When we asked our children what their favorite part of our recent Disney trip was, they both agreed that (aside from our epic rental at Paradise Palms) Boo Bash was their most favorite part. This made our personal (short answer) to whether Boo Bash was worth the price:"yes". Read on to decide whether or not it is worth it for you and your family.
I want to first start with one very clear fact: this is not the same as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party (MNSSHP). Mickey's Halloween party is several hours longer than Boo Bash to start with. Boo Bash is only 3 official hours long.
Boo Bash is significantly more expensive than other party tickets in the past.
There are also no personal meet and greets, only characters standing a far for you to take pictures of. The Boo Bash does offer Villain characters to interact with from afar, but afar, none the less. Though character meet and greets were announced to return in October, we are not sure how this will be integrated into the Boo Bash party. Even with the return of meet and greets, you are still required to wear a mask upon interaction and you are not allowed to get too close to the characters. Only selfies with the characters being a safe distance away are allowed. As of the week of October 9th, there were no meet and greets offered at the Boo Bash.
Special ticketing events in the past have offered free snack items. The 2021 Boo Bash offered free popcorn, free soda and bottled water, and free ice cream novelties. These items are not free at the Mickey's Halloween party. Both events do include free trick-or-treating for some quality candy.
There is no special parade for the Boo Bash, only four cavalcades that last about a minute each in passing throughout the park. The four cavalcades are: Villains, Mickey and friends, the fire breathing Maleficent dragon, and Jack and Sally. And last but not least is the "dance party" in front of Cinderella's castle. This consist of about six dancers and a DJ that plays music while kids can gather in front of the castle and dance. One of the biggest negatives of this event is that there are no special Halloween fireworks/castle show projections.
You also want to keep in mind that several Disney World favorites such as Ray's cosmic café, the big top souvenir tent, and others close as soon as the event begins. A lot of these attractions close to make a spot for trick-or-treating for the party guests.
The party is only three hours long: 9 PM to 12 AM, however, guests are allowed to enter the park at 7 PM sharp, no earlier. This allows you two hours to visit some of those attractions before they close for the party. But keep in mind, the free items will not be offered until 9pm sharp! You can also catch the new "Enchantment" firework show during this "early entry" time.
I highly recommend eating dinner before going to the park. This will give you more time to explore, ride the rides, and shop before the party actually begins.
To Garrett and I, the low crowds and nonexistent wait times for rides was the biggest bonus to the Boo Bash event. But keep in mind the crowd is still a bit higher for this event than events in the past years, but this could be because Disney is allowing higher capacity as time goes on. But even still, finding a great viewing spot to watch the short cavalcades is very easy.
I would be lying if I said that we were not disappointed in the Boo Bash event. But we also had high expectations coming from MNSSHP. If you have never been to that event, you may not have that same disappointment. For a ticket price that is higher than a normal full day admission ticket, and higher than the past halloween party tickets, we felt, financially, it was not worth the ticket price. However, the fact that Roman and Fallon loved it so much, definitely made the high ticket price a little less painful. (But those kids would love any event that included being at Magic Kingdom.) If you still choose to attend Boo Bash, after reading this, then keep your expectations a little lower and you will still have a great time.
Cheers!
The Adventurous Alfords