This year was the debut of The Oogie Boogie Bash at the Disneyland resort – and I got a chance to go on its opening night! The event is sold out for this year, but that just means you should start planning to get tickets for next year, because this event is a Halloween spectacular!
The event takes place at the California Adventure, with The Nightmare before Christmas displays around every corner. However, it isn’t just Oogie Boogie who steals the show – Maleficent, Dr. Ficilier from The Princess and the Frog, and many of the most popular villains can be found throughout the park.
One of the things that I found incredibly exciting was the amount of participation by guests in terms of wearing costumes. I saw two young women who were impeccably dressed as Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as well as multiple families dressed as characters from Toy Story. Families decked out as The Incredibles, as well as groups of women dressed from Hocus Pocus were also very popular. However, I was really impressed with the amount of clearly homemade costumes that had incredible details and were constructed with a great amount of thought. Many of the people in attendance were wearing costumes that rivaled those that could be found on the stage and on screen.
Just walking through the park was an absolute joy.
Just like all things Disney, the “Frightfully Fun Parade” was done with incredible fun details. The dancers were exciting, the parade floats appeared to have drifted out from the animated stories, and the music was fun and lively.
My favorite part was the head of the parade, absolutely pun intended. The headless horseman road through the streets on a beautiful Shire horse, pumpkin held in hand.
After years of going to the “Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party”, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ‘thrills and chills’ were stepped up just a notch. Although clearly not as frightening as some of the events in other theme parks, this experience did have elements of scariness that were appropriate for children.
The events included Immersive Treat Trails where Trick-or-Treating was combined with encounters with favorite characters, as well as the DescenDance, which featured music from the “Descendants” and allowed guests to dance along with characters from the popular movie franchise.
And…then there was the Halloween themed food.
The Oogie Boogie Sundae from Clarabelle’s was a delightful treat of mint, chocolate chip ice cream, candy corn teeth and a beautiful dipped waffle bowl. I do question the wisdom of freezing candy corn (my teeth questioned this wisdom), but all in all it was a sinfully interesting indulgence.
Starbucks put out two drinks to celebrate, one the Maleficent Frappacino and the other Dr. Facilier’s Tonic. Maleficent’s concoction is a blueberry and vanilla bean cream with dragonfuit syrup, topped with a green matcha powder swirl of whipped cream.
Dr. Facilier’s Tonic is a strange mix of a layer of chai tea, a layer of lemonade, topped off with a layer of dragonfruit, giving it a brown, yellow, and green layered appearance until you mix it all up. I never thought of mixing chai tea with lemonade, but the spiciness was quite delicious!
Lovely candies and sweets were also available for this wondrous event!
However, it was the Slow-Burnin’ Mac n’Cheese Cone that really had me. This is a bread cone from the Cozy Cone Motel food kiosks in the Cars area. The black bread cone is filled with spicy, roasted red pepper mac n’ cheese, topped with crumbled Flammin’ Hot Cheetos!.
There are a number of yummy Halloween treats to try, and they are simply ‘spooktacular’.
If you didn’t get a ticket this year, there is a small chance that if you booked a room at one of the hotels the concierge could hook you up. There is also a chance that there may be some tickets available on-site, but the online ticket sales are completely sold out for the year.
Either way, Oogie Boogie is throwing a great party in the California Adventure at the Disneyland resort!
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