We had the chance to check out the first night of Oogie Boogie Bash on September 6th, and I can’t wait to share all of the details with you! Oogie Boogie Bash is Disneyland’s version of a Halloween party! It’s a special ticketed event that happens on 24 select nights of the year from September 6th through October 31st, 2022 at Disney California Adventure Park. It’s a family-friendly way to enjoy all of the Disneyland Halloween fun while getting to enjoy exclusive opportunities, meet unique characters (or your favorite Disney characters), and more! It’s one of my personal favorite parts of Disneyland’s Halloween Time and great for Halloween lovers! And it’s my personal favorite Disney Halloween party! It’s also a great way to kick off the Halloween season! Oogie Boogie Bash is always quite the event, and I checked out everything – food, dining experiences, and all of the entertainment, so I could tell you everything you need to know before you go! And of course, this post is full of tips and tricks for making the most of your time at the Disneyland Halloween party. It’s only five hours long, so it’s important to use your time wisely! I’ve included a quick link table of contents below for your reference. Feel free to click through to find what you’re looking for then read the whole post after you get your answers!
What is Oogie Boogie Bash?
Oogie Boogie Bash is a special event held during Halloween Time in Disneyland California Adventure (DCA). It’s a party held on select nights starting September 6th and ending October 31st. The Oogie Boogie Bash dates typically change each year but the final party is always the 31st. If you’re looking for the Disney World Halloween party, that’s Mickey’s No So Scary Party, and I’ll be attending that as well! Totally different coasts, parks, and experiences! Now back to my guide to how to spend your time at Oogie Boogie!
Oogie Boogie Bash Tickets
Oogie Boogie Bash tickets are currently sold out so unless Disney decides to release additional tickets or you can find someone to buy them from, you’re out of luck this year. The ticket price this year was dependent on the day that you went but they started at $129 and capped out at $179 for the nights closest to Halloween. Tickets sold out at record speed this year so if you want to go in the future, I recommend keeping up to date so you know when tickets go on sale for next year! I’m not sure the number of tickets they sell but they definitely went quick!
Oogie Boogie Bash Hours
Oogie Boogie Bash technically goes from 6PM to 11PM but anyone with a ticket can get into Disney’s California Adventure at 3PM, giving you eight solid hours of time in the park! The first few hours are with the rest of the general public but then everyone else gets kicked out other than party guests. Read through my tips and tricks section below to see my recommendation for what time to get in!
Immersive Treat Trails
One of my favorite parts of the Oogie Boogie Bash was the immersive treat trails. There were ten of them last year and they’re called immersive because most of them are character themed and include a villain of some sort on the trail. There are eleven different treat trails around the park this year and almost all of them include a fun villain at the end like Cruella seen below. There are a a few that don’t have villains and just have treats – those lines go faster if you’re just looking for the treats! I recommend hitting them all and loading up on candy and spooky fun! In my opinion, these are SO much better than the way that Disney World does treat trails that are literally just treats. It makes you want to go to all of the treat trails around the park! They’ll give you a map at the beginning of the event that shows where each of the treat trails are but does NOT say what is there. I’ve included those details for the 2022 party below! And in case I didn’t make it clear, these treat trails include both villain sightings and free trick or treating. I’d say each treat trail included 6-8 different cast members handing out everything from candy (lots of candy) to some other alternatives like rice krispy treats, fresh apples (kind of strange in my opinion), chips, and more. And you can go through the treat trails over and over again if you want. Maybe not the best use of your time, but if you really want all that candy, it’s definitely an option.
Buena Vista Street Trick or Treat Trail
I’m doing a special call out for this trick or treat trail because you can’t tell this from the map, but this one is just candy booths lined up on Buena Vista Street. It’s a super easy to get some candy without waiting in line. But that’s not why it gets a special section on its own. Buena Vista Street gets its own because it had little games that you could play along the side of the street. Pretty sure no one knew they were there because there weren’t any lines. I saw two different games – a matching game and a game called dem bones where you had to race to build skeletons. The fun part? You got little prizes for winning – kind of like little free carnival games! My son ended up with a little toy snake and spider ring. I know it’s small, but it’s something different and fun!
Special Character Meet and Greets
I’ve never really been a character meet and greet person. I’m more of a Disney character dining (where you pay and get food plus character greetings) kind of person. Oogie Boogie Bash is different because they bring out rare characters you likely won’t see at any other time. Plus, they bring out some popular characters like Mickey Mouse and Friends in super cute Halloween costumes!
There were some character meet and greets with shorter lines (the ones in Carthay Circle) and some that had lines so long that I couldn’t stand in them if I wanted to do anything else in the party. The two most popular meet and greet lines I saw were for sure the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus (terrible picture below) and Bruno from Encanto. The Sanderson Sisters wait times line was an hour minimum and at times it was over two hours! If you’re okay standing in long lines and missing most of the party, it’s a super cute opp! I included the ones that I personally saw (I didn’t see everyone) to give you an idea of who was around. I can’t wait to see who they bring out this year! I’m sure there were ones that I missed but needless to say, if you like characters, you’ll love Oogie Boogie Bash!
Villains Grove
Villain’s Grove is what I like to call a light and sound villain showcase along the redwood challenge trail. It’s basically a bunch of cool villain inspired displays using lights, special effects, music, decorations, and smoke. It’s cool but if there’s a huge line (like there was most of the night), you can spend your time elsewhere. My friend Patty even included it in her things not to do at Oogie Boogie Bash list, which I don’t necessarily agree with but wouldn’t stand in line forever for! There are three things to know about villains grove. First, there aren’t any actual characters in it. Don’t be fooled – the actual characters are on the treat trails. Second, I personally think it could be a little scary for younger kids. It can definitely feel a little creepy in the dark, especially if your group is more or less alone walking like I was. But if you like villains and want something unique to do, this is a good choice. And finally, Villains Grove had the longest line of anything the entire night outside of the Sanderson Sisters and Bruno character meet and greets. It doesn’t open until dusk (and it’s best when dark), so I recommend going during the parade that you’re not planning to watch because a lot of people will be at the parade and not trying to get into the grove. We ended up going this year right after the second parade ended, so around 10:30PM, and it was only a 10-15 minute wait. The rest of the night it was around 45 minutes to an hour, so keep that in mind!
Frightfully Fun Parade at Oogie Boogie Bash
Disney knows how to do parades and the Frightfully Fun Parade is no different – actually it’s even better. It’s similar to the Boo to You parade that used to happen during the Disney World Halloween Party with villains, Haunted Mansion dangers, Graveyard diggers (digging up sparks with their shovels), and other Halloween characters like Jack Skellington & Sally. And it’s 100% worth spending the time to watch, even though I know your time is short. The one thing I personally have a problem with for the parade is that it starts with the Headless Horseman riding an actual horse down the parade route. For us, this happened about five minutes after the parade was scheduled to start. That’s all well and good but the actual parade doesn’t typically start for another 10-15 minutes AFTER the headless horseman is gone. That means you’re just sitting there waiting and when you’re with kids, those 10-15 minutes are really hard to fill, especially if you’ve been already sitting and waiting for the parade. Regardless, I still recommend waiting because the parade is awesome and one of the only times you’re going to see a number of the villains!
Reserved Parade Viewing Options
If you don’t want to wait for a parade, there are also two paid options that give you reserved parade viewing – a Dining Parade Package Wine Country Trattoria and a dessert party at Sonoma Terrace. There are two different reserved parade viewing options for 2022 – a Dining Parade Package at Wine Country Trattoria and the Oogie Boogie Bash Dessert Party at Sonoma Terrace. We did both of these dining experiences in 2021 and out of the two, I personally wouldn’t recommend doing either of them from a value perspective (money and time) unless you absolutely have to have great viewing for the parade and/or need to be actually seated in chairs, not at a table. But if you are going to do them, here are a few of my thoughts from our experiences in 2021. Things may have changed this year but my guess is things will be similar.
Dining Parade Package at Wine Country Trattoria
This package costs $55 for adults to start (there are a bunch of upgrade options) and includes a starter, an entree, a dessert, and kid-friendly beverage. I’ve included a photo of the menu below for your reference. The food was good, like actually good. My chicken parmesan was crisp on the outside and moist on the inside and the caprese salad was fresh and flavorful. The only thing I didn’t love was the adults dessert option – pretty but not nearly as good as my favorite Disneyland Halloween treats! I actually ordered the kids dessert, which was a dirt and worms dessert and liked it better! The kids meal is cheaper at $40 and includes a $17 Oogie Boogie popcorn bucket – definitely a good value considering they get an entree, side, dessert, drink, and the popcorn bucket! After your meal, you get a ticket to return for one of the parade viewings later. You can either choose the earlier 7:45PM parade or 10PM parade but need to tell the host at check-in and it’s first come first serve for the parade viewings. If you have a specific preference, make sure to show up as soon as possible for check-in! There are two reasons I personally wouldn’t do this again.
Oogie Boogie Dessert Party
The second option for getting a reserved parade viewing is the Oogie Boogie Dessert Party. Let’s just start by talking about the cost – $84 for everyone. That $84 gets you:
Table seating along the parade route – great views for sure! 2 alcoholic drinks + unlimited non-alcoholic drinksA tray of five desserts, one of which was literally gummy worms
Here are my problems with the dessert party. At every dessert party I’ve been to at Disney World, it’s been worth the money because it’s a dessert buffet. There are tons of desserts to choose from and you can get as many as you want. This is the dessert plate we were given for our $84 dessert party, along with a photo of the menu to see the drink options. The best thing out of the entire dessert party for me was the fall punch. I made a fall punch copycat recipe if you want to try it at home, but it was basically a kids punch with whipped cream on top but had surprisingly a lot of flavor for a kid-friendly drink! I kept those coming and ended up drinking about five of them, trying to get my money’s worth! Okay so if you haven’t figured it out quite yet, I thought this one was not great value for the money. The seated parade viewing was great (as long as you weren’t in the back row) but the people sitting on the ground across from us had the same viewing for free. Plus, we had to be there at 9:15 to get good seats and our food (they stopped serving at 10PM), which meant we were at the Halloween dessert party from 9:15 until the parade was over at 10:40. That’s 1 1/2 hours of our five hours – not the best use of time or money! That being said – I’d skip them both unless you absolutely need reserved seated parade viewing and even then, not my favorite use of time or money. If you want another opinion, my friend Kim wrote up full reviews of both parties!
Mickey’s Trick and Treat Show
If you have young kids, you’ll want to make sure to not miss Mickey’s Trick and Treat show in the Disney Theater (right near the Animation Academy in Hollywood Land. It’s similar to the Disney Junior Dance Party with Mickey and Minnie having a fun dance party with the kiddos to celebrate Halloween. It’s about a fifteen minute show that includes the dance party, story time, and candy given out at the end! All of the kiddos in the theater seemed to love it, especially the dancing part! The show only plays a couple of times over the course of the party so if you want to do it, make sure to put it in your party lineup! You can see the shows in the Disneyland App or if you go near the party location. Below is a sign from last year with showtimes – I know they’ve added a few times this year thank goodness!
Food and Drinks at Oogie Boogie Bash
If Oogie Boogie Bash is the only time that you’re planning on visiting Disneyland Resort during their Halloween Time celebration, then you have a lot of Disneyland Halloween food options to try that are available all the time – and that’s a post all on its own! But here’s a glimpse at one of my favorites! If you have more time at Disneyland Resort, there’s only one single thing that is only available during the party – loaded fries at Flo’s V8 Cafe. There are three different options to choose from and if you like fries, all of them are fine. Nothing special but fine. And my fries were served lukewarm, so there’s that. Your three options include: There are plenty of other food and beverage options available during the party – just nothing else that you can only get during the party.
Halloween Only Photo Opps
I mentioned it above but your party ticket comes with PhotoPass. Take advantage of it by checking out all of the photo ops throughout the parks. There was a cute Oogie Boogie Bash one right as soon as you walked in the gate, a Magic Key specific one by the Symphony Swings (that line was crazy long), and various other ones (like Headless Horseman) throughout the park!
Take advantage because those photo opps are only available then! There will likely also be other Halloween photo opps available that are during the day but if you’re only doing the party, you should check those out too!
Oh and don’t forget to dress up – dressing up for the party is half the fun! Disney does have pretty specific costume rules but as long as you know them ahead of time, you should be good! You can read their full costume rules here. I always say just use good judgement (while obviously following the rules).
It is spooky season but Disney is more on the not so spooky side of spooky!
If you need ideas for the littlest party goers, these are some of the cutest Disney baby costumes I could find!
Oh and make sure to check the weather before the party – it was over 90 degrees during our party, so we opted to go with Halloween shirts instead of full on costumes.
Oogie Boogie Bash Rides
A lot of the rides are open during the party, and it’s a great time to ride them for two reasons – typically shorter lines than you’ll see during the day (although some were pretty comparable to the daytime waits) and there are Halloween versions of the rides! There are three specific rides that have Halloween versions: Luigi’s and Mater’s mostly just change up the music on the ride but Guardians of the Galaxy becomes a completely different storyline called Monsters After Dark. And it’s awesome. One note – Monsters After Dark is definitely a little scarier of a story-line so if you have kiddos who don’t do well in the dark or not so scary monsters will scare them, maybe skip this one. The ride is all in the dark rather than lit like normal. So if you’re going to take the time to ride one ride, ride that one. It’s a must-do, especially if you’re a Guardians of the Galaxy fan.
Oogie Boogie Bash Tips & Tricks
After attending the very first Oogie Boogie Bash of the year, I have tons of tips for anyone attending the party this year. If there’s something you want more information about, feel free to leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to give you more info!
More Disney planning Tips
Best Disneyland Food – I’ve tried it all and this is a list of the best Disneyland food there is!Disneyland Halloween Ideas – want to recreate Disneyland Halloween at home? Use these ideas! Disneyland Halloween Treats – a review of all of the seasonal treats available at Disneyland right now! Disney Character Dining – want to know what character dining is like and which restaurant is the best? This is the ultimate guide! Disneyland Halloween Guide – everything you need to know for celebrating Halloween at Disneyland this year!
