Don’t Look Now, But Orlando Theme Parks Are Already Doing It
Put away the sparklers, folks. The Fourth of July has come and gone, and if you live in the Orlando area or you’re planning a trip here soon, you already know what that means. Halloween is basically knocking on the door.
Yes, really. It’s July. It’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. And yet Orlando’s theme parks are just weeks away from breaking out the pumpkins, the candy buckets, and the haunted houses. Around here, spooky season doesn’t wait for fall. It never has.
Disney Goes First, Like Always
Walt Disney World is the early bird every single year. Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party kicks off at Magic Kingdom in early August and runs on select nights through the end of October. The party is a separate ticket, and it’s a pricey one. Some nights push towards $200 a person. Still, ask almost any Disney regular, and they’ll tell you it’s worth it. You get unlimited trick-or-treating, a Halloween parade that fans adore, special fireworks, hard-to-find characters, and shorter lines than a normal park day.
There’s more Halloween scattered around the Disney property, too. Disney Springs stocks up on seasonal snacks and merchandise, Jock Lindsey’s Halloween Bar is expected to make its return, and the campers at Fort Wilderness put on their famous golf cart parade with campsites decorated to the nines.
Universal Orlando Resort Shows Up Fashionably Late
Universal Orlando Resort lets Disney have August mostly to itself, then arrives with the loudest event of the season. Halloween Horror Nights turns 35 this year, and the big anniversary brings back fan-favorite icons Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow. The event runs select nights from August 28 through November 1, with haunted houses based on Stranger Things, Hellraiser, and Sinners, plus original scares cooked up just for this year.
Fair warning: this one is not for the kiddos. It’s built for teens and adults who actually want to be scared. If you’d rather skip the screaming, CityWalk usually gets a festive makeover with themed food and drinks, and Universal’s hotels have been known to open Halloween pop-up bars that don’t require an event ticket at all.
Everybody Else in Orlando Piles On Too
SeaWorld Orlando pulls double duty with Spooktacular, a free-with-admission daytime event for families, and Howl-O-Scream, a separate after-dark event for the brave. Legoland brings back Brick-or-Treat for the little ones. Over on International Drive and in Kissimmee, spots like ICON Park and Old Town get into the spirit, Pirates Dinner Adventure becomes Vampirates, and Gatorland hosts its delightfully weird Gators, Ghosts, and Goblins celebration.
Add it all up and Orlando’s Halloween season stretches from early August through the first days of November. That’s three whole months of costumes and candy.
Is It Too Early for Orlando? Sure. Does It Matter? Nope.
Every summer, someone complains that Halloween in August is ridiculous, and honestly, they’re not entirely wrong. But here’s the thing. Millions of people visit Orlando on their own schedules, and plenty of them can only make it in August or September. A long season means a kid visiting in late summer still gets to trick-or-treat down Main Street, and a horror fan doesn’t have to cram their trip into one crowded October weekend.
So go ahead and grumble about candy corn in the summer heat if you want. Orlando will be over here celebrating anyway. The countdown is officially on.
