Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party receives glowing reviews and tons of hype from fans, especially Walt Disney World diehards who are jaded about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. All of that is for good reason! But instead of focusing on the positives, we’re going to cover the top 10 reasons why you might actually want to skip the 2025 Oogie Boogie Bash.
This is actually something I’ve wanted to write for a while. Regular readers might’ve noticed that there was no photo report & review from last year’s Oogie Boogie Bash. I actually had one started that focused on how stale the Halloween party had gotten. But after getting only 276 words into it (nothing by this blog’s verbose standards), I realized that I didn’t have much to say. That was because almost nothing was different as compared to the previous year, or the year before that…or the year before that.
That’s the crux of the problem with Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party. It is virtually the exact same event, with a few minor differences, as it was back in 2021. There are major differences as compared to 2019, but unfortunately, they’re almost all downgrades. We had hoped that Oogie Boogie Bash would expand and improve in subsequent years after it launched, but that really hasn’t been the case. Now, it’s mostly the same thing as it was 5 years ago.
This is not going to matter to Oogie Boogie Bash first-timers. If you’ve never done the Halloween party, it is all new to you. And from that perspective, it’s a very good event! Even with all of the points here (and we do have 7-8 entries on the list below that do apply to first-timers to varying degrees), we would enthusiastically recommend Oogie Boogie Bash if you’ve never done it before. It’s a great event, especially if you remove staleness from the equation.
With that said, I would caution Florida fans (even first-timers) about buying into the hype. Oogie Boogie Bash enjoys a tremendous reputation among Walt Disney World bloggers, vloggers, and influencers for a simple reason: familiarity breeds contempt. Now, you could easily point to the preceding paragraphs and accuse me of precisely the same thing. Fair enough. But I’m also recognizing my own biases, and recommending first-timers do Oogie Boogie Bash!
We’d nevertheless recommend Walt Disney World fans and infrequent visitors start by reading Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party vs. Oogie Boogie Bash. Disney California Adventure’s Halloween Party does score some wins there, but we’d still argue that Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is the much stronger event overall. Not only that, but its selling points are stronger during a fall Florida trip (some of that is also covered here).
Don’t get us wrong, we love Oogie Boogie Bash. It’s an incredible event that we’ve done every single year since it began–and several before that when the hard ticket option was Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland. And we’ll do it again in 2025, too!
I can say this for certain because we’ve already bought our tickets. We were able score opening night tickets to the 2025 Oogie Boogie Bash with ease during the first day of presales. Due to being on the road when ticket sales started, we couldn’t attempt to purchase them until 30 minutes after ticket purchases opened. At that time, there was a less than one minute wait in the virtual queue and we completed the transaction in under 2 minutes total.
Speaking of which, if you’re reading this ahead of general public ticket sales starting–here’s some quick info that could prove useful. Tickets for Oogie Boogie Bash go on sale to the general public on June 26, 2025, no earlier than 9 a.m. PT. If you’re wondering where or how to purchase tickets for Oogie Boogie Bash, use this link: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/admission/events/
If you’re waiting in the online queue to purchase tickets, you can be digitally notified when it’s your time to enter the ticket store. Once in the queue, choose the “notify me” option and enter your email address. You’ll receive an email letting you know it’s your turn to enter the ticket store by following the online instructions. (We also recommend saving your unique URL, which can be copied and pasted to different devices, should you need to change locations while waiting.)
Anyway, on with the reasons that you might want to skip the 2025 Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party…
Tickets Are Tricky
We’re starting here because it’s a threshold issue with Oogie Boogie Bash, which has sold out every single date every single year it’s been held. That’s probably a big reason why it’s starting to feel stale–what incentive does Disney have to improve the party if it’s already massively popular?!
In any case, we want to start by reiterating that when it comes to online Disney planning and social media, there’s a pervasive sense of FOMO that drives many people to spend on unnecessary experiences. This is exacerbated by certain popular experiences booking up quickly, but that’s often less a reflection of quality and than it is the FOMO machine. Popularity begets more popularity, as people want to do the thing that’s selling out or hard-to-book precisely because of those qualities.
Point being, Oogie Boogie Bash has been plagued by problems and/or lengthy virtual queues when its tickets go on sale. There have been years when you could’ve waited in lengthy virtual queues and still walked away empty-handed. Not once in the last few years could you have purchased a ticket for Oogie Boogie Bash a week after they went on sale, let alone a month. In all likelihood, the 2025 Oogie Boogie Bash will be just as difficult, as the FOMO beast feeds into itself.
Suffice to say, there’s a lot of stress and time required months ahead of time. Even if you find this after ticket sales start and there’s no longer a virtual queue, you might encounter sold out dates and try to find a way to ‘force’ your vacation to work around them. Perhaps it’s worth asking yourself whether you really want to do Oogie Boogie Bash for its substance, or because it’s so tough?
Few New Meet & Greets
When Oogie Boogie Bash first got started, it instantly earned a reputation as a haven for rare character fans. There were several characters we had never seen before, from Mickey & Friends in Kingdom Hearts costumes to deep cuts from Disney Afternoon. Keeping things fresh, the Sanderson Sisters and Bruno from Encanto were added a few years later.
Beyond that, there have been a wide variety of rare & classic characters from animated movies, plus Pixar Pals and Marvel Super Heroes. There’s a wide assortment of options, and never know who you’re going to find in Carthay Circle. Moreover, the times are fairly manageable with the major exception of the marquee draws. All of this is appreciated, and has become a selling point for Oogie Boogie Bash.
However, the last few years have brought almost nothing new. The Sanderson Sisters and Bruno debuted 3 years ago. Since then, I’m struggling to think of a big addition. Maybe Lotso from Toy Story 3 and Wade & Ember from Elemental? That’s really about it. Meanwhile, the same Kingdom Hearts characters have appeared since 2019, the deep cuts from Disney Afternoon are long gone, as are other unique costumes for Mickey & Friends. There are still some occasional rare finds in Carthay Circle, but the overall character lineup has gotten stale–and seemingly smaller over the last 5 years.
Paltry Parade
When Frightfully Fun Parade first debuted 5+ years ago, my hope was that we’d see it grow over time, with new floats or units added over the years to bring it on par with Mickey’s Boo to You Parade at Walt Disney World. Its decades-old counterpart in Magic Kingdom remains the gold standard for Halloween parades, with more units, floats, and performers. It also has more iconic moments and music. Not only that, but despite accusations of staleness, Boo to You has received more material updates in the last ~5 years than Frightfully Fun Parade!
It’s not that Frightfully Fun Parade is bad or anywhere close to that. It’s very strong, with menacing moments and ground level performers. It just needs to be longer. This started out as a replacement for Mickey’s Costume Party Cavalcade, and has long felt like an expanded cavalcade that doesn’t hold a candle to Boo to You.
That comparison might be completely irrelevant if you’re a Californian who has never visited Walt Disney World. If you don’t have Boo to You as a frame of reference, this comparison probably does not matter. In that case, Frightfully Fun Parade doesn’t hold a candle to Disneyland’s own regular parades. The easy comparison is ‘A Christmas Fantasy,’ which is a “free” parade included with daily admission to Disneyland during the holiday season. That feels almost twice as long as Frightfully Fun Parade.
Two New Villains
Oogie Boogie Bash’s big selling point and “reveal” each year has become the two new characters joining the Villains Treats Trails, replacing older ones. This started a few years ago, and there’s every indication that it’s going to be the big news about Oogie Boogie Bash’s entertainment lineup again in 2025. It does well on social media, and that fuels the FOMO machine.
Last year, the newcomers were Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas & Ferb and Hades from Hercules. Dr. Doofenshmirtz was an indirect replacement for Mother Gothel from Tangled; Hades replaced Cruella from the live action movie of the same name. The year before that, it was Yokai from Big Hero 6 and Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Disneyland has already released a new ‘Fun Map’ for the 2025 Oogie Boogie Bash that suggests there will once again be two new characters, as indicated via the green flame by Grizzly River Run and the red flame on Pixar Pier. All other villains appear in their normal treat trail locations, which suggests there will be replacements for Sid from Toy Story and Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone. We’d expect one Pixar villain and one wildcard.
The Villains Treat Trails are exceptional, and the lineup is rock solid. It’s hard to fault Disney for “only” swapping out two villains each year. That’s not the criticism here, just to be clear. Rather, it’s that these two new villains have become the selling point and buzzworthy news about Oogie Boogie Bash for each of the last few years. Three years of nothing but two new villains each year is growing tiresome, and contributes to that feeling of staleness.
No Nighttime Spectacular
There is no nighttime spectacular at Oogie Boogie Bash. For its first year, World of Color – Villainous was the nighttime spectacular during the Halloween party. It has not been seen or spoken of since.
Whether this is due to anemic guest satisfaction scores or the logistics of running World of Color and a parade in the same area on a tight turnaround time is anyone’s guess. Although World of Color – Villainous was arguably underwhelming, even its harshest critics wouldn’t contend it was addition-by-subtraction bad.
In the years since, Disney has made no effort to introduce another marquee entertainment offering. There’s no big stage show (like Hocus Pocus Villains Spelltacular at MNSSHP), no fireworks–nothing. This means that Frightfully Fun Parade carries a disproportionate amount of the entertainment weight, likely exacerbating our perspective that it hasn’t grown over the years.
Ride Refurbishments & Downtime Woes
Disney California Adventure has become very difficult to strategize over the last few months. This has been true in all of my testing, from Early Entry to regular itineraries to Lightning Lanes. The reasons for this are discussed in Cars Closure, Stealth Refurbishments, Delays & Downtime at Disney California Adventure.
In a nutshell, a few of the park’s headliner attractions are undergoing ‘stealth’ refurbishments that reduce their capacity (and increase wait times), and on top of that, some are unreliable. It’s entirely possible that this will improve by the time Oogie Boogie Bash rolls around, but that alone doesn’t nullify this entry.
That’s because Radiator Springs Racers will close for refurbishment starting on August 18, 2025 and the Cars Land attraction will be temporarily unavailable for a little over one month. Unfortunately, Disney has not yet specified a reopening date yet, meaning it’s possible the actual duration of the closure is not yet known.
This is a brutal blow. Even though it’s not one of the rides with a Halloween overlay, it is the #1 attraction at DCA and is hugely popular during Oogie Boogie Bash. It being closed for the first month of the Halloween party alone would give us pause about recommending OBB to those primarily focused on rides–especially with the stealth refurbishment wildcards. Wait times could end up being higher than in previous years, with more measurable waits and fewer walk-ons than normal.
Mix-In Isn’t Great
An offshoot of this point is that, even during normal years, mix-in isn’t great at Oogie Boogie Bash. For those who are unfamiliar with protocol, Oogie Boogie Bash allows guests to enter DCA starting at 3 pm, and mix-in is the window from then until 6 pm while regular day guests mix with party attendees. At Magic Kingdom, mix-in for MNSSHP is fairly fantastic. Crowds start to pick up, but they’re still manageable.
The difference is largely demographics. Disneyland has a massive Annual Passholder population, and they are not dissuaded from visiting DCA on an earlier closure day because it does not amount to “wasting” a full-priced ticket–they can just Park Hop over to Disneyland. And the same is true for many regular ticket holders who purchase the popular Park Hopper add-on (which we highly recommend during OBB season), as Park Hopping is simply a matter of walking the length of a football field.
During mix-in, wait times are often at their peak of the day. Adding insult to injury, you don’t have any Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, so it’s all standby lines. Mix-in can help you pick off lower profile attractions, regular meet & greets, and more–while saving the “big” rides for proper party time, but it’s not easy–especially during the busiest dates of Halloween season. (See our lists of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Do Disneyland in 2025 & 2026.)
Hours Are Late
Oogie Boogie Bash runs from 6 pm to 11 pm. As covered above, mix-in does start at 3 pm, so there’s that, but those first few hours aren’t that valuable. In fact, I’d take that a step further and say the first three hours of party time are less valuable than the final two. If I only had a choice between the first 3 or final 2 for some arbitrary reason, I’d choose the latter.
This is not going to matter to a lot of Oogie Boogie Bash attendees, and the late hours are actually a selling point! But for families with small children or tourists visiting from out of state and contending with the time change, this could be a liability.
It’s one thing to not be able to last until the midnight closure at Disneyland when you’ve been in the park since 8 am rope drop (or before that for Early Entry). It’s another entirely to miss the final two hours–the best of the event–of a 5 hour party.
Disneyland is Better at Halloween
One of the big arguments in favor of buying MNSSHP tickets is that it’s the best way to experience Magic Kingdom during the Halloween season. That is undeniably true. It’s pretty much the only way to do Halloween at Walt Disney World!
That is not the case at Disneyland Resort, which truly gets into the spook season spirit. Although the lineup at DCA has been bolstered over the years with ride overlays and more, the case can be made that Halloween is still better at Disneyland than DCA. The castle park does have a nighttime spectacular via the Halloween Screams Fireworks, and it also has the best overlay with Haunted Mansion Holiday.
You can also meet Mickey & Friends in spooky character costumes that change every single year on Main Street at Disneyland, while Jack Skellington and Sally appear in New Orleans Square. Then there are decorations, including but not limited to the iconic Mickey Pumpkin on Main Street and the famed Halloween Tree in Frontierland. Everything above is included with regular admission at Disneyland. See our Ultimate Guide to Halloween at Disneyland for a comprehensive list of everything the parks, resort hotels, and Downtown Disney offer.
Another argument that doesn’t exist–or at least is more minimized–is that Oogie Boogie Bash is the most comfortable way to experience Halloween at Disneyland Resort. This is true with MNSSHP due to Central Florida heat and humidity. While Southern California can have high heat–especially in August–this isn’t true across the board, or to nearly the same extent. October is usually one of the more pleasant months of the year.
Disneyland is Cheaper at Halloween
Another big difference is that single-day tickets to Disneyland or DCA, for the whole day, are cheaper–and sometimes significantly so–than Oogie Boogie Bash tickets.
There are 15 dates in August and September 2025 when regular 1-day tickets to Disneyland or DCA cost $104. There are another half-dozen or so dates (including some in October 2025) that are $126. Beyond these inexpensively priced dates, even the more expensive ones are still cheaper than Oogie Boogie Bash.
And if you really want a whirlwind day, you can add the Park Hopper option to experience both parks at Halloween. Or you can take advantage of a ticket deal and visit for multiple days! It’ll be pricier overall, but much less so on a per-day basis. (See our Money-Saving Guide to Discount Disneyland Tickets.)
These tickets are also less expensive on a per hour basis, as both Disneyland and DCA generally keep longer hours than their counterparts at Walt Disney World. It’s not uncommon for Disneyland to be open from 8 am until midnight during Halloween, and for DCA to be open from 8 am to 10 pm on non-party dates.
Ultimately, we want to close by reiterating that Oogie Boogie Bash is a very good-to-great event. We highly recommend this Halloween party to Disneyland first-timers or infrequent visitors, albeit with the above asterisks. And again, we ourselves already bought tickets to the 2025 Oogie Boogie Bash, so this is more of a “do as we say, not as we do” post anyway. (Although honestly, we would’ve skipped this year but for this blog.)
In fact, this entire list exists primarily as a counter-weight to all of the effusive praise, hype, and FOMO for Oogie Boogie Bash. We’re not trying to be contrarians or argue that “actually, Oogie Boogie Bash is bad.” It isn’t. It’s great. We’re just trying to set realistic expectations, showcase ways it falls short of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and other options you might want to consider during spook season.
On that note, see our Guide to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom or our Guide to Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party at Disney California Adventure. For the bigger picture, be sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide and Disneyland Trip Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you attended Oogie Boogie Bash? Done multiple Halloween parties over the last 5 years? Is Oogie Boogie Bash still a must-do for you, or do you agree that it’s gotten stale for repeat guests? Do you disagree with any of our advice and assessments? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
