Last night’s Oogie Boogie Bash (Sunday, 9/15) was so much fun! I feel very lucky that we got great weather—warm but not hot during the day, cool but not cold enough for a sweater at night—especially considering the horrid heatwave we had a few weeks ago!
Before the party we went to DL for a bit to have lunch in Galaxy’s Edge. There weren’t a lot of guests dressed up in DL and we attracted a lot of attention in Galaxy’s Edge due to our Star Wars costumes. As we were very quickly walking to Rise of the Resistance (newly reopened with a low wait time) Rey’s handler saw us and practically dragged us over, ha ha. I wasn’t about to say no to an interaction and my son loved it (lucky, we still managed to get onto Rise with only a 35-minute wait). Mando also talked to my son about his allegiance and the Storm Troopers interrogated him. It was lots of fun. We also got lots of comments from cast members on Rise … lots of magic for my son!
We had lunch at Craftsman Bar at 5pm, which was perfect to avoid the crazy crowds of the mix-in period between 3 and 6pm. We split a pizza ($30) and were in and out in 45 minutes. We scanned into the park from the GCH and got our wristbands right there with no wait. Grabbed a locker on Buena Vista street and had a few minutes to spare before we hopped into the line for Judge Doom treat trail for our first activity.
Some of the strategies I used last year worked again this year. My son and I don’t need to stand in line to meet characters and take photos with them (we’re happy to see them as we walk past—“Hey, look! It’s Lotso!” “There’s Ember! How cool!”) so we didn’t do any of the non-treat trail characters (the photo ops).
My son is 9 and his biggest thing was trick-or-treating, especially the character treat trails. He wanted as much candy as we could carry and man, did we bring home an embarrassing amount of candy.
(I remember what it felt like to love trick or treating as a kid and I was not about to curb his enthusiasm!) We did almost all of the character treat trails (some multiple times), plus the regular treat trails without characters and the Magic Key treat trail.
We LOVE the treat trail characters! They are all so good! Hard to rank favorites, for me probably Judge Doom, Ernesto de la Cruz, Oogie Boogie and Sid! The improv that Judge Doom and Sid do is so incredibly impressive. They are just fantastically talented actors! We got to hear Ernesto de la Cruz sing Remember Me. So lucky!
We missed Hades somehow. I don’t know why I didn’t remember he was in Hollywoodland back lot. But we did see Dr. Doofenshmirtz and my son flipped. I had no idea who he was but my son did and he loved him! His costume was really impressive with the prosthesis bringing a cartoon to life. And his improv was really great too.
Although Madam Mim wasn’t high on our list (my son has never seen that movie), we ended up doing her trail twice because she was so much fun! Another great actor. She said something funny to my son about being out late (don’t you have some kind of learning to do tomorrow?) and he loved it.
Yokai was talking this year and I swear last year he just stood there all night silently being menacing, so that was interesting.
We grabbed a spot to watch the parade near Ariel attraction (facing San Fransokyo Square). This is what we did last year and I planned to stand up and immediately walk to Villian’s Grove once the parade passed by. We didn’t want to spend much time sitting and waiting so we grabbed a spot about 20 minutes before the first parade started (it started at 7:45). We were second row but the people in front of us sat so it was perfect.
I just love the Haunted Horseman and he is one of my favorite things about OBB. I get chills when he goes by!! The parade is short but so cute … I love it and so does my son.
As we did last year, we stood up to book it over to Villian’s Grove when the parade passed us but this year cast members routed us to the right and we had to walk all the way around the back of Grizzy River Run. I was worried this was going to mean a long line at Villian’s Grove but nope! We walked right in. When we exited VG the line was all the way back to the plane where Pluto usually meets during the day, it was CRAZY.
Villian’s Gove is really cool. I love what they do with the effects and the seemed to have added things since last year. It’s so creative and really fun to walk through.
We only went on two rides—Web Slingers, which should have been a 5-minute wait but broke down on us, so it was quite a bit longer. Man, being stuck in a line while a ride is down is so stressful during OBB because the event is just so short and the minutes feel so precious. We also rode RSR during the second parade. We did single rider, which was a walk on. We ended up in the same car, with my son in the front and me behind him. The standby line at that time said 25 minutes but it looked more like 15 to me! At other times during the party RSR was between 30 and 40 minutes.
My biggest complaint about the party is it’s just way too short! The time flies by and you can’t believe it’s over. I wish it started an hour earlier or ended an hour later (though we were totally exhausted by 11pm).
One other small gripe is the fact that I wanted a glass of red wine and I couldn’t find any place selling wine.
Loads of mixed drinks and beer but no wine. I actually wanted the wine because ALL of my preferred beers that I usually drink at DCA were missing from the various menus. I was so bummed. A lot of food venues are not open during the party and many that are open close early so food is a challenge. Luckily, I remembered this from last year and we ate a ton at 5pm and we never ate anything else in the park that night.
So many party guests were dressed in costume and some were really creative! Some were so elaborate, they were just stunning! It’s so much fun to see all the costumes and reactions to them.
Final observation: The candy was pretty awesome this year, if you’re into candy. No weird candy, lots of good staples. There was no fresh fruit, which we actually enjoyed the grapes and apples last year, but they didn’t have them last night. We had carrots at two stations and that was it for fresh food. In addition to the candy, we got Mickey Goldfish, Goldfish Pretzels, Goldfish graham crackers, Rice Krispie treats and craisins.
Someone was worried that their kids wouldn’t get enough candy. I assure you, that is not the case!
