Upon entering the park all guests receive a plastic treat bag and a special "Mickey's Halloween Treat" guide map. There is plenty of candy at the Treat Stops, which includes things like miniature Twix and Snickers bars, lollipops, Laffy Taffy, Now&Later, and Tootsie Rolls. Retail-sized (two ounce) bags of Kissables are available at several locations. Each treat station also offers an alternative to candy, such as small bags of apple slices or baby carrots, boxes or raisins, or fruit leather. The treat stops have fairly long lines early, but after about two hours they are shorter. There are even more treat carts along the Treat Trails.

All of the park is accessible, with most attractions operating, though none of the shows are running. The available dining options are Baker's Field Bakery, Taste Pilot's Grill, Award Wieners, Cocina Cucamonga, Burger Invasion, and Pizza Oom Mow Mow. A number of popcorn, cotton candy, and drink carts are also open.

There are several "formal" character greeting areas throughout the park, with a backdrop and a Disney PhotoPass photographer, and in addition there are a lot of characters, many dressed in their own Halloween costumes, just walking around. PhotoPass photographers are also available in several areas throughout the park to photograph guests.

Mickey and Minnie - Paradise Bay Park

Disney characters in pirate attire - Pirate's Wharf

Villains - Golden Screams Theater

Princesses - Paradise Pier outside Ariel's Grotto

Jojo's Circus - Hollywood Blvd.

There are Halloween decorations all over the park - starting with the ghost lamps and large pumpkins at the Golden Gate bridge. Living scarecrows "hang around" and interact with guests near "a bug's land". Watch the sidewalks - images of pumpkins, bats, and ghosts are projected and revolve around. Giant spider webs are projected on the sides of buildings, the Orange Stinger, and even on the summit of Grizzly Peak.

New this year, the pirates have taken over the Pacific Wharf area, transforming it into Pirate's Wharf. The area has been pretty elaborately decorated with pirate treasure and the skeletal pirates who are guarding it. There are pirate-themed games with special prizes available, as well as a craft area where Peter and Wendy often are out interacting with the kids.

Most of the Boardwalk Games are operating, and there is no charge to play! Everyone receives a special kind of candy, available only at the games, for playing.

DJs play a variety of Halloween and dance music at the stages at Candy Corn Acres, the Hollywood "Bat-lot" Bash, and Pirate's Wharf. There are usually several characters at each location dancing themselves. Throughout the rest of the park a soundtrack of spooky-but-fun music is playing, with selections like Grim Grinning Ghosts, Heffalumps and Woozles, Pink Elephants on Parade, This is Halloween, and Monster Mash.

The new Mickey's Trick or Treat on the Street procession starts at Paradise Pier an hour before the party ends. There are "sign floats" at the beginning and the end, two large moving jack-o-lanterns and the central float with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto in their Halloween costumes. There are three performance stops - one at the Golden Screams Theater, one in front of "a bug's land", and one at Candy Corn Acres, where Mickey, Minnie and Goofy perform some Halloween-themed music, and the other Disney characters in the procession as well as the costumed Cast Members invite kids out of the audience to participate. Kids receive a Mickey's Halloween Treat button.