We had a good time, despite the one downpour - fortunately we were in the Pacific Wharf area and able to duck under cover for most of it. The rest of the evening there was drizzle/mist off and on, but nothing bad.
It was very nice having the extra hour this year (a 4 hour event instead of 3 hours like last year) - we didn't feel rushed this time and were able to ride a few more rides. Though the lines for the characters were pretty long - so we never waited for any of that.
It seemed to me like there were more people this year, but it thinned out earlier than last year - maybe because of the rain, or maybe the extra hour, since it was getting pretty late for the smaller kids - it ended at 11:30.
Most of the decorations are actually done with lighting rather than putting up decorations, and there were some new ones this year - spider webs projected on Grizzly Peak and Sunset Blvd and the Pacific Wharf buildings, and those looked cool.
People seemed to be having a really good time dancing at the "Bat Party Bash", which they did on the stage in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. And we saw kids doing crafts and getting their faces painted. There were two other stage areas (with DJs, not live music) set up in the Bug's Land area and at the Pacific Wharf. There was a mobile stage with a live band that they had in Sunshine Plaza at the beginning of the party, and then again at the end.
There's nothing special about the treat stops this year - all they are handing out is candy and not the stickers like last year - I think that helped the lines to move a little better. They added two new "Treat Trails" this year in the Grizzly Rapids Queue and the Redwood Challenge Trail - those areas were closed off last year. There were 4-5 additional treat stops along each of the trails.
I was disappointed that there were no Golden Screams shows held during the party - seems like that would have been a good fit! They had Villains in the Meet-and-Greet area there, as well as in front of the Hyperion Theater.
Speaking of characters...Mickey and Minnie were over by Grizzly Rapids this year, and the princesses were still near Ariel's Grotto - they had to switch all of the characters around a little bit to get them out of the rain, though...they had these nice photo backdrops set up for all of them, but then ended up not really using them because they were out in the open. They had various other characters out roaming around the park, like Pluto and Daisy and Donald and even Alice and the Mad Hatter - it seemed strange to see them at DCA and not
Disneyland!
The lines were weird...they were short, but because they were only running one side of Soarin' and two elevators at the Tower of Terror, we ended up waiting about 20 minutes for each, so that was disappointing. Screamin' was a very short wait, though - they were running three trains. But it had been down earlier in the day - we were in the park that afternoon and were unable to ride it then. So maybe they were trying to make up for it.
There were pirates, pirates, EVERYWHERE - that was definitely the most popular costume for males and females this year!!! Still, it seemed to me like there were fewer adults in costume than we saw last year...I'd guess maybe 25% were in costume, or even less. Actually, it seemed like a fair number of people (teenagers and young adults mostly) were not there for the Halloween festivities at all - they weren't in costume and weren't carrying treat bags.
I think they got the length of the event about right this year...but now they need to add some additional "content", like a parade or fireworks show or something like that.
We had a good time...but I'm not sure I'll be so interested in doing it next year unless they add something new.