Disneyland managed to pull off one very impressive trick this Halloween season. It raised top ticket prices by nearly 18 percent for this year’s Mickey’s Halloween Party – and still sold out advance tickets for every single night.
Apparently, Disneyland fans are willing to pay more and more each year to collect their bags of treats at the park’s annual after-hours, hard-ticket Halloween event.
Even a top price of $99 per person – and no more free parking, which adds another $18 per car to the price of attending – hasn’t been enough to discourage fans. Some are paying even more than $99 on eBay and Craigslist for scalped tickets that (they hope) will get them into the party.
Why? Because where else can you go trick-or-treating as an adult?
But what’s the alternative? Knott’s, Six Flags and Universal are making bank with their own horror events and aren’t about to give those up for an evening of all-ages trick-or-treating. So for local parents who don’t want to grow up, it’s Disneyland or nothing.
If only we didn’t have to stop trick-or-treating when we hit puberty. But why do we?
One of the things I love about Halloween as a grown-up is seeing everyone in the neighborhood open their doors and welcome their neighbors for the evening. So why limit that hospitality to little kids?
Why can’t we share candy bars or cookies – or heck, even drinks – with the grown-ups on our block too? Maybe if we spent more time greeting our neighbors over a bag of Halloween treats, we’d all end up living in better neighborhoods the other 364 days of the year.
Some neighborhoods make Halloween an all-ages party, and the continued success of Mickey’s Halloween Party suggests that many other grown-ups don’t want to give up on the getting of treats either.
But if all the grown-ups are out trick-or-treating, too, who’s staying at home to hand out those treats? Maybe we’d need Halloween to run two nights – one for the even-numbered addresses and the next for the odd ones.
And no one wants to stay up all night waiting for trick-or-treaters. Children’s bedtimes provide a convenient excuse for calling it a night as it is. With an all-ages Halloween, we’d need some consensus on when the trick-or-treating would stop – and it shouldn’t be as late as Mickey’s Halloween Party goes.
OK, maybe this sounds impossible. Maybe America isn’t ready for an all-ages Halloween, when grown-ups can trick-or-treat just like this kids. Maybe this idea’s just crazy.
Sure, you’ll find plenty of kids at the party each night, but they’re not the ones paying for the tickets. They’re not the ones most excited to be there, either. Kids are always happy to get a bag of free candy, but they’ll get another chance on Oct. 31.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, nostalgia’s a tricky business for Disneyland. A lot of those rides and shows from our youth that we love so much wouldn’t hold up against modern competition if Disney brought them back today. But that’s not the case with trick-or-treating. It was awesome back then, and it’s just as awesome now.
So maybe trick-or-treating at Disneyland is just the ticket, even at $99. It might be even better than traipsing through the neighborhood back in the day. At Disneyland, there’s no risk that someone will drop a religious text or toothbrush in your bag in some misguided attempt to be “better” than the holiday. You won’t get raisins or an apple, either – unless you ask for it. (Disney does provide fruit and no-sugar treats as alternatives to candy, upon request.)
You want candy? You’ll get it – all night long. Forget that 8 p.m. curfew. You can keep trick or treating until the party ends, at 11 p.m. or midnight, depending upon the night you go. And kids even can forget about paying that daddy tax – because when Dad’s got his own bag of candy, he’ll leave yours alone.
Plus, Disneyland will throw in a Halloween-themed fireworks show and a new Halloween parade this year that daytime visitors to the park won’t get to see.
If only we didn’t have to stop trick-or-treating when we become adults. But why do we when we can go to Disneyland?
Robert Niles is the founder and editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThemePark.
