September 9, 2018

The day was finally here! The whole point of this trip, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP).  I've been wanting to attend this party since Rob and I first came to Disney World back in 2011.  It's what they call a "hard ticket event" so if you want to attend you need to buy a ticket specifically for the party, general admission doesn't apply.

The party is technically from 6-12, but here's a little tip.  You can get into the park starting at 4pm with your party ticket.  That's 2 extra hours, but they don't advertise that.  You can't get a FastPass+ once the party starts at 6, so the best strategy is to book FP+ from 4pm-6pm using your party ticket.  More about how that worked for us later! 

Before it was party time, Anne and I left the boys at SoG and we went on a monorail shopping hop.  Specifically, I was looking for Mickey ears to complete our family costumes.  What's a Halloween Party without matching costumes??  I knew from my research that people go all out for MNSSHP and I wanted to join in the fun!  Shopping with just the two girls was a real treat.  I love spending time with my kids individually so I can really listen to all the funny things they say.

Once we were back at SoG, we swam and ate lunch.  My kids never get tired of being in the pool.

About 1pm it was nap time.  We had warned the kids that if they wanted to stay up late and party, everyone was taking a nap.  It worked and we slept until about 2:30.  Then we got up and had a snack before getting dressed for the party.  We stopped at the Starbucks in the lobby for a little caffeine for the grown-ups.  Sufficiently fueled, we were ready to go!

We arrived at the gates of the Magic Kingdom at 3:30.  There were already about 100 people in line for the party, so we stood in the sweltering heat.  Seriously ya'll, it was hot.  There were probably another 200 people behind us in line at 4pm when the cast members opened the gates.  When you enter, the first thing you get is a wrist band.  This lets cast members inside know you are a party guest. At 6pm, they ask all day guests to leave, and you cannot ride the rides without a wrist band.  It is awesome.

Once you have your wrist band, they funnel you behind Main Street, away from the crowds of people leaving the park.  While you are behind Main Street, you are given a complimentary trick or treat bag.  Trick or treat is a big part of the party.  They have stations all over the park and once the party starts, its FREE CANDY TIME!!  The bag also comes pre-loaded with a bunch of candy.  You will see in some of my pictures that M&Ms are a party sponsor.  And it works! I had never tried the caramel M&Ms until we got them at the party, now I'm hooked!

We also stopped behind Main Street for a party photo-op in our costumes.  

Now it was time to ride some rides!! I had FP+ for Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Mine Train.  The next two hours were a blur of fun.  Here's a rundown of how it worked out.

4:15 Pirates of the Caribbean (no wait)
4:30 Splash Mountain with a FP+
4:50 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with a FP+
Popcorn break!
5:20 Haunted Mansion
5:30 Seven Dwarves Mine Train with a FP+
6:00 It's a Small World
Dinner Break, hot dogs from Friar Nooks
6:30 Barnstormer
6:45 Dumbo

Now here are a bunch of photos from the first half of the party!

At 7pm the party really gets going, the trick or treat stations are all open. First, we hit the one in New Fantasyland, then two in Tomorrowland.  While we were in Tomorrowland and had a blast dancing with the Monsters Inc. characters.

After shaking our groove thangs, we got in line for Buzz Lightyear, but then we got word it was broken.  That's ok, because our favorite ride in the park is right next door! Time for some people mover!

After our trip around Tomorrowland, Buzz was back online so we hopped right on! Unfortunately, when we got off the ride it was raining.  Like, really raining.  

It was 8pm and everything was shut down because of the rain.  All the rides, all the characters, and most of the trick or treat stations.  That's ok, because our treat bags were full anyway.  We hunkered down at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe and prayed that it would stop raining in time for the special parade and fireworks at 9pm.  Luckily our kids love to people watch as much as we do.

At 8:50, we made our way to Main Street and got an awesome spot for the parade.  I was really looking forward to the parade because it starts with the Headless Horseman galloping down Main Street.  I've seen video online and it is super cool.  Well, 9:00 came and went with no parade.  The kids were happy though, so that is all that matters.

Finally, a little after 9:30 the parade started.  Alas, no Headless Horseman.  Maybe he can't run in the rain?  The parade itself if pretty cool.  You can only see this one during MNSSHP, so it is definitely worth seeing once.  The parade ended about 9:45 and I took the kids to the bathroom while Rob looked for a spot for the fireworks.

Wanna know a secret?  I've never seen the fireworks at Disney!  Honestly, I hate fireworks and any other kind of loud noise.  I also hate crowds... and the Disney fireworks are crowded.  That was another big reason I wanted to try MNSSHP.  Since it is a hard ticket event, the crowds are a little lighter.  The rain also worked to our advantage and the crowd was very light.  Rob got us a spot right outside the hub with an unobstructed view.

I have to say, HalloWishes may have turned me into a lover of fireworks.  The show was awesome.  And the ending was indescribable.  Really, the fireworks are worth waiting in the rain for.  I'm glad we stayed.  The fireworks ended at 10:30.  It had been a really long day, so we called it a night, even though we could have stayed another hour and a half.  The kids were still in good spirits but as a mom I knew tired and overstimulated were lurking just around the corner. So we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom and hopped on the monorail.  I was expecting the monorail to have a really long line, but we were some of the few people leaving.  I guess now that the rain was over, most people were staying and hoping to ride the rides.  

The next day we woke up, had breakfast, packed and headed to the airport.  Leaving Disney is always sad, but it's easier knowing we will be back in the future!

Here are my final thoughts on the Halloween Party.  Did we enjoy it? Absolutely.  The kids loved the dance party and trick or treating.  Getting in at 4 to ride some rides was fun.  While the rain didn't ruin our party, it did put a huge damper on it (Hehe, rain.  Damper).  We didn't get to the other dance party and there were more rides we were unable to ride because of the weather.  

Bottomline, would we go again? Probably not.  I'm hopeful we can try the Christmas party in the future, but I doubt we will be back for the Halloween party again. When you weigh the cost vs the experience, I didn't see the value.  If it hadn't rained I would feel differently? Maybe.  We bought our tickets with the military discount, which is only offered in September.  Since it rains almost every day in September in Florida, that's not a risk I'm willing to take.  

I'm going to be honest here.  My original plan for this trip was two resort days, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, then another resort day, then fly home.  However, Rob had a trip the day after we got back, so we decided to slide our trip a day.  Since the Halloween party tickets are non-refundable, that couldn't change.  This left our schedule three resort days, Halloween party, fly home.  This was not the best plan for two reasons.  First, three resort days in a row are too many.  Second, flying home the morning after staying up late for the Halloween party was a bad idea.  The trip was still awesome, but I wouldn't do it this way again.  

And now, day three...

Day three was another beautiful, sunny day at Walt Disney World.  After a leisurely morning, we took the bus to Disney Springs, the area that used to be Downtown Disney.  I was generally ambivalent about Downtown Disney, but I wanted to see all the changes to Disney Springs.  Now that I've seen them I don't need to go to Disney Springs again for awhile. 

I'm not a huge shopper, and Disney Springs is a giant outdoor shopping mall.  I was interested in going to a few stores that we don't have conveniently located in KY, like Lilly Pulitzer.  But when we got to the Lilly store there was an HOUR WAIT to get in.  Seriously?  I know this is Disney and people like to stand in line, but waiting to shop? Ridiculous.  I also wanted to get a cupcake from the Sprinkles Cupcakes ATM, because, hello! buying a cupcake from an ATM! But we were there too early and the ATM was empty.  Bummer.

Another issue was the bus.  Shades of Green isn't a "Disney" resort, so they drop you off behind Disney Springs.  It isn't a pretty entrance, and you have to walk about half a mile before you get into anything worth seeing.  Not a huge deal, but it made us all grumpy.

Final complaint.  If I'm not a big shopper, my husband and kids were even less interested in shopping.  So they whined the whole time about being bored and "what's next?"  What I should have done is left them at the resort and gone by myself.  

We did have fun building race cars at the Lego Store.  Then we went into the World of Disney, which is this gigantic Disney Store.  Except it was still under construction, so only a quarter of it was open.  Yeah... not very impressed with Disney Springs.

The best part of our visit to DS was lunch.  We went to the Polite Pig for BBQ.  The food was good, Rob had a beer flight and I had a bourbon cocktail.  I highly recommend the Polite Pig!

You would think now, with full bellies, our day would improve.  Nope.  Our final stop was for dessert at Amorette's Patisserie.  This is a new French bakery/dessert shop and all the pictures I've seen online look amazing.  And you know the Schneiders love some French pastries. Oh, and I had seen photos of a champagne cocktail I was keen to try.  

Like all things on this day, dessert didn't go well.  I won't go into the details on other guests who were rude to us, but I will say the desserts themselves were fabulous but the soup would benefit from a better seating arrangement.  Oh, and the rude people had me so flustered I forgot to try my champagne with white chocolate Minnie Mouse ears on top.  

Our sweet tooth satiated, we hoofed it back across Disney Springs to catch the bus back to SoG, which only comes every hour on the half hour.  As we approached, I could see the bus in the parking space, so I sprinted towards it while Rob pushed the stroller.  We just made it!

We were back at SoG by 2pm, and the kids were dying to get into the pool.  I mean, they hadn't been in the pool in about 18 hours, that's practically child abuse.  Hehe.  

So not our best day ever, but a less than great day at Disney is better than a day at home!

And I had biiiig plans for Day Four.

While Day Two would eventually be one of the best days of the trip, it started with every moms favorite vacation activity, laundry!  Please note the sarcasm.  This was emergency laundry brought on by poor planning on my part.  I viewed having to do laundry on my vacation as proper punishment. 

Laundry done, we headed off to the Polynesian for something we've never done, breakfast at 'Ohana.  At night, 'Ohana is a Brazilian steakhouse style restaurant.  But for breakfast it is a character breakfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch.  I've wanted to try this meal for a long time and the kids had just watched Lilo & Stitch, so we were all excited!  

Here is my review of 'Ohana for our family.  It's probably a one and done for us.  I'm glad we went and tried it.  For a non-park day, it was an awesome dose of Disney fun.  The character interactions were outstanding, the ambiance was great, and the pacing was perfect.  We were never waiting for food and the characters came around pretty quickly.  The restaurant was FREEZING and the kids had to use all the napkins as blankets.  The food was just ok.  I loved the POG juice and the bread, but the skillet was just ok.  They say these places are "all you care to eat" but after the initial skillet our server never came around to see if we wanted more, which we did want more biscuits.  Also, we had to ask for butter for our meal, and the server acted a bit like butter was a lot to ask for.  Overall I probably give it a B.  

PS- I'm thinking of doing a post on all the character meals we have tried so far... anyone interested in reading that?

Now what?  Well, it was time to make Rob a happy man.  We rented a boat!! If you have a non-park day and you are at or near any of the resorts with boat rentals we highly recommend taking advantage of it.  They have several options for sizes.  This time we rented a pontoon boat.  You can take it on the Seven Seas Lagoon (area where Magic Kingdom is) and Bay Lake (where the campground it).  After a brief safety briefing we were on our way!

One thing I love at Disney is saying yes to things when my family doesn't expect it.  Remember last year when the kids got their faces painted?  Anne was over the moon because I said she could get glitter paint, she thought I would say no. Well, there is a bar conveniently located next to the boat dock.  Rob said, "would you like a drink?" and was blown away when I said, "absolutely!"  Two lava flows, please!  I also got a smoothie for the kids and I asked the bartender to give me an extra cup.  She asked if the smoothie was for the kids to split, and I said yes. Well, she made me two smoothies and only charged me for one.  It was a nice gesture, but I wasn't being cheap I was trying to keep the sugar consumption in check!

The rest of our second day went like this: pool, pool, pool, eat dinner, pool, crash.