My family (myself, husband and daughters, ages 8 and 12) recently attended Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. I underscore the part about it being a family trip because that obviously greatly impacted the way we experienced the party and my overall impression. I can say we had a great time, and I would absolutely do it again and recommend it to clients, but maybe not for the reasons you would expect!
I should start by saying that my girls were looking forward to the Halloween party for weeks before our trip and were super excited to dress up for it. They came up with their costumes all on their own, which were Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, complete with ears they custom made themselves. They looked really cute and were still comfortable and cool the entire night. It was still quite warm even after the sun went down!
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom on party day just after 5pm. We did not have regular park tickets this day and that was the right move for us! We considered doing one of the water parks but ultimately decided it would be best to have a low-key day at our resort (Animal Kingdom Lodge – more to come on that!) to ensure we could make the most of the evening hours at the party. Party guests can enter Magic Kingdom as early as 4pm but we held off due to some lingering rain showers, which luckily were not much of an issue throughout the evening.
The crowds felt moderate when we first entered the park with a mix of party guests and regular daytime guests, who would have to exit the park by 6pm. We went straight to Tomorrowland to fuel up on Joffrey’s with hopes we would make it to the end of the party at midnight! At that time, it had started raining. It wasn’t downpouring, but enough that we wanted to get indoors so we headed to Space Mountain since the standby wait was only about 25 minutes. We had heard that they would turn all the lights off in Space Mountain for the party so we were interested in seeing how that would be. We ended up riding just before 6pm and it was the usual set up, which was fine because we love that ride regardless.
After riding Space Mountain, it was still raining a bit so we decided to do TRON, which had a similar 20-25 minute standby wait. I absolutely loved the freedom of waiting in reasonable standby lines versus managing lightning lanes. Don’t get me wrong, I love lightning lanes and when the park is busy it’s a must – I’ve never regretted buying it. However, it was so nice to just be able to ride things on a whim since nothing had much of a wait time and we couldn’t use a lightning lane if you wanted to. After TRON the rain had subsided and my youngest wanted to do the Tomorrowland Speedway, which we normally never do because the wait is always too long, but it was only 5 minutes! While she and my husband did that, my oldest and I went off to find the treat bags we saw other guests carrying.
Here is the part when I confess that we never got the treat bags or obtained a single piece of candy all night. As we learned, there were minimal wait times for rides because everyone was doing the treat trails! We figured it was just busy and congested at that point since the party was just getting started and we’d get to the treat trails later but we never did and we were totally fine with it. Did we do the party wrong? Maybe? But as people who don’t get to visit the parks all that often, we loved being able to ride all the attractions we wanted with minimal waiting. We rode Tiana’s three times in a row including during fireworks. It was awesome! There were also all kinds of party exclusive snacks and treats, which were fun to see but again, we didn’t partake in much. I did get the Phantasmal Fried Pumpkin Ravioli at Pinocchio Village Haus, which were so delicious and I would definitely recommend.
Somehow, we made it to the 11pm and were able to catch the second parade, which kicks off with the headless horseman and was very creepy and cool to see. We watched from just to the left of the castle heading onto Main Street. It wasn’t prime viewing, but we definitely had a decent view and plenty of space to sit along a wall while we ate our churros and ice cream sandwich. The parade was fun and we all enjoyed it, tired as we were.
After experiencing the Halloween party with a more limited number of guests, I now fully see the appeal of the Disney After Hours tickets, which we have not done previously! Especially with my girls now being a little older, they can handle staying up pretty late a couple nights as long as the daytime is low-key. I think when we go again, I will try to work in more party nights or after hours tickets over regular park days if possible. The party was really cute and fun to be immersed in, but when it came down to it, the family just wanted to do our usual favorites and I feel fine about that!
Have you attended MNSSHP? I’d love to hear your thoughts!