Oogie Boogie Bash!

Last year, I had major fomo seeing Disneyland bring back their new Halloween party, Oogie Boogie Bash. It wasn’t long before I fell through another rabbit hole with the persistent need to attend OBB in 2022. I was lucky enough to have experienced Oogie Boogie Bash back in 2019 when it was introduced as a replacement for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party. It quickly became my favorite Disney holiday party, and I have always anticipated bringing Danny to this magical event. Needless to say, I began making plans to finally make the trek back to California for my third visit to Disneyland. I was even more excited this time around because Danny’s never been to a proper Disney Halloween party due to the pandemic, and it would be his very first time visiting the Disneyland Resort!

Oogie Boogie Bash is a special ticketed event that occurs during the Halloween season at Disney California Adventure. The event is full of Disney villains, treats trails, and spooky entertainment. This is also the only time Disney will allow adult guests to wear costumes inside the parks as long as you follow certain guidelines such as no costume masks, capes or weapons. Costumes should also be family friendly and not offensive. This year I decided to go as Jack Skellington. I still love this dress, and it was appropriate to wear a Nightmare Before Christmas costume for a party named after its devious villain. Also, I forced myself to re-wear a costume rather than spend more money on another cosplay I won’t wear very often. Interestingly enough, I’m getting less enthusiastic about wearing a costume in the parks LOL. The older I get, the more I want to be cute, but comfortable.

There are so many things I love about OBB, but first, let me tell you about the spooky ambience of DCA during Halloween. I just love it! The Oogie Boogie sign that greets you before you enter DCA, The Headless Horseman statue, the Haul-O-Ween takeover of Cars Land, Mickey and friends meeting guests in their adorable costumes… the list goes on!

Treat Trails
No matter how old you are, everyone at the party is allowed to indulge in a little treat or treating when you visit several immersive treat trails throughout the park. At each treat trail you are greeted by a particular Disney villain. Each trail has several stations that are stocked with various types of treats, and I’m not just talking about candy! This year we received a wide variety of snacks including goldfish, pretzels, Sun chips, craisins, carrots and apple slices. Believe it or not, but I get more excited for carrots and apple slices lol. Danny thinks I’m bizarre for even wanting fruits and veggies from trick or treating, but I love having these to snack on at the hotel. He was most excited about the Rice Krispie Treats, and these weren’t the small bars you get in the box at the supermarket. Disneyland delivered with the large sized bars!

The villain line up at these treat trails included:
- Agatha Harkness from WandaVision
- Live-Action Cruella
- Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas
- Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty
- Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco
- Mother Gothel from Tangled
- Sid from Toy Story
- Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone
- Dr. Facilier from Princess and the Frog

I was lucky enough to see most of these villains during the night. I’m really sad I missed Cruella as she looked fabulous from what I saw on social media. My favorites of the night were Oogie Boogie and Ernesto de la Cruz. Oogie Boogie is just adorable! He’s always one of my motivating factors for splurging and flying across the country lol. Ernesto de la Cruz stole the show though! I don’t know how Disney did it, but he looked like he stepped right out of my television screen from a scene in Coco. That is how realistic his character looked! I made Danny watch Coco before we came to OBB, just so he could understand how amazing this was. I have a confession to make, but I’m not really familiar with Madam Mim or Dr. Facilier. I didn’t watch The Sword and the Stone much as a kid, and criminal I know, but I STILL need to watch Princess and the Frog.

Meet & Greets
Oogie Boogie Bash offers several meet and greets with unique characters you wouldn’t normally see inside the parks. This year's newest additions included Clarabelle, Daisy, and Minnie as the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus, and Bruno from Encanto. I’m not a huge Hocus Pocus fan, and I have yet to watch Encanto (I told you I’m a low tier Disney adult), so I wasn’t interested in any of these character encounters. I do love that they bring out King Mickey and Donald from Kingdom Hearts at the party. The lines are usually super long for these characters, but I did get a glimpse of them by the Ferris wheel, and snuck a creeper video lol. I’m not someone who is normally interested in character meet and greets at holiday parties because you only have a certain amount of hours to accomplish everything you’ve sought out to do during the event and the wait times can be rather time consuming. The only character you will see me wait all my life for is of course Stitch, but catching this lovable blue alien at Disneyland seems to be a rare occurrence. 😭 If you are interested in character encounters at OBB, I recommend getting to the park as early as possible, and wait in the queue at the beginning of the party. You’re allowed to enter DCA three hours before the party begins at 6pm.

Entertainment
One of my favorite moments from Oogie Boogie Bash is the Frightfully Fun Parade. I love it so much, I watched it twice! It’s the best Halloween parade I’ve seen between Disneyland and Disney World. The Headless Horseman rides along the parade path before the festive procession begins. It’s always a fun, but eerie experience to watch him silently make his way through the park. There are so many elements that I adore about this parade like The Mayor of Halloweentown in his hearse-like car, Jack Skellington and Sally, The Haunted Mansion hitchhikers, and my favorite Disney villain, Hades. After three long years, I’m so happy to have had a chance to watch this parade again!

The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail is transformed into Villains Grove for Oogie Boogie Bash every year, and is another must-see on my list when I attend this Halloween party. This woodsy area of DCA is enchanted with spooky lights, sounds and colors of your favorite Disney villains as you make your way through the trail. My favorite parts of Villains Grove are the Queen of Hearts Garden, Scar’s Elephant Graveyard, and The Wicked Queen’s Lightning Forest. We got some hauntingly cool photos while meandering along the trail, utilizing the lights and shadows.

Unfortunately, it appears that World of Color – Villainous wasn’t part of the lineup. I was hoping once they brought back the original World of Color to DCA that Villainous would return at OBB, but I was sadly mistaken. I’m not sure why it was not brought back. Maybe there was a bad reception to Villainous, and it was more optimal to have two runs of the parade to ease the crowds. I understand Disneyland parks do not have the same real estate as Magic Kingdom does in Disney World, so it’s probably not feasible to have one parade and one showing of WOC. I’m also wondering if WOC is still suffering from technical difficulties even after its repairs in 2021. On a positive note, we didn’t have to waste time finding a proper spot to watch WOC, and it gave us more time to see most of the Villains at treat trails. Also, like I said before, I had time to watch the parade twice lol.

For the little ones, there was Mickey's Trick & Treat show, which is held inside the Disney Theater in Hollywoodland. Disney events always include a dance party or a show to keep younger kids entertained. Rides are also open during OBB with shorter wait times than usual due to lower capacity and people being occupied by other activities at the party. There is also an overlay at Guardians of the Galaxy called Monsters After Dark that only occurs during the Halloween season at nighttime if you're looking for some thrills during the party. I refuse to go on Guardians still because I am a bitchass who HATES anything free fall. I usually don’t like going on rides during holiday events anyway because it cuts into my time to do party events. We went on Web Slingers during the party, but it costed us time in securing a good view of the first parade and it's probably the reason I missed Cruella. We lucked out though when cast members directed us to a spot with a front row view of the parade. Sometimes, it all works out at the end, especially with the help of cast members doing their best to make sure you have the best time at Disney. 😭

We took advantage of the low crowds at the end of the night, and took some photos in front of the infamous Ferris Wheel. I love the quiet and serenity of experiencing the parks late at night. It gives me such a relaxing feeling after being in large crowds all day. It’s probably the introvert in me lol. Oogie Boogie Bash will always be worth the stress of journeying across the country just to attend this magical event. It still reigns supreme as the best Disney Halloween party I’ve experienced. What made it super special this time around is experiencing it for the first time with Danny. He took such magical photos with our new Sony camera! I know this won’t be my last time attending OBB and I can’t wait for the moment that I get to experience it all over again!