Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Review – Our First Impressions
Disney is the most magical place on earth so what could make it even better? Special Events and parties! One of Disney’s most popular events each year is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party ( MNSSHP ). We attended the Disney Halloween party in September, in this post, I’ll be sharing our first-time experience and our review of this Disney World Halloween Party.
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We traveled to Disney World in late September to celebrate “birthday month”. September we have 3 birthdays, everyone besides my husband celebrates a birthday within a 2 week period, so what better place to celebrate than Disney World?
When we started to plan our trip to Disney we knew that Disney would be holding their special Magic Kingdom Halloween Party, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
I didn’t even grow up trick-or-treating (so sad, I know!!) So an opportunity to go to to Magic Kingdom for a Halloween Party sounded like so much fun!
We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and planned to attend MNSSHP on Sunday night. We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom, then headed back to the resort to get dressed up for our first Disney Halloween Party!
Our Costumes for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
One of the perks of attending MNSSHP is that you are encouraged to dress up. Usually, Disney discourages wearing full costumes of Disney characters (mostly adults). For Mickey’s Halloween party, you are able to wear full costumes. There are a few rules for safety. You can find all the details on Disney’s Website here.
We decided to do a simple Disneybounding for the night. We each picked our own characters and put together simple outfits.
Tinkerbell Disneybound Outfit INSPO/ Ariel Disneybound Outfit INSPO
Our daughter put together a cute Tinkerbell Disneybound Outfit, I wore a simple Ariel outfit for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. The boys also chose outfits. My son went as Tony Stark (Iron Man). He wore an Ironman shirt that had a LED light up Arc Reactor and Tony’s Glasses. my husband wore a Captain America Shirt for the night.
Get all the details about this year’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Get details about the schedule, special shows, trick-or-treating, character meet and greets and all the yummy treats at the 2023 MNSSHP Read the post here.
2023 Disney’s Halloween Party – Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
We purchased our tickets for MNSSHP in early August before tickets started to sell out. If you are hoping to attend one of Disney’s holiday parties like MNSSHP, be sure to get your tickets EARLY!
Arriving at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
We arrived at the park around 5:00 p.m. on the bus. We hoped that by arriving after 4 pm we would miss some of the larger crowds trying to get into the park. For us, that was a great plan.
Security was pretty quick but we all did get stopped for an extra bag check. (We rarely get stopped but we had some extra gear in our bags for this night.)
We were able to use the Annual Passholder turnstiles, so we did not wait in line super long. The regular lines were very long at this point, I would estimate that guests waited about 10 minutes to get in.
We were handed our wristbands for the party inside the park entrance before the tunnel at Walt Disney World Railroad. We were also given cute Trick or Treat bags. You can find out all about how Disney handles food allergies and trick-or-treat candy in my MNSSHP Overview Post HERE.
We were directed to the right side of the park, to use a side walkway which is usually closed off and is only used for special occasions. This walkway took us behind the Main Street Confectionary up to the Plaza Restaurant and the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant.
Along this path, we picked up our first candies, including a full-sized bag of Fudge Brownie M&Ms. There were also some photo ops along the walkway, we stopped and snapped a quick photo of the kids.
Dinner at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
We had planned on getting Dinner right away so we could find a place to sit in the air conditioner and wait out the crowds as the guests without party tickets left the park. We ended up having dinner at Pecos Bills, it was delicious! The nachos were the favorite!
While we had dinner I was able to get us a spot on the 6 p.m. special Virtual Line for TRON, since our kids had not been on it yet.
Then we headed out for some rides. We were able to get on plenty of rides throughout the night. We also stopped at about 6 Trick-or-Treat trails to get candy.
We could have done so much more but we were all having a great time and didn’t want to rush around.
Character Meet and Greets at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
One of the perks of attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is the rare and unique character meet and greets. There are so many great Characters you can meet!
Get the entire list of characters that you can meet at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party HERE.
Before the fireworks, we were able to do a few meet-and-greets. I really wanted to see the Seven Dwarfs, so we headed over to Fantasyland. There were several meet-and-greets in this area.
Seven Dwarfs meet-and-great was special since they are never together for a photo opp or meet and greet except for at these special parties. There was no line to see the Seven Dwarfs when we went (it was around 9:50 pm).
Then we went over to Storybook Circus in Fantasyland and got photos with Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck. These two characters were in the same location so you will only have to wait in one line to meet both characters.
Again, our wait was only a few minutes because it was so close to the fireworks time.
Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular
We were able to ride all of the important rides throughout the night. We enjoyed lots of delicious Halloween treats before watching part of the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular show.
If you are a big Hocus Pocus fan you’ll want to prioritize this show and get a spot early, it fills up really fast, but it’s so good!
Disney’s Not-so-Spooky Spectacular
We watched the fireworks at 10:15 pm This was one of the biggest mistakes we made. We did not get a great spot to watch the fireworks. We just lost track of time and didn’t get there early enough.
By the time we walked through Adventureland the bridge toward the castle was packed! We ended up just finding the best spot we could on the bridge. The show was still great, we could see the special projections on the castle and most of the fireworks.
If fireworks are a priority, don’t make the same mistake that we did, be sure to get there early and find a spot so you’ll have a good view.
Mickey’s Boo-to-You Halloween Parade
We ended the night watching Mickey’s Boo-to-You Halloween Parade. We went way up to the front of the park right in front of the Main Street Station (Mickey’s Railroad).
We loved our spot because we were able to see the whole parade heading straight towards us! We were also able to slip out of the park really easily and got on the bus back to our resort without dealing with the crowds.
So, Is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Worth it?
Yes! I think it is! I’m not sure that our whole family will go again but I’ll definitely go again next year. I think the key to a great party night is planning. Take a look at my detailed Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party post to plan for your party night. You can find all of the details including, times and schedules, entertainment and shows, character meet and greets and a list of special snacks at the party.
Get all the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Details Here
