If you are heading to Disneyland or Walt Disney World in the fall you may just find yourself at one of the many Halloween parties. Of course you go for the trick-or-treating, the parade and the fireworks but remember you need to get in the mood for the party. And for most that means dressing up!!! The best part is that everyone can dress up. Even adults. So, now what to wear?
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Disney Park Costume Guidelines
At all other times the official Walt Disney World policy on adult costumes or clothing is that anything viewed as representing an actual Disney character is NOT allowed to be worn in the theme parks. But for the party Disney encourages everyone to dress up.
Costumes Should be child-friendly
Costumes Should Not:
- Be obstructive, offensive or violent.
- Drag on the ground.
- Contain sharp objects, pointed objects or materials that may accidentally strike another Guest.
- Contain any weapons which resemble or could easily be mistaken for an actual weapon.
- Layered or have props that surround the entire body (may be subject to additional security screening)
- Capes that go below the waist.
- Include masks (masks may be worn by guests under the age of 13, but they must not obstruct vision and eyes must be visible at all times.)
Guests wearing costumes may not pose for pictures or sign autographs for other Guests
Disney reserves the right to deny admission to or remove any person wearing attire that is considered inappropriate or attire that could detract from the experience of other Guests.
Option 1: Off the Rack Costumes
At these events you are going to see a lot of princesses and pirates. Many of the outfits come straight from the Disney store or the Disney Store Outlet.
These are easy costumes that you can find on property or at the local outlets. They will also have all of the accessories you may need. You can also try the Disney Store online.
If you are on property you may also want to schedule a trip to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for your princess or The Pirates League for your little pirate. This will make it extra special and who doesn’t want their hair and makeup to match their costume.
My friend Lisa of Adventures in Familyhood is leveraged a store bought costume and added her own touches. Now don’t you think that is the cutest Peter Pan ever!
Option 2: Homemade Costumes
Many kids come in homemade costumes. Everything from Big Hero Six to a Disneyland Churro. It’s all in fun and the more creative the better.
My son, John, chose to go as characters from his favorite movie (at the time), Ratatouille one year. It was quite an easy costume. The Luigi outfit was created from a chef’s hat, apron and coat from Amazon (Hint: the real kids apron cost less than the costume one). Then we added a stuffed Remy. Voila! Luigi it was.
Another year it was a Disney Railroad Conductor. A pair of overalls, a safety lantern and a conductor hat is all you need.
One of the more creative ideas was to take a whole bunch of spare boxes and create my own TestTrack car. It really isn’t as hard as you think. Just a bit of patience and a lot of hot glue (turns out duct tape is not great for making cardboard box cards).
Option 3: Matching costumes
Families have the most fun as they can choose matching outfits.
My favorite example of this is Beth of Pursuing the Magic. Her family went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party as the cast of Toy Story. Even her husband got into the spirit!!
Another friend of mine, Becca of Love Our Crazy Life, shares some of her favorite Father-Son costumes.
Lin of The Disney Mamas shares her Father-Son costume idea of being Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Phineas and Isabelle from Phineas and Ferb (photo credit: Rolling With the Magic)
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I can’t wait to go to the party next month. I’m going to reuse my Mom’s costume from a couple of years ago and go as Mrs. Potato Head
Oh my gosh – I cannot wait to see pictures of your little Chef with Remy. How cute will that be?!
Love the costumes and can’t wait to see this years! I love all of the Disney parks and am planning a trip soon. Not for Halloween, but soon!
I love the idea for his costume! He is going to look so cute. 🙂
I wish I lived closer to Disney so we could go for the Halloween festivities! We went over Spring Break and I am going through Disney withdrawal LOL. I am a new reader and am so glad to have found you. I am currently working on a Disney scrapbook, so I will have to look back through your archives.
Welcom!! Always happy to meet another memory preservationist. Looks like I need to go visit your site too.
This is an awesome post! Great information about the party, costume ideas and how to find costume ideas. I love it! I also love your ideas for the cooking theme! So creative. Can’t wait to see pictures!
This is a great post. I still have to find costumes for my two older boys.
I had not thought of checking Pinterest for costume ideas. Great idea for those Halloween parties.
Very cute costumes, and I can totally see your husband as the Swedish Chef!
I wish we were able to go! It must be so much fun.
Me too!! It’s killing me that they are going without me.
Believe it or not I’ve never been to Disney! Love the pics! Can’t wait to see the new outfits!
Say it isn’t so! It is a magical place to go as a family. Hopefully if you hang around here long enough you will get the bug.
Disney seems to have a knack for finding fun things for families to do at their parks. It is good that they work so hard to make sure guests have a good time while visiting.
So true. And I love that they work for all ages. No one is left out.
What a great post! One other reason besides sell-outs to get tix early–form many (though not all) MNSSHP nights, it’s a little cheaper to buy in advance rather than at the gate…
Good point. And you may also luck into an Annual Pass or DVC discount too.
One year our family went with the Peter Pan theme: 18 month grandson as Pan, his 3yr old sis as Tink, parents, uncle, grandparents as pirates. When they were older, we did High School Musical. Kids as basketball player and cheerleader, adults all with tee shirts with basketball w Mickey ears logo on front and MNSSHP and year on back. That was a huge success with cast members!
Those are some GREAT ideas. Love the parents of the High School Musical shirts. Hope you took many photo!
These are great costume ideas! I think my kids would want to go as some of the Super Heroes!
How cute?! I much prefer seeing little kids in fun costumes versus scary ones. I love the idea of a not so scary Halloween party too.
We would go as princess of course…:-)This sure sounds like such a fun even for all ages, I’m only an hour from Disney but never spend Halloween there.. sooo need to change it this year and join in on the fun
Love that your hubby will join in the fun with your son and dress up!! Very cool costumes….loved the pictures!! Hope they have fun at Disney!!
I have never been to Disney, but this looks super fun! My kids would actually appreciate a non scary party! Halloween scares them so this looks like it would be safe, and up their alley.
I don’t think your kids are alone at all! My son likes dressing up but would not appreciate a haunted house or things that jump out at him. I think of it as he want a Halloween to smile at not to scream.
how cute 😀 can’t wait to see pics~
Oh this sounds like so much fun! Totally love the family costumes, how festive and cute!
We LOVE Mickey’s not so scary halloween party! We always dress up with a Disney theme when we go, the kids love it and so do we. Thanks for the great tips!!
I hope I get to go some day, and the idea of theme dressing as a family is darling!
This is such a cute idea.. My 6 year old loves trick o treating but after we start she gets freaked out by the scary costumes. So she clutches anyone that is with her.. like she is going to die so I know she would love something that was not scary at all.. Thanks For Sharing
What cute options they have. Wish we would get to go to a party like this. You have fun with your family !
My daughter would love that! Hopefully we can make it to Disney someday.
Ah! You will have to post their picture!
Great tips Mary, It’s such a great party and I would love to dress up for it next time
We just went to Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland CA – we were the Mary Poppins cast! Mary/Bert/Jane/Michael/and a baby Penguin =)
Ok, that is just too cute. I love that movie and the Baby Penguin is a perfect addition. That was one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
I love the idea of using not-so-scary costumes. It’s a great option for the kids who might shy away from Halloween because of all the scary stuff. It’s easy to forget that some kids feel that way!
Looks like everyone had a wonderful time at Disney World! What fun!!
Love these costumes! So cute!
Love all these ideas! Last year I went as a Fireside Girl from Phineas and Ferb. It was fun to watch some people totally get it and some people have no clue and try and guess what I was (the closest I got from someone who didn’t know was that I was a girl version of Russel from Up… which wasn’t too far off).
BibbidiBobbidiBooze I love those costumes that get people thinking. If you have a photo I would love for you to post it here. 🙂
I saw above that you mentioned any adult costumes portraying actual Disney characters are not aloud. I was hoping to be Rapunzel, and I saw that you went as Jessie and your husband went as Buzz. I would hate to show up and be kicked out or embarrassed. What are your thoughts on this?? Also, do a lot of adults dress up?
SavannahMcGee Savannah – normally adults are not allowed to wear costumes. The Halloween party and Star Wars weekends are the exceptions to this rule.
And do not worry about being embarrassed. There will be tons of adults dressed up and many of them will be over the top. So dress up if you go and have fun!
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matching costumes are the best to pick for my family, my daughter, and I love to wear the same dresses always 🙂 thanks for the nice sharing