by Beth Keating
News
DisneyBizJournal.com
September 25, 2023
When you think of holiday entertainment at Disney Springs, you probably think of the Christmas Tree Stroll that decorates the shopping and dining complex during the December holidays.
But the Springs is getting festive a little early this year, with some fun Halloween entertainment as well. This year, you might be surprised by the “Skeleton Stiltwalkers” roaming the sidewalks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from September 29 to October 29, 2023. Look for them with their pumpkins, skeletons, bats, tricks and treats around the Disney Springs Town Center zone.
Disney Springs always has some fabulous live music for guests to enjoy, either while you are strolling with an ice cream, or sitting on a bench enjoying dinner. During the Halloween season (also on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from September 29 to October 29), you’ll be treated to some special tunes courtesy of the Zombeats, a 4-piece zombie ensemble, complete with zombie percussionists stumbling their way around Disney Springs. Join them for an eerie dance party!
Zombies not your thing? Perhaps you’d prefer the more ghostly a capella performances of “Squad Ghouls.” They’ll be haunting the Waterside Stage (near World of Disney) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from September 29 to October 29, 2023, as well.
If you have your whole group with you, and would like to have a more tangible memory of your trip to Disney Springs, you can pop in to the Disney Springs PhotoPass Studio for their Halloween-themed photo backdrops. You’ll get a free professional portrait session with a Disney PhotoPass photographer—no reservations required — and you can add the pictures either to your Memory Maker account, or pay for prints individually. (We hear rumors that there are some “hauntingly” cool backdrops of a certain spooky “mansion” available.)
Obviously, it’s Disney Springs, so you can shop ‘till you drop for Halloween merchandise, but if you are looking for a seasonal treat to enjoy while listening to the Squad Ghouls, head to Amorette’s Patisserie, where you’ll find lots of thematically appropriate goodies, such as the Oogie Boogie cookies & cream cream puff; the Jack Skellington pumpkin cream éclair; or the Sally caramel-chocolate éclair.
For more sugary goodness, Swirls on the Water boasts a Pumpkin and salted-caramel soft-serve with caramel sauce and caramel crisp pearls that is also available as a trio flight with other Dole Whip flavors. The pistachio and purple cheesecake soft-serve ice cream that is part of the trio is also available swirled in a black vanilla cone, and topped with a hitchhiking ghosts chocolate medallion, as the “Haunted Mansion Cone.”
Marketplace Snacks will be serving the “Minnie Witch Waffle Sundae,” a bubble waffle filled with chocolate soft-serve, orange sauce, chocolate cream cookies, candy corn and chocolate sticks.
The Ganachery has some higher end treats as well – you may need to take a few of them home to finish! They have the Jack Skellington Ganache, made with grand cru medium-roasted, custom-blend chocolate; and the Poison Apple Ganache Square, featuring sour-apple ganache enrobed in 65% dark chocolate. But without a doubt, at their location, the Donald Candy Corn Chocolate Piñata, a white-chocolate piñata filled with pumpkin-spiced marshmallows and crisp pearls, is the height of Halloween treats!
Parking is free at Disney Springs, and it does get very busy on weekends, so be sure to leave enough time to find a spot in the parking garages, clear security, and make it to your dining reservations, or to your chosen entertainment venue, with room to spare. You might just get side-tracked along the way by the ghoulish entertainment!
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
