Originally Posted by
moretimeoffguy
Getting really excited about seeing the Halloween decorations at TDR, given Halloween is my favorite holiday; and the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride.
Be aware that the HM will have the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay if you visit during Halloween (or Christmas) season. This makes it more popular, so they will probably have FastPass operating for it every day during the season. Here's a tip if you want to go standby: It's very difficult to get to the HM when there's a parade running. Watch the parade from near Dumbo, which is directly across the parade route from HM. Just after the tail end of the parade, hurry across and get in the HM standby line: it will be much shorter, as during the run of the parade, very few people would have been able to get into the standby or FP Return lines, yet those lines were still emptying out at the regular rate. But hurry - if you wait just a few minutes after the parade passes, the lines will be back to normal.
If you're staying only 1 day, then I don't think you'll have time to see anything outside of the resort while you're there. If you're a big Disney fan, it takes 4 full days to fully experience the resort, so to try to add things off-resort will just make the time crunch worse. As far as hotels, be sure to go to the Bella Vista Lounge in the Hotel Mira Costa. It has a great view of Mediterranean Harbor.