Also, still wondering whether anyone has any advice on this?
Thanks again!
We had plans to do this last year, but never got around to booking it. This experience changes every year as well, so its hard to say if it will be the same experience as last year. Since it was ride focused, if I remember correctly, and you received pumpkin flavored treats, we were not in a rush to book it (pumpkin =
).
Personally...I'm glad we did not. Even though we stayed the whole weekend after the official trip ended, (the
ABD portion ended Friday morning) we still filled up Friday, Saturday and Sunday quite easily. We barely had time to enjoy the pool. We only had one ride of the Matterhorn the whole trip! Scandalous!
<After the weekend, we transferred to Burbank late Sunday night, did the WB studio tour on Monday, transferred to another hotel Monday night, and went home Tuesday. (we did a total of 5 hotels on this trip, counting the ABD hotels! The other hotels were on points!>
IMHO...The point is, the Halloween tour is more focused on rides, and not really a 'tour' more a fun ride experience with a ghostly dressed cast member, and a few pumpkin treats. I believe there is a story element to the experience, maybe helping the ghost host, or doing some task. Some years are more kid focused then others...some yeas it goes into both parks, some years it goes into one park. There were a few reviews of last year's happiest haunts over in the DisBoards
Disneyland forum...see what answer you can get there...but I would not focus on booking it - there is a good chance you will be plenty busy riding rides and doing other things. Also it is not offered every night. In years past, you do get a special pin, though.
If it falls within your trip schedule, there is a possibility one of your nights might include a optional Halloween activity....if not, you might want to look into booking that. If the Halloween events schedule is published, look to see what is happening during the evenings while you are there at the GC, and see if disneyland is open - normal hours, or closed for an extra night time event. If Disneyland is closed for a special Halloween separate ticket event, call the vacationistas to see if that event is included with your trip. They probably won't know right away, and will call you back in a week or two with the answer.
Have fun! Try not to plan too much around the ABD activities - We did the Tarpits, Roosevelt hotel and a few other local things before the official start of ABD, and it was a nice leisurely way to begin. The trip is a good pace, and you will wish for downtime if you book too heavily.