We decided to have a chilled out start to the day for the first time this trip, in preparation for the Halloween party tonight. We began with Boma breakfast which my parents joined me for. I know most people love it, and I get why because the food choice is great and always fresh, but whenever we go the queues are big meaning we rarely sit down together as one or the other of us is in a queue. I am not a big breakfast fan either, so have to force myself to eat as I’m not paying $35 for nothing, so ended up eating my body weight in plantain, asparagus, ham and bread pudding (which is the stuff of dreams) and having tummy ache for an hour afterwards!! Everyone enjoyed it though, and it definitely set us up for the day. We then went to the pool for a few hours. We haven’t properly relaxed by the pool since the Grand Floridian, and only did one morning there, so it was nice to not walk in to a crazy, busy situation where the water was like a warm bath!
Around 12.30 we decided to head inside and have a bit of a slow get ready for the party. It’s a good job as shortly after they closed the pool for a storm which lasted most of the afternoon. This year, we decided to reuse our RunDisney costumes for the party as it always seems a shame to only wear them once, so were dressing as Carousel of Progress characters. I’d lengthened the girls’ skirts and opted for shorts instead of a running skirt for myself, but everything else was the same which meant it was an easy costume.
The plan was originally to go into the park earlier than 4 to do a few rides and avoid the massive queue to get into the party that we stood baking in last year, but the weather didn’t let up at all until around 3.30 so we set off then. When we arrived we asked if we could go in the regular (empty) turnstile rather than the queue which snaked around the entrance area, and were told we could as long as we had a valid ticket and park reservation, so that’s what we did. We then went to pick up our party wristbands and bags in Tomorrowland which had a shorter queue that moved quickly.
We spent the time before the party officially started having some food, riding Carousel of Progress, Small World and Mine Train and using the map to plan the evening. We also grabbed a virtual queue for Tron at 6pm and decided if it was dark when we were called we’d ride, but if not, we wouldn’t as we didn’t want to take out party time doing something we could do on a regular day.
At 6 they started to clear the park which is always a seamless and very impressive thing to watch, and the Trick or Treat stations opened before 7. Last year we chose to queue for Pooh and friends at the start of the party, and felt like we practically went straight from that into the parade: shows etc with little time for anything else, so this year we decided to leave characters until after the parade (we all agreed that we were happy to sacrifice fireworks as we saw them last year and knew we wouldn’t fit everything in before the girls flagged. I know a lot of people push through and stay the whole night, but all children are different, and one excessively late night can affect our two for literally weeks which would have a massive affect on the reminder of the trip). We started with a few Trick or Treat stations before riding Haunted Mansion.
We then went to the Zombeat dance party (which was light on zombies but heavy on cheerleaders that looked almost as old as me), and got some photos taken on Main Street.
One photographer was in hysterics and loved getting Steve to kneel down so he looked as though he was actually sitting in a bath. I’m so glad that bath got another outing and brought so many smiles to people’s faces as it nearly got thrown through the window on more than one occasion when I was working out how to make it in a way that could actually be transported 3 days before Christmas when I felt more poorly than I can ever remember feeling! We had so many people laugh when they saw us (especially at the bath) and even got asked if people could photograph us (which is about as close to celebrity status as I’ll get!)
It was going dark and just within our Tron window, but riding would have meant missing the 8.35 Hocus Pocus Stage show, so we decided to do that instead and found a great spot to watch which we were glad about as it was really good. After that we headed to Main Street to find a parade spot. It wasn’t long before the headless horseman appeared and the parade was soon after. There were lots of changes this year including Minnie, Daisy and Clarabelle as the Sanderson sisters which we loved.
We then decided to head for Storybook Circus to see what the queue was like for the Seven Dwarves. It had shown between 1 and 2 hours all night, but as lots of people stay put after the parade to watch the fireworks we thought it would likely be our best chance, and if the queue was too big we’d decided to do Mickey instead. We didn’t rush there, and did a few trick or treat stations on the way (the girls’ bags were so full that they got given another!) and when we got to Pete’s Sideshow were surprised to find it was only a 15 minute queue (although it still showed 60 minutes on the app). The regular line was actually shorter than the DAS return line (this year, as well as the rides, 3 character meets of Mickey, Jack & Sally and the Dwarves are also offered).
It was a really cute meet. Doc loved our costumes and kept cheering and Dopey stole my fam and kept holding over his face and the other dwarves’ faces too! As we left, the firework show was still happening so we got to watch the end (although Winnie was a bit scared as some were right over us at Storybook Circus!) if we’d headed straight to the meet, we would definitely have been out in time to watch the whole show.
We had done everything we wanted by this point, including the skeleton magic shot on Main Street, so decided to head out of the park. However, I noticed Mickey’s meet was showing as only 10 minutes, so we decided to hop in there and say goodbye. Mickey and the CM loved our costumes and said they made their night (we got stopped so many times by people who loved them, and even had some lovely ladies ask to take a photo to show their husbands!)
We were at the bus stop just after 11 and didn’t wait too long for a bus. After a stressful few minutes where we panicked we were going to set the smoke alarms off and cause a full hotel evacuation following a microwave incident, we were tucked up in bed by 12 after a fabulous evening. We felt like we got loads done and ticked everything off of our party list except snacks, which we weren’t desperate for and decided we didn’t want to take the time to queue for.
Oh, and popcorn bucket queues were huge throughout the night but seemed to move quickly (I didn’t get one as I don’t have room in the case for pants, never mind awkward shaped buckets, but that was my observation!!)
Tomorrow is our first real ‘wing-it completely’ day, and I’m so ready for it.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 