March 90s Nite and Skywalker Ranch! UPDATE 7/14 TR COMPLETE

So much fun! I'd love to do Disneyland in the rain someday! (Just not with a bunch of whiny kids in tow, haha. :) )

Yeah, it was kind of difficult keeping yourself warm and happy, much less worrying about anyone else.

But the crowds...or the lack thereof. It was a dream. I feel like I'll never see it like that again.

Oh those look amazing. I can't wait to try the tropical hideaway in July.


There is no graceful way to eat a beignet.


Ugh I need to remember that. I'm not fond of full body drenchings.


Okay but here's the real questions- are the miniatures full of miniature humans or miniature pumpkin people?

I love the Tropical Hideaway. If I could make my backyard look like that, i would. Rosita's jokes were a bit cringe worthy, but I feel like her and I could work on that.

No graceful way for me to eat a beignet, anyway. Just gotta try to limit the white out on the pants.

Disneyland's Splash has been very unfortunate the past couple years. I think some people get out ok, but others get drenched. And it's not the...I'll just sit behind Brian and lean down behind him type where I can avoid the water. It's the type where you go down into the laughing place and the water just sloshes over the side of the log, so it gets all your legs and feet, no way to avoid it.

That is a very good question with our miniatures. I don't think we took his backstory that far and I am now ashamed of myself for it. I think we need to vacation together so you can fill in the holes on my pumpkin backstories.
 
I got that same shirt at Destination D but in a different color. I also got Alex the paintbrush pen. They didn't have any Gelatonis when we were at Aulani. They were sold out; people kept asking the staff when they were going to get more in. It all looks really cool, even if it is just old had to you;)
 
you go down into the laughing place and the water just sloshes over the side of the log, so it gets all your legs and feet, no way to avoid it.
Ugghhh wet feet are the absolute worst. We'll be staying away from splash, I think.

I think we need to vacation together so you can fill in the holes on my pumpkin backstories.
Is the world ready for all that awesome?
 
It was finally time!

We were lined up at the gates about 10 til 6 pm.

I'd like you all to put on your favorite 90s soundtrack. Whether it be from Disney Afternoon, The Goofy Movie, any Disney 90s movie (Hunchback, Hercules, Mulan etc) or even just Britney Spears or TLC. Gotta set the mood.

At almost exactly 6 they started to let us in. It was already dark out and a chilly, so I'm glad a hat worked well with my 90s grunge outfit.

Soon enough we were all through and we'd collected an assortment of 90s party swag.

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The park map

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The special event merch was a t-shirt, some phone cases and pins.

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I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, we actually didn't end up eating any of the special foods. We were all about the characters.

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I loved these event wristbands!!

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Inside the maps we had a thick piece of folded paper that listed all the backdrop photo locations. On the other side was a nice little Disney Afternoon poster. I didn't notice this until we got back but each Disney Afternoon backdrop also had a stamp that you could get for your paper.

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I'd like you all to put on your favorite 90s soundtrack. Whether it be from Disney Afternoon, The Goofy Movie, any Disney 90s movie (Hunchback, Hercules, Mulan etc) or even just Britney Spears or TLC. Gotta set the mood.
I was going to say something along the lines of how demanding you are but TBH it really did help set the mood.

I love the 90s aesthetic on everything. Can't wait to see how the rest of the night went!
 
I was going to say something along the lines of how demanding you are but TBH it really did help set the mood.

I love the 90s aesthetic on everything. Can't wait to see how the rest of the night went!

I'm demanding, but there's a reason behind it.

Sorry about just posting the one post, i meant to do the whole party last night but then we went out for ice cream and then game of thrones was on. I know you've been eager to hear about 90s nite. I'm going to try to write it tonight.
 

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I'm demanding, but there's a reason behind it.

Sorry about just posting the one post, i meant to do the whole party last night but then we went out for ice cream and then game of thrones was on. I know you've been eager to hear about 90s nite. I'm going to try to write it tonight.
Don't worry I totally understand that GoT takes ultimate precedence
 


And finally we got this beauty, the piece de resistance:

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We were a bit worried that Disney would run out of these, but they had many bins full of them.

The party officially started at 9. Day guests without party tickets would be asked to leave starting at 8. We decided to get food out of the way so we wouldn't need to worry about it.

We decided to eat at Carnation Cafe. I don't have any pictures of food. I think I was very excited and just a touch cold. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.

But I did take a picture of our view during dinner.

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We were all done eating a little after 7 and decided to walk around and scope things out.

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This chair was set up in front of the Rivers of America.

We walked along the Frontierland trail and saw several character areas roped off. Since our number one goal was Don Karnage, who was meeting with Darkwing Duck over near the Mickey and the Magical Map theater. We already saw a line of about 40 groups formed, so we joined them at the back. As soon as we got in line, CMs came over and said lines weren't forming. Half of the line moved closed to the theater and stayed put, the rest of us were cut off and they put a rope up. It was very confusing. We decided that maybe we should just come back once they let people officially line up.

So we walked back along the Frontierland trail. I think it was around 7:45. We saw about ten people standing at the ropes for the Hunchback meet and greet, so we made a snap decision and decided to just get in line. It was a good thing we did, though the party didn't technically start until 9, Esmerelda and Phoebus ended up coming out at 8 and we were only a few groups back!

Based off our own experiences and twitter reports, I think that what happened is that for most of the meets, 2 out of 3 characters came out for the first set. Then when those two left, the other one came out. Then they rotated at random after that. So for the most part if there were 3 characters, you would usually only meet 1 unless you were there at the first meet. We also realized they were doing their patented, incredibly stupid rare character rotations. So for Goofy Movie characters, dad sweater Goofy was out for a set, then Max in his Powerline outfit came out and switched. Who knows why they couldn't just have two who met together. Disney is so dumb in those cases. I understand face characters, but fur characters should not have an issue. That is what Chip and Dale did, both met together, went for a break, 2 minutes later came back out. Anyway, you can imagine the uproar that caused at the Goofy meet and greet. No one wanted to meet Goofy, they all just stood there and stared at Goofy and waited for Max. We got to read about that one all night on Twitter.

Anyway...

Within minutes we had a great meet with Esmerelda and Phoebus. Look at that hair! Must have weighed about 10 pounds.

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So it was 8:15, the party hadn't even officially started yet and we'd already met two very rare characters!!

Though at this point, I was very grateful for Photo Pass that was included with our party ticket. Somehow the CM managed to take 0 pictures with my phone. Luckily we had the Photo Pass to fall back on.

We decided to go back to Don Karnage/Darkwing. I found a CM there who very helpfully told us that they wouldn't even start to meet until after fireworks. Which...ugh. It makes sense, that area isn't safe during fireworks. But why put the characters back there in the first place?!

Two of our friends split off to do rides at this point. They were leaving late the next day and had a couple things they wanted to get done.

We headed to the Hercules characters. They were meeting inside the little Fantasyland theater. I guess they didn't start until official party start at 9. The line filled up all the inside benches, and we were a few groups back outside of the tent.

We entertained ourselves by looking at all the guests' 90s outfits. So much plaid. So many Mighty Ducks jerseys. So many Powerline t-shirts. I don't think Disney has any idea how popular The Goofy Movie is. Though they'll prob find out once Disney+ starts. I bet that will be one of the most popular items on there.

Finally a bit after 9 Hercules and Meg came out to many cheers from the waiting people. The line was moving slowly but surely. Meg ended up leaving around 9:15, which was a really short time that she was out there. Her hair looked super heavy too, and we wondered if that was part of it. We weren't too sad as we had met Meg during the WDW MK 24 hour hero and villain party. We were starting to get worried about Hercules though. We'd already met Hades too and really wanted to meet Herc.

We were getting pretty close and all of a sudden it was like the seas parted. There were a bunch of groups who were trying to wait for Hades and we got to pass by about 30ish people and we ended up being the second to last group to meet him. Sometimes things work out.

The fireworks started (9:25) as we were meeting with Herc. I excitedly realized that I was wearing a 'Zero' t-shirt so I made some stupid joke about zero to hero.

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On our way out we saw Hades coming in.

We were in too much of a hurry though, because fireworks were happening!

We stood on the fringes of the crowd near the castle where we exited from Herc's line. The fireworks are fantastic. If I can make another demand, please go youtube 90s Nite Disneyland fireworks. So great. They played all the Disney Afternoon theme songs, and they ended with A Goofy Movie's I2I, which everyone was singing along to.

We started to edge away as the fireworks were ending and led the surging fireworks crowd into Adventureland, where we quickly ducked into a line for the Tale Spin Baloo and Louie. The line about doubled behind us since we'd stayed just ahead of the fireworks crowd.

We only had to wait about 10-15 minutes before we got to meet Baloo!

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Baloo made the loudest character kissy noises I have ever heard in my life. A+ Baloo!! Thought this was another case where I felt they could easily have Baloo and Louie meet together.

That's all for now!

The party was going pretty well so far. Esmerelda, Phoebus, Herc, and Baloo and we'd managed to see most of the fireworks!!
 
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Goofy soon returned.

After we shared some goofs, it was time for the Matterhorn. There was actually a wait, so we pulled a fastpass for ten minutes from that point. A few minutes later, we were in line and on the ride.

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We filled up an entire car. Unfortunately, we were on the left side, which I think is a lot bumpier than the right. Should have asked to wait for the right side, as it feels a lot smoother.

I enjoy this ride a lot, but it always reminds me of a bobsled ride at the theme park my family vacationed at every summer, Cedar Point. It was called Avalanche Run. I remember that as being an actual bobseld ride, not like Matterhorn where the cars are on a track. If my little kid memories serve me right, the Cedar Point one had no track.

It was getting close to dinner time, but first we wanted to take a ride on the happiest cruise that ever sailed. I always enjoy this attraction a lot and I like the Disney characters they put in. It's always fun to search for them.

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I just wanted to let you know that you are correct that Avalanche Run (later turned into Disaster Transport which was enclosed and in the dark) did not have track :) When I was younger it used to really scare me because of the no track but then I remember it being a lot of fun and was bummed when they removed it.
 
I just wanted to let you know that you are correct that Avalanche Run (later turned into Disaster Transport which was enclosed and in the dark) did not have track :) When I was younger it used to really scare me because of the no track but then I remember it being a lot of fun and was bummed when they removed it.

Yes! I loved Disaster Transport. I thought it was the coolest with the themed queue. I do vaguely remember riding Avalanche Run when I was very little. You could see the beach and the water. I think I expected the car to go shooting off over the water as well.
 
Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.
I expect better of you next time.

But I did take a picture of our view during dinner.
Ooo pretty!

Within minutes we had a great meet with Esmerelda and Phoebus. Look at that hair! Must have weighed about 10 pounds
Oh man I'm so jealous! Hunchback is one of my top 5 favorite Disney movies and they are never in the parks anywhere. So cool!

We entertained ourselves by looking at all the guests' 90s outfits. So much plaid. So many Mighty Ducks jerseys. So many Powerline t-shirts. I don't think Disney has any idea how popular The Goofy Movie is. Though they'll prob find out once Disney+ starts. I bet that will be one of the most popular items on there.
Yesss

Finally a bit after 9 Hercules and Meg came out to many cheers from the waiting people. The line was moving slowly but surely. Meg ended up leaving around 9:15, which was a really short time that she was out there. Her hair looked super heavy too, and we wondered if that was part of it. We weren't too sad as we had met Meg during the WDW MK 24 hour hero and villain party. We were starting to get worried about Hercules though. We'd already met Hades too and really wanted to meet Herc.

We were getting pretty close and all of a sudden it was like the seas parted. There were a bunch of groups who were trying to wait for Hades and we got to pass by about 30ish people and we ended up being the second to last group to meet him. Sometimes things work out.
Oh wow I'm glad everything got timed right! I definitely would have wanted to meet Herc instead of Hades too, since you can meet Hades at MNSSHP
 
Since we were already in Adventureland, we wanted to see what was going on with Indiana Jones.

There was actually a bit of line for the attraction. We asked the CM where Indy was meeting. He said that he was just roaming the lower queue and interacting with guests that way. That pretty much killed our interest, so instead we asked for our Indiana Jones decoder cards.

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When the attraction first opened, guests received these decoder cards to read the symbols in the queue. We all tucked these safely into our new fanny packs and headed on.

We decided to do a circle of the parks to see the other character lines and check out the atmosphere.

The next characters were Mulan and Mushu. There were meeting back near Hungry Bear up against the closed off entrance to Galaxy's Edge. We went ahead and got in line. Mushu was meeting. I was very excited at this point because the CMs confirmed that Mulan was meeting in her Ping outfit!!!! Super rare, and I love Mulan the movie so this was a must do. I couldn't believe that I hadn't considered this possibility before. I was so excited! We were very hopeful that Mulan would change out with Mushu before we got up there.

We were queued up next to the river. As we waited, the riverboat came by. There was a live group on board who were singing TLC's Waterfalls!! The sound was pretty epic, as the boat sailed away the music just kind of faded into the background. It was great to be able to hear the band while we waited for Mulan.

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Here is where something bad happened :( We'd been waiting a while and Mushu was still out. Now, I love that little lizard, trust me, but I'd already met him at a Run Disney race. I reeeally wanted to meet Ping. I was chatting about it with the guy in front of me, he also really wanted to meet Ping. We were getting worried. I think at this point it was almost 10:45. We were hopeful they'd switch at that time, so we were trying to find people to go ahead of us. A few people went, then everyone else refused because they knew we thought Ping was switching out soon. Sigh.

So, to waste time, we had Brian go meet Mushu by himself. Then my friend Emily went to meet Mushu by herself. Still no Ping, ugh. So I had to go meet Mushu. It was a good time, but sad. The guy behind me had to go too, and then, of course, Ping walked up right after he had met Mushu. We both just missed her (him?). It was so tragic.

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The line was pretty long, so long that I didn't think I'd have time to make it to Ping before she left. We decided to move (very grudgingly, on my part).

We walked by the neon glowing Fantasmic monkeys who were meeting at that chair I posted earlier. Their line was somewhat long so we decided to go check out Main Street.

There was fabulous 90s music blasting all down Main Street, and cool projections on the buildings.

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We were headed up to the train station to get in line for...
 
There was a live group on board who were singing TLC's Waterfalls!! The sound was pretty epic, as the boat sailed away the music just kind of faded into the background.
Soo cool! I am trying to picture/hear that in my head and it just doesn't compute.

and then, of course, Ping walked up right after he had met Mushu. We both just missed her (him?). It was so tragic.
Uggghhhh of course

Sorry you didn't get to meet Ping!
 
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers!!!!

Their line was deceptively short. Looked pretty short, but they were taking their time with people. We amused ourselves by listening to and shouting along with Britney Spears songs. Launchpad and Scrooge were also switching off over in the corner on Main Street.

Finally it was our turn. Our two other friends had met back up with us when we got in line. Waiting in line is so much more fun when you have more friends to wait with you.

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Chip and Dale were in fine form, Dale was Mike Wazowski'ing Chip. And they were just being typical crazy chipmunks.

We decided to skip Scrooge and Launchpad. We've actually never met Launchpad but we know he meets regularly at AK now. We had more of the party to see!!

Back up Main Street, we turned towards Tomorrowland.

Tomorrowland was a mess of people. It started sprinkling lightly at this point. The area around Goofy and Max was just a complete mess. So many people.

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Got this decent shot of Max. Isn't he awesome?! No wonder everyone wanted to meet him.

Next up we walked past the Matterhorn and towards Small World.

Disney Afternoon Avenue was set up along the path towards Small World. It was basically six photo backdrops. Two were just giant balloon arches, one of our friends admitted that she accidentally got into line for one of the balloon arches for 5 minutes and then was angry at herself, haha.

The other 4 were backdrops from the Disney Afternoon cartoons: Duck Tales, Tale Spin, Rescue Rangers and Gummi Bears! Our friend loved Gummi Bears, so she was very excited that there was at least a backdrop. We had to have our picture, so we waited in a short line.



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We didn't want to wait for any others, so just took a quick pic of the Duck Tales one:

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We went to check out the line for Don Karnage/Darkwing and couldn't get anywhere near it. Also, a helpful CM told us it was closed. Geez. I think it was around midnight at this point so we had an hour of party time left.

I wanted to try to head over towards Ping again, but along the way we saw Gaston meeting near Snow White's queue with only two groups in line so we stopped. That's what happens when Disney has common characters at these parties, not a lot of people care.

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Our friends got the majority of the interaction, which was fine. Gaston was in fine form tonight as well.

I think we chatted about antlers. Antlers usually do come up in conversation with Gaston.

We headed back along the path towards Frontierland. We saw that the Hunchback characters seemed to have two lines. One was kind of long, the other pretty short. Clopin was out meeting and the short line was for him. The CMs were allowing people to made a separate line for Esmerelda, who was coming out next. Can I just say, kudos CMs!!! Finally, CMs who know what to do when rare characters are switching off. Allow people to queue for characters who are coming out next, and let people who want to meet the ones who are out.

So we got in line for Clopin and only waited about 10 minutes.

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Let's be honest, Clopin is a bit scary. But still, we'd met all the Hunchback characters!!

We don't mess around at these parties, we get things done.

We walked by Pocahontas meeting. She was switching off with Meeko. Her line wasn't that long and she was meeting in her cold weather outfit, but I wanted to push on and see if I might be able to meet Ping.

The Fantastmic monkeys didn't have too long a wait, so part of our group got in line for them. I don't think the line was moving at all though, so they ended up ditching and sought shelter at the Hungry Bear patio since they were tired and it was starting to drizzle again.

I asked the CMs at Mulan's line if Ping was coming back out. They said they were hopeful she would, though Mushu was meeting at the moment. Even though it was about 20 til 1 at this point, the line was still open so I joined in. Brian waited with me for about 15 minutes then dropped back to the end of the line. They were closing the line at 1 and we wanted to hedge our bets. No mistakes like last time.

I ended up meeting Mushu again right around 1.

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Then I went back and joined Brian in line. It was now closed and everyone was waiting with bated breath to see if Ping would make an appearance. Some of us were losing hope since the party was now technically over since it was past 1. But the CMs were still saying they were hopeful she'd show up.

And then...
 
Ping!!!!

You always know when the characters are coming because a cheer goes out!

We had a fantastic time talking about fighting and swords and manly things. Ping even spoke in her lower, more manly voice, of course!

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See my weird, frightening face?! Such excitement!

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Don't judge my karate pose too harshly, please. It looks like I'm waving. I think I need some wax on, wax off lessons.

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The party was officially over!! It was raining a little bit harder now. Which was ok by me, I'd met Ping. Even though we never got near Don Karnage, I think the night was a great success. Pretty sure Ping would have been my number one had I known Mulan was meeting as him.

We were all tired and cold, so we trudged out. That didn't stop me from taking pictures though. Disneyland at night, and in the rain?! Epic photos!


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And my favorite place:

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As we left we were all handed this sweet poster:

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I was actually kind of surprised Captain Marvel didn't make an appearance. Her movie came out that weekend and it's set in the 90s! Would have been perfect.


So there you have it! 90s Nite!!

We didn't try any special food, but we managed to meet:

Esmerelda
Phoebus
Clopin
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers
Tale Spin Baloo
Mushu
Ping
Gaston
Hercules

We saw almost all the characters.

We caught most of the fireworks.

We were able to listen to almost all the DJs and bands.

We didn't do any attractions, but we were there for the atmosphere and characters.

I had so much fun at this party. I would highly recommend one of these events if anyone ever has the change to go.

The only not fun part was that the trams were down. So we had to walk our tired feet (maybe wearing my old airwalks from the 90s was a step too far) all the way to the parking garage in the rain.

But we did make it back to the car, dropped our friends at their hotel and were finally back in our room. Poor Brian had to take a quiz online, but I went right to bed. We decided to sleep in a tiny bit in the morning, which was great since it was almost 3 at this point.

Tomorrow we'd just be having a casual day at the parks.
 
Chip and Dale were in fine form, Dale was Mike Wazowski'ing Chip. And they were just being typical crazy chipmunks.
Chip & Dale are some of my faves to meet. How cool to see them in their RR gear!

Got this decent shot of Max. Isn't he awesome?! No wonder everyone wanted to meet him.
I seriously need to watch A Goofy Movie again

Can I just say, kudos CMs!!!
PRAISE!!!!

And then...
Ugggghhhh the suspense

YESSSS!!!!
 
That's a huge character haul. I don't know why Disney makes it so difficult, especially when they don't bring some of them out, ever. The rain pics of DL are cool. I have never seen it in the rain. It looks so different than MK somehow.
 

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