FIRST LOOK: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party 2022
Halloween has arrived in Disney World, and we were at the first night of the return of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
Arrival
Ticketed party guests can enter Magic Kingdom beginning at 4 PM, and neither a day ticket nor park reservation are required for party guests. This year’s party runs until midnight, meaning guests can get up to 8 hours in the Magic Kingdom with just a party ticket.
When you enter the park, a Cast Member will confirm that you have a party ticket, and from there you will be given a wristband that signifies that you have a ticket to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. If you were previously in the park on a day ticket, like our park correspondent, Chrissy, there are marked locations around the park that open at 4 PM in order for you to get your wristband. Chrissy picked up her wristband at the entrance to Tomorrowland.
There are 6 locations to get your #MNSSHP wristbands. Main Entrance, Market St Welcome (til 8), Tomorrowland across from Laugh Floor, Tortuga Tavern, Fantasy Faire, & Liberty Square Ticket Office. Bags & your first treat everywhere except Main Entrance. 🎃 pic.twitter.com/nSn2s186Hx
— TouringPlans (@TouringPlans) August 12, 2022
In addition to wristbands, Cast Members are there handing out party-exclusive park maps. This will be your guide to character greetings, trick-or-treat locations, specialty food and beverage, and merchandise.
You can find PhotoPass locations with Magic Shots and Halloween Props, as well as interactive photo frames on the park map.
Character Greetings
During the party, there are 15 different character meet and greets locations throughout the park. We did notice that the character locations on the maps did not match the locations shown on the My Disney Experience App, so that is something to note.
On the first night meet and greet lines were long, we were told that when the party started at 7 PM the wait for Jack and Sully at Town Square was already at 3 hours, however, the wait for Mickey at the same time was just 15 minutes. So be sure to prioritize what characters you are looking to see.
There are meet and greet areas throughout the park, and we noticed some characters rotated through the same spot. In Fantasyland alone we saw Alice and the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum all rotate through the same location.
Trick or Treat Trails
This year’s party has 14 different trick-or-treat locations scattered throughout the park. You can pick up your trick-or-treat bag when you enter the party, and we received both a trick-or-treat bag and a full-sized bag of M&M’s, our first candy of the night.
If you have an allergy, pick up one of the teal allergy-friendly bags. If you missed grabbing one, visit one of the allergy-friendly centers, this year’s party has two locations, one on Main St and one in Liberty Square. If you are doing the allergy friendly version you just trick-or-treat as normal, but instead of candy, you pick up a plastic teal coin from the Cast Member with a teal apron. Once done for the night, return the allergy-friendly coins to one of the allergy-friend centers to redeem your allergy-friendly treats.
It is easy to spot the trick-or-treat spots around the park, look for the giant illuminated pylon and follow it to the candy. There is no age limit for trick-or-treating, and you can go as many times as you want.
Mickey’s Boo-to-You Halloween Parade
Staring in Frontierland and continuing all the way down Main Street, the “Boo-to-You” parade returns to the Halloween Party. You can catch this one twice a night during the party at both 9:15 PM and 11:15 PM.
Unfortunately for us, rain canceled the first parade. However, the second parade ended up running with a slight adjustment in its schedule. Disney made only one announcement that the parade would be starting 10 minutes early due to the weather. So, be aware that weather can move entertainment times throughout the night, and you need to listen for announcements as the changes will not be reflected in the My Disney Experience App.
Disney’s Not-So-Spooky Spectacular
Fireworks also return to this year’s Halloween event, with the firework, projection, and laser show that lights up the sky over Cinderella Castle starting at 10:15 PM.
However during our party, the rain decided to strike again, and fireworks were delayed but still went off. Of course, we were upfront for a great view of Jack Skellington, and you can find a video of it over on our Tiktok. The show runs 12 minutes long and is on the schedule for every night of the party.
Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular!
The Hocus Pocus stage show returns to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It has three shows a night through the end of September and expands to four shows a night for all of October. The stage show is hosted by the Sanderson Sisters, and takes place on the stage right in front of Cinderella Castle.
We went early to grab a spot in order to catch the first stage show, but unfortunately the rain started and we decided to skip the first one since there are two other shows that night. Because of the rain, the first show was in fact canceled, as was the second show. The third show which was scheduled for midnight ended up being slightly delayed at first, eventually happened about 10 minutes late, and we believe it was an abbreviated version of the show.
Speciality Treats
Dining locations are open throughout the party and feature specialty treats and beverages only available during this ticketed event. There are both savory and sweet options, and all the dining locations with specialty treats are displayed on the Halloween party map.
Our in-park reporter Chrissy tried the Almond Sweet Corn Cake, located at Pecos Bill this almond vanilla cake is drizzled with icing and topped with Candy Corn. She loved the dish as she found it not too sweet and said is the perfect amount to share.
Additional
Dance Parties
This year’s Halloween party includes three dance parties, with appears by characters like Vampirina, Mike Wazowski, and various characters to celebrate the movie ‘Zombie 3’.
Storybook Circus Junior Jam takes place in Fantasyland and runs the entire length of the party.
Outside in Tomorrowland, you can catch the Monstrous Scream-O-Ween Ball with appearances by Mike Wazowski and Sulley.
And finally, the new Zom-Beatz Bash is happening inside Cosmic Rays, and includes appearances by zombies, cheerleaders, werewolves, and aliens from ‘Zombie 3’. We headed into this dance party early to try and spot Max Goof as Powerline but he hadn’t made an appearance yet.
Cadaver Dans
Over in Frontierland, the Cadaver Dans perform throughout the night, and the Cadaver Dans are the Halloween party version of the Dapper Dans. You can find performance times in the My Disney Experience App.
There is so much happening at this year’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, so be sure to come back as we continue to cover all the details of the party.
Did the parade have the same number of performers as pre-covid? I’m referring to groups such as the grave diggers and the zombie dancers. Or are they still scaled down to a few performers instead of the many that they used to have?
What I want to know is, did Wil Wheaton record the announcements for the show and fireworks? It sure sounded like him. I messaged him on Facebook but I doubt he answers those.
How crowded did it feel? Since it was sold out, we want some intel before buying our tickets for mid-September.
It felt pretty crowded. Especially when the rain shut down the first Hocus Pocus show and the first parade. But if you don’t care about the fireworks and parade ride lines were super short after that.