Chapter 142
La La La La La

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(Originally posted February 22, 2014)

I always enjoy the little touches like these additions to the foyer.

The new stretching room effects were definitely cool, but our one complaint (which continued to bug us throughout the entire run of Haunted Mansion Holiday) was that the breaking glass sound and Jack’s cackle at the end were WAY too loud. They hurt our ears every time we rode, and they were much louder than any of the other stretching room narration (wow, I sound like such an old man…). We did like the projections, though, and we were very excited when we got our first glimpse (of many) at Zero.

Speaking of Zero, we LOVED the new effects in the hallway as he flew from portrait to portrait. I kept trying to snap pictures of him and kept missing…

The signs on the busts are another little touch that I think is awesome.

We made our way toward the loading area and were awed by just how elaborate the Merry/Scary Christmas sign in here is.

It’s hard to believe that whole area is just empty in the usual version of the ride.

The attraction itself was just as awesome as we remembered it. We actually got stuck for a while right in front of the first Zero in the mirror—which was fine by us since we love that effect and the character! We started moving again and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the attraction. I definitely noticed a few changes right off the bat, but it had been so long since we’d last experienced the overlay that it all felt new again to some extent. We were really impressed by the size of this year’s gingerbread house (and that lovely smell in the ballroom). Tracy also noted smugly that her name was on Sandy Claws’ “nice” list. I think the graveyard is one of the most impressive parts of the overlay because it feels 100% different from the regular attraction in spite of the total number of changes actually being pretty minimal. On the whole, we still loved the attraction and were glad to have it back for the next few months. We knew we’d ride MANY more times before the end of the season.

After our ride was complete, we crossed the park in order to get Fastpasses for the other major overlay in Disneyland—Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. With those in hand, we walked into Fantasyland. The Carrousel was undergoing its major refurbishment, so it looked like quite the eyesore behind walls and scrims.

It felt like forever since we’d seen our friends at Big Thunder Ranch, so that was our next stop.

For some reason, Pocahonatas was in the pen usually reserved for the horses. That was actually where we had first met her two years ago, though, so it felt like we were coming full circle.

She was being very sweet and affectionate, so we spent a long time giving her plenty of attention.

We passed by the goat pen and loved all the Halloween decorations outside their area.

Clarabelle was out in the back pen, but she was interested in trying to eat the tall grass through the fence, so she didn’t pay us any mind.

We peeked into the cabin and realized that it had been totally decorated with some awesome posters and pumpkins.

Next we headed back into the Jamboree. It was amazing how much this area had come to life with all the added decorations, the pumpkin carvers, the characters, Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, and the new Conjure a Villain tent.

We stopped to check out the pumpkins first. I love this station because it’s constantly changing throughout the season as the artists make amazing new sculptures out of the pumpkins.

Pumpkin Donald came by to check out some of his competition.

We also saw and met police officer Dale.

Though we kept hearing the booming noises coming from the Conjure a Villain tent, the line was way too long for us to check it out today. We decided to hit that another time.