As Halloween lurks around the corner, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure and Universal Studios Horror Nights, parks of two different ends of the holiday spectrum, take on the season.
Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park
Disneyland brings back all things whimsical for their annual Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, festively transforming many of their famous rides into an exclusive Halloween version.
To a high school student who has difficulties attending intense setting during Halloween, Disneyland, with ticket prices from $97 to $124, is the place to be.
Usually the happiest place on earth, finds a way to bring family friendly fright to its theme parks. Although it may not be enough to make someone scream or cry, it is enough to make the little ones jump.
Alongside rides like the Haunted Mansion which Jack Skellington takes over for the season and Space Mountain becoming a Ghost Galaxy, Main Street is filled with pumpkins, seasonal food like holiday themed candy apples and Oogie Boogie Popcorn Buckets and more decorations.
As for California Adventure taking on a new twist by having the Boogie Man from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” cast a spell on all of California Adventure.
Attractions from Cars Land join in on the Halloween festivities as well, by renaming a couple of the rides, like Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree and Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween. Another fan favorite, Guardians of the Galaxy completely transforming their “Mission Breakout,” which inculde props from rides like Matterhorn Bobsleds, into “Monsters After Dark” filled with a constant flash of loud sirens and altered clips of the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two.
All this being Disney’s way of combining Halloween tricks with family treats.
Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights
Universal Studios keeps a hefty list of rides based on movies and TV shows.
The ticket prices can range from $70 to $100 and the drive can vary from up to 33 to 40 minutes. This park embraces their special effect skills year round, but bring out the heaviness of each effect every Halloween for their Horror Nights event.
If blood splattered across entrance doors along with the sound of terrified screams from various scare zones doesn’t say horror, it will be hard to think of what does.
The park is broken up into three floors, each level consisting of different mazes based on classic horror movies like “Ash vs Evil Dead” or “Saw” and popular TV shows like “American Horror Story.”
Every year, Universal brings a never before seen addition to the list of mazes, adding “The Shining” and an updated version of “American Horror Story: Roanoke” this year.
Along with the mazes, there are actors who chase and terrorize the fans to create adrenaline scared feeling that they signed up for when the their ticket was purchased. Opposite of Disneyland, Universal makes every horror movie a reality.