Tips For Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland
Most magical time of the year at Disneyland? Halloween Time, of course! Here are my Tips For Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland.
If you are like me, you’re already freaking out about the Halloween store emails and have at least one friend on Facebook announcing that costumes have already been purchased.
If that’s you: lawdy, really? I admire your?organization skills!
Halloween is awesome (even if I have major last-minute costume issues) and there’s no better place to spend it than Disneyland.
If you managed to snag tickets to this year’s sold out event, here’s what you need to know before you go.
Tips For Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland
My family has attended the event three times and I have a few thoughts on the event.
Some good, some not so good. More on that in a bit.
But I have tips for Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland that will help make yours the best time ever!
Tips For Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland
Buy Early
Tickets go on sale July 21 for the DVC Members, Annual Passholders, and Disney Visa cardholders. The general public can buy tickets starting July 28th. These parties sell out. I repeat, these parties sell out!
The closer your preferred dates are to Halloween, the sooner the tickets will sell out.
In fact: the tickets did sell out this year and FAST.
Show Up Early
You can enter Disneyland with your party ticket up to 3 hours before the start of the party. That’s 3 extra hours to ride all the rides and eat all the snacks.
Don’t waste them by dawdling on over to the gates. Get yo’ money’s worth!
Stay Late
People leave right after the fireworks. Like, in droves.
And that’s prime riding time?if your family can stay up for it!
Wear A Costume
Why? Because it’s fun!
We’ve dressed up the past couple of years and everyone gets a kick out of it. My husband and I included.
I’ve been Marian from Indiana Jones, Sadness from Inside Out, and the Evil Queen.
It’s a blast!
I’ve seen some truly spectacular costumes at Disneyland. Everyone seems to go all out.
Unfortunately, the costume rules have changed. This year you’ll see more low-key adult costumes in attendance.
But I say you should still dress up. It’s part of the fun and gets your whole family into the mood.
Here are the rules for 2017:
For Guests Ages 14 and Older
Capes may be worn if the length does not go below the waist.
Themed T-shirts, blouses, sweatshirts and hats are acceptable.
Acceptable accessories include: transparent wings, plastic light sabers, toy swords and tutus. Headwear may be worn as long as it does not cover the face.
Masks of any kind may not be worn.
Guests who do not adhere to these guidelines may be refused entry into, and/or removed from, unless his or her costume can be modified to meet the above standards.
Skip Toontown
Toontown is the first area to open for the Trick or Treat stations.
And it’s a ZOO.
We made the mistake of heading in at opening and basically got trapped inside.
Meanwhile, the other trails started to open and had no lines.
None.
I know this because my sons decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain instead of Trick or Treating and let us know how empty the rest of the park was.
Which brings me to the next point…
Ride the Rides
There are some awesome overlays happening during Halloween Time. This means a couple of your favorite rides have a distinct Halloween flavor to them. It makes the experience very different than the traditional attractions.
While the party is going on, the lines are low! You can ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy with very little wait.
And you’ll never see a Haunted Mansion like this one:
The candy will wait- and they won’t run out. Trust me!
Go ahead and spend some time taking advantage of all the rides you can early on in the night because you won’t want to miss…
The Villains on the Square?
We walked up just as the lines were being closed and missed our chance to take pictures with the Villains. There were 4-5 of them available for pictures and autographs and you can see the schedule on your parks guide or Disneyland app.
If you are a fan of the baddies, then you want to line up early for this encounter.
While we missed the official interactions, we were lucky to have a fantastic time with Anastasia. She found Lucy sitting on the curb and took her hand, chatted, talked, danced, and twirled with her.
She found Lucy sitting on the curb and took her hand, chatted, talked, danced, and twirled with her.
I die.
Watch the Parade and Fireworks
New in 2016: the Frightfully Fun Parade, exclusive to the specially ticketed Halloween party.
With Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King leading things off, you know this will be a spooktacular event.
Grim Grinning Ghosts, Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog, the Evil Queen, Jafar, and Cruella will be present as well. This one’s going to be good, y’all!
I had a chance to see this last year and it was FAB!
If you can stay awake for it, that is.
Halloween Screams fireworks go off behind Sleeping Beauty Castle and are impressive. I love love love them!
The music and atmosphere make these fireworks a spooky end to a not-too-scary night.
Go ahead and pick a spot on the square or on Main Street at least 30 minutes before the parade starts to ensure you can watch both special events.
Pack your Patience
You may have caught it earlier when I said I wasn’t planning on going back to the party.
The main reason isn’t the cost for me; it was due to the crowds.
The first year we went, it was pretty well attended, but not crowded. We marveled at how much we were able to enjoy the party and enjoyed short lines.
Last year I went to two parties and it was wall to wall creeps (a little Haunted Mansion humor) both times.
The lines were stupid long for candy and characters, two of the main things my family wanted to experience.
We were able to ride plenty of rides, but getting around the park was intense due to the size of the crowds.
I have no idea if it will make an impact, but the pricing of the tickets went up quite a bit this year.
Based on a recent Disneyland trip that saw lower crowds than I’ve seen in a year, I can’t help but wonder if the new pricing structure is to thank/blame for that.
The stand-alone ticket party will be held
- Wednesday, September 20
- Friday, September 22
- Monday, September 25
- Wednesday, September 27
- Friday, September 29
- Tuesday, October 3
- Friday, October 6
- Tuesday, October 10
- Friday, October 13
- Tuesday, October 17
- Friday, October 20
- Tuesday, October 24
- Friday, October 27
- Tuesday, October 31
Want to know what’s new for 2017? Check out this post!
Will you be attending Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland this year?
Patty Holliday is the owner and creator of all things No-Guilt Universe. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.
Wondering what dates you’ve attended and the crowds were bad. Both times we’ve gone on Halloween night and the lines were nothing for candy or rides. We just went last year. We’re considering going another date this year but if we’ve been lucky with the Halloween night crowds may skip it.
I went on a Monday night in early October and a Wednesday night around the 17-18th last year. Both parties were crazy packed! The early one wasn’t as bad.
We just went Tuesday beginning of October and it was a packed, sold out party. Way too many people.