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!
We went to boo bash last night 10/5 and it was definitely over sold. Long lines for everything … snacks, candy, rides. 40 min wait for mine train and haunted mansion. 25 min for Peter Pan and it broke down so wait was even longer than that. 20 min wait for big thunder. Splash mountain and big thunder both broke down while we were on it. Had to be walked out by cast member on splash mountain. Not sure if splash mountain came back up and it was beginning of party. They also held us at entrance until 7pm. Thought for sure they would let us enter little sooner like MNSSHP. People in line w us said they went to guest relations and bought their tix same day. Party also had a diff feel and vibe than MNSSHP. We also felt rushed bc our time is so limited. Was it worth over $500 for the 3 of us? Definitely not!! We’ve accomplished a lot more w the 30 min early entry every morning and had lots more fun. This was definitely not a true after hours party. Just a watered down, overpriced version of our beloved MNSSHP.
Can you update schedule based on 9pm start time?
Michelle Peterson: If the party starts at 9 and you can get in two hours early on the party ticket, you won’t be able to get into the MK for a 6:15 dining reservation.
We have tickets to the Boo Bash in October. We do not have park tickets for earlier in the day.
Will we be allowed into Magic Kingdom for a dinner reservation at the Crystal Palace at 6:15pm?
We went to Boo Bash on Aug 20. We bought our tickets at Magic Kingdom with no problem. It was our first special event. Not sure it was worth $600 for 3 adults and one child. For 7-12:30am. It was still a lot of fun and felt special. Would have liked to have seen more Characters out. And maybe special themed fireworks or show. It was still more people on a Friday. Monday night might have been better.
@Grizz
Where is the pumpkin located in MK? You mentioned getting there early to avoid the hour line you did to get the photo.
TIA
I think I read somewhere that some Boo Bash tickets were available same-day. Has anyone been successful getting a ticket this way? My daughter and I are heading there next week but we did not act fast enough!
We went last night. We had a great time. Lots of costumes. The family was Ariel, Prince Eric, Flotsam/Jetsam, and Ursula. We walked on every ride, just had to time some of them right as the party went on. We made the whole way through and made it back to the room right around 2 am. It was very different than MNSSHP. Very different entertainment and feel. Besides missing the entertainment/characters, we really missed some of the typical photo locations. Make sure to hit the pumpkin photo early in the night. We waited almost and hour at the end. Also the shops are closed right as the party ends so no walking through after the party.
There are times listed on the Disney website. We are there September 24th and the Fireworks are at 8:15 before boo bash
Will there be castle/firework show before boo bash?
@Jess and Jessi: MNSSHP always had early entry, as well. The party started at 7 but we were allowed into the park at 4. There was a separate entry line for party ticket holders. We always showed up in costume, so I would think the same would apply for the Boo Bash, as well. I hope you have an amazing time!!
Why has nothing more been released about christmas cant plan vacation with no info
Awaiting your review to factor the ride opportunities we will have during Boo Bash into the plan for our 2 MK days. Really wondering how, if at all, Boo Bash will shape our best rope drop strategy!
Has there been any information as to whether more tickets for Boo Bash will be made available if the event is listed as sold out for that day right now? Thank you!