My Oogie Boogie Bash Review With Photos

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I wanted to leave a review of our experience at the OBB. My 10-year-old son and I went on Sunday (10/5). We met up with my good friend and her 6-year-old son. This was our third OBB in three years.

We are Magic Key holders but my son has a Believe Key and he was blocked out this day so we planned to arrive after 3pm but before the party started. We had a last-minute costume switcharoo (thanks to my son coming to me at 8pm the night before and asking if we could switch to Sally and Jack) so we spent the entire morning visiting three Spirit Halloween stores to piece together our new costumes and it was totally worth it! That meant we were a little later leaving our house to get to the parks and I was worried it would take a long time to park and get through security but luck was on our side and both were completely empty. Exhibit A:
Security lines at 4:15pm—dead!

We grabbed a pizza from Napolini in DTD and carried it with us into DCA. Ate it at a table in Paradise Gardens and relaxed until the party started.

The boys’ biggest priority for the party was trick-or-treating, so we decided to position ourselves in Hollywoodland before the party officially started at 6pm. On the walk over, I forced the kids to take some pictures on Buena Vista Street while we still had light.

Walking through Hollywoodland we saw the lines for Oogie Boogie and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were already quite long, so we went over to the Hyperion to check out Ernest de la Cruz and it was empty. Score! I even had time to run over and grab the Celestial Chocolate Churro from Terrain Treats. This is the Dubai chocolate-inspired churro. It’s not exclusive to OBB but I’d been dying to try it and took my chance. I loved this churro. It has a strong pistachio flavor so you need to like that.

We were in Ernesto’s line when the party started and got to watch him come out. immediately fantastic crowd interactions right out of the gate, including with us. We then hit Judge Doom and Hades with no lines—everyone was at Oogie Boogie and Doofenshmirtz I guess. Three treat trails in by 6:15. The kids were happy!

We left Hollywoodland and as we walked past the Kingdom of Hearts photo opp the young boy with us saw Mickey and wanted to take a picture with him. Almost no one was in line and we waited about 7 minutes.

After that we hit Maleficent then Syndrome. Side note—Syndrome was a big downgrade from Sid. The actor was great but Sid is far superior in terms of a heckling character. Sid was missed.

We had to wait a while for Syndrome (about 15 minutes, the longest wait of the night for us), so at this point we booked it back to Hollywoodland to watch the first parade. We had originally wanted to watch from the Paradise Garden area but Syndrome took so long I was worried we missed the Headless Horseman (my favorite!) so we walked to Hollywoodland and found a decent spot to watch without too much hassle even though it was just about 10-15 minutes before the parade came through that area.

Since we had time and there was no line whatsoever, I sent the boys and my friend to trick-or-treat at Doofenshmirtz while I held our spot.

The Headless Horseman came through, which is always a thrill for me, and then the parade, which is short but very fun. I LOVE the new Jack costume head sooooooo much, he no longer looks like an alien!

As the last parade float was passing, I hustled the boys up and we walked over to Oogie Boogie to trick or treat with no line as people were still watching the parade.

More to come …

 

[Tinkaboo]

Love your Jack and Sally...way to go, Mom! Sounds like your evening got off to a great start!

 

[LKing]

I wanted to leave a review of our experience at the OBB. My 10-year-old son and I went on Sunday (10/5). We met up with my good friend and her 6-year-old son. This was our third OBB in three years.

We are Magic Key holders but my son has a Believe Key and he was blocked out this day so we planned to arrive after 3pm but before the party started. We had a last-minute costume switcharoo (thanks to my son coming to me at 8pm the night before and asking if we could switch to Sally and Jack) so we spent the entire morning visiting three Spirit Halloween stores to piece together our new costumes and it was totally worth it! That meant we were a little later leaving our house to get to the parks and I was worried it would take a long time to park and get through security but luck was on our side and both were completely empty. Exhibit A:
Security lines at 4:15pm—dead!

We grabbed a pizza from Napolini in DTD and carried it with us into DCA. Ate it at a table in Paradise Gardens and relaxed until the party started.

The boys’ biggest priority for the party was trick-or-treating, so we decided to position ourselves in Hollywoodland before the party officially started at 6pm. On the walk over, I forced the kids to take some pictures on Buena Vista Street while we still had light.

Walking through Hollywoodland we saw the lines for Oogie Boogie and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were already quite long, so we went over to the Hyperion to check out Ernest de la Cruz and it was empty. Score! I even had time to run over and grab the Celestial Chocolate Churro from Terrain Treats. This is the Dubai chocolate-inspired churro. It’s not exclusive to OBB but I’d been dying to try it and took my chance. I loved this churro. It has a strong pistachio flavor so you need to like that.

We were in Ernesto’s line when the party started and got to watch him come out. immediately fantastic crowd interactions right out of the gate, including with us. We then hit Judge Doom and Hades with no lines—everyone was at Oogie Boogie and Doofenshmirtz I guess. Three treat trails in by 6:15. The kids were happy!

We left Hollywoodland and as we walked past the Kingdom of Hearts photo opp the young boy with us saw Mickey and wanted to take a picture with him. Almost no one was in line and we waited about 7 minutes.

After that we hit Maleficent then Syndrome. Side note—Syndrome was a big downgrade from Sid. The actor was great but Sid is far superior in terms of a heckling character. Sid was missed.

We had to wait a while for Syndrome (about 15 minutes, the longest wait of the night for us), so at this point we booked it back to Hollywoodland to watch the first parade. We had originally wanted to watch from the Paradise Garden area but Syndrome took so long I was worried we missed the Headless Horseman (my favorite!) so we walked to Hollywoodland and found a decent spot to watch without too much hassle even though it was just about 10-15 minutes before the parade came through that area.

Since we had time and there was no line whatsoever, I sent the boys and my friend to trick-or-treat at Doofenshmirtz while I held our spot.

The Headless Horseman came through, which is always a thrill for me, and then the parade, which is short but very fun. I LOVE the new Jack costume head sooooooo much, he no longer looks like an alien!

As the last parade float was passing, I hustled the boys up and we walked over to Oogie Boogie to trick or treat with no line as people were still watching the parade.

More to come …

Love it! Glad you had a good time.

 

[joseph821]

Thanks for the review. Great costumes...You both look so happy! Glad you had a great time!

 

[Aspencreek]

Side note—Syndrome was a big downgrade from Sid. The actor was great but Sid is far superior in terms of a heckling character. Sid was missed.

We were there a couple years ago and Sid was BY FAR our favorite character. It was stunning how much he looked like Sid come to life - and the heckling/crowd-work was hysterical!

 

[mich311e]

Great pics! Love the costumes! Can't wait to go to OBB on 10/19. And I'm excited to try that churro!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

After hitting the Oogie Boogie treat trail, we decided to prioritize the remaining character treat trails (Yokai and Agatha Harkness). We also grabbed a snack from Pym's Test Kitchen. Mobile order was fast and there were plenty of tables to sit at. We then walked past Web Slingers and saw it was a 10-minute wait. The boys wanted to ride so we hopped in line.

At this point it was almost time for the second parade to get started so we decided to make our way to Villains Grove hoping for a short line and we were rewarded with no line! My son and I really like Villains Grove, all the effects are very creative and magical. This is subtle attraction—I can see why some people find it underwhelming but we do love it. I wouldn't mind some trick or treating in there though!



The second parade was now underway and they boys had been begging to ride Radiator Springs Racers all night so we hoped the parade meant a lower line and once again, we were rewarded. The RSR line was about 45 minutes all night (after the park was cleared of non-party guests) but when we got there it was listed at 35 minutes. Our actual wait time was 30. This is not terrible for RSR but it ate up a lot of party time at the end. It could have been a quicker line but we watched them hold the standby line multiple times to let in VIP tour guests through the LL. Ugh, it was frustrating! And there were so many of them, I was surprised. At one point about 25 people came through. I think the plaid called ahead to the CM at the LL queue because he held us and held us and held us and then finally many minutes later, here come the VIP people. Ugh.

Once we got off RSR it was 10:40 so we only had 20 minutes of party time left. We asked the boys what they wanted to do and it was trick or treat! So we speed walked back to Hollywoodland and managed to hit the five treat trails over there (repeats for us) before the party ended. We exited Dr. Doofenshmirtz with one minute to go and the boys got back in line for one last round of treats (they were mostly out of candy at this point). Then we hit the bathroom and made our way out of the parks (with one more round of trick or treating on Buena Vista Street as we slowly walked out with the masses).

Since trick or treating was the boys' priority, you might wonder how much candy we ended up with. Well, it was massive. Those bags were HEAVY. But I had one very happy little boy and you can't put a price on that!



I'll sum up my overall thoughts about the party, crowds and more in the next post.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

We were there a couple years ago and Sid was BY FAR our favorite character. It was stunning how much he looked like Sid come to life - and the heckling/crowd-work was hysterical!

Totally agree! Sid was amazing and hilarious!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Thoughts and impressions …

We really lucked out with the weather! It’s been a pretty hot fall for us here in SoCal and we got extremely lucky to have mild weather on our party day. When I pulled up to the parking structure at 4pm it was 77 degrees (!!!) … cooler weather absolutely makes a huge positive difference when you’re in costume!

The crowds this year at our party were noticeably larger than the last two years. My son said it seemed like a normal park day. I wouldn’t say that because you could mobile order food quickly and find tons of tables to sit down to eat and the ride wait times, while not “walk on,” were certainly much lower than a normal park day. But it did feel crowded at times and the park wasn’t dead by any means. I found the crowd levels more enjoyable the previous two years compared to this year.

Much of the party was the same from the last two years. The parade, Villains Grove (though they do add new effects every year so if you walk through year after year you’ll see new things). The character treat trails are the same minus a few character changes. For my son, this is a positive. He loves knowing what to expect and experiencing the same type of things he remembers from previous years. I can see how this would become old for adult guests and not encourage attending year after year. I think the party could use more entertainment options. Fireworks and/or a special World of Color or even some kind of dance party or outdoor stage show would be awesome.

The candy selection was pretty sweet, if you’re into that kind of thing. All the candy that was handed out was “good” candy and nothing weird (three flavors of M&Ms, four flavors of Snickers, Twix, 3Musketeers, Milky Way, Starburst, Skittles) and I love the non-candy items that will keep my boys in snacks for months (Mickey goldfish crackers, cinnamon goldfish graham cookies, Fig Bars and Rice Krispie treats), though I sorely missed the SunChips that were handed out last year.

They gave up on the fresh “healthy treats” (carrots, grapes, apples) and much as I appreciated the effort, those things just got a bit warm and gross by the end of the night so it was a good call. We started declining the Craisins once our bags got too heavy.

I do think the party is what you make of it. I attended with a child and so trick or treating was THE THING and so it was fun to try to get as much candy as we could. We also really do love the characters in the treat trails. The actors are simply outstanding—so talented and great with all the improv. It was really enjoyable to watch all the guest interactions.

The parade is adorable but it is short. I feel like a dessert party is a bit of overkill for such a short parade. I absolutely love the Headless Horseman though with the live horse. As a former rider I really appreciate what that horse and rider are doing. It looks simple but is not. It’s so impressive and I just love it.

We don’t generally take a lot of character photos since we prioritize other things but it was fun to do a few at the party. I did find a lack of non-character photo pass photographers … and those we found had really long lines. Our photos on Buena Vista were taken by a friend (thank you @dina4444) and I appreciate having those memories because it was hard to find a photo pass photographer to do it.

I wish the ride wait times were actual walk on. Some were, but most were not. It would have been fun to ride Toy Story and a few others but we didn’t want to waste any more party time in ride lines.

I wish the party started an hour earlier, at 5pm. It’s not long enough. We were racing the clock in the last hour and did not feel like we had enough time.

I wish they had more party-exclusive food and treats. It would be fun to try things only available at the party.

Overall, we had an absolute blast. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than my son’s Disney joy. We play and bond and make memories at Disney. It’s why we have Magic Keys and the Oogie Boogie Bash is another special Disney thing for us. One day, he will probably be too cool for Disney or his mom—until then, I will cherish these times and memories.

I leave you with a final photo …