My review from the 9/16 party--this is super long, so I apologize! I'll delete it or edit it if I need to make it shorter--just let me know.
We spent the day at the park (including an afternoon nap on the rocking chairs on Tom Sawyer island...awesome!), wearing our costumes all day (Jolly Holiday Mary Poppins and Bert) cause they were lightweight. It was SO HOT! Good grief Florida, i was expecting heat but wow. Anyways.
We got in line for wristbands at Monsters Inc at 3:45ish, they started distribution at 3:53. We had our bands and bag of candy at 3:58. The plan was to check in to the dessert party at 4, since we had the parade viewing and wanted to be able to go directly to the flagpole. However, no one was at the check in desks--another lady was waiting there too and we waited until 4:10 or so, but there were no CMs anywhere around. So we went down Main Street, got our Orange Bird Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards, and then went through the bypass. The lines near the front of the bypass for photos were long, but deeper into the bypass they were shorter--we got the photo with the
MNSSHP bulb ornament.
Afterwards at like 4:20 we were able to check in for the dessert party, got our lanyards and confirmed we could head directly to the flagpole when we wanted rather than having to come back to the Terrace at 8:45 pm.
Once we checked in, we headed over to Skipper Canteen for our dinner reservation. Yummy dinner, funny skipper--an altogether pleasant way to start the party.
After dinner (around 5:30ish) we just wandered around: nothing was open (no trick or treat things), and while we were hoping Jack Sparrow would be out meeting, there wasn't even a line for him. We didn't have any particular rides we wanted to ride (we'd ridden everything earlier in the day
) so we ended up just sitting on the Jack Sparrow stage people-watching. It really didn't seem all that crowded--line for Pirates was posted at 10 min for most of that time and there was lots of empty space in the walkways. We ended up starting the line for Jack Sparrow, but by 6:40 it was only us and about 8 more people. At that point I went up to the Tarzan/Jane meet n greet to check on the line there, and got in line behind the one family that was already waiting. DH stayed in the Jack Sparrow line but by 7, neither had come out, so DH bailed and joined me in the Tarzan line. He likes watching the Capt Jack meet n greets more than actually meeting him, so he was ok to miss it (I know...I know...I felt bad).
We were done with the Tarzan/Jane meet n greet at 7:12 (they didn't come out until like 7:05ish), and then headed over to ride the Haunted Mansion. We passed the Cadaver Dans on the way and caught the last half of the last song...so that's something!
There was a small crowd listening to them but not very big.
HM was posted 25 minutes at 7:16. We entered the first room at 7:22 and were off the ride at 7:37--so, a 5 minute wait instead of 25 minutes
. Carlotta and Broome weren't on the lawn when we got in line, but they were out entertaining guests when we got off the ride. We immediately got in line for the magic shot with the hearse (7:37), and were done at 7:52. That was one of the longest lines of the night! But we enjoyed watching Broome interact with guests while we were waiting. And bonus, we got Carlotta in the background of our magic shot.
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We then jumped in line for the lantern HM photo--in line at 7:52 and done at 8:01.
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We then got in line for the Hatbox ghost magic shot at 8:01, and were done by 8:04 (that was lucky--this is a one person only shot and there were only 2 people in front of us. If there's a long line in front of you, this shot could take a *long* time to get, since each individual person will get their own picture)
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Then at 8:04 got in line for the hitchhiking ghosts shot and were done at 8:11. Side note, there was a *grumpy* family in front of us that was not prepared for the crowds and clearly hadn't made any kind of a plan (all adults too!)...I feel bad for people who pay so much but are so tired or don't plan and just end up being miserable.... But on the other hand, there were some AWESOME costumes, including people dressed as the "goodbye" signs from Small World, and a bunch of HM ghosts, as well as a surprising amount of Russell and Kevin costumes? It was cool to see.
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Once we were done with the Magic Shots, we headed over to Pirates and got in line at 8:15. I think it was posted at 10 or 15 minutes? We were on the boat at 8:28, but some of that was delayed due to interacting with the pirates in the line. We were off the ride at 8:38, so we headed over to Casey's where I bought the headless horseman straw ornament, then we too some magic shots on Main Street (dancing ghosts! Which still hasn't shown up, sadly...the non-magic shot picture did, but not the one with the ghosts), and got to the flagpole at 8:50. We were able to grab a seat on the curb right in front of the flagpole. There weren't very many people there--maybe 15, including us two? Plenty of space--it was lovely. And i appreciated being able to run to the restroom and the firehouse (to pick up my normal SOTMK cards) without having to worry about saving a spot or anything.
There was no rain or anything so the Headless Horseman trotted down Main street on schedule--that was super neat to see. Afterwards we were entertained by the Zootopia party patrol and by roaming photopass photographers taking pictures until the parade came. It reached us at 9:36. It was our first time seeing this parade and we loved it.
Being right at the flagpole also made for some fun interactions: Flynn Rider loved DH's beard, and (with some prompting) I blew Donald a kiss that he reacted to by being bowled over--it was super cute.
The CM escorted us back through the bypass starting at 9:52. We got a two person table right at the railing, but it was pretty far off to the side. Perfect view of the castle though--we were happy! The food was ok--the special Halloween desserts were a bust but we liked the cheeseburger spring rolls and the spinach dip and the chocolate covered strawberries. The ooey gooey toffee pudding I was excited to try but didn't end up caring for very much. Mostly, it was nice to have a reserved seat and some snacks for the fireworks. They also gave us a nicely wrapped bag of like 20 ghiradelhi chocolates so that was cool. It did start lightly raining so the fireworks were delayed until 10:40, but I'll be honest, i appreciated the extra time sitting down!
After the fireworks (which were also awesome!), I booked it to Space Mountain while DH wandered over to watch the Belle and Gaston character meet (he thinks Gaston is funny
). Space Mountain was posted at 10 minutes but it was a walk on. I entered the line at 10:54 and was boarding at 10:59. The darkness was pretty cool but was slightly ruined by some idiot *cough cough* I mean fellow guest on the Peoplemover who turned on the flashlight on their phone. The rock soundtrack was not very intelligible--seemed pretty generic. But still fun. Although walking the exit path, I heard several groups talking who had no idea that there was something special about Space Mountain for the party or that that the something special was the complete darkness. It wasn't advertised well.
After Space I met back up with DH and we rode the teacups with the overlay. That was also basically a walk on--we waited one cycle since we walked up right as one cycle was starting. That was a fun overlay--I got super dizzy but it was neat.
After the teacups, we decided to go ahead and meet Belle and Gaston, since their line was really short. Maybe 5 groups ahead of us? The characters had just taken a break so I went through the trick or treat trail at Ariel's Grotto 3 times 'cause there was no line, then switched with DH and he did the trick or treat trail there once. Then the photographer at Gaston's fountain didn't have a wait so we did that photo too. Then Belle and Gaston came back out so we met them (funny as always
).
At that point it was 11:40, so we booked it back to the front of the park, doing the Cosmic Ray's ToT trail and the Monster's Inc trail (the CM here was giving out a GIANT handful of candy) on the way, since it was on the way...and ran SMACK dab into the end of the parade. We managed to cut through and make it to the two pumpkin towers there by the train station for that magic shot at 11:53.
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Then out to the front of the park for the Headless Horseman magic shot. We finished with that at 12:04.
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We then headed out to the bus stop, arriving at 12:09, and there was a bus waiting. We were back at the Boardwalk at 12:26.
Overall, we had a fantastic experience. It never felt crowded (well, except for pushing through the end of the second parade to get the picture with the pumpkin towers), and we were able to do everything we wanted to do. Really the only downside was the crazy heat, but aside from that, we loved it.
We'd definitely do it again.
