When I was telling Christy about the trip she basically invited herself and Cali to come along, which was fine by me. I told her though that it wasn't going to be a Disney trip and that I just wanted to go one day. However, my mom planned a day at EPCOT and then Christy talked me into buying tickets to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party so it basically became a Disney trip for the time that she and Cali were going to be in Florida with us. All that Disney wore us out, but it was really fun. Like, really fun.
This was Vivi's first flight since getting home from China. I remember thinking after those flights in April that I wouldn't get on a plane with her ever again. But I know her a lot better now and I know how to comfort her. Plus it was the night flight and she just slept. Unfortunately, as soon as we took off I realized that I had left our Disney tickets at home! I hadn't even thought of them one time while packing. I was sick to my stomach and I called Brent as we were taking off. He couldn't call Disney at that time, but the wording on our tickets didn't sound promising. However, I just kept thinking that Disney would be able to take care of this. We couldn't be the first people to forget our tickets. So basically, even though my kids slept, I didn't sleep much because I was so worried. The flight went by faster than ever though and before I knew it we were landing at 5AM, so that was awesome. Christy, Cali, and my mom were on our flight as well. We would be going to the Magic Kingdom that afternoon so we hurried home to try and get as much sleep as possible. Thankfully I was able to call Disney before my nap and found out that since my tickets were logged in with my Disney account, all I had to do was show up with my ID and credit card. Phew. All that worrying for nothing.
I've known about the Halloween party for years. I've had a pretty bad attitude about it though. It does feel like just another way for Disney to get more money into the parks. Because tickets to the party? They are not cheap. My mom took Ashley and Ava years ago and they paid like $60, but when you get close to Halloween the tickets are around $100. So what changed my mind? Ah well, as you can imagine it wasn't really THAT hard, but what put me over the edge was that it has its own special fireworks show, and I am INTO those. We ramped up the festive feeling by buying all matching shirts, and then my mom surprised me and Stella with sold-out Minnie ears to wear. This was great since I had left our ears at home and all. We looked adorable as we headed to the park. The party started at 7, but they let us come in at 3. We got there a little early and were ready and so excited when they started letting us in! Wahoo, let the fun begin!
I love the parks when they are decorated for Halloween, and this was the first time I had seen the Magic Kingdom that way. I have to say that it isn't as impressively decorated as Disneyland, but still, it is pretty cute. So many people were dressed up for the party. I thought it was pretty clever all around. I didn't want to be worrying about ruining a costume while we were there, so the shirts worked out great for us. All the costumes add to the festive feeling though, and I am convinced it was one of the things that made the night so much more fun. After getting in, we went through some shops (you visit a lot of shops when you go with Christy), we got some pictures in front of the castle, and then we made our way over to use our fast passes on the Haunted Mansion. They do not do anything special for it like in California--it is just the regular ride and Stella enjoyed seeing the original. We had fast passes for the cars that you drive so we made our way over there. We stopped off and went on the Little Mermaid ride and met Ariel after. The line to meet her was really short--we only waited like 5 minutes. We were lucky and got in front of this girl who had given Ariel a present and it was really cute to watch Ariel play with it. So I told Cali to give Ariel one of her hair elastics. Ariel spent so much time being adorable while trying to figure out how to use the elastic.
After that we went over to the car ride. It is one of the rides that I didn't go on much as a kid, but I love taking Stella because she is a hilarious driver. The sun was coming down just so and it was a beautiful time at the park.
Of course, nothing is more annoying to me than being hungry on a night like this, but...we did get hungry. So we told the girls we were going to eat. Well, on the way we came across this dance party they have and of course I wanted to dance with the characters. The girls? They did not. They were both in want of food and water and just didn't appreciate the magic. It was good that I had Christy along with me so at least one person I was with would have fun with me! The sun was just so pretty and with all of the colors I was pretty annoyed that Stella wouldn't snap out of her mood for me for perfect pictures, but honestly you can't really tell she was in a bad mood. All I remember was how much fun it was. It was about that time that the park was closing, and the Halloween party was about to begin.
The Halloween party had officially begun. This was great, except it did mean that there weren't that many places open for dinner so it made the restaurant we had dinner at quite busy. However, after dinner the girls had a little more pep in their step. I had to give them credit--they were running on very little sleep. We were all very tired and those two had a glazed look in their eyes often during the night. It was A LOT to ask of them and the only time they acted even a little bit feisty was before dinner. There were a couple of times that I thought we might have asked too much of them, but they would always rally and get happy again.
As we got out of the restaurant, the Halloween Party was officially under way. They have stations throughout the park for trick or treating, and the first line we saw was quite long so we skipped it. We got really lucky with lines the whole night BTW--it was really amazing how much we were able to fit in. We made our way over to Big Thunder Mountain where we found a trick or treat station with no line and got our first candy and then we got in a very short line for the ride. It was awesome of course. We then found ourselves in a pretty short line for Pirates. With both of those rides, the lines were long when we got off of them.
They have many rare character sightings during the party. But one issue was that the lines for those characters were SO SLOW! We tried to wait in some and we weren't even moving. We got the most out of seeing the characters from afar and then just moving on to the next adventure. My favorite was when Jafar was leaving his station and was walking with us for a minute and I said: "Oooo, Jafar is so scary!" And he looked over at me and scared me! So fun, and I don't even really like Jafar. ;)
We made our way over to Space Mountain doing a little trick-or-treating along the way. We planned to go on it while there was a parade so the lines might be shorter. Stella was so nervous for Space Mountain. I can't believe she gets nervous after the rides she goes on at Lagoon, but I suppose there is something to be said about the unknown. Surprise, surprise: she loved it. Although she did say she had a headache after. I think that was a mix of the shaky ride and the fact that our bodies were shutting down from pure exhaustion. We still had two hours to go though and we weren't giving up yet!
We got a great spot to watch the parade and then as soon as it was over we rushed over to the Seven Dwarfs. We waited in line for less than 10 minutes! It was awesome. Once we got off of the ride the park was officially closed and deserted. It was actually very cool. However we were exhausted and still had a long way to go to get to our car and home.
We waited in a long line for the ferry, and then when we got to the trams we sat and waited for what felt like forever, but must have been only 20 minutes. However it was so frustrating because as we sat in our parking lot line the trams kept coming for people in the other lot. Then when it did finally get there we sat there forever. I'm sure we could have walked to our car faster, and then when we finally got out to it it was the ONLY car left in the huge lot! I was very annoyed with getting out of the park. All in all it took over an hour. The girls were asleep the second we got in the car, and we made it home safely and thankfully had nothing planned for the next day except rest.
Overall, if you ask me now I will tell you that this party was by far the most fun I have ever had at Disney. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it was just fun. Was it the delightful festive vibe? Was is the short lines? Was it how it was less crowded? Was it the special fireworks? Was it the trick or treating? I suppose it was a combo of all of these things along with being with Cali and Christy. The night wore us out, but man, was it ever worth it.
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