2023 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Guide
For those who have never attended or will be taking your families, I plan to run down all the event details and give you planning tips when taking kids to this event. If you want a detailed outline of how we plan for our kids check out head to Our Family Plan for more strategy. We have attended multiple of these events and plan to go annually to this Halloween party including this August.
Party Start time:
If you have a Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party ticket, you do not need a park ticket or reservation for that day. The party ticket allows you to enter the park before the party at 4 PM and you will have a separate entrance. You will more than likely be ushered to the gates at the far right. You will see cast members with signs. Once you enter the park, you will be met with cast members with wristbands for you to put on to identify you are there to attend the party.
My advice for attending Halloween parties, especially for children, is not to go to the parks that day. If you have children that are ten and under and cannot hang until fireworks on a typical park day, it’s never a good idea to have a full park day and then attend an after hours party. What we do is have a pool morning, relax in the afternoon, we eat a huge early dinner (so we can snack all night at the party), then we get dressed in our costumes and head to the park around 3:15 pm to ensure we get into the parks at 4 PM. That way, they have not exerted much energy throughout the day.
Once you get to Main Street around the Town Square area, you’ll see a big truck that says Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party with an arrow pointing to the right. That is where you’ll see cast members handing out “Let’s Boo This” bags and also maps for the Halloween party. You will want to grab a map because that map is your KEY to where everything is located during the Halloween party.
Categories:
Characters
Specialty Treats
Specialty Merchandise
Trick or Treating
Shows
Interactive Experiences
Rides
Boo To You Parade
FAQS
Characters:
If you arrive at the park at 4 pm, your My Disney Experience app will update to the party guide at 7 pm. You cannot see what characters are attending the party until the switch. Your map will have emblems to designate the character locations. The characters typically do not change from year to year. So go to our character Guide, and you will be able to get a general idea of where and what characters are attending the Halloween Party.
This can be tricky when planning the characters you want your children to meet ahead of time. As exciting as it is to have all these Halloween specialty characters, every single line is long. If you start at 4 pm, this Halloween party gives you seven hours to do everything you want. So there are better ways to utilize your time during this party than spending a couple of hours in line. We pick ONE specialty character we will wait for and get in line around 5:50 - 6 pm for that character. Characters begin meeting around 6:30 pm. Then we go to the interactive experiences to see the other characters.
The longest line of the day is to meet Jack and Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. People get in that line at 4 PM sharp and will wait anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours to meet this duo. As cool as that character is, it’s not worth it for me because we are not a family that regularly comes to Orlando for the Halloween Party and I do not want to spend hours in line.
If meeting Jack and Sally is the MOST important thing to you, it will be essential you get to the party as early as possible to meet them. Jack and Sally will be the first activity you need to go once you have your wristband. (If it is a MUST DO - if you are going to Orlando JUST FOR THIS - it may be worth it to get a park ticket and reservation and head to the park that day and literally wait at Town Square Theatre to get in line first.) Another time to see them with reduce wait time is at the end of the evening. We got in line during the 2nd Boo to You Parade and only waited about 35 minutes to meet them.
For a list of characters and their locations, click here.
Specialty Treats:
Now this was probably my husband and I favorite part of the evening. We LOVE food and all these specialty treats were delicious. These treats are located all over the park and will be designated on your Halloween Party guide. In August Disney will release a new Foodie Guide to the halloween party. You can look at the most recent here. Here is our rankings of the last party Almond Sweet Corn Cake (9/10), Spellbinding Fried Pie (9/10), Candy Corn Ice Cream (9/10) and Pain and Panic Hot Dog (7.5/10).
Aunties Gravity’s Galactic Goodies: Sweet Candy Corn Soft-Serve Swirl Cone (Sweet corn and vanilla soft-serve swirl topped with candy corn chocolate bow)
Casey’s Corner: Pain and Panic Hot Dog (All-beef hot dog, sweet and spicy onion relish, and sriracha mustard topped with spicy cheese-flavored snacks)
Golden Oak Outpost: Spellbinding Fried Pie (Buffalo chicken, mozzarella, and blue cheese wrapped in flaky dough topped with a candy eye and jalapeño ranch aïoli)
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Café: Sweet Almond Corn Cake (Almond vanilla cake dipped in white, orange, and yellow chocolate topped with candy corn)
Specialty Merchandise:
Disney does an excellent job of adding specialty merchandise during all of these events. Check out the stores to see if there is anything you want to grab specific to the event. I collect popcorn buckets that we use for family movie nights at home and they have a very cute one in 2022 that I had to bring home.
Trick or Treating:
On your map, you’re going to see little symbols that have a sucker that has an orange top, and those will be your trick-or-treat locations. The light up inflatables will also help you find the entrance to those trick or treat locations. You will also see in the park these tall blowup inflatables that say treats on them, and you will know that you’re close to a trick-or-treat location.
We only trick or treated in the locations we planning on doing party activities. We did not go out of our way to seek locations. We had so much candy by the end of the night. The little bags they give you. are not large enough, but they are the perfect amount of candy to receive. We did bring our own bags and they were filled to the top!
**There are allergy-free options, so if you or your child need an alternative to candy, be sure to speak to the cast member right when you enter the party, and they will give you a TEAL-colored bag. This alerts cast members at the trick-or-treat stations to provide you with an allergy-free option. ***
Shows and Interactive Experiences:
There are several interactive shows that are available during these halloween parties! This gives you a chance to interact with characters with without waiting in long lines and my kids had so much fun dancing with the Zombie Movie Characters and the Disney Junior Crew.
Parade:
There are two parade times. But like any Disney parade, you want to get there about 30 minutes before to have a specific spot or a front-row spot on the curb. It does not matter where on the route you are viewing the parade as long as you are in the front, you have a great spot. The first parade will always be the most crowded. There are a lot of little kids that attend this event that more than likely will be asleep by the second parade. If you are sticking around for the entire party, consider waiting for the second parade if you have kids that can hang or if you are attending the party without kids. We had an awesome very of the parade, and you can check out our YouTube Video below to see if it is something you want to attend.
Rides:
Halloween Overlay on Mad Tea Party
Space Mountain is Pitch Black and plays spooky music
We were the least interested in rides. There are about four rides that have a Halloween overlay to them. For instance, Space Mountain is completely pitch dark with ominous music. Pirates of the Caribbean has LIVE pirates on the attraction. Haunted Mansion has LIVE “ghosts”. The Mad Hat Tea Party has halloween music and lighting. But there’s nothing like Disneyland, where they redo the entire Haunted Mansion for Halloween. So I’m not necessarily sure if this is a must do for you if you have other things you want to do at the park (like wait for jack and Sally.) On the other hand, this is a fantastic time to ride rides because the park has a lowered capacity, so many things are more available than they would be during the day. But you just had to decide if you are coming for the Halloween party or are coming to get on rides with shorter wait times.
Fireworks:
Disney’s Not So Spooky Spectacular is a show you do not want to miss, get there early to get a good spot. This show is pretty incredible. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably the BEST show I have seen at Disney since re-opening. And I love ALL Disney shows. There is only one Firework show each evening. They will delay it if there is rain. So be sure to stick around.
Top Tips for the Ultimate Expereince:
Dress Up
Part of the fun of this Halloween party is seeing all the costumes. You don't have to be in full costume for the best experience, but it makes it fun. Make sure any costume that you wear is light enough for you to survive the Florida heat still. Sometimes when dressing up is not an option, we just wear Halloween-themed shirts. It is swelteringly hot in August, and we cannot do it! So instead we opt for T-shirts.
Get to the Park Early, have a plan & The first shows are the most crowded
Here we go again, having to make a game plan for attending something at the Disney Parks. There are multiple showtimes, but there is only one firework show. And depending on where you want to be watching this, you need to have a game plan on what time you will need to find your viewing area. The Boo-To-You parade, the Hocus Pocus Villain SPELLtacular, and the firework show Disney’s Not So Spooky Spectacular are you main spooky events that you do not want to miss. They try to line up the show times. Also the headless horseman starts of the Boo-To-You parade and is really something special and creepy to see! So if you can get to the parade early so you can watch him come down main street get there a little early.
The first shows are always the most crowded so keep that in mind!
Decide if Rides are worth it
The ride overlays are great, but you have to decide if you are there for low ride times or the Halloween party. The Halloween party has so much going on that rides are the least important thing. The two rides to check out will be Pirates with live pirates on the ride during the party. The haunted mansion has live ghosts outside that mansion which is a very cool and freaky experience. Any other ride overlays can be skipped, but again that is something your family has to decide. If you want to get on a ride, I suggest the last hour of the party because the wait times are the least as the partygoers are staying to leave the park.
Skip the park day
Seriously. Skip it if you have kids! If you plan on attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, it's not worth losing out, and the party's fun because you tried to squeeze in a park day too. Its too much for the kids. They will not make it, and you will have kids fast asleep by 9 pm. Learn from the mistake that I made TWICE in 2017 and 2018.
While writing this, the lowest park ticket to Disney is $109, and the lowest Halloween party ticket is $99. you are looking at $208 plus tax PER PERSON before you even step foot in the parks. If you have four people, you are at $832 plus tax BEFORE you even step into the park. I can already tell you that the price PER PERSON is never worth it at Disney World. Even during Christmas, you will not see ticket prices that high for one day. Then you have the fact that you have now allowed yourself to have a park day that starts around 8:30 am and will close at midnight. There is no one a child is going to make it on that kind of day without a major tantrum, and honestly, you won't make it either. Doing Disney like this is not fun. I rarely tell you no because I understand that all families are different and do Disney differently. But take this unsolicited advice - this is a recipe for disaster. If you want to enjoy the park day, have a very relaxing chill day. Sleep in, eat a good breakfast, splash in the pool for an hour, and rest. Start dressing around 2 pm and head to the parks around 3 - 3:30 to get in at 4 pm. Enjoy this party and skip the park.
If you are NOT going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - going to the park on a party day is always a good idea! This is also a perfect way to utilize a park hopper ticket. The wait times are so low, and if you start at 8:30 am leaving at 7 pm is more than a full park day. We would still take a midday break with that many hours. Remember, you will not see a firework show if you attend the park that day. So if you have one day at Magic Kingdom, make sure you do not go on that day.
FAQs for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Does Genie+ work for the event?
No, ticketed events do not utilize Genie+ because they restrict the party capacity for these events. Typically lines are longer from 4 pm - 7 pm when the party actually begins. You will see a significant drop in wait times around 8 pm once all day guests are gone and party activities have officially begun. During the party's last hour, most open attractions will have very low wait times.
Can you use DAS Pass for this event?
Unfortunately, no. But with the diminished wait times, the lines are much shorter and more manageable. But again, if you are attending the Halloween party, there is so much stuff to do outside of the rides, and you may want to skip them.
Can you see all the shows and fireworks in one event?
Yes you can!! The line up the times of the parade and stage shows to make it easier for you. Then there are additional shows in Tomorrowland, Frontierland and Fantasyland depending on your preferences for the evening that you may not want to miss.
Are Discount Tickets available for this event?
Yes! My friends at Undercovertourst.com are ALWAYS the number one must trusted site for discount tickets. Then if you are a DVC member or Annual Pass holder there are always additional discount for you by logging into your member sites and save $10 a ticket.
Is it better to wait until the kids are older to attend this event?
It depends. If your child is under three and free, I always say go for it! When they are free, going to Disney and doing, anything they have to offer while free is always worth it. Are they going to remember it? No, but you will, and you will remember all those fun interactions they had with characters, and their faces light up as they watch the shows. It is a different story when you have to start paying for them. You have to decide if it is worth it and if you will maximize the day. If they are in kindergarten or older, you know they can make it through at least a 7 hours day. So six and up with a well-rested day makes for a fantastic experience. But I have taken my kids at all ages, and it's been fun. The little ones always have to leave early; they just can't hang that long. But when my daughter was 7, she closed the park with me! I had to carry her from the bus to the room, but it was worth it, and maybe I should have asked them to leave me the single stroller. Haha! It's an expensive night - and I always say DO NOT go to the park the day of the party.
If you have more questions about the Halloween Party, please drop them in the comments.
Head to check out our family plan for the party, here!
For character locations for the party, click here!
Shop our Halloween costumes here!
Original Publication: August 2022
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