in Urayasu, Chiba
Halloween at Tokyo Disneyland is a spellbinding celebration that enchants visitors with a unique blend of Disney magic and spooky festivities. Each year, the park is adorned with delightful decorations, and both Disney characters and guests don their best Halloween costumes. From special parades to themed treats and merchandise, Tokyo Disneyland offers a thrilling and family-friendly way to immerse yourself in the spirit of the season. It's a bewitching time when the enchantment of Disney meets the fun and excitement of Halloween, creating an unforgettable celebration!
My Experience
We visited the Sunday before Halloween and, oh boy, was it crowded! We arrived at the park around 8:45, but the line to enter already was covering over 1/3 of the bridge connecting Maihama Station to the park. It's probably one of the busiest times of the year to visit. I think the bag check process was a little slower than usual. It seemed they were checking everyone's bags more thoroughly than usual probably because there are special rules and restrictions on what you can bring in the park as props for Halloween costumes.
Decorations
As soon as we entered the park, we could see the Halloween decorations at the front in the lawn. They also had special Tokyo Disneyland 40th Anniversary decorations as well, which were really colorful and pretty! There was the iconic large pumpkin decoration in the middle of the World Bazaar, and they had cute ghosts and scarecrow Mickey and Minnie decorations near Cinderella's castle. They even had a performer playing the piano and singing!
Haunted Mansion
After looking at the decorations we headed straight for the Haunted Mansion, since the ride gets super crowded this time of year! We had to wait around 60 minutes for the ride. I was checking the app and I think at times it definitely reached over a 100 minute wait time. They had special Nightmare Before Christmas decorations up and a "Holiday Nightmare" motif for the ride, which I enjoy more than the usual ride since it's less scary!
Costumes
I personally love visiting during Halloween because it's one of the few times people over the ages of 12 are allowed to enter the park in costume. Some of the costumes I saw looked like professional level cosplay, which was really cool! There were also a lot of people in casual costumes or in other Disney merchandise as well. It's just so fun checking out everyone's outfits! Especially when we were just relaxing and waiting for the parade, it was a good way to pass the time! I do regret not dressing up this year!
Disney is somewhat strict on its costume rules, but I don't think any of the rules are too unreasonable. For example, you must dress as a Disney character from their pre-approved list and dress in a way that respects the image of the character, only children can wear Disney cast costumes, no underwear or full body tight costumes, no wearing masks, painting your face or body a different color from your skin or depicting blood or scars, no bringing in musical instruments, guns, swords, etc.
Some of the coolest costumes I saw this year were Nebula & Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy, Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast, King Stefan from Sleeping Beauty, Anastasia and Drizella from Cinderella, and Alice and her cat Diana from Alice and Wonderland. I felt the most popular costumers I saw around the park were Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle, Anna, Alice, Wendy, Maleficent, Judy and Nick from Zootopia, and of course Mickey and Friends characters. Surprisingly the Fox and the Cat from Pinocchio were also popular characters.
Disney also sells special Halloween merchandise during this time. One of the cutest things I saw were these little Mickey and Minnie ghost plushies that you can clip onto your shoulder!
Parades
The park puts on the Spooky Boo Parade once a day at 15:40, which featured Halloween themed floats and dancers! I think they had Max Goof and some of the other Mickey and friends characters, but I didn't really see any villains in this parade, more just Halloween themed dancers. The parade isn't that long but the music and the dance was quite cool and fun to watch. The dancers did an amazing job! People started saving seats like a few hours before the parade started. You can't just leave your stuff at the spot though, someone is required to stay with your belonging if you save seats. Most people also bring small mats to sit on.
They also had the Disney Harmony In Color parade at 13:00 that same day, which features many beloved Disney characters, songs, as well as beautifully colored floats. Seeing Rapunzel swing around on her hair was so cool! I also really liked Merida's costume and dance number. I think I actually enjoyed this parade a bit more than the Spooky Boo Parade since it featured a lot more the iconic Disney characters!
Food
One of my favorites activities when visiting the park is eating and trying out the new seasonal food! This year they had the following Disney Halloween special foods.
Special Sunday
This was a pumpkin custard with whipped cream and chocolate flakes and orange soda underneath. Although this drink design was so cute with the chocolate spider web, I wasn't a huge fan of the orange soda / pumpkin combo. I don't think the flavor profiles meshed particularly well together, but that's just my opinion!
Cassis & Chocolate Mousse
This was chocolate mousse layered with cassis mousse and jelly. I'm only used to having cassis in alcohol drinks, but I feel like the taste is kind of similar to grape! I'm not a huge fan of it, but the chocolate mousse underneath was yummy.
Sparking Drink (Cassis & Orange)
This was a mixed berry puree with cassis syrup in soda. This was okay! I'm not a huge fan of the cassis taste and the syrup and puree were really really sweet, but the drink was okay when mixed!
Sweet Potato Crepe
This was sweet potato and whipped cream wrapped in a crepe. I wasn't a huge fan of this, just because I felt the sweet potato wasn't dessert-level sweet enough to go along with the whipped cream and crepe. It was okay and basically just tasted like sweet potato! I would recommend this for those that don't want something too sweet, or if you just really enjoy the flavor of sweet potato.
Halloween Sunday
This was pumpkin and vanilla soft serve with chocolate corn flakes and a maple pumpkin churro. I wasn't a huge fan of the pumpkin soft serve. If you really enjoy the taste of pumpkin, I think you will like this, but I'm used to like pumpkin pie type desserts that usually have a lot of other spices mixed in with the pumpkin. Pumpkin flavored sweets in Japan usually don't incorporate the same type of seasoning, so it's more focused on the pure pumpkin flavor.
Maple Pumpkin Churro
This was quite good! I liked the maple flavoring. The line for the churros was quite longer than usual though. It's probably not my favorite churro flavor, but not bad!
Special Set (Baymax Hamburger)
This was quite yummy! It was a beef burger with pumpkin slices and a special purple sweet potato mayonnaise sauce. It kind of tasted like a teriburger! The seasoning for the patty was on the sweeter side. They put like thin beef slices on top of the beef patty as well, which is an interesting choice. The baymax design is so cute though!
We also tried some limited edition, but not Halloween, foods as well!
Queen of Cake Drink (Berry and Cheese)
This was like strawberry jelly mixed with milk, cocoa crips, and dried strawberry bits on top. This was good! It kind of tasted just like strawberry yogurt and chocolate. The little white chocolate card on top was so cute!
Menchi Katsu Dog
This was a menchi katsu (breaded minced meat) with tartar sauce inside a hotdog bun. This was quite tasty! I was surprised at how crispy and good the menchi katsu was. I've never eaten menchi katsu with tartar sauce and cheese, so that was an interesting combo, but I didn't mind it at all! It was pretty good.
Mickey Macaron
This macaron was so cute! It was berry flavored. I loved the pink coloring. It was a good size too. Super sweet but super good! I think this dish is part of the 40 year anniversary celebration, so there was also an option to buy a special macaron shaped case with the macaron. The case was super cute! The design was exactly like the macaron, but I'm not a huge souvenir person, so I didn't end up buying one.
Creme Brûlée Churro
This was probably my favorite food so far! The creme brulee churro was so good! It had like a sweet crispy caramel/vanilla outer shell and a custard pudding like filling in the middle. So yummy! This is honestly probably my favorite churro flavor ever! I think this was part of the 40 year anniversary celebration as well, but I wish they would make this a regular flavor! It was so crispy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.
We also ate some classics as well, like the smoked chicken leg and the onigiri sandwich. I love Disney's chicken legs! They aren't as massive as the turkey legs so they're a bit easier to eat and the legs are always moist and so flavorful. The smoked chicken leg was delicious. My favorite is the teriyaki chicken leg in Adventureland though! The onigiri sandwich was also good. It's a lot of rice and is very filling. The meat to rice ratio is a little off, but the meat is tasty and the design is so adorable!
Overall I think Halloween is one of the funnest times to visit Tokyo Disneyland, despite the crowd! There are people of all ages in costume at the park, which makes the festivities more exciting. The park's enchanting decorations, character costumes, and themed entertainment create a magical atmosphere and its a great way to celebrate Halloween with friends and family. I can see that they're also already prepping for Christmas and have released sneak peaks of some of their latest Christmas goods on the site, so I'm excited for the holiday season!
Official Site
Address
1-1 Maihama, Urayasu, Chiba 279-0031
Access
Maihama Station (JR Keiyo Line) - 5 minute walk
Time
Halloween Event - 9/15 - 10/31 (in 2023)
9:00 - 21:00
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