Halloween at Disneyland and California Adventure Park

Mattopia Jones and the Black Spire Outpost

California Adventure Park (Shot on the iPhone 12 Pro Max)

Disneyland (Shot on the iPhone 12 Pro Max)

All photos taken with the Sony A7R4 unless otherwise noted in the captions

Halloween
Disneyland and California Adventure Park
2-3 September 2021

“Christmas at Disney World was nice. Halloween at Disneyland was off the chain.”
Mattopia Jones

The Haunted Mansion and Nightmare Before Christmas Mash-up

Get out.

That was the simple ambition behind taking a quick trip to Anaheim and Hollywood over Labor Day Weekend 2021. Following up a trip to Disney World in December 2020 with a visit to Disneyland was simply intended to check out the West Coast version of Black Spire Outpost while in the neighborhood for an Anaheim Angels game against the Yankees. Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge on the field? Awesome!

But, as happenstance would have it, there were some big changes afoot at Disneyland, all in the run-up to Halloween. And the timing couldn’t have been better.

While there, the classic Haunted Mansion ride reopened after having been completely reimagined around The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Absolutely phenomenal.

But it didn’t end there.

Across the way in California Adventure Park, Radiator Springs had also undergone some major changes with the entire town decked out in its best Halloween finery. And that included Tow Mater himself, dressed to the cylinders as Dracula.

Here’s an excerpt from the Christmas-themed Haunted Mansion. (Shot on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.)

The Halloween-themed fireworks show was spectacular. Seeing Zero (the dog from The Nightmare Before Christmas) “brought to life” as it flew around Sleeping Beauty’s castle was quite a neat treat. (The whole show was around 12 minutes; this excerpt was shot on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.)