Sherry E
Currently tag-less...
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
- Messages
- 19,646
Sherry - Thanks! I have more photos...so some I'll hold for a bit (like the ones of Haunted Mansion Holiday...those I still need to do a little post-processing on and I'm waiting for my new computer so that Photoshop stops crashing!).Maybe I'll save the snacks and treats for Halloween day...after all, candy/yummies is a big part of the day itself!
figment_jii --
I think that sounds like an awesome idea! I know that I would love to see some pictures of treats/goodies on Halloween, so I can salivate over all of the things I'm not eating that day!
You are preaching to the choir about computers causing programs to crash (or just malfunction in general).
I won't even get into how angry I was yesterday, when trying to post something in the Christmas Superthread about a Candlelight-related conversation I had with a CM on the phone. I typed it all out and tried to post, and the page just kept loading and loading and loading. Finally, when it appeared to have loaded, the page was blank. No Christmas Superthread, no post from me, etc. Just a blank white page. The text I typed disappeared, and I had only copied and pasted a portion of it so I would inevitably have to end up re-typing something. At that point I gave up and stopped trying to post!
: 
I just got back from our Halloween trip this afternoon. I'm exhausted. We had to make a special hour-long drive after dropping our bags off at home (which is an additional hour-long drive from the airport) to pick up our dogs from where we've been boarding them. So forgive me if I sound a bit out of sorts... lol. 
I'll get right to my review now---I thought the decorations were adorable and very, very pretty. I loved Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. I adored Haunted Mansion Holiday. Never made it to the Halloween ranch area, but my fiancé did, briefly, and he said it was great. All in all, during the day, I found the special Halloween touches/ride overlays to be awesome! However... the parties were another story. Lol. I realize now, in retrospect, that buying tickets for three separate MHPs without ever trying them before (!!!) was very stupid on my part. I guess I just got too enthusiastic. 
Anyway, I can't say I hated the parties because I didn't. I loved the lighting. Main Street looked absolutely amazing. When they "switched out" the meet-and-greet villains, it was epic. New Orleans Square, as well, looked very festive, and the Cadaver Dans were amazing!! 
I wasn't probably the fairest judge, considering I was very tired on the nights we did the party and pretty much anything could've gotten on my nerves... lol. That said, I found MHP to be kind of overwhelming and not really my thing. I had been expecting short or semi-short lines for some of the attractions, but every ride seemed to have at least a twenty-five minute wait. Even Pirates was busier than normal, and after a long Disney day of waiting in lines, we just didn't think it was worth it. 
The people there were mostly pretty awful and trampled my young nieces on several occasions. We saw candy wrappers on Main Street and by the treat trails. The CMs were very rude to us and kept a Hitler-like watch over the "roped-off" walkways, so if we accidentally got caught up in a treat trail we wanted to get out of, they would force us to walk to the very end and not harmlessly duck under a rope to free ourselves. In fact, if we made any mistake (remember, we've never done an MHP before!), they'd get very aggressive with their reprimanding. It was strange and really annoyed my fiancé. The flow of traffic, because of the blocked-off walkways, was pretty bad in certain areas (Tomorrowland, NOS, and Main Street). The trick-or-treating was fun, but the CMs were very stingy with the amounts they gave us. I didn't mind (don't like candy), but I felt they could've been more generous with my nieces. Sometimes they would only give them one or two pieces, and of things they hated (M&Ms with peanuts, for example---I hate that they don't ask the kids if they even liked those, and what about children with nut allergies??). The one "saving grace" of the party would be the fireworks. They were ridiculously good. We had the best seats in the house, on the train station platform, with no one around us and on our very own bench. A perfect, unobstructed view and a great place to rest our aching feet. 
So, I'd have to say MHP has some good points, and some bad. We talked to a CM and she told us they sell out at 18,000 people---which is supposed to be pretty good, considering the 40,000 people the park can house---but it felt pretty crowded to us, especially my fiancé. I'm not sure I would do it again. 
I'll try to post pictures tomorrow or later...
The second night, all my nieces wanted to do was trick-or-treat, and that was hard because of the roped-off walkways/crowds. Like I said, they kept getting trampled and ended up with basically a half-empty bag of their least favorite candy---M&Ms with peanuts. Lol. The third night was actually the best, and all we were able to do was see the fireworks and ride POTC. Kind of pathetic. 
I still loved the Halloween season and would go again, but maybe in late September, before MHP starts. I do hope someone else reads your great advice and follows it, because I doubt we'll ever do another party---my fiancé is completely scared off now.
