Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party – Well Worth The Price of Admission

If you plan on being at Disney World or Disneyland in the fall you may be contemplating attending Disney’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.  This is an event that runs on certain days in the months of September to November at Magic Kingdom.  You can view the dates here.

During Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party the park offers extra activities including a special Halloween parade, trick or treating, special character meet & greets and more.

This is a seperately ticketed event, meaning that your normal daily admission into Magic Kingdom does not include this event.   The cost varies a bit depending on what day you choose but starts at $59.95 for kids and $64.95 for adults.  Regular guests who have entered the park during the day of the Halloween Party will be required to leave the park at 7:00pm.

We knew we would be in town during the Halloween Party and the 6 adults (traveling with 3 children) wrestled with the decision if it was worth the extra cost to attend the event.  We ended up deciding to attend and we are so very glad that we did.  Everyone in our family loved the experience, and in true Disney style it was well organized and very magical.  We would encourage you and your family to attend, and we’d like to share some tips and tricks that we learned from our visit to the event.  Go here to see the official Disney brochure of the event.

Tips and Tricks for the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party:

• Catch the Mickey’s “Boo-to-You” Halloween Parade—including Disney Characters and the stars of the Haunted Mansion attraction. The parade begins with a spook-tacular ride by the Headless Horseman. (If you want a curb side seat, get there about an hour early to stake your claim. We did not, and still managed to see the parade well from our vantage point a few feet back.)  Parade times are 8:15 and 10:00.  The later parade was less busy.
• Happy HalloWishes—a spectacular fireworks show where the Disney Villains go trick-or-treating in the sky. This is different from the normal Disney fireworks show and is really a great spectacle.
• Many favorite Disney Characters and Disney Villains in special Halloween costumes are out and about.  The villains rarely come out in the park so our nephew was especially excited about this!  Catch the Villains Dance Mix & Mingle and you will get about 15 minutes of time with the Villians after the show for them to take photos.  We recommend being at the front of the line so you can get access to them, they do not stay out long.  We staked a claim in the very front for the 8:50 show while the parade was going on.  It was magical to be that close!
• There are many Disney characters out all over the park, and while there were lines, they moved very quickly. As the night went on the lines dwindled and we’d encourage you to remain in the park until it closes at midnight. Our experience was that after the 1st parade (there are parades at 8:15pm and 10:30pm) many people left the park but after the 2nd parade many, many more left. This meant shorter lines for the rides as well as for the character meet & greets. At one point around 11:00pm we walked right into an empty building in Fantasyland where we had Donald and Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse and Goofy all to ourselves for 15 minutes! It was magical to see the delight in the children’s eyes as the characters joked and played with them. Even the adults got into the act, getting to dance with Goofy! This was a wonderful unexpected treat of the event!
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• Some of the rides do close early, but 85% of them remain open during the event.  If you are not into character greetings it’s a great time to ride the attractions with little to no lines.
• Disney employees pass out candy at various locations and they provide you with a bag to keep it in.  Do not be shy about trick or treating if you are an adult, they encourage it.  The lines go very quickly and they are generous with the treats!  We heard one employee say they go through 200+ tons of candy a night – that seems like an awful lot!
• The Character Dance Party in Tommorowland is an excellent way for your children to interact with Disney characters.  Stitch and Goofy were out during our show and as you can see the kids got up close and personal.  There is also a Dance Party in Liberty Square but we did not make it to that one.
• Visit Magic Kingdom before the Halloween Party, if possible, so you can enjoy the magic and wonder of the park without trying to squeeze in the Halloween activities.  We arrived at Magic Kingdom early on a Tuesday and the crowds were fine.  We spent the entire day at the park and by the night’s end we felt we had seen most of what we wanted to.  We also realized we had a good understanding of the layout of the park which was helpful when we returned another day for the Halloween Party.
• Buy your tickets for the Halloween Party in advance to save on the ticket price.  Go here to Disney to buy online.  You can pick the tickets up at Will Call when you arrive, and when we picked ours up the line was incredibly short.
• The event lists the opening time as 7:00pm, but Disney actually allows you to enter the park with your Halloween Ticket at 4:00pm.  This is a great benefit that not everyone knows about and while the actual trick or treat stations are not open that early it does allow you to enjoy an extra 3 hours at the park for the price of the ticket!  People in the park who do not have the Halloween Party ticket will be required to leave at 7:00pm.
• You can dress up in costume if you wish;  many adults and children dressed up.
• You do not have to bring a bag to carry the candy in, Disney provides you with a bag for your candy when you enter.  Here is the haul our family received during the trick or treating:
• If you don’t want to haul around a camera we’d suggest the Disney Photo Pass.  If you go here and buy your Photo Pass online before you trip you will save money.   We bought our pass for $119 online and we noticed that at the park it runs $169!  If you have several families traveling together you can split the cost of the pass and share the CD that you receive.  You can get as many Photo Pass cards as you wish while at the park so families can split up and have different photos taken.  Just look for the Disney Photo Pass photographers;  they are out and about at many spots including most character greetings.  Hand them your Pass (or ask them for a new one) and their photos are downloaded to that card.  Afterwards, enter in the number of the card to your online Disney Photo Pass account and the photos are uploaded to your account.  You can enter an unlimited number of cards, which is great!
• Pack your own food and bring it to the park.  We did this, packing peanut butter & jelly sandwiches along with granola bars, fruit snacks, apples, chips/pretzels, etc.  We stored the bag in a locker ($14 to rent, $5 of which you get back when you return the key).  This saved our family of 9 a huge amount of money!  You can also go to any stand/store in Disney that sells fountain beverages and ask for a complimentary glass of water.  We did this often, as well as purchased a couple of fountain sodas.  There are ample places to sit and eat within the park, and having something ready made really saved time and money for us.

You can find out more tips and tricks about saving money at Disney here, as well as Sea World tips, Universal Studios tips and more.  Check out our Ways to Save Money While Traveling section.