Halloween is the new Christmas creep at theme parks, family attractions

Halloween is the new Christmas creep at theme parks, family attractions
It wasn’t until after Brian Helmich booked his family on a three-night cruise aboard the Disney Dream that he learned it would be a special Halloween sailing.

“It was a bonus,” said Helmich, of Washington, Ill. Along with all the usual shipboard activities, his 10-year-old son got to dress as a pirate, go trick-or-treating and attend several special holiday parties and activities. “It’s a really great time to cruise, because it’s off-season and not super busy, and you also get Halloween,” Helmich said.

    “It’s a phenomenon that’s grown and grown, so that today virtually every amusement park in America has a Halloween event.”

    - Arthur Levine, theme parks expert at About.com.

Disney Cruise Line offered “Halloween on the High Seas” on just one ship last year, but this year it’s treating passengers on all four ships in its fleet to special decorations, activities and menu items through the end of October – along with some of the lowest fares of the year.

Back on dry land, meanwhile, “Disney is perhaps single-handedly expanding the Halloween season to two full months,” said Deb Wills, founder of the Disney planning site AllEars.Net.

Indeed, Disney World in Orlando, Fla., is already festooned with Halloween decorations. Oct. 31 kicked off on Sept. 1 with the wildly popular “Not-So-Scary Halloween Party,” an evening bash in the Magic Kingdom with Halloween-themed fireworks, decorations, parades and, of course, trick-or-treating. The event, which requires a special ticket, was extended to 26 select nights this year – three more than last year.

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Disney Cruise Line's Halloween on the High Seas cruises. (Matt Stroshane/Disney Cruise Line)

“As long as Disney continues to provide quality experiences, guests will continue to be part of the fun,” said Wills. “How many folks can say they actually went trick-or-treating in the Magic Kingdom?”

Wherever you live, ghouls and ghosts are coming to a theme park near you. “It’s a phenomenon that’s grown and grown, so that today virtually every amusement park in America has a Halloween event,” said Arthur Levine, theme parks expert at About.com.

“But it’s important to know that they fall into two distinct camps: not so scary and unbelievably scary.”

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