Day 3, Part 3: “Does your mother dress you every morning?”
We made our way to Tomorrowland, and Buzz Lightyear. I had a Fastpass booked for this and assumed it was a one hour window, but it turns out they close the window early on party nights so the FP line had already closed. The standby line wasn’t long though, so we got in, and spent the time discussing the high point targets. I knew my dad would forget what they were pretty much the second we sat in our vehicle, so I told him to just listen to me and shoot where I shoot.
It was a little stressful to direct him and answer his questions while I was focused on my own score, but it paid off, because we both made Galactic Hero!
Helped in some part by the fact that the ride stopped for a few minutes towards the end, of course. That’s always useful!
We stopped at the gift shop to get our stickers. So proud!
We made our way to the bathrooms near Space Mountain. It wasn’t quite 7 pm yet, but close enough that we decided to go ahead and finish putting on our costumes.
I was so excited to debut mine! I love Cranium Command and have been obsessed with the story of missing Buzzy ever since it broke. I think they caught the guy who took him? I’ve heard so many conflicting stories from people who “know” what happened. I just hope he’s found safe and sound.
My dad, who was dressed as Buzzy’s commander General Knowledge, just had to put on his fake moustache. He was a real trooper with that thing. He said it was really itchy and the adhesive wasn’t great, but he kept it on pretty much all night. The epaulets on his shoulder are the pieces that had been falling apart, and we found that wearing his backpack made it worse, so wearing it mostly fell to me. Sadly, that made it difficult to see the message on my back, so I found myself carrying it by the straps a lot.
Then we needed bags to hold all the candy we intended to collect during the evening. We saw a bunch of cast members standing around holding empty bags, and asked if we could have one. They said no, we had to get in line. There was no one around but okay, we got into the arbitrary switchbacks. Then when we got there they said the bags, which were the same as the other bags, were for DVC members only.
Oh, but we’re DVC members! Except we didn’t have our cards with us. I had a virtual card on my phone, but it was expired. The lady did not seem to believe us, and I was too soured by the experience to take time out to log in on my phone and get a new card, so we cut our losses and walked ten feet to the Monsters Inc entrance to get the EXACT SAME BAGS that they were handing out to the plebs.
I guess that’s a perk our dues pay for? Whatever, haha.
I was eager to see Monsters Inc since I heard they were doing special Halloween shows. We got some candy in the waiting area and the doors to the theater were open so we just walked right on through. To our surprise, instead of doing set shows throughout the night like they do during the day, they instead were just doing rolling acts so people could come and go as they pleased. So Mac and Jeeves would do an extended set, Marty Wazowski would do an extended set, etc.
We sat down and tried to do some more work on Dad’s epaulets so we didn’t have to worry about it throughout the night. We ended up cannibalizing some safety pins from the back of my jacket to keep it on.
After that was done and we’d had our fill of watching the Monsters, we exited the attraction past yet another candy stop. And then I noticed there was a treat stop at the Carousel of Progress. The line was really long, so we figured it must be really good candy.
Alas, it was squeezable applesauce. As we walked away, my dad said in dismay, “That’s not candy! They should tell you if it’s not really candy!”
But I assured him there would be way more candy than he could handle before the night was through. He asked me how we would find these stops, and I showed him the big sign found at every one. He seemed satisfied.
Just to remind y’all, this man is a dentist.
I believe from here we made our way to Frontierland by passing through the hub and Liberty Square. In the hub, we got some sweet free Photopass.
I know we stopped at several more treat stops along the way. At one, I believe in the Diamond Horseshoe, my dad was so eager to get to the barrel of candy that he cut in front of a mom pushing her kid in a stroller, who I then had to apologize to.
Again, he is a grown, sane man. Who is a dentist.
The thing is, he didn’t intend to eat any candy except for the peanut M&M’s. In fact, whenever he received candy that WASN’T peanut M&M’s, he started vocally debating with himself the ethics of asking the cast members if they would make sure to only give him peanut M&M’s. Ultimately decided that was too much of a hassle, but he was still disappointed any time he got any other type of candy. Which was a lot. As those barrels held pretty wide varieties.
Besides candy, we were also delighting in getting recognized. Backtracking to Liberty Square, a castmember enthusiastically yelled at me, “Does your mother dress you in the mornings???”
Which I completely forgot was a line from the Cranium Command pre-show. D’oh! I was so ashamed. I’ve rewatched the main show so many times, but not so much the pre-show. If I’d had it down as well, I would have yelled back, “Why yes, sir, she does!”
Anyway, we had a good chat about the attraction and how much we loved it. I asked about Buzzy, but since he was on duty I don’t think he could comment much. He just said something like, “I’m sure he’s enjoying a nice vacation somewhere.”
Yeah, that’s what parents say about pets when they die ☹
Another castmember in training recognized us in Frontierland. She really wanted to chat more but was busy. She asked me to come by the next day when she was on duty at Soarin. I told her I’d try but unfortunately we never made it there. So if you’re reading this nice lady, I’m sorry! I did want to get back there!
After we’d hit all the Liberty Square and Frontierland stops, I decided it was finally time to try Pirates of the Caribbean. I’d been looking forward to this ride more than any other that could be ridden during the party. It was the only thing that I was bummed to miss last year since I didn’t attend the party. The posted wait time was 30 minutes but we waited maybe 15 at most. I had no idea what to expect and I’d heard mixed reviews about the experiences with the live actors, but I was glad Disney was trying something new.
There were a couple of live actors in the queue, including one in the dungeon area that we saw but didn’t hear since we didn’t make it to that part of the line before he left. But another pirate was standing at the switchback just before you go down the final ramp to load onto the ride, and we had a great interaction! He gave me instructions for finding treasure and then coming back to share it with him. Of course I promised that I would
We saw three actors on the ride itself. One was a woman in the fort scene, yelling from the tower in front of the boat right after you go down the flume. The next two were a man and woman in the scene right after the auction. They were all pretty funny from what I could tell, but the speed of the boat made it harder to get good interactions the way I’d been able to do in the queue.
After we went up the speed ramp into the post-ride gift shop, we were given chocolate coins.
Overall, I thought the additions were cute! They didn’t blow me away, but they upgraded an otherwise rote experience.
We next stopped for more candy, according to my notes. Not 100% sure where, but I know one of them was in the Jungle Cruise queue.
After that, we made our way back to Liberty Square. Now that it was proper dark, I wanted to check out the Haunted Mansion. We had debated whether to try to get seats for the first parade, or wait for the last parade. We were tired and weren’t 100% sure we could both make it to the end of the night. But it was still earlier for the first parade to get spots than my dad was comfortable with. He didn’t love the idea of sitting around for 30-40 minutes, especially not when there was candy to collect and other fun stuff we could be doing. I warned him that if we stood in the HM line, which was quite long, we might miss the first parade, and made sure he was okay with that before we got in.
We enjoyed watching the live actors in the queue. I like seeing the opera singer, but there was a butler character that I didn’t recognize from past years. So that was neat! Enjoy my blurry photos. We were being moved along pretty quickly.
All-in-all it took us about 40 minutes from when we got into the queue to when we finally got off the ride. There was a bottleneck right before the building entrance. This was definitely a must-do for us, so I’m glad we got it done, but it pretty much guaranteed that we missed the first parade. We miiiiight have been able to snag a last-minute spot, but it would have been obstructed and to me, the party parade is worth getting a front-row seat for. I was also pretty sure we’d missed the Headless Horseman, and I could not fathom missing that.
So I proposed instead, we do the treat stops in Fantasyland, since we hadn’t been there yet and it would be away from the parade route. After we’d done those, the first parade would be done, and we could get to the castle to see the Hocus Pocus show and the fireworks.
We stopped at a couple more treat stops and discovered our absolute favorite hidden gem of the party. Mickey’s Philharmagic, aside from having a few different treat stops in the pre and post-show areas, was playing classic Disney cartoons on the screen on a rotation. Spooky ones, of course (Which to me, could basically boil down to all of them; I find old cartoons so creepy).
The theater was super quiet and only a few people were scattered about watching. Most folks were walking behind the back row to get to the next candy stop outside. Honestly, if we hadn’t had to get to the castle for the fireworks, we probably could have hung out here for hours, and we were sad that we didn’t discover this until the end of the night. It was so perfect for our chill style of touring, and I can see myself coming back here for future parties if my little one needs a quiet place to relax for awhile. Or heck, if anyone in our party does.
We stayed for maybe 10 or 15 minutes before we moved on. We got some more candy and then, finally, it was time to camp out in front of the castle.
It was fairly crowded when we got there, which didn’t surprise me. We found a good spot that seemed like it would allow us to see the castle well for both shows and transition easily when it was time to set up for the parade. My feet and legs were aching so I decided to pop a squat for awhile, though I was dreading the act of standing up, which even then was starting to become difficult with my extra midsection weight. Dad did remarkably well. I think he just kinda stood there, taking the crowds in stride. Probably checked his phone and chatted with me a bit while we waited. We weren’t terribly early, so we only had to stand there for about 15-20 minutes before the fireworks started.
I LOVED Hallowishes, so I was sad to see it go, but after seeing it at the most recent party I attended in 2017, I realized how outdated the effects were compared to Happily Ever After. I knew we couldn’t expect Disney to keep the same audio and fireworks and just improve the castle projections, so I wasn’t surprised when they announced a new fireworks show. I also love Happily Ever After, actually more than Wishes, so I had high hopes, especially after hearing about the Jack Skellington puppet.
Honestly, though, my reaction was meh. The puppet was cool, from what I could see of it. I’m short so even with our decent spot there were a lot of heads obstructing my view. But over a month later, and I really couldn’t tell you much about it. I remember the first time I saw Hallowishes it completely blew me away, and I cannot remember a single thing about this show other than I thought it was weird they basically had two storylines going: Jack telling stories, and the Fab Five going trick or treating. It was like they were trying to appeal to too many demographics and have a fireworks show that was super plot-driven, which is silly, because it’s fireworks. Play me some villain songs, and sync them to fireworks. That’s literally all you have to do to impress me.
I’m not upset we took the time to see it; it’s a new show, and you’re paying for the ticket, so that’s just what you have to do. If we go back next year, though, with a 9-10 month old, I’m not going to feel like we need to take the time out to see it. We’ll either do other things during the show or go back to the room early.
Same with the Hocus Pocus show right after the fireworks, honestly. I saw it in 2017 and it’s the same show now. My dad has never seen Hocus Pocus (or if he has, he doesn’t remember) so I think he just played with his phone while it was going on. My view was even worse here because all the action takes place on the stage. If it hadn’t been right between the fireworks and the parade, I would have been cool with skipping it. In fact, maybe the smart thing to do would have been to leave the castle and get a parade viewing spot closer to the front of the park, so it wouldn’t be so difficult to leave later. Oh well.
I like Hocus Pocus, don’t get me wrong. But I wouldn’t say it’s something I ride or die for. I think the stage show is good, but it’s the same as the one I saw a couple years ago, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. Like I said, if it hadn’t been right between the fireworks and the parade, I could have done without it.
But soon enough it was over, and a lot of people cleared out. And thanks to where we’d been standing, all we had to do was turn around to face the road, and we had a perfect viewing spot for the parade! But of course, the headless horseman came through first. I was so happy we got to see him! When I last came in 2017, it had been raining for much of the evening, so the ground was too wet for him to ride.
Even though there are very few changes to this parade from year to year, I honestly never get tired of seeing it. There were a few additions this year. A gliding ghost bride with the Haunted Mansion section, and new Toy Story and Incredibles sections. I thought the bride was great, everything else was meh to me.
One really cool thing I noticed: If you’re a Haunted Mansion fan you may have noticed that in the ballroom scene, the women are leading the dance. That’s because when the animatronics were programmed for the Pepper’s Ghost effect, the imagineers failed to take into account that everything projected would be a mirror image. So the physical animatronics have the men leading, but when riders see the reflection, the women lead. As the dancers in the parade approached, I wondered who was leading. And guess what! The women do! I thought that was the coolest detail.
Once the parade was over, we decided it was time to head out. The party was ending and we considered it a great success. Sadly, the process of leaving was not successful, due to my own poor planning.
As you may know, the parade route goes from Frontierland to Main Street. Which means since we were watching it in the hub, we were heading towards the exit at the same time that the parade was also heading that way. So we made it to the park-like area in front of the train station and were not allowed to go any further for awhile because of the floats. Which I understood, but then it just seemed like people weren’t moving even though they were able to. After an eternity of standing there, or maybe just five minutes, I noticed we could better escape by hanging to the left near Tony’s and exiting under the archway.
From there we left the park and went to the bus station. We were the first ones in line for a Boardwalk bus, which I knew meant we had just missed another bus back. I wish that the bus stations at the parks gave you approximate wait times like the ones at the resorts. I think we waited about 15 minutes before a bus finally came.
We got back to the resort pretty late, and as we settled into bed, I took some time to call DH. I’d been texting him over the past few days but was missing his voice. We talked for a few minutes, and I mentioned that Sunday was probably the best day for him to come visit. After that, we collapsed and fell asleep, knowing that we had pretty early morning plans the next day. I also texted him some pics of the newest size equivalent of our baby, since it was after midnight transitioning into a new gestational week.
Overall, I’m really glad we did the Halloween party. I’d been looking forward to it ever since our trip last year, when my dad said he wanted to try it. I had honestly been preparing myself for him to think it was dumb, but he enjoyed himself, even though he agreed it was definitely meant for younger kids. Still not sure if we’ll return in 2020. Depends on baby’s temperament and other factors. I think the party can be fun with just adults, though. You just have to come in prepared with the different activity options, and decide what sounds like the most fun to you.