Halloween Time Superthread 2019: "Oogie Boogie Bash" Party to Be Held in DCA ONLY! and Other Halloween Time Information

[tankgirl!]

I will be attending on 10/31 and my kids are eager to experience the lights of Villains Grove. Does anyone have advice for minimizing the enormous line? Unfortunately going really late in the night isn't an option for my youngest, who will most likely crash around 9pm. Thanks!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I will be attending on 10/31 and my kids are eager to experience the lights of Villains Grove. Does anyone have advice for minimizing the enormous line? Unfortunately going really late in the night isn't an option for my youngest, who will most likely crash around 9pm. Thanks!

It really would be best if it is fully dark, I would hope they can stay up at least till the first showing of WOC, and go then... the line dies down a bit during the parade and shows. We went during 2nd WOC and it was no wait, last Thursday.

 

[gpjacobs]

Thank you @pharmama and @midnight star. Our kiddo is super brave but goes to bed at 8 ... good point about it being a late night!

 

[midnight star]

Merchandise update: on Monday I didn’t see any Mickey pumpkin hats but I did see the Candy corn spirit jerseys in different areas of the park, candy corn ears, and the house decor items were in stock too.
Oh!!! And I saw Oogie Boogie bash ears out during the day in DCA. So I guess they aren’t party specific anymore

 

[MommaofW&N]

I just spoke with a friend of mine who went to The Bash on Sunday and she said none of the rides were open? Is this possible? I know a lot of people go for the everything but the rides but we like doing the rides a few trick or treats and the parade..

 

[ardanxela]

I just spoke with a friend of mine who went to The Bash on Sunday and she said none of the rides were open? Is this possible? I know a lot of people go for the everything but the rides but we like doing the rides a few trick or treats and the parade..

From all the other posts I've seen, the rides have been open.

 

[pharmama]

I just spoke with a friend of mine who went to The Bash on Sunday and she said none of the rides were open? Is this possible? I know a lot of people go for the everything but the rides but we like doing the rides a few trick or treats and the parade..

Hmm... the only ride that is closed during the party I believe is the Pixar Pal-A-Round. GRR also closes early (looks like 9pm per the website. I just remember noticing it was closed when we were in that area but it was around 10pm so that makes sense). Perhaps she assumed they were closed because the lines were short and she didn't see people in them or something? If you look at the attractions on the website it lists their hours including their operating hours during the party on party nights...

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I just spoke with a friend of mine who went to The Bash on Sunday and she said none of the rides were open? Is this possible? I know a lot of people go for the everything but the rides but we like doing the rides a few trick or treats and the parade..

So, people have posted about this on social media, too, but they’re just wrong. A bunch of other people will comment back that they were there on the same night and did tons of rides. I’m not sure where the misconception comes from, but there are people out there (incorrectly) claiming that no rides are open during the parties.

 

[midnight star]

So, people have posted about this on social media, too, but they’re just wrong. A bunch of other people will comment back that they were there on the same night and did tons of rides. I’m not sure where the misconception comes from, but there are people out there (incorrectly) claiming that no rides are open during the parties.

Odd. you can literally check the app and will see wait times posted for the rides. That means they are open...Not sure how people can miss that lol

Also during woc you can see Incredicoaster going lol

 

[MommaofW&N]

Right? I totally checked the app last Sunday and saw the wait times during the party! Thanks everyone!

 

[Love Tink]

Hmm... the only ride that is closed during the party I believe is the Pixar Pal-A-Round. GRR also closes early (looks like 9pm per the website. I just remember noticing it was closed when we were in that area but it was around 10pm so that makes sense). Perhaps she assumed they were closed because the lines were short and she didn't see people in them or something? If you look at the attractions on the website it lists their hours including their operating hours during the party on party nights...

Even the Pal-A-Round is open!

 

[tink89]

I just spoke with a friend of mine who went to The Bash on Sunday and she said none of the rides were open? Is this possible? I know a lot of people go for the everything but the rides but we like doing the rides a few trick or treats and the parade..

we were at the party Sunday 10/13 and rides were open. They all had wait times of less than 30 min. From when I checked RSR, TSMM, IC, Jessies, Emotional whirlwind, the zephyr, Mermaid, Soaring, were all open. Those are the only ones. checked and we got on so not sure about other rides but these were open.

 

[pharmama]

Even the Pal-A-Round is open!

Thanks for clarifying! We never saw it running during the party and the website says it closes at 6pm on party days (while all other rides have separate hours listed during the party). We weren't in the pier area that much during the party though so we probably just missed it.

 

[figment_jii]

Maybe they decided that they don't have to close the Pal-A-Round for the entire party anymore. It was closed for the party I went to just after the parade ended (we walked by and there was a sign in front of the wheel saying it was closed).

 

[Love Tink]

Maybe they decided that they don't have to close the Pal-A-Round for the entire party anymore. It was closed for the party I went to just after the parade ended (we walked by and there was a sign in front of the wheel saying it was closed).

We rode it sometime around 7:15. When we were back in that area at around 10:00 it was no longer running. A lot of the pier area (shops, stands, etc.) seemed to shut down with the first WoC and not reopen, although the Pal-A-Round was the only ride that did not seem to reopen.

 

[Love Tink]

I wanted to report back on our experience at Tuesday's party, in the hope I may be able help anyone who is going in the coming weeks (as so many helped me).

Firstly, I loved the party. I had never been to a special event at Disneyland and I am so glad we took the chance on this one. I don't like to get too "compare happy" about WDW vs. DLR, as I appreciate both. But, boy, was this better than the WDW Halloween parties I have attended. Crowds felt totally manageable and we were able to do everything we wanted without killing ourselves. I agree with some previous posters that this party had less "atmosphere" than one might expect, but that wasn't a big deal for us.

So we focused on characters, treat trails, and the parade. We also rode several rides and did the Villains Grove walk-through. Thoughts:

Check In
We bypassed the winding line at the front gate and went to Blue Sky Cellar, thanks to the tips here. We went in around 4:45 and were in and out in about three minutes.

Treat Trails
Wow! These were so much more fun than we were used to at WDW. The trails are long and have stop after stop where they were practically throwing candy and snacks at us. We got SO MUCH candy it was ridiculous. We tried nine of the ten trails. I enjoyed the villain trails - some were more fun than others, but in all cases I liked that it was a little something different. I interacted with Maleficent and with Oogie Boogie and both made me laugh. The Mad Hatter had a big crowd and was also very entertaining. (His treat trail also had so many, many stops!) I did/redid all five villain treat trails from 10:00-10:45 and walked right through all of them. Earlier in the night there had been longer lines, especially for Oogie Boogie.

Villains Grove
I went there last, around 10:45. It was practically empty and I could go at my own pace. I'll admit that my pace was pretty quick because, although I'm glad I checked it out, it didn't really make much of an impact on me. A couple of sections were fun but in general I thought "Okay, cool" and then immediately forgot about it.

Parade
I had no trouble finding a great spot in Hollywood Land literally as the parade rounded the corner. But that was just me (my son is anti parade). If you had more people you wouldn't want to push it that late - although 15 or 20 minutes before would probably work. Parade was short and sweet, which I liked, and had all the Halloween highlights I wanted.

Rides
Logically, and as others have said, ride lines got shorter through out the night. But they were never really that long. We walked on Incredicoaster twice, Toy Story was about 15-20 minutes, walked on the fun wheel, and walked on Guardians at 7:45. We also walked on Goofy twice during WoC and then stayed for three rounds of the swings without getting off. Emotional Whirlwind closes during WoC. So we timed it and walked right in when it reopened. (I wanted to try it but it loads so slowllllly that it always had a a bit of a line before that.) We didn't ride anything in Cars Land.

Characters
Okay, so the characters were my main reason for attending. Before the party I had been through all stages of emotions, from excitement at all the characters to stress about how patchy the attendance of the characters seems to be. To my great joy we had all but one of the characters we wanted show up! I thought I would list the specific from our night about times/crowds. Of course, all of that could change for any other party...but I know I was starved for specifics and maybe some of it will stay consistent.

Villains
We got in line around 5:30 for the villains and were about fourth or fifth. The animal villains came out at 6:00. Initially it was only Prince John and the Big Bad Wolf, but as we met the wolf, the Sheriff of Nottingham came out. (I jumped up and down, which pleased my 13-year-old so to no end, as you can imagine.) We immediately got back in line and it timed out great - we were again about fourth in line when the human villains came out at 6:30. Frollo was missing and replaced by the Evil Queen...but we had met Frollo over at Disneyland earlier in the day, in a spot of luck. From what I saw during the night, as we passed by, the line seemed consistently about 30 minutes long.

Pixar
Next we went to meet Carl but we arrived just as his set ended. Starting off, Woody and Bo met on the hours and Carl and Russell met at 6:30 and then just Carl on the subsequent half hours. HOWEVER, that changed later. This meet shuts down for WoC and after WoC it was Woody and Bo at 9:30/10:30 and Carl at 10:00.

We also met toy soldiers roaming down by Toy Story. That was cool because a group of three were meeting/posing and I had never seen more than two together before.

Kim/Ron
Kim Possible was not at the party. Luckily, I knew this was typical and I expected it. Ron was silly and lots of fun and had nobody at his meet. I do not know when he takes breaks but we met him at about 7:20.

Loki
I had wondered if Loki would be hard to find but he was not. He was roaming near the Hyperion and GotG and we saw him several times. We met him at 7:30 and saw him again several times later. In fact, as I made my villain treat trail rounds at about 10:30, I noticed him standing back by the Hollywood Lounge, in the dark, just standing there alone, looking supremely and appropriately bored. He was great.

Star-Lord/Gamora
Star-Lord was meeting on the hour and Gamora on the half hour. We left the area after riding GotG so I don't know if that changed up later.

Blue Fairy/Pinocchio
When we came by before the parade, the Blue Fairy was meeting on the hour and Snow White/Dopey on the half hour. They stopped their meet during the parade. Just after the parade, at 8:45, the Blue Fairy and Pinocchio came back out. I had sat on the fountain right near where I knew they would be (having seen them earlier) and was second in line.

Afternoon Friends
Chip and Dale met on the hour and Don Karnage on the half hour (no Baloo at our party). They took a break during the parade and then switched: Chip and Dale at 8:30, Don Karnage at 9:00, etc.

Mickey and Minnie
They had the longest line consistently from what I saw. However, I walked by on my way out of the party after doing Villains Grove, at like 10:55. Their line was at least half an hour long and I saw no signs that it had been cut off.

Sorry this was so long but I hope it might be helpful for some of the other character nuts out there.

 

[Delilah1310]

Thought I’d share some of our character pics. The characters seemed to have a lot of fun with the poses!

We were bounding as Huey, Dewey and Louie (my bright green hoodie didn’t arrive in time so I made due with a army green one ... oh well) as neither my husband or my 11 yo wanted to dress up.

But just FYI - my son later said he wished we were more "in costume" once he saw how into it other guests were. So if anyone has a tween on the fence, they may appreciate the push toward a costume once they are there.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I wanted to report back on our experience at Tuesday's party, in the hope I may be able help anyone who is going in the coming weeks (as so many helped me).

Firstly, I loved the party...

So glad you had a great time! I know the character list had you worried, but it sounds like everything worked out really well for you! Thanks so much for reporting back in detail to help other DISers!

 

[ZCarroll]

Does anyone know what the music is that plays in DCA at the Headless Horseman statue? I think I found somewhere that at least part of it is the opening theme Introduction from Edward Scissorhands but I'm trying to find the other parts. Thank you for any help!

 

[azdisneylover]

For those who've been to a party this year - assuming it stays in DCA next year - would you recommend it for an almost-six-year-old in 2020? We're considering getting a FlexPass for our November 2019 trip and the possibility of bringing our DD to the party in 2020 is weighing into that decision. Yes, we'd have to buy the hard ticket but we'd stay for a couple of days before the pass expires.

From everything I've read in this thread, it def. seems this party is aimed at adults, teens and tweens. Thoughts?

I agree, it is for adults, teens and perhaps a few tweens. The big thing is you can purchase alcohol drinks in variety of places in the park. That adds up $$$$ quickly for the Disney coffers. I really can't think of many things for the very young.