Halloween at Magic Kingdom
Fall is upon us and at the Magic Kingdom, that usually means a big salute to Halloween. In the absence of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, we cover what Disney has tried to do to make the holiday succeed during this pandemic. We look at decorations, character cavalcades, food, and merchandise. We also pay homage to those missing pieces this year. All this and more on this Disney at Play post & podcast.
You can find our podcast here on Podbean, iTunes, Spotify, MyTuner, and ListenNotes. Key notes and photos are below, but you’ll find most of my commentary on the podcast.
Deck the Fall
I always lament that Fall decor goes out by the first of August. It’s simply too soon. I don’t like summer ending so quickly. But they do it for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties.
So this year, I was glad to see it come out mid-September. I was ready, and the weather seemed even fairly right for it–at least for Florida.
Some of this decor looks new, or at least a little refreshed:
Don’t miss the window decors. Many of them are top notch.
Coming on September 20th are the Cadaver Dans, known the rest of the year as the Dapper Dans.
The best decor this year are guests dressing up during the day as they visit the parks between now and Halloween.
Cavalcade
This is really cool, and guests were excited on day one to see all of this. Main Street was lined up in the morning for the characters that came along. The energy around Jack Skellington and company was palpable.
You should know that Disney’s official communications has stated “on select days” for some of these cavalcades.
Food
This is a biggie for this year. Before there would be specialty offerings during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. But those offerings were not available to day guests. With no party, they have not only offered treats during the day, but throughout all four parks. The complete list can be found here. Meanwhile, here’s my take on items I’ve sampled here in the parks.
Mickey Monster Mash Burger. This concoction, sold at Cosmic Ray’s, is a burger with Meunster cheese, potato barrels, bacon and siriacha aioli. Know that Chesire Cat tails are also sold there.***
Hades Nachos. Black bean nacho chips with “fiery” buffalo chicken, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa and jalapeño. Available at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe. **
Cinnamon Donuts served in a Hitchhiking Ghost Novelty container. Also available at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe.**
Constance’s For Better or For Worse Wedding Cake. Available at Liberty Square Market this is a citrus cake with raspberry Bavarian cream, whipped cream flowers and a chocolate axe.***
Poor Unfortunate Souls Float. This is cream cheese soft-serve, black raspberry syrup, Coke, pearls and a candy crown (more like the one worn by the wicked queen in Snow White). Served at Storybook Treats.***
Not So Poison Apple Cupcake. Love being at Pinocchio’s Village Haus for this treat. Appearances clearly indicate that this is a beauty. It’s a work of art with spiced apple cupcake, and a pecan crunch buttercream. And if you love spice cake, then this is the winner. But since I’m judging it I’m giving it a lesser rating.**
Madame Leota Sipper. This is a winner! Clearly the best sipper globe yet created, and one of the best sippers ever (Don’t worry, Orange Bird, you have the lead). Difficult to run out of (F&B are you ever going to get this right?) but worth it when you do. Available at Sleepy Hollow’s.***
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Box of Bones Chocolate Éclair. Available at Backlot Express, this chocolate éclair came with dark chocolate mousse and white chocolate bones. This sounded really good. In truth, it fell short. I liked the bones, but the mousse might as well been frosting. It was just too much.**
Frozen Apple Cider with Crown Royal Regal Apple (Non Alcoholic) available at Backlot Express this was served with a Novelty Poison Apple Glow Cube. There is a difference in my view between apple cider and apple juice. That and the fact that it was overly frozen made it disappointing.*
Poison Candied Apple– Available at Starbuck’s Trolley Car Cafe, this was an apple and caramel mousse covered in red glaze with a crunchy candy base. Never tasted the caramel mousse. Some thought the apple taste would have been tart to offset the sweet. But it wasn’t. Okay, but not memorable**
Epcot
Other than popcorn buckets, there isn’t any specialty foods until Halloween day. Still, I think the Donut box with its Apple Fritter donuts are worthy of mention, even if it isn’t on the official menu. These are amazing, but not as good as the next item I’m sharing from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.***
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The best Halloween treat is not at Magic Kingdom. It’s at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I may also say that this is the best cupcake I may have ever tasted at Walt Disney World. This is the sleeper hit of the season! It’s a little overdone on appearance, but taste is everything, and this one delivers! This has red velvet cupcake with toasted marshmallow filling, chocolate marshmallow frosting, chocolate pebbles, white chocolate flames’ and an edible icing image. But the marshmallow filling has texture like merengue. It’s really intriguing. Definitely the best of the season!**********
Merchandise
Lots of great merchandise. But honestly, in recent years Disney has done a phenomenal job with Halloween & Haunted Mansion merchandise.
It was a treat to see Cast Members decked in Not-So-Scary costume attire.
MIA
Beyond the fact that there are no Halloween parties for this year, the downside is that all of the decorations were not out–at least on day one. Missing were the Main Street townspeople scare crows.
Also missing were the lighter touches usually found in Liberty Square. Other than the Haunted Mansion, you would not find anything really celebrating Fall.
With all things COVID, this would be a great message to put up. Unfortunately, it probably can’t be seen well during the day.
More
The Disney Parks website has created a dedicated page/section for all things Halloween whether you are in the parks or back home. So be sure to check it out.
