Trip Report Two goofs take a Halloween getaway. Now with bonus Christmas content!

Greetings all! We have recently returned from our short but very busy trip to the world. This trip was much needed for both of us, but especially for A, who has had a very difficult last few months. It was so great to get back to our happy place and see that big smile on her face again. We managed to pack in quite a bit in just four days. Now let’s get to it!

Friday October 25.

We had traveled to some friends of ours house the night before to shorten the drive to the airport. We had a 6 AM flight out of Dallas love field. We were out of bed and on the road to the airport by 4, and through security by 445(we love that airport!). The weather was a little iffy this morning, but our flight boarded and took off without delay. We had a very bumpy flight, including the worst takeoff I’ve ever experienced! Fortunately it’s a quick flight, and two hours later we were in sunny central Florida!

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Getting closer to her happy place!

We made our way over to magical express. It was moderately busy, but we were on a bus as soon as we were scanned in.
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We were staying at pop century! We’d never stayed here before, and were excited to try something new. It was absolutely perfect for this trip, as we didn’t spend as much time at the hotel as we do on longer trips. I really liked the new rooms, they’re very clean feeling, and the Murphy bed makes the room feel very spacious when it’s up. It feels a bit cramped with it down, but still not bad. I got the room ready text the second our bus drove under the welcome sign! We were in the 60s section, building 4 room 4268. Basically the perfect room. A short walk to the food court, bus stations, and skyliner! It’s also right at the hippy dippy pool.

We went straight to our room to put our luggage up and get ready for the parks. There was a bus headed to MK waiting for us when we got to the bus stop. Just after we boarded the skies opened up! Fortunately the rain was over by the time we got to magic kingdom. We were through the gates and on Main Street by 1130, just over 6 hours after we started the day. Not too shabby!

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We took a left at the hub and grabbed some spring rolls at the Adventureland cart. We had an order of hamburger spring rolls and an order of pepperoni. They were really good! I didn’t get a picture of them because at this point we were starving!

We headed to sunshine tree terrace for dessert. We shared a Redds Revenge.

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We both liked it, but agreed that the regular orange swirl float was better, as is the classic citrus swirl.

After dessert it was time for our first ride of the trip. Big thunder mountain! It started lightly raining on our ride, but we had a blast as always! The skies were getting darker as we exited big thunder. I was able to move our next FP for splash up, so we hurried over there, hoping the rain would hold up for us.

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We were successful! We were lucky to get on when we did though, because upon our exit of the gift shop the traditional Florida afternoon monsoon had hit!

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We stood under an awning and watched it rain for about 10 minutes. Eventually we decided to put on our rain ponchos, and make a run for one of my favorite attractions.

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Fun fact time. The voice of Big Al is voiced by Texas native and early country music star Tex Ritter, who grew up not far from where we live. I am related to the Ritter family on my fathers side. This includes deceased actor John Ritter, as well as actors Jason and Tyler Ritter. So basically what I’m saying is that I’m cousins with Big Al!😜

After the show the skies had cleared and the sun was out in full force. It was about 15 minutes before the parade was scheduled to start. We decided to hang around Frontierland and see if the parade would run on time. Unfortunately the announcement came right at 2 that the parade was delayed. No big deal for us! We made a FP for small world that began as soon as we made it over there.
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We used to avoid small world at all costs, because A wasn’t a fan. Fortunately for me, she gave it another chance on our last trip and now it’s one of her favorites! She loves that she finds something new nearly every ride, and has decided the song doesn’t bug her that much anymore! I’ve always been a big fan of the art style, and have always loved the song!
 

Swissmiss

Premium Member
Add drink and ice cream stops and I am also in.

There is a half or full marathon (can’t remember which and too lazy to look it up tonight) in the Medoc region of France (north of Bordeaux) where in addition to serving water, serves wine. I run; I’ve completed (slowly) 5 half marathons in the past 3 years. I couldn’t imaging drinking alcohol during a race. Ice cream, however, would probably help a lot 😉.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
There is a half or full marathon (can’t remember which and too lazy to look it up tonight) in the Medoc region of France (north of Bordeaux) where in addition to serving water, serves wine. I run; I’ve completed (slowly) 5 half marathons in the past 3 years. I couldn’t imaging drinking alcohol during a race. Ice cream, however, would probably help a lot 😉.
You had me at Bordeaux🍷
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday October 27 cont.

We headed over to future world to pick up our AP magnets.

A wanted to meet joy, so we checked the line and it was short enough for us to wait.
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She was obviously excited to see us. I wish sadness still met with her. Stupid budget cuts.

After joy we used FPs for Soarin and living with the land. We also did imagination, and watched the Pixar short film festival thing, which is always better than I expect it to be, but nowhere near as awesome as honey I shrunk the audience!

We walked on to Nemo, then checked out the aquarium.

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I always enjoy the living seas pavilion. Also of note the kuka arm fish was working on the ride, first time it’s ever worked for us!

Our last FP was for spaceship earth. It was quite the long fastpass line!
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It moved pretty quickly, and we were able to ride without any problems!

We went over to check out the Epcot experience next.

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The presentation is really well done, and the Epcot model looks great.

They had some interesting photo opportunities outside the show room.
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After Epcot experience we were both pretty hungry, but didn’t feel like fighting the already swelling crowds in world showcase(I really dislike food and wine festival!). We exited to the gondolas, and grabbed a bite at pop before taking a much needed nap.

Up next: MNSSHP
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday October 27 cont.

We napped for a few hours, and woke up feeling refreshed. We cleaned up and headed out for the evening. We hadn’t had our obligatory visit to wilderness lodge yet, so we headed there first.

We had no real plans at WL, we just always have to stop in and walk around. It’s where we stayed on our first trip together, so it’s a special place for us.

We stopped at roaring fork for a drink and a snack.
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Autumn surprise cupcake. I won’t give away the surprise, but it was good!

We took the boat over to MK, and got checked in to the party. We did jungle cruise next, but the speaker on our boat was broken, so I have no idea what our skipper was saying.

We decided to do splash next, as it only had a 10 minute wait posted.
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The logs were stacked up and not moving, no splash for us.

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We “settled” for big thunder instead, and of course had a blast!

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The fog was starting to roll off TS

The party didn’t officially start for another 30 minutes, and we were feeling pretty hungry. We went to a very crowded pecos bills. Large, uncomfortable crowds would be a recurring theme for the night.
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We split an order of hades nachos. Which was a wise choice, they were pretty large.

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A wanted this worms and dirt thing. Apparently it has something to do with hocus pocus. I’ve no interest in that movie, so I have no idea.

It apparently had started to rain pretty hard while we were eating. We walked out to a wet Frontierland.
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We put on our ponchos and hit a few candy stops in Frontierland.

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The castle looked great as usual. We wandered over to Tomorrowland.

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From this point on, The crowds were shoulder to shoulder, I have no idea how everyone seemed to all appear at once, yet here we all were!


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The crowds did indeed make us want to!

Up next: will we manage to survive the madness?
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday October 27

A and I quickly realized this would not be like any Halloween parties we attended in the past. The parties are clearly oversold beyond reason these days. We decided to try and make the best of it.

We made a few candy stops in Tomorrowland before making our way into fantasyland. Our youngest niece(from the picture in a previous post) had only one request for us. She wanted us to send her pictures of fancy nancy. How could we deny such a sweet innocent request?

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She now thinks we’re the coolest people on earth because we saw the real fancy Nancy.

We swam through the crowds in fantasyland and eventually found a little breathing room in liberty square. Haunted mansion had over an hour wait, so I guess that’s where all the people in liberty square were! We found a nice PP opportunity at the liberty belle dock.

We met a really nice young couple while waiting for our pictures. They had saved up to attend their very first Halloween party. They we so disappointed in the event up till that point. I felt really bad for them. We managed to cheer them up by complimenting their costumes.

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The rain shower that rolled through earlier that night had done nothing but make it miserably humid. We stopped by a popcorn cart for some water, and found a neat looking little cake.
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We ended up back in Frontierland just before the parade started. I originally planned to watch the 2nd parade, but we ended up in a decent spot about 10 minutes before the parade kicked off, so we just stayed put. It would’ve been difficult to navigate elsewhere anyways

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Song of the South characters provided a little pre parade entertainment.

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This lady was super energetic! She got the crowd excited for the parade. Well most of them, we were melting, but still trying to enjoy ourselves.
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No headless horseman. I’ve attended multiple parties in the past, and have yet to see it. Oh well!

Up next: Boo to you, and our luck changes for the better!
 

Nunu

Wanderluster
Premium Member
Loco, I've been noticing a pattern with these parties. You and other TReporters who have attended, find MK crowded for these special events. You might be into something here, looks like Disney might be overselling tickets.

I believe that the cute little cake is The Bride's Cake! I saw it somewhere and it intrigued me, was it good? :hungry:
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loco, I've been noticing a pattern with these parties. You and other TReporters who have attended, find MK crowded for these special events. You might be into something here, looks like Disney might be overselling tickets.

I believe that the cute little cake is The Bride's Cake! I saw it somewhere and it intrigued me, was it good? :hungry:
They have certainly been overselling the parties. I expected some crowds, but there were times when it was hard for us to walk because it was so crowded. The last party we attended was back in 2016, and it was a much more enjoyable experience(for a much lower price BTW). We managed to have an ok time, but we aren’t in a hurry to go to another MNSSHP, and our expectations for the Christmas party are very low now.

The little cake was indeed the brides cake. I honestly don’t remember much about how it tasted. My notes just say it was good. So it must have been good!
 

Nunu

Wanderluster
Premium Member
They have certainly been overselling the parties. I expected some crowds, but there were times when it was hard for us to walk because it was so crowded. The last party we attended was back in 2016, and it was a much more enjoyable experience(for a much lower price BTW). We managed to have an ok time, but we aren’t in a hurry to go to another MNSSHP, and our expectations for the Christmas party are very low now.

The little cake was indeed the brides cake. I honestly don’t remember much about how it tasted. My notes just say it was good. So it must have been good!
You are right: tickets are not cheap! At some point, we were considering attending a MK Christmas party, (don't remember the long name! :hilarious:), but after reading about the crowds, decided against it.
Frank and I will be there in three weeks too, can't wait for him to visit Batuu for the first time and hopefully ride ROTR!

Glad to know the cake was good and that you made the best out of your time at the party! :)
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday October 27 cont.

We enjoyed the boo to you parade.

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The incredibles are a new addition since we last saw it.
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So was the toy story section I believe.

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One of my favorite parts of the parade!

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The haunted mansion section was really good too. I think the bride is new.

After the parade finished we went to aloha isle to just get off our feet for a while. Our feet and backs were hurting from standing in the same spot for so long.

We headed to the hub next, to see if we’d have any luck finding a place to watch the fireworks. We lucked out and found a pretty decent spot near the entrance to Adventureland just about 10 minutes before the fireworks began.

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The projections for the new show were really well done!

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Jack Skellington is the host for the new show. I liked the new show for the most part. I didn’t really like the “story” aspect of it that much, and thought it was unnecessary.

After the fireworks ended we notice most people seemed to be heading toward the exit or toward Adventureland, so we swam upstream a bit to Tomorrowland. We were rewarded with an empty half of the park.

We watched the monsters inc. show for a bit, and finished filling up our candy bags. Pirate Goofy had nobody visiting him. So we kept him company for a minute.
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By this point we were both pretty exhausted, so we decided to head out.

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The night finished better than it started, but we won’t be back for another MNSSHP for quite a while.
 
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow, the fireworks show looked really crowded! It looked like a regular park day fireworks crowd, IMO.
But the Boo parade looked awesome!
The fireworks show was very crowded, but they only do one show per night, so most people at the party were there. The park in general felt more crowded than an average day, at least until after the fireworks! Boo to you was great!

I think we got a bit spoiled at our last Halloween party. A tropical storm actually formed over central Florida that day(can you say humid?), so the park was a ghost town. We had our own spot on Main Street for the parade, and they managed to get the fireworks off that night for what couldn’t have been more than about 300 people who braved the rain! One of our best Disney memories for sure!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday October 28.

Our departure day. We slept in some before finishing packing up. We headed to everything pop to grab a drink and some Advil for our sore legs!

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Christmas had apparently arrived over night!

We stored our luggage and took a Lyft to the contemporary, then walked to MK.

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We had a jungle cruise FP to use first. We could actually hear our skipper this time! The group in the orange shirts were from the UK, a group similar to make a wish. We encountered many of them throughout the day and they were all really great and so happy to be there!

After jungle cruise A wanted to go look at the Christmas store for an ornament. We saw Mary Poppins meeting behind the store, so we stopped by.
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It was as awkward as any other “face” character meets for me. A does much better with them.

We browsed the Christmas store for a little while before deciding to grab something to eat. We ended up getting Cheshire Cat Tails.

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Perfectly acceptable breakfast at Disney!

We had a FP for haunted mansion next. We stopped at philharmagic on the way. My glasses were scratched so it was pretty blurry for me.
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We finally got a ride on HM!

We also stopped for a few PP pics afterwards.

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HM was great as usual. I could smell fresh paint in some parts of it. We did small world next. There was a little boy behind us who was having an absolute blast looking at things. His parents were being super annoying and trying to draw his attention elsewhere(look here!, now look there!). Just let him be a kid in the moment! They were distracting him, and just plain annoying me!

Anyways, we had a FP for pirates next. I’m not sure how, but we ended up at sunshine tree terrace.
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Citrus Swirl > dole whip. There, I said it.
 
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