Halloween is among the hottest seasons at Walt Disney theme parks. Disney’s California Journey park in Anaheim, California, hosts a ticketed nighttime occasion known as Oogie Boogie Bash, and it’s already offered out for all 2024 dates. In Orlando, Florida, Magic Kingdom’s Halloween occasion — dubbed Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together — attracts in crowds of revelers. There are nonetheless tickets obtainable, although some days are already offered out.
The 2024 Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together — which is held on about three dozen evenings between Aug. 9 and Oct. 31 — kicks off even earlier this yr than it did in 2023, when the primary occasion occurred on Aug. 11. The opening date is nearer to Fourth of July than to Halloween.
However maybe extra horrifying than the crowds is the associated fee. Grownup tickets begin at $127 per individual together with tax, however run as excessive as $212 on some nights. Get together friends can arrive as early as 4 p.m., so that you’ll additionally want a separate ticket if you wish to spend the sooner a part of your day within the theme parks.
That stated, listed below are six methods to economize at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together.
Go to on cheaper nights
Ticket costs range by date, with the most affordable nights largely in August or on weekdays. Weekdays generally is a extra excellent time to go to anyway, as chances are you’ll discover decrease costs for different journey bills akin to lodge rooms.
Purchase your ticket forward of time
Some nights of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together — even in August — are already offered out.
Flex reductions from different Disney membership applications
Disney World Annual Passholders and Disney Trip Membership members obtain a $10 low cost on sure occasion nights. Neither of these two membership applications are precisely low cost to hitch, however in the event you’re already a member, you would possibly as properly hyperlink your account at checkout to save lots of.
Maximize your hours
The occasion technically runs from 7 p.m. till midnight. 5 hours of festivities shakes out to as a lot as $42.40 per hour in the event you purchased the priciest ticket. However, Disney enables you to enter the theme park as early as 4 p.m. (To reach sooner than that, you’ll want a separate day ticket).
Arriving early maximizes your time within the park, however anticipate strains even earlier than the 4 p.m. entry time.
The Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular present. (Photograph courtesy of Disney)
Maximize closing hours, too. The Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, a present held just a few instances every evening in entrance of Cinderella Fort, holds its last efficiency of the evening at midnight. Technically, the occasion ends at midnight. However viewers members at this roughly 20-minute-long present gained’t get swept out of the park till the present ends.
Spending the utmost included 8.5 hours on the occasion breaks a $212 admission ticket right down to about $25 per hour, which is barely simpler to swallow.
Make a sport plan
Have a method for the way you’ll spend your hours within the park. There are just a few faculties of thought:
Some partygoers use the Halloween events to soak in all the opposite issues that you may’t do throughout the remainder of the yr. That features a fireworks present and a parade with characters who you gained’t in any other case see within the parks, such because the Hitchhiking Ghosts from the Haunted Mansion and the Headless Horseman. Among the many new exercise additions in 2024 is a dance occasion themed to the film, “Descendants: The Rise of Crimson.”
The opposite camp includes attendees who benefit from the park’s smaller crowds to trip as many rides as doable. In response to theme park monitoring web site Thrill Information, the typical wait time throughout all sights throughout Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together in 2023 was 14 minutes. In the meantime, the typical wait time for the remainder of October 2023 — not accounting for the occasion hours — was 28 minutes.
Visiting the parks throughout the Halloween occasion seemingly means you may expertise extra rides with much less time ready within the queue. For guests searching for to hop on as many rides as doable, visiting throughout the occasion relatively than with a regular ticket would possibly show extra worthwhile.
Deliver a backpack
The deal with bag that attendees obtained in 2023. (Photograph by Sally French)
Sweet is plentiful throughout Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together. Throughout the numerous locations to trick or deal with, workers serving the packaged sweets are beneficiant. Previous attendees have reported getting 20, 30 and generally even 40 or extra kilos of sweet in a single evening. Some friends save the sweet collected from the occasion to move out to their very own neighbors on Halloween evening.
Attendees obtain a complimentary deal with bag at check-in. Although it’s sufficiently big to tote a good sugar haul, folks attempting to maximise their sweet stash will want one thing greater. Deliver a backpack, which in line with the Walt Disney World Resort property guidelines, may be as much as 24 by 15 by 18 inches in measurement.
Although in the event you’re flying versus driving house, don’t neglect to account on your stash of sweet and any particular Halloween-themed souvenirs you picked up. You could have to pay one other airline bag charge.
Is Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween occasion price it?
Disney workers use shovels handy attendees sweet, served out of large barrels. (Photograph by Sally French)
Regardless of how a lot sweet you gather, attending may be price it — particularly for seasoned Disney veterans who’ve in any other case seen all of it. Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Get together affords distinctive experiences together with party-exclusive parades and reveals. There’s additionally the power to put on costumes contained in the parks (adults often are in any other case prohibited from sporting costumes).
Sure traditional Magic Kingdom sights are remodeled into trick-or-treat zones. For instance, relatively than, say, sit by one more presentation of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, occasion friends are free to wander by the open doorways of the tropical hideaway and gather sweet as a substitute.
