I went to the (sold out) party on 9/24. It felt very crowded trying to walk around, until after the fireworks when thousands of people left. My goals were to meet J&S with minimal wait time once they came out, to meet Belle & Gaston, to see the entertainment, ride thunder mountain after dark, and to meet whoever had short lines after the fireworks, preferably Donald, Daisy, and Cruella. We are passholders, so rides are not important- that would be a waste of our time.
3:20- in car and realize there is no way I will be at the gate by 3:40. Our driving route from our Disney Springs hotel takes us right by the Lost and Found building, so mom pulls in and I hop out to walk. This turns out to be an excellent decision as I make it to the gate fairly quickly but it is almost an hour before mom walks in the gate due to a backup in the parking lot and a very long delay before the ferryboat left.
3:50ish- use AP line to get in park, walk through train tunnel and around to the other side to get a wristband. Can't just cut across as there are ropes. Friendly CM scans my ticket, I get a wristband.
4:00- arrive at
J&S line which has formed in the shade. I am far from being the first like I wanted but there are not too many people. I guess a 20-30mn wait once they are out based on much experience meeting characters over the years. CM's come out and change the direction of the line to go towards the bridge but we are still in the shade. A few minutes later they set up the ropes, we all have to move, and now I am in the sun. Drat. Let the sweating begin. The fairly pleasant weather we had the past few days has vanished and it is back to hot and humid. I text mom to drop off the fan while she enjoys air conditioned activities. Note, anyone wanting to see the
Tiki Room before the party may have trouble- the sign said it closed at six but it was already closed around 5:30 when mom attempted to see it. Later that night I talk to someone else who got in line for J&S at 4:20 and waited two hours.
5:01- J&S walk out to cheers. The line moves painstakingly slow for the next twenty minutes, then gets a bit faster. I am close to the front when a break is announced at 5:40; they leave at 5:44. I was chatting with other people and didn't see them come back. When I realized they were back and checked the time, it was 5:48. I think the mayor cancelled the meeting the second they were offstage and they turned right around and came back immediately.
The line seems to move quickly now and I walk out done at 5:54. Sally established I was from Birthdayland and we decided Jack would try to talk to Santy Claws to bring snow over there. It was a very fun interaction.
5:54- We walk to the bypass because I skipped it earlier. We wait about five minutes to get a picture with the photo frame. Then we wander around trying to find an open quick service with a short line for dinner. No such thing seems to exist. Since it is a sold-out party and it is now
6:20, I am certain a line must be forming for
Belle and Gaston. I do not want to wait in long lines during the actual party. I decide to abandon mom and head over there.
6:25- arrive at the tavern and wander around trying to figure out if I am in the right place as I see no line. I ask some people standing around and no one is waiting for them. Is it the same place as during the day? The ropes set up extend past the photo spot. I find some pictures online that show it being the same place. Two other people show up also trying to figure it out. We decide it is the same place and start a line. No one else comes until at least 6:35, maybe a few minutes later. Mom finds me, ridiculously overpriced smoothie in hand, and I go get a slightly less overpriced stuffed pretzel in the tavern with little wait. By 7:00 the line doubles back and goes past the gift shop entrance. Maybe this is why the ropes go so far back?
7:01- Belle comes out. Moment of suspense wondering if Gaston is late; he shows up 30 seconds later, much to Belle's displeasure. I kind of wish I was fourth or fifth in line instead of second so I can watch them interact. Oh well. It was a fun m&g. I want a shot of just me reading a book ignoring Gaston, which Belle was gracious about. Gaston says the book says Belle will marry Gaston. I questioned his ability to read and he admitted to making stuff up.
We head over to Frontierland to watch the
7:15 Cadaver Dans performance, which ought to be called Cowboy Cadaver Dans. I go to the spot marked on the app in front of the Trading Post, which turns out to be wrong. It was further down, in front of the last building before you hit the gap before Country Bears. I dash over there and about five minutes in after people leave, manage to get a front row standing spot. They were great, but the only Halloween song was the Boo to You song. I was really hoping for the HM song or something from Nightmare. This is a Halloween party after all. They finish at 7:30. I think it is much better at
Disneyland, which I've managed to go to once- better costumes, better staging, better song choices, no cowboy jokes. If you've seen the Disneyland version, you may be a bit disappointed.
7:30- walk over to
HM not to ride, but to enjoy the presence of the ghosts on the lawn. It is crowded but there is room on the far left, so we make our way over there. When we arrive, the butler and one madame are out. The madame leaves after a few minutes but the butler stays. He is a lot of fun. A lot of people left when the madame did. The other madame comes out about ten minutes later. We leave at 7:55. On our way out, we ask a CM how long the ghosts will be out. He says until midnight.
8:00- arrive at castle for the 8:15
Hocus Pocus show. It seems like everyone else has the same idea. We did not expect or want to stand up front, but there is nearly nowhere to stand without walking to the back of the hub. We opt to stand at the edge of the structure with the water fountains on the left side. We can't see the left side of the stage. Still better than wasting 30mn or more of a five hour event to secure a better spot. We have never seen Hocus Pocus. Mom likes it; I thought it was pretty boring except for the Oogie Boogie song.
8:35? I didn't look at the time but the show is supposed to be 20 minutes long. Mom heads to Frontierland for a
parade spot. She gets a great one just past the last popcorn stand before you hit Splash Mountain, close to the bridge so we can dash out afterwards. She is in the second row and everyone in front of her is sitting. I head to Aloha Isle to get the HM dessert.
8:42- arrive at
Aloha Isle. I reached the front at 8:50. I am shocked at how tiny the dessert is when they bring it out. It is actually a good size for one person, but the price ought to be about three dollars. It makes the huge $5.99 Darth Vader cupcake seem like a deal- and I won't even buy that at full price. It is maybe two inches wide, slightly less tall, and about five inches long. Luckily for me, Mickey decides to give it to me for free for my birthday. It was very good though.
8:55?- I find mom and due to people shifting and some spilled milk, there is now room for me to stand (but not sit due to said milk) at the front.
9:10- The horseman has not come. We are thinking he won't at this point when the CM start clearing the path. The music starts and to my dismay, everybody stands up and rushes to the rope. No one has any sense of personal space or courtesy. To my right, a lady has some long souvenir sticking out of her bag and it keeps hitting me. She leans far over the rope with her huge ipad, blocking my view. The next person over leans over a little less far with her phone. For the entire parade. I have about two inches between me and the person on my left, and at times zero inches between me and the person behind me. This is ridiculous. The parade is excellent of course. The only disappointment is the shovel guys march right past us.
After the parade we go to
thunder mountain. It says ten minutes but it is a walk on. We are among the first to arrive after the parade. By the time we get off, it says fifteen minutes and probably is as people were still pouring into the line. We slowly make our way to the hub for fireworks. On the way we hit our first ToT stations, at SM, Pirates, the Tiki Room, and Jungle Cruise. SM gives us about three pieces. It was not worth the long walk. None of the lines took more than a few minutes.
Just after
9:55 we arrive at the sidewalk just after Casey's. Plenty of room. Excellent view. Some fireworks on the left are blocked by a tree but there are so many trees and other tall objects there aren't many places with a perfect view. Turns out we are right next to a speaker.
10:35- arrive in the
Circus area and check the character lines out. Donald and Daisy looks like an hour. Minnie is not much better. But hey, Goofy has hardly anybody. We get in line at 10:38. I leave to check on Cruella and get water. Cruella is not there at the moment and her line is fairly long too. I rejoin mom and to my surprise, we are third from the front. We finish with Goofy at 10:50.
10:51- Minnies line is looking much better and we join it. She takes a candy break for literally a minute and comes back out. How did she eat that quickly? We are done at 11:05.
11:05- check on Cruella again. It is still long, but not as long as it was. I'm debating whether it is worth it and how long it really is and decide to get in line and see how it moves. We walk past the CM on the steps make it down all the stairs and a little farther before he stops chatting with another CM and stops us. Cruella's line is closed. Maybe he should have stopped us before we walked past him. Though, if it's closed, it must be a slow moving line as it didn't look like a 55 minute line. We would have been leaving after realizing how slow it was anyways.
11:12- arrive at
Eric and Ariel's line. Three groups in front of us. It is at the cartographers. Apparently the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and getting Ariel wet. She didn't want to turn into a mermaid and they had moved. A break for Ariel and Eric is announced. A fifteen minute break, not a switch off like the other characters. We make a comment about how long that is and the CM says that is nothing compared to the hour and a half break earlier. We hope to get through before the break; no one is behind us. But no, they leave at promptly 11:15. Eric is very quiet. Are we sure he is a talking character? Ariel recommends I have seaweed cake next for my birthday. They kindly posed for a photo alone at my moms request.
11:15- We walk over to get the
skeleton shot. Done at 11:20.
11:21- Return to
Ariel and Eric. Nobody is there except the two people who were in front of us when we left. A few minutes later a line starts forming. They return at 11:32. We finish a few minutes later. We stop in Pinocchio for candy and then go to the
HM to watch the ghosts.
11:45- We arrive and no one is there. We tell the CM we were told they would be there until midnight and ask if they're coming back. He looks at the time and assures us they are. We wait around for a few minutes and no one shows up. We doubt they would come out at this point for so little time, so we leave slightly disappointed. We wait five minutes for a magic shot on Main Street. I really want a headless horseman shot, but all the lines look to be fifteen minutes long so we leave. We take the ferryboat and have no wait to catch a tram, though a monorail arrives and the line behind us extends past the rails. Getting out of the parking lot is a nightmare. It turned out there was terrible wreck by the gas station, with only one lane open for a short space. It cleared up after that.
I really wish my work schedule had allowed me to attend one of the slow parties right after the hurricane. It was a lot of fun, but it is frustrating to have such long lines for party exclusive things. Who wants to wait more than twenty minutes for anything during a five hour event? You won't get much done if you do. We observed a very long line for the popcorn bucket in Liberty Square at 7:30.
Monday we went to Epcot. Just before 4:30 we were walking over the bridge near the International Gateway and who do we see waaay down there close to the park entrance? Ariel and Eric. New friends that were practicing for the parties perhaps? There was a short line.
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