Oh,wow… I did
Epic on Halloween, hoping everyone else would be at the various special events and parties… and I was RIGHT! Wait times were super low, few breakdowns, cool weather: it was absolute perfection.
I arrived about 11:30am, departed at 10pm. The time FLEW by!
BatM was at 75 mins when I arrived, so I tried it SR (I’d already seen the full queue during previews, when the ride was down) and waited… 8 minutes! It stopped twice, only 30 seconds each, but we lost the tire scene each time. So when I saw standby was 60 when I got out, I hopped back in and waited… 6 minutes! But wait… as of 9pm, posted wait was 10 minutes, which was actually no minutes because I walked right through the full queue and got right into a vehicle! So I’ve finally done the ride: it’s amazing! But also… makes me nauseous the way FJ does. No other rides anywhere do it to me but those two. But it was worth the discomfort to experience BatM - SO good!
The rest of my rides by the numbers:
Wing Gliders twice: 40 min wait in the afternoon (posted as 35),5 min wait evening (15 posted)
Mario: 20 min in SR, afternoon, Standby was posted as 45
Monsters three times: walked right on every time, once afternoon and twice in the evening, 25 mins posted each time (side note: I swear every time I ride it I see “new” effects!)
Yoshi: walked on in the evening, 10 mins posted
Saw Untrainable Dragon once
Just missed Cirque’s final show because I wanted to finish my Gigglewater on a bench: they closed the line just as I walked up, 5 mins before showtime.
I also took time to watch two different violinists perform in Darkmoor, the jazz band in Wizarding Paris, and a band in Celestial Park.
I spent easily an hour casting spells and chatted with an Auror.
Lunch was at
Das Stakehouse, where I had the entire outdoor patio to myself! The big salad with chicken stake was very good, as was the side of fries. Dinner at Le Gobelet Noir was meh: I was excited about the lentil stew on a chilly night, but it was more like a thin both with far more pieces of celery and carrot than lentils, and the bread it came with needed butter. Stoick’s Ale in Berk (Spotify Grill) was very nice, especially sipping it on a bench in the sun whilst watching bumblebees in the flowers.
I didn’t ride Mine Cart, but the highest I saw it posted was 90 minutes, lowest was 35 near closing. I should have done Werewolf when it was 35 mins in the afternoon, but I wanted to ride in the dark: the wait never dropped below 55 once the sun went down, so I skipped it. Stardust was 15ish all day, but jumped to 30 after dark. Ditto for the carousel. I had plenty of time for more rides in the evening, had I wanted to do them, but I was enjoying other things. Also, that 3rd time on BatM was one too many: I was done with any rides after that lol!
Anecdotally, I overheard several times people say variations of “this is the perfect park for Halloween!” And I couldn’t agree more: it was relaxed, fun, Darkmoor provided some excellent creepy factors, and it was SO nice to not be battling crowds at the parks with special events.
For those wondering about decorations… there were none for Halloween, as noted. BUT Paris has already started putting up Christmas decorations! It felt very odd to see on Halloween. Here are few of them…
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