I was one of the people that rushed and bought a Boo Bash ticket within the first five minutes of them becoming available. They ended up selling out wicked fast. Based on the description of how the decor would change in October, I bought my ticket for October 10. Little did I know how very minor the change would be, or I’d have bought a less expensive ticket for August or September. Those cute Mickey pumpkin heads on the light poles changed to Cinderella. That’s it. The same ones you can see when you’re not at Boo Bash.

I attended alone, which was probably best for me. I was on a mission to get all the photos, see the characters, and watch all the cavalcades. I paid a hell of a lot of money for a three hour event and I was going to get all I could from it. I had a good time, but was disappointed on many levels. Stop reading now if you don’t want to hear a die-hard Disney fan criticize Disney and Bob Paycheck. That’s Bob Chapek if you’re not in the know. The guy who is obviously making decisions based on his bonuses rather than guest experiences.

This is an after hours event, not a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It’s got some of the same elements, but is very different. There are also differences because of the COVID safety measures in place. Which was basically only the characters being distanced. The Cast Members at outdoor locations weren’t wearing masks and were handing the candy out. Masks are required if you’re indoors.

Pardon the condition of my map, it got wet before I took photos.

Being an after hours event, you could eat all the Mickey ice cream bars, Mickey ice cream sandwiches, and frozen strawberry bars you could stomach. There was also popcorn and bottle drinks. I only had one Mickey ice cream bar, one strawberry bar, and one popcorn. About one treat an hour was about all I could handle. I still ended up bringing about half of my popcorn home. Had I been to the event as a child, I would probably have had a Mickey ice cream bar in my hand at all times.

I didn’t spend any extra money buying the specialty food or beverages. Nothing on the short list of four items was anything I was dying to have. I also figured I had spent quite enough on the event ticket.

There are eight trick-or-treat locations throughout the park. Even though I went through a few of them twice, I still only left with half a bag of candy. And I went to two of them at the very end of the night when everyone says they are giving tons out. Not the case for me. But I’ve never come home from any Disney Halloween event with a decent amount of candy. The bags are really cute, though. Muppets Haunted Mansion on one side and Encanto on the other.

Rather than a parade, there were several cavalcades. Honestly, they should have just put them together and run a parade once an hour. They were each very short. The highlight for me was Bowler Hat Guy from Meet the Robinsons. The reason we were given when the parks reopened for not having parades, and why cavalcades don’t have times, was to keep people from crowding. The Boo Bash cavalcades had times listed and people crowded just like they have been for the ones daily in the park. And have you seen the crowds for the nighttime shows? It’s time Disney bring the regular parades back.

• Mickey’s Happy Halloween Cavalcade
• Disney Villains Halloween Cavalcade
• Jack’s Nightmare Cavalcade
• Maleficent’s Fiery Prowl

I only caught the very end of The Cadaver Dans in Frontierland, so I don’t have photos or video. They’re always fun, though.

There was a Tomorrowland Dance Party listed on the map, but I was over there a couple of times and nothing was going on.

Perhaps in place of the Tomorrowland Dance Party, there was a DJ and four dancers on the stage in front of Cinderella’s castle. There were a bunch of kids dancing in front of them and I saw lots of adults joining in. I had bigger fish to fry, so I just stopped for a minute to take a video.

On the Haunted Mansion lawn, I saw two different butlers at different times. They were interacting with guests. See a couple of minutes of them in the video above. The mansion was lit in different colors and had fog and lightning. It would be pretty cool if they did this every night.

The characters you could see were all socially distanced. I probably missed Pooh and Tigger on the Crystal Palace patio, but I think I saw pretty much everyone else. The one good thing about this was that there weren’t hours long lines to see them like the times I’ve been at the MNSSHP. The sad thing is that you don’t really get to take photos with them. I would have loved a photo with Gideon and Foulfellow.

They had Halloween light projections in parts of the park. My favorites were on the Tomorrowland rocks and at Pirates of the Caribbean. Some were just on the ground.

They had PhotoPass photographers out with some great magic shots and props. I think I took a couple of them before the event. Some of these you can take on regular park days, although sometimes in different locations. I took the ship in a bottle pic on Talk Like A Pirate Day a few years ago. A huge bummer was not seeing the Headless Horseman, but there was a magic shot for him. If I didn’t have PhotoPass, my experience at the event would definitely have been a lot worse. These photos were a highlight because it felt like so much was missing.

I knew the reviews for the event were pretty terrible, but I still went in with the mindset that I was going to have the best time I could. Several times throughout the measly three hours, I still found myself realizing that I had grossly overpaid for the event. It should have been $85-$100 tops. Mind you, all nights sold out almost immediately. I’m sure because we were all expecting it to be so much better than it actually was.

I didn’t go on any rides because I didn’t want to waste my precious time on them. I chose to trick-or-treat, watch the cavalcades, spot characters, and take PhotoPass photos. I can ride the rides any day and time was definitely money.

As I said previously, they should have just had a damn parade. Because the characters can’t do real meet and greets, they should have had more of them available. The exclusive treats available for purchase were uninspired and boring. Candy was given out too sparingly. Of course there was no Halloween show on the stage or fireworks, but this was an after hours event. That they charged an obscene amount of money for and didn’t deliver the experience that is expected from a Disney holiday event.

They announced the Disney Very Merriest After Hours event for the holidays weeks ago. No big surprise that it’s not sold out a single night after the reviews for Boo Bash came in. Who the hell wants to spend all that money to be disappointed? Especially if you’re buying tickets for an entire family. At least that event will be four hours instead of Boo Bash’s three. But here’s some bullshit. The tickets are $169-$249 per person. Bob Paycheck can kiss my ass. I didn’t even consider getting a ticket.

If Disney is going to charge insane ticket prices, and not deliver outstanding experiences, I won’t be attending their events. Have you ever been to SeaWorld for their Spooktacular or their Christmas Celebration? They’re included in your admission and are both super fun. You can also experience the holidays at Universal Orlando with your admission. They’ve got Grinchmas and the Macy’s parade balloons. The parks are all decked out for the holidays, including the Wizarding Worlds. I’m just saying that you’ve got other really fantastic options, and they aren’t separately ticketed events.