Fairytales and Fitness: Changes at Mickey's not So Scary Halloween Party

It's that time of year again! Spooky season at Walt Disney World is in full swing! Last month, Lacey and I got to attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but I was still in summer mode and I couldn't bring myself to write about it until now!

We really love Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party ( MNSSHP), and try to attend often. We are sharing our experience and some of our favorite tips in hopes to help anyone else who plans to attend. Some of our tips have been shared in our past MNSSHP blog post but they are tried and true so are worth mentioning again. We discovered some changes at this year's party and will share those too! Are you ready? Lets Boo this!

Time: MNSSHP is from 7:00pm until 12:00 am. The first tip everyone will tell you is that your MNSSHP ticket gets you into Magic Kingdom at 4:00pm! This is HUGE and you should take advantage of this!

We were staying at Disney's Contemporary Resort so we started walking over to the Magic Kingdom around 3:15pm. We waited outside the gate with hundreds of other guests who also knew this tip. Know that although you can get in at 4:00pm, the party exclusive fun like ride overlays, special character meet and greets, Halloween Photopass, trick or treating, and Halloween treats do not start till 7:00 pm

We used this time to ride some rides that would not be available once the party started, such as Carousel of Progress. We knew this spot was going to be turned into a Trick or Treat candy spot during the party. Be sure to see our list of which attractions and restaurants will be closed during the party because they will turn into candy locations.

Characters: Character pictures are probably the most popular thing at MNSSHP. During the party, you will find characters in their special Halloween costumes, and rare characters. Needless to say, the lines can get very long! You could really spend most of your night waiting in line for character pictures. That is not how we wanted to spend our limited amount of time at the party so we had a plan. We only wanted to wait in line for the classic fab 5 characters in their Halloween costumes. We knew we would be able to see four of the fab 5 at Pete's Silly Side Show in Storybook Circus, so that's where we started. We headed over to Storybook Circus around 6:00pm to get in line. We did wait in line for about an hour before we were let into the Big Top when the party officially started at 7:00pm.

Donald in Halloween Costume, Minnie , Daisy, Goofy

When we entered, we quickly realized that this was a different set up than last year. Last year Daisy, Donald, Minnie, and Goofy were all separate photo stops. Guests waited in one line and then rotated through the characters. We were able to walk out of the Big Top with four different character pictures. This year all four characters were together for one photo. I was looking forward to getting four character pictures out of this one stop. I wonder if they thought it would make the line go faster if there was just one photo stop? These characters are really cute so I'm still glad we waited around for this picture!

The other "must have" character picture for us was Mickey at the Main Street Theater. We got lucky, and headed here during one of the parades and the line was only a 5 minute wait. However, I am really glad that I decided to look at our photos on the Disney Photopass app before I left Main Street because several of them never showed up. I did not appreciate the fact that I had to waste precious party time trying to figure out where our pictures were. In fact, I had to return to the Photopass help desk twice that night. Disney Tip: Be sure to check your Photopass pictures throughout the night.

Here is a list of Characters who will be at the party.

Although not a character meet and greet location, the Cadaver Dans will be in Frontierland, as well as the Hitchhiking Ghost.

As you enter the party (where you get your trick or treat bag), Cruella is entertaining guests.

This is also not a meet and greet as Cruella is standing atop a float. Keep reading to find out where you can find some other unexpected villains!

Photos: Speaking of photos, character photos are not the only fun pictures you can get during the party. There are interactive frames set up in certain locations around the park as well as special magic shots just for the party. Be sure to check the party map for locations. Here were some of our favorites!

The Mr. Toad's Wild Ride photo frame is found in Storybook Circus near Pete's Silly Side Show.

We skipped some of the other frames this year because we already had pictures with them in years past, but the Sleepy Hallow one is located near the castle hub between the plaza and Tomorrowland Terrace.

This picture was from a previous party. This frame was there in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Here are some of our Favorite Magic shots from this year!

These are all in Liberty Square and were available last year as well.

Hitchhiking Ghosts are located between Liberty Square Market and Hall of Presidents.

There are two lines in front of Haunted Mansion. One is for the ride and one is for the photopass pictures.

Candy: The candy stops are sponsored by Mars Wrigley, so expect to get a lot of M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Milkyway, Starbursts, Skittle, Gummi Lifesavers, etc. The candy stop locations will have large orange inflatables in front of them. Keep in mind that if a location is indicated as a candy stop, then that means this attraction or restaurant is not operating as it's normal attraction or restaurant. This is why it is important to go to these places prior to 6:00pm if you want to experience attractions like Jungle Cruise, Carousel of Progress, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, etc. Check out the list below.

Note: Although there are candy stops near Tiana's and Tron, those rides are still operating. During the party, there will be no virtual ques, you can just hop right in the stand by line!

Also, be sure to check out a very special candy stop inside Fairytale Hall! We were totally shocked when we thought we were just in another ordinary candy line and we saw Maleficent and the Evil Queen! They were each standing on a platform "entertaining" guests.

The night we were there, Maleficent was in the left line and Evil Queen was in the right line, but you could certainly see them both.

This is not a meet and greet or an official picture spot, but you could certainly snap a quick photo as you moved through the line.

Disney does offer some allergy friendly options as well. Just ask for a teal, allergy trick or treat bag at the first candy and bag station as you enter the party. (Note: The bags are not at the park entrance. They are inside the park on the street where you enter the Halloween Party).

Each time you go to a candy stop, you can ask a cast member for a teal coin instead of candy. You can then redeem the teal coins at any of the allergy friendly centers ( look on the map) to get your treats. This year there were treats from Yum Earth, Safe and Fair, Enjoy Life, and Remy's Graham crackers just to name a few.

Food: If you plan to enter the party at 4:00pm, be sure to eat a big lunch at your resort. Many of the restaurants will be closed during the party. The Plaza, Be Our Guest and Cinderella's Royal Table will be available for reservations. However, we would never recommend making a dinner reservation during a Halloween or Christmas party. To us, that's not a good use of time. we usually have a decent lunch somewhere and then in the evening just snack on the holiday exclusive items. I admit, there were plenty of sweet treats that were on my list to try at this year's party. However, I decided not to give into my sweet food and got something that was more "Sustainable".

I ended up getting the Grilled Masa Flatbead at Peco's Bill. This was a grilled corn cake topped with Butternut squash puree, braised chicken, cilantro pumpkin seed sauce, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, and queso fresco. This had some good flavors but I found it to be a bit dry.

I washed it down with the Guava Lemonade with Cheesecake foam and Halloween sprinkles. This was very tasty and not overly sweet. It was very similar to the Violet Lemonade that you can get during Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot.

Another Seasonal Item we got ( outside the park) were the Adobo Nachos. These were blue corn tortilla chips with grilled chicken adobo, toasted pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, roasted corn pico, and zesty pumpkin cheese sauce finished with cilantro-lime crema and yellow corn tortilla strips. This was fabulous and truly tasted like "Fall" on a nacho chip!

Attractions: There are a few rides that have the Halloween overlays but in our opinion, they aren't that exciting. Mad Tea Party has colored lights on while spinning and Space Mountain is in total darkness (I thought it was pretty dark to begin with). We've done these attractions during the last party but skipped them this time. One year there were live actors inside Pirates of the Caribbean but there was not anything special there this year.

However, it was pretty special to us because there was not a wait and not one other person was in there when we entered the ride so we got an entire boat to ourselves!

We did not see Captain Jack, but we did watch the Pirate band Rusty Cutlass perform some of their swashbuckling songs!

Entertainment: Of course the best entertainment at the party is the Boo to you parade!

There are two parades during the party. Everyone says to watch the second one because it's less crowded. We ended up watching the first parade because we were afraid we would get sidetracked and miss the 2nd parade.

Parade times are 8:15 pm and 11:15 pm.

There is just so much entertainment at this party, including stage shows, dance parties, parades, and the main event, the fireworks.

The best part of every Magic Kingdom night is definitely the Fireworks! There is only one fireworks show per night at 10:00 pm. There are projections on the front of the castle, so if that is important for you to see, then get a viewing spot near the hub!

There is a hocus pocus Villain Spectacular Stage Show on the Castle Stage at 9:05 pm 10:35 pm, and 12:00 am. An extra show is added at 7:35 pm starting September 29.

Merchandise: We do not purchase merchandise at events as we do not want to carry things around with us so I can not comment on this. However, I do know there was quite a line for the Halloween pop corn bucket! There is also some cute Hocus Pocus merchandise out there as well.

To End the Night: In the past, we each got a parting gift as we exited the park, which was a Disney Halloween print. We did not get a parting gift this year. We did not walk away with a gift last year either but we thought perhaps we just missed it. The year we got the gift, it was during the 50th anniversary celebration, so that could have been a reason why.

Normally we wait out the crowd at the end of the night, but by the time the party was over, we were actually ready to head out. We were so excited to be able to just walk back to our room at the Contemporary Resort at the end of the night! We were tired and thankful we did not have to wait for a bus! This was a great idea booking the Contemporary for this night. I think from now on we will book Magic Kingdom resorts for nights we are staying late at the MK!

This year's map.