Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
First, a mea culpa: I did not take many pictures at the party and the ones I did have not turned out well at all. I was enjoying the time with my family and just wasn't thinking of pictures.
After returning from Epcot I assessed the damage in my hotel room and noticed that I was working on a pretty good sunburn/tan. It was
supposed to be overcast and threatening rain all day and then thunderstorms were predicted for the evening. I didn't get lathered up in the morning before heading out because I didn't think the sun would be a huge problem and didn't want the extra layer of lotion knowing that it was going to be hot regardless of the sun situation. I ended up being lucky since I worked pretty hard to give myself breaks throughout the morning/early afternoon either in the shade or indoors. Decided to take a shower to clean up and cool down before heading back out.
This time I did put on sunscreen. Thunderstorms were still predicted over 50% for the entire evening, but I was pretty close to a burn and didn't want to take chances. Headed out to MK at 2:50 and was at the park and in by 3:05. There was a big line already for people who were waiting for the Party. Because I currently have an AP I decided to head in and pick up my wristband in the park. My sister also has an AP, but my niece, nephew, and brother-in-law do not so they were still at their hotel after arriving in Orlando earlier in the day. They were planning on walking over from the Contemporary to be there at 4:00. Here are some of the decorations before entering Main Street USA:
I had made a FP+ for Space Ranger Spin and was able to pick up my wristband and treat bag just outside the entrance to the attraction. I headed back up front at that point to meet my family. It was soooooo hot. It was nice that most of the concessions had small cups of ice water available throughout the night and I took advantage every time I had the chance to make sure I stayed hydrated and as cool as possible. My family was able to get in at ~3:50 as it seems they opened the gates for party tickets early. I met up with them and we headed down the main street bypass and picked up more goody bags; well, more for me, the first for them. They had a FP+ for Peter Pan that I was unable to get because of the late planning on my trip. While they did that I walked through Memento Mori and then the gift shop near the exit to Peter Pan. My niece wanted to do It's a Small World next, so that's where we went. I'm not particularly a fan, but it doesn't show up in my fever dreams anymore so it was good to get out of the sun and I can't say no to my niece.
After that we went over to Haunted Mansion. It seemed like a good time to do HM because the party hadn't really started yet and it didn't have the, um, theme adjacent popularity line built up yet. Unfortunately, the attraction was having issues and went down while we were in line. The line still only took about 10 minutes. It was the kids' first time on HM and it didn't go super well. The ride broke down a few more times while we were on the ride and ended up taking more than 15 minutes. My nephew's car with my brother-in-law got stopped multiple times in the pitch black and we were right behind, once watching the dancing ghosts and then for a long time just next to the murderous bride. We eventually finished the attraction. No one in my family has ever really had an affinity for HM and I think the kids are right there with us after that experience.
My sister made a reservation for Skipper Canteen at 5:15 and we headed there next for dinner. With their travels the kids had not really eaten a good meal during the day and this was a chance for that and to get cooled off. It was good, I certainly can't complain with my meal, but I kind of had my mind set on a corn dog from Sleepy Hollow. Alas, I'll have to return some other time to achieve that goal. It was still before 6:30 when we came out of dinner. It was clear at this point that it was never going to rain. I'm not sure how interesting the play-by-play is, but I know it wouldn't work very well for our next three hours. We hit basically every ride in the park, starting with Big Thunder and winding back through Adventureland, New Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. Here are a couple pictures from that period:
My sister and niece took a short break while we were back in New Fantasyland to go see the Hocus Pocus show, but my nephew wanted to ride. They met us back in Tomorrowland. My niece is still too short for Space Mountain so she went on the PeopleMover with my brother-in-law while we were on Space Mountain. Obviously none of us have gone often enough to remember where all the cameras are. After we finished with Space Ranger Spin it was time for the first parade. In my planning I had planned on skipping the first parade and hitting the second so we could get more stuff done, but we had done pretty much everything so we went over to watch the parade. We found a spot in front of the Castle on the Tomorrowland side. Here are the terrible pictures I took:
There were a lot of lights in the background that were really affecting all of my pictures, the motion wasn't helping things either. It was an awesome parade and the only disappointment was that Vanellope's float was out of commission for this one. We had a great view of everything even if my pictures don't show it.
At this point the kids were pretty wiped. They had a long day of travel and this would have been very late for them even on a normal day. We headed back to get a Lefou's Brew for each of them before we left. I was a little bummed that we were leaving early, but we had done literally everything and I had also had a very long and eventful day. I think if I had just come down for MNSSHP, I would have stayed at the park and had more fun on my own, but I had an incredibly full day and it wouldn't have been the same without my family.
HalloWishes was just starting as we were walking out. Although I really want to see Happily Ever After, I'm not a huge fireworks person so it wasn't that tough to miss the show. The rest of the trip was uneventful, loaded onto DME at 10:15 the next morning and was back in Indiana at my house by 4:30. A short trip for sure, but it was still really amazing.
Thanks for reading along.
A few, quick wrap-up thoughts on MNSSHP:
-The lines for the attractions were incredibly short. Like, shockingly short in most cases. We waited for about 20 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but everything else was a walk-on. I'm sure those lines were a lot shorter during other times of the night as well. *I'm not sure what Peter Pan would have been if I tried at 4:00 when they had their FP+
-We each got about a pound of candy. I made a pretty conscious decision not to get a ton, but we stopped at most of the candy trails once. If you went with the intention of getting as much candy as possible you could probably get 10-15 pounds easily. Saw plenty of kids (10-14 age range) running around with pillowcases well on their way to being full (and we left a little after 10 PM)
-I'd seen videos of the Hocus Pocus show and had planned on going to the later viewing if we had stayed. I feel bad that I missed it, but I'm sure I would have rather been doing attractions.
-It is so empty in some places of the park during the Party that it almost feels as though you aren't supposed to be there. I found myself wondering whether things were closing more than once and it was hard not to feel awkward when so few people were there. (and, again, we left with 2 hours left in the party)
-I definitely want to go again and would recommend it to anyone. I got more done in that 7 hours than I have in most full days I've spent in MK.
-We weren't specifically looking for a lot of the Party-specific goodies, but I did notice that many of them seemed like they were sold out at the locations they were advertised. When we went to Gaston's Tavern after the first parade they no longer had any of the special pastries they were suppposed to have. More than a few disappointed people were hopping out of line around us.
Not sure what else to say. If anyone has any specific questions I can do my best to answer them.