The salient point of this podcast episode centers on a comprehensive comparison between the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Disney World. We delve into various categories, including decorations, character experiences, atmosphere, and menu offerings, providing an in-depth analysis to assist listeners in discerning which event may better suit their preferences. Throughout our discussion, we articulate our personal preferences while acknowledging the subjective nature of such experiences, emphasizing how different aspects resonate with diverse audiences. As we navigate through the enchanting realms of these holiday celebrations, we aim to illuminate the unique attributes that distinguish each party, thereby enriching our listeners' understanding and appreciation of these festive occasions. We invite you to join us in exploring the magic and wonder inherent in both celebrations, as we share insights garnered from our own experiences at these beloved events.

Takeaways:

• The transition from Halloween to Christmas at Disney World marks a significant seasonal change, sparking excitement among visitors.
• In comparing the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, we analyzed various categories to determine preferences.
• Decorations at the Magic Kingdom play a crucial role in setting the seasonal atmosphere for both parties, each offering unique visual experiences.
• The character appearances differ greatly between the two parties, with Halloween featuring iconic villains and Christmas showcasing festive renditions of beloved characters.
• Atmosphere is a key factor in the enjoyment of the parties, with the Christmas Party providing a more festive experience compared to the Halloween event.
• The weather is typically more favorable during the Christmas Party, making it a more comfortable experience for guests compared to the heat of the Halloween Party.

Foreign.

Of the Wands and Wishes podcast.

Thank you for joining us.

Tony Desiri along with all the Magic travels.

Lauren Mallard.

Well, it's that time of year again because the Disney World world is getting into the Christmas spirit with the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party making the transition earlier this month from the Mickey's not so Scary Halloween Party.

So parties going on from, let's say, mid August all the way through to the end of the holidays, and I get a lot of people asking me because I've been to both which one's better.

So we decided that we're going to go over about eight categories to give you our thoughts on the Mickey's not so Scary Halloween party versus the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

How are you, Lauren?

I am good.

How are you?

I am very good.

I was really excited to do this because I'm a big party fan.

I like both of them.

But I, when people ask me which one do I like better?

I've always got like, caveats to it.

Like, kids, do you like this?

Do you like that deal?

So there's a bunch of.

So I said, well, let me come up with some different categories, stories that we can talk about with the parties.

And I will start with the first one, and that is decorations at the Magic Kingdom for the parties.

And I want to specify for the party Magic Kingdom, which one do you think does it better?

You know, it was interesting when I was reading through the categories, I thought that I had which party in mind that I preferred, but I don't know that it's going to end up that way.

And you know, when I say decorations for the parties, I think that the park is decorated perfectly for every season, to be honest.

And they do especially a great job of that leading up to the fall and to the Christmas season.

But you know what I think I'm gonna say for the party itself, I think I'm gonna go with the Halloween party.

And that was honestly, you know, it was surprising to me because, you know, you think of the Christmas party, but, but you're gonna see those decorations regardless of whether you're at the party or not.

And I think there's something about those Halloween Dec gonna see a little bit more if you're there for the party versus just there for the day.

Do you think it has something to do psychologically a little bit with the summer and the heat and then seeing those fall colors even in August, even in middle August?

I know people who go there in August when they, when the, when the fall decorations first come up, they just love it.

They, they.

They immediately have got, like, hoodies in mind.

Pumpkin spice latte leaves falling in their backyard, even if it's 98 degrees at 100% humidity.

Because it's still summertime.

Just the psychological factor of something's changing, something's coming, and, and the, and these fall colors really pop and make me think of something that's about ready to come.

Yeah, I think that's definitely a part of it.

I think, honestly, if I'm in the park in August and I see fall things, for me that's a turn off.

I do not enjoy that because I still am in summer mode.

But if I am there for the party and, and it's still August, then like you said, it is.

It's a little bit of a psychological manipulation.

But I think that that's where they do it.

Well.

Yeah, I kind of agree with you.

I think that there is this fall decor.

You've got the scarecrows in the front, the iconic Mickey pumpkin on the, you know, the lights right down Main Street.

There is something about that.

I agree.

Christmas, they have the overlays.

There is such a Christmasy spirit.

But.

But I, I just think that there's something about the changing of the seasons.

I look forward to fall every year because again, it's either football or just changing of the weather.

So to me, in my mind, I'm sort of like already heading in that direction.

And I think, I think, I agree with you.

I think for the party, I think the decorations of Magic Kingdom really stand out.

Second thing, and this is, this is, again, personal choice, but your thoughts on the different characters that you're going to see in the party between the two events?

Yeah, you know, this one was a little bit harder because I think that we have some of the iconic ones.

Obviously for the Halloween party, you're going to have Jack and Sally.

You're going to have.

What you used to have were more characters that were dressed for Halloween.

And now I think we're getting a little bit away from that.

And, you know, I think, honestly, if it were me going for characters specifically, I think that I would rather see characters dressed up for Christmas versus those ones.

I'm just not a Nightmare Before Christmas fan.

And so some of those iconic ones that you're going to see people standing in line forever for at the Halloween party are not as much of a priority for me.

I'm going to switch switches.

I'm going to go Halloween.

And here's a couple of reasons.

I love the fact that you're going to get a very festive Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto.

All the iconic characters are going to do something Christmassy and festive.

I mean, you can even see Scrooge McDuck in his kind of Christmas carol attire, which is.

Which is really classic.

But I think.

And this is going back to something that we've said before in the podcast with.

With Disney.

One of the things that stands out for them over other theme parks is their embracing of the villains and their villains ip.

And I think to go there, like, when we went last September, Mother Gothel was waiting for us as we entered the back alley.

Like, that's cool.

Like Cruella de Vil, Evil Queen.

You're gonna see, you know, hitchhiking ghosts.

There is, for me, a difference between the two parties.

Like, I agree, like, seeing characters in festival costumes is great, but I'm seeing different characters at the Halloween party, and I think.

I think that makes me lean in that direction a little more.

Love it.

All right, now this is.

I'm gonna separate this.

I had to separate this.

So I wanted to get your thoughts, because at the beginning we talked about.

And these are going to be physical.

So these are the physical decorations that you see who does it better.

But now I want to get into atmosphere, so the overall feeling of whatever that party is supposed to bring out.

So atmosphere between the Halloween party and the Christmas party.

Okay.

So this one is an easy, easy Christmas party for me, you know, And I don't know if it's something about the fact that it's typically not going to be 100 degrees at the Christmas party.

And so you can kind of get into that a little bit more.

It's not going to be cold in most cases, but having that snow on Main street, having the hot cocoa, and just all of it, to me, brings out more of that festive season than just what I get from the atmosphere of the Halloween party.

All right, I'm going Halloween party.

Okay.

Okay.

And here's why.

Here's where I'm going with that one.

I agree with you.

There is, I think, from a standpoint of if I'm trying to get in the spirit of something, forget the Disney vacation of that.

If I'm just trying to get in the Christmas spirit, I think the Christmas party does a better job of that.

Yeah.

But if I want the Disney portion of this holiday, I think walking around and seeing really creative costumes, I mean, I saw a family that was dressed up.

Each person was a Disney snack, a famous Disney, like that was amazing to see.

I, to see the, the incredible creativeness of minor characters in movies and how they bring them to life is so fantastic.

But to me, because I'm a Haunted Mansion guy, there is nothing in the fog coming up, the actors speaking while you're in line.

And I think that the Disney element really, really pops.

I wish.

And I.

This is where I will say the Christmas party has an edge.

There's two big overlays with Space Mountain and Jungle Cruise that Halloween just is not doing.

They're not doing any different type of haunted mansion.

They're not doing a different pirates.

There's.

I, I don't know if you can.

I don't know if they could.

So I agree that there's, there's definitely a festive atmosphere all around because two rides are basically adding a Christmas element to it that Halloween does not have.

But to me, it's like that fog that, that Haunted Mansion is.

It's cool.

Great.

And the other thing too is, and I, I kind of, I might bring this up again.

But Halloween, let's be honest, it's a nighttime holiday.

Yeah.

Like nobody is celebrating the day of Halloween at 3 o' clock in the afternoon.

It's when you get home from work.

The kids are in the costumes.

Let's go out.

So because both of these are night events, I think the Halloween adds an edge to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

Free treats.

And I have to preface this because I really do think in this category it really does depends if you have children or not.

Yeah.

You know, that's a good point.

But you know what?

I think I am going to go with Halloween here.

And it's mainly because I don't think I've ever had one of the cookies that I really liked.

Right.

I, I, my wife and I were just chatting about that.

They're dry.

And I never go out of my way to make it to one of the free cookies.

Yeah.

And.

But if I can fill my bucket with candy that I like, like Reese's or Twix, then sign me up.

You know, I think that.

Don't get bogged down with finding all the free treats at either party for that matter.

I just, that's never been a priority.

That or as I'm going to, as we'll get into later, I'm sure the food and what is offered, just the specialty items.

But, but yeah, if I'm going for free things, I'm always going to go for the candy.

I kind of agree with you on this because you could visit 100 homes and not get the haul that you can get at a Disney World Halloween party.

All you have to do is go to TikTok social media.

There are videos of hotel rooms filled with them like it's a Willy Wonka factory of the families who had five kids and they all brought home this enormous bag of candy and they threw it on the bed just to see how much it was.

It's insane.

I agree with you.

And this is the one thing that I have told people about the cookies when they present the idea that you're going to get a chocolate chip cookie with hot chocolate.

You're going to get a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie in a plastic.

Yeah.

Rapper.

That's been around a long time.

There's.

There's not an old lady dragging out a cookie pan of freshly baked Toll House cookies and going, let them cool first, everybody.

They're right out of the oven.

That's not what you're getting.

You're getting some snickerdoodles that came in a 10,000 pack that they've got in a storage room for three weeks before this thing kicks off.

So I agree with you.

We've.

I've never been into one of those cookies and went, oh, this is fantastic.

But I like peanut M&M's and I can get 700 bags of those on.

Halloween party selling point that if you're trying to go down for the Halloween party, you can say, hey, we don't have to buy any Halloween candy this year because Halloween candy at Walmart or Target is so expensive.

I agree.

Come home with a bucket full then.

There you go.

There you go, there you go.

All right, menu items.

And I'm going to preface this by saying this is a little category that I might lean on you a little bit if you've done the food.

I don't do the food at these parties.

I usually eat before.

We've.

My wife and I have made it kind of this tradition that we go out to a nice dinner before we go to the party.

So at like 3 o' clock or 2 o', clock, we get a big meal.

We just want to be at the party.

We don't want to stand in line for the food.

We do stand in line for treats and I think that's where we save our appetite.

So I do.

Can.

I can speak on that.

But the menu items, where do you lean in terms of the party?

Yeah, you know, I'm with you.

I really typically will eat before I go to the party for a couple of reasons.

And I'LL I'll use this time to say again, we said before, your normal menu items that are going to be in Magic Kingdom are not going to be available really for the party.

Right.

Like your quick service, anything like that, you're not going to find.

And there's going to be just a handful of things that they're going to offer.

And they're typically not going to be for picky eaters.

They're going to be something that's a little more themed towards the season.

And so, no, I've never actually eaten any of them.

But I will say I think that I find things on the menu for the Halloween party a little more enticing than the ones on the menu for the Christmas party.

Yeah, I had this originally as a draw, but I don't want to cop out.

I do want to make a decision, and I am going to go Halloween.

But I think thinking about this category, I figured out, like, there are just, like, two different flavor profiles here.

Whereas the Halloween party, it seems they want spicy everything.

Like, you like that chicken sandwich?

Well, we' made it spicy.

You like this?

It's spicy.

This sauce is spicy.

Chicken tender is in a spicy parmesan garlic.

Like, everything has got this villainous, you can't handle the heat kind of approach.

Whereas, like, there's two dominant flavor profiles, like gingerbread and peppermint.

That's at the Christmas party.

Like, if you don't like either one or don't care for either one in your sweet offerings, it's that it's going to be a peppermint thing or a gingerbread thing.

And I find that the.

The food is pretty ordinary at the Christmas party.

I feel like they're trying more at the Halloween party than the Christmas party.

Yes.

So I'm gonna lean it.

I mean, listen, I'm not a spicy person, but if you're gonna give me.

If you're gonna throw out chicken tenders in a spice, okay.

At least you're trying to make it themy.

I think that when I look at the menu items for the Christmas party, like, there's like a one.

There's like a dish where you could get a cranberry glaze.

You know, they throw that kind of stuff out there, but they're not trying to go over the top with anything.

So I will say the chefs at Disney World are at least trying for the.

For the holiday.

All right.

Number six is the parade.

Ah, this is really tough.

This is really tough.

I'm going to tell you, the parade has drawn me to both Parties on a whim.

Yes.

Like where I've went.

I really like that parade.

Let's see if we can arrange to go when we visit your father or we visit my parents.

Let's take a, let's take a day trip and buy party tickets.

The parade is a big deal.

So let's start with you.

Yeah.

The parade for me is the very best part of each of the parties, if I'm being honest.

There's one thing that I'm gonna go for at either one of these parties, and it's the parade.

I am going to give the edge to the boo to you party because it is or the parade because it is my favorite parade of all.

Everything that I've ever seen at Disney World.

I love the gravediggers.

I just, I love just the, the uniqueness that comes with that parade that you're not going to get anywhere else.

I also, you know, one really interesting aspect about the Christmas parade is if you are there actually after the last Christmas party.

Yes.

It will start running that parade during the day as the daytime parade.

And so you have a little bit more opportunity to see that parade.

So it's not quite as exclusive as the that's offered at the Halloween party.

But I just, I'm happy every time I hear foodie.

You.

You're right.

You're completely right about that.

Last year at Christmas time, we were down visiting my parents who live in Ocala.

Lori and I created this idea, like, we'll just take our adult kids and let's do a Disney Day trip.

And it was like the day after.

Two days.

Two days after Christmas, we got to see the parade during the daytime.

It is a main, main draw.

I'm with you 100% on booty you that to me gets the edge.

And here's, I think why is I've seen the Universal Studios Christmas Parade and what they did was very similar to what Disney does.

Take our ip, make it festive, throw them on a festive float.

All the theme parks can do this.

But if you go to Booty you, you're going to see the Headless Horseman, which is just an unbelievably unique thing to see.

It is phenomenal.

It really sets the tone.

And you're 100% right.

You're celebrating your IP.

And I meant, I said this earlier.

The villains have their own float.

You're going to see characters you've never seen before.

I mean, the Gravediggers are fantastic.

Everything about Booty you, the music, I I is awesome.

Yes.

I Like the fact that Snope is coming down, but booty you is just hands down.

I think it's the best parade.

They do.

Absolutely.

All right, number seven, I think this is easy, but I want to get your thoughts.

And that's weather.

Yeah, this is an easy one for me and I don't know if I'm gonna have the same answer as you.

Okay, I'm gonna go with the Christmas party.

Me too.

Easily, easily.

You know, I just, I cannot, I can't enjoy being in a costume in 100 degree weather.

And I'm a summer girl.

I love the summer.

I love hot weather.

But if I am going to be celebrating something that is supposed to be primarily fall, I don't want to just completely sweat.

So I'm gonna go with the Christmas party.

But I'm also gonna hope that it is warm enough that I can still wear short sleeves.

Yeah, that's right.

That's the big thing.

You might need a sweatshirt on some of these nights in Florida.

But anybody who lives down there will tell you this as soon as it hits like November ish, It's when the cooler weather starts coming in.

You're gonna get it in the daytime, you're gonna get it at night.

Yeah.

To me it's a no brainer.

You're gonna be a lot more comfortable at Christmas time if you're going, even if you're going in early November than you are in early August to start the Halloween party.

And you're right.

When planning your costume, realize how hot it can be down there.

So when you're throwing on fake beards and big wigs and big dresses.

Yeah, that's by, by 7:30, that's going to start bothering you.

Yeah.

So.

So just keep that in mind.

Number eight.

And this is why I separated the two categories.

So when I did decorations and atmosphere, really talking about the party.

But I want to branch out a little bit and let's go with resort theming.

This is not party specific so this is something you can experience without a ticket.

But I did feel it was kind of important to throw out there because resorts are trying to celebrate both.

But where do you line between Halloween and Christmas for where everything else outside the Magic Kingdom, how would they celebrate the holiday?

I think that this one has to be an easy Christmas answer for me.

I look forward to seeing when each of the resorts puts up their Christmas tree every year.

I actually posted something earlier today because the Will Wilderness Lodge is my very favorite lobby at Christmas time and they put their tree overnight last night.

It is absolutely gorgeous.

If you have time when you're on property to just do a little resort crawl, there's one everywhere at every resort, whether that's a value resort, moderate, deluxe, and then at Disney Springs, everything is decorated just so meticulously.

And each park has kind of a different personality when it comes to Christmas decorations, too.

Yeah, I agree with you.

And here's, here's another big point.

Halloween runs, or at least the Halloween season runs right into the Food and Wine Festival.

So when you're at Epcot, they're not celebrating Halloween, they're celebrating the Food and Wine Festival.

So it's not, there's not spooky stuff everywhere.

There's not like a feeling of they want you to know that the food and wine festival is going on.

Great places to eat, great different menu items.

And so that entire park is literally, you know, non Halloween ish.

And the other two aren't really doing it either.

There's some gift shop stuff.

You can walk in, get a Halloween type of shirt, an orange or black type of shirt for Halloween.

But at Christmas time, you're right.

Every park's got a tree, every park's got decorations, every park's got music.

All of the resorts have incredible lobbies.

There's a, you know, gingerbread houses, trees, etc.

Christmas wins this one completely, hands down, for sure.

All right, so those are the eight categories.

I did want to talk about something, and this is kind of off the cuff about something I saw this morning and I was kind of sad and here's why.

I see a lot of these Facebook groups now, like Disney World for adults or Disney Planning or, you know, whatever.

And a woman posted that she booked the All Star resorts for her kids.

And she said, all I've been told is how horrible the All Star resorts are.

And now she's feeling sad that she's booked this vacation and she's not doing her family right by going to this really value that everyone says, oh, it's so noisy.

Oh, it's so small.

Oh.

And I just want to say, if you're a family that is going to book the All Star resorts, please do not listen to people.

There's a lot of Disney resort snobs out there that want to tell you that that's nothing.

You're going to have a blast.

You're going to have a blast.

And I just wanted to say that because I, I was really hurt by this woman feeling like she planned this.

She's booking this her kids and people are telling her it's a waste of money.

It's a waste of time.

Better off staying off property.

Oh, absolutely not.

No.

Your value when staying on property is tremendously better than staying off property.

And I will shout that from the rooftops.

Absolutely.

And fun, funny story here.

I actually have a client who went with her family.

They go often.

They go at least a couple times a year.

And they went over fall break and they stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, which is one of their favorite places to stay.

Do you know that their kids were disappointed because their favorite resort is All Star Sports?

Exactly.

Yeah.

And they said, why are we not staying at All Star Sports?

So where did we book their bounce Back offer at All Star Sports?

So, you know, you've got to keep in mind that everybody's opinion is different and what works for some families is not going to work for another one.

And whether that be budget or personality or atmosphere or any of that, Disney does their hotels well.

And yeah, you're gonna have some noise if you're there during a cheer competition or they're during, you know, a band when there's different school trips.

Yes, school trips.

Stay at the Value Resort.

Keep that in mind.

There's not always going to be school trips at the Value Resorts.

They're predominantly going to be families that are vacationing together.

And I can guarantee you when I'm here, when I'm vacationing with my children, they're not up at 10 o' clock at night making noise.

They're exhausted from the parks, so.

Exactly.

And I've said this many times on the podcast, when my wife and I, who are empty nesters, when we go down to Florida, we usually go visit my father in law who's living now by himself after the my mother in law passed away a couple of years ago.

My parents live in Ocala, my son is living in Gainesville.

We're usually doing a ton of other things.

So to us we try to stay more central.

And so we check into something that we can get to Clearwater quickly, Ocala quickly, and then maybe jump to Disney for a couple of days.

I've never checked into one of those hotels and we've stayed at some really nice hotels in central Florida where I've had excitement rather than going, being at Disney.

That's right.

The moment I get on property, I want to explore, I want to look around, I want to look at the gift shop, I want to go walking around the lobby, I want to walk around property.

It doesn't matter if it's All Star Resorts or, or, or Pop Century or Riverside or wherever.

Give your your kids are going to love it.

Yeah.

If you're one of those people that's nervous about booking that because of what people say, ignore them.

You're going to have a great time.

That's right.

And I'll say to that lady, if she's listening to this, reach out to us because we'll set you straight and make sure.

Exactly, Exactly.

Exactly.

All right.

That's going to do it for this episode of Ones and Wishes.

You can reach LA Lauren all@allthemagic travel.com reach me travel with Tony D gmail.com please subscribe.

Like this channel, we're kind of trying to give you all the tips that we can and all the information that we can on the Walt Disney World Resort.

We'll see you next time on Wands and Wishes.