I LOVE the Fall season and always have.  The season change from summer heat to cooler temps, falling leaves (well sometimes in Arizona, haha), apple cider, pumpkin patches, Halloween...sigh...it's just the best!  Growing up in California, we saw a little more of the traditional Fall weather as compared to now being in Arizona, but non-the-less, I still appreciate it.  The only thing I didn't have as a kid in school, however that my kids have is Fall Break!  The glorious week when most of the nation is still in school and we have a week off of school.  This is the time that many Arizonans go on vacation, particularly to California and that's what we did this year!

We were able to spend 6 lovely days in Anaheim, 5 of which were spent at Disneyland Resort.  It's been many years since I've visited a Disney Park during the spookiest season, so this was a huge treat!  For one of the days we spent there, we took part in Micky's Halloween Party which was a first for us.  I did my research before coming and even deciding if tickets to this special event was worth the extra money, but we ended up deciding to go for it and this is my honest review.

So with the Halloween Party, Disneyland Park is closed from 6 or 7pm until midnight to only ticketed guests.  This ensures the "special" part of "special event" and also so the crowds aren't too overwhelming (although they always are, lol).  The cool thing about the tickets is that you could come up to 3 hours before the party and have access to both Disneyland Park and Disney's California Adventure if you chose to do so.  We just decided to stick with Disneyland Park so we can try and catch a lot of the characters since our kids are still fairly small.

So the first thing you run into are the wristbands.  You are given a special wristband and treat bag (per member), so cast members can know if you are allowed to be there or not.  In all honestly, I don't think ours were checked at all once we got in there.  But, I'm sure they knew what they were doing, I was just busy wrangling 4 kids, haha.

Once you get to the Plaza and Main Street there are so many characters out and taking pictures.  We didn't want to stand in line for every single one but we saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Cruella DeVill and Chip!  Cruella was hilarious and played her part perfectly, while traumatizing one of my twins at the same time, it was so funny...is that bad? 😆




At this point we also tried to get a good picture in front of the ginormous Mickey Pumpkin...we did...but it was so bright out.  If you don't mind waiting in a long line, it's way better all lit up after the sun goes down.


We went to hit up a couple rides before we headed to Toon Town.  They start the party an hour earlier there which is awesome if you have little ones that might not be able to make it to the bitter end.  As you can see everyone else knew about this trick as well.  They let the crowd in by groups so it wasn't a mad dash and stampede.  There were treat lines strategically placed in areas like Roger Rabbit's statue and Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald's houses.  It was very well organized in my opinion and we left just that area with a huge stash of candy (just look at their bin of candy!) and pictures with even more characters!  And we still had the rest of the park to visit.







By the time we got out of Toon Town, 2 hours had passed and people were already starting to line the Halloween Parade route for the 9:00pm start time.  I thought it might be a good idea to grab a seat while they were available while my husband took the kids trick-or-treating some more.

The parade was a decent one, with many villains and Mickey and Minnie making an appearance.  I don't know if it's just because I've gotten older, but the parades seem so short to me!  It was about a 15 minute parade with a 10 minute pre-show with the Headless Horseman, which was cool.





Directly after the parade was the special Halloween fireworks show.  We really tried to get the coveted Castle View seat, but just didn't quite make the cut, so we were at the side.  It wasn't a horrible view, but in front of the castle would definitely be ideal with all of the LED special effects projected onto the castle.  The fireworks were amazing in Disney's usual firework fashion.  My kids were amazed.

We spent the rest of the night in New Orleans square where we visited the Haunted Mansion which was all decked out in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" decor.  The ride is definitely not as scary for little kids when they see characters they recognize.  We then basically walked right onto Pirates of the Caribbean as there was no wait!



All in all, I think if you have the extra funds to splurge on Mickey's Halloween Party, it's totally worth it.  And if you don't, there is still plenty of Halloween spirit and fun during regular park hours.

Biggest perks: lower crowds, special parade, fireworks show and trick-or-treating at Disneyland (I mean who can beat that).



Have you been to Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland or Mickey's Not-So-Scary Party at Walt Disney World?  What did you think?




I hope this gives you some extra magic for your trip!  If you would like to take advantage of my free concierge travel planning services, contact me here ºoº