Lots of Completed Trip Reports....Nov 2009 - April 2014

I have a question, all your yummy apple, tigger tail photos, makes me want to ask, I saw on another thread and for the life of me can't find it, but it was an all different color apple, so was just curious do they do them for World of Color?? Did you happen to get a photo of them? Wonder if they will keep them around.:goodvibes
 
Was Tksbaskets reading along back when I mentioned her (in regards to the Halloween vs. Christmas subject)? She never jumped in to say anything about that!!

I don't think I'm a slacker....I commented on the total immersiveness of Christmas decor throughout DL as compared to Halloween.

Did I miss being able to state my opinion on something else? I hope not, I like to give my opinion on Disneyland! :thumbsup2

Back to reading this trip report....which I'm lovin' by the way! :worship:
 
Your trip report is so making me want to go to Disneyland next year for Halloween!!! Can't wait to see more!!!:goodvibes

Oooh, I'm glad my plan is working...:stir: I've definitely got more pics to share. Our Day 2 consisted of Mickey's Halloween Party. So more Halloween fun is on the way! :goodvibes

I have a question, all your yummy apple, tigger tail photos, makes me want to ask, I saw on another thread and for the life of me can't find it, but it was an all different color apple, so was just curious do they do them for World of Color?? Did you happen to get a photo of them? Wonder if they will keep them around.:goodvibes

I saw those apples on the Dining Review thread. I didn't see them at Disneyland. I think they are just a DCA thing for World of Color. I didn't go into anyplace that would have sold them, so I don't know if they are still there. I would guess they are, though. They are pretty, but my teeth hurt just looking at them. :rotfl:

I don't think I'm a slacker....I commented on the total immersiveness of Christmas decor throughout DL as compared to Halloween.

Did I miss being able to state my opinion on something else? I hope not, I like to give my opinion on Disneyland! :thumbsup2

Back to reading this trip report....which I'm lovin' by the way! :worship:

Did you make it over to the Halloween Roundup? I guess I'll have to tune into your TR to find out. We spent a lot of time over there our first day. If I had only been there one day I probably would have just quickly walked through.

Well, I just found out that Snapfish is doing a "Buy 1 Picture Book, Get 2 Free" deal that ends Monday. So I might try to put together one of those and have 3 books to give to my mom and 2 sisters. Sometimes those things are a little overwhelming to me, so we'll see. If I'm MIA for a day, that's what I'm up to. :goodvibes
 
Aha! I'm glad to see you are coming around on the subject of Haunted Mansion Holiday!! You're starting to appreciate it!! Infidel!:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:

If I recall, I think it was Bumbershoot who also didn't care for HMH too much at first, but I think it's grown on her a little bit! I think she still has issues with it, but she doesn't dislike it.

I like the original Haunted Mansion, of course, because that's the one I grew up with. That's the one I was afraid to ride when I was really little, and then it finally grew on me and I loved it. But I must say, I don't miss it when I go to DLR and ride HMH. I never think to myself, "Gee, I wish the original HM were running now." Maybe if I went to DLR again in summer or some other time that's not a holiday season (which will likely not happen), I would miss the original one and really feel its loss. I think, in my mind, I probably associate the original HM more with summer because we always used to make summer trips to DL before I discovered that I loved Christmastime more!!

So when I go for Halloween and Christmastime, I feel like HMH is a big part of the festivities. Now it would seem odd to me if HMH were NOT on the agenda for either holiday. I'm so used to it. But if I suddenly went back to DLR in the middle of July or something, maybe I would be longing for the original 999 ghosts!

Next year is the HMH's 10th anniversary, I think. That should be fun!

I know what you mean about that feeling when you know you are at DLR. I don't know what it is now for me - I will have to figure that out in December when I go - but when I was a kid, it was seeing the Matterhorn (and later Space Mountain) from the freeway - that was such a feeling of euphoria because I knew we were fast approaching the Magic Kingdom! And then, once we got out of the car in the enormous parking lot, seeing the tram made me giddy! To me, the tram was like a little ride all on its own! I loved it! And finally, holding the ticket books with the A - E tickets in it really was what sealed the deal. Once I held the ticket book in my hand, then I knew I was at Disneyland!!

Was Tksbaskets reading along back when I mentioned her (in regards to the Halloween vs. Christmas subject)? She never jumped in to say anything about that!!

Oooh, I'm glad my plan is working...:stir: I've definitely got more pics to share. Our Day 2 consisted of Mickey's Halloween Party. So more Halloween fun is on the way! :goodvibes



I saw those apples on the Dining Review thread. I didn't see them at Disneyland. I think they are just a DCA thing for World of Color. I didn't go into anyplace that would have sold them, so I don't know if they are still there. I would guess they are, though. They are pretty, but my teeth hurt just looking at them. :rotfl:



Did you make it over to the Halloween Roundup? I guess I'll have to tune into your TR to find out. We spent a lot of time over there our first day. If I had only been there one day I probably would have just quickly walked through.

Well, I just found out that Snapfish is doing a "Buy 1 Picture Book, Get 2 Free" deal that ends Monday. So I might try to put together one of those and have 3 books to give to my mom and 2 sisters. Sometimes those things are a little overwhelming to me, so we'll see. If I'm MIA for a day, that's what I'm up to. :goodvibes

Yes I did. Coming up soon. Have fun with Snapfish. Sounds like some great holiday gifts!
 

I ended up doing the Snapfish deal. I don't know why those things take me so long to put together. Anyway... here are the rest of the Halloween Roundup pictures.

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We walked in on Woody doing a magic trick.

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Did I mention how much I love fall? ;) Getting close to the end of these.

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I love all the different carved pumpkins. Somehow I must have missed the ranch area on my few trips to Disneyland. At least I don't remember ever being in that area.
 
I love all the different carved pumpkins. Somehow I must have missed the ranch area on my few trips to Disneyland. At least I don't remember ever being in that area.

It really is easy to miss. We never made it back there during our trip last November. I love Christmas decorations even more than fall decorations, so I missed out on a lot. Another reason to make it back in November sometime. :thumbsup2

Love the pictures of the Roundup~!

Thanks - it was a bit overload, I know. :)
 
My last update for Day 1...

When we finished up with the Roundup, we had time for one more ride before heading over to see Aladdin. We're there for 5 days and Day 1 is our only day to see it. :sad2: It was also playing on Day 2, but we planned to rest up before Mickey's Halloween Party during the show times.

We decided to head into Fantasyland and just scope out a short line. Casey Jr. it was. One of very few lampposts this trip...

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I wish they would have pointed out specifically which plants were planted by Walt himself.

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Pretty flowers near Casey Jr.

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From here we walked leisurely through Fantasyland and through the castle. Show time was in about an hour.

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Main Street crowds around 3:40pm on a Monday.

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About this time D36 left to go meet a friend in the 15 minute parking lot off Harbor. Just to say hi, as they happened to be in the area. The rest of us meandered down Main Street. You know me...I can't make it down Main Street without a click-click here and there. ;)

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It's 4:00 by now. Time to go over to DCA for the 4:45 show. I had forgotten that we'd need to go around and through Bugs Land to get to the theater. No worries, it wasn't that crowded. I was wishing we hadn't gotten there that early. Or that there were benches to sit on. M48 hurt her tail bone on Splash earlier in the day and it was painful for her to just stand there. Finally we were let into the theater. This was a first for Mom and M48 and they both loved it. I don't think Mom has ever seen Aladdin, but M48 is a fan. (I still remember when her 2 boys were Aladdin and Abu for Halloween 17 years ago. :goodvibes She also had 2 cats -- Ali and Jasmine. Ali passed away last year, but Jasmine is still around.)

I don't know how to get a decent picture of this show, but here's one to prove I was there. ;)

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It was 5:45pm when we got out of the theater. EEK! Disneyland was closing at 6:00. We still had to make our way through the crowds and get back into Disneyland to get our stuff out of the locker. I texted D38, who was going to wait for us near the DCA entrance, and asked her to go into Disneyland and retrieve our stuff. Then I remembered that I had the code, so I called her. She didn't answer, so I was leaving a message. By this time I was "running" ahead of Mom and M48. At some point, as I was nearing the DCA exit, and leaving her a message, I ran into her. We looked up and saw that we were 2 feet from each other. :rotfl: So we both hightailed it to Disneyland, making it to the turnstiles at 5:58. Whew! We got our stuff and met the others by the letter "C" and headed back to HoJo.

We decided since it was an early night we'd drive over to Coco's for dinner. We used to eat here back in the 80s and 90s when we'd stay at Eden Roc (:scared1:) or the Inn of Tomorrow (Stovall's). After reminiscing about M48 getting food poisoning from the peach pie at Coco's in 1993... we enjoyed our meal. I had a really good Asian salad. We also enjoyed the 80s music. ;)

After a fun-filled-9-ride-day at Disneyland, we went back to HoJo and retired for the evening. Tomorrow's plan: Leave at 7:15 for an 8:00 opening, leave Disneyland around 2pm for a break, and go back at 5:30pm for Mickey's Halloween Party. :cool1:
 
Well, apparently we made good time this morning. I think there were 3 people in front of us in line at the turnstiles. Peeking through the gates...

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You know all the Cast Members that stand out on Main Street, wearing the giant Mickey hands and waving to guests as they come in? I love that! It's just so happy and welcoming to me. Anyway, D36 and I decided we were going to kind of jog down Main Street and "High 5" all of them, like we were all on the same sports team or something. :) D36 took the first set of CMs we came to, and I took the second set. Here's D36 (kind of) after jogging through the Emporium area. (I mainly included these pictures to show what a kick the CMs got out of us doing that. It made me think that they don't often have people running down the street, high-fiving them, and then kicking up their heels and woo-hooing after they've made it down the line. ;))

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My turn to high five the CMs positioned in front of Crystal Palace.

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When I reached Chef Oscar I hugged him instead of giving him 5 and told him I'd be stopping by for lunch later...to enjoy a bowl of his Loaded Baked Potato Soup!

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Then Mom got in on the action and took on the CMs standing in the middle of Main Street. I wasn't quick enough to snap a picture. What a fun way to start our day.

We veered left and headed into...

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...for the Tiki Room. Not a typical first-thing-in-the-morning attraction, I know. This is M48's favorite part of Disneyland. (We're all about nostalgia. ;)) She was way overdue for a visit with Jose and Friends.

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If I want to be transported back to 1979, this is where I go. :goodvibes

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It was a fun show. Just us and 3 more people who were clearly into it just as much as we were. It always makes me sad when I am sitting in a show and people get up and walk out.

Another light.

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I wanted to stop by the shop right there and get a replacement key chain. I bought this key chain when I was there in April:

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I loved it, even though it was a bit of a fuzz collector. But it broke just a few days before I left on this trip. It just tore. I went in, scanned the store, didn't see it, then finally asked someone.

Meet Dino.

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What started out as a "Do you still have...?" turned into a 20-ish minute conversation. He was very friendly and talked about all sorts of things Disney-related. (And by the way...they don't carry that key chain anymore. :headache: So the hunt began for another.)

Before we left, D36 re-enacted a picture taken of our older brother back in the 70s. Same store. Different snake. :)

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After grabbing Indy FPs, we went for a cruise through the jungle. First another light pic.

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We had a really good skipper. Actually, the best I'd had in 14+ years. (This was my 3rd cruise in 14+ years, so it really isn't saying all that much. ;) But he was very into it.)

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I thought he kind of looked like Bobby Brady all grown up!

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Apparently I have an entire hour that I can't account for! :scared1: An hour passed in between Jungle Cruise and sailing on the Mark Twain. I'm thinking we might have done Indy. Ugh. That's what I get for not taking any notes this time around.

So the Mark Twain. We asked if we could ride up top in the Wheelhouse, but the CM told us to ask someone else. We asked that someone else and he directed us to someone else. Meanwhile another party was promised the experience. We were disappointed, but oh well.

Just a bunch of sights from the Mark Twain:

The crowdless Frontierland 2 hours after park opening.

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The kinds of things I notice when I'm on an adults-only trip. ;)

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And just in case you wanted a closer view...

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I had never taken a picture of this before:

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OK. Love this lady! Look how happy and Halloween-y festive she is! Don't you love her tiny witch hat?!?

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We actually saw this lady the day before. We were eating breakfast at River Belle Terrace and noticed her walk by. How can you miss those socks? ;) So you can imagine our surprise when we saw the same lady in the same Halloween outfit in almost the same place the very next day!

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According to my pictures, our next stop was Indy. Another 7 minute line. :cool1: Without using our FPS.

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POTC was next. When we got out we happened across this Pirate quartet. Very fun!

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I am SO enjoying your trip report. I was actually provided the link by another Diser who said you had the best Halloween report on the boards but can't remember her name.

I'm all caught up on the Halloween portion, now I'm going to start back at page one.
 
Of course stunning photos! I'm so glad you got to see Aladin. I was bummed that it wasn't playing the one day I was there.

The boat captain can make or break the Jungle Cruise. Glad you had a great one!

Weren't we just discussing things I've never noticed before??? The Petrified tree for one, the Mark Twain info for another. Time to plan another trip to DL!! :woohoo:

Standing by for more....popcorn:: (this popcorn NOT being eaten out of a Mickey Ghost bucket)
 
I am SO enjoying your trip report. I was actually provided the link by another Diser who said you had the best Halloween report on the boards but can't remember her name.

I'm all caught up on the Halloween portion, now I'm going to start back at page one.

So glad you are enjoying it! :goodvibes Thank You for reading along!

Of course stunning photos! I'm so glad you got to see Aladin. I was bummed that it wasn't playing the one day I was there.

The boat captain can make or break the Jungle Cruise. Glad you had a great one!

Weren't we just discussing things I've never noticed before??? The Petrified tree for one, the Mark Twain info for another. Time to plan another trip to DL!! :woohoo:

Standing by for more....popcorn:: (this popcorn NOT being eaten out of a Mickey Ghost bucket)

Didn't Aladdin used to play Thursday - Sunday? That's what I was thinking, anyway, so it was surprising that our only options were Monday and Tuesday. :confused: And yes, another trip is always in order if we want to catch things we missed! :thumbsup2

Well, I was hoping to get another update done tonight after the kids were in bed, but it's not happening. Apparently the stuff that's going around my house is making its way to me. :sick: I really hope I don't "hiccup on my pillow and get it dirty" tonight. ;) (See previous page, I think, if that doesn't make sense.)

By the way, when I scrolled down this page to post, I realized how stalker-ish I look with the Halloween Lady. :eek: Moving up from behind on one side...moving up ahead of her on the other side...

I really hoped to get this Halloween Time report done before the official start of Disneyland's Holiday Season, but it's not looking too likely. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.
 
I'm still not feeling all that great, but I don't want this to drag on for weeks.

We wanted to hit Matterhorn before our lunch at Carnation Cafe, so it looks like that's what we did next.

I don't remember seeing these railings before. Granted I had a long DL drought, but still... I guess it blends in well.

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I shared the front seat with M48. I got the VERY front. :)

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I keep reading about how bumpy people think this ride is and how banged up they get. I never experienced that myself until this particular ride. I think it was because I was sharing the seat with another person. Anyway, it's still a favorite.

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We made our way back toward Main Street for our 12:30 lunch reservation at CC.

A random picture of the castle at noon. With snow on it. During Halloween Time.

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Another colliding of holidays picture...

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Since we had some time to spare before lunch, we decided to ride the little horse drawn trolley down Main Street, and then walk back from Town Square.

A picture especially for my kids... They remembered the horse's bum being all done up for Christmas, and wondered if the horse's bum would be sporting some sort of Halloween costume. :rotfl:

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Time to check in for lunch. We were about 10 minutes early and waited a few minutes to be seated.

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Chef Oscar himself seated us. We chatted about the potato soup again. I told him how I had a signed copy of his soup recipe and he told me all sorts of things about the soup. At one point I asked him how he keeps the potatoes from boiling away. That's a problem I occasionally have -- I know I put in a ton more potatoes than what I actually end up with. He made some comment like, "Oh boy, I'm in trouble now!" Like he was trying to teach the most difficult student ever. All in fun, of course. :goodvibes He came back to our table several times. D36 and M48 ordered the same thing as me. The half turkey sandwich and a cup of the potato soup (but we all upgraded to a bowl).

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(Man, I wish I had some of that soup right now for my very sore throat.)

At one point when Oscar came back to visit and see how we liked the soup, I told him, "It looks like you may have a couple more fans!" (Everyone loved the soup.) He said, "Oh I only need one fan." And then he came over to me and said, "Just checking to see if you have a ring..."

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It was hilarious!

Here he is again... The random man in the background makes me laugh!

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Finally we finished up with our lunch. Chef Oscar gave me a hug as we were leaving and said, "Now you have a wonderful day, honey."

We decided to spend some time in Fantasyland before taking a 3-ish hour break before the Halloween Party. Just some random Fantasyland pics:

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Whoa! Look at the time! It was about 30 minutes later than what we were hoping for. Our break-time was tick-tick-ticking away and we hadn't left the park yet. We still needed to buy hats to wear to the party as well. So, our next stop was hat shopping in Fantasyland. I was the only one interested in dressing up for the party, but I didn't want to dress up by myself. M48 suggested we all just buy a new hat to wear as our "costume." Mom chose a baseball cap with Mickey's from different years circling the hat. She wanted something that she would wear on a regular basis. M48 chose the Halloween headband that had Mickey ears and a tall candy corn in the middle, with candy corn earrings. I chose the Goofy pirate hat -- a fitted red bandana style with white polka dots, Goofy ears, and a large gold ring at the bottom of each ear. D36 chose a winter-ish fitted knitted type hat with Mickey's face and ears on top. (How's that for a description? I'll have to find a post-able picture.) After we bought our hats, we headed out for our rest. Once we got to Town Square, and saw that our rest wouldn't be that long, M48 decided it would be too much trouble for her to go all the way back to HoJo. She was having blister problems on her feet, and continued to have painful tailbone issues from a ride on Splash the day before. So she settled in on a bench in front of the train station to take a nap, while the rest of us went back to HoJo for a rest.

Up next...Mickey's Halloween Party!
 
For a dis-chick who isn't feeling well you treated us one heck of an installment! Hope you feel better soon. Some of that scrumptious soup would do it.

SOOOooo glad you shared a couple of interesting light photos. My DH and sons wonder why I look at the lights at DL and WDW so much now.... Hmmm :rotfl2:
 
For a dis-chick who isn't feeling well you treated us one heck of an installment! Hope you feel better soon. Some of that scrumptious soup would do it.

SOOOooo glad you shared a couple of interesting light photos. My DH and sons wonder why I look at the lights at DL and WDW so much now.... Hmmm :rotfl2:

Thanks! Well, turns out I have strep throat. I've got a few doses of antibiotics under my belt, so I'm doing much better. Let's continue on...

So M48 stayed on a bench near the train station to rest, and the 3 of us went back to HoJo. I'm not one of those people that can sneak in a 23 minute rest and feel refreshed. Such a short rest would just make me feel sleepier in the long run. I did lay down, but there was no sleeping action going on for me. I wanted to be back at Disneyland at 5:30, so that's what we did.

Time to go to the party!

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We got our wristbands after going through the turnstiles. I asked a CM if M48 would have to exit, then re-enter. That would have been a pain. (I had her party ticket.) Fortunately we were able to take care of her party entrance in front of the AP Processing Center, with no line. I was hoping that would be a sign of things to come, crowd -wise. Uhhhh...no. Backtracking a bit...after getting our wristbands, party guests entered on the right, while guests who were leaving went through the Town Hall side. We brought our own trick-or-treat bags, so we didn't have to make a stop at the bag-handout table. Next stop was to go wake up M48, who was sleeping on the bench. That's another thing I can't do. Just fall asleep in public places. :scared1: We went over to get her ticket taken care of, and then we were good to go. We headed toward Frontierland. A ride on Big Thunder Mountain seemed like a good place to start, as there was no line. :woohoo: M48 sat this one out due to tailbone issues. We then headed over to the dock to get a picture with Capt. Jack Sparrow. They were still ready-ing the area. It didn't look like it would be much longer, and there were only a few people in line so we waited.

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We ended up being in line for only 10 minutes. Not bad! A few pirate pics:

Not sure what he's doing with M48's candy corn hat!

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In this picture with me, he had just gotten done biting my earring! Well, the earring on my Goofy pirate hat, that is. ;) He asked if it was real gold, then stuck the thing in his mouth to see for himself. He didn't seem too pleased.

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You can kind of get the idea of D36's hat...

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Capt. Jack said to D36, "Did you know you have a rodent on your head? You need to be careful about that. Rodents will eat all the apples on your ship." :rotfl:

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Riding POTC next seemed like the best thing to do. Another walk-on. :cool1: Oh yeah, we were asked to show our wristbands as we walked from the dock to Pirates. For the second and last time that night. :sad2: So for us, there was no checking 30 minutes after the start of the party.

We headed toward HMH next, catching these pics along the way...

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I wish the creepy fog over the Rivers of America pics would have turned out better. It really was cool. In this next pic you can kind of see the thickness of the trick-or-treaters.

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There were stations all along that area. You could walk up one side 'til you reached the end, then turn around and go back the other way. There were typically 2 CMs at each station. We figured the lines would shorten as the night wore on, so we kept walking and did HMH. The line was about 15 minutes long. Again, not bad.

We headed toward Fantasyland next, making a stop at the Halloween Tree on our way. So much more noticeable at night!

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And on the walking area in front of the tree:

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That skeleton spins, by the way.

We took the path through Frontierland past the Thunder Ranch area. It was really feeling crowded by this time, 1 1/2 hours into the party. There were a bunch of treat stations along that path, but most lines were long. We only got in a line if it was a really short wait. Like less than 10 people in front of us. It was weird how some stations would have looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong lines and other stations would just have looong lines. :)

Loved this Mickey Ghost we passed by on our way. Very Halloween-y!

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More party to come...
 
I'm so glad you are feeling better! Strep throat is horrible and doubly so when it's the mom with strep. We moms don't get to take a sick day.

I love hearing about the party!! Your pictures are great. I like Jack's comment about the rodent eating the food on the ship.

Looking forward to more! popcorn::
 
I'm so glad you are feeling better! Strep throat is horrible and doubly so when it's the mom with strep. We moms don't get to take a sick day.

I love hearing about the party!! Your pictures are great. I like Jack's comment about the rodent eating the food on the ship.

Looking forward to more! popcorn::

That is so true when moms get sick. It's just business as usual for us.

More about the party...

We went to Fantasyland. D36 wanted to ride the carousel. I love riding it at night.

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M48 rode a horse next to Ursula. She enjoyed their conversation so we asked Ursula if we could take her picture before moving on.

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I wish I would have taken more pics of the creative costumes we saw!

The castle looked so very cool:

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Up next...Mr. Toad!

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The party was going by so fast. Way too fast. 2 hours gone... 3 more to go. We rode Alice next.

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It was close to 8:30 by this time. I wanted to go check out the scene in front of the castle, in terms of fireworks viewing. Halloween Screams would be starting at 9:30. We headed through the castle. :scared1: The crowds were very disheartening. Everyone was getting hungry. We hadn't eaten anything since lunch with Chef Oscar. We went to Bengal BBQ. OK...huge line. D36 and Mom stayed to get our food. M48 and I went back over to grab a spot for the fireworks. I have to say now that the whole crowd thing was getting a bit frustrating. I must admit that my visions of what the party would be like crowd-wise was way off base. I didn't expect to be frolicking around in the park with just a thousand other people or anything. I think my expectations were realistic. I imagined to feel a noticeable difference in crowd levels between our days at Disneyland and our party night. In a good way. SOOO NOT TRUE! By this time we had spent all of Monday and Tuesday in the park, and now Tuesday night. The party night felt MUCH more crowded to us than the regular days we had experienced so far! :headache: Just not what I expected...

OK, so a CM helped us find a spot, which turned out to be a great spot. I just wasn't sure exactly where the sphere would be, how high it would be, etc. We asked for help and got it. A few front-of-the-castle photos while we waited for food and fireworks. (Say THAT 5 times fast. ;))

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The spiders would crawl around. Pretty cool looking.

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It was getting harder and harder to hold 2 spots as the crowds continued to make their way in. Finally, Mom and D36 came back bearing food, after waiting in line for a good 40 minutes. (That's another thing. If I ever do this again, dinner will be at 5:00. NOT during party time. I'm not sure what we were thinking.) We were all settled in, waiting for the show to start, and then a 10 foot tall guy stood in front of us. OK, not 10 feet tall. But tall! M48 spoke to him and he eventually moved over a bit, but then he was blocking someone else's view.

The fireworks were awesome! Unfortunately I don't have a single picture. I was eating my chicken skewer and my veggie skewer during the show, which was a tad messy. Plus we were in really close quarters.

OK, fireworks are over and it's nearly 10:00. Only 1 more hour! Where has the time gone? I have ONE HOUR to make good on my promise to my 3 sons: "I will bring you lots of candy from Disneyland! I promise!" A little hard to do when you are 4 hours into a 5 hour party and your bag looks like this:

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:scared1::scared1::scared1:
 
Last update for Mickey's Halloween Party...

So we had one hour left, and nearly empty trick-or-treat bags. I know some people wondered why trick-or-treating was such a big deal to other people. Well -- it's trick-or-treating! And Disneyland! Two of my favorite childhood memories. Kind of like worlds colliding, but in a good way. Not in a George Costanza freaked out way. I heard, "Why not just go to Target and buy a few bags of candy?" more than once. For me, it wasn't so much about the candy itself. (I was passing most of that along to my kids.) It was an extension of feeling like a kid at Disneyland. Being there with just my mom and sisters made me feel like I was a kid again, in some respects. Being able to actually go trick-or-treating...something I haven't done since I was a kid...and doing that at Disneyland...:cloud9::cloud9::cloud9: It had its own sense of magic.

So off we went trick-or-treating. We headed to Innoventions first, as I knew there would be a Ghirardelli station. Things were looking good -- only saw a few people. Then we realized that we were going the wrong way (this area was just one-way). :eek: The line was so long! Not what I imagined toward the end of the night. But, what are you going to do? So we got in line. And yes, they did move pretty fast, but all this business of getting handfuls? Didn't apply to us. (Yeah, I know it wasn't about the candy itself. For me it wasn't. It WAS about the candy for my kids. :))

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Next we trick-or-treated on the old Motor Boat Cruise dock. (I know it wasn't the most exciting ride, but I still miss it.) No lines there.

It was getting close to Parade time. We originally had plans to see it from Main Street, but after taking our trick-or-treat situation into consideration, we decided to catch the parade at the end of the route by Small World.

Passing through the parade route on our way to trick-or-treat near Princess Fantasy Faire, we saw more festive projections.

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Took care of some more t-o-t -ing then headed back to catch the parade in front of IASW.

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A few parade pictures. Note to self: Figure out how to take good nighttime shots!

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The parade was great! It definitely exceeded my expectations. I think they were smart in billing it as a "Character Cavalcade."

15 minutes to go until MHP is officially over. We headed back to the walkway between Fantasyland and Frontierland. There were tons of stations back there. Lines were definitely shorter than they were earlier. We went through that area, then the whole ROA area. It was so fun! You just gotta stop and look around and take it all in. Never ever did I imagine I would someday trick-or-treat at Disneyland! :cool1: So -- with bags a bit fuller and heavier -- we headed back to BTMRR. That would have been the perfect way to end the night, but would we make it???

Alas, no we would not. When we thought we were home free, we saw the guy block off the entrance. :eek: The party was over.

We headed back to the hub. I think I forgot to mention that's where we left M48 after the fireworks. We found a nice family with a bench. They let M48 sit with them and wait for the parade to pass by. M48 just couldn't go on between her tailbone (which still hurts, by the way) and her blistered feet. So we picked her up and made our way down Main Street with the rest of the masses. Mom actually danced her way down Main Street to some Halloween song. I remember "Shake Your Bones" as part of its message...which Mom apparently took literally. ;)

Arriving back at our room.

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My loot:

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Party Thoughts:

*I think they sold too many tickets. Overall it didn't feel like an exclusive event.

*5 hours didn't feel long enough. 6 hours would be better. An overnight party would have been best!

*We only did 6 rides. Wish we would have had time for more. But when I think about it, there's nothing that we DID do that I would have traded out for more rides.

*Definitely not wise to eat dinner during the party if you want to get a lot of stuff done without rushing. (I guess I would trade out eating during the party for more rides.)

*Riding the carousel at night while catching glimpses of all the party-goers in their costumes and the creepy castle was AMAZING. One of my favorite memories from the night.

*Halloween Screams and the Character Cavalcade were worth the effort to see. Excellent! (I guess we didn't really put any effort into seeing the parade. We just walked over to the end of the route when we heard it coming. Not crowded at all. I'm so glad we decided to see it this way instead of staking out a spot on Main Street.)

*Trick-or-treating at Disneyland...yeah, it really is all that. ;)

*Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY. :love:
 













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