(Updated 10/21) I May Be Just a Bit Crazy - Sept 2025 TR

[Araminta18]

All the Photos! - Sunday Sept 7 2025 (part 3)​

I was planning to head to the Emporium to get the party merch I was interested in, but I passed a photographer with no line on Main Street, so of course I stopped.



I feel like this Magic shot is new - I love the Halloween balloons!



Huey Dewey and Louie!

But my favorite shot - which didn't show up til the next day - was this one:

Haunted Mansion gallery!

Pictures taken, I headed into the Emporium and found the line for the party merch. It looked pretty long but it moved pretty quickly - I waited about 10 minutes, which gave me time to text Trevor and see if there was anything in particular he wanted. I was super excited for the merch this year cause it had the bride and the gravediggers! I bought Trevor the gravedigger shirt and me the bride shirt, then some pins and postcards and the dancing couple ornament. I also got suckered in and bought a box of the cauldron mystery pins - I wanted the gravedigger and/or the Headless Horseman, but figured with my luck I'd get Stitch. And guess what I got?

dang Stitch! The Queen is cool but boooooo Stitch.

I was just sitting on the curb on Main Street packing up my stuff into my bag and people-watching. It was a bit after 5, so I decided to go look at the gift shop up by Beauty and the Beast and just kind of wander. But of course, more pictures!





I looked around in Star Traders too - they had some cute bows and a princess spirit jersey I wanted, but decided I'd come back for them at the end of the night so I didn't have to carry them around all night. Also, I was up by the Big Top Souvenirs and someone gave me a cute little Maleficent rubber duck, cause I'm Sleeping Beauty! So cute.

It was super hot so I also got an icee at Big Top Souvenirs - pro tip, if you get food at one of the gift shops, your 20% AP discount applies!

Makes it even better

 

[Araminta18]

Boo to You with No Ghosts! - Sunday Sept 7 2025 (part 4)​

It was about 6 pm, and I took my icee and decided to head over to the spring roll cart - they were going to have a special egg roll for the party and I was hoping they'd be selling it before the party started. But on my way, I passed this cute photo op!

So cute! No photographer and surrounded by strollers, but still, cute.

Over at the spring roll cart, they weren't going to start selling the party egg rolls until the party started (lame) so I decided that I'd just stay at the cart area, sitting down and people watching. There wasn't a ton I wanted to do before the party started and it was SO HOT that people watching seemed appealing. I was not the only one looking for those party spring rolls - there were several of us by the time 7 pm rolled around. But finally it did and the Spicy Pork Spring Roll: with pineapple mustard was mine!

I grabbed my spring rolls and headed over to Liberty Square to get a seat there - the parade was supposed to start at 8:15 (just over an hour away) so I was thinking I'd grab a spot on the bench there in Liberty Square to watch the parade from. Surprisingly enough (well surprisingly to me) most of the benches were already full, but I did get the last one right by Hall of Presidents!

Not too bad!

The spring rolls themselves were not my favorite - they were good but a bit too spicy for me. The cheeseburger ones are better.

Anyways, shortly after I finished the rolls, this family came up and asked to share the bench, which worked for me - there was room. And they kindly offered to save my spot while I ran and got some additional party food items I was looking for. Also the bench was right in front of the Headless Horseman magic shot, so I was able to quickly grab that too (no line!)


I really love that you can mobile order some of the party exclusive food - makes it way easier! I went to Pinocchio Village Haus and got:

Scary Ghost Slushy: Blue raspberry slushy with marshmallow foam and a marshmallow ghost. This was what it looked like - nothing super special, but still fun.


On the top, the Phantasmal Fried Pumpkin Ravioli served with black garlic aïoli and then on the bottom, the Undead Garlic-Parmesan Chicken Strips: Fried chicken strips tossed in garlic-parmesan sauce, parmesan, and parsley. Despite the name I didn't realize that the raviolis would be deep fried - they were pretty good. Same with the chicken strips - good flavor. Both had a bit too much sauce for me though. And again, with the heat it was probably not my best idea to get two hot dishes.

It was nice sitting down and people watching though, and having a lovely seat while we waited for the parade to start. Then finally, the Headless Horseman came by!

Love the Headless Horseman.

Then it got a little bit weird - we didn't see the start of the parade for about 20 minutes after we saw the Horseman, and then it was moving SUPER slow. And then, none of the Haunted Mansion floats or characters were in the parade! No gravediggers, no bride, no float, no dancers...nothing.

We had no idea why, though later on the internet I heard that the Haunted Mansion sequence came out and then almost immediately went backstage. Not sure why, and the parade is still good, but it was definitely disappointing to not see any of the Haunted Mansion - the bride is my favorite and I didn't get to see her Oh well.

With the parade over (at 8:55 pm!!! from Liberty Square!! goodness gracious), we had a little over an hour til the fireworks, so I decided to go to the Diamond Horseshoe trick or treat spot so I could see the Hitchhiking Ghosts (I'd read online they were supposed to be in the Diamond Horseshoe). There was quite a line, but it moved quickly. And the Country Bears were out wandering so I got a quick selfie!

Inside the Diamond Horseshoe, there was candy but no hitchhiking ghosts.

They had us weaving around inside. Honestly I think this is the first time I've ever been inside the Diamond Horseshoe so I can't complain too much. Especially when I realized that the Hitchhiking Ghosts were out on the little bridge further down in Frontierland! I hustled over there and got to see them for a bit.

That was fun! Glad I got to see them.

I then went over to the Haunted Mansion, but the line for pictures was crazy long, and it was just the lantern which I'd gotten a picture with in previous years, so I decided to bail.

Side note - I wish they'd bring back having Broome and Madame Carlotta on the front lawn here so you could see them without waiting in line for the Mansion. I really liked watching them a few years ago but I'd want to just sit and watch them for a bit, not hurry on past them to ride the ride. Oh well!

I decided to head up to Fantasyland to do the trick or treat trails in FairyTale Hall with the villains, and to get the picture with Yzma and the poison.

 

[Araminta18]

All the Pictures - Sunday Sept 7 2025 (part 5)​

There was a tiny bit of a line to get into FairyTale hall, but not bad. They actually had two lines going, one that went closer to Maleficent and the other went closer to the Evil Queen, which helped keep the lines pretty manageable. Maybe 5 minutes? It was also nice having the air conditioning!

I went for the line closer to Maleficent, of course.


And I was still able to get a pic of the Evil Queen!

This is such a fun idea - Disneyland does it better but having characters in the lines is just a great touch. More of this please DisneyWorld!

I had about 30 minutes til the fireworks, just enough time to get some photos - there was basically no line, which was nice.



\
And my favorite two shots -


This is me pretending to be an evil henchman.

As I headed into the hub to grab a fireworks spot, I got a couple more photos in my favorite side shot of the castle:

 

[Araminta18]

Tron! - Sunday Sept 7 2025 (part 6)​

Just a couple more pictures (hahahaha "couple") -

As I kept going, I saw another photographer out by the gazebo - not for a character, just out there on the path. I've never seen a photographer there either so of course, I stopped (there was no line ).



Right before the fireworks I walked up and got a pretty good spot:

Not too shabby! Though right as the show started somebody put their 5/6 year old (definitely not a toddler) on their shoulders which...*argh*.

However, literally in the middle of the fireworks (during the creepy ghost couples waltz) it started sprinkling. And then, it started POURING. People were pulling out their umbrellas and ponchos, and I had my poncho but I decided that I was already hot and sweaty, and the rain feels kind of good, so rather than try and stay dry (and thus be hotter and sweatier under my poncho) I'd just use my poncho to cover my bag so it didn't get soaked, and I'd let myself get soaked. It wasn't a bad choice! The fireworks finished (though it felt like maybe they shortened it a bit? At some points you couldn't see the castle or the projections, and it was super foggy/cloudy so hard to see the fireworks. People were just pouring out of the park, and it was pouring with crazy thunder and lightning, and I decided that rather than try and take cover (since I was already soaked) I'd head back to Gaston's Tavern: it's a trick or treat trail and with everyone leaving the park, maybe the trail would be empty and I could get a lot of candy.
I splashed my way back to Gaston's Tavern (and I do mean splashed - there were lakes inches deep on the walkways!) and I was right - there were a couple other families huddled under awnings, but no one was doing the trick or treat trail. You weren't allowed to stay in the tavern to avoid the rain, but you could still trick or treat. So I just started looping the trail, filling up my bag, dumping it into my backpack as the bag filled up, and just going round and round. There was a mom and daughter doing the same thing, and we just had a great time. The CMs were fantastic too - Carrie and Lynn were really getting into it, loading up their scoops with peanut butter M&Ms for me, and cheering for us as we came through. It was so much fun! We were already soaked so may as well get some candy at the same time. It sounds dumb but it was really fun just looping and laughing and chatting with the CMs - and I wasn't even hot anymore!

After about 30 minutes or so, my backpack was completely full, so I decided to head out cause there was nothing else I wanted to do since all the party stuff was not running (no Cadaver Dans or second parade). But as I was walking out, I passed a group saying that Space Mountain was still open so I was like hey! I'll do that. But in a rollercoaster of emotions, as I passed the Speedway the cast members were out (since the speedway was closed) and they said that Space Mountain had just gone down, and with the reset cycle it probably wouldn't re-open. Oh well!

I went over to Star Traders and bought the bows and spirit jersey I'd seen earlier and then got myself all situated (put the candy in a shopping bag and then put that in the backpack to try and keep it dry ), and realized that the Peoplemover was still running, so I went over there!

Honestly, it was really fun - the heat had really sucked the fun out of the party for me at the beginning, especially then with the Haunted Mansion sequence not being in the parade so getting soaked and just going with it was really fun! And doing the trick or treating with the awesome cast members was a highlight too. And I got to see Space Mountain with the lights on!

That was pretty cool - my first time ever seeing that!

I also noticed that Tron had basically nobody heading that way:

The app said that it was 40 minutes, but I saw how few people were heading that way and decided I'd risk it - I didn't think it was anywhere near 40 minutes! I was hoping they just inflated the wait time to scare folks off since it was about 40 minutes before closing.

I headed that way and it was NOT 40 minutes - not even close. I basically walked right into the locker room and then had a pretty short wait to get on the ride itself.

That was me being pretty pleased with myself for getting on Tron with basically no wait.

I got off and went right back around again.

This time, the ride finished like 5 minutes before midnight, so I asked the CM at the unload area if I could ride again without having to exit, and since I was waiting for the seat and no one else was, they let me just get right back on. Yay!

3 times on Tron - not a bad way to end the night!

Of course, as I got off Tron, the rain had pretty much stopped. Right as the party was ending, naturally. I did manage to get a couple last pictures in the hub:

 

[Araminta18]

Candy Haul - Sunday Sept 7 2025 (part 7)​

Spooky castle!

I finally left the park at about 12:20. There was a HUGE line at Guest Relations (which side note, when did it move from City Hall to outside the park?)

I didn't get in the line but I did talk to a CM there and asked if they could leave a cast compliment for the CMs at Gaston's Tavern since I didn't have all their names. I did also ask about a refund and they said to talk to any Guest Relations in the resort the next day, vs waiting in the line. It was late so I figured I'd do that vs waiting in the long line right then.

There was a bus waiting for me at the bus stop when I got there (yay!) and even better, I got a seat and it pulled away pretty soon after I boarded, so didn't even have to wait!

I was back in the room by 1 am, and had to take the obligatory candy photo:

Hand for scale:

Not a bad haul! Some of the M&Ms were definitely a bit damp, but overall mostly dry!

So yea, not the party I expected to have, but a pretty fun night overall. Trick or treating with the awesome CMs was definitely the highlight, but riding Tron 3 times in a row was also pretty awesome! Tomorrow, my conference started!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 23239 steps (9.9 miles)
Ride count: 4 (Peoplemover, Tron x3)
Annual Pass Savings: $89.20

 

[bettertheangel]

Cute pics! It's such a bummer that they didn't include any Haunted Mansion characters in the parade. Also, that is a crazy amount of candy!

 

[Mary Pops In]

Yay, I love your Trip reports! I stayed up way too late binge reading. Have you taken your other Disney park trips, and if so, have you written TRs?

The heat sounds draining. I traveled one year as a school chaperone in June, and thought I'd melt. I love your staying power despite the temps, especially getting drenched during the party. I would have been right there with you doing repeats on the candy line! I love serendipitous opportunities.

You cracked me up by using your poncho to cover your bag & merch. I would do that.

You had some amazing photo pass shots. I thought my favorite was the one on the sidewalk but they kept getting better! 3 times in a row on on Tron is a dream come true and you sure scored some magic by not having to get off and skidaddle around again. What a way to end the night.

I'm so curious about your conference. Is it Disney training related to your profession or a conference held on Disney property? I've always wanted to attend some type of Disney U. My employer has never budgeted enough for out of state employee development. I'm now winding down my career and will have to consider other ways to feed my thirst for Disney knowledge.

I look forward to reading about the rest of your stay and seeing the pictures.

 

[Araminta18]

 

[Araminta18]

Yay another trip report to keep me busy! They are the best

thank you for reading! And for the compliment!!

 

[Araminta18]

Cute pics! It's such a bummer that they didn't include any Haunted Mansion characters in the parade. Also, that is a crazy amount of candy!

Thank you! Yea it was so weird that the Haunted Mansion characters weren't in the parade; I still wonder what actually happened. *shrugs*

Yea, probably too much candy....oh well!

 

[Araminta18]

Yay, I love your Trip reports! I stayed up way too late binge reading. Have you taken your other Disney park trips, and if so, have you written TRs?

The heat sounds draining. I traveled one year as a school chaperone in June, and thought I'd melt. I love your staying power despite the temps, especially getting drenched during the party. I would have been right there with you doing repeats on the candy line! I love serendipitous opportunities.

You cracked me up by using your poncho to cover your bag & merch. I would do that.

You had some amazing photo pass shots. I thought my favorite was the one on the sidewalk but they kept getting better! 3 times in a row on on Tron is a dream come true and you sure scored some magic by not having to get off and skidaddle around again. What a way to end the night.

I'm so curious about your conference. Is it Disney training related to your profession or a conference held on Disney property? I've always wanted to attend some type of Disney U. My employer has never budgeted enough for out of state employee development. I'm now winding down my career and will have to consider other ways to feed my thirst for Disney knowledge.

I look forward to reading about the rest of your stay and seeing the pictures.

Aw thank you for reading! That's so nice. Yup, we've done a bunch of trips - all my TRs are linked in my signature, though some of the older ones had the pictures get lost due to imgur being weird a few years ago).

Oh wow - going in June and as a school chaperone?! I salute you - the heat must have been insane! Yea, the getting drenched actually made it a lot more tolerable And at that point, more important to keep my bag and merch dry than me! Glad to find a kindred spirit who would also do that.

Photopass shots I feel like is just a numbers game - you gotta take a bunch and you'll definitely get some good ones. And yes I absolutely got some pixie dust not having to go around again on the last ride - at that point my feet hurt and I didn't want to walk anymore so it was extra nice of them!

The conference was Disney Data Analytics, and there's a data analytic component to my job, though I'm more of a supervisor at this point than a line worker doing the analytics. It's hosted by Disney at Coronado Springs, but they have folks in the industry come and give keynotes or breakout sessions - there were a LOT of Disney employees at the conference too. I hope you get a chance to go! They have the Disney Institute classes too which I did a few years ago (on leadership) and that was really interesting as well.

Thank you for reading!!

 

[summerlvr]

Glad you had a good time despite the heat and rain!

 

[alohamom]

But my favorite shot - which didn't show up til the next day - was this one:

Haunted Mansion gallery!

That is soooo cool!

Especially when I realized that the Hitchhiking Ghosts were out on the little bridge further down in Frontierland! I hustled over there and got to see them for a bit.

That is also so cool! They are really well done!

This is me pretending to be an evil henchman.

Great look!

The CMs were fantastic too - Carrie and Lynn were really getting into it, loading up their scoops with peanut butter M&Ms for me, and cheering for us as we came through. It was so much fun!

Ok, now I'm jealous LOL!

3 times on Tron - not a bad way to end the night!

Whoa, that is amazing!

 

[Araminta18]

Epcot Afternoon - Monday Sept 8 2025 (part 1)​

Monday morning, my conference started at 8 am so I was up by like 7 and made my way over there with about 15 minutes to spare. It was very clearly a Toy Story theme:


I wasn't sad about the Toy Story theme though!

The first part of the conference was a training class which was good - I learned some interesting things and the terms for things that I'd intuited but didn't know how to talk about. At the end, we played kahoot, and I realized (yet again) that I am a very competitive person LOL. I was in first place the whole time until we got to the last 2 questions which were speed round/true false questions, and my internet slowed down so I fell out of first place! Dang it. I still came in second though.

I got a Toy Story pin, so overall, that's a win.

I was all done by noon, so I dropped all my stuff back in the room, and then the plan was to head over to the Boardwalk and enter Epcot via the International Gateway.

The uber dropped me off at the Boardwalk and I headed back to the lagoon cause I wanted a corn dog for lunch! When we had the corn dogs from Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs back in January, I really loved the Golden Dragon corn dog that I got - it was so crispy with the panko bread crumbs - and I wanted it again!

I also got some Strawberry Lemonade.

It was just as delicious as I remembered. It was quite nice just sitting there in the shade on the Boardwalk, enjoying the view and eating a delicious corndog. Yum.

At about 1 pm, I finished up and headed into Epcot, with a quick stop at Guest Relations to ask about MNSSHP last night. The CM was super nice - they apparently had a standard offer: a comp park ticket (which I didn't want cause AP), another party ticket (but the only other party while I was in Florida was sold out), or a $75 gift card. I took the $75 gift card - I was definitely gonna use it (LOL) and I got about half a party's worth of enjoyment. It was pretty quick and easy, so thanks to Disney!

Once in Epcot, I quickly ducked in the UK shop to look at the Mary Poppins merch (but they didn't have anything new), and then I started heading around World Showcase towards the America Pavilion cause they have the Art of Disney store. As I was walking I felt like I kept hearing thunder but I didn't see/feel any rain and my weather app said it wasn't supposed to rain until 4 pm....but there was some cloud cover so that was nice at least.

The Art of Disney store didn't have anything new, so I just kept on walking around the showcase, heading towards Guardians of the Galaxy for my fastpass! It started raining (lightly sprinkling though) as I was walking by Germany, but it was just a bit of a nice sprinkle and then I was inside at Guardians!

The fastpass line was a bit backed up, but twenty minutes later I was through all the pre-shows. They'd made some changes after the teleportation room - the middle door was blocked off and they had stanchions set up to funnel folks into the middle of the room, as well as a CM standing by the middle doors. Still not super helpful at making that room less of a pain but at least it wasn't backed up into that room - there was basically no backup at all! I walked all the way down to the bit where they split you off to either side to board the ride. I of course waited for row 9.

I was hoping for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" but I got "One Way or Another" instead.

At least it wasn't Disco Inferno! Or September...I know people LOVE September but it's not for me.

As I got off the ride, I had a little bit of time before my reservation at Geo-82, so I spent some time browsing in Connections and looking at the Muppets food & wine merchandise - they had some cute stuff but I just bought a pin.

Then, over to Geo-82! It was a bit confusing to find, but eventually I saw this sandwich board:

 

[Araminta18]

Geo-82 - Monday Sept 8 2025 (part 2)​

I was still about 15/20 minutes early but they checked me in (yay!)

I like the Geo-82 logo but I feel like having it covered by the plant is...not great.

You go up some stairs into a waiting area, which was nice with PLENTY of seating, and better than that - they had cold towels! Delightful.

After about 10/15 minutes, they brought me into the restaurant - I got sat at the very end of the bar (closest to the entrance). That was slightly disappointing - didn't really get to see much of the lounge.

My view.

What I did see looked cool -

I love those lights!

The bartender was super nice, but I'm not one to chat with bartenders or strangers so wasn't my favorite seating spot. But I was excited to try the drinks and the food! I got the mocktail called "A Walk Through the Garden": Seedlip Garden 108 Non-Alcoholic Spirit, Basil, Fennel, Lemon, Hella Cocktail Co. Orange Bitters, The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters, Bubbles

This was super fresh and refreshing - very "green" feeling. I liked it, though I usually prefer more berry-type drinks.

Then for food, I got the Truffled Ahi Tuna: Japanese Whisky Barrel-aged Soy-Truffle Ponzu, Citrus, Scallion, Tobiko, Black Sesame Seeds.

This looked super pretty, and had a really interesting taste. I wished there were more of the components so every bite of the tuna had a bit of the caviar and the seeds and the citrus and scallion - the bites with all the components were my favorite!

I was thinking of getting the hummus, but I decided instead I was done and I'd head over to Animal Kingdom to pick up my passholder magnet, do some rides and get dinner at Nomad Lounge. Nomad Lounge was a bit more my speed, and definitely a bit less expensive! So I paid my bill and off I went to the bus stop to ride over to Animal Kingdom. The bus stop was a bit far but a bus pulled up right as I got there, which was veeeeeery nice.

As the bus drove over, I was looking at the wait times at AK and they were WEIRD. Earlier in the afternoon when I'd looked, Everest was 5 minutes, but now it was 40 minutes. Flight of Passage however was 20 minutes?! In what universe does that happen....crazy!

We arrived a little after 3:30, and I walked in, got my AP magnet, did some pin trading, and was heading over to Everest. It was still saying a 35 minute wait so I figured I'd do single rider and hope that line was a lot shorter. It was! I only waited about 5 minutes and then I was on row 15 - the last row of the second-to-last car! Woot.

I got off and was like "i should do that again!" so I got back on the single rider line. This time I only waited 2 minutes and got row 11 - not too bad!

At this point was about when I decided to just keep going round and round on the single rider line til I didn't want to anymore. Another 2 minute wait, and I was on row 13.

This next ride (ride #4) was a 3 minute wait, for row 12:

 

[Araminta18]

Glad you had a good time despite the heat and rain!

Thank you! I feel like sometimes the rain makes things better, and this was definitely one of those times.

 

[Araminta18]

That is soooo cool!




That is also so cool! They are really well done!



Great look!



Ok, now I'm jealous LOL!



Whoa, that is amazing!

It really was a great night - I got so spoiled with all the peanut butter m&ms AND 3 rides on Tron!!