SOCALMouseMommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2017
- Messages
- 5,543
I wanted to leave a review of our experience at the OBB. My 10-year-old son and I went on Sunday (10/5). We met up with my good friend and her 6-year-old son. This was our third OBB in three years.
We are Magic Key holders but my son has a Believe Key and he was blocked out this day so we planned to arrive after 3pm but before the party started. We had a last-minute costume switcharoo (thanks to my son coming to me at 8pm the night before and asking if we could switch to Sally and Jack) so we spent the entire morning visiting three Spirit Halloween stores to piece together our new costumes and it was totally worth it! That meant we were a little later leaving our house to get to the parks and I was worried it would take a long time to park and get through security but luck was on our side and both were completely empty. Exhibit A:
Security lines at 4:15pm—dead!
We grabbed a pizza from Napolini in DTD and carried it with us into DCA. Ate it at a table in Paradise Gardens and relaxed until the party started.
The boys’ biggest priority for the party was trick-or-treating, so we decided to position ourselves in Hollywoodland before the party officially started at 6pm. On the walk over, I forced the kids to take some pictures on Buena Vista Street while we still had light.
Walking through Hollywoodland we saw the lines for Oogie Boogie and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were already quite long, so we went over to the Hyperion to check out Ernest de la Cruz and it was empty. Score! I even had time to run over and grab the Celestial Chocolate Churro from Terrain Treats. This is the Dubai chocolate-inspired churro. It’s not exclusive to OBB but I’d been dying to try it and took my chance. I loved this churro. It has a strong pistachio flavor so you need to like that.
We were in Ernesto’s line when the party started and got to watch him come out. immediately fantastic crowd interactions right out of the gate, including with us. We then hit Judge Doom and Hades with no lines—everyone was at Oogie Boogie and Doofenshmirtz I guess. Three treat trails in by 6:15. The kids were happy!
We left Hollywoodland and as we walked past the Kingdom of Hearts photo opp the young boy with us saw Mickey and wanted to take a picture with him. Almost no one was in line and we waited about 7 minutes.
After that we hit Maleficent then Syndrome. Side note—Syndrome was a big downgrade from Sid. The actor was great but Sid is far superior in terms of a heckling character. Sid was missed.
We had to wait a while for Syndrome (about 15 minutes, the longest wait of the night for us), so at this point we booked it back to Hollywoodland to watch the first parade. We had originally wanted to watch from the Paradise Garden area but Syndrome took so long I was worried we missed the Headless Horseman (my favorite!) so we walked to Hollywoodland and found a decent spot to watch without too much hassle even though it was just about 10-15 minutes before the parade came through that area.
Since we had time and there was no line whatsoever, I sent the boys and my friend to trick-or-treat at Doofenshmirtz while I held our spot.
The Headless Horseman came through, which is always a thrill for me, and then the parade, which is short but very fun. I LOVE the new Jack costume head sooooooo much, he no longer looks like an alien!
As the last parade float was passing, I hustled the boys up and we walked over to Oogie Boogie to trick or treat with no line as people were still watching the parade.
More to come …
We are Magic Key holders but my son has a Believe Key and he was blocked out this day so we planned to arrive after 3pm but before the party started. We had a last-minute costume switcharoo (thanks to my son coming to me at 8pm the night before and asking if we could switch to Sally and Jack) so we spent the entire morning visiting three Spirit Halloween stores to piece together our new costumes and it was totally worth it! That meant we were a little later leaving our house to get to the parks and I was worried it would take a long time to park and get through security but luck was on our side and both were completely empty. Exhibit A:
Security lines at 4:15pm—dead!
We grabbed a pizza from Napolini in DTD and carried it with us into DCA. Ate it at a table in Paradise Gardens and relaxed until the party started.
The boys’ biggest priority for the party was trick-or-treating, so we decided to position ourselves in Hollywoodland before the party officially started at 6pm. On the walk over, I forced the kids to take some pictures on Buena Vista Street while we still had light.
Walking through Hollywoodland we saw the lines for Oogie Boogie and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were already quite long, so we went over to the Hyperion to check out Ernest de la Cruz and it was empty. Score! I even had time to run over and grab the Celestial Chocolate Churro from Terrain Treats. This is the Dubai chocolate-inspired churro. It’s not exclusive to OBB but I’d been dying to try it and took my chance. I loved this churro. It has a strong pistachio flavor so you need to like that.
We were in Ernesto’s line when the party started and got to watch him come out. immediately fantastic crowd interactions right out of the gate, including with us. We then hit Judge Doom and Hades with no lines—everyone was at Oogie Boogie and Doofenshmirtz I guess. Three treat trails in by 6:15. The kids were happy!
We left Hollywoodland and as we walked past the Kingdom of Hearts photo opp the young boy with us saw Mickey and wanted to take a picture with him. Almost no one was in line and we waited about 7 minutes.
After that we hit Maleficent then Syndrome. Side note—Syndrome was a big downgrade from Sid. The actor was great but Sid is far superior in terms of a heckling character. Sid was missed.
We had to wait a while for Syndrome (about 15 minutes, the longest wait of the night for us), so at this point we booked it back to Hollywoodland to watch the first parade. We had originally wanted to watch from the Paradise Garden area but Syndrome took so long I was worried we missed the Headless Horseman (my favorite!) so we walked to Hollywoodland and found a decent spot to watch without too much hassle even though it was just about 10-15 minutes before the parade came through that area.
Since we had time and there was no line whatsoever, I sent the boys and my friend to trick-or-treat at Doofenshmirtz while I held our spot.
The Headless Horseman came through, which is always a thrill for me, and then the parade, which is short but very fun. I LOVE the new Jack costume head sooooooo much, he no longer looks like an alien!
As the last parade float was passing, I hustled the boys up and we walked over to Oogie Boogie to trick or treat with no line as people were still watching the parade.
More to come …
