Will I be Herding Cats Again?* **** COMPLETED *****

[mom2mek]

The party seems awesome! I would soo love to take a Mommy/Daughter Trip in mid-Sept for her birthday and MNSHP

It was a great party! Still a little hot in October for my taste, but we endured and had a fabulous time! A Mommy/daughter trip would be so much fun, wouldn't it?

I just love all the PP photos, so cute, especially the Haunted Mansion ones

Thanks Jo! The kids faces in the HM one crack me up! (Well, the adults too )

Sara

 

[OhioTony]

What great pictures Sara! Shawn got to see the backside of castle. (think Jungle cruise-backside of water) Boo I know.
They let people in Cindy's Coach for pictures?! I don't remember that ever! I want that bad! Guess that means we're going back!
Can't wait for more. You have the best pictures.

 

[julezdisney]

Great updates! I keep thinking of where we were when you were where-ever. Like, we both started in Tommorowland, but we started w/Carousel and Buzz while you guys were doing Stitch and TTA. And then we were on the TTA and Space- I wonder if our boys crossed paths?!

And we caught the 1st parade from Pecos Bills (great viewing spot, btw) and the fireworks from Liberty Square on our way to HM. LOL.

 

[nessz79]

I've been reading and I just love your family! Keep 'em coming!

 

[mom2mek]

What great pictures Sara! Shawn got to see the backside of castle. (think Jungle cruise-backside of water) Boo I know.
They let people in Cindy's Coach for pictures?! I don't remember that ever! I want that bad! Guess that means we're going back!
Can't wait for more. You have the best pictures.

LOL Lynn! I have heard before that the "back" of the castle truly is the front - as any real castle should face it's Kingdom! Meaning Fantasyland. Clearly, that's not right to me, as the Kingdom is the whole park! But somebody said that!

Yes, during the Halloween party, you can get pictures in front of the coach. Yes - you definitely need to go back during Halloween - so fun!

Great updates! I keep thinking of where we were when you were where-ever. Like, we both started in Tommorowland, but we started w/Carousel and Buzz while you guys were doing Stitch and TTA. And then we were on the TTA and Space- I wonder if our boys crossed paths?!

And we caught the 1st parade from Pecos Bills (great viewing spot, btw) and the fireworks from Liberty Square on our way to HM. LOL.

I did the same thing with your report Julia! I kept thinking "where were we then"! And now I'm scanning the background of all my pics looking for you and Nichole's families! LOL!

I've been reading and I just love your family! Keep 'em coming!

Thanks for reading! Should have more up soon!

Sara

(Michael's smilies: )

 

[kaysmommie]

Thanks Sara , your family is beautiful too! Great pictures! I love the ones of the kids in their costumes. They look adorable! I only really saw Emily since Katie was asleep and Michael was riding something else. It's funny seems like we did all the stuff as you that night. We ate, went to toontown to trick or treat and rode the teacups. Then we watched the parade from Main St, which wasn't even packed 15 minutes before parade. I should have called you but wasn't even sure if you were watching 1st or 2nd parade.

 

[Poohtigeey]

I love the pictures of Emily on the teacups. She is so cute! (Got a bit of mischief in her eye..) So far it looks like you picked the right things to do and really enjoyed the party. Great updates. I really want to get back to the Halloween party. I can't wait to read more.

 

[mom2mek]

Thanks Sara , your family is beautiful too! Great pictures! I love the ones of the kids in their costumes. They look adorable! I only really saw Emily since Katie was asleep and Michael was riding something else. It's funny seems like we did all the stuff as you that night. We ate, went to toontown to trick or treat and rode the teacups. Then we watched the parade from Main St, which wasn't even packed 15 minutes before parade. I should have called you but wasn't even sure if you were watching 1st or 2nd parade.

Thanks Nichole! I know - I'm kicking myself for not giving you a call later in the evening to try and meet up! Ugh. I keep scanning my pics to see if I see any of your crew in the background!

I love the pictures of Emily on the teacups. She is so cute! (Got a bit of mischief in her eye..) So far it looks like you picked the right things to do and really enjoyed the party. Great updates. I really want to get back to the Halloween party. I can't wait to read more.

Thanks Monica. Yes, she does have a little bit of mischief in her! Gets it from Shawn! We really did love the party! I'm hoping to get more up soon - maybe in a few minutes!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Ok, so on to those fireworks shots....

Day 3 - MNSSHP
Part 7 - Fireworks and the Parade (real catchy title, huh?)

We sat down with hardly any people around us, and the spectacular show began! My mom and step-dad went to Disney for their 10th anniversary back in October of 1995, and my mom swears that they had a witch fly from the castle like Tink normally does. I think this was before they had the "parties", so maybe they stopped doing it once they did the party events. I don't know...but it would be cool if they would do that again!

(loved all the things they project onto the castle during the show)

So, after the fireworks ended, we stood there and talked for a few minutes about how amazing they were and then we headed off to try for a ride on Big Thunder Mountain! Here are a couple of pics just a few minutes after the fireworks to show how empty that area was...so beautiful!

And lastly, before we left that area, the gorgeous castle...

We took off towards Thunder in hopes of jumping on before we needed to find a spot in Frontierland for the 2nd parade. We got over to Big Thunder and the sign said 30 minutes!!!! WHAT? Are you kidding me? I was shocked! The line was all the way down to the entrance (in hindsight I don't think they had all the sections up top open) but I wasn't willing to chance that!

We decided instead, to head back over to Frontierland and grab some liquid refreshment while finding a good spot for the 2nd parade (the kids did some trick or treating right there near Thunder on our way back over too!)

We found a spot right outside Peco's Bills which worked out nicely with the whole drink retrieving thing! Woo-hoo! Then we plopped down right there outside the front porch area of the restaurant. The girls decided at that point that they wanted their costumes off, so I lifted them off over their heads (they had their clothes on underneath, LOL!) truly, I was utterly shocked that they had lasted this long in their costumes - it had been 5 hours since they put them on! Michael was fine and still wanted to wear his.

Then...they saw it....

glistening to them in the distance....


The little....


magic....


light-up.....


toy cart!

You know the one? The one filled with all cheap toys and souvenirs that usually don't last long enough to make it home?


Oh joy!


UGH!!!

I told them they could each get one thing - Michael picked out a Mickey multi-colored light-saber type thing! Surprised? I wasn't! Emily wanted a light up pumpkin necklace, and Katie sprung for the light up tiara! Terrific!

Moving on...

No sooner had we sat down, respositioned ourselves, and re-packed everything back into the stroller, and the CMs were coming around making sure everyone's feet were well behind the ropes. They were very adamant about that because the Headless Horseman was on his way. The scary thing is, literally RIGHT BEFORE he was in front of us (like I could hear his gallop - he was that close) a lady darted across the street! The CM near me almost had a heart attack! Not real bright, lady!

Unfortunately, our position made it very hard to get any pics of the Headless Horseman - but we was very impressive!

Here we are right as it got started...(I'm only including this picture because I think it's funny that at 1st glance, it looks like Michael is wearing the tiara! LOL!)

We all loved the parade and before we left I had purchased the CD which the kids made us listen to every day in the car until we started listening to Christmas music finally! (yeah, yeah, that's the ticket...the kids love that CD)! LOL!

Our postion was fine, but for pics, it was difficult. But he still managed to get quite a few decent ones I think.

(Michael thought it was cool that Donald had on a knight costume like him)

(Emily and Katie both thought it was cool that Minnie had on a witch costume)

(We missed the gravediggers as they passed us, but then they pivoted around and Shawn got their faces at least. Would have loved to have gotten a picture of the sparks from the shovels - maybe next time!)

(Emily thought she had nice nails, LOL!)

(Look, it's Fred Flintstone in a dress!)

Up next...maybe I can finish this night up! So who do you think makes it all the way to the end? And do we ever get to ride Thunder?


Sara

 

[jillyb]

Another great update! I died laughing at the picture of Michael. It does look like he's wearing the tiara!!!

 

[mkluvsmickey]

LOVED this update Sara! I could just hear the music in the background as I looked at all your great pictures of the fireworks and parade. You got some great shots - I can never get decent pictures of fireworks or parade.

Crystal Palace looks like a great spot to veiw the fireworks - don't see anyone else there!

Love the gravediggers - very very cool!

Thanks for a great start to my morning! Now I'll be humming those MNSSHP songs in my head all day!

 

[julezdisney]

Wow great updates! Man, how FUNNY is it that you also watched the parade from Pecos Bills but just after us? Seriously that's spooky!

 

[kaysmommie]

Great fireworks pictures. Well now I know were I should have been watching from. It was so packed close to the castle and rude pople kept standing up and walking in the way . I'm going to try your spot in May since it wasn't crowded. I can't believe someone would cross the street just before Headless Horseman came up the road. The CM's were going crazy making sure everyone's feet were out of the road. Love your parade pictures.

 

[mom2mek]

Another great update! I died laughing at the picture of Michael. It does look like he's wearing the tiara!!!

Thanks Jill! I know - when I first looked at that picture I thought "was he being funny, taking Katie's tiara and putting it on?"

LOVED this update Sara! I could just hear the music in the background as I looked at all your great pictures of the fireworks and parade. You got some great shots - I can never get decent pictures of fireworks or parade.

Crystal Palace looks like a great spot to veiw the fireworks - don't see anyone else there!

Love the gravediggers - very very cool!

Thanks for a great start to my morning! Now I'll be humming those MNSSHP songs in my head all day!

No problem Michelle - glad to help! That "boo to you" song can really get stuck in your head, can't it? Shawn was disappointed in his pictures - he was kicking himself for at least not bringing his little tripod, but I think he got some great ones! CP was a great spot for MNSSHP fireworks! I was worred a little by being off to the side from the castle, but I didn't find that the view was obstructed at all, and I will sacrifice it anyway to be out of shoulder to shoulder people - especially with kids! We had so much room, we just all were able to spread out and watch!

The gravediggers were my favorite part too, well...and also Capt. Jack!

Wow great updates! Man, how FUNNY is it that you also watched the parade from Pecos Bills but just after us? Seriously that's spooky!

Weird, huh Julia? I thought the same thing when I was reading your report! Spooky is right.

Great fireworks pictures. Well now I know were I should have been watching from. It was so packed close to the castle and rude pople kept standing up and walking in the way . I'm going to try your spot in May since it wasn't crowded. I can't believe someone would cross the street just before Headless Horseman came up the road. The CM's were going crazy making sure everyone's feet were out of the road. Love your parade pictures.

It was a great spot for the MNSSHP fireworks Nichole. I'm not sure if it would be AS good for regular Wishes though, considering that the CP is probably still open during a regular night. For the party, the CP was closed by that time, so the area was pretty clear. Worth checking out though - if you have time to stake out a spot with plenty of time!

That CM was seriously shaken up by the lady who walked right out in front when the horse was coming. She was later talking all about it to another CM who came by - she just couldn't believe it!


Sara

 

[nessz79]

Great update! I love your Disney style...it's similar to mine. A little bit obsessive planner, but when things don't go perfectly you just go with the flow. After all, you're at Disney. Looking forward to more. I love your whole family!

 

[DisneyJo]

Your photos are great and it does look a bit like your DS is wearing the tiara

 

[mom2mek]

Great update! I love your Disney style...it's similar to mine. A little bit obsessive planner, but when things don't go perfectly you just go with the flow. After all, you're at Disney. Looking forward to more. I love your whole family!

Thanks for reading! I try to just go with the flow - it's hard sometimes though. Always worth it in the end, of course!

Your photos are great and it does look a bit like your DS is wearing the tiara

Thanks Jo! I thought so too! The knight in shining tiara!

Sara

 

[OhioTony]

Sara
I have pictures of the witch flying out of the castle from our MNSSHP in 2004. Maybe she didn't fly that night because of the weather?

Man I hate those glowing carts too! We would go to the Disney store before our trip and let them pick out a light up "thing" and we took it with us. We also bought alot of the dollar store glow sticks. They were lit up like Christmas trees. And I'm talking just last year, not when they were little!


Malificent used to give me nightmares when I was little and your picture reminds me why.

I hope you get to ride BTMR . It's my favorite at night!

 

[mom2mek]

Sara
I have pictures of the witch flying out of the castle from our MNSSHP in 2004. Maybe she didn't fly that night because of the weather?

Man I hate those glowing carts too! We would go to the Disney store before our trip and let them pick out a light up "thing" and we took it with us. We also bought alot of the dollar store glow sticks. They were lit up like Christmas trees. And I'm talking just last year, not when they were little!


Malificent used to give me nightmares when I was little and your picture reminds me why.

I hope you get to ride BTMR . It's my favorite at night!

That's funny Lynn - I figured it was a thing of the past (the witch thing). I have never heard anyone mention it when talking about viewing Hallowishes! Weird. I searched and searched beforehand to try and see if anyone would talk about it and never could find anything about it.

That's a good idea about going to the Disney store before leaving. We definitely go prepared with a bucket load full of glow sticks, bracelets, necklaces, etc, etc....it usually works! This one night for some reason (maybe it was the extra time we had waiting) - they all wanted something. I am a big fan of those $1 store glow things. They usually keep the "gimme gimme" down to a minimum!

Seriously, that Maleficient actor has a large make-up job, doesn't she? It's very good - she looks frightening!

Should have the Big Thunder update soon!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 3 - MNSSHP

Part 8 - We shut this party down!!!

After the amazing parade, we skedaddled over to Thunder Mountain, in hopes of getting on a little bit more quickly this time around. Well, the sign that had said 30 minutes earlier, now was saying 20 minutes.

Seriously? Come on! That can’t be – it’s like almost 11:00 at night on a party night – things should be empty now, right?

I was bumfuzzled to say the least, but we were getting a ride on Thunder Mountain and that’s all there was to it! We stood Katie next to the magic height checker, hoping she hadn’t shrunk since yesterday at Epcot, and she passed! Woo-hoo! My baby’s first ride on Thunder Mountain!

Now, for some reason (maybe something to do with the fact that this trip was 3 months ago ) I can’t remember Shawn and my step-dad on this ride. Which is weird. So I asked Shawn if he and Pop Pop rode Thunder with us at the party. You know what he said? (This is why he doesn’t write trip reports) He said…"I think we were running over to Buzz to get fastpasses or something"! LOL!

Um, no honey, this was at 11:00 at night, on the night of the party, where they don’t even have fastpasses!


Think a little harder...
It was after the cool Halloween parade….
We walked over to Thunder…
It was Katie’s first ride….
She rode with Mom…



Nothing

He’s really helpful with remembering all those important details.

No worries…they didn’t ride. I’ve come to that conclusion anyway.

As to why they didn’t ride…beats me…but I think the Mission Space: Orange was still wreaking havoc on them!

So Mom, MIL, the 3 kids, and I walked up the rocks to board Thunder. When we got to the top, half the section was closed off (i.e. not using the whole upper section for line-waiting) and consequently the line moved much more quickly.

I would say we were in line for 10 minutes at most. Phew! I left all my stuff with the men at the stroller so I don’t have a single picture of us riding Thunder, but let me just say that we all loved it! However, this ride was even bumpier than usual. Now I’ve ridden Thunder Mountain at night, and yes, it does seem faster in the dark, and maybe it was just because I was worried about Katie – this was by far the biggest ride she had been on – but this ride was much more jerky and bumpy than it has ever been in all the times I’ve been on it!

I rode with Michael, MIL rode with Emily, and my mom had the scary task of riding with Katie. Thank goodness she was holding on to her tight! She had a death grip on her! It was bumping us all over the place. At one point, I got a little nervous when my MIL took her hands off of Emily and put them up in the air! Ahhh….hold on to that girl, please!

Of course, the minute we got off of it, the kids all wanted to ride again!

But we had another mountain to conquer!

We were off to Splash!

The kids were still going strong – laughing and giggling the whole way over. Sigh -I just loved it.

My MIL told me that the one and only time she came to the Magic Kingdom (when Shawn’s sister was in a dance competition held there like 15 years ago, she waited for 3 hours IN THE SUN to ride Splash Mountain. Can you imagine? Now this was before fastpasses, so you didn’t have a choice - if you wanted to ride it – you had to wait…but there is no way in you-know-where I would wait 3 hours for ANYTHING! Wow!

Having said that, we walked through the really long queue to get to Splash – and the wait was only the time it took us to walk through to get to the log. Big difference, huh?

Again, wimpy men sat this one out. Big chickens! LOL!

Michael, Mom, and I grabbed some ponchos from the stroller before going in, although I wouldn’t have cared if I had gotten wet as we would be leaving the park not long after this ride, but I went ahead and put one on anyway. Michael was positive he was not going to get wet on Splash. He had a plan.

Shawn set up his camera to try and get some pics of us coming down the hill. Here was his shot (no one is coming down on this one).

Seriously, in our pictures, I have about 20 pics of OTHER groups (and sometimes empty logs) coming down the hill, similar to this one:

(It’s not like you can make out who is in the log coming down, but still…it’s in focus and taken exactly when the light goes off, right?)

Well, here is our picture:

(The way we know that it's ours, is my MIL’s light-up Halloween necklace! See the blur of light going down….LOL!)

Well, the kids all loved the ride. As did the grown ups. It was a first for Emily, Katie, Mom, and myself! Due to Katie’s size, and mom’s nerves from riding Thunder with her, we thought it best if we sat two of us adults with her on this ride! She was snug as a bug!

Here is our ride picture.

Zoomed in for your viewing pleasure...Notice Michael’s sure-fire way of staying dry? He completely blanketed himself with his poncho!

(The girls faces just crack me up! Emily - such joy! Katie - such terror! LOL! It's now her favorite ride when she talks about Disney, so no worries there - she loved it!)

It was now about 11:30 and we headed back towards Fantasyland to see if we could get on Peter Pan! On the way over, the kids did some more trick or treating (man, by the end of the party, they are dumping huge fistfuls of candy in the kids’ bags!) and Shawn did some picture taking.

Love the reflection in the water in this picture!

(Not sure where this is, but I'm thinking it's the old building that used to have the sky-ride type thing in it...anyone know? Thought it looked like a creepy face inside there!)

We walked right on Peter Pan and had a glorious time flying over London and then on to Neverland!

When we got off, all Katie was talking about was getting to go on the Carousel again. As we approached the Carousel, they had it roped off already - it had just turned midnight.

We had missed the last ride of the night and she was so sad. We managed to distract her with the sword-in-the-stone thing.

Michael attempted to pull it out, to no avail.

We were in no rush to leave the park, as Main St. looked fairly crowded still, so we just let the kids run around right behind the castle in an almost-empty Fantasyland.

(A knight and his sword!)

They were still routing people around the castle and not through it (I’m guessing the last villains show was being broken down on the stage still) so Shawn just took a few pictures of the inside while we let the kids play.

So pretty!

Then we made our way to the side of the castle and down to Main St.

Michael and Emily both wanted in the stroller by then, and I don’t think they were even in the stroller 1 minute before they had shut their eyes and fallen asleep!

Katie, on the other hand, just like the night before, was going strong. The girl knows what she’s doing – taking those naps at Disney! Her legs were tired though, so I offered to give her a piggy back.

It was officially my little girl’s birthday now – the clock was well past 12:00 – so we bought her a balloon on Main St. and she was tickled pink.

We managed to get the kids out of the stroller and onto our laps for the tram ride to the car, and then upstairs at the house to go to bed.

We were sleeping in the next day!!!!

Coming up…my baby girl turns four! For real this time!!!

Sara