Oogie Boogie Bash 2023 - Highlights
Every year, Disney’s California Adventure Park holds Oogie Boogie Bash throughout the months of September and October, which is a Halloween event that gives guests a spookified Disney experience without being overly spooky. Compared to other events like Horror Nights at Universal Studios, Oogie Boogie Bash is more for those who want to relax while taking in the sights and overdosing on copious amounts of candy.
For as long as Oogie Boogie Bash has been around, I have never had the opportunity to attend due to the high demand and difficulty getting tickets. This year, my co-worker bought my co-worker and I’s tickets using his Magic Key passholder privileges. The three of us got dressed up in our best Haunted Mansion themed attire. My co-worker Kendall came in her Mickey ears, I wore my spirit jersey and Steven who organized this night for us was wearing a RSVLTS button down shirt. We came ready to party with the ghosts. I was told before coming to the park that I should park in the Toy Story lot and not in Mickey and Friends. That’s where I usually go, but since they open California Adventure at 3pm for Oogie Boogie Bash guests, I didn’t want to fight the long lines to get into the structure. Parking in the Toy Story lot and then taking the shuttle to the park was so much easier. There was nearly no line to get on the bus unlike the tram lines. The shuttles only take you to the park so there’s no stopping anywhere else. It ended up being quite the time saver. It also drops you off right at the entrance to both parks.
The first thing we did when we entered the park was go straight to Cars Land to try and ride a few rides before the sun goes down. We went on Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters. I had never been on either of those so it was fun experiencing them for the first time. We also hit up the new Spiderman ride in Marvel’s Avenger’s Campus. That was practically a walk on. After we got those out of the way, we headed back into Cars Land to see the sunset lighting ceremony. I don’t know if this actually has a name, but that’s what I’m calling it. As soon as the sun starts to set, all of the neon lights turn on illuminating the street. The diner and Cozy Cones were lit up and they started to reveal some of the Cars characters dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Mater was dressed up like a vampire. Another car was dressed up like a pirate. There were a lot of cool Halloween details throughout the park, but Cars Land during Oogie Boogie is probably my favorite place to be. Everywhere you looked, an ordinary item, building or character was themed for the occasion making for some great photo ops.
Agatha Harkness
As soon as it got dark, we hit up Villain’s Grove across from where the Grizzly River Rapids ride is. Villain’s Grove is a walkthrough experience filled with a lot of light projections, music, sound, and overall stunning visuals. It was my favorite part of Oogie Boogie Bash because I thought it was beautiful how they told a story with an atmosphere rather than having actual characters do it. They had some characters projected on objects like the Hyenas from The Lion King and Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog. One of my favorite parts of this walkthrough was the forest that looked like you were in a lightning storm. Nearby they also had trees covered in twinkling lights. That was really beautiful. It felt like you were looking up into space. My other favorite part was the ending. There’s a bright white light shining through a tree trunk tunnel you have to walk through and there’s this ethereal music playing as you enter that honestly made me a little emotional. It felt hopeful like yes, you just went through all this craziness but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. The journey doesn’t end here. Keep going. Shoutout to the people who created this experience. It was super creative and simple yet complex. It gave me the feels.
Judge Doom
After that, we hit up all of the Treat Trails. Treat Trails are stations set up throughout the park where cast members hand out tons of candy so make sure you either bring a bag for that or remember to grab one of the free bags they hand out at the entrance of the park. At most of the stations they have characters from different Disney films up on a stage interacting with guests. They are all villain themed of course. I got to see Agatha Harkness twice in 2 different locations from Wandavision, Cruella from the newest Disney movie, Oogie Boogie himself, Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco, Mother Gothel from Tangeled, Sid from Toy Story, Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone, and Yokai from Big Hero Six. I’ll be honest, the only villains I knew were Oogie Boogie, Cruella, Sid and Ernesto. However, it was cool that they had Judge Doom. While I didn’t recognize him, he was super creepy and he was kind of a deep cut for those who did grow up with Roger Rabbit. All of these characters were super sassy toward guests. I loved it. I think if I had to pick a favorite it’s a tie between Ernesto because he also puts on a concert for people and Madam Mim for being kooky.
Ernesto de la Cruz
The event also offered a lot of photo ops. We didn’t do any, but I saw there was one with Minnie, Daisy and Clarabelle where they were dressed up like the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus. That was super cute. You could take a photo with Bruno from Encanto. There were photo ops with the Cars dressed up in Cars Land as well as whoever was wandering around in Avengers Campus and on Pixar Pier. We saw Doug from Up taking photos with people. This was the one and only time adults could dress up in costume at the Disney parks, so it was funny seeing people dressed up as Marvel characters because at times I couldn’t tell who was a Disney cast member and who was just a guest in costume. I’m like, is that real Thor or fake Thor? People are going up to both of them to take pictures.
We took a break at one point to go to San Fransokyo Square where we ordered some cheesecake from Aunt Casse Cafe. It was Japanese style cheesecake and it was delicious. I am not a big fan of cheesecake, but this was so light and fluffy. It wasn’t overly sweet either. It tasted kind of like an Angel Food Cake with strawberry sauce drizzled on it. 10/10 It filled me up the rest of the night so I did not get to try the Oogie Boogie churro like I had intended to.
After hitting every single treat trail, we ended the night with a ride on Radiator Springs Racers before getting situated for the last parade of the evening. I hadn’t watched a Disney parade in years, so this was fun seeing all of the different spooky floats. The parade consisted of the Headless Horseman, Mickey and Minnie dressed in their little formal orange and black attire, a Haunted Mansion float with gravediggers trailing behind them with their shovels, a massive float that had villains from Hercules, 101 Dalmatians, Jack and Sally and lot more. I love spooky stuff, so it’ll be hard for another Disney parade to top this one. I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t a super long parade either which was nice. However, their theme song they kept playing “It’s Halloween” will forever be burned into my memory. It’s very catchy.
Overall, I had a great time experiencing my first ever Oogie Boogie Bash. The crowds weren’t too bad, there were virtually no lines for a lot of the rides, and the lines they had for the treat trails moved pretty fast. At first I was worried a couple of hours wouldn’t be enough time to do everything, but by the end of the night my feet were hurting and I had a bag full of candy, so I’d say it was a success. Would I pay almost $200 to attend Oogie Boogie Bash again? Certainly not every year. Maybe once every 5 years or so. I prefer more horror, but this is a great option for people who want to feel festive without people with chainsaws running at them.
