Halloween at Magic Kingdom Review: Trick or Treat?
Halloween got a “late” start at Walt Disney World this year, kicking off in mid-September instead of the “normal” mid-August. We visited Magic Kingdom to see the park decked out in pumpkin decor, the new character cavalcades, and see whether it’s a trick or a treat. Here we’ll share photos, preliminary crowd & viewing advice, and more.
As you might recall, Walt Disney World cancelled the hard-ticketed Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year. In its place, Halloween entertainment will be offered with seasonal foods available for purchase throughout the day at Magic Kingdom from September 15 to October 31, 2020.
Even before experiencing this, we knew it’d be good and bad. Obvious downsides are no fireworks, full parade, or nighttime operating hours. On the plus side, switching from a hard-ticketed event to being included in regular park admission meant not having to pay extra to experience Halloween at Walt Disney World. Now that the festivities have started, we have more insight into the good and bad of this approach. Let’s start out with the bad…
Unfortunately, decorations are relatively light this year with both the Main Street Pumpkin Festival and Pumpkin Citizens of Town Square absent. This means no pumpkins around the windows of Main Street with carving designs matching the businesses (e.g. hot dog carving at Casey’s) and no pumpkin scarecrows in the flower beds around the train station.
There’s also no fall floral Mickey Mouse greeting guests upon entering the turnstiles. Other more subtle pumpkins and seasonal flowers that appeared throughout the Central Plaza and other areas of Magic Kingdom are also not present this year. On the plus side, the most iconic Halloween decorations have been installed.
Those, of course, are the Mickey Mouse Head Pumpkin Wreaths that line the lampposts on Main Street USA and appear all around Cinderella Castle.
These are undeniably awesome, great backdrops for PSL photos (hopefully we all know what that means now 😉 ), and really clever pieces of decor. They do a nice job of making Main Street feel like fall, but they’re being asked to do some heavy-lifting this year.
Too much heavy lifting, if you ask me.
In a normal year, Main Street truly feels like a pumpkin festival. From the Mickey floral prior to entering the tunnel to the Pumpkin Citizens of Town Square to the Main Street Pumpkin Festival, there’s layer upon layer of tasteful and perfectly on-theme decorations.
The culmination of that is something spooktacular, with the Mickey Mouse Head Pumpkin Wreaths being the cherry on top that ties everything together. (Or the proverbial whipped cream on the pumpkin pie, if you’d prefer.)
If you’ve visited Walt Disney World at Halloween, these Mickey jack-o’-lanterns are probably what sticks out in your memory, but they’re the highlight of a complete package–not the sole component. Without the rest of that package, it sort of falls flat. More like how Independence Day is celebrated with patriotic bunting.
Now, you might be thinking that these are unprecedented times and we should cut Walt Disney World some slack. In the past few months, we have done that. However, as attendance and wait times increase, we’ll be less deferential to Disney’s financial woes.
It’s not like they’re charging less to enter the parks; there needs to be commensurate value for money, whether that’s in the form of reduced waits, lower crowds, or seasonal offerings.
Plus, how much money is Walt Disney World even saving by reducing the Halloween decorations package? It’s not like they fabricate these pumpkins and scarecrows each year–installing them cannot possibly be that expensive.
I’d be inclined to say Disney just hasn’t installed the rest of the decorations yet, as it makes so little sense to cut them. However, given that this was the official kick-off and “influencer day,” it seems unlikely that Walt Disney World wouldn’t have had everything ready to go today. (Here’s hoping they surprise us and more appears overnight.)
Moving along, we arrived at Magic Kingdom a couple hours after opening today, having booked a stay at Disney’s Riviera Resort last night and wanting to enjoy our room as long as possible. (Gotta take advantage of those “Adventure Season” point charts while every resort is easy to book!)
Arriving late was definitely for the best, due to the aforementioned “influencer day.” Nothing against influencers, but Main Street was surprisingly busy when we first arrived. There were significant lapses in physical distancing as a result of the crowds. While I won’t defend Disney’s cheaping out on decorations, I will defend this. Cast Members were walking up and down Main Street with physical distancing signs and reminding guests about physical distancing. They were being diligent–but it didn’t matter.
As soon as the cavalcades or character appearances started, guests “materialized” in the available space on Main Street. This happened despite low crowds and short waits throughout the rest of Magic Kingdom. (As of 2 pm, posted wait times were a relatively modest 35 minutes for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and 25 minutes for Splash Mountain. Those were the peaks–everything else was lower.)
In a nutshell, this is why Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party couldn’t be held this year. We’ve seen the exact same scenario play out time and time again during that event. Main Street ends up packed to an uncomfortable degree while the rest of the park is relatively quiet.
The good news here is that even on Main Street, crowds largely subsided after everyone who arrived for park opening got photos from the first ’round’ of all the cavalcades and left. From about noon on, we didn’t have any issues with physical distancing on Main Street and in front of Cinderella Castle.
Even before noon, crowds were much more sparse along the parade route in Frontierland and Liberty Square. This is another trend that carries over from Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Of course, the trade-off is no Cinderella Castle as a backdrop.
However, there’s the advantage of being entertained by Big Al, Liver Lips, and/or Wendell while awaiting the cavalcades. Many guests are saying that there’s nothing more magical than waving at bumpkin bears, and the powerfully inspiring experience has filled their hearts with joy, strength, and memories that will last a lifetime.
While it’s true that the Country Bears (both the Jamboree and smile & wave characters) are why so thousands of people are booking Walt Disney World trips right now, the pent-up bear demand is not really relevant here.
It’s premature to offer definitive viewing recommendations beyond that based upon today, but our expectation is that the middle of the day will be the best time for watching these character cavalcades on Main Street. That’s when the fewest guests are arriving and leaving, so it’s the sweet spot for the lowest crowds on Main Street.
While the crowds around the cavalcades weren’t bad today after the morning rush, we’re skeptical that this will remain the case. Today was pretty slow as a whole in Magic Kingdom (refer again to the above wait times), and it’s much likely to be busier this weekend (and every weekend thereafter) as well as once Walt Disney World enters the heart of Halloween season. It’s also possible capacity limits were lower today since it was the first day of the new entertainment.
As for the substance of the cavalcades, we are fans. These are not on the same level as Boo to You, but that’s obviously a full parade.
What we get here essentially amounts to “snack sized” versions of Boo to You. The music, costumes, choreography, and performers all evoke that iconic Halloween parade. The cavalcades are enough to whet your appetite, but ultimately leave you wanting more.
That’s not such a bad thing. There’s the obvious angle that the cavalcades prevent guests from congregating and lingering in the same spot, which is good from a health safety perspective. Additionally, there’s the fact that these run much more frequently than a full parade would, and in so doing, give Main Street a much-needed shot in the arm and sense of Halloween atmosphere.
Finally, there’s the (very real) possibility that a daytime Halloween parade just doesn’t offer the same moodiness as a nighttime one. These snippets were great in part because they evoked Boo to You and left us wanting more. I suspect a full daytime parade would’ve lacked the impact, been a hassle to see, and overstayed its welcome. (As is the case with Disneyland’s Christmas parade.)
In general, these Halloween cavalcades and character greetings are a dramatic improvement over the ‘regular’ ones introduced when Magic Kingdom reopened. We were (and are) fans of those, but the Halloween offerings simply do a better job–they give the park a defined mood and atmosphere.
While the cavalcades compensate for the lack of other Halloween decorations, the whole package would be elevated even further with the rest of the decorations. (And if the regular Main Street USA background music were replaced with the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party loop.)
Our one blindspot here is how this will resonate with someone who has never attended Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Part of the appeal for us was our memories of that.
However, it’s hard to imagine lack of MNSSHP experience being much of an impediment to enjoying this. It’s not like there’s a learning curve or background knowledge is a necessary prerequisite to enjoying this entertainment. Halloween is Halloween–pretty accessible stuff. Those who have done MNSSHP before might appreciate this a tad more, but that’s true of almost everything at Walt Disney World. Nostalgia is a powerful drug!
Ultimately, the Halloween entertainment and decorations at Magic Kingdom are something of a mixed bag–turns out this is both a trick and a treat. The half-hearted decorations are truly confounding. That’s low hanging fruit and Walt Disney World knows Annual Passholders and locals (who likely know what’s missing) are the main demographic right now. On the other hand, the cavalcades are better than expected and pick up a lot of the slack–it’s really nice to have seasonal entertainment without paying for an upcharge event!
All things considered, we’re pretty satisfied with this. This adds two much-needed ‘angles’ to the Magic Kingdom experience with seasonal and leisurely offerings. We look forward to returning to Magic Kingdom throughout the fall, grabbing a Halloween-themed snack, watching a cavalcade, and repeating that process. It should be a fun and laid back way of doing Walt Disney World for the next couple of months…and then repeating the process anew once November and Christmas season begin!
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 do you think of the Halloween festivities at Magic Kingdom? If you’ve already visited, what did you think of the crowds, atmosphere, etc? Are you excited for the cavalcade, character costumes, or food? Planning on going in costume to Magic Kingdom in September or October? Think this will provide a nice shot in the arm for Magic Kingdom? Does this likewise have you optimistic for Christmas season at Walt Disney World? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Could it be that Disney doesn’t want to encourage picture taking amongst the Halloween decorations which encourages removing masks? Perhaps it’s best to keep the crowds moving. Ironically we were at the second Halloween party last year (on a Tuesday) which was so crowded we didn’t get to take in all the decorations anyway. My comments were just interrupted by a blast message from our school district – three more cases in the schools today which started last Wed. Stay safe everyone.
You said it best when you said, “It’s not like they’re charging less to enter the parks; there needs to be commensurate value for money, whether that’s in the form of reduced waits, lower crowds, or seasonal offerings.” I couldn’t agree more. For a while I’ve been astonished at Disney’s refusal to lower ticket prices in spite of eliminating TONS of experience. To be honest, I have no tolerance for a 35-40 minute wait to ride. PERIOD. That’s close to a wait time that inspired Fast Passes to be created in the first place. To be paying FULL PRICE for half the perks, no dining plans, decreased hours etc. AND have to deal with longer lines and the amount of crowding I saw in these photos is making me SERIOUSLY consider cancelling my trip for mid-October. Makes me wonder if it will get to the point of being non-justifiable.
I’m thinking the same for our planned visit the first week of October. I could justify all the rest of it for the magic of very low crowds and wait times, but if those have gone back up then it’s not much different than normal WDW except with much less entertainment, limited dining (no indoor eating yet for us) and oh yeah the chance of contracting a deadly disease.
Looks like we may have missed our chance at uncrowded, low-wait-times Disney.
I’m thinking that despite the decorations already being available on property, there wasn’t a sufficient amount of time to get them installed once the decision on timing was made. While you would hope that there’s internal communication within Disney before an announcement is made to the public, maybe this doesn’t happen. Also, with the reduction of cast members perhaps they cannot devote sufficient manpower to get everything installed in time for the reveal.
Sorry fans of PSL. PSL is like eating potpourri. Yuk! Even a chocolate PSL is not swallowable, I tried.
Tom the first picture you have at the beginning of the article I must say has me concerned for Christmas and the crowds we will see with the cavalades, as in this picture it shows pretty close together. I know pictures can be deceiving but it clearly looks like people crowded and up close and personal on Main Street watching the “mini” parade.
I do hope they put up more decorations for fall and since we plan on being there for Christmas, hope they do the full park spread with decorations because quite honestly with so many other things being cut but not the park entrance costs it is disappointing.
Trying to stay positive.
Guests are definitely too close to one another in that photo, but there’s also deceptive lens compression happening (the same thing that makes some beach shots look crowded).
One thing to remember is that these people are close to one another very briefly (a few minutes at most), outdoors, while properly masked. A lot has been learned about transmission in the last few months, and we now know that brief, fleeting contact outdoors with universal masking isn’t an issue.
In terms of risk, this is considerably lower than dining indoors.
In terms of the crowds those are really in the eye of the beholder. Disney lost the ability to control the crowd with fast pass so it makes sense people congregating certain places. It’s going to require a plan like the parties do. It’s risk management if you really want to avoid people skip Main Street, skip popular rides and hang out in open space areas, avoid Fall entirely.
We went to a sold out Christmas party last year and honestly were not impacted. We went to a fairly early Halloween party that was awful. It was likely awful because we wanted to see the parade twice, meet the characters, see the overlays, eat the snacks. we got stuck on Main Street with everyone else the last 30 minutes or so.
I don’t really know what else Disney could do except offer no fall themed entertainment to clear out Main Street.
I, too, am a bit confounded by the lack of decorations. Disney already owns them, the only “additional” cost would be potential man hours to put them out but I cannot imagine that would be that much additional. In a time where it is already viewed that Disney is cutting benefits with no reductions in cost, this truly is a puzzling move to me.
Was there on the 12th and 13th so just missed the Halloween decor. But I will say a few things about crowds and social distancing. I loved the social distancing in the lines for rides, and for the most part people paid attention to the tape. But exiting the rides and on the walkways there was no such thing as social distancing so that was unsettling. As the capacity increases this will only get worse. We were there during the heavy rains, so wearing the mask, a poncho, being wet and hot and humid, it was A LOT! We heard from a cast member friend that masks are likely to be mandatory through 2021. We normally visit twice per year, but won’t be back until masks are no longer mandatory.
There is no way that masks will be mandatory through 2021. That would be a financial disaster for the parks. I don’t even see them requiring them in indoor spaces only and not in the outdoor spaces and queues where they already do not make any sense. I hope you misheard them or they are just flat out wrong!
Cast Members are probably just repeating what Orange County officials have said repeatedly the last few months, that masks will likely be required through Spring 2021.
Emphasis on likely. No one really knows at this point.
We attended Magic Kingdom on September 13th, a day we originally had MNSSHP tickets. We were late getting in to the park because the woman at the ticket windows could not find our tickets for THIRTY minutes!! When I asked for something equivalent to a fast pass she said I can’t give you anything. I responded that this cut into our day for no reason, she flatly said, “Yeah, I know”. And then walked off!!!! Once inside, we went to guest services to complain where the next lady told us, “There’s absolutely nothing I can do but have a good rest of your day.” It was downhill from there. The employees don’t give a rip. It’s not the same park at all! We will not be back for a long time. Sad and very un-Disney!!
Didn’t going to Guest Services cut into your day even more?
We’re your tickets linked in My Disney Experience? It’s not the CM’s fault she couldn’t find them. Everything has changed in the park.
Also there is no Fast Pass right now. They can’t make something up to give you.
It took an hour to get our passes sorted. We called ahead and were very nice and appreciative of the work the CM did. Everyone has a 100% unique situation right now. It’s a lot of work and the CMs are doing the best they can.
Maria, that was my thought also. We went for Labor Day Weekend. My brother and I have AP but got 6 day tickets for parents. Had entered those into MDE already but expected to need activation at a ticket window. However, the CM there told us they were good to go since they’d already been linked. Less than 3 minutes and we were inside Epcot the night we got there.
Following up on this…Disney personally called me; the woman in charge of Guest Services. We discussed my experience (a lot happened and is too long to post) and she was very kind and issued us replacement tickets to visit again. I really appreciated her taking the time to call and address our experience. It was definitely not the norm with the employees, and having been to Disney parks many, many times, i knew that. In the end, Disney makes things right, and that is the Disney we know and love!
Wait… What’s a PSL?
….kidding.
Okay, I’m new to this blog and will show my ignorance. What is a PSL?
I had to google it as well. Tom made a post about a psl a few days ago and many people had no idea what it was. Many people, starbucks people it seems, knew it was a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I am not a starbucks person. lol. But it became a small joke from a previous post. 🙂
I’m definitely not a “Starbucks person” (I don’t have a strong opinion on it one way or the other–I get their coffee a few times a year out of convenience) but still thought it was a pretty commonly used acronym on social media!
Haha, good one! “What’s a PSL?” Disgusting, that’s what it is! Just like everything with pumpkin spice. Or coffee. But there are other things in the parks right now which are awesome! Got the Madame Leota sipper cups which are very cool.
Was anyone dressed up in costumes? We want to dress up when we go, but kinda wondering if we’ll be alone in doing so.
I would think it would be way too hot to wear a costume during the day time unless your costume was very similar to regular clothing. But it’s all up to you.
At the MK today (9/15). Crowds were 4 to 5 times in size compared mid-August. Lines moved well. Did 8 rides in 6 hours +shopping. Halloween was unseen. Did see all 3 cavalcades. Still be debating “Christmas” visit
We were there today and have been at MK a couple times since they reopened. We had a totally different take than you. We thought it was much more crowded than it has been in the past couple weeks, especially on a weekday. We found it harder to get around people and the lines that we almost non existent were much longer today. 35 minutes for It’s a Small World when in past weeks we just walked on. Maybe we were always in different areas but I didn’t feel as comfortable as I had felt before due to the crowds. You saying it was Influencer Day does make so much sense. Everyone was blocking areas to get the right pose.
Hi Tom- I agree with you. We were there this morning and My comment was… where are the fall garlands and bunting. This looks cheap and kinda pathetic I mean. It’s some leaves and carved pumpkins that already exist. Costs nothing but a few hours. Not to mention you have 14 hours a night to get the decor up.
I really cannot understand why they would not put up the rest of the Halloween decorations–especially the Pumpkin Citizens and the rest of the pumpkin decorations on Main St. They have them sitting in a warehouse somewhere. Half-hearted Halloween decorations is really rather insulting!
Bad show, Disney.
I just can’t wait but we will be there for Christmas decorations so I am OK. Your pictures tom are wonderful and just “take me there”
This half-show of Halloween decorations has me concerned how sparse and pitiful the Christmas decorations may be.
We were at the park today and I was excited to see the Halloween decor. I’ve never been in fall before so I didn’t have any expectations but it definitely put me in the Halloween spirit! I loved the “parades” & the wreaths with the Mickey pumpkin in the middle 🙂 overall we had a wonderful day there today! I had great iced PSL at Joffreys Revive in Tomorrowland!
We were at MK today from rope drop to 5:45 and it felt very Halloween-ish, but definitely not like years past.
This was our last day of an eight day trip and I’m not regretting that we still came, but wow, this has been a weird experience.
Now, I’m laying here in bed at Old Key West feeling quite sad that there’s no bounce back offer to book. Grateful though that we were able to see the Halloween wreaths for 2020.
Fingers crossed that this nonsense will be over next year.
Longtime reader here, and I was not familiar with the term “PSL photos.” So I Googled it, and the first few entries were “Pakistan Super League,” which may deal with cricket (not the animal). Although that sounds quite exciting, I’m guessing you might be referring to a different meaning, Tom?
Pumpkin Spice Latte 🙂
Also Tom love your photos especially of my country bears and the evil queen!’
A reader asked the question in a recent article, and so I think that’s why Tom put the winky face comment about us all knowing what it means by now – I did smile at that comment, but then still had to think for a fraction of a second to recall what it actually was! It’s apparently pumpkin spice latte, but that was news to me too, until I read that other article. I’d never heard that acronym used, but I’m from Canada, so maybe we don’t use it as much as those in the south?
I’m pouring over the pictures to see if you caught us in the background … we were there today, too. My pictures aren’t as good as yours though.
We’ve had this trip planned since before Covid, along with visiting USO for HHN, so we were simultaneously pleased and a little cringe that our planned Magic Kingdom day was the first day of the Halloween season, such as it is. It was not as crowded as we had feared, and we were able to do everything we wanted, with no rush, and no long line waits. We’re staying off site, so we only have the one MK day – HS tomorrow, and Epcot Thursday, and that’s it for us as AP holders. Overall, it was a good day – not our best day at Disney, but not our worst either. But there is definite vibe there, I guess sadness is the best word, and the magic is just not there. Oh well. Maybe next year.
Tom,
I understand the steps Disney is taking to keep everyone safe. But, in today’s world of “Me”, people will do what they want to do no matter what. I had to meet with a family today ( I make cemetery memorials and manage several cemeteries) who have lost three members to Covid. I, and my family are DVC members, AP holders, but will not travel at this time. It’s still too very real and as an older adult, won’t go yet. The pictures of the crowds not practicing social distancing is just not for us. All of the others can enjoy their time there in our place. Thanks again for the updates. See you soon.
Well said!