Happy Halloween Everyone! In honor of this candy-filled fabulous day, we thought we’d share a fun Disneyland Halloween Time tradition: The Incredible Pumpkin Carvers.

For several years now, Disneyland has featured some of the most amazing pumpkin carvers I’ve ever seen. This year, the “Incredible” carvers are located at the Big Thunder Ranch Halloween Carnival in Frontierland.

The sign says “Ask Them How They Do It,” so I did! On the day that I visited, I spoke mostly with Joe, a 7 year veteran carving for Disney. He told me that they carve all day long making Disney inspired pumpkins for guests to enjoy.

Joe was working alongside of Georgina, who told me that the carved pumpkins actually last up to a year if you keep the carving on the surface (i.e. not cutting the tops off and cleaning them out).

Some of the pumpkins on display, including the “Baby Mickey” shown below, were featured last year at Disneyland’s Halloween Time.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am not a big fan of raw pumpkin smell. So, when I asked about the smell while carving, I was surprised to learn that they use a white variety of pumpkin that actually smells like cucumber for many of their masterpieces.

Joe let me take a whiff of one of his pieces and yep, much more cucumber-y than smelly!

Supplies used include, but are not limited to, carving knives, paints, shish kebob skewers, decorative floral pearl tips pins, ribbon, straw & pipe cleaners. And after [Read more…]