Walt Disney World – Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party

August 2019

Mickey’s No So Scary Halloween party was so much better than I expected. I knew it was going to be magically-spooky, I just didn’t think it would be as good as it was.

For 2019, the festivities started from August 16 and went through to November 1st. We visited the spectacular on the 20th of August – so early to start celebrating Halloween, but I LOVE Halloween, and with my brother having a Halloween birthday, it was an early treat to celebrate his spooky birthday.

The party is held on certain days, so in August it was on the 16th, 20th, 23rd, 27th and 30th. In September, the 2nd, 6th, 8th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 27th and 29th. In October, 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 14th, 17th, 18, 20th, 21st, 24th, 25th, 27th, 29, and 31st. And lastly, November 1st.

It’s held at Magic Kingdom and is essentially Disney with a spooky (but not scary) twist. You are advised to wear a costume (even the adults) – just no masks or props. You go around the park collecting candy and chocolatey goodness at designated trick or treat stations – which are free. So, if you do visit on Halloween you will not be missing out on any Halloween traditions, that’s for sure.

From what I’ve seen online, tickets can cost from $60 to $100. I’m assuming the pay more dependant on how close to Halloween you want to visit. So, it may sound steep, but you can enter the park from 4pm onwards, with the party starting at 7pm, and day time guests being ushered out of the park from 6pm. So the park does actually feel much emptier. You kind of have the park to yourself – it really does feel like that from 6pm onwards. You can jump on all of your best-loved rides with minimal wait times! So, if that doesn’t float your boat, then I don’t know what will!

When you pass through security, cast members are dotted about the entrance (just before the railroad) with orange wrist bands, which are used to detect who should and shouldn’t be in the park. Once you enter Town Square, on the right hand side, in the corner to the side of the Town Square Theater, a new entrance is opened up, allowing all Halloween party guests to enter the park (without fighting the usual Main Street crowds) and collect a goodie bag on their way. Note – this trick or treating-style bag you get given is already filled with treats! I soon snaffled all of the sweets which consisted of ‘proper’ sweets like skittles, peanut butter snickers, chocolate coins, Starburst and more. The side entrance we were ushered through skipped all the crowds down Main Street and brought us out at The Plaza Restaurant – it was weird to first see the Castle from a different angle.

The map was different as well which I enjoyed! You could see where new character meets where going to be and the trick or treat stations.

As the park is still Magic Kingdom – just a  little spookier – you’ll get the opportunity to hit up any rides you may have missed from previous visits, or rides that tend to be really busy every day. Snow White’s Mine Train being a perfect example. Three hour wait on a normal day – 20 minutes at the Halloween party. We also made the most of reduced crowds at night time by getting our photo taken with all of the Lanterns from Tangled at the Tangled toilets. Usually the queue is super long, and you’ll realistically only get time to take a photo in the day.

At the party, we waited about 20 minutes to have our picture taken, and I love the photos they took of us.

Decoration

I need to somehow get my hands on the Halloween decorations that are up on Main Street. If anyone knows where I can get them, let me know in the comments! Anyway…

Orange wreaths with a carved Mickey pumpkin is my favourite bit of decor. Wreaths, pumpkins, light-up pumpkins, bunting, banners. It’s just beautiful.

Merchandise

I only bought myself two Halloween decorations, I had to hold off from buying everything. I picked up a ceramic Mickey Mouse pumpkin tea light and a Haunted Mansion bauble, the latter I bought for two reasons; one, it’s one of my favourite rides and two, it was the 50th anniversary of the ride this year!

You could also buy a larger ceramic mickey Mouse pumpkin, plastic trick or treat Mickey pumpkins, mugs, bags, snow globes, and obviously baubles for Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus and Haunted Mansion – as well as lots of film-related clothing.

I was surprised at how much merch was available. This is on top of the normal, day-to-day Disney merchandise that you could buy too!

Character meets

In terms of character meets, the big one for Halloween is OBVIOUSLY the Pumpkin King himself Jack, with Sally. During the party, the couple are located where Tinkerbell usually is at Town Square Theatre (next to the Minnie and Mickey meet and greet – who are still available to meet there during the Halloween party). The first thing we did when arriving at Magic Kingdom was find out the wait time for Jack and Sally, as we did our research and knew it was going to be a few hours at least. It was three hours only 30 minutes after they had arrived.

We decided to venture off as we didn’t want to waste time queuing, and decided we would come back later, during a parade to see if crowds went down. And they did! However, it was still a 40 minute queue that turned into an hour, but we did get more sweets and an autograph card, so swings and roundabouts. Jack and Sally were lovely, they said that we ‘were simple meant to be’.

Characters to look out for during the Halloween party include the aforementioned Jack and Sally, the Seven Dwarfs, Drizella and Anastasia, Mickey and friends, Pooh and friends, Stitch, the Evil Queen, Jack Sparrow, Aladdin, Jafar and so many more.

Characters can be found either roaming the park, or at specific meet and greet stations.

Trick or Treating

Trick or Treat stations are dotted about the whole of the park during the party, and cast members were very generous with giving out sweets. Sweet stations were on street corners, as well as ‘surprise’ ones after some rides and during queues. So, you won’t miss your chance to get a few handfuls of sweets.

Rides

All rides run as normal. However, a handful of rides have a spooky twist. So If you don’t want to know *SPOILER ALERT* skip the below bullet points!

• Space Mountain – it goes completely black, so you are in the dark (literally and metaphorically).
• Pirates of the Caribbean – has live actors in the queues and during the ride – keep your eye out for Johnny Depp (he has been known for doing a few appearances over the years).
• Mad Hatters Tea Party – has new lighting effects.
• Haunted Mansion – has live actors in the queue.

To add, as mentioned above, because of the massively reduced number of visitors, I don’t think there was a single waiting time above 20 minutes, even on all of the big rides like Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.

We waited about 10 minutes for Haunted Mansion (my fav!), walked onto The Little Mermaid, 15 minutes for Splash Mountain, 10 minutes for Pirates – the list of short wait times goes on!

But I really could not believe my eyes when I kept seeing the wait times. For that alone, I thought the ticket prices were worth it.

Food and Drink

Lots of food and drink at the party was Halloween themed, I just wish prices weren’t so steep because I could have spent my whole time eating and ultimately falling into the biggest sugar coma… which would be a bad thing, I guess.

Loads of food is themed – Maleficent ice cream, Hades blue cotton candy drinks, pumpkin milkshakes, ‘Amuck Amuck Amuck’ cupcakes, Mickey waffles (halloween themed – black and orange), Jack and Sally cake pops, Halloween cinnamon rolls, brownies, nachos, cheesecakes, sundaes – the list goes on.

Mickey’s Boo-to-You Halloween Parade

I loved the Boo-to-You parade. It’s set out like the normal Disney parades but features all of the villains, so characters you may not have seen in person before.

They also mastered getting a repetitive song stuck in your head for hours after. My favourite thing about the parade was the headless horseman trotting down Main Street just before the parade starts. This is used as a signal that the parade is about to happen. Super spooky!

Then, one by one, floats drift past you, each styled around a different character. It starts with Mickey and friends, then comes the likes of Jack Sparrow, Oogie Boogie, The Black Widow Bride and the Grim Grinning Ghosts, The Incredibles and Edna Mode, Buzz and the Aliens, Evil Queen, Maleficent, Jafar and Aladdin, Cheshire Cat, Panic and Pain, Hyenas, Vanellope and Ralph, Sadness, Tinkerbell, Peter pan and friends, Princess’ like Rapunzel, and more. So, it’s a jam-packed, character-loaded parade.

Hocus Pocus Villian Spelltacular

This, was incredible. My god, those women could belt out a note.

The theme of this ‘spelltacular’ was – the Sanderson Sisters wanted to host a party, but needed help from fellow Villians to help cast a spell. Characters that come out to play and sing their own songs include Dr Facilier, Oogie Boogie and Maleficent. And once they’ve helped conjur up a spell, the likes of Cruella Devil, Evil Queen, Hades, Jafar, Captain Hook and Lady Temaine, all join in. And, of course, the show ends with “I Put a Spell on You”. It was so good!

Not-So-Spooky Spectacular fireworks Show

We sadly missed part of this firework show due to the queue lasting longer than expected for Jack and Sally. Nevertheless, we caught a glimpse and snapped a few photos.

As always, Disney are marvellous at firework display. They last between 15 to 20 minutes and never fail to blow you away.

This year was a brand new firework display, with Jack Skellington playing host to the display, telling a story of how ‘anything can happen on Halloween’. Zero flies off, taking the guests through a trick-or-treating journey of how Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy are drawn to a haunted house. Throughout the display you encounter various villains, projections, lasers and wonderful fireworks, along with gripping, well-known classic songs.

Overall

I LOVED THIS.

Pricey for admission – but overall you can do as much as you could do in a full day. You can see so many more characters than you would normally see on an average park day. Food for the occasion is pricey, but so pretty to look at and take pictures of – if you don’t want to buy any of it.

It was August, yet it felt like it was Halloween. Disney, yet again, did a brilliant job. I would definitely do this again.

Well done Disney, I LOVE you!

Make sure you check out our video over on YouTube here.