“This is Halloween!“
-The Nightmare Before Christmas
For the past 5 years we have been attending the Halloween event at Disneyland. This is a special ticketed event that is separate from the Annual Pass that we have. While it is definitely on the pricey side, I find it to be completely worth it! Disneyland puts together an amazing Halloween experience that you can’t find during their normal business hours.
This year Disney brought The Oogie Boogie Bash to California Adventure. In the years that we have been going, it has always been at Disneyland. Although, fun fact, when I worked at Disneyland, the halloween event was always at DCA. Anyway, I was a bit skeptical because Disneyland has so much more space, but in the end I actually preferred for it to be over at DCA!
I’ve put together a list on how to maximize your time at The Oogie Boogie Bash below:
1. WHEN TO BUY YOUR TICKETS
These tickets will set out fast so you definitely want to get them as soon as they go on sale! They typically go on sale around summer time and annual passholders get priority. I prefer to purchase tickets for the last week of September at the latest. These tickets will be slightly cheaper than if you were to go in October.
2. GET THERE EARLY
If you have a ticket you are allowed to enter the park 3 hours before the event starts! There will be a separate line to enter the park and people will start to line up pretty early. I actually decided to enter the park with my annual pass so we could go in slightly earlier. There was a place inside of DCA where we could go and “sign in” with our Oogie Boogie Bash ticket to get our wristband. This line was significantly shorter than the one outside.
3. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EARLY ENTRANCE TIME
Believe it or not you can really get a lot done in those 3 extra hours! I love to take those hours to ride all of the rides we love. This way we aren’t “wasting” the party on the rides and missing out on the special Halloween stuff. I have the Max Pass (which I also highly recommend), so we got Fast Passes for a majority of our favorite rides.
Eat dinner before the party starts! As soon as that clock strikes 6pm (or whatever time is starts), the party starts and you are going to want to get right in there! So definitely take this time to eat dinner. You are definitely going to want to eat before the trick-or-treat trails start 🙂
4. MAKE A MENTAL PRIORITY LIST
There is SO MUCH to do and if you are going with kids, it is nearly impossible to do EVERYTHING. But grab one of the event pamphlets when you enter and scroll through it. In years past we skipped all of the trick-or-treat trails but now that my son is older we made that a priority. This year was really cool because they had villains at some of the trick-or-treat trails and it was amazing!
5. WHERE TO WATCH THE PARADE
The Frightfully Fun Parade is my FAVORITE parade year after year! It has your favorite villains, it’s a little eery, and has a whole unit dedicated to the Haunted Mansion. Talk about awesome, right?!
Since this year was a first over at DCA I wasn’t really sure where to watch the parade. I asked a cast member early in the day where the parade would step off (Pixar Pier) and I knew that I wanted to be as close to step-off as possible. When you are further down the parade route, it takes longer for the parade to get to you and I knew I didn’t want to sit around waiting. I also took into consideration that the parade route was longer than at Disneyland so I took a shot at not waiting in a spot for an hour before the parade started.
My instinct was right (thank goodness) and we found a spot right next to the Golden Zephyr just as the Headless Horseman was walking down. We honestly love this parade so much that B cried when it was over because he said it wasn’t long enough 🙂
There is so much to do and see at The Oogie Boogie Bash – which I well get to in my next blog post, so stay tuned!
My Party of Two 