebration of fall — and Halloween — with no upcharge parties and manageable crowds, all just 35 minutes from the Eiffel Tower and one of the world’s most amazing cities, this is the place to go.
Oh, and here’s a secret: you can get free candy here too! No trick or treating, or paying an extra $100-plus, like at the Anaheim and Orlando parties, but most of the meet and greets offer Haribo treats after you meet the characters.
I would expect DLP’s Halloween season to only get better in the years ahead.
