Disneyland Resort Update: 2021 Halloween Time (Disneyland Edition)
Disneyland Park, Anaheim, CA
Today, after looking at Downtown Disney and Disney California Adventure, we finish off our focus on Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort by looking at the decorations and ambiance at Disneyland Park, the park that started it all—including the spooky decorating season! Not much has changed this year from past years, but given the pandemic last year, it’s still good to once again see familiar autumn sights and furnishings. The park really decorates in Halloween in three primary locations—Main Street, Frontierland, and of course the beloved Haunted Mansion Holiday layover. Lets take a photographic tour through these attractions to savor the fall ambiance at Walt Disney’s original Magic Kingdom!
Main Street, U.S.A.
The heart of the Halloween ambiance at Disneyland takes place as guests enter the park and continues all the way up to The Hub. Main Street, U.S.A. is full of fall colors, and it really sets the tone for the October vibes. This year, with Coronavirus challenges still in mind, the Disneyland Railroad Main Street Station is a character photo op spot, with favorite Disney characters and villains on the steps and tiers of the station posing, playing around, or being silly. It’s a great format that allows more people to get photos of the characters without having to wait in long lines, and it affords a level of social distancing between guests and characters.
The rest of Main Street looks largely the same as most years, from the Mickey Mouse giant pumpkin in Town Square to the Partners Statue surrounded by Disney character jack-o-lanterns, plus all the gourds along the Main Street facades. It’s all just very nice and pleasant!
Frontierland
There is a variety of ways that Frontierland celebrates Halloween. The Halloween Tree, after the cherished Ray Bradbury short story, is once again back across from the shooting gallery. Over at Rancho del Zocalo, the Día de los Muertos display is back up, though only one one side, interestingly enough. Although the same components are present—the band, the ofrendas, and the towering sugar skull—their arrangement is a little bit different. In addition, Rancho del Zocalo continues some of the Día de los Muertos festive decorations into the arcaded walkway to Fantasy Faire.
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Finally, we have the Haunted Mansion Holiday, which is celebrating its 20th year of overlaying the Haunted for a third of the year. There are no new additions to Jack Skellington’s “wrecking of the halls” this year specifically, though the Mansion itself has been spruced up during the pandemic closure and is more visually vibrant than before. There’s also a few additions to the pet cemetery outside and a return of a classic changing portrait, April to December, in the queue.
Of course, every year, the giant gingerbread house in the ballroom scene changes, and this year’s 20 year anniversary structure is literally a mishmash of previous gingerbread houses Frankensteined together. It’s also the tallest gingerbread house in the Haunted Mansion Holiday yet!
That concludes our photographic tour through Disneyland during Halloween Time today. If there’s an opening in the updates later this seasons, I’ll post some nighttime shots from the resort as an eye candy photo essay, but from here, we shift from the Not So Scary to the horror, as we start to tackle the haunts in earnest. Halloween Horror Nights is up first, so stay tuned for that.
Lastly, today also marks the 20th anniversary of the shocking and tragic 9/11 attacks that fundamentally changed this country. On the topical end of things related to the content of this site, that was the last time that Disneyland was closed, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic. I certainly remember the emotional rawness and pain of that day.
Unfortunately, the aftermath of 9/11 and this country’s longer term reactions and actions has become politically charged—even more so over the past decade of increasing partisan vitriol. But I think we can agree on a couple of things: 1) terrorists suck, and extremists who think that harming innocent lives for their cause are abhorrent, and 2) the brief united spirit of all Americans in the immediate shadow of the tragedy, coming together in the wake of grief and loss, is a state that most of us probably wish we could move back to, or at least toward (though Americans who were or looked Middle Eastern, the fallout from the attacks was less harmonious).
These days, thanks to the way politics has seeped through popular media, social media, and everyday culture, it does seem like this country is more divided than ever. While this site is not the forum to debate who’s justified or why, I do think that the important sentiment of the day is not just about the solemn recognition of loss—which is definitely important—but also about the resilience of America as we all collectively recovered in the aftermath by supporting each other, recognizing commonality in each other. Westcoaster is a silly site about theme parks and haunts and various other assorted attractions—things that don’t carry the weight of significance compared to other serious issues in life—but they are things that attract people and fans from a diverse background and a wide variety of leanings and opinions. We’re all brought together by a common love for the escapism and fantasy entertainment that such drives our passion for things like Disney and Halloween and related fandom. And recognizing the what we share would be a good exercise to honor the spirit of this infamous date in American history, a date that saw such sudden and violent loss, but also heroic sacrifice, service, aid, and compassion for fellow human beings.
Let us never forget—not just the tragedy, but also the inherent humanity in each other.
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
