Disney celebrates holidays like no other place in the world! And Halloween is no exception.
Typically our family coordinates our trips with the Christmas season but this year we took advantage of our children’s fall break and booked a last minute October trip to Walt Disney World. Of course we had to try out Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Everyone I know has raved about it and I wanted to experience it for myself. Here is what I learned from our visit.
DO dress up! A Disney themed costume is so fun. I promise you will be in good company with other adults in costume. Our family went as characters from Peter Pan. We had a Captain Hook costume we had inherited from a cousin and the rest came together easily. Costumes don’t have to be complicated or expensive either. A little creativity and Pinterest will take you far.
DON’T forget that even in October, Florida is HOT! Mr Smee was insistent that we all wear our complete costumes to the park. Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and Wendy (myself) were fine in our lightweight costumes. Four year old Captain Hook and his heavy coat and Mr Smee sweating under his knit hat made for some not so cool moments.
DO take advantage of early entry to the park! Guests who are coming for Mickey’s Not So Scary can arrive as early at 4pm without an additional park ticket! We used the morning to visit the pool and take a nice long nap at our resort before heading to Magic Kingdom. At 6pm, they stop allowing guests to enter who do not have tickets for the party and at 7pm only party guests are permitted to stay. That is also when Trick or Treating officially begins.
DON’T push young kids to stay out so late that they are falling apart. We specifically did not do a full day in the park that day because we knew that our kids would need to rest. While the party goes until after midnight, we started our walk to the buses around 10:15p. We missed the fireworks but we avoided three kids having a total Disney meltdown.
DO bring your own bags for Trick or Treating! Disney does not skimp on the candy and after only visiting a few spots, their bags were bulging.
DON’T focus so much on the candy that you miss out on everything else going on. Our bus driver told us about a family who collected 20lbs of candy but we couldn’t imagine going home with that much. There is so much more Not-So-Scary things to do!
DO hit up rides and character experiences before the party begins. Mr. Smee was able to take Peter Pan and Captain Hook on Pirates of the Caribbean with only a 20 minute wait. It was an easy 10 minute wait for me to take Tinkerbell to visit Cinderella. It’s a great opportunity to jump on rides that you were unable to get a FastPass for on a regular day.
DON’T book a sit down meal. I was so excited to score a last minute dinner at Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh. It is one of our favorites. As a result, we missed out on the Villain Spectacular show! I felt like it cut in to way too much of our time. It would have been a better decision to grab a bite and plant ourselves on the parade route or in front of the stage. Plus, there are special Halloween themed treats available throughout the park.
DO watch the Boo to You parade! All of your favorite characters are there, the floats are unique to the holiday and it is absolutely amazing. The grave diggers were favorites with our family.
DON’T wait to find a spot on the parade route. Our view is Frontierland was We planned to leave right after the parade so we ended up walking down Main Street USA at the same time as several floats. Once we reached the front of the park, the crowds were so sparse that we had a great up close view of the second half of the parade again. While it is super annoying when the cast members make you move to keep the path clear, it was very easy for us to navigate the crowds and make it to the entrance in record time. Next time, we plan to view the parade from right in front of the park entrance.
DO find Disney PhotoPass photographers and ask for extra magic in your pictures! The Halloween party has special extra magic additions for your family. One of our favorites was in front of the train station as we were leaving. The Headless Horseman made the photo extra spooky!
DON’T wait until your trip to buy Memory Maker. The price jumps from $169 to $199 once your vacation begins. And DON’T forget to get your ticket or Magic Band scanned after each photo!
DO get caught up in the spontaneous magic and have a ton of fun! Have everyone pick one thing for the “Must Do” list and consider everything else a bonus! You are on vacation after all!
Liz Steimer is an Authorized Disney Travel Agent with How Far I’ll Go Adventures.
Contact her at hfiglizsteimer@gmail.com or contact How Far Adventures for a no-obligation quote.