"Serve Me Well, Sister" *Mickey's Halloween Party 2010* (1/15): Villainous photoshoot

[magichusky]

Welcome to my Mickey's Halloween Party TR! This was the first year the party was hosted by DL and let me tell you, it was AMAZING!!! I was stricken by a severe case of Disney magic immediately upon arriving at the party and it just got better as I wandered deeper into the park, which had been totally transformed and gussied up beyond recognition. And there were some truly outlandish costumes! I've got a few HD videos and a bunch of delightful pics, so I hope you enjoy them!

So far:

Part 1: Welcome Guys & Ghouls! (below)
Part 2: Halloween Makes Me (Us) Hungry
Part 3: Hallowishes!
Part 4a: Character Cavalcade (Hellooo, child!)
Part 4b: Character Cavalcade (In your face!)
Part 5: Serve Me Well, Sister

And here's what's coming up:

Part 6: Finale

PART 1: Welcome Guys & Ghouls!

Hello guys and ghouls! Even though it's November and it seems as if everyone has moved on from spooks to turkeys and seasonal gourds (I visited DL yesterday and it was already perfectly trimmed for the holidays!), I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want to read all about my fabulous night at Mickey's Halloween Party on 10/29 at DL!!!

Most importantly, I love to chat and since I attended such a raging costume party, I am very much in the costume state of mind- so post pics of your costumes, jack-o-lanterns, costumed pets, etc. I would adore it! I'll kick off our Halloween in November by posting my pumpkin this year:

I hope you can tell from the pic that I carved a husky (of course). Unfortunately I don't have any great pics of my real husky in a costume b/c I couldn't find any selections in his size! Yes, he's pushing 95 lbs these days. And here's me w/ my pumpkin last year:

Hopefully you can tell that it's Maleficent! That was one of my best pumpkins, I think. And since we're talking about costumes, it can't hurt to throw in a few photos of a costumed infant- we know how we all get a kick out of ridiculously costumed babies (poor things have no say in the matter).

My niece, Baby Lily, last year on Halloween (she was 1 yr, 1 month). A pink monster!

I was highly amused b/c one minute she was standing there and the next she had toppled over and started rolling around on the floor. She was quite confused as to why she couldn't get back up! To her credit, I would most certainly topple over as well if I was forced to walk w/ 50% of my body weight in stuffing attached to my bum. I was of course right there to snap a pic and she loved it:

Her costume was far more functional this year, as she dressed up as Tinkerbell. Great choice! Here she is w/ her Elmo candy bucket that my mom gave her:

She was so excited to be a big girl this year and go trick or treating w/ all the big kids! And she has enough hair for a ponytail!

Okay- so I guess I better get going on this TR! The premise of this trip is to attend Mickey's Halloween Party on Friday, October 29th. This is the first year Disney held the party in DL, so I was super excited to check it out! I had gone to the party at CA Adv in 2008 on Halloween night w/ my pal Laura (VBsHustla here on the DIS) and basically they just played the Heffalump song over and over and gave us 10 lbs of apple slices and tootsie rolls. The lack of over the top decor, which we have come to expect from Disney, was abated due to the fact that we rode ourselves silly on the Tower all night long! One of those rides I am proud to say was rather nonstandard in a very magical way:

Anyway, moving on. I would be attending the party w/ my 2 pals from college, Kendra and Angie, plus Kendra's infamous buddy Suzanne who has become, in turn, Angie's and my infamous buddy since Suzanne would visit our dorm every now and again and smuggle in her chihuahua Argyle, who is absolutely amazing in all his furry tininess. We would of course all be gloriously costumed (you'll have to wait to discover our identities for the night but I'll give you a hint: my costume was inspired by the inspiration for one of my recent pumpkin carvings!) and the night of the 29th was highly anticipated to say the least!

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

 

[magichusky]

PART 1 cont: Welcome Guys & Ghouls!

That day I was sequestered in an insanely tedious conference taking place at Caltech. Making the day even more treacherous was the fact that I had to give a talk. I'm sure most people don't particularly enjoy public speaking but I rather violently despise it- consequently, I was in no way even vaguely amused by my situation. Plus, the conference didn't end until 5pm so I was anxious about having to drive from Pasadena to Anaheim in hopefully less than 2 hrs (the party started at 7pm). Friday traffic around here can be perfectly obnoxious and vile, so my worries were not ill-founded.

I gave my little talk at 10am (I was told that it was great but I talked super fast! With my high squeaky voice I was probably doing a great impression of Alvin and the Chipmunks I'm sure) and sort of paid attention to the other talks until around 3pm at which point I decided that it would be more fun to fiddle w/ my December WDW itinerary and read about how Brett Farvre is an idiot (yeah- I was bored). The highlight of the day was that one of my classmates, who was sitting only 2 chairs away from me I might add, was attacked by a massive praying mantis shortly after we returned from lunch. I was extremely offended that I wasn't made aware of the invasion until almost 4pm!

Thankfully the conference ended on schedule at 5pm and I bid adieu to the mantis, who was still chilling out on the back of my classmate's chair. I threw myself into my car and set out to brave the cranky Los Angeles traffic and... arrived at DL an hour later!!! I didn't mind parking in Mickey & Friends since you get free parking w/ a party ticket and was ecstatic when my car was chosen out of many to park in the Pinocchio lot (which is a ground level lot adjacent to the big parking structure) so I didn't have to drive up a million levels to park and then descend an escalator while being suffocated by strollers. My costume consisted of a big cloak and headpiece, which I had carefully stowed in the back along w/ all of my other important Disney gear (hand sanitizer, water, hand sanitizer) so all I had to do was hop out of my car, throw on my cloak over my regular clothes, and run to the tram.

It was around 6:40pm or so when I finally parked, costumed myself, and arrived at the tram and I started feverishly texting everyone to confirm their whereabouts. Of course, I was the only one there (haha- surprise surprise!). Angie was stuck in traffic in Burbank and Kendra and Suzanne were putting the finishing touches on their costumes at Kendra's house. No matter! I trammed it to DTD and breezed through the security checkpoint and turnstiles. Upon entering DL, I was given a bright orange wristband (which they insisted on affixing to my left wrist, which was obnoxious b/c I'm left handed) and a plastic treat bag. They were funneling all of the non-party guests out of the park by way of the west tunnel so I was forced to enter through the east tunnel, which was very strange b/c I pretty much ALWAYS enter through the west. I've probably been to DL about 100 times and have gone through the east tunnel less than 5 times!

I stepped onto Main Street and everything was different. All of the street lamps were glowing orange, the lights were dimmed, the place was rockin' w/ themed pop music, and all sorts of spooky images were being projected onto all of the major landmarks, including the castle, City Hall, and the train station:

The place really was jamming in a very Halloweeny way! I was so excited that I ran up the stairs to the train station so I could look out onto Main Street from above. There was a little crowd gathered at the railing and they were absolutely obnoxious; they were hogging the view and kept shoving in front of me, ruining most of my photos. So I only have these two- but at least you can get the general idea:

After I realized that the crowd totally wasn't going to disperse any time soon and I wouldn't get any more photo ops, the train pulled up- so I got on! I found the perfect car that was almost completely empty except for these 2 crazy people in the front row on the right. I almost thought they were CMs b/c their costumes were so detailed! The couple was dressed as an old man and woman wearing freakish looking clothing from the turn of the century and the man was holding a huge (at least 2 ft high) robot looking creature w/ glowing lime green eyes and mouth. It almost looked like it was made out of stone blocks or some similar material. If anyone gets the reference, please let me know b/c I was very, very lost.

Of course the only other people boarding the train at that moment insisted on sitting inches away from me when there were plenty of other empty rows. I was sitting at the end of my row by the step when a mother walked up and stood there pointedly, obviously expecting me to move. I really just love it when people do that w/ no eye contact, sign language, or "excuse me." I scooted over and then suddenly 8 other members of her family appeared and suddenly I was squished all the way at the end of the row, totally blocked in and feeling terribly claustrophobic. I was excessively irritated b/c that meant I couldn't take pictures along the way. Anyway, I am done w/ my rant.

As we emerged from Splash Mtn I was pleased to see that Hungry Bear was still open at that late hour. Usually it closes at night. Excellent- I see a $2 grilled cheese dinner in my future! I took the train to TT and walked back through Fantasyland so I could take photos of everything on the way back to HB.

I'll leave you w/ these 2 great pics I took of the castle from the carousel area. They had roped off the tunnel in preparation for the upcoming Halloween Screams fireworks spectacular.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[Eight]

Are these the people you saw?

I haven't read their trip report yet, but I'm assuming the guy is supposed to be Harrison Hightower and the creature is the Shiriku Utundu from the Tokyo DisneySea version of the Tower of Terror.

 

[magichusky]

Are these the people you saw?

I haven't read their trip report yet, but I'm assuming the guy is supposed to be Harrison Hightower and the creature is the Shiriku Utundu from the Tokyo DisneySea version of the Tower of Terror.

YES- that's them!!!! Hahahaha wow- thanks for that! I love that I saw DISers at DL! I'll have to read more about this Utundu creature immediately.

 

[Eight]

YES- that's them!!!! Hahahaha wow- thanks for that! I love that I saw DISers at DL! I'll have to read more about this Utundu creature immediately.

Oh, that's too awesome! I love Shiriki Utundu, I have a pass holder that I use for my tickets and fast passes with him on it.

Also, the castle looks so cool with that green light on it. Did they already put the snow on top though?

 

[VBsHustla]

Baby Lily is so cute and big! I love her Tink costume and Elmo treat bag. Adorable! However, I love it when babies are encumbered by giant costumes, so the monster is pretty much my fav. I also enjoy your husky pumpkin. Pretty impressive. Loki must have loved it!

It made me laugh that you were the first to arrive, even though you were coming from Pasadena. Not surprising in the least! Hope everyone else managed to arrive in a timely manner. I'm very excited to see your costume. I heard rave reviews about it from Kendra during our excellent ice skating adventure!

 

[mysumi]

Loving your recaps so far! It's amazing how much she grew from last year to now, her little Tink costume is adorable. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[UncleOrville]

Excellent TR! I'm loving the extra-special Halloween decor. The train station, castle, and Main Street all looked most excellent! I feel like the MK in DW did not look that cool during MNSSHP last year, but perhaps that is because we entered the park during a downpour and before it was dark out.

I must ask for some assistance to make it possible for us to crash the beginning of your December trip (sounds enticing, right?). Laura will only agree to go to DW if Kevin comes, and Kevin has said he is pretty sure he does not want to go. Do you have any recommendations for where to find great DW holiday pictures that Kevy will not be able to resist? Any threads or websites with holiday park pics will do! Thank you kindly for any assistance!

 

[magichusky]

Oh, that's too awesome! I love Shiriki Utundu, I have a pass holder that I use for my tickets and fast passes with him on it.

Also, the castle looks so cool with that green light on it. Did they already put the snow on top though?

How awesome! I've been meaning to purchase a pass holder lately but the store is always too crowded at DL! And yes, they already put the snow caps on the castle for Halloween; they're def the same ones they use for Christmas. I thought the snow looked great for the Halloween fireworks show!

Baby Lily is so cute and big! I love her Tink costume and Elmo treat bag. Adorable! However, I love it when babies are encumbered by giant costumes, so the monster is pretty much my fav. I also enjoy your husky pumpkin. Pretty impressive. Loki must have loved it!

I love it as well! I recall that infant we saw at Mickey's Halloween Party 2008 w/ a massive nemo costume strapped to him. I believe the costume was larger than the child! But we saw him later and he was actually walking around w/ it on! Unfortunately my husky pumpkin never made it to my house b/c I didn't go home during Halloween-time. I'm sure Loki would've adored his pumpkin portrait.

It made me laugh that you were the first to arrive, even though you were coming from Pasadena. Not surprising in the least! Hope everyone else managed to arrive in a timely manner. I'm very excited to see your costume. I heard rave reviews about it from Kendra during our excellent ice skating adventure!

Hahahaha I know right??? I was def NOT surprised about that. I was there for like an hour by myself, too! We didn't really get going until like 9-something unfortunately. OMG I knew Kendra was traveling to NYC this month but didn't know exactly when. How exciting that you went skating!!! I hope somebody took pics!

Loving your recaps so far! It's amazing how much she grew from last year to now, her little Tink costume is adorable. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

Thank you! Yes, I was proud that she is already a Disney fanatic at such a young age. I'm super excited b/c my parents and I will be visiting my brother's family this Christmas on our way back from WDW! I haven't seen Baby Lily in person since June.

 

[magichusky]

Excellent TR! I'm loving the extra-special Halloween decor. The train station, castle, and Main Street all looked most excellent! I feel like the MK in DW did not look that cool during MNSSHP last year, but perhaps that is because we entered the park during a downpour and before it was dark out.

It really was super fabulous- I was genuinely surprised at how exciting it all was! The most fab area was def the Rivers of America w/ all the fog and the ghost ship. Apparently there was a Jack Sparrow photo op inside the Mark Twain queue but we never got over there. That's so weird that WDW wasn't as special! I feel like the downpour must've had something to do w/ that! I'm not looking forward to possible spontaneous rain showers at WDW though. At least around here you can see it coming for hours before hand. I refuse to wear a disgusting poncho.

I must ask for some assistance to make it possible for us to crash the beginning of your December trip (sounds enticing, right?). Laura will only agree to go to DW if Kevin comes, and Kevin has said he is pretty sure he does not want to go. Do you have any recommendations for where to find great DW holiday pictures that Kevy will not be able to resist? Any threads or websites with holiday park pics will do! Thank you kindly for any assistance!

Whaaat in the Disney World??? How completely strange to refuse a WDW excursion unless accompanied by Kevy?? (Laura if you're reading this I think that's absolutely ridiculous and insane!)

I would imagine that the primary selling point would be that you guys could join us on our Wishes cruise (Saturday, 12/18). We got the premium variety which has the piped in Wishes music and allows us to take up to 6 extra people. This site has some amazing photos which I used to convince my mom to reserve the cruise:

Magic Kingdom Wishes Fireworks Cruise Photos

I've also been reading a bunch of TRs from past Christmases and here are my favs:

The Disney Grump & Family Take on the World-Our '09 Christmas w/ the Mouse (This is a really fun TR b/c they do pretty much everything I want to do, like CP, Osborne lights, Wishes cruise, holiday sleigh ride through Fort Wilderness. The Wishes cruise portion starts on pg 39)

Ho! Ho! Ho! Away we go- A Disney Christmas

Ringing in the New Year DISNEY STYLE! - PICS & VIDEO (They have the BEST photos and are super amusing!)

Christmas Magic: DH Finally Gets It!! (Fun pics, including Osborne lights. They also stayed at WL!)

**I haven't read these TRs yet, but they look super good!

A Very Lurkyloo Christmas is BACK! New 11/13 with Root Pix of Osbourne Lights! (I actually saw these guys at the Halloween Party and their costumes were SO fabulous! I'm sure their Christmas adventure is equally as fabulous to read about!)

~A XMAS STORY~decorations, crowds, pixies..AND A BLOODY NOSE

All of those TRs have some pretty awesome pics so hopefully they'll help get those two in the holiday spirit!

 

[SurfinTX]

Oooo. I'm in for this trip report. I went to the 15th Halloween Party and enjoyed it immensly. Looking forward to seeing your pics.

 

[UncleOrville]

Whaaat in the Disney World??? How completely strange to refuse a WDW excursion unless accompanied by Kevy?? (Laura if you're reading this I think that's absolutely ridiculous and insane!)

I know, right?!? We may have done all the attractions millions of times, but I am dying to see all of this great Christmas stuff for the first time!

I would imagine that the primary selling point would be that you guys could join us on our Wishes cruise (Saturday, 12/18). We got the premium variety which has the piped in Wishes music and allows us to take up to 6 extra people. This site has some amazing photos which I used to convince my mom to reserve the cruise:

Magic Kingdom Wishes Fireworks Cruise Photos

A fabulous bonus for me, and I also do believe it should be a great selling point for them! Kevy is pretty insane about preparing for his internship that will begin several weeks after this potential trip, so I think we've lost him. But, I have not lost all hope for Laura!

Thank you very kindly for the links to those TRs! I will check them out immediately!

 

[magichusky]

Oooo. I'm in for this trip report. I went to the 15th Halloween Party and enjoyed it immensly. Looking forward to seeing your pics.

Thanks for reading!! Hopefully I'll get some more pics uploaded shortly. I checked out your MHP TR and your pics are so great! It really was a great party.

I know, right?!? We may have done all the attractions millions of times, but I am dying to see all of this great Christmas stuff for the first time!

Thank you very kindly for the links to those TRs! I will check them out immediately!

You're very welcome! Anything to support the cause. Yes, the parks are so very different during Christmas! WDW especially, w/ all the crazy resort decorations and such. Hopefully I'll have time to check out at least the monorail resorts in Dec!

 

[magichusky]

PART 2: Halloween Makes Me (Us) Hungry

Hi again everyone! I've been pushing to get my paper done before I drive home for Thanksgiving so haven't had much time to carry on w/ this great TR! I'm currently waiting for some code to finish running so of course that gives me an excuse to write up Part 2. I hope you all have some delightful plans for Thanksgiving!

Anyway, when we last left off, I had taken the train to TT and was walking through Fantasy Land on my way back to Hungry Bear Restaurant (HBR). I had just taken some photos of the castle, which was looking rather lime green that night, and proceeded down the path connecting Frontierland and Fantasy Land. Pinocchio's Village Haus was still all boarded up and the ride was also closed, but there was a new sign just outside where the ride had been. Looks like Pinocchio got the fat boot and was evicted!

I'm confused- so I guess Rapunzel is moving in but what exactly does that mean? Is this a Rapunzel ride, Rapunzel meet and greet, Rapunzel restaurant? I guess I could Google the situation but I'm far too lazy at the moment.

I walked past the Village Haus in confusion and continued on my way. This path behind BTMR that eventually spits you out by the Mark Twain is notoriously dark and desolate. That night it was totally packed, but I was loving it b/c even that remote cranny was perfectly themed! There were spooky sounds like bats, wolves, owls, and crackling branches emanating from the treeline!

I stopped by the Big Thunder Ranch Halloween Round-Up (just can't get enough of this place!):

Hoooooooly Halloween, Batman!!

I wanted to go inside but my tummy was positively RUMBLING at this point, so I continued, keeled over. Even in my fatigued, starved state, I was still too excited not to take more pics. I came upon possibly my favorite DL oddity: the abandoned tunnel, which was all decked out for the

You can't quite make it out from this photo, but "Happy Halloween!" was projected into the tunnel in a ghostly white. When I passed by this way later in the night, it said: "Mickey's Halloween Party." My tunnel was quite the crowd pleaser tonight; loads of party-goers were gathered in front of it, so it was hard to get a good pic. Nobody ever pays any attention to my tunnel any other time, but project a seasonal greeting into it and it's rocket science. Here's what it looks like during the day:

As I fled from the tunnel area I was excited to finally get a closer peek at the Rivers of America. I had seen it from the train and it looked so perfectly foreboding from the New Orleans Square station, beyond the trees and Haunted Mansion. I took this from near the Mark Twain queue:

Note that Splash Mtn is glowing in the background. Love it! The Mark Twain was parked over by Critter Country b/c the Black Pearl (I mean, the Columbia) had taken over its usual spot:

Supposedly Jack Sparrow was available for pics inside the Mark Twain queue and there was quite a line-up! Unfortunately we all didn't get around to him but we did get to meet someone else...

I heard some distant thunder and then realized it was my tummy. So I started walking again. Keeling over again. As I was power walking behind a mother carrying her daughter through the crowds, the little girl exclaimed: "I like your costume!" Why thank you!!

I had to stop again when I came upon this crazy locale:

The French Market no more! That night it was "Club Skellington." Jack Skellington was available for photo-ops near the entrance, which TOTALLY wigged me out. I hate that skeletonous, spindly thing. I took a video of the ragin' scene from afar- check it out!

Mickey's Halloween Party 10/29: Club Skellington (YouTube)

I wanted to go inside terribly but I was still starving plus I didn't want to look like a nerd rockin' it out by myself. I wish I had though b/c we never got around to it! Oh well- guess I'll have to go back next year!

I love how the Haunted Mansion looks at night, enshrouded in glowing pumpkin garlands and flickering Jack O Lanterns impaled on the wrought iron fence and such, but the darn place was absolutely exploding w/ people! I don't understand why one would wait that long to go into that dreadful place. I only managed to get these 2 pics before I was swept along by the unmanageable current of guests hoofing it to Critter Country:

When I finally made it to Critter Country, I spied a positively treacherous gaggle of people over by the Pooh gift shop- I think Pooh and Co. were having photo ops back there or something. I arrived at HBR and thankfully there was no line, so I had no problem ordering my $2 grilled cheese specialty, plus I decided to spring for a chocolate milk. I found a great table and absolutely devoured my meal. HBR was so nice and quiet compared to the rest of the park! Suddenly, I sense a presence and discovered this little guy chilling out under my table:

I bet everyone thought I was completely insane for taking a picture of (apparently) my feet! KitKat was just enamored w/ my cloak, causing a bit of concern on my part for a few seconds, but I threw Kitty the last shard of bread I had on my tray and he/she vacuumed it up and just hung out for a few minutes.

During this time I had been texting/calling Kendra and she and Suzanne were apparently parking! We arranged for them to meet me at HBR since Suzanne was apparently starving as well and needed immediate sustenance. After what felt like an eternity, I was skimming through the photos on my camera, looked up, and there they were absolutely gawking and exclaiming at my costume! Kendra found it hilarious that I was costumed in such a very abnormal way while I was reclining in my chair in such a very normal way.

Anyway, Suzanne got in line for her grilled cheese but Kendra couldn't decide what she wanted to eat. She had been craving gumbo for weeks but felt like she should just get a grilled cheese so we didn't waste extra time eating. By this point, Suzanne had already successfully ordered her dinner and was 3/4 of the way finished w/ her sandwich. Kendra was still weighing her options. I pointed out that by then, if Kendra ordered a grilled cheese from HBR and ate it, it would require practically the same amount of time beyond the extra time it would take for Suzanne to finish the last 1/4 of her meal as it would if we walked over to New Orleans, ordered gumbo, and Kendra ate it. So Kendra might as well spring for the gumbo since that's what she really wanted. Hahaha, so on to dinner #2!

Once Kendra had practically finished the gumbo, Angie texted and she was fast approaching! She was parking and on her way into the park. So we waited. Now that I think of it, I don't know why we didn't just go inside Club Skellington since we were sitting right next to it, but we waited. After the 2nd eternity of the night, Angie arrived!!

We were all on the edge of our seats waiting for Angie b/c she had told Kendra that she had purchased an Alice costume at Hot Topic. We all were laughing/concerned but mostly laughing.

I just realized that you still haven't seen any pics of me and I haven't described the exact nature of my costume...

Guess it will have to wait until the next segment!

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[Eight]

Haha, I love the abandoned tunnel being a photo opp because of the light projections. You're right, it's so ignored otherwise. Though I did take a picture in front of it once. I don't remember why...

I love the picture of the Mark Twain. It looks so eerie.

And I really want to know what you were dressed as now!

 

[magichusky]

I love the picture of the Mark Twain. It looks so eerie.

Me too!! That was by far the best themed area in terms of spooky magicalness. CA Adv had nothing like that for Halloween!

And I really want to know what you were dressed as now!

Hahaha, in good time! I'm afraid that after all this build up, my costume won't be as grand as anticipated!

 

[magichusky]

Come to the WORLD with us for Christmas!!!!

I'd like to introduce my WDW PTR, located in the main Disney Trip Reports thread. I feel like I'm swimmin' w/ the big kids now! I'm headed to WDW for the very first time ever w/ my family on Dec 17th and am so excited that I can hardly stand myself:

25 yrs and just a little bit longer! Give me the WORLD for Xmas: SoG, Dec 17-23 PTR

See ya real soon w/ more Halloween excitement!

 

[magichusky]

Part 3: Hallowishes!

I'm finally back w/ the fireworks segment! I've been of course flipping out about my upcoming WDW extravaganza and have been paying far more attention to my new PTR, but today I'm in the mood for some Hallowishes! So back to the night of October 29th...

When we last left off, we had all just spent an extraordinary amount of time eating; we were sitting in New Orleans square while Kendra was finishing up her gumbo and waiting for Angie to arrive. Crazily enough by that point it was already 9:15pm or so and the fireworks started at 9:25pm! Horrified, we all headed towards Frontierland to try and stake out a reasonable spot by the castle. On our way we ran into the Halloween Tree and couldn't resist the temptation to stop for our first mass photo shoot. Drumroll please...

Kendra as Belle (Suzanne actually made this costume from scratch! Skills!):

Suzanne as Snow White:

Angie as an alternative/punk Alice:

And me! As Maleficent! Don't I make a convincing villain?

Here's a close-up of the Halloween Tree:

And here's the tree during the day:

The Hallowishes music was starting so we skedaddled and at that point we could do no better than waltz up to an unwieldy wall of spectators who had smartly gathered in the hub hours before and just stand there at the edge. We could barely see the tallest turret of the castle from where we stood due to a massive tree blocking most of the view. Oh well! Excuse the lame pictures- between the horrendous view and me still not knowing how to use my relatively new camera, it proved to be a ridiculous exercise!

I managed to film some of the show in HD however:

Mickey's Halloween Party 10/29: Halloween Screams fireworks (YouTube)

I actually fairly enjoyed the show however the music was far too creepy for my liking! I love how even spooky things Disney style freak me out.

Well, that's all for now- I was up until 6am this morning finishing a paper so I feel rather strange at the moment, hence my excruciatingly mundane update! Next time I'll talk about the parade which was super fun plus I have loads of photos, which are of superior quality to my measly fireworks attempts!

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[magichusky]

Part 4a: Character Cavalcade

Hello again! I hope everyone is having a delightful holiday season! Now that that's out of the way- back to this great TR!

So after the Hallowishes fireworks ended and I realized that I had managed to take absolutely zero photos worth a darn, we were off! I had mentioned to the others that upon my arrival I had scoped the entire place out and discovered a villain meet and greet that included Lady Tremaine, the evil stepsisters, and Maleficent!!! There's nothing that group loves more than a good old fashioned photo shoot so it was decided that we would head over to Fantasy Land immediately after the fireworks to meet and greet.

Also during my initial scope-out I was passing by the Halloween Round-up and overheard someone in the area mention a "haunted house." I mentioned this to Belle, Snow White, and Alice and we agreed that we would stop by the Round-up on our way to Fantasy Land and investigate. Once we got there, I went batty over a huge jack-o-lantern display (notice the Red Queen and Mad Hatter!):

Here's a pic of the display back in 2009, w/ one jack-o-lantern in progress right before our eyes!

(Excuse my goofy expression, I just thought that that evil Queen pumpkin was SO cool!!!)

The others were positively on a mission, so they rumbled right past this area and sped further into the Round-up. "But look at the pumpkins!!" I blubbered, however when I turned around no one was there! Great, thanks guys- make me look like a crazy person, talkin' to myself. Anyway, after I finished chatting w/ the Mad Hatter, one nut to another , I caught up w/ the speeders and we came to the conclusion that there was no such haunted house. I assumed that the person I had overheard earlier was in fact referring to the Haunted "Mansion." What ding-a-ling calls that thing a haunted house???

So we pressed onward. The only thing in the Round-up was the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet, w/ about 300 determined parents coaxing about 500 whining children stuffed into the queue. We arrived at the villain area, which was adjacent to Small World, but the queue had been cut off. Kendra flagged down the resident CM and requested details. The CM, a guy around our age, proceeded to practically give Kendra a Powerpoint presentation. I thought he was nice...Kendra thought he was smitten. What can I say? Kendra is a mystery to me. She successfully culls "hot" guys out of every single social environment I have ever been in w/ her. And yes, we were discussing the Powerpoint CM for the rest of the evening.

Powerpoint told us that Maleficent would be coming back out directly after the 10:30pm parade, around 11pm. We moved on b/c the other three desperately wanted to have a photo shoot w/ the princesses as well. The Royal Court was a short walk from the villains so we headed on over there. Once we positioned ourselves in the queue, Kendra flagged down another CM (I know what you're thinking, but this particular CM was a woman perhaps in her 50s) who told her that our wait would probably be around 45 minutes. Ummm, excuuuse me??? I was in no mood to wait that long, especially since meeting face characters is a bit strange anyway b/c they're all usually around our age. Plus, if we waited for 45 minutes we would miss the Character Cavalcade and possibly spoil our chances of queueing for Maleficent. So, what better way to mull it over than to twirl?

Mickey's Halloween Party 10/29: Kendra/Belle Spinning (YouTube)

That was Suzanne in the background, cheering on the theatrics. We decided that we preferred to watch the Cavalcade, so we exited the queue. What better way to celebrate a decision made under 15 minutes than to twirl?

Mickey's Halloween Party 10/29: Suzanne/Snow White spinning (YouTube)

That was Kendra in the background: "Don't make faces, darling!" And of course Angie and me guffawing in response and Suzanne exclaiming: "I'm TRYING not to fall down!" Love it. After the celebratory twirl, a gaggle of villains appeared out of nowhere and started walking towards us! They were on their way to the already maxed out meet and greet we had tried to queue up for earlier. All four of us simultaneously exploded into pig squeals and froze in place. It was Lady Tremaine, Drizella, Anastasia, and Maleficent! Lady Tremaine haughtily passed us by, Drizella and Anastasia whispered to eachother and giggled at us, and Maleficent did this super creepy glaring thing. She glared at me and calmly trilled: "Hellooooo, child." Shudder!! I thought, great- now when we visit her meet and greet she'll be like: "Oh, there's that weird girl again." I was so astonished that all I could do was snap this hasty pic as they rustled away:

My flash was off for some reason and it was super dark in that particular area so I had to fiddle w/ the pic's contrast and exposure on my computer so you could even make out Maleficent's dark figure. Hahaha creeeepy!

Up next- the Character Cavalcade!!!

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[skiingfast]

Lauren it's great that there is still more MHP reporting coming out! I love your group's costumes!