Disney’s Happiest Haunts Tour

We just returned from a trip to Disneyland. My friend had signed us up for the Happy Haunts Tour. She talked at length to the person who took her reservation at Disney. We were told the tour included treats and water. We got treats but no water. The tour was supposedly limited to 15 people. Our tour had 26, including a lady with a walker and a child in a stroller. During our scheduled 2.5 hour tour, we were supposed to go to both parks and definitely ride Tower of Terror as well as 5 other rides. We were required to buy a park-​hopper ticket because of this. We spent almost 3 hours just in Disneyland. We rode exactly 4 rides: Haunted Mansion, Mr. Toad, Big Thunder Mtn, and Space Mountain. We spent the majority of our time waiting for the rest of the people to finish the ride and re-​group. We never did get to park-​hop and ride Tower of Terror. Talk about disappointed. My friend did complain to a manager about this.
The tour guides were wonderful, the ride operators were wonderful, although they always seemed surprised to see a tour group show up. Just FYI in case someone asks you about Happy Haunts Tour.
We think it was not worth the time or the money.

Love Disneyland… am a multi-​year Annual passholder. Halloween is a great time to be at the park.
But this «tour» was a colossal disappointment.
In a nutshell, you pay for the privilege of (almost) walking on 4 of the most popular rides during what is usually a very busy time in the parks (TOT, SMGG, MB and HM).
You also get two treats — a cake pop and a cookie that looks like candy corn.
The best part is the keepsake pin — a key to the Haunted Mansion.
No stories, no treasure hunt — just some not-​so-​interesting trivia in-​between — told without benefit of headsets. Our tour guide was speaking against a backdrop of loud music, kids screaming, and bypassers talking… we could barely hear anything that was said.
The worst part? Our guide informed us that there were 13 new things to be found this year in the Haunted Mansion ride… but only told us about one! Why not all 13?
This could have been such a fun experience if a little creativity had been implemented.
Sorry, but the Happiest Haunts tour gets a resounding Booooooo.

I just got back from a weekend at Disneyland where I tried the Happiest Haunts Tour for the first time. While it wasn’t quite as great as I was expecting, my boyfriend and I both had a great time. Not a rush back next year to do it again kinda thing, but definitely glad I did it and would do it again.
Our tour was fairly different from Babette’s. Ours included front-​of-​the-​line access to 4 attractions (Tower of Terror, Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, the Matterhorn, and Haunted Mansion Holiday), Halloween fun facts and legends, Disney background information (such as the origins of the artifacts in the Tower of Terror, the inspiration behind certain rides and movies, etc.), and a bit of trick-​or-​treating at a candy store. During the busy Halloween season, the time saved by cutting to the front of the line on 4 of the biggest attractions was – for us – worth the price by itself. Everything else was just bonus.
Like Babette, we had a guide and a «Master Gracey,» who is one of the happy haunts of the Haunted Mansion. Gracey stayed with us the whole time and provided stories and banter. We had one pre-​scheduled bathroom break, and no one went outside of that time. We had no item to search for (which actually disappointed me, I was looking forward to the scavenger hunt), but we did still get a skeleton-​key pin (only available from the tour for all you pin collectors) and a Halloween cookie at the end, as well as a delicious marshmallow, caramel, chocolate, and sprinkles treat from the candy store.
Some other notes:
* you can get a 20% discount if you are a AAA member ($ 60 per person)
* even though we went to both parks, it was only necessary to have a pass for Disneyland
* you are never pressured to go on any of the rides (Although for us that was the main benefit of the tour. It’s probably not worth the money otherwise.)

If you’re hoping for a tour that shows you the behind the scenes or a scary look at Disneyland Park, this isn’t it. It’s a tour geared towards wealthy parents and their elementary school aged kids. It’s basically a very expensive scavenger hunt where the whole tour group stays together. Lame.
To reserve your tour, it’s best to call in for your reservation, since they run out of space quickly. I made my reservation two weeks in advance, since I knew the one that runs at dusk would get sold out easily. Then you buy your ticket to the park (the cost of admission is separate from the cost of the tour) and you muster at the tour kiosk to the left of City Hall on Main Street. There’s a 20% discount if you’re an annual pass holder, but the average annual pass holder will know more about the park than this tour will ever reveal, so who cares about the discount.
I imagine that the tour changes every year, but here’s the rundown from when I went. I don’t want to be spoilery or anything, but at the price you will pay for the tour, you should go in knowing what you’re paying for.
The very nice tour guide gathered our group at the kiosk and walked us up Main Street. We make a stop at the Candy Palace to sample a small square of fresh pumpkin fudge, which was a nice treat. We are then followed by a scowling 25 year old in not so ghastly white makeup who says he is Mr. Gracie, the owner of the Haunted Mansion, because you know, it’s completely plausible that a post-​pubescent would own a Civil War Era Plantation style home haunted by Jack Skellington. I guess he’s supposed to be a ghost. I didn’t know what his function was until we made pitstops at the restrooms, because at every restroom we walked by, there was someone in our group who needed to go pee, and his job was to wait for the pee-​er and catch them up with the tour group as they walked on. He tried to stay austere and in character, but how easy is that when kids are asking questions like, «Can I pee?» or «Why are you mad at us?» That poor soul. He’s working hard for his college money.
We are then told that we have to find a MacGuffin, which during my tour was something like Jasmine’s shoe or some such nonsense, because Jafar stole it. Fetishist. We get cutsies at the Haunted Mansion so we can search in there and we find «clues» along the way until we get to the end, which is a back area of the park near Main Street. Our reward for finding the MacGuffin is a collector’s cloisonné pin and a tinted white chocolate dipped marshmallow treat wrapped in plastic.
I’m not kidding, that’s all that happens. Very disappointing. No trivia, no urban legends about people leaving cremains all over the Haunted Mansion or kids who died in the Rivers of America. No scripted dialogue that might possibly be entertaining– just a snack every once in awhile, a long hike all over the park that’s taking time out from getting on rides and lots of potty breaks. If that’s your idea of fun, then have at it. Me? I’m going to save the $ 75 and just Google some of the Disneyland death stories before I hit the park at night.