2023 Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party Guide
Oogie Boogie Bash is a Disney Halloween Party in California Adventure (DCA) theme park at Disneyland Resort in September and October. This strategy guide offers everything you need to know about the event, time-saving tips & tricks, character locations, parade info, and whether it’s worth doing. (Updated September 17, 2023.)
In terms of basic background, Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party is a limited-capacity, separately ticketed event that adds family-friendly fun to DCA. This Halloween Party offers an opportunity to enjoy the park’s attractions, unique entertainment, villainous treat trails, the Frightfully Fun Parade, and more.
The first thing you need to know is that Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party is incredibly popular with Disneyland fans, and is already sold out. We have details on that in our latest update below, as well as a sneak peek at what’s new for 2023. If you want to be notified ASAP when more details are released or if more tickets become available, subscribe to our FREE email newsletter for updates. Here’s everything you need to know about the event, updated based on our experiences attending the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash…
Let’s start with the basics: the hard ticket event is held on 25 select nights in September and October 2023. Attendees of Oogie Boogie Bash can don their favorite costume for a frightfully fun time at this separately-ticketed, limited-capacity, after-hours event at Disney California Adventure.
Again, tickets are sold out for all dates of Oogie Boogie Bash, as we’ll discuss in the update below. With that said, let’s still start with all dates & prices for each night of Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party in September 2023:
- September 5, 2023 – $134
- September 7, 2023 – $144
- September 10, 2023 – $159
- September 12, 2023 – $134
- September 14, 2023 – $144
- September 17, 2023 – $159
- September 19, 2023 – $134
- September 21, 2023 – $144
- September 24, 2023 – $159
- September 26, 2023 – $144
- September 28, 2023 – $144
Oogie Boogie Bash October 2023 dates & prices:
- October 1, 2023 – $169
- October 3, 2023 – $159
- October 5, 2023 – $159
- October 8, 2023 – $169
- October 10, 2023 – $159
- October 12, 2023 – $159
- October 15, 2023 – $169
- October 17, 2023 – $159
- October 19, 2023 – $159
- October 22, 2023 – $169
- October 24, 2023 – $169
- October 26, 2023 – $169
- October 29, 2023 – $189
- October 31, 2023 – $189
Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party tickets are now completely sold out for every single date. This happened after nearly a two-week pause in ticket sales that was plagued by problems (see Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party Problems for details on that).
To make a long story short, a lot of people who attempted to purchase tickets for the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash were unable to do so. Obviously, many people were able to purchase tickets…but plenty of others were shut out entirely. This has left some to wonder what recourse they might have…
Well, I don’t want to add insult to injury, but if you check eBay, Craigslist, etc…you’ll see that pirates had no problems purchasing party tickets…and are now reselling them for a pretty penny. We mention this not because we are recommending that you buy from them. We very much do not recommend that.
Not only does this reward bad behavior, but buying tickets from resellers is risky. For one thing, they could be scamming you. That is incredibly common. For another, reselling tickets violates Disneyland’s terms and conditions. If reported, these listings will be removed. If Disneyland figures out who the resellers are, they will ban those individuals and void the tickets. Meaning you could get caught in the ‘crossfire’ and show up with invalid party tickets.
With all of that said, we’re also not recommending you dedicate your days to reporting eBay pirates. It’s a bit like whack-a-mole, and eventually (unfortunately) most of them will probably find buyers even if multiple listings get pulled first. But others might not have success, or Disney might be able to claw back those transactions. (Disneyland previously cracked down on merchandise reselling and actually cancelled Annual Passes and banned some of those people from the parks.)
It’s possible that Disneyland might end up with more Oogie Boogie Bash tickets to sell as a result of a (potential) reseller crackdown or just ordinary cancellations. If this happens, the tickets almost certainly will not be put back for sale on Disneyland.com. Instead, the Hotels of Disneyland Resort and ticket booths could have walk-up availability a few days ahead of time or same-day.
In the past, Disneyland has sold a limited number of same-day Halloween party tickets many times in the past–how to purchase these is even discussed later in this guide and has been for years. We don’t want to get your hopes up, but that is a possibility if you were unable to successfully score Oogie Boogie Bash tickets when they went on sale. With that said, we have yet to see or hear of this occurring thus far for the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash.
In terms of what’s new or different for the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash, the two big things are Treat Trails featuring Yokai from Big Hero Six and Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The latter is incredibly popular, and for good reason–the character is fantastic and Disneyland fans have a tremendous amount of nostalgia for the cult classic movie. Yokai is a different story, but it’s still worth seeing him, especially if you’ve yet to visit the new San Fransokyo Square.
When it comes to everything else, not much has changed. There are some different rare characters that appear in Carthay Circle, and Lotso has a dedicated meet & greet in Pixar Pier, but that’s really about it. For character strategy, see Villains Treat Trail Tips & Character Meet & Greet Spots at 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party. If you’re big on meet & greets, doing them in the “right” order (as discussed in that) can help save you a ton of time.
Here’s everything else you need to know about the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party…
Highlights of Oogie Boogie Bash include immersive treat trails, Mickey’s Trick and Treat show, the Frightfully Fun Parade, Villains Grove at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and more. All lands remain opening during the Halloween Party, including Avengers Campus.
High profile meet & greets include Clarabelle, Daisy, and Minnie as the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus; Bruno from Encanto; King Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck from Kingdom Hearts; Lotso from Toy Story 3; and Hercules.
Below are the need to know locations throughout DCA during Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party…
Here’s the Oogie Boogie Bash Treat Trail villain lineup and locations:
- Agatha Harkness from WandaVision – Avengers Campus
- Cruella from Cruella (live action) – Hollywood Land
- Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas – Hollywood Land Inside Animation Building
- Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Grizzly Peak Near Soarin’
- Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco – Avengers Campus Between Hyperion Theater and Mission Breakout
- Mother Gothel from Tangled – Grizzly Peak Bypass
- Sid from Toy Story – Pixar Pier
- Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone – Between Buena Vista Street and Avengers Campus
- Yokai from Big Hero 6 – San Fransokyo Square
Here’s the Oogie Boogie Bash character meet & greet lineup and locations (in order of popularity):
- Daisy, Clarabelle & Minnie Mouse as the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus – Hollywood Land
- Bruno from Encanto – Grizzly Peak
- King Mickey, Goofy, and Donald Duck from Kingdom Hearts – Paradise Gardens Park
- Rare Characters – Carthay Circle
- Marvel Super Heroes – Avengers Campus
- Pixar Pals – Pixar Pier
- Radiator Springs Residents – Cars Land
With those details out of the way, we’ll offer Halloween party strategy, a review, photos, and answer “is Oogie Boogie Bash worth the money?” Before we get to all of that, let’s start with an event overview…
For starters, purchasing admission to this special event allows you to enjoy Disney California Adventure for up to 3 hours before Oogie Boogie Bash — A Disney Halloween Party begins. The party itself runs for 5 hours, with special Halloween-themed entertainment, attractions, character greetings, and more.
Parking can be purchased upon arrival, or in advance. We recommend budgeting about 90 minutes for the time it’ll take to get parked, over to DCA, and through the turnstiles. There are lines for literally everything, from the parking garages to park trams to getting wristbands for the event. All of this waiting adds up and takes time–arrive early to ensure that doesn’t cut into the event time.
If you’re unable to attend Oogie Boogie Bash or are simply wondering how this special event compares with standard Disneyland and DCA park admission during the fall months, consult our Ultimate Guide to Halloween Time at Disneyland.
The good news is that there’s a ton of Halloween fun in both parks that is included with regular admission. In fact, if it comes down to visiting Disneyland during the day or doing Oogie Boogie Bash, we’d probably recommend the former. That way you’ll experience Haunted Mansion Holiday, Halloween Screams Fireworks, decorations, and characters throughout the park. In an ideal world, we’d recommend doing both Disneyland and Oogie Boogie Bash during the Halloween Time season.
Before we move on to the entertainment overview and recommendations, it’s worth mentioning that we have a step-by-step 1-Night Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party Plan. This covers our ideal efficient plan of attack–and it’s field tested, meaning that we did this ourselves when attending Oogie Boogie Bash this year!
Oogie Boogie Bash Entertainment Info & Tips
Let’s start with the flagship entertainment during Oogie Boogie Bash: the Frightfully Fun Parade. This debuted during Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland, and we really enjoy it. Frightfully Fun Parade is similar to Boo to You Parade at Walt Disney World, albeit it shorter and a tad darker.
Despite the shorter duration, Frightfully Fun Parade is very strong, and it does a ton with an economy of parade units and floats. What’s featured here is really good and has direct ties to Halloween. There are also some notable differences in the characters featured.
Frightfully Fun Parade begins with the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow carrying his flickering jack-o-lantern. He heralds the arrival of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse who lead the cavalcade of characters.
After that, the highlight of the parade appears: Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, who brings greetings from Halloweentown, as characters from “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” appear. Following that, Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize and bring Disney’s iconic Haunted Mansion attraction to life.
From there, Dr. Facilier uses his mystical powers to summon the Shadow Men from the bayou to loom large over his strange and twisted Voodoo parlor in one of the parade’s spookier units. Finally, the mischievous Disney Villains appear out of the darkness, with a dungeon-like lair and a wicked gathering of villainy including Hades, Evil Queen, Jafar, Cruella, and more.
We recommend watching Frightfully Fun Parade from either in front of the Little Mermaid ride or directly across from that. This is the least-crowded section of the parade route and also the best-lit.
The advantage of watching from in front of Little Mermaid is leaving immediately after the parade passes and heading for Grizzly Peak, where you can either meet Bruno from Encanto with minimal wait, or head to Villains Grove (also with minimal wait).
The advantage of watching from the other side of that walkway is leaving immediately after the parade passes to line up for the Kingdom Hearts meet & greet. In both cases, you’ll beat the post-parade rush of people heading to these same destinations. Other spots along the parade route aren’t as convenient for moving along to your next destination.
While the parade is the flagship entertainment offerings for Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party, there are a few other noteworthy additions. First, the Mickey’s Trick and Treat show.
This interactive stage production in Hollywood Land is aimed at small children. It offers them the chance to join Mickey Mouse and friends as they throw a Halloween party with dancing, not-so-frightening scary-tales, and candy.
Another interesting addition is Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which becomes Villains Grove. This is a wondrous and ethereal world of Disney villains, completely transformed with lighting, projections, sounds, and special effects, creating a haunting, dreamlike (or does that make it nightmare-like?) environment.
Villains Grove is one aspect of Oogie Boogie Bash that Disney is really hyping, and it’s basically Disney’s twist on a standard Halloween walk-through maze you might find at other theme parks in Southern California. The primary difference here is that the environments are accomplished entirely via ‘flip of a switch’ technology that creates a dramatic day/night difference at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.
Treat Trails are one of the highlights of Oogie Boogie Bash. Each trail lures Guests deeper into the immersive worlds of the mischievous villains that everyone loves to hate. Along the way, you can trick-or-treat through a trail of candy (hence the name), including M&M’S, SKITTLES, SNICKERS, and other Halloween favorites.
Treat Trails offer oversized cauldrons full of candy, healthy snacks, and more. We are not particularly keen on candy, so we grabbed the apple sauce, carrots, cranberries, and other options each time we passed through the trails. If we wanted candy, we could absolutely clean up, as each trail offers multiple distribution points.
For us, the highlight is the villains. These characters interact with the crowd, with the talented performers heckling guests or putting on a show for the crowd. In our opinion, these are better than meet & greets, and offer a chance for fun and meaningful interactions rather than quickly posing with characters almost as if they’re background props for photos.
Oh, and the lines are much shorter and faster-moving than meet & greets. Seeing Oogie Boogie (the man of the evening!) takes about ~10 minutes via the Treat Trail, but would easily command an hour-plus wait time as a meet & greet.
There are also character meet & greets with Disney characters, including villains. Expect to encounter some rare characters and seldom-seen costumes for fan favorites; in case you missed it, the list for last year is above.
Normal meet & greets have returned for Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party.
A lot of people don’t seem to understand how these special event ticket parties work, so to be crystal clear: a regular park ticket will not grant you admission to Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party.
You must purchase the special event tickets to stay in Disney California Adventure once Oogie Boogie Bash begins. Yes, this means potentially buying two tickets for the same day if you want to stay from park opening until closing.
On the other hand, a party ticket alone does grant you admission to Disney California Adventure a few hours before the event officially begins. It’s also cheaper than a 1-day park ticket for several dates.
This is a big reason why the Halloween Party is so popular with locals in Los Angeles and Orange County–it’s a less expensive way to see the Halloween offerings with lower crowds and at a cheaper price. Even though it’s not the whole day, it’s a good value if you’re a local who doesn’t want a full day at DCA.
The downside to this all is that the event is in DCA instead of Disneyland, and early entry is only in DCA. This means you cannot experience Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge with just an Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party ticket, or any of the other Disneyland classics, including Haunted Mansion Holiday or Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy.
This is a big loss, and one we think will cause a lot of locals to balk at party tickets this year. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves–more on this in the “Is Oogie Boogie Bash Worth It?” section below…
One of the cool components of Disney’s Halloween Party for many guests is the opportunity to dress in costume. There are limits to the costumes you can wear, but it’s basically common sense stuff like ‘no weapons or sharp objects’ and nothing offensive. If you need further guidance, I’d recommend reading Disneyland’s costume rules.
You also should keep in mind that unlike Florida, Southern California can get cool at night this time of year. We’ve worn heavier costumes to Disney’s Halloween Party–the kind that would be unbearable in Florida–and were perfectly comfortable thanks to evening breezes. We have a Tips for Disney Parks Halloween Costumes post that covers some ideas for what to wear…and what not to wear.
If you’re reading this after the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party is sold out online, note that it is sometimes possible to score last-minute or same-day tickets even when the party is sold out online by calling Disneyland at (714) 781-4636. Your luck may vary with this method, but it doesn’t hurt to try. (If you need regular park tickets, check out our Guide to Buying Discount Disneyland Tickets to save money.)
Guest Services at the three official Disneyland hotels occasionally have same-day tickets for guests staying at those resorts. Keep in mind that both of these strategies are very hit or miss, so don’t bank on either working. In the past, we’ve had good luck and bad luck with both methods. Once, I bought a last-minute ticket on Craigslist, which I would never recommend to anyone else. Fortunately, I didn’t get scammed, but your mileage may vary with that.
Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party Strategy
One thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to do everything there is during Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party. We’re talking just the special entertainment and character greetings, let alone the regular Halloween attraction overlays like Guardians of the Galaxy — Monsters After Dark or Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-ween or Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree.
This is especially true if you plan on doing multiple meet and greets, as characters can consume several hours of your party time. If you don’t plan on meeting any characters–or plan on doing the less popular ones–you’ll have far more flexibility.
Now, a few notes about that strategy for Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party…
Frightfully Fun Parade is now performed twice nightly during Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party. As with all parades at DCA, viewing areas are significantly busier at the front of the park in Carthay Circle and Hollywood Land.
Viewing from near where the parade steps off is ideal for seeing it. This also gives you the opportunity to bounce to your next stop while most guests at Oogie Boogie Bash are still waiting for Frightfully Fun Parade to get to them. The lighting is also better here than near Carthay Circle Theater, making this our easy recommendation.
Meet and greet wait times are fairly consistent throughout the party, with less popular characters seeing shorter lines at the end of the night. Rare characters will have consistently long lines throughout, which is why we’d recommend arriving early for Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck and Clarabelle Cow dressed up as the Sanderson Sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus.
You will want to line up for this no later than 5:30 pm–probably earlier if you’re attending one of the Halloween parties in late September or October. We explain everything you need to know about beating the crowds in How to Meet the Sanderson Sisters at Oogie Boogie Bash.
Attractions will have short waits throughout the party. Once regular day guests cycle through, you can expect peak wait times to be around 30 minutes, and that’s for popular rides like Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark and Radiator Springs Racers.
Here are the attractions open at DCA during Oogie Boogie Bash:
- Guardians of the Galaxy — Monsters After Dark
- WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Monster’s Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween
- Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree
- Incredicoaster
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
- Jessie’s Critter Carousel
- Pixar Pal-A-Round
- Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind
- Silly Symphony Swings
- Jumpin’ Jellyfish
- Goofy’s Sky School
- Golden Zephyr
- The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
- Grizzly River Run
- Soarin’ Around the World
Now, if you’re still wondering whether you should you do the party, we’ll try to help you answer that question…
Is Oogie Boogie Bash Worth It?
Value is all a matter of perspective. If you have financial means and won’t feel the sting of the ticket cost, or just really love Halloween and want to splurge on Oogie Boogie Bash, go for it. If the party is not a splurge for you, it’s unlikely that you’ll regret it.
We’ve done Oogie Boogie Bash every single year since it started, and have had a blast every single time. We really liked Disneyland’s other Halloween Parties before this and have never regretted attending, but we think Disneyland Resort takes it to the next level with Oogie Boogie Bash. Each year there are new characters, treat trails, and other entertainment–the team never phones it in, despite the Halloween parties all selling out with ease.
In terms of Oogie Boogie Bash itself, there’s plenty of entertainment, atmospheric enhancements to Disney California Adventure, characters, and a few minor entertainment offerings. You’re probably looking at around 3-4 hours of Halloween-centric offerings that are unique to this event.
Additionally, there are the core attraction offerings of Disney California Adventure that you can experience before Oogie Boogie Bash begins. If you want to break it down, we’d assign the following values to each component of the event: $25 for the Treat Trails and character meet & greets, $25 for Frightfully Fun Parade, $25 for ambiance, and another $25-50 (depending upon the night you attend) for early access to DCA. That’s assuming you can do around 6-8 attractions in those 3 hours–or about $5-8 per ride.
As a total sucker for Halloween, I can justify at least some of those costs. You might ascribe different values to each component of the event, or elect not to break the cost down on a ‘per unit’ basis.
There’s also trick or treating, which a lot of people really seem to value as it presents a safe and “Disney” environment for their kids to trick or treat. It’s tough to dispute this from a fun perspective, and this year, the interactive treat trails with characters like Oogie Boogie are way more fun than the normal ones.
Seeing these characters has value to us, whereas Halloween candy itself doesn’t have a particularly high value. A bag of candy from the CVS on Harbor Boulevard is ~$5 and you can bring it to the park if you wanted. Nevertheless, the overall experience of these is fun, and you’ll get value out of them one way or another.
There are a lot of other scenarios where the Halloween Party might be appealing. I already mentioned the locals from Los Angeles and Orange County. Oogie Boogie makes complete sense for this demographic, especially those who love Halloween. It’s a great way to experience a mix of special and regular offerings in DCA without buying a 1-day ticket.
Beyond that, tourists who only have a single day to spend at Disneyland Resort get a lot accomplished during the 8 hours that the Oogie Boogie Bash ticket provides access to Disney California Adventure. You won’t be able to do everything, but those 8 hours are going to have lower than normal crowds, allowing you to accomplish more attractions (if that’s your priority) than you could do in a normal full day in the parks. Plus, this is cheaper than a 1-day ticket.
Again, the downside in both of the above scenarios is that Oogie Boogie Bash only grants access to the second gate. Not being able to experience iconic attractions in Disneyland, or step foot in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, is a tremendous downside. We love DCA, but if we only had ~8 hours to spend at Disneyland Resort one day per year, we’d want to spend literally every single hour of that time in Disneyland, not DCA.
If you’re visiting Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for multiple days, you might be able to justify Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party from the perspective of one less day on a multi-day ticket, doing something else in the morning (Downtown Disney or the beach, perhaps) and then heading to DCA for the event. In this scenario, you’re paying a premium for the party ticket, but it’s almost like it’s discounted.
In an ideal world, we’d recommend getting a 3-day Park Hopper ticket and spending at least 4 days at Disneyland Resort, with the morning of Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party spent doing the Goofy’s Kitchen character breakfast at Disneyland Hotel followed by lunch in Downtown Disney (or heading down to Laguna Beach for the entire morning). After that, head into DCA that afternoon and using only your Oogie Boogie Bash party ticket that day. It’s a good way to stretch your vacation dollars and make the cost of the event a little more palatable.
With all of that said, we have to admit that all of the above is a look at whether Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party is worth it on paper. A big draw is the atmosphere and different vibe Disney California Adventure takes on. There’s special background music, unique lighting & effects, and other guests dressed in costumes give the Halloween Party a palpable energy. This is a true X factor.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll likewise be able to find a way to justify the cost of Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party. With every single event date costing over $125, the price is certainly steep. Moreover, there are a lot of Halloween offerings at Disneyland Resort that are included in the standard price of admission. If you already have APs or regular park tickets, there’s less of a “need” to do this.
For us, special events like Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party are a fun splurge. While we found the first two Oogie Boogie Bashes that we’ve attended to be imperfect, they are still “worth it” to us. Even if we would have a hard time breaking down the cost to justify it, the bottom line for us is that the parties are just plain fun, and we really love doing them. Your mileage may vary, but that makes the Halloween Party at Disneyland Resort worth the high cost to us. We hope it continues to improve in its fourth year–the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party should benefit both from experience and normal operations!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Did you attend this year’s Oogie Boogie Bash? Do you disagree with my assessment of the Halloween Party? Already planning ahead for the 2023 Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party? Favorite characters you hope are featured at the event? Already have your costume made for it? 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!
Has anyone tried to buy tickets day of event in person?
We attended our first Oogie Boogie party on the 12th of Sept. We had attended the party at Disneyland many years before and loved it. Overall, we really enjoyed Oogie. Absolutely loved the treat trails with the interactive villains. They were a hoot. We didn’t think the Villains grove was anything special and frankly was a waste of time. I’m not sure what I expected but we were disappointed. I read this article many times and Tom describes it very good. I would skip it and do more treat trails for more interaction with the villains. Our party was very happy we did Oogie Boogie but we all said we probably would not do it again. Whereas, we did the party at Disneyland and WDW a couple times. If we happened to be in WDW during the party we would go again also. I think we just like more entertainment. At Disneyland and WDW they have the pre show in front of the castle, the Sanderson sisters, fireworks and projections. And they have 2-3 of the showings. While the parade at Oogie is great, it’s just the parade.
Villains Grove has gotten more and more popular over the years, with a longer and longer line. You used to just be able to walk through easily and quickly, and it was great then. Now, there’s a line to enter and it’s slow-moving once you’re inside. So given that, I generally agree with your perspective on it.
Otherwise, I think it really depends on how you view the Villains Treat Trails and meet & greets. Those are so much better and easier at Oogie Boogie Bash, but otherwise, I’d agree that MNSSHP trounces OBB in terms of entertainment.
It looks like there are still tickets available on StubHub, going for $463-$666 as of 8/28/2023. This whole ticket fiasco is super disappointing since I’ll be in LA during the event, the first time visiting LA in 30 years, and there’s no chance of getting a ticket unless I want to risk $500 on a scalped ticket.
While there are still scalped tickets around, offhand it doesn’t look like a significant percentage of tickets went to scalpers.
Hi Tom, long time reader and huge fan of your site. I was hoping you might cover something similar to the ‘zig when they zag’ post you did last year about MNSSHP at WDW but for Oogie Boogie Bash. My family is going to DL the first week of October and two of our three days are Bash days so I was planning to start at DCA those days and then hop to DLR. is that what you recommend?
Hi there – FWIW, I attended Sept 5-9. On Oogie Boogie Bash Day, my group started at DCA then couldn’t get out of there fast enough at 3pm when things went bananas because ticket holders could enter for the event. (I’ll omit my own 20-hrs online attempting to get tix and experiencing the same chaos of access then looping, etc). Disneyland was busy, but not horribly so. And, DCA was easy-peasy in the morning. We did use Genie+, but only because we expected to be at Dland in the afternoon and wanted to hit a few key attractions – Success!
I hope that’s helpful! If you don’t need to park-hop, Disneyland all-day on an Oogie Boogie Bash event day will generally have a pretty quiet morning with shorter wait times, but mornings are usually like that anyway in my experience. Have a great trip!
Just wondering if you had any insight on this Tom. Had a few of these scalpers on my wishlist on ebay to see when they sold. Went to check and they were gone the next day. Checked my wishlist and it didn’t say sold. Is Disney finally actually doing something since it says they are not to be resold??. Or is it just us normal folks reporting these people since we got screwed out of our tickets by someone who had no plans on going?
My understanding is that this is now on Disney’s radar. The same thing happened ~2 weeks ago when tickets first went on sale.
I don’t have any additional details beyond that–nor do I know what the outcome will be–but it’s part of why the latest update here encourages people to try closer to the event dates or same-day to see if more tickets “magically” become available. (I think it’s highly unlikely that online sales will resume.)
got onto website at 0840 on my desktop. Hit my phone up at 0850, ipad at 0855. my son was on his imac and phone by 0855. All had over an hour, the desktop said I was in the queue with one hour. 40 min later I had 2 tickets all other items were still an hour when we logged off. At 110 pm my sister had no luck. Got on my phone, my son’s phone, and desktop. 5 minutes later I was in queue on my phone. 30 min later had 5 Tix for her. It was totally random and not fair to all. I had decided to not attend Socal this year without these Tix, so I am going now. Universal was in and done in 5 min, and cheaper for the 2 pm entry including HHN and Mario World.
PA resident here, 2nd trip to CA planned for September with a friend who has never been to land.
I was in the queue on 6/29. Sat in there for 7.5 hours reloading my page and waiting, as i watched others get in on the DISboards forum.
At 730PM EST, told the queue wasn’t working and to check back on 7/6.
Checked back on 7/6 at 9AM PT, told to report back on 7/11 for another go.
Got into pre-queue at 8:50AM PT, sat in there, unmoving until again 6:30PM.
I was trying to get tickets for 9/14, a date that hadn’t shown up on the LIMITED list of dates where people were starting to sweat. Was sure i was going to get it. My window opens at 7PM EST, I load in, all dates still good look to be there. I pick 9/14 for 2 people. I click proceed. It hits a loading page. Reloads, no error message. 9/14 still available. Weird. I click 2 people and proceed. Loading page. No error, reloads. I repeat this THIRTY TIMES with the dates sometimes being good, sometimes being bad, not sure what the EFF was going on. Didn’t work. Window closed. Spat me back out at the queue page with a fingernail of progress.
Angrily called Disneyland phoneline to complain, told there was nothing they can do. No help at all. Still saw my date available, recommended i try waiting again. Yeah sure. Whatever.
7:30PM rolls around, my date is gone. 8PM rolls around, event sold out.
what the actual EFF.
Beyond disappointed.
Beyond angry.
Beyond confused.
Horror Nights tickets went on sale and i got them in an instant with no trouble at all. FOR BOTH COASTS THIS YEAR. And that’s UNIVERSAL.
Seriously mind-blown about the entire situation.
Looking forward to my time at Universal this year. Continuously disappointed in Disney, so it seems.
I feel your pain! It’s getting so frustrating dealing with Disney. We’re likely spending more time at Universal and less at Disney going forward. It’s just less frustrating. We enjoy both, so it just makes sense to go to the park that’s less hassle.
Need advice: waited for 5 hours in the OBB queue but my dates were sold out when I finally got in. I’m super bummed…was so looking forward to it. Halloween is my favorite time of year and NBC is my favorite movie. Was hoping to wear a Sally dress and leggings to the party. I know Disney has a strict “No costumes” policy for the parks except at OBB. Do you know if they let guests wear that kind of thing during the day at DCA before the party starts or strictly only after 6pm?
If you’re just wearing a Sally dress and leggings–normal clothing but with a Halloween theme–you’re totally fine.
If you paint your face to look like Sally, that is more borderline and could run afoul of the costume policy. If you have a friend accompanying you who wears a burlap sack to be Oogie Boogie, that would DEFINITELY not be allowed.
Sorry to hear you were unable to score OBB tickets–hopefully you’re still able to enjoy Halloween Time at Disneyland!
Just checked eBay and the resale on these tickets is unreal. Truly disgusting. People scalped tickets and are charging thousands for them. I wish there was a way for Disney to stop this. My son said bots got our tickets, and I think he’s right.
There’s a way, but it’s “old skool” and expensive: phone ticketing. It won’t happen.
Got in the pre queue about 845. Was let in the real queue at 906. The timer was for over an hour, but was able to select tickets at just 10 o’clock. There were plenty of dates open and to snag 2 tickets on the date I wanted, which is our anniversary! Really excited now for our trip. Haven’t been to Disnyland since 2017, so looking forward to all the new stuff! Thanks Tom for all the tips!
Rope Drop to Close in the Oogie Boogie Bash queue, and all I got was an eye twitch. Joined well before 9am, then kicked into the queue about 9:06am. Made it into the “store” around 8pm. Spent the next hour attempting to submit every “available” date to no avail. That 5-min data dump on those AWS servers equals major frustration. Twelve Hours today. Eight hours on June 29th. They should call it what it is: a lottery. To paraphrase Obi-wan Kenobi, “That’s no queue.”
Got in the pre queue at 8:45, got in actual queue at 9:11 with over an hour wait. At 11:40 I was able to get our 4 tickets. I finally was able to get tickets. We have tried for 2 previous years. On a separate note:
I am curious, if anyone knows, does Disneyland still have the day parade when Halloween starts? I was trying to get the dinner package deal to see the day parade and the site says there are not any parades after August 27th.
I was shocked to get into the pre queue around 8:40, was in the actual queue by 9:10…still haven’t gotten in as of 5:03. At one point it said 39 min wait, then jumped to over an hour again. I guess I won’t be getting in before it’s sold out. Waste of a day
I just wanted to say your site has been SUPER helpful, and even though I didn’t get tickets to the bash for our honeymoon, I’m sure we’ll still have a great time!
(I waited a total of 7.5 hours in queue until I saw our specific date sold out, wild!)
I got in the queue at 9 this morning and was let into buy tickets at 3:15. Most of the dates we needed were sold out but one day remained! I put four tickets in my cart, took a deep breath at the price, and clicked to purchase. In that time I lost those tickets. She who hesitates, or takes a breath, is lost.
Maybe next year!
I’m still confused about what regular entertainment still runs during Halloween time. Does Magic Happens parade still happen during the day at DL? Does World of Colour still happen at DCA? When Fantasmic was still running (and hopefully in a while when it comes back) did it still happen during September/October?
Yes to all of those questions. (In a normal year, at least. Disneyland hasn’t published the entertainment schedule for September/October, so there could be surprise cuts.)
Fantasmic is definitely a wild card for this year; don’t be surprised if it’s dark during weekdays this fall when it does return.
Thanks a lot Tom!
You really think It’ll be back this Fall? I’m planning on going NEXT Halloween. Also curious about Tiana’s by then. Idk.
We are moving to Orange County this month, and have been to Disneyland many times over the years. I have, however, never attended a special event. Hoping I can get tickets when they go back on sale.
If Disney repeatedly is unprepared for high demand, at some point “unanticipated” becomes “anticipated but ignored.”
They need a better cloud computing contract whether they want to pretend to be a tech company or not.
Disney just closed the queue. They say try back July 6th for an update. Not to purchase tickets. Just and update. Another week of waiting to see when we can wait again in another queue.
Really hope they are able to fix the problems by the next time we are able to purchase. This was beyond frustrating.
No luck on tickets so far. I have tried every “hack” that people have said, but nothing has changed. It’s still pretty much exactly the same as it was at 9:05 AM.
This has been incredibly frustrating.
Same — tried going through the app, alternate browsers/devices, but nothing works. How long are we supposed to remain tied to our computers?! Really frustrated that a company with Disney’s resources can’t get this right.
Ditto here
from my end the site went down at 9:11. Maybe they won’t let people purchase today. Disney will just start tomorrow. The frustrating issue is, Disney KNOWS they have tech/it problems and they choose not to do anything about it. Year after year.