Halloween has kicked off in Disney World.

Magic Kingdom is full of Mickey pumpkin wreaths, scarecrows, and festive holiday decorations. The first Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party has happened with many parties to follow this Halloween season. If you are not going to the party on your visit, here’s why you should STILL go to Magic Kingdom that day.

Throughout August until November 1st, Magic Kingdom will host the Halloween party on select nights. On days when the Halloween parties take place in this park,  Magic Kingdom closes EARLY, at 6PM, for guests without a party ticket. Guests who aren’t attending the party may think it’s a BAD decision to go to Magic Kingdom on a party day because it closes early, but we’re here to argue the opposite.

There’s a party happening tonight, August 15th, and when we got to Magic Kingdom this morning, we noticed that the crowds were VERY light. This is what the castle hub looked like at 10AM. Where’d all the people go?!

Here you can see there was hardly anyone around. Think of all the great photos you could grab with such few people there!

As far as wait times go, those were looking great as well. Around 12PM we saw multiple attractions’ wait times as low as 5 minutes including Dumbo and Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. Even the highest wait times weren’t nearly as bad as they usually are. For example, we saw Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at only a 60-minute wait — that is LOW for that ride, especially in the middle of the day.

The Festival of Fantasy is a popular parade in this park and usually draws a large crowd. However, this was what the crowd situation was like in Frontierland at 12PM, right before the start of that parade. We don’t think you would have a hard time finding a great spot to watch the parade.

You can get some Halloween treats in Magic Kingdom during the day as well. Of course, there are exclusive treats during the Halloween party. However, there are plenty of delicious snacks you can grab during the day, like the Apple Fritter Milkshake from Auntie Gravity’s Galactic Goodies.

There is a lot you could get done on days like these in Magic Kingdom. Just make sure you have a plan for what you’d like to do once Magic Kingdom closes at 6PM — You could either hop to another park (if you have a Park Hopper ticket), do a Disney World hotel crawl to check out some of the nearby resorts (and get lots of tasty snacks at the restaurants there), or head over to Disney Springs! Or, if you have little ones who are tired after a long day, 6PM might be the perfect time to head back to your own hotel, maybe hang out at the pool for a bit, grab dinner, and hit the hay.

Of course, this hack is pretty controversial, mainly because it means you get LESS time in Magic Kingdom and you can’t see the Happily Ever After fireworks show. That fireworks problem might be a deal-breaker for some guests, and we totally get that.

But if fireworks aren’t a priority to you, we think you can accomplish a lot in the park before 6PM, maybe even more than you could on a normal day when it’s open a few extra hours.

If you’re going to try out this hack, plan on getting to Magic Kingdom as soon as possible (right when it opens) so you have maximum time before the party. For more Disney tips and tricks, make sure you’re following Disney Food Blog.

Are you going to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year? Let us know in the comments.

The post The Controversial Hack for Visiting Magic Kingdom When It’s WAY Less Crowded first appeared on the disney food blog.