Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Overview 2022
We just returned from Walt Disney World and attended the first Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in two years. And it was fantastic. WE CLOSED DOWN THE PARK! Which is how I got this empty shot of Cinderella’s Castle on Main Street.
My husband and I are the only two people in our family that attended this first party so we could scope it out and get all the content we needed. We plan on bringing back our children back in September, when we head back to Walt Disney World with my entire family (12 of us total!)
When you are done reading this post head over to our plan for September when we take our four kids to that halloween party!
We are here to give you all the details!
When you enter Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party, you’ll be ushered to the gates on the right side of the park for entrance starting at 4 PM. 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.
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.
Things to Know:
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.
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 4 PM. That way, they have not exerted much energy throughout the day.
Categories:
Character
Specialty Treats
Specialty Merchandise
Trick or Treating
Shows
Interactive Experience
Rides
Parade
Characters:
When we first arrived to the park, we checked our My Disney Experience app to see if it would show us the location of all the special Halloween characters. But it only showed us the current characters locations for regular park hours. Which was annoying because the map only had a character emblem but did not explain which characters where at every location. At 7 PM, our My Disney Experience app did update, and it will begin to show us the specialty characters and their locations for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party. The tricky thing about this is it’s hard to plan what 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 a total of seven hours to do everything you want. So spending a couple of hours in line is not the best way to utilize your time during this party.
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 and attends this party. My kids will attend this party once every couple of years because we don’t always hit the Halloween season since on our few trips a year.
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 - like we 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.
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. We tried 3 different ones the Almond Sweet Corn Cake (9/10), Spellbinding Fried Pie (9/10), and Candy Corn Ice Cream (9/10). Do not forget to at least get a few of these treats!
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.
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. 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.
**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:
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. You also want to plan time to head to attend any dance parties if that is on your familys priority list. One is in Fantasyland, two are in Tomorrowland, and the Country Bears interactive experience happens sporadically in Frontierland.
Parade:
There are multiple parade times. But like any Disney parade, you want to get there about 30 minutes before if you wish to have a specific spot or a front row spot on the curb. We did the parade by picking an area where we could quickly turn around and watch the Hocus Pocus Villains Spelltacular afterwards. So it just depends on how you plan your time. Unfortunately for us, the Hocus Pocus show was canceled because of the rain. So we did not end up seeing it, but we played on our next trip to get to the same location.
Rides:
Halloween Overlay on Mad Tea Party
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:
You do not want to miss the fireworks, 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.
We’re looking forward to attending this party two more times this year because many of the items got rained out, and we were able to get tickets to return. And then we are also taking our entire family of 12 in September.
