We left off on the monorail from EPCOT to MK. We have never taken the monorail between the 2 parks. It was a nice way to travel. We got to MK a little after 4:30 and made our way in. Once again we were not steered wrong from our trusty Dis info and had no problem getting in with our event tickets even though the official start of the party was 7PM. It would not have been a problem for us anyway since we could have used our main hopper tickets but at least I felt assured the others in our party would not have run into issues and were not cursing me out for leading them astray.
Here is a pic I took as we walked in.
One thing to note is that most of the decorations had already been up for the non-party days so if you wanted to see the a lot of decorations and did not want to attend the party there are opportunities to do so. I don't think I mentioned this yet but this was the opening night of MNSSHP in 2009. Did it seem strange to be celebrating Halloween on Labor day weekend? You betcha, but this was really our only opportunity to see this party since I could not see us coming down in Oct anytime soon. A lot of people seemed to say that this is the best special event party that they have in Disney so we were willing to roll with it. I was actually psyched when I saw that there was actually a date where we could attend during our trip. I One thing we did not do though is dress up for the party. We figured it was going to be way too hot for the kids to walk around with costumes and it would lead to problems. As it is, my kids are not the best at dealing with the heat. Adding a costume to the mix could be a dangerous proposition. First they start to get hot and then unhappy and soon everyone is grumpy and then our Happy Halloween Party turns into a Crappy Halloween Party. No thank you, we decided not to head down that path. In retrospect, we probably should have gotten some T shirts or something more festive but it really did not matter much. There were plenty of people that were not dressed up. I imagine as you get closer to Halloween more people dress up.
As we were walking down Main street, the kids and I decided we could use some refreshment so we stopped here for some beverages.
While the kids were sitting inside my wife was trying to call her sister to see where they were. My SIL has the same affliction as my wife when is comes to cell phones. The Vegas odds are at 4-1 that they will actually answer when you call. I went outside and watched this guy for a while as my wife was trying to make contact. He was fantastic!!
My wife eventually got through to her sister and found that they were in FantasyLand so we made our way over. I took this along the way
We also took a brief detour where I showed my kids this.
I had seen pictures of this guy before but never saw it for myself and I wanted to catch a glimpse of him. Boy in Disney, there are lots of interesting things to see even in the gift stores. Actually come to think of it that is a pretty clever move on their part to reel us in so that they can go for the kill, isn't it?
We caught up with SIL and her son who were sitting just inside the Liberty Square Entrance to Fantasyland with while the rest of their crew was off riding HM. I looked across at my nemesis which was close by and was egging me on. The line was not too bad - about 20 min. We decided it was time for me to face my demons. It was time to conquer this ride and show it that I do indeed have the chops to take it on (or so I thought). We took our kids and our nephew over and got on line. This time I was ready. I had the best lens in my arsenal for dark rides on my camera. While waiting on line, I was running through my camera settings like a pilot doing pre-flight checks. I was ready for battle.
We climbed into our galleons and off we went. Let me tell you, the seas were angry that day my friends. Ok, yeah I know, we are really flying in our boats and not actually in the sea. I was just trying to get that Seinfeld reference in. Anyway, back to the ride. It all happened so quick. We got on the ride I found right off the bat with the bedroom scene that I did not quite have the answer yet to solve my photographic woes on this ride. I moved from scene to scene frantically trying to get a good shot and it did not go very well. Next thing I know I am getting spit out at the end and booted from my vessel with a hollow laugh coming from the ride and I heard, "you are going to have to do better than that to contend with me". Unfortunately this was a correct statement.
OK, here is the problem. I do have an awesome camera but it could not get the autofocus locked very well in during the ride. It kept hunting to get the focus down and was struggling mightily. I can't blame my trusty friend. It truly did try very hard to please me but alas I was asking too much of it I think. I came to the conclusion that if I am going to defeat this beast I am going to try to switch to manual focus when I make my next attack. Here is the best I was able to come up with from this venture.
After I was humbled yet again, our group was all rejoined and we were ready for our next attraction. What did they want to do? Small World. Ugh, normally one SW per trip is plenty enough for me. However, the rest of the crew had not been there yet and we did want to stay together for at least a little bit so we all ended up boarding. At least I knew that this "ear worm" was not going to be in my head for too long. It was going to get displaced later with a more powerful song. Hard to believe but yes my friends it is true. There is a force more powerful out there than "It's a small world after all". Those of you who have not been down for a Halloween Party may doubt me but those who have will probably attest that the "Boo to You" song is extremely dangerous. Once you get that sucker into your head it is hard pressed to get it out. We were still singing that song for a couple of months after we got back. OK, it does help that Halloween was yet to come and that darned song became our Halloween Theme song. Gosh darn it now it is stuck in my head again. Now look what you made me do.
OK, back to Small World. Here are some pictures from this cruise.
Once we finished my son really wanted to go to HM but the others had done it already. It is somewhat of a must do though to hit up the HM on a Halloween Party night right? So, we decided we would split off again for one ride and then after HM we would call them back and catch up. At least that was the plan. I got some good pics of HM to show from this go around.
We got off HM and it was getting closer to the time for the party to start but not quite. My wife was trying to call her Sis but true to form was not getting through. So much for the plan. In retrospect, I am not sure why we thought that my wife and her sister calling each other was going to be a strategy that was going to have a heck of a lot of success. As it turns out her sister realized later that her cell phone battery died. We passed Cindy's carriage while my wife was trying to make contact and stopped for some pics. They still had it roped off until the party was to start.
We were not really sure what to do next and then my daughter asked for the Speedway. I don't mind the attraction but it is a ride you can get at many other amusement parks. This is one of the small list of attractions in Disney where I don't think much differentiates it to make it worth my time. Especially since the line is usually long and slow for this. However it was 6:20 and the Party did not start til 7PM and the wait posted was about 10 min so I gave in. We made our way through the line and when we got to our turn they put my son and me on the staging area for one track and my wife and daughter on another. My son and I waited for a looooong time. Here are a couple of pics while waiting
It turns out there was a car on our track that broke down and the CMs were having trouble reviving it. They seemed as handy with this car as I am with mine which means they didn't have much of a clue. After a long wait they finally go the car moving. My son and I finally boarded. I would like to say it was totally worth the wait for the exhilaration of driving a slow car around a fixed track but alas it was not the really case. There is not too much else to say about this so I'll move on.
When we were done with our "race cars" (and I use that term loosely), I led the family back to Fantasyland. They asked what we were doing next and I just told them to follow me. I had a plan. I looked around for people lined up and found a line of people standing around for no apparent reason. This is what I was looking for. Who wouldn't want to join a line of people standing around for no apparent reason, right? We got over to the line and asked what they were there for and the person at the back said they think it is for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Yep, that's what I wanted to hear and we got on the end on the line. I was just hoping someone in the line was not thinking it was for this and they really knew it was the line for it. Meanwhile my wife was still trying to call her sis but true to no avail.
While waiting for the clock to strike 7 I noticed that the park was not really clearing out. There were a LOT of people here. I was hoping that there would be less people for this event. Are there really a lot of people out there who feel like celebrating Halloween 2 months before the actual Holiday??? Apparently so. Someone on the line say that he heard that the party was sold out. Curses, so much for the perk of a limited crowd during the party. Perhaps even though it seems crazy that people are flocking to a party to celebrate something so far in advance that it being opening night as well as the Friday of busier Labor Day Weekend factored into the crowd.
Shortly after 7PM the Part has officially started and who comes out and walks over to our line but these guys
Um, what the heck is going on here? The poor characters who probably would usually get a nice reception were not getting much love from the crowd since everyone was expecting SW+7D. The CM running the show said that this was going to be a continuous line and they would be changing shifts back and forth through the night and that SW and the 7D will be out later. Oh I almost experienced my first Disney riot by the crowd. This was going to get interesting. No offense to the Dums and the Hare but we did not wait all this time for these guys. Under normal circumstances we would love a picture with them but we waited all this time for some Dwarf action. The rest of the crowd was in the same boat. Don't tell us that people who join the line later are going to get to see them based on pure luck of where they happen to be on line when they change shifts. Apparently after the people in the front of the line revolted the lead CM did something sensible and came up with an alternate plan. All those who were there to see SW+7D would stay in line and she would start a separate line just for the Rabbit and the Tweedles. Ok good. we can live with that except now we need to wait 30 more min until SW+7D comes out and I was hoping to not cut into my party time that much. My plan to grab Dinner before the parade is also looking like it is going to be in jeopardy. We are in for the long haul now though so we wait. Finally a little after 7:30 out they come and they are like superstars with people flocking to see them. Oh, let me tell you, the issues with people coming up saying they were on line already and trying to get ahead of others who were there from the start. The poor CMs handled these people well though and they knew who was there before and who were not and handled the dual line mess well. Kudos to them. Where I have disappointment with Disney though is that they did not have a Photopass Photographer out for this, They did have a CM who would take pictures with your camera and that is great but here is the problem. At least for me, the CM could not take a simple picture. I am not talking about understanding the myriad of setting on my camera. I am just talking about pointing the camera correctly and pressing the shutter. I had already set up the camera the way I wanted it with the setting and zoom. After the CM took the pictures and we were on our way I looked at the shots and I see that my arm is completely cut off yet there is a bunch of open space on the other side of the frame. Ugh. Is it asking too much to get everyone into the shot. perhaps she was trying to improve the picture by cutting as much of me out of it as she could get away with. Oh well, it was too late to do anything about it at this stage and the picture was not horrible. Here is a picture of these celebrities I took while we were waiting on line to see them.
After we get done our greeting it was 7:40. My Kids are hungry so we are going to need to stop for some food. Our window of opportunity to eat and then see the 8:15 parade is closing fast. We headed to Cosmic Rays and was a little disappointed they don’t have normal menu but we deal with it. The lines are pretty large but we are committed at this point. Once we got our food I asked if we should take it on the go and see if we can find a spot for the parade. My wife nixed the idea and said we should just sit and eat and we can catch the 10:30 parade. She was probably right. There would be too many people at this stage to find a spot. So we sit down with Sonny and eat. In retrospect, If I had much of a brain I should have gone over there while waiting for SW+7D and we could have munched while waiting. C'est La Vie.
I am going to stop here for now. We have not delved to far into the event so far. There will be a lot more to see next in the next installment.
All those WS at night pics are gorgeous, especially China. The masks (Italy?) look awesome too.
I love EPCOT at night. I especially wanted to get that China picture. Oh, and you are correct, those masks are indeed from Italy. 
Always good to hear from a fellow Illuminations lover.
Alas no. My camera did not come along for this laundry trip
Snow and the 7 are pretty adorable though! Nice shots!
