DISNEYLAND UPDATE: Holiday Whiplash, DisneylandForward & Disney Downsizing

School may be back in session, but Disneyland’s seasonal calendar is only getting busier. Halloween Time is now underway through October 31 (with Plaza de la Familia continuing through November 2), and Christmas is already waiting in the wings, with the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort running from November 13, 2026, through January 6, 2027.

Last year, Halloween and the holidays had to share the stage with Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration. This year, the seasonal favorites get the spotlight back, along with returning attraction overlays and entertainment. Most notably, World of Color – Season of Light will return for the holiday season in November after sitting out 2025 while World of Color Happiness occupied Paradise Bay.

We’ve also got the first concrete steps toward DisneylandForward, another round of Disney corporate cost-cutting that could foreshadow more layoffs, and a reopened California Adventure walkway we didn’t realize how much we missed until Disney made us go the long way around.

But first, buckle up. Halloween has barely unpacked the pumpkins, and Christmas is already jingling at the gate!

Holiday Whiplash

Halloween Time has barely started, but Disney is already planning for the next big season. The Holidays at the Disneyland Resort will run from Nov. 13, 2026, through Jan. 6, 2027, and this year’s celebration brings back some familiar favorites that sat out last year’s 70th anniversary festivities.

As always, fashion plates Mickey and Minnie will be sporting new outfits, this time themed to holiday travel and “a wintry alpine gathering.”

There’s also a bit of holiday musical chairs this year. Santa is moving from the Fantasyland Theatre to the Trolley Barn in Mickey’s Toontown (near Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin), while preschool pups Bluey and Bingo will continue their “Bluey’s Best Day Ever” appearances at the Fantasyland Theatre through the holiday season.

And there’s a particularly welcome return across the esplanade. World of Color – Season of Light took the year off for the 70th anniversary of Disneyland last year. The holiday-themed fountain and projection show returns to Paradise Bay beginning Nov. 13.

The classics will be back as well, including A Christmas Fantasy Parade and Believe… in Holiday Magic fireworks and snowfall at Disneyland. Over at California Adventure, returning entertainment includes Disney ¡Viva Navidad!, A Musical Christmas with Mariachi Alegría de Disneyland & Miguel, Mirabel’s Gifts of the Season, and the Mickey’s Happy Holidays cavalcade.

And, of course, the seasonal attraction transformations return. Haunted Mansion Holiday is already in residence for Halloween, while “it’s a small world” Holiday, Luigi’s Joy to the Whirl, and Mater’s Jingle Jamboree will join the festivities for the holiday season.

RELATED READING:

• FIRST LOOK at Disney Holiday 2026 Merchandise!
• The Magic of Disneyland Candlelight Ceremony: Narrators, Viewing Tips & History
• MiceShots: A Spirited Look At Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Holiday

You can read our complete 2026 holiday guide here:

Your Guide to Disneyland Holiday Time 2026 – Food, Entertainment, Merch & More

DisneylandForward Moves Forward

After years of plans, approvals, renderings, and plenty of speculation, DisneylandForward is finally getting physical.

Last Monday, Disneyland broke ground on a new east-side parking structure and transportation hub, one of the first major visible signs of the resort’s long-term expansion plans taking shape.

The project will add approximately 6,000 parking spaces, along with new shuttle and rideshare areas, security screening, and dedicated vehicle access from Disney Way. A new pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard will lead guests to an all-new arrival area on the east side of the resort.

This isn’t the glamorous part of DisneylandForward. There are no flying banshees or singing skeletons here. But the parking, transportation, bridge, and esplanade work is the infrastructure Disney needs before the resort can grow substantially in the years ahead.

And while most of the heavy construction will happen outside the parks for a while, the project is already changing the esplanade. Two ticket booths on the east side have been walled off for demolition as part of the new pedestrian bridge, parking structure, and east-side arrival area.

Early Retirement

We’ve been reporting on wave after wave of layoffs at Disney, beginning with the elimination of approximately 1,000 roles in April, followed by another round of cuts in July that hit Pixar, National Geographic, ESPN, and other parts of the company.

And the workforce reduction is far from over.

Disney eliminated 7,000 jobs during the massive company-wide restructuring announced in 2023. Now, less than six months into Josh D’Amaro’s tenure as CEO, the company is taking its cost-cutting efforts higher up the food chain by offering early retirement packages to eligible executives.

Voluntary Early Retirement Offer

Disney’s time-limited Voluntary Early Retirement Offer (VERO) is available to eligible U.S.-based executives from Director through Executive Vice President across Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and the company’s corporate divisions. Some executives temporarily working outside the U.S. also qualify.

But not everyone gets an invitation to retire with Mickey.

To qualify, executives must have at least 65 “points,” calculated by adding their age to the number of years they’ve worked for Disney. They must also be at least 50 years old and have a minimum of 10 years with the company.

Contract employees aren’t eligible, which notably excludes many of Disney’s highest-ranking executives.

For those who do qualify, Disney is making the exit fairly attractive. Depending on tenure and level, the package includes up to a year of separation pay, healthcare coverage at employee rates during the severance period, and continued vesting of existing equity awards for three years.

And then there’s the very Disney retirement perk: lifetime access to Disney theme parks with blackout dates through the company’s Silver Pass program.

There’s another potentially valuable “silver lining.” The offer does not include a non-compete restriction, so executives who take the package are free to go work for another entertainment company while continuing to receive their separation benefits. For a 50-something executive with plenty of career left, that could make Disney’s offer considerably more tempting.

And there may be another incentive to take the money and run: involuntary layoffs are already happening. Disney has acknowledged that additional staff reductions are underway in some parts of the company and will continue into next year.

For executives who qualify for VERO, that creates a pretty stark calculation. Take a generous voluntary package now, with severance, extended benefits, continued equity vesting, and the freedom to work for a competitor, or stick around and risk being caught in a later round of involuntary cuts that may not come with the same terms.

While Disney’s current restructuring has its roots in the cost-cutting effort begun under former CEO Bob Iger, it now sits squarely on Josh D’Amaro’s desk. And with both voluntary departures and involuntary layoffs underway, Disney’s workforce reduction clearly isn’t finished yet.

You can read more about Disney’s restructuring here:

Blockbusters, Bombs & a Shrinking Payroll: Disney Asks Its Veteran Executives to Retire

Halloween Characters

Apparently one Halloween wardrobe isn’t enough for Mickey and friends this year.

Last week, we showed you the gang’s new harlequin-inspired Halloween costumes, but you’ll only find those outfits in Town Square at Disneyland. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Clarabelle Cow, and Chip ‘n’ Dale can all appear there throughout the season.

Across the esplanade at California Adventure, Mickey and the gang have an entirely different set of Halloween costumes:

• Mickey is dressed as a magician
• Minnie is dressed as a flapper
• Donald is dressed as a devil
• Daisy is dressed as a witch
• Goofy is dressed as a scarecrow

So, yes, Mickey and Minnie have apparently reached the “costume change between parks” level of celebrity.

More Halloween Time Characters

In Disneyland:

• Jack Skellington and Sally in the Royal Courtyard in New Orleans Square

• Gaston, Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, Drizella, The Queen, and the Queen of Hearts at various locations around Disneyland

In California Adventure:

Cars Land is once again transformed into Radiator Screams, complete with its automotive residents in Halloween “car-stumes.”

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy also dress for a costume party during “Mickey’s Trick and Treat” at the Disney Theater in Hollywood Land.

Halloween Character Dining

If you’d rather meet your costumed characters with a plate in front of you, the resort hotels have three seasonal character dining options:

• Goofy’s Kitchen Celebrates Halloween at the Disneyland Hotel: Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, and Chip ‘n’ Dale
• Mickey’s Autumn Adventures Breakfast & Brunch at Storytellers Cafe: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Chip ‘n’ Dale
• Clarabelle’s Enchanted Halloween Dinner at Storytellers Cafe: Clarabelle, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto

Character appearances can vary, so check the Disneyland app for locations and times during your visit.

Constructionland

If construction walls are your favorite Disneyland architectural style, Downtown Disney is the place to be right now.

Several businesses are currently tucked behind walls while remaining open, making portions of the district feel more like a construction corridor than a shopping district.

We’re particularly watching the LEGO Store, which has been undergoing an exterior transformation for months as builders replace and refresh the oversized LEGO displays surrounding the store. The new displays were installed weeks ago… the holdup appears to be the glass railings, which prevent guests from touching or climbing on the sculptures.

Another exterior refurbishment is happening on part of the Naples building, where Salt & Straw, Wonderground, and Napolini are all wrapped in construction scrims. All establishments remain open while the exterior work continues.

At the center of the district, construction continues on Arthur & Sons Steak and Bourbon and Pearl’s Roadside BBQ, the two new restaurants replacing the former Tortilla Jo’s.

Disney still hasn’t announced an opening date for either location. And if the seemingly endless Earl of Sandwich/Carnaby project has taught us anything, perhaps we shouldn’t start lining up for barbecue just yet.

Over at California Adventure, Avengers Campus continues its own much larger construction project.

At D23 earlier this month, Disney confirmed that the expanded land will open in 2028. When complete, Avengers Campus will be roughly double its current size and add two major attractions: Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab.

There’s still a lot of concrete and steel between here and superhero training, but the scale of the expansion is becoming increasingly easy to see from inside the park.

We recently noticed a new “Stark Industries” banner atop the construction site, and Mickey heads in some of the metal beams.

Disneyland Refurbishment Calendar

No new refurbishments have been added to the calendar this week, but two lengthy projects have wrapped up. Silly Symphony Swings and the Main Street Cinema have both reopened, leaving just the Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition and Chiller at Paradise Park currently under refurbishment.

And speaking of the Main Street Cinema… it reopened with some significant changes to what’s playing inside. We’ve got thoughts about that a little farther down.

Currently Under Refurbishment

• Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition: July 6 – September 10
• Chiller at Paradise Park: July 26 – TBA

Upcoming Refurbishments

September brings a handful of short closures, plus two attractions without announced reopening dates:

• Indiana Jones Adventure: September 8 – TBA
• Mark Twain Riverboat: September 8 – 11
• Mad Tea Party: September 14 – TBA
• Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island: September 14 – 16
• Sailing Ship Columbia: September 21 – 24

This & That

It’s been such a busy week that we’re not done with the news!

MiceChat Live @ Five

Surprise! Last Thursday’s Live at Five was live from… EPCOT!

While Dusty was in Orlando to cover opening night of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida, he hopped over to Walt Disney World to check out this year’s EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Dusty reunited with Mike Kindrich and MiceChat contributor Derrick Klinker to ride Journey Into Imagination and discuss the changes coming to the attraction, check in on some of Walt Disney World’s biggest projects, and even take in Luminous The Symphony of Us, which hit Dusty a bit harder than expected.

Main Street Cinema’s New Show

The Main Street Cinema is back after a brief refurbishment to remove the Sherman Brothers tribute, but what’s playing inside has changed considerably.

The classic Mickey Mouse shorts have been replaced with the modern-style Mickey cartoons. And while the marquee still boasts “six separate screens,” during our visit all six screens were showing the exact same film.

We enjoy the newer Mickey shorts on their own terms, but their modern art style and frenetic sensibility feel strangely out of place inside a turn-of-the-century Main Street theater.

And with Mickey’s 100th anniversary coming up in 2028, Disney has an obvious opportunity sitting right here. Why not use those six screens to showcase different eras of Mickey’s history?

For that matter, it’s Halloween Time. We’d love to see the Cinema embrace the season with vintage spooky Disney animation like The Skeleton Dance, Mickey’s The Haunted House, or Lonesome Ghosts. Even a rotating collection of classic Disney Villains clips would make more seasonal sense than showing the same cartoon on all six screens.

There’s a century of Disney animation available. This little theater could be doing so much more with it.

DCA Walkway Returns

The walkway to nowhere once again goes somewhere!

Cars Land and Avengers Campus are finally connected again, restoring one of California Adventure’s most useful little shortcuts. And the reward for all those months of detours is the new TAKE-A-BRAKE Rest Stop restroom.

Yes, we’re excited about a walkway and a bathroom. This is what prolonged construction does to people.

The new restroom is located just past Red’s Community Garden if you’re coming from Cars Land, or behind the Ancient Sanctum if you’re approaching from Avengers Campus.

Honoring Jack Kirby

There’s a new addition at the main entrance to Avengers Campus: a plaque honoring legendary comic book artist and writer Jack Kirby, installed alongside the existing tribute to Stan Lee. Both men were named Disney Legends in 2017.

Kirby helped create many of Marvel’s most enduring characters, including Captain America, Ant-Man, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers, and the X-Men.

There’s even a bit of Kirby’s visual DNA already hiding in Avengers Campus. His distinctive “Kirby Krackle”, the clusters of dots he used to depict cosmic energy, can be found at the entrance to Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!

And while we’re looking for tiny Avengers Campus details, we spotted a new one in the newer seating area across from Mission: BREAKOUT!: Scott Lang’s pretzel stash.

Because apparently even Ant-Man needs emergency carbs.

Downtown Disney News

We spotted the first visible signs of Bopo Go!, the new café concept from the team behind Bopomofo Café that’s moving into the former Jamba location in Downtown Disney.

Inspired by convenience stores in Asia and created specifically for Downtown Disney, Bopo Go! will offer boba drinks, juices, matcha, imported snacks and candies, along with light bites including cup noodles and egg salad sandwiches.

Meanwhile, the Apple Series is back at Salt & Straw, with five apple-heavy flavors for fall:

• NEW! Salted Caramel Apple Pie: Apple-infused salted caramel ice cream with spiced apple pie filling, pie crust pieces, and sea salt
• Apple Cider Donuts: Royal icing-inspired ice cream with chunks of apple cider donuts and ribbons of cinnamon-vanilla caramel
• Apple & Cheddar Cinnamon Rolls: Sharp white cheddar ice cream with apple pie-stuffed cinnamon rolls and a cinnamon swirl
• Vanilla Apple Custard Tart: Apple cider-spiked vanilla custard with bites of housemade apple tart
• Hoppy Apple Cider Sorbet (v): Dairy-free sorbet made with dry-hopped apple cider

Last but not least, Movie Nights are returning to the Downtown Disney LIVE! Stage on September 9, 16, 23, and 30, followed by October 7, 14, 21, and 28. Disney is posting showtimes weekly, so follow @downtowndisney for the latest schedule.

New Jack-o’-Lantern

There’s a new face in the collection of character jack-o’-lanterns surrounding the Partners statue: Chewbacca, representing Galaxy’s Edge.

Oogie Boogie Ticket Tracker

As we creep out of a blistering August, Halloween sounds a little less ridiculous, and Oogie Boogie Bash ticket sales appear to agree.

As of August 30, just four regular party dates remain available, all in September and all priced at $159 per person. October is completely sold out.

D23 Night at Oogie Boogie Bash on September 27 is also still available for $169 per person. You must be a D23 member to purchase tickets, although the other members of your party don’t need their own memberships. D23 General Membership is free.

The History & Mystery of Walt Disney’s Storybook Mansion

If you’ve ever wondered what Walt Disney’s life looked like before Disneyland, there’s a rare opportunity to step inside one of the places where much of that story unfolded.

Daytime History Tours

High in the Hollywood Hills sits the storybook-style home Walt Disney built in 1932, during one of the most important periods of his life and career. Walt and Lillian raised their daughters here, entertained friends and colleagues, and watched the Disney studio grow from an ambitious little operation into something much bigger.

The house is privately owned and rarely open to the public, which makes these tours a particularly unusual chance to explore Walt’s world beyond the parks and studio.

The approximately 90-minute guided tour includes both the interior and exterior of Walt’s former home, including his private screening room and the tiny Seven Dwarfs Cottage, the backyard playhouse Walt gave his daughters in 1937.

It’s one thing to read about this chapter of Walt’s life. It’s another to stand in the rooms where some of it actually happened.

You can find dates and reserve Storybook Mansion History Tour tickets HERE.

Storybook Mansion Ghost Tours

And because this is Halloween season, there’s also a darker way to experience the house.

On select Saturday nights in September and October, Dusty leads candlelight ghost tours through the mansion in partnership with Haunted OC. The evening tours explore the home’s history, its Hollywood connections, and the stories that have accumulated around the property over the decades.

For dates and tickets, visit Haunted OC Ghost Tours.

Next MiceChat Adventure: Pacific Coast & Alaska Back-to-Back

Ready for another MiceChat adventure? In May 2027, we’re heading north aboard the Disney Wonder for two cruises that can be booked separately or combined into one rather spectacular back-to-back trip.

The first leg sails from San Diego to Vancouver May 6 – 10, 2027. Then, without changing ships, the Wonder heads into Alaska from May 10 – 17, visiting the Stikine Icecap, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan before returning to Vancouver.

Do one cruise or do both. Many of us are booking the same stateroom for the full 11-night journey, which means no packing up between sailings.

If you’ve never sailed Alaska, this is a very different Disney cruise experience. The scenery is the main attraction, with mountains, glaciers, wildlife, and historic port towns unfolding right outside the ship.

And traveling with MiceChat adds another layer to the trip. We’ll have our own group activities, plenty of familiar Disney fans to explore with, and a good chance that whoever ends up at your dinner table already understands why you have strong opinions about Pirates of the Caribbean.

Bookings for the MiceChat group are being handled by Teresa Cory at [email protected]. Booking through Teresa is required to receive the group rates and participate in the MiceChat activities.

Come sail north with us!

MiceShots

We’ll leave you with a little Halloween atmosphere from around the Disneyland Resort. Pumpkins, bats, spooky details, and a few familiar faces are taking over the parks and hotels as the season settles in.

Follow MiceChat on social: MiceChat Facebook Page, MiceChat Facebook Group, MiceChat Instagram, MiceChat Threads, MiceChat X, MiceChat YouTube

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Let’s Hear From You!

Have you made it to Disneyland for Halloween Time yet, or are you waiting for the weather to become a little less horrifying?

And what do you think about this year’s holiday lineup? Are you happy to see A Christmas Fantasy Parade and World of Color – Season of Light returning, or is it time for Disneyland to unwrap something new?

We’re also curious what you think about the changes at the Main Street Cinema. Do the newer Mickey shorts belong there, or should Disney use those six screens to celebrate more of Mickey’s history?

And with DisneylandForward construction finally getting underway, plus another round of corporate cost-cutting and layoffs at Disney, there’s certainly no shortage of bigger-picture news to discuss.

As always, share your thoughts in the comments below!