Photos and Review! Is Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Wonderfully Wicked…Or A Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Mishap?
Aight, y’all — hide your puppies, ’cause Ms. Cruella reigns supreme at a NEW event debuting this year at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party!
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
Welcome to Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way, a super-special event taking place each night of MNSSHP, where guests indulge in unlimited eats and treats as well as alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, get VIP viewing for the Boo to You Parade, AND get to hob-nob with Cruella herself!
Today, we had the opportunity to check out this event for the very first time, so follow along with us to see if it’s worth spending your moolah AND your precious MNSSHP time on.
This event kicks off at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant each party night at 9:30 PM. And much like Tony’s Most Merriest Town Square Party — which you can read our review of here from last year’s Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party — this extra-ticket event allows guests to come and go at their leisure from 9:30 PM-12:30 AM on the designated party night, noshing and sipping when they’re not watching the Boo to You Parade from a VIP vantage point.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
The exterior of Tony’s is decorated with a few pieces of fall decor as is the case with most Main Street USA edifices.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-A-Way
We showed off our bands before gettin’ the party started.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-A-Way
Tables have satin red runners and a centerpiece filled with black and white feathers.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
It wasn’t too over the top, but it did evoke Cruella.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
And the rooms also felt a bit more transformed and spooktacular thanks to the red uplighting.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
The event is filled with a bunch of sweet and savory eats, and there are both hot and cold food options (we’ll go through them all for you in a bit). Everything is served buffet style, so you can nosh on your own schedule.
This broad buffet table offers antipasti, crudite, breads, meats and cheeses, and other appetizer options. It’s a good start, but don’t fill up too much here — there are more substantial hot food options that you need to try.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
Alcohol and beverages are included with your Cruella ticket, and there are two bars available to guests. One is located on the right as you walk into the restaurant, and the other is located in the enclosed porch area.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
The drink options included sodas, beers, and wines. The last call for alcohol came at 12:15 AM.
A bar with freshly brewed Joffrey’s coffee is also set up in the main dining room.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
Talk about a midnight pick-me-up, right?!
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
We kicked off the evening with a taste from the Witches Cauldron. The options included some super yummy Butternut Squash Ravioli, Fried Mozzarella, assorted Halloween Flatbreads, and more!
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
The Fried Mozzarella is hand-breaded and served with marinara sauce.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
By far our fav food item of the night, the Butternut Squash Ravioli is mezzaluna ravioli with brown butter sauce, hazelnuts, crispy capicola, parmesan, and fresh sage. The flavors worked SO well together and we loved how the texture and ingredients complimented each other.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Butternut Squash Ravioli
We had the option of cheese and pepperoni flatbreads. These weren’t anything special. They were just meh. But they’d be a good option for those super picky eaters in your group.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Pizza Flatbreads
Another option is the Trio of Arancini. These fried rice balls were filled with braised beef, truffled mushroom, and fresh mozzarella. This was another one of our FAVORITES. They were warm and super yummy. They were also quick to eat, which is nice when you’ve spent cash money on a ticket for the MNSSHP party itself…and you’re trying to get your money’s worth from the hide-a-way event!
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Trio of Arancini
And here are the ever-so-eerie Goblin Bites. These are mini meatballs on skewers. Good, but not Earth-shattering.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Goblin Bites
Now let’s explore the wickedly sweet dessert options.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Desserts
One of our favorites (getting points primarily for style) were the Dalmatian Chocolate-dipped Strawberries. Not only are they adorable, but the fruit was fresh and flavorful.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Dalmatian Chocolate-dipped Strawberries
You can also get yourself some of the Cruella Brownie Bites. Is it just me or does the icing look just like Cruella’s iconic hair? These were rich, but the flavors weren’t overpowering. Another great dessert option. But parents beware!! The icing will probably stain mouths, teeth, and hands as well as clothing.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Cruella’s Brownie Bites
Another dessert option were the Cannolis. Sadly, we weren’t too blown away by these. I think our reviewer’s exact words were “the cannoli would be insulting to anyone Italian.” Ouch. To put it nicely, the texture wasn’t authentic and the taste was bland.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Cannolis
And what would a Cruella party be without Kanine Krunchies? These are a spiced shortbread topped with every basic witch’s dream — pumpkin buttercream!
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way Kanine Krunchies
We also spotted some tiny Red Velvet Cheesecakes, and a fun Cruella-themed pushpop decorated with the villains iconic red shoe done in chocolate.
And guess who was lurking at the back of the restaurant? Well, none other than Cruella herself!
Hi Cruella!!
She was available throughout the night for autographs and selfies.
The hide-a-way was pretty crowded and the Cast Members did struggle to keep some of the food stocked. Mind you, this is the first night of the event…EVER! But knowing that this event is basically a carbon copy (sans themeing) of the Tony’s party during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party last year, they should have the blueprint pretty well sorted out by now.
Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way
Guests attending Cruella’s Hide-a-Way also have access to a reserved viewing area for “Mickey’s Boo-To-You” Halloween Parade. This viewing kicks off at 11:15 PM (it’s for the second parade of the night) and guests are welcome to keep coming and going to and from the Hide-a-Way until 12:30 AM — 30 minutes after the party officially ends.
Boo-To-You
The event is $99 per person and reservations for Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way are available online or by calling (407) 939-3463.
Is Cruella’s Halloween Hide-A-Way Worth It?
OK, let’s recap: you’ve already paid nearly $100 for your Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party ticket. MNSSHP already offers more entertainment, events, rides, food, character meet and greets, and activities than anyone can feasibly pack into 5 hours; yet Disney’s suggesting you spend another $100 to dedicate some of your limited MNSSHP time at a cocktail party?
It doesn’t reeeeeally make sense on the surface, so let’s dig into what the rationale might be for actually doing it. If the food had been amazing, we might recommend it a little more heartily; but while the food was fresh and respectable, it wasn’t something that merited paying this much money to NOT be at the Halloween party we already paid for. Now, Cruella herself is pretty cool. But not 100 extra dollars cool. Plus her line was super long most of the night. The VIP parade viewing? Very nice. But, let’s be honest — if you’re going to wait out the crowds until the second parade at MNSSHP, it’s pretty easy to get a good view (most people — especially families with small children — watch the first parade, the fireworks, and then leave…which means great vantage points for the second parade are pretty easy to find). The extra 30 minutes to nosh and drink after the party is officially over? Also a benefit. But last call for alcohol was at 12:15, and if you’ve waited until the very end of the night to eat the buffet food…well…you know you’re getting the leftovers since cast members aren’t bringing out fresh pans of eats at midnight when most of the guests have already gone.
Soooo…we still can’t really figure out how the finances balance when it comes to booking these types of events, so your reasoning needs to be something that doesn’t have to do with making the party “worth it” in terms of cost. Maybe you love Cruella. Maybe you enjoy having a nice, air-conditioned spot to come back to throughout the evening where you can have a quick beer or glass of wine before heading back for more trick or treating. One of our reviewers remarked that she’d been to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party several times in the past, and didn’t really need to do *everything.* So having the opportunity to have a meal, meet a villain, and get VIP parade viewing could be worth the money if you thought about it from that perspective. And that’s up to you to figure out — what’s right for YOU and your family. And we hope we’ve shown you enough to help you decide.
Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ
Are you planning to have a wickedly good time at Cruella’s Halloween Hide-a-Way this year? Let us know about your spooky plans in the comments below!
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