The Halloween celebration at Disneyland has officially begun! As kids are now mostly back in school, we are now entering one of the best stretches of the year to visit for lower crowds in late August and the month of September.
We were there on the first day of the Halloween celebration and will share some tips to keep in mind if you're visiting soon! Make sure to also check out our trip report and changes to Oogie Boogie Bash if you're attending the parties this year.
2025 Disneyland Halloween Tips
It's Halloween…in August! I said “happy very early Halloween!” to Mickey this past Friday when I visited, and he gave a very vigorous nod—I think he would agree it still felt very much like summer in the 95-degree Anaheim heat!
Nevertheless, the Halloween festivities are now in full swing, with special offerings across the resort. The celebration brings the return of favorite ride overlays like Haunted Mansion Holiday and Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark, hundreds of themed food items, seasonal decorations, the amazing Halloween Screams nighttime spectacular, and more. Select Disneyland 70th anniversary entertainment is also continuing, like the fan-favorite Paint the Night parade!
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Make sure you spend some time enjoying the decor and fun atmosphere in the parks. In the afternoons, you can catch the Mickey and Friends Halloween Cavalcade that takes place at 1:30 PM and 2:45 PM to see the characters all dressed up in their seasonal outfits! They also have a procession down Main Street with the Disneyland Band in the afternoons.
The Halloween fun extends beyond the parks as well! The trees of Downtown Disney are lit up in beautiful red and purple hues with shimmering lights for Halloween, and the fun Pluto's Pumpkin Pursuit scavenger hunt includes this area as well. At the Disneyland Resort Hotels, you'll find seasonal character dining and an impressive confectionery display highlighting Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas in the lobby of Disney's Grand Californian.
Right now is a great time to visit for the Halloween celebration, so let's dive into some tips based on our recent trip!
Crowds Are Low, But Temperatures Are Hot!
There is no denying that right now, the weather at Disneyland is very hot. It was in the 90s when we were at the parks on Friday. That being said, I suspect the heat was a big reason why crowds were much lower than what we anticipated that day.
Lines usually tend to be shorter during the kickoff of big celebrations, as crowds come to experience the special offerings rather than ride attractions, but we generally noticed that the parks were not packed at all on Friday. We walked onto a few rides, including Rise of the Resistance and Space Mountain. We even spotted Indiana Jones Adventure and Peter Pan's Flight with 20-minute wait times during the day.
If you can brave the heat, this should be a good week to visit for lower crowds and shorter wait times. See crowd ratings each day of the year in our Mickey Visit Disneyland crowd calendar here. There are a good handful of what Disney categorizes as Tier 0 days in its 1-day date-based ticket pricing structure in late August and early September. Right now, there are four Tier 0 days left in August (including today) and eight coming up in September. Today, which is a Tier 0 day, Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lane Single Pass costs $15 per person! This is significantly cheaper than what it usually is (usually $28 per person).
Have a Backup Plan for the Heat
Make sure you have a backup plan for when temperatures peak. You can check out the new show at the Main Street Opera House featuring the first-ever Walt Disney animatronic, grab a Dole Whip and enjoy the Tiki Room, cool off on a water ride, or plan a table-service dining reservation to escape the heat.
It's a good idea to grab your Mickey pumpkin picture in the morning so that you aren't melting in the heat while waiting in the (consistently long) line. In general, it's important to take advantage of the mornings to ride popular attractions before the lines get longer and the temperatures start to rise. See our Disneyland morning strategy and Disney California Adventure morning strategy.
New Gingerbread House in Haunted Mansion Holiday!
Every year, the Haunted Mansion gets a new theme for the gingerbread house in the ballroom scene! This year's theme pays homage to the raven.
We love seeing the new gingerbread houses each year! The teams at Disneyland put tons of work into creating these and bringing them to life. This is the description of this year's gingerbread house, according to Disney.
“This year’s gingerbread house pays homage to the raven in “A Murder So Fowl: A HMH Gingerbread House.” The raven is the Haunted Mansion guide that goes on holiday when Haunted Mansion Holiday opens. The 13-foot-tall structure resembling a house decorated for the holidays hosts a whole murder of black crows with piercing red eyes that glow. At least 13 are on the table at any moment, their eyes ominously watching as guests pass by the ballroom. Four crows flick and move from their perches and on the tower while one attempts to redecorate the Christmas lights on the house – to his electrified chagrin.”
Oogie Boogie Figure in Haunted Mansion Holiday Improved
This year, the Oogie Boogie figure at the end of Haunted Mansion Holiday has gotten some improvements! We're not sure if this is an entirely new figure or an improvement to the existing figure, but you can definitely see a big difference in the fluidity of the head and arm movements. We think the improvements look great!
See our Instagram video below for a comparison of the figure before and after the changes.
View this post on Instagram
Plan Ahead to See Characters
Make sure you plan ahead if you want to get a picture of characters in their new Halloween outfits! This year, the characters have outfits that are a Halloween twist on their 70th anniversary looks.
Big crowds of people will start congregating around the Cast Member entrance/exit to the east of Town Square ahead of the posted character meeting times, especially for Mickey and Minnie. We ducked into Disney Showcase for a bit of AC while we were keeping an eye on the area. You can see meeting times for characters listed on the Disneyland app.
Also, Jack Skellington is meeting in New Orleans Square during the Halloween celebration with his revamped look! His costume has been redesigned so that his head is now more accurate to how it appears in the films. This is a popular meet-and-greet because he and Sally are only out seasonally, so be prepared to wait a bit, as the line for the meet-and-greet will be consistently long.
Mobile Order Halloween Foods (and Use Modify Feature)
The majority of the limited-time 2025 Disneyland Halloween foods are quick-service and available via mobile ordering. We recommend placing your mobile order as early in the day as possible so you don't get stuck with a later-than-desired pickup time. However, even if you do, you can modify your pickup window in a similar way that you would if you're trying to get a better Lightning Lane window.
During our visit on Friday, I mobile ordered something at Jolly Holiday, which had a pickup window of around 90 minutes from my ordering time. My party said that this was too long to wait for lunch, and within 30 seconds, I got us a near-immediate pickup window. Once you place your order through the app, just select the “change arrival window” option and select a new time slot. You may need to back out and re-search a couple of times, but there's a good chance you'll find a better time.
Reminder – Some of the Foods and Novelties Aren't Available Yet!
Make sure you look at all of the new Halloween foods ahead of time so that you don't miss anything you want to try! You can access a free PDF printable of all of the foods in our 2025 Disneyland Halloween foods guide. Keep in mind that some of the foods and novelties are not available yet as of right now. Disneyland is spreading out some of these new items to debut in September and October. This is just something to keep in mind, as I went to order something and then realized it hadn't been released yet!
We did not see super long lines for the new Stitch Halloween popcorn bucket anywhere. Unlike the Death Star Bucket during Season of the Force earlier this year, which had crazy lines due to the limited locations where you could get it, the Stitch Mummy Bucket is available at significantly more locations across the resort. You can see them all and where to get the other Halloween novelties in our guide here.
Remember That You Can Book Lightning Lane for Guardians of the Galaxy Twice During Halloween!
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout gets a special overlay during the Halloween celebration. The overlay itself is a lot of fun, but another great perk about it is that you can book Lightning Lane return times for this attraction twice in one day—once for the regular version of the ride and once for Monsters After Dark!
However, you'll need to plan if you do this. This is already a very popular attraction for Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and even more so during the Halloween celebration. Lightning Lanes fill up quickly for Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout, as it only runs until 2pm each day. Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark runs from 3pm until park closing.
Please be mindful that this overlay may be too much for young kids. It's definitely a very different vibe than the regular version of the ride, which can already be overwhelming for many. We talk about this more in our separate article here.
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