It’s ten days until our next Disneyland trip, so I think I’ll do 10 Tips for Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland! Mickey’s Halloween Party is an event that requires a special ticket, different from your general admission ticket or Annual Pass.
Is Mickey’s Halloween Party worth it? Here’s how to decide if you should buy tickets to Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland, whether you’re a one-time Disneyland Guest or an Annual Passholder!
Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland Tip #1: Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It?
First, you need to know that the tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Party 2017 are sold out! Do NOT attempt to purchase Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets through any third party ticket site or from eBay/Craigslist/your sister. Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets are nonrefundable AND nontransferrable, and there are reports of people having their own tickets cancelled along with the re-sold tickets—and even having their Annual Passes revoked because they (innocently or not) sold their extra Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets.
If you didn’t get Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets this year, keep these tips in mind for next year so you can jump on earlybird availability for Mickey’s Halloween Party 2018!
10 Disneyland Tips for Mickey’s Halloween Party series (view all):
Go to Tip #1 (You are here): Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It?
Go to Tip #2: DIY Sally Costume Nightmare Before Christmas
Go to Tip #3: Make the Most of Your Disneyland Day: Stay Close and Nap!
Go to Tip #4: Comfy Shoes for Disneyland!
Go to Tip #5: Things to Do Before Mickey’s Halloween Party Starts!
Tips #6–#10: Don’t Miss a Trick—or a Treat!—at Mickey’s Halloween Party!
Read my book Disneyland on a Budget: How Our Family Spends 30 Days a Year at Disneyland without Breaking the Bank!
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Disney Visa cardholders and Annual Passholders get early access to purchase Mickey’s Halloween Tickets, so if you don’t have an AP and you want first choice of Mickey’s Halloween Party dates for 2018, make sure you have a Disney Visa!
For more info on the great Disney Visa perks, go to my article here.
There are three types of Disneyland visitors, and the answer to, “Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It?“ is different for each type of visitor.
Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It for ONE TIME DISNEYLAND VISITORS?
This first group includes Disneyland Guests who visit from another country or take a once-in-your-kid’s-childhood trip
AND
purchase a multi-day Disneyland Resort ticket.
Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It?
For One Time Disneyland Visitors, Mickey’s Halloween Party is Worth It if:
- You want to experience everything the Disneyland Resort has to offer during your once-upon-a-time Disneyland vacation, and there is a Mickey’s Halloween Party date during your trip.
For One Time Disneyland Visitors, Mickey’s Halloween Party is Not Worth It if:
- You’ve carefully saved for an amazing Disneyland vacation on a tight budget and an extra $400 splurge is not part of that plan.
- You’re tempted to plan your trip around Mickey’s Halloween Party. Mickey’s Halloween Party is really fun, but that would be like planning your family’s Christmas dinner around your second cousin’s schedule.
Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It for DISNEYLAND REGULARS?
This group includes families who visit Disneyland regularly (once a year or so) and feel comfortable navigating Disneyland and California Adventure.
For Disneyland Regulars, Mickey’s Halloween is Worth It if:
- You know how to make the most of your day at Disneyland, and will take advantage of the new Mickey’s Halloween Party perk of Park Hopping between California Adventure and Disneyland. You know you can start at California Adventure at 3 p.m. (for a 6 p.m.–11 p.m. party) or 4 pm. (for a 7 p.m.–midnight party), then hop over to Disneyland when the party starts. You’ll get 8 hours of Park time, plus experience the exclusive Mickey’s Halloween Party character meet & greets, parade, fireworks, and candy trails.
If you know how Disneyland works, e.g., which rides should and should not have long lines, how to use the FASTPASS/MaxPass system, where to grab a quick bite, which restrooms are less busy, etc., you can get away with just buying Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets for a single day, and not even buy a regular admission ticket.
Read also: Is Disneyland’s MaxPass Worth It? 9 People Who Shouldn’t Buy Maxpass!
2. You buy a multi-day Disneyland ticket for 1 Park Per Day. You know you’ll be able start in California Adventure with the Mickey’s Halloween Party ticket, which makes your Party ticket a mini Park Hopper! On your other Park days, you can tour one Park per day and save time walking back and forth between the Parks.
For Disneyland Regulars, Mickey’s Halloween Party is Not Worth It if:
- You’re planning a one day Disneyland trip and your kids can’t make it until 11 p.m. or midnight.
- Figure the Mickey’s Halloween Party price as cost per hour. You have 8 hours available. At $105 per ticket, that’s $13 per hour per person. If your kids turn into pumpkins at 9 p.m. without fail, your cost per hour would be $21 per hour for a 4 p.m. Party start time, or $17.50 per hour for a 3 p.m. Party start time.
- Compare this to a regular admission ticket when Disneyland opens at 8 a.m. If your kids can make it until 9 p.m., that’s 13 hours of Park time for a 1-day Regular ticket ($110 adult/$104 kids under age 10) for $8.25 per hour per person. (Price per hour is the average of a family of 4 with 2 kids under age 10.)
- For a family of 4 with 2 kids under age 10 who can’t make it past 9 p.m.:
- 8 full hours at Mickey’s Halloween Party: $13 per hour = $416.
- 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. Regular Disneyland ticket: $8.25 per hour = $428.
- 8 a.m. – midnight Regular Disneyland ticket works out to $6.70 per hour but you’re unlikely to be able to go open to close with kids under age 10, so this cost per hour is basically imaginary! = $428.
- If your kiddos are only happy at Disneyland for 8 hours tops, then Mickey’s Halloween Party is actually cheaper than buying One Day Regular tickets for your family (for 2017 at least). If you get the $95 Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets (just a couple of the very early Party dates have that price in 2017), you’d spend $380 on Party tickets vs. $428 on 1-Day, 1-Park Regular tickets, saving you $48.
- Plus, you’d get to see Disneyland in a whole new way with the exclusive Mickey’s Halloween Party characters and experiences and Park Hop over to Disney California Adventure too!
Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It for ANNUAL PASSHOLDERS?
We’ve been Disneyland Annual Passholders for 11 years, and Halloween Time at Disneyland is my favorite time of year! We always take at least two Disneyland trips during Halloween Time, because September is a great time to visit when most kids are in school (that’s one great perk of homeschooling!), and Jameson’s birthday is in October.
However, we’ve only done Mickey’s Halloween Party once, and although we had a blast, we probably won’t do it again because the Annual Passholder price on a “cheap” Party date for 4 people is $340 for 2017. For $340 I can plan an extra Disneyland trip and stay at our favorite hotel across the street from Disneyland for 3 nights.
There are so many different ways Annual Passholders do Disneyland! I can only speak for myself and our family’s AP style, so here’s what I think about as an Annual Passholder when I consider buying Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets:
Since we’re Annual Passholders, we have admission into both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, and adding on nearly $400 to be able to stay inside Disneyland for 5 nighttime hours on a single day is a bit crazy, especially since we can head over to California Adventure after we get kicked out of Disneyland at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. when Mickey’s Halloween Party starts.
California Adventure is open as late as 11 p.m. depending on the date, so technically, we only lose as little as one hour of Park time if we just Park Hop over to California Adventure once Mickey’s Halloween Party starts at Disneyland.
I almost talked myself out of going to Mickey’s Halloween Party using these very valid points against myself but of course we had to check it out at least one time!
For Annual Passholders, Mickey’s Halloween Party is Worth It if:
1. You’ve been to Disneyland so many times that you have to rely on the time stamp on your photos to remember what you did on which trip. Doing something new at Disneyland, in this case, attending Mickey’s Halloween Party, is an amazing way to set that Disneyland day firmly in your memory bank!
2. You are great at funneling any extra cash from credit card points like Disney Visa rewards (apply with the link below for the biggest bonus), tax refunds, birthday money, etc. into MORE DISNEYLAND.
For Annual Passholders, Mickey’s Halloween Party is Not Worth It if:
1. You don’t care that much about seeing rare Disney characters. I was surprised that my kids didn’t care about seeing the characters enough to wait in line. Like, at all—if there was more than one family in line, they took a hard pass. My kids are perfectly content to say, “Hey, there’s Jafar!” and pass right by him.
2. You don’t care that much about free candy. The candy was a dull assortment of current name brand candy and old fashioned stuff, nothing Disney themed at all. I had to take a few minutes to lug two full bags of candy back to the hotel, because hauling ten pounds of candy around Disneyland for the rest of the night was not going to happen.
3. You don’t care that much about parades or fireworks. Even super awesome Halloween fireworks. We loved the Halloween fireworks at Disneyland before they started the ticketed Mickey’s Halloween Party event when it was just part of the regular night time schedule, but seriously, my kids do not give a rat’s patootie about fireworks anymore.
How to Make the Most of Your Mickey’s Halloween Party Day (Before the Party!)
If you’re planning a blowout Disneyland vacation and want to see it all and do it all during this special trip, here’s what you should consider before you buy Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets for your family:
If you have a multi-day ticket and stay onsite at one of the three Disneyland Resort hotels (Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier, or Grand Californian), you could buy party tickets for one of the days you won’t use one of your Park ticket days, and sleep in on the morning of Mickey’s Halloween Party to catch up on some of the sleep you lost due to jet lag or the late Disneyland nights in the beginning of your trip.
Do not use one of your Park ticket days on the day of Mickey’s Halloween Party—that instantly negates any savings you got by buying a multi-day ticket, so you’d basically pay double price for that day.
On the day of the party, after sleeping in, you could have a late morning Character Meal at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels.
- Disneyland Hotel: Goofy’s Kitchen (our favorite Character Meal!)
- Paradise Pier Hotel: Surf’s Up! Breakfast with Mickey and Friends
- The Grand Californian Hotel & Spa: Chip ‘N Dale Critter Breakfast
You don’t need a Park ticket for the Character Meals that are in the hotels. We’ve done all of the Character Meals at the Disneyland Resort, and each one is fun and different from the others!
After breakfast, you could spend the afternoon at your Resort pool, then give the kids a late nap (I’d take one, too!) Put your costumes on and head over to California Adventure about 30 minutes before your Mickey’s Halloween Party ticket time so you won’t miss a minute of the fun waiting at security or the turnstiles.
Of course, you don’t have to stay at an onsite hotel to have a Character breakfast or swim at the hotel pool—anyone can go to a Character Meal at the Disneyland Resort hotels (you can park for free at Downtown Disney with validation) and most hotels near Disneyland have a pool.
If you need to keep your kids up late on your first arrival day to help them beat jet lag, and you’re pretty sure they’re not going to melt down before 11 p.m. due to travel stress and the excitement of going to Disneyland, you could plan your trip to start on a Mickey’s Halloween Party day. But, most families who have never (or rarely) visited Disneyland will be overwhelmed just getting their bearings, so jumping into a special event with unique character meet & greets, mysteriously long lines that end at a candy barrel instead of a ride entrance, and other experiences that only happen during Mickey’s Halloween Party…well, overwhelming is exactly the right word.
10 Disneyland Tips for Mickey’s Halloween Party series (view all):
Go to Tip #1 (You are here): Is Mickey’s Halloween Party Worth It?
Go to Tip #2: DIY Sally Costume Nightmare Before Christmas
Go to Tip #3: Make the Most of Your Disneyland Day: Stay Close and Nap!
Go to Tip #4: Comfy Shoes for Disneyland!
Go to Tip #5: Things to Do Before Mickey’s Halloween Party Starts!
Tips #6–#10: Don’t Miss a Trick—or a Treat!—at Mickey’s Halloween Party!
Read my book Disneyland on a Budget: How Our Family Spends 30 Days a Year at Disneyland without Breaking the Bank!
Have you been to Mickey’s Halloween Party? Why or why not?
