Least Crowded Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party of 2019
Welcome back to what has become a yearly tradition: predicting the least crowded Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party. We’ll look back at last year’s recommendations in a bit and give you the full 2019 list, but first make sure you check out our dedicated page for a complete list of dates as well as a thorough description of what the Halloween party is.
In short, if you’re looking for the best 2019 Halloween Party to attend, we recommend Tuesday, September 24, 2019. Four out of the past five years we’ve recommended a Tuesday night party in mid-September. In 2017 we broke that streak because the parties started so darn early that year. (It turned out that more people went to the late-August parties than the early September parties.) This year the numbers are pointing a little later in September, so we’ve gone with the 24th, although those earlier parties all still rank very high.
The entire list of parties and how we rank them can be found below, but here are some general rules:
- Parties earlier in the year are less busy than those closer to Halloween. There are certainly exceptions that are listed below, but for most parties this is true.
- Tuesdays are generally less busy than other days. Again, exceptions, but when in doubt go on a Tuesday.
Before we get to the 2019 party rankings, let’s revisit our predictions from last year to see how accurate we were. Here were our top 5 recommended party days and how they turned out:
| Party Date | Projected Rank | Actual Measured Rank |
| Tuesday, September 11, 2018 | Lowest Wait Times | 13 |
| Tuesday, August 28, 2018 | 2 | 8 |
| Friday, September 07, 2018 | 3 | 3 |
| Friday, August 24, 2018 | 4 | 5 |
| Tuesday, September 25, 2018 | 5 | 7 |
As you can see, we didn’t do too badly. Number 1 isn’t great, and we don’t really have an explanation why a party that has been historically in the best 5 fell into the teens last year. The parties directly before (September 10) and directly after (September 14) ranked in the 20’s, but the September 7 and September 16 parties ranked 3 and 4, respectively. The lower crowds on September 11th strengthen our “Tuesdays are better” advice, but we’re still not totally sure why that week got busy.
Every year the wait times we’ve been monitoring have gone up. Finally, in 2018, the average wait time dropped slightly to a 14 1/2 minute average wait (down from 15 in 2017). The attraction with the highest average wait is (no surprise) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 35 minutes, followed by Peter Pan’s Flight at 25, Space Mountain at 23, and Haunted Mansion at 22. Among the lowest are “it’s a small world,” Under the Sea, Splash Mountain (remember, it’s at night), and the Barnstormer, all averaging around 7 minutes. As always, there are peaks and valleys, and the lowest times will usually occur late in the party or during parades or fireworks.
This year I also took a long look at the high and low average waits for the rides, and which parties they occurred at. The calculations did factor into the rankings, but the October 14 party really jumped out because there were 5 attractions that had their highest average wait that night: Space Mountain (34), Peter Pan (32), Haunted Mansion (30), Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (12), and “it’s a small world” (12). The other one worth pointing out is the September 3 party (Labor Day), which saw the lowest average wait for 3 attractions: 7 Dwarfs (29), Peter Pan (20), and Buzz Lightyear (6).
Now let’s get on to this year’s rankings. Here are our predicted rankings of crowds at each of the 2019 Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties. Our formula now considers more than just attraction wait times. We now also consider if previous parties sold out and we look at the crowd ratings for the daytime hours. The sold out parties prior to 2016 have been removed from the chart because sellouts were much more common prior to 2016. We present the chart below in order to give you as much information as we have so that you can make an informed decision.
| Party Date | Attraction Wait Times Rank | Advance Purchase Price for an Adult Ticket | Notes |
| Tuesday, September 24, 2019 | Lowest Wait Times | $85 | |
| Tuesday, September 10, 2019 | 2 | $79 | |
| Friday, September 06, 2019 | 3 | $85 | |
| Sunday, September 29, 2019 | 4 | $85 | |
| Sunday, September 15, 2019 | 5 | $79 | |
| Friday, August 30, 2019 | 6 | $85 | |
| Tuesday, October 01, 2019 | 7 | $85 | |
| Tuesday, August 27, 2019 | 8 | $79 | |
| Monday, September 02, 2019 | 9 | $79 | |
| Tuesday, August 20, 2019 | 10 | $79 | |
| Friday, September 27, 2019 | 11 | $85 | |
| Sunday, September 22, 2019 | 12 | $79 | |
| Sunday, September 08, 2019 | 13 | $79 | |
| Friday, September 13, 2019 | 14 | $85 | |
| Friday, August 23, 2019 | 15 | $85 | |
| Sunday, October 27, 2019 | 16 | $115 | Sold out 10 days in advance in 2016. |
| Monday, October 21, 2019 | 17 | $105 | Sold out 1 day in advance in 2016. |
| Friday, October 04, 2019 | 18 | $115 | |
| Thursday, October 17, 2019 | 19 | $105 | |
| Friday, September 20, 2019 | 20 | $85 | |
| Thursday, October 24, 2019 | 21 | $105 | |
| Tuesday, September 17, 2019 | 22 | $79 | |
| Friday, August 16, 2019 | 23 | $85 | First Party. Sold out 1 day in advance in 2018. |
| Tuesday, October 15, 2019 | 24 | $105 | |
| Tuesday, October 29, 2019 | 25 | $115 | Sold out 1 days in advance in 2018. |
| Friday, October 18, 2019 | 26 | $115 | |
| Friday, October 25, 2019 | 27 | $115 | |
| Thursday, October 10, 2019 | 28 | $105 | |
| Thursday, October 03, 2019 | 29 | $105 | |
| Sunday, October 20, 2019 | 30 | $105 | |
| Friday, October 11, 2019 | 31 | $115 | |
| Tuesday, October 08, 2019 | 32 | $105 | |
| Sunday, October 06, 2019 | 33 | $105 | |
| Friday, November 01, 2019 | 34 | $115 | |
| Monday, October 14, 2019 | 35 | $105 | Sold out 1 day in advance in 2017. |
| Thursday, October 31, 2019 | Most Crowded Party | $135 | Sold out 54 days in advance in 2016, 23 days in 2017, and 16 days in 2018. Crowds will be heavy for character meets and parades. |
Our wait times only include attractions−not character meet and greets, special shows, or parades. The characters, in particular, often have long lines, especially for rare characters like Jack Skellington or the Seven Dwarfs. Regardless of which party you attend, some of the character lines will be long. If those are a must-do, do them as early in the evening as possible.
Looking for more information? You may want to check out Derek Burgan’s Six Reasons why He Loves the Halloween Party for even more Halloweenieness (that made-up word is even a stretch for me).
If you consider yourself handy with the camera, or if you simply want better pictures, you can’t go wrong with Tom Bricker’s tips on photographing the Halloween party.
Now that you are armed with the most powerful weapon…knowledge, you can plan your 2019 trip to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. This blog post will help you find all of the party dates and prices.
Hopefully this analysis will help you choose the best Halloween Party to attend. Make sure to check back here in a future blog post, where we’ll be breaking down the best dates for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
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I attended Sept. 11th last yr based on the advice that it would be the least crowded party. I was surprised at how busy it was . I attended again in October 11th & it felt somewhat more crowded. I was just happy to be there, though! I may try early Sept. (Labor Day week) this year to see if it’s better.
thank you! appreciate your work.
Uhhhh… What’s up with September 17th? When we booked our tickets through Shades of Green a few weeks ago they discounted them another $5 each($64). I figured that was due to low sales. Now I’m freaked out.
Do you have recommendations for Disneyland’s Oogie Boogie Bash?
I was also at the Sept 11 party last year. I recall a major ride capacity shortage/outage between 6 and 7 (Pirates, Splash, maybe Big Thunder too?). Is that factored into the wait time rating?
Wonder if those parties the week of Sept 11 would have anything to do with Hurricane Florence (hit around Sept 13/14 2018)? We live in Southeast NC and school was cancelled that whole week, we ended up evacuating to WDW Sept 11-16 and did the Friday Sept 14 party. It seemed very crowded but we had never done a MSSHP before so we didn’t really have a point of comparison. We ran into a lot of people from NC, SC, and GA that evacuated to WDW with the same idea as us hoping for low crowds. We decided to do the Halloween party because a) it was cheaper than a park ticket and b) it wasn’t something we had ever done before. Not sure that would account for as large of an impact required to bump the days that week out of the top 10.
We also evacuated from SC and went to that same Friday party. I spoke to others in line who had done the same thing.
I was planning on attending the October 3 party, but it’s ranked as one of the most crowded. Aren’t Thursday parties supposed to be better than Friday?
We already have our tickets for Sept 29th. I liking you predictions!
Rosh Hashanah was also on September 9-11 last year. Many school districts in the northeast are closed for those 2 days, and this year they fell on Monday and Tuesday. That probably gave a bump to the numbers as well as the hurricane.
This year it’s September 30th and October 1st. So if it makes a difference the crowds for the 9-29 and 10-1 parties may be higher than predicted?
anyone ever been to the party held on labor day night? that’s the week we will be there and i assumed that due to people needing to go back to school and work on the following day, locals anyway, it would be on the less crowded side, especially since it’s one of the lowest priced tickets.
Another person here wondering what’s up with Tue Sept 17th??? I read to book a Tue, so we did instead of Sunday Sept 15th…. but Sunday shows WAY less crowds??
That Friday, the 20th, is also showing a lower crowd number. I’d also like to know what’s happening that Tuesday since that is the day I was planning to go!
So confused also
Anyone know what the last date cast members get discounted tickets are? That cause a huge spike in the number of people one year that we went.
I kept on watching the videos of Brian and any that could predict low crowds and now Sept 17th is the highest of all September Tuesday crowds? How is that even possible? I booked the dates around this so that I can do this day MNSSHP…. Uggghhhh… That’s it. Now back to having fun, no matter what, i am going for the candy…:-)
Is this table based on the the wrong date you have for Columbus Day? On youtube you state Columbus day as the 7th of Oct, and you stated the Sunday prior and the Tuesday after are in the top 5 busiest. This would match up to these dates on the table above. Can you publish a revised table? We plan our trip around your data and recommendations. Thank you for all the help.
Will be attending the first party on August 16th. It just happened to fall during my trip there. Love everything Halloween, so not worried about the crowds (being that it is the first party of the season). The count down has started. Enjoy all your updates and videos. And I have a touring plan for my trip all ready to go!
We did this date last year and even though it was “sold out” wait times were still pretty low compared to a regular park day…..PLUS the event itself is so fun!
I’d also like to know why Sept. 17th is supposed to be more crowded than I’d expect (and more crowded that Sunday 9/20)!
Can you share the crowd levels at last year’s Labor Day party? I expect it could be more crowded because more people may be at the parks for GE’s opening the week before. Thanks for the help!
that’s the night we’re going. i would think it would have been priced higher if they expected more people. my gut is telling me the other parks won’t see a big bump because if anyone is coming specifically for GE opening, that’s where they will go and stay. i have my doubts on those people spending more on party tickets or park hoppers.
thanks Laura! Are you nervous about the heat? I’ve never traveled to WDW in the summer so I’m a little bit nervous. Have you ever gone during this time of year before? I’m thinking about a pool heavy trip focuses on night time shows.
i mean i’m no crowd expert, i’m just crossing my fingers i’m right, lol. yes, heat/humidity will be very present, try and go early, drinks tons of water, go to quick service places for ice water refills, bring your sunscreen. this trip will be my first with both kids and i’m hoping for lower crowds so we can get a lot done in the mornings then take hotel breaks for naps/pool. that will be a first for us. i have been in september before and yes, still hot, but hopefully low crowds.
Any thoughts on how the Party Pass will change these dates?
I would like to know how Party Pass will change these estimates as well.
Me too, now I think the september 17th crowd just might up a bit….(it was already high)…..oh boy…..
wondering if after the fact you guys go back to report how close you were to the projections? with hurricane dorian disrupting a lot of travel, wondering what that does to the parties, as well as crowd projections in general.
We have tickets for Halloween night and I’m hoping it will be less crowded due to the party pass offer that excludes Halloween night. ♀️