Guide to Disney After Hours Boo Bash Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom: Dates, Prices & Info
Disney After Hours Boo Bash is the Halloween party at Magic Kingdom in August, September & October. This info guide covers Walt Disney World’s new fall event, with dates, hours, ticket prices & discounts, entertainment. Plus, comparisons to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Villains After Hours.
Whether Disney After Hours Boo Bash returns for 2022 remains to be seen. At this point, it’s possible that Walt Disney World will restore the full Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party–along with its higher attendance cap and earlier start time–or keep Boo Bash for 2022. If Disney opts to do the latter, it’s highly likely that Boo to You Parade and Hocus Pocus Villains Spelltacular will be added to the lineup. Here’s more speculation about MNSSHP v. Boo Bash for Halloween 2022 at Walt Disney World.
If Disney After Hours Boo Bash is held in 2022, it’ll be a limited-capacity separately ticketed event at Magic Kingdom. This means the main benefit of Disney After Hours Boo Bash is significantly lower crowds and wait times at popular attractions than a normal day in the park. Walt Disney World hasn’t announced the attendance limit, but it’s a small fraction of normal attendance.
In addition to lower wait times, there will be some entertainment. Halloween-themed cavalcades will pop up throughout the night featuring Mickey Mouse and friends, Disney Villains, Nightmare Before Christmas characters, and a fire-breathing Maleficent dragon. There will also be character greetings, atmospheric enhancements, decor, and special entertainment.
We’ve attended the Halloween event last year, and share thoughts and more photos in our Review & Photo Report of Disney After Hours Boo Bash!
In terms of other basics, Disney After Hours Boo Bash tickets will grant event ticket holders admission to Magic Kingdom as early as 7 pm, giving you time to enjoy some of your favorite Magic Kingdom Park rides before the event begins. These dated event tickets do not require an additional day theme park ticket or Disney Park Pass theme park reservation.
For those already inside Magic Kingdom, wristband distribution will be available at Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland and Tortuga Tavern in Adventureland starting at 7 pm. For guests arriving after 7 pm, wristbands will be available at the main entrance of Magic Kingdom.
Select snacks like ice cream novelties and popcorn, along with select sodas and other beverages, are included in the cost of the event. In addition to those, A variety of specialty food and drinks will be available for purchase, including an Apple Ginger Dale frozen drink and a Foolish Mortal Funnel Cake.
Disney PhotoPass will also be available to take your magical and spooky shots throughout the night. Your photos will be adorned with Halloween special effects and you can also take special Magic Shots, which add characters to your Disney PhotoPass photos after they’ve been taken. PhotoPass is not included in the cost of the event.
All guests can dress in costume for Disney After Hours Boo Bash, and you can get your fill of Halloween candy while trick-or-treating around the park. Costume masks are not permitted for adults; they can only be worn by children under 14. Please note that Walt Disney World’s face mask rules apply during Disney After Hours Boo Bash.
Now let’s turn to the other specifics of the Disney After Hours Boo Bash Halloween Party!
Disney After Hours Boo Bash Dates, Tickets & Pricing
Tickets for Disney After Hours Boo Bash are now on sale for all guests and can be purchased online or by calling 407-939-4240. Note that almost every date is now sold out online. However, there are same-day sales of tickets at Magic Kingdom. This is due to cancellations, which are currently on the rise. (It’s our expectation that day-of tickets will be available on a walk-up basis for most–if not all–Boo Bash nights.)
Tickets start at $129 to $139, plus tax for August and September party nights and $159 to $169, plus tax for October nights. Attending on Halloween night will set you back a cool $199 plus tax! Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members can take advantage of a $10 discount for Boo Bash in August and September.
Disney After Hours Boo Bash Map
If you want to get an idea of where everything is in Magic Kingdom during Disney After Hours Boo Bash, check out the map above. This shows the locations of snack carts and trick or treating, where you can pick up free refreshments and candy.
It also shows character greeting locations, merchandise spots, paid food & beverage, attractions, and entertainment. Those last two things will be covered in greater detail below.
Disney After Hours Boo Bash Attractions
Once Magic Kingdom closes to day guests, Disney After Hours Boo Bash attendees will enjoy less time waiting in line for more than 20 of Magic Kingdom’s most popular attractions including the following:
- Astro Orbiter
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Country Bear Jamboree
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Haunted Mansion
- “it’s a small world”
- Jungle Cruise
- Mad Tea Party
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Swiss Family Treehouse
- Goofy’s Barnstormer
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
Disney After Hours Boo Bash Entertainment
Mickey’s Happy Halloween Cavalcade (9:55 pm, 11:25 pm): Delight as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto and pals dress in hauntingly boo-tiful Halloween costumes and parade through the park in this musical procession.
Disney Villain Halloween Cavalcade (10:30 pm, 11:45 pm): Behold a legion of villains unleashed to revel in this sinister season. Look out for fiends like Dr. Facilier, Queen of Hearts, and Jafar as they celebrate just how wonderful it is to be wicked.
Jack’s Nightmare Cavalcade (10:40 pm, 11:55 pm): Prepare for a procession worthy of the Pumpkin King! Jack Skellington–along with Sally and Oogie Boogie from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas–take to the streets to share thrilling, chilling tricks and treats!
Maleficent’s Fiery Prowl (10:50 pm, 12:05 am): Maleficent will make an appearance in the form of a fire-breathing dragon!
Cadaver Dans in Frontierland (9:40 pm, 10:20 pm, 11:05 pm, 12:10 am): The Cadaver Dans perform haunting melodies from beyond the grave.
Tomorrowland DJ Dance Party (9:30 pm to 12:30 am): Dance the night away at the Rockettower Plaza Stage.
Note: these times apply to the 9:30 pm to 12:30 am Disney After Hours Boo Bash nights. We’ll update with the schedule for the 9 pm to midnight parties once those start.
On the atmospheric entertainment front, you can stop and listen to Miss Carlotta, who will be appearing throughout the night outside Haunted Mansion to greet guests.
Additionally, favorite character friends will appear throughout Magic Kingdom, including Goofy and Chip ‘n’ Dale in their Halloween costumes. Other surprise characters will pop up across the park, too.
Boo Bash v. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
In terms of our commentary, the biggest point of contention is Disney After Hours Boo Bash v. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. While both are technically “Halloween events” and Boo Bash is the indirect replacement for MNSSHP, they are fundamentally different in nature.
Many Walt Disney World fans are understandably upset by the significantly higher price points for Boo Bash and less entertainment as compared with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. That makes sense given that this is the indirect replacement for that. However, this is a Disney After Hours event (hence the name), so its price structure unsurprisingly follows that.
As compared to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, a lot of entertainment is “missing” from Disney After Hours Boo Bash. The characters and cavalcades at Boo Bash are fine diversions, but they’re nowhere on par with Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, Mickey’s Boo to You parade, or the many meet & greets at MNSSHP.
There are also no fireworks during Disney After Hours Boo Bash, but those who purchase tickets can arrive early and watch the pre-party fireworks at Magic Kingdom, which are available to all guests.
Prices are also significantly higher for Disney After Hours Boo Bash than Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. In the last year MNSSHP was held, its prices started at $74 per person and most dates were under $100. Halloween week and night were outliers, with prices up to $149.
Some nights, Disney After Hours Boo Bash are nearly double the cost of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets. Others are “only” a $20 to $30 premium. However, as compared to last year’s Villains After Hours, which was strikingly similar to Disney After Hours Boo Bash, ticket prices are about the same. The biggest difference is a significantly smaller discount for Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members.
I’m not going to do contortions to defend Walt Disney World’s pricing for Disney After Hours Boo Bash. It’s astronomical. That’s true even when compared to Villains After Hours, but doubly so if you’re using the last year Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party was held as your benchmark.
I can barely comprehend dropping a few hundred dollars for the two of us to do this–let alone the price for a family with small children who may not last the whole night. It would be difficult to justify unless money were no object.
However, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is the wrong comparison. This is a fundamentally different event. Again, as we discussed at length in the above announcement post, the heart of the After Hours events is low crowds and short lines at attractions, with the entertainment being the icing on the cake.
By contrast, the heart of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is the entertainment, and short lines for rides are the icing. In recent years, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party has been anything but a “low crowds” event. (The last year both were held, the attendance cap was significantly lower for After Hours than Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party–probably less than half…which might explain why it’s almost double the price.)
Ultimately, it’s difficult to assess whether Disney After Hours Boo Bash is worth the money. In large part, that depends upon your personal expectations. Are you considering it because you’ve enjoyed the entertainment at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in the past, and are expecting something on par with that? If so, Boo Bash almost certainly will not be worth it for you.
Are you considering Disney After Hours Boo Bash because you want a low crowds opportunity to enjoy Magic Kingdom with a Halloween twist? Then this event might be for you. Even then, this is a lot of money to spend. It’s also occurring over the course of two months–August and September–that typically have low crowds during normal operating hours. Between that historic precedent and a potential lull in the lead-up to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary (see our updated Best & Worst Months to Visit Walt Disney World in 2022-2023), Disney After Hours Boo Bash may not be a tremendous ‘value-add’ for its first couple months for those wanting to avoid crowds. October is another story entirely, though.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on these ticket prices? Will your family be buying or sitting this Halloween event out? Are you excited for Disney After Hours Boo Bash? Do you agree or disagree with our perspective on this? Are you disappointed that Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party won’t be happening, or is Boo Bash a superior (or at least sufficient) alternative for you? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!
@Sharon Cz. THIS, thank you! I will be purchasing Boo Bash tickets on our non-park relax day. We can sleep in, hang out by the pool, and relax knowing at 7pm (and I wonder if they won’t stretch that a bit and let us in a little earlier) we can go into MK catch some of the end of day non-event stuff and walk on/off rides throughout the night. My children are a bit older (will be 12 & 10 when we go) so not sure if I would do this if they were super young, but as this is our last Disney trip for a while, we are going to go all out.
I think it is extremely expensive for families with children. Having said that I don’t really think they have set this up for families with children. It is a late night after hours event. I am a single adult and I am going with other single adults. Each one of us will pay for ourselves. Even if it’s $150 for three hours I consider it a good deal if we really can walk on rides. We have been to the Christmas party at Magic Kingdom and that was billed as a lower crowd event. We went in 2019 and it was so incredibly packed that you could’ve passed out in the crowd and not fallen over, that’s how tightly we packed and we were on Lines for rides. I have not done a late night event but I’m really looking forward to it. I do wish Disney could do both though. I wish there could be something earlier and less expensive maybe 4 to 7 for families with children or 4 to 9 and then at 9 o’clock start the late night event. Maybe two different sets of tickets could have worked
It’s always been a tradition for us to spend the night in the Magic Kingdom until park closing before we end our trip. Unfortunately this event is taking place the night before we are supposed to come home so if we want to continue the tradition we will have to pay these ridiculous prices to stay in the Magic Kingdom until the park closes.
Respectfully, it’s expensive.
Everyone that thinks this is expensive is looking at it the wrong way. This is NOT MNSSHP….this is an After Hours Event and that’s what they run. They’re a limited attendance event. They might only sell/allow 8000-10,000 people, not 50,000+ of a party.
@Russ – Wow.
I’ve been to MNSSHP before, and it was enjoyable. But for MY group, this is definitely the better deal, even with the higher prices. Their chief frustration is congestion/long wait times for rides. This solves that neatly and throws in a few benefits on top.
We’ll buy tickets as soon as we have our park day schedule worked out.
I can confirm that DVC Villas for Wilderness Lodge are eligible for early booking, not sure about others. We’re staying at WL Oct 25-Oct 28 and I received an email about early booking the Boo Bash today. I don’t think we’ll go for it though, for just the two of us, that’s almost $400. I hope MNSVSH party comes back soon, we were really looking forward to it.
@SCOTT lee-ross – Can I please ask what your end price point would be? How much would you be willing to pay for an after hours ticket? I’m truly curious because we all know the prices will keep rising. Would it be $200 or $300? Or would it be that as long as ticket prices were within a $25 difference? In other words, if ticket prices went to $300 per day, would you be ok with that AND still pay that $25 extra? Is there a break point?
I have attended multiple after hours events over the past 3 years. These included events at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.
They are the best value in Disney tickets. You can accomplish so much more in that time then you can even think of doing during the day. There is nothing like getting on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and staying on it for 5 rides without even getting off. Or walking into Space Mountain, getting in a rocket, travelling the mission and then taking a back door from exit around to load again.
@Josh – Yes I have done after hours and I’ve done MNSSHP. I’ve also done MK on days where there were parties like MNSSHP that evening so MK day crowds are light because of it. Also, daily ticket prices are no where near that expensive. If you go for let’s just say a week – and you get 4 days at the park (no park hopping because while you can visit only 1 Park a day, you can go in and out – morning, noon, and night). Figure one full day for travel there and back, that leaves you 2 remaining days. Perhaps one day visiting resorts and one day visiting Disney Springs. The week of Aug. 22nd has tickets for $103/day for adults and $98/day for children. That is so much lower than this ridiculous price – and for what? So you can ride without a wait time? If you choose only 1 park per day (no park hopper) and go in the morning til early afternoon then come back in the evening, you will get to ride on all the rides you want. And while $25 doesn’t seem like much, add it to a family of 4 and it becomes $100. And for what?? So you can get on rides with no wait time – the same rides that you also could’ve done with a 1 day base ticket to MK? I’m sorry, nothing against you at all, but I just think that Disney has become greedy beyond belief.
Is there a reason why they are not having any events on the week of the 27 Sept to 01 Oct?
@Meg and @PB17 – I understand you find the prices outrageous, but I don’t think you’re understanding that this isn’t suppose to replace the normal Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It’s something totally different than that, and perhaps more valuable when you know the full context (which Tom did pretty well explaining above). Have either of you ever did an After Hours event at Magic Kingdom in the past? If not, the most important thing you need to know is the number of tickets they sell for these AH events is around 75% LESS than the number of tickets they sell for the MNSSHP (around 5,000 vs 20,000). Right there, you are paying almost the same price as a normal day pass (minus the dates in October that are priced pretty high and greedy IMO) to get 5+ hours in a park where 3 of those hours will be virtually empty. You will be able to ride almost everything you want, multiple times with no waits in the lines. My wife and I have been to 4 After Hour events at Magic Kingdom since 2018 and I promise you, after about 30 minutes into the event and you’re walking around Frontierland, it looks closed. There are times when there are just no other people walking within 100 feet of you.
So not only are you getting an experience with around 75% less people, you also are getting A LOT of Halloween themed activities that you’re used to getting with the normal Halloween party – minus the fireworks – which I get is a hard pill to swallow. However, I think personally that by August 10th for the first event, we should have Happily After Ever fireworks every night at Magic Kingdom. This ticket letting you in at 7pm will give you the opportunity to at least see that full show, plus time before to having a relaxing dinner in the park beforehand.
Again, you can do ALL that I mentioned above for the August and September dates for the SAME price as the After Hours has been for the last 2 years (ranged from $125 to $139 from 2018 to 2020 when we did one last).
@Meg – INDEED! I am truly baffled at people being ok with paying soooo much more and getting soooo much less. I guess I can understand first-timers, but the people who have been to WDW many times – and know how it was – continuing to pay these outlandish prices for less than half of what they used to get just really confuses me! Disney has gone off the deep end with their prices on EVERYTHING and delivery of practically NOTHING. But I guess as long as goofy people are willing to pay for it, Disney will keep raking them over the coals. Thankfully, my mom taught me better than that.
We’re are coming in October as a family of 13. I was so excited to do this However I can NOT justify spending $2197 to do so . I’m so disappointed . What happened to Families Disney ??? Will not attend !
Nope. Nope nope nope. Feel bad for you bloggers having to pay so much for this ridiculousness. I mean MAYBE id it was the only way to see fireworks but even that is not included. So I’s be paying more than a single day ticket just for 3 hours of what I can already do all day at the park with some halloween stuff? Yeesh.
I wonder if they realized that there are so many youtubers and bloggers and instagrammers out there they can charge whatever they want and sell a decent amount of tickets that way. Or maybe they are selling to people who don’t read the details, assume it is all evening like the party, and realize tok late it is nonrefundable.
Does anyone know the times? Is it a 9-12 event? And can anyone confirm no fireworks, parades or stage shows? Whew…. Pricey for that. Especially for an entire family of four or more.
Hmmm, hoping for a little more from whatever Christmas event we get this year. Fingers crossed for fireworks, somewhere
Disney After Hours is AMAZING in hot weather months. We’ve attended DAH in late May and in late August. We spent the INFERNALLY HOT day relaxed in front of the pool, thanking our lucky stars that we were not baking in a theme park. Then we strolled in at 7:00, took advantage of some of the rides/shows that were NOT a part of DAH. Finally, at 9:00, we had a beautiful evening of walking on and off rides in the warm but not hot night hours. Did I mention that we stuffed ourselves with all-you-can-eat coke/popcorn/Mickey bars? Can I say how wonderful it was to ride Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog, etc. over and over and over? Put hopping on and off your fav. rides in MK together with Halloween treats, cavalcades, Dapper Dans … Awesome sauce, people!
No parade? No fireworks? No stage shows? No thanks.