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Mickey's Very Very Scary Halloween Party

Disneyland Resort Paris (“DLRP�?) has attempted to follow Walt Disney World’s (“WDW�?) successful lead in the ticketed theme park party market. For years, WDW has packed in guests, paying an additional fee to play out-of-hours for various seasons, predominantly Halloween and Christmas. DLRP has tinkered with its offerings for several years. Some failed to ignite the imagination or enthusiasm of guests, such as the Chinese New Year parties at the Walt Disney Studios park in January of this year and the Carnival party that was cancelled at short notice. However, the Halloween Soirees have always been a popular draw for local guests.

For Lindsay and I, it was an interesting exercise to compare the DLRP and WDW versions of these nighttime festivities. For DLRP, it is merely an extension of their seasonal offerings. The park is already dressed appropriately with pumpkins, cobwebs and streetmosphere artists everywhere.

Disneyland park offers two ticketed parties annually, one on October 31 and the other on the previous Saturday. The event operates between 8pm and 2am, and the precision and the handling of the timing are flawless. Unlike at WDW, cast members have no time in which to prepare for the arrival of guests. The park ceases daily operations at 8pm, exactly the same time as the Soiree is due to commence. Cast members swept Halloweenland (Frontierland for the other 11 months of the year) clear of regular day visitors with military precision, as the awaiting soiree attendees were held around the giant pumpkin in Central Plaza, before being moved towards the gateway of Fort Comstock.

With a fanfare and extreme whooping from the awaiting guests, eager to experience the evening’s entertainment, the gates of the fort were pushed back, to reveal a mysterious mist with images of spiders and their webs projected onto it. Many of the cast members working the event, opted for their own variations of macabre facial decorations to enhance the experience.

Although the entire winter schedule of attractions is open for business for the evening, most of the specific entertainment is centred in Halloweenland. The Cowboy Cookout Barbeque, a huge warehouse of a dining facility features a variety of musical offerings, including a pumpkin head line dancing presentation and the spooky interpretations of classic country ‘n’ western songs for diners. Other live music and entertainment was available throughout the evening of the Spider Web Stage on the river’s edge, with the menacing silhouette of Big Thunder Mountain in the background.

Sporadically throughout the night, the park presented a light show on the banks of the Rivers of the Far West, near Phantom Manor. Using the water spray technique utilised to such great effect in the Fantasmic! Shows in the US, computer-generated movie footage of ghosts, ghouls and other appropriate images for the season were projected onto the mist, scored with chilling music. The short show builds to a crescendo, with the arrival of the Spirit, dragging the Mark Twain behind it, penetrating the fine spray. The show was entertaining, if not unusual as it was devoid of any Disney characters, although at times the images looked like clipart from Microsoft Word!

Not to be overshadowed, Discoveryland utilised the cavernous Videopolis complex to convert the land into DISCOveryland, with a live DJ and band performing “classic�? (a very loose term here) pop songs from the seventies and eighties. The place was packed most of the night, with guests dancing along in the aisles to the various cover versions on offer.

The conclusion of the evening was the Halloween fireworks, high above Sleeping Beauty Castle. Unusually, guests were prevented from standing in the roadway surrounding the western side of Central Plaza, and held back by Casey’s Corner on Main Street. As the performance was unveiled, it was clear that the fireworks were to be preceded by a parade. The arrival of a grotesque family of hags, approaching guests with a hail of indecipherable babble and aggressive gestures is followed by a procession of performers holding giant staffs, sparking into life with a rain of fireworks.

Our surprise at the style of this event was compounded by the interesting choice of music to accompany the exploding shells. DLRP opted for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth from WDW’s Epcot. The show itself was spectacular and the music appropriate in its grandeur and gravity. Although there are immense federal restrictions on fireworks, the cascades were a breathtaking spectacle, bathing Sleeping Beauty Castle in an unusual rainbow of colours.

Video
In addition to the pictures below, two QuickTime video is available: In addition, four parade videos are presented on Page 7.

• Halloween Reflections (3 minutes, 50 seconds)
• Light Show (3 minutes, 20 seconds)