News / Disney’s Halloween Festival

Deadly thorns and an enormous, tangled briar patch are now occupying the usually peaceful Castle Courtyard in Fantasyland, as the Maleficent’s Court transformation sees its Halloween opening. Read More…

Mickey’s Halloween Celebration, Maleficent’s Court and the Maleficent Disney Villains Promenade are all on the latest official Disneyland Park Programme, published today for the first ten days of Disney’s Halloween Festival in 2014. Read More…

Main Street, U.S.A. and Frontierland have begun their transformation by ghosts and pumpkins respectively, ahead of Disney’s Halloween Festival beginning in just ten days.

Decorations arriving in the two Disneyland Park lands look broadly similar to recent years, following the festival’s gradual reinvention from 2010 onwards.

Today’s latest photos by InsideDLParis show the ghosts introduced to Main Street in 2012 returning with modest changes. Unlike the Pumpkinmen, who from 2003 painted the street orange with complete disregard for its storyline, one of the best things about the popular ghosts is that they reference numerous Main Street locations — including the Dr Bitz Dental School on Town Square, below.

Plenty of banners and “funky pumpkins” are already present, too.

Over in Frontierland, the Pumpkinmen actually had a slight reprieve, returning as “Harvest Festival” decorations alongside sunflower bunting and softer autumn colours. Their slightly menacing, jagged grins these days replaced by softer smiles, their context here is much more fitting than Main Street, even if the way some are bolted to the ground on large visible plates still seems a little “un-Disney”.

A minor revision in Frontierland sees the banners changed from orange and yellow to orange and black, as in Main Street.

One bigger change for 2014 is the scene on Royal Castle Stage. Previously briefly home to Mickey’s Halloween Treat in the Street show, now superseded by Mickey’s Halloween Celebration parade, the unused Le Théâtre du Château has lost its giant Mickey Mouse-shaped pumpkin, replaced by a smaller sunflower centrepiece.

The green vines entwining its towers have also yet to return, so it looks likely, without any show to present, that the stage overlay will now remain more low-key.

The introduction of a more “Harvest” style of spookiness is perhaps in line with rumours that Disneyland Paris will look to extend the Halloween season in coming years, perhaps having it begin earlier in September. Helping to spread the popularity of the season into an otherwise empty month, this would also support plans to invest more in new and better annual seasons, such as Swing into Spring, in favour of tiresome year-long “non-festivals” such as 2011’s Disney Magical Moments Festival.

PHOTOS @InsideDLParis (Twitter)

Mickey’s Halloween Celebration will receive its third new, original float for the upcoming Disney’s Halloween Festival at Disneyland Paris. The daily cavalcade is to be expanded for 2014 with “Raise the Rafters!”, a float featuring the Three Little Pigs, Clarabelle and Horace Horsecollar, pictured above for the first time in official concept art.

Those rare characters will stand amongst a spooky purple barnyard, entangled in the branches of trees with crows overhead and colourful mushrooms amongst the pumpkins on the floor of autumnal leaves. This final concept art was released by D23 in a recent feature on the season.

• Previously — Maleficent’s “Gang” of Disney villains launch Halloween marketing – watch the video

• More — Discover the DLP Guide to Disney’s Halloween Festival

Joining the two dedicated Halloween floats introduced for the event’s debut last year, “Raise the Rafters!” will expand the Harvest-themed mini-parade, due to be performed three times daily and featuring up to 60 performers. Certainly a step-change for Halloween celebrations at Disneyland Paris, which previously only featured Halloween as an adjunct the main daily parade on a temporary seasonal float.

Last year’s floats were reportedly built from the bones of former Disney’s Fantillusion floats, so we can likely assume that a carcass from the thoroughly defunct nighttime parade has been recycled again — any guesses which one?

Original theme song “Vive La Vie” will return after a popular debut in 2013, as will Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Clarice, Uncle Scrooge, Donald and all three of his nephews, while Daisy will be promoted to lead the parade as “Miss Harvest 2014”.

Watch the 2013 edition of Mickey’s Halloween Celebration below Read More…

Disneyland Paris has officially announced its entertainment line-up for the 2014 season of Disney’s Halloween Festival, looking set to be one of the most impressive yet. Building on a full-scale reinvention of the festival over the past few years, it adds a timely Maleficent touch to the growing list of popular, and properly “Disney”, entertainments.

New additions for 2014 therefore include Maleficent’s Court, a villainous transformation of the Castle Courtyard behind Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant in Fantasyland, along with The Maleficent Disney Villains Promenade, a chance to meet the villains in person on Central Plaza.

Successful new features from previous years will also return, such as Mickey’s Halloween Celebration parade (with, at long last, its own unique floats) and the ghosts of Main Street, U.S.A., which were introduced in 2012 to much delight from fans who had long requested a more professional, more “Disney” seasonal overlay of the land than the unpopular former Pumpkin Men (now living on in Frontierland’s harvest overlay).

This gradual and continued annual investment in the festival has grown it into an incredibly strong asset for Disneyland Paris. Flitting between numerous ideas and concepts since its launch in the late 1990s, so many poorly considered and ill-fitting for a Disney park, the festival has nevertheless remained a popular time of year for visitors. Now, with the right vision and a good foundation of annual investment, it feels like it finally belongs — and lives up to expectation.

Here’s the Disney’s Halloween Festival 2014 press release in full:

Disneyland Paris is the place to be to meet
during Disney’s Halloween Festival 2014
the gang of Disney Villains

From 1 October to 2 November 2014, Disneyland Paris is the place to be to meet the Halloween gang of Disney Villains. Every day, Maleficent will bring together the Disney Villains in a cheerfully ominous atmosphere, promising Disneyland Paris guests encounters to die (laughing) for. The Sleeping Beauty Castle Courtyard will be transformed to welcome the good Disney Villains who will take mischievous pleasure in taking over Disney’s Halloween Festival.

And that’s not all! During this delightfully frightening month, ghosts and “Disney’s Funky Pumpkins*” will take possession of Main Street, U.S.A., astonishing pumpkins will take over the flowerbeds in Central Plaza and Frontierland will be transformed into an autumn garden, where sunflowers and pumpkins will take centre stage. Finally, Mickey and friends will offer guests a special Harvest festival-themed cavalcade, not far from Minnie’s Halloween Costume Corner or the incredible candy-making machine invented by greedy Goofy, all designed to ensure Disney’s Halloween Festival is a laugh a minute!

NEW: The Maleficent Disney Villains Promenade

With Maleficent in the leading position, the Disney Villains will be the unmissable stars of Disney’s Halloween Festival.

The Maleficent Disney Villains Promenade

Every day, the Disney Villains will be happy to have their photos taken with guests to immortalize this fearsomely funny occasion forevermore. Together with Maleficent, the Disney Villains will parade around Central Plaza to welcome

NEW: Maleficent’s Court

In the Sleeping Beauty Castle Courtyard, Maleficent and her accomplices will create an unmissable spectacle, which will be the place to be seen!

Maleficent’s Court

This year, Maleficent will cast a spell on the Sleeping Beauty Castle and the Disneyland Park and will invite some of the Disney Villains to join her in the Castle Courtyard. Maleficent, surrounded by her friends, the Disney Villains, will take over the place — it has now been invaded by imposing brambles, which guests will be able to pose in front of, next to the Disney Villains.

That is how huge brambles mysteriously appear in the Castle Courtyard. Shaped like the famous horns of Maleficent herself, these brambles form the outline of an imposing dragon. As night falls, the bramble will take on a more disquieting look, immersing guests in a universe of bright, unsettling colours.

Mickey’s Halloween Celebration

To celebrate Halloween and to provide guests with a unique party, Mickey and friends will offer guests a cavalcade specially dedicated to the Harvest festival, and have naturally been inspired by the autumn and Harvest theme.

Several times a day, Mickey and friends will parade in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle and along Main Street, U.S.A., surrounded by dancers wearing autumn colours.

This year, the lovely Daisy will open the cavalcade. The Three Little Pigs and Horace will join Mickey’s Halloween Celebration on their brand new float “Raise the Rafters!”. Surrounded by owls, black cats, spiders and bats, the Three Little Pigs, Horace and Clarabelle will dance to country music in front of their farm. A tree and an enchanted mushroom will come to life as if by magic.

As for the Disney Characters, they will be showing off their most stunning seasonal costumes. Donald will explore the wonders of autumn in a world made of straw and pumpkins, together with his inseparable nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. Meanwhile, Uncle Scrooge will bring up the rear, determined to keep determined to keep careful watch over a strange pumpkin that appears to be worth its weight in gold…

Mickey and Minnie pay homage to the Harvest season from their huge horn of plenty, filled with autumn leaves, fruits and pumpkins. Behind them, Chip and Dale, accompanied by the charming Clarice, have taken advantage of the Harvest to steal and hoard as many hazelnuts as they can lay their hands on!

Ghosts invade Disneyland Park

They thought they could keep a low profile throughout Halloween month, but guests will only be able to unmask them and immortalise them in a photo!

The ghosts of the former residents of Main Street, U.S.A. will use Halloween as the perfect opportunity to make their grand appearance. Delighted to be able to make an appearance during Disney’s Halloween Festival, they will take over Main Street, U.S.A., trying to blend into the scenery. The Park’s apprentice ghost hunters will be invited to unmask them, armed with their cameras.

Hilarious encounters with Disney Characters

The Disney characters get dressed up to the nines to welcome guests in a vibrant and colourful Halloween atmosphere for those special photo opportunities with guests.

Halloween Costume Corner

Passionate about sewing and fashion, Minnie will invite guests to discover her amazing sewing workshop, specially created for Halloween. An extravagant, colourful world where everyone is encouraged to let their imagination run wild. Minnie, in her fabulous Halloween-inspired dress will no doubt jump at the opportunity to pose with her admirers.

Goofy Bonbons

Halloween would not be the same without bonbons and spells. For that reason, Goofy has designed and created a truly amazing candy-making machine to dazzle those with a sweet tooth, young and old! Fans of bonbons and Goofy will not miss the opportunity to stop in front of this astonishing machine. Goofy might even join them to make sure everything is in good working order. A moment to treasure and a chance for everyone to persuade him to share his confectionery secrets!

Jack and Sally’s Cemetery (from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas © Disney)

The famous couple created by Tim Burton will be at Disneyland Paris during Halloween for a mortally enchanting encounter. The set recreates the universe of the film The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Jack and Sally in person will welcome those who will be courageous enough to meet them. A reproduction inspired by the universe of Tim Burton, Jack and Sally’s Cemetery is a unique place.

NEW: Disney PhotoPass+

The perfect opportunity to capture your best moments with the Disney Villains.

Disney PhotoPass+ allows guests to collect all their souvenir photos taken on rides or with Disney Characters by Park photographers at photo locations in high definition in a virtual portfolio.

The photos are also available on a dedicated website (www.disneyphotopass.eu) and on a mobile app that enables guests to download them, share them on social networks and even purchase personalised photo products (photo albums, mugs, calendars etc.). Disney’s Halloween Festival will therefore be the ideal time to capture the best poses next to the Disney Villains.

Disney’s Halloween Party: the grand finale on 31 October!

Guaranteed screams, even for the bravest guests. The most magical Halloween night will take place at Disneyland Paris!

The now famous Disney’s Halloween Party** will be held on 31 October 2014 in Disneyland Park. A unique experience to share with family or friends from 8.30 pm to 1 am.

Disneyland Park will reopen its doors after dark and guests will see it as they have never seen it before — in a more mysterious atmosphere than ever, with unexpected animations, terrifyingly delicious surprises and a “hellish” atmosphere. The moon will bring out the ghosts, Disney Villains and other creatures for the party, who are all ready to play their tricks around the most mysterious of places. After enjoying the many attractions Disneyland Park has to offer, guests will be able to immerse themselves in the magical extravaganza of the Disney Dreams®! night-time show.

Thrilling rides

Hair-raising, high-speed sensations!

Halloween will be the perfect occasion to test guests’ vocal chords on rides that will make them tremble with fear! With The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster with Aerosmith, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Crush’s Coaster and Space Mountain: Mission 2, Disneyland Paris will be the place to be to test the limits of the most overwhelming fears.

The Disney Villains have chosen the right occasion for their largest gathering — Disney’s Halloween Festival 2014 has become autumn’s unmissable event.

In an atmosphere where laughter mingles with spells cast by Maleficent, guests will find themselves immersed in a strange, delightful world that only Disneyland Paris knows how to create. To celebrate Halloween and the Harvest season with Mickey and friends, come to Disneyland Paris from 1 October to 2 November 2014.

• Deal — Plan your Halloween visit now with up to 30% off last minute bookings
• More — Check October opening hours and more on the DLP Guide calendar

Welcome to turn of the 20th Century America! At least, that’s what Main Street Station was designed to say. In practice, it has suffered an innumerable series of seasonal overlays over the years that often do little to embellish its period style. The latest, for Swing into Spring, was completed this week ahead of the new season’s launch on 5th April.

Production quality looks surprisingly good for a fledgling season — the main “Swing into Spring” marquee is big but thankfully well-designed, compared to previous efforts. The way the typeface springs out of the oversized daisy is quite classy, the character illustrations are a welcome “Disney” touch, the flowers (albeit fake) give a feeling of life. From a distance it looks like a fantastic, bright, fresh welcome into Disneyland Park for Spring. Great job!

It’s just a shame it’s all over Main Street Station. After the 20th Anniversary overlay, Halloween, Christmas, and many more in the years before, you almost need to remind yourself what this landmark is supposed to look like. So here we go:

Now where do you begin? Let’s start with the windows. The four stained glass windows of the original station are beautiful and should simply never, ever be covered over. Definitely not with flat yellow backgrounds for 2D cut-out Disney characters.

Then there are the 20th Anniversary leftovers. The two plasticy gold garlands along the top of the façade, the three golden arches above the walkways and the four circular castle motifs are all still in place two years later. The thinking could be they’re yellow (ish) and vaguely fit the colour scheme, the reality is that they cheapen a building which, along with the stunning Disneyland Hotel, was designed to instantly tell guests they’re not in any old tacky theme park.

Also part of that overlay was the black “Disneyland Paris” sign. It seemed fitting for the 20th Anniversary, but isn’t it about time the old “Main Street Station”, with its higher quality embossed gold letters and warm red background returned?

After all that, the flowers and even the logo are rather inoffensive. Indeed, imagine how good the station could have looked if it was simply “plussed” with a colourful floral overlay, not just treated like a blank canvas — as if there’s nothing of quality there to actually work with and the only option was for the designer to cover it with their own, bright yellow, canvas.

It’s been easy to shrug off the Halloween and Christmas overlays in the past because, besides the fact they’re well-established holidays, they’re only there for one and two months respectively, giving us nine more months to see the park entrance as it should be seen.

Swing into Spring will last for a record three months. If it returns with the same decorations next year (spending on these seems to suggest it will), that means only six months to see the station untouched: January to March and July to September. That’s provided they ever take the 20th Anniversary elements down. The situation is similar to the oversized Tinkerbell of the 15th Anniversary castle overlay, which outstayed its welcome (and spoilt the forced perspective of the castle) for several years after the anniversary ended.

At least, these days, it’s not the castle. That’s what we need to remember.

• Discover more Disneyland Railroad Main Street Station photos on the Guidebook

LEAD PHOTO @DisneylandBerry (Twitter)

Euro Disney S.C.A. published its First Quarter results yesterday for the 2014 fiscal year, with the Disneyland Paris operating group announcing a series of disappointing drops across the board, helped only by some modest guest spending increases.

Covering the period from 1st October to 31st December 2013, the first quarter saw overall Resort revenues fall by 5% to €304.9 million, from €320.7 million in the same period the previous year. For the Theme Parks segment it was less severe, with a drop of just over 3%, while the Hotels and Disney Village saw the worst results with an almost 6% drop in revenues.

With a 9.6 percentage point decrease in hotel occupancy, equating to 51,000 fewer room nights old compared to the previous year, an increase of 6% in average spending per room might look like the only good news here. But even this rise was due only to higher daily room rates, and actually offset by lower spending on food and beverage.

In the parks, attendance decreased by 7%. Though this quarter marks the first results since the end of the 20th Anniversary on 30th September 2013, this figure must still be disappointing given the extra investments made to the Halloween and Christmas seasons, arguably now at their strongest for years. Average spending per guest increased by 4%, however, with Euro Disney S.C.A. pointing to not just higher admissions prices but (at long last) higher spending on merchandise, too.

In his standard statement, Philippe Gas, Chief Executive Officer of Euro Disney S.A.S., said:

“In a still challenging economic environment, we realized lower attendance and occupancy as compared to last year, which resulted in a 5% decrease in resort revenues. However our strategy aimed at increasing guest contribution helped us offset some of the attendance and occupancy weakness as we achieved record guest spending in both our parks and hotels for a first quarter.

Even though we remain prudent given the current economic environment, we believe the fundamentals of our business are strong and we are confident in our long-term strategy focused on investing in the guest experience. The opening of our new Ratatouille-themed attraction this summer fully reflects this growth strategy.”

What appears evident, from the hotel results in particular, is that visitors are more careful than ever about how they spend their money and whether they actually get value back. For an experience like Disneyland Paris, visitors are probably more willing to splash out on a luxury like a Disney Hotel stay, even though they know the value-for-money is questionable. But only up to a point.

And after such a large initial outlay, most will inevitably then reign in spending on extras — meals, shows, merchandise — and scrutinise every Euro spent. Getting greedy with that initial booking price could mean a loss in spending throughout the entire trip. Or it could, more and more often it seems, mean that the initial hotel booking never takes place at all — another company gets the revenue and the room night — or, worst case, the visitor decides not to visit Disneyland Paris at all.

We have, at least, seen a slight shift in hotel package promotions away from huge discounts of up to 40%, which surely only eroded the perceived brand value, and towards “added value” offers like free Half Board Meal Plans or extra nights. More like this would be welcome — rather than taking Euros off a booking, why not offer that as “free” spending money in the parks on a gift card?

Could Ratatouille: The Ride be the saving grace of 2014? Intriguingly, this press release suddenly changes the wording to an opening date of “early Summer”. With results like these, the sooner they can get something of that “growth strategy” on the table, the better.

VIA Disneyland Paris Corporate (PDF Press Release)

Here’s a little relief for anyone planning a trip to in the next three months, before the launch of the 20th Anniversary: Disneyland Paris has confirmed to us that the parade route won’t be left empty while the current Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade undergoes its makeover into the new Disney Magic on Parade!. Some may have feared such a transition would require the original 15th Anniversary parade to take a leave of absence before its 1st April 2012 relaunch.

The production will, however, be left without two of its key floats for much of the period — those which have been previously confirmed to see more extensive redesigns. From 9th January until the launch of Disney Magic on Parade! on 1st April, the opening “Dreams of Imagination” unit will be missing as it is transformed into  a new float for Disney’s fairies and sorcerers. The storybook base will remain, but a fairytale castle will replace the iconic smiling Moon and hot air balloon Sun which have hosted Mickey Mouse and the other VIPs since 2007. Mickey and friends will instead be given prime position on the former “Dreams of Romance: Finale” unit, which will be taken out of service from 16th January until the launch of the new parade. The current fairytale hillside and crystal château look will be turned into a Fantasia-esque pink and blue landscape, with golden broomsticks dotting the cliff side, Sorcerer Mickey standing atop the peak and the other characters in similar sorcerer-esque costumes.

It is likely the characters from these two units will continue to feature in the parade but as walking dance units, similar to when floats have been taken out for refurbishment or maintenance.

Concept art for the new units, above, was leaked earlier this month via the Dutch Café Mickey forums.

Princess fans will be reassured that the final unit’s commandeering by Mickey Mouse won’t mean a lack of Disney royalty in the new parade. Instead, Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen will permanently join Ariel and Prince Eric on the “Dreams of Romance: Prelude” unit, as will newly-christened royalty Rapunzel and Flynn, from Disney’s Tangled, who replace Aladdin and Jasmine on the unit. Cinderella and Snow White, along with their respective princes, will follow up on stylised horse-drawn carriages.

Additional new characters will also be added for the revised opening float: Tinker Bell, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather (the Three Fairies from Sleeping Beauty), the Fairy Godmother (from Cinderella), the Blue Fairy (from Pinocchio) and Merlin (from The Sword in the Stone). No changes have been announced for the other five floats of the original parade. New costumes and a new soundtrack are expected throughout, although rumours also suggest that the “Dreams of Power” villain unit will be removed from the new parade, possibly returning only for Halloween.