Wondering about the least-crowded or most-crowded nights to attend the 2025 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party? This covers the best & worst dates to buy tickets for Magic Kingdom’s special event, so you can plan your vacation around avoiding these crowds. (Updated August 2, 2025.)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party occurs in Magic Kingdom on 38 select nights August 15 through October 31, from 7 p.m. until midnight. The MNSSHP ‘season’ starts one week later this year due to the launch of Starlight, but Walt Disney World makes up for that by having more frequent parties throughout the remainder of August.
Unsurprisingly, the dates closest to Halloween are always the most popular (and most expensive!), but if you have other options, when should you attend? Before we get going, one thing worth noting is that, choosing the “best” dates to visit and avoiding the “worst” matters less and less. For both of the last three years, every single night of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party has sold out.
There’s no reason to believe that’ll change this year, even as pent-up demand continues to die down. To the contrary, we fully expect at least 90% of the 2025 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party dates to sell out. Maybe 100%! There are several reasons that MNSSHP ticket sales are likely to stay strong even amidst a broader slowdown, but all of those are beyond the scope of this post.
You might think that “it doesn’t matter if every single party sells out.” However, our experience has been that this is not true for a couple of reasons. We’ve attended dozens of MNSSHPs over the years (literally–I’ve lost count, but it’s been at least 40 parties), including numerous “sold out” parties in August and October.
What we can start by saying is that it actually doesn’t matter if you’re trying to decide between two adjacent dates. It used to be the case that Tuesdays were slowest and Fridays were busiest, which was due to the former being less likely to sell out. At this point, the trends are bigger picture, meaning that if you’re trying to decide between Tuesday, September 16, 2025 or Friday, September 19, 2025, it really does not matter. Pick whichever works better for your schedule. The difference between dates in the same week is going to be minimal.
What we have noticed are broader trends, which is relevant to locals or others with more flexibility. In our totally anecdotal experience, the parties in October have been, on average, busier than the ones in August.
Of course, things could be different this year, but it’s our belief that October tends to be busier because Walt Disney World increases the capacity cap later in the season due to the sun setting earlier, which allows for more stage show performances. Plus, the weather is just generally better so perhaps they feel like it’s fine to raise the attendance limit since the event is more comfortable.
Speaking of weather, guest recovery also likely comes into play. If/when nights of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party are rained out earlier in the season, Walt Disney World offers “make up” tickets to some guests who seek them from Guest Relations. This can occur even for party dates that are already sold out. All of this is at the discretion of Cast Members and is not entirely consistent, but we strongly believe that guest recovery and comped tickets can increase crowds later in the season.
Another thing to note is that, across the board, lines have gotten longer to enter Magic Kingdom right at 4 p.m. for the start of the pre-party mix-in. There has always been an initial rush of guests at 4 pm, but in the past, many people didn’t know they could enter Magic Kingdom early. This has changed in recent years as Walt Disney World better advertises the perk, presumably to help justify the price increases.
My strong suspicion is that an increasing number of guests are purchasing Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween instead of day tickets, rather than in addition to regular admission. This could be playing out in a ways big and small, from tourists buying shorter duration tickets (3 days instead of 4) to locals skipping out on Annual Passes and getting their “Disney fix” during Party Season.
When Disneyland really started increasing prices on Annual Passes several years ago and reduced options for locals, many Californians started skipping APs and instead doing Mickey’s Halloween Party (now Oogie Boogie Bash). We believe the same thing is now happening at Walt Disney World with MNSSHP. These priced-out locals wanting to get their fix would also explain why MNSSHP is selling even faster than last year, despite pent-up demand otherwise slowing.
It also explains the larger crowd prior to 4 pm. These are higher-knowledge guests who also want to get as much value out of the party ticket as possible. This is a contrast to tourists with multi-day tickets that may include a park day prior to the start of MNSSHP, who have no incentive to arrive right at 4 pm.
Anyway, plan accordingly with your arrival time and don’t fret when you inevitably see a huge line–or amorphous mass of people. This is the new normal, and it’s not indicative of how crowded MNSSHP will be. (Even though the crowd looks colossal, it’s still a small percentage of all attendees.)
The above is really all you need to know. The rest of this post operates under the probably faulty assumption that some dates may not sell out. This is relevant for historical purposes and perhaps future ones if there’s another recession or Walt Disney World raises prices to such a degree that more guests start balking at prices. When it comes to the 2025 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, what follows has little value.
In the past, the “best practice” was attending a party on a Tuesday in August. Historically, these have been the dates that are least likely to sell out. Not only are they early in the season, but they’re weeknights.
Conversely, weekends (non-school nights) tend to be busiest, especially later in the season. Even Friday in August will be less busy than Fridays in September and October. The one exception to this is the first party, which is always busy due to vloggers, bloggers, influencers, all of the fans who want to be “first,” and Walt Disney World guests doing late summer vacation who are leaving that weekend and don’t have any other MNSSHP nights during their trip.
We still would not recommend the first night of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Realistically, there are only a few hundred bloggers/vloggers/influencers/etc., whereas there are thousands of tourists visiting that week who have opening night as the only party they can attend. That’s the bigger demo, even if “people from the internet” are the louder and more visible one.
Late August to mid-September on a weeknight has historically been the best option. These are the dates least likely to sell out–but they probably will still sell out in 2025.
This is true even if every single date sells out. Last year, all dates sold out, and wait time data indicates that the parties in late August and early September were less busy than the averages in October. Of course, wait times are not the only measure of crowds–or even the most important one–when it comes to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
Congestion in front of Cinderella Castle and on Main Street is arguably more important, but there’s no good way of measuring that. (It’s possible that lower wait times mean the event attendees are elsewhere in Magic Kingdom, contributing to greater crowding elsewhere. We’re skeptical of that, though.)
Historically, there are generally three rules for how busy Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party will be:
- Tuesday nights are always the least crowded
- Friday nights are the most crowded
- The parties get progressively busier the closer you get to Halloween
We consider these fairly hard and fast rules because locals/Annual Passholders don’t want to take their kids to the Halloween party on a school night, and because they actually start thinking about Halloween when you get closer to Halloween.
As such, pretty much any Tuesday night through mid-September would be a good day to attend, as would Sundays.
Tourists go to the parties on whatever night they feel like going (they’re on vacation, it’s all the same to them), but locals who could go any night of the season choose more carefully. They’re the ones who tip the scales in terms of congestion.
Overarching crowd trends also come into play–if there are fewer tourists, it stands to reason that there’s also less demand for MNSSHP. As a general matter, October is also more crowded than mid-August through September, which definitely adds to it. In the last few years, October has become busier and busier at Walt Disney World, and we do not expect that trend to change.
Tourists also don’t have the same luxury of picking and choosing nights, having only a few days from which to choose during their trips. But locals with the entire calendar in front of them want to get dressed up and take their kids later on weekend nights, once Halloween is actually on their radar and they have made costumes.
Plus, locals know that Florida is still hot and humid in September, and typically cooler in October, making those bulky or ornate costumes more feasible later in the season.
While crowd level recommendations for the entire calendar of dates is beyond the scope of our knowledge and expertise, we think if you follow the go Tuesday, don’t go Friday rule (expanded to ‘go school nights, don’t go weekend nights’), and/or plan for a trip earlier in the Halloween (if you still have that luxury–if not, there’s always next year), you’ll be pretty well set.
Another easy trick that you should use for determining whether Disney is projecting a particular party to have low or high attendance is to look at the price of tickets for that party, and available discounts.
Disney does not offer Disney Vacation Club or Annual Passholder discounts out of some sense of corporate benevolence, it does so to encourage guests to attend the cheaper parties because they have lower attendance. How this can be helpful in your planning is when you see an anomaly party, price-wise.
For example, if there’s a weeknight party that should have low attendance but has no discounts available and is priced higher, then perhaps that is because Disney knows something we don’t. Maybe there’s a convention or athletic group that is anticipated to make a large ticket buy.
Regardless of all of the other tips that we have, you can be pretty certain that if a party costs less, it will be less crowded. If a party costs more, it will be more crowded. Disney has mastered the art of manipulating attendance patterns with discounts and pricing tricks in order to more evenly re-distribute crowds. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is no exception to this rule.
The only thing to potentially keep in mind, or use as a “tie-breaker” when two dates you’re considering are priced the same is to think about potential demographics of the parties. In our Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Guide, we strongly encourage guests to not do attractions during the party despite the shorter wait times, because there is a lot of party entertainment (so much that you can’t see it all in a single party), and rides can be done on a normal day in the Magic Kingdom.
Annual Passholders and locals are more inclined to follow this because they have regular access to the attractions in the Magic Kingdom, and could do them any ole time. By contrast, many tourists do not have such access, and are willing to pay a premium to attend the event for shorter lines, plus some Halloween entertainment.
Factor in when locals are more likely to be attending the parties you’re considering (based on the above) in the case of a “tie” in terms of pricing, and either go to or avoid that party depending upon whether characters/entertainment are more important to you, or doing attractions with shorter waits is more important to you. Obviously, it’s your decision, but we recommend picking the tourist-filled nights if you can and focusing on attractions during a different day in the Magic Kingdom.
With 38 party nights, chances are your Walt Disney World vacation will be impacted by Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party regardless of whether you attend. There’s also the matter of Magic Kingdom during the day on event nights, and you should absolutely plan around this.
In short, Magic Kingdom is least busy on days with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in the evening and more busy on days that MNSSHP isn’t happening. This is because the Halloween Party is separately-ticketed, which causes Magic Kingdom to close early on MNSSHP nights.
Many day guests avoid Magic Kingdom on party dates because the park hours are shorter, meaning Starlight Night Parade and the Happily Ever After fireworks are not shown to regular guests. This results in significantly lighter crowds before the party. See our list of the Best & Worst 2025 Crowd Days at Magic Kingdom for more on this.
Ultimately, our Halloween party visits don’t operate in a vacuum, so love visiting Walt Disney World in mid-September. We view this as the “sweet spot” because it allows us to plan a trip around both Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and better weather. It used to be that this also allowed us to attend the early days EPCOT’s International Food & Wine Festival, but with that being moved forward a couple of weeks pretty much every year, it now starts in August…just like the Halloween Party.
Like the Halloween party, the Food & Wine Festival is less busy on weekdays. Going earlier in the Food & Wine ‘season’ allows us to enjoy that, plus Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party during a cheaper and potentially less-busy September date, and weather that has cooled since the start of the parties in August. But don’t tell anyone else about this sweet spot…it’s our secret!
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Your Thoughts
Which dates are your favorites for doing Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party? Have you had more success going earlier in the season as opposed to waiting until October? What about Tuesday vs. Friday vs. Sunday nights? Think “sold out” in August still has fewer people than “sold out” in October? When are you planning to go this year? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!