Hey everyone. First time here. I would like to know if anyone has info on when will Disneyland will start decorating for Halloween. When my family and I go we don’t want to have a ride closed because it is being decorated and also we prefer to go when it is not decorated for Halloween and low attendance. Considering after labor day, first weeks of September. Any info on closures or refurbishing for those weeks? It has been a long time since we last went, Feb 2010, and the low attendance and weather were great but a few rides were closed. I know Halloween at Disneyland is a big thing but we just want to go on a normal Disneyland decoration time. Thank you very much and nice to be here!
Usually the official start to Halloween at Disneyland is the second week of September. That being said everything goes up slowly for the weeks leading up to that time. Ditto Haunted Mansion with Holiday overlay. It should open with the overlay the second week(ish) of September, which would been you can expect a three week closure prior to that.
So for what you want… you can probably go the first week of September and have minimal Halloween decor, but expect to see Haunted Mansion closed. I’ve never paid much attention to how long it takes for the Jungle Cruise to get the Jingle Cruise overlay.
Thank you very much! We could be ok without Haunted Mansion but one kid loves Jungle Cruise. o you know where I can find more info on that? Disney does not shows closures with too much time ahead and I wanted to book this trip soon. Also, sorry for the delay on my reply, it has been a very busy and crazy week!
Jungle cruise will get its holiday overlay when they switch the park from Halloween to Christmas.
Hurray!!! Thank you! 
Last year this is what Main Street looked like the day after Labor Day, so if you want to see regular decorations at Disneyland you’d have to go for Labor Day weekend, at the latest. We have been a couple of times for Labor Day and they are pretty quick to start the Halloween decorating every time.
As mentioned above Haunted Mansion goes down for about three weeks before the second week of Sept. Knowing what DL has done the last few years & looking at at how the dates fall on this year’s calendar, Sept 9th looks like he likely date they will want Haunted Mansion Holiday back up so three weeks before that is Aug 19. Jingle cruise doesn’t get an overlay for Halloween, just Christmas so that won’t happen until late Oct-early Nov but it’s also about 2-3 weeks. The only other regular closure for Halloween-time is Space Mtn which will convert to Ghost Galaxy but that overlay usually only takes 2-3 days rather than weeks. Your bigger concern is working around the Haunted Mansion overlay. But it looks like that may not be as important to your group, so definitely works out for you!
As for when crowds are low, that’s the million dollar question anymore. It seems lately that pricing and blackouts are a good time to go so if that trend keeps up then look for days with both peak pricing and most AP blackouts. Also, from past years experience, the later in August the more schools will be in session i.e. less families on vacation, but that contradicts the previous strategy of going when there the most AP blackouts as those blackouts lessen at the end of August. A thought to keep in mind though is that Disney is working to get a lot of the lengthier closures (Rivers of America attractions & Railroad) back up sometime this summer so if your dates happen to fall when they do get them up, then it will draw large crowds and especially will be mayhem to ride the train or anything on Rivers of America. Bottom line, while you can try your best to get things booked with lower crowds, Disneyland has a lot of factors & last minute changes that affect crowd levels so it’s much harder to predict when those lulls will be. But, going in with a plan and being at the parks for rope drop will make your experience more enjoyable no matter how crazy crowded it gets.
Happy planning!
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I am kind of hoping that when the RR and Rivers of America re-open they will smooth out the crowds some as there will be more attractions open to soak up people. So if folks are riding the railroad, they aren’t in line at Space Mountain etc. That assumption presumes nothing else closes when they open of course. Might be naive on my part though, but it would make some sense…