Characters
There were a lot of less common characters meeting guests at OBB. We saw Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham meeting guests near GRR (at the end of the street that leads to Little Mermaid).
We saw Rescue Rangers Chip and Dale at the Grizzly Airfield meet and greet (across from Soarin'). They switched off with Baloo and Don Karnage from Talespin. The chipmuks seemed very popular.
We saw Phineas and Ferb in Pacific Wharf.
Kingdom Hearts (Donald and Goofy, meeting seperately) were on the main walkway by the waterfall. Woody and Bo Peep were meeting together on Pixar Pier Promeande (where the Orchestra usually plays).
Candy
The candy was both good and bad this year. It was sponsored by Mars, so all Mars candies. It seemed like there were less filler candies (i.e., candy that few people have heard of), but most of my favorites were no longer available (they must have been Hershey candies). There were M&Ms (regular, peanut, peanut butter, and caramel), Snickers (regular, almond, crispy, and peanut butter), Twix, 3 Musketeers, Milky Ways (regular and caramel apple), Dove Milk Chocolate, Starbusts, Skittles, Lifesaver Gummies, Maltese Balls, Graham Crackers, Goldfish, Fruit Crisps, Applesauce, Carrots, and Apple Slices.
Merchandise
Merchandise was both good and bad. They're trying to limit party merchandise to only the party-going guests so that it'll last longer. That means nothing is being put out until 6:00 pm and you need a wristband to buy it. However, we were at Rushin' River Outfitters a little after 6:00 pm and it took them 30 minutes to get the merchandise put out. There was only two CMs setting up the merchandise (which included putting things out and taking the stuff away that was being moved out). They were moving things one or two at a time, and kept re-arranging things. There was no reason why stuff couldn't have been folded and prepped in the back before 6:00 pm, so that it could have been ready to go at 6:00 pm. The good news is that it seems like everything was still in stock at that point.
Miscellaneous Notes
I didn't check at the BVS shops, but I know that Starbucks was doing a "hard" close at 6:00 pm to non-party guests. So if you aren't going to the party and need a Starbucks drink, be sure to be inside Starbucks before 6:00 pm.
Final Thoughts
OBB had some good elements, some okay elements, and some disappointments. Some of it can be chalked up to having the party in a new park, but other things seem more like poor planning or perhaps a deliberate attempt to change the demographics/vibe of the party. I did really like the immersive treat trails and Villains Grove was a cool idea, but WoC: Villainous was a disappointment. I think the biggest change is that 5 hours seemed to be more than enough time to do everything,
unless you were trying to meet all of the characters. In our five hours, we managed to see WoC and the parade, check out Villains Grove and all of the immersive treat trails, and watch the Descendants Dance Party and still have some down time to try to soak in (the limited) atmosphere of the party. The absence of things like the Cadaver Dans, the scarecrows, and Halloween Screams were noticeable and reduce our enjoyment of the party. Also, the shift in the general atmosphere from "family-friendly" to "slight creepy" wasn't something we were expecting (although we probably should have given that it was called Oogie Boogie's Bash).
Overall, I'd probably go back next year if they opted to do OBB again, but it would be for only one party and it might depend on whether anything new was being added to the party line up.