Friday the 18th Of September, Day 13, MNSSHP or
A much, much better time at MNSSHP
Good news! I woke up this morning feeling much better, still a bit of a sore throat but being an ex-singer does that to you with any cold! I had breakfast booked at Cape May Café. I really enjoyed the food here, they had lots of options to the point where I actually didn’t get to try everything I wanted to before I got too full! I loved that they had a make your own crepe station (unfortunately one thing I didn’t get the chance to try). It’s not a breakfast I heard brought up much when looking for recommendations, but I’m glad I went because it was great! The character’s were also fun, we had Minnie, Goofy and Donald in surf attire, one thing that impressed me is even though they were fur characters they all helped me find someone to take a photo!
Because I now had an extra day on my ticket I headed over to Hollywood studios, where I mostly saw shows (Little Mermaid, Muppets etc) and did some shopping before going back to my hotel for a light lunch, to pack up my things and do some serious getting ready for MNSHP. My costume was an all-out one for tonight, dress, wig, makeup and all! So it took me a full hour to get myself ready and I knew I was going to be way to hot this night, but it was so worth it because here was what I got to walk around in all night:
At 3pm I walked through the Lobby to the bus, feeling very odd, a little less so when I got to the stop and found some other folk’s who were dressed up too. I talked for a while to a little girl dressed as one of the descendants characters. I made my way to MK and arrived around 3.40pm, went through bag check and got my wrist band, map and bag like last time. As soon as I got on MS I rushed as fast as I could up to Fantasyland, it was a long shot, but I wanted to see if I could catch the step sister’s before the end of their last meet and greet. As I walked into Fantasyland I saw the Tremaines still out, but I was fairly sure they were leaving soon, there seemed to be a very large line though so I went over to look for a CM or someone in line who knew what was going on. Before I could do this however, I heard screaming coming from the sisters, they were both pointing at me yelling how great my costume was! Whilst I was totally delighted they had noticed, I also felt bad as I was interrupting someone else’s time, so I smiled and waved and tried to move towards the back of the line. A CM came up and told me they were leaving and the line was for Fairy Godmother, which was what I suspected. The CM went back to the Step family and I had a quick talk with someone in the line and the photopass photographer. I walked back over to the CM who was standing behind the family and asked him if it was ok if I just said hello to the girls as they were leaving, not photo’s or anything, just to say hi, but before I finished my question the girls had already come over to me and started to inspect my costume, the photopass CM even managed to snap some photo’s for me:
Drizella told me I had to get more candy for her side, and Anastasia said she’d never seen the two of them getting along so well, Lady Tremaine said I had to argue with myself over my shoulder ever now and again. Drizella even tried to walk me at one point. So 15 minutes into my second MNSSHP and it was off to an amazing start, better than I could have imagined!
I went over to use my FP for Peter Pan, and was completely taken a back but the amount of complements I got in so sort of a space, I was so glad people liked my costume! So far the crowds seemed about medium, for sure not as bad as Tuesday had been at this point, but still more people than I had seen in the past and on my last trip, I’d say this was accurate of the whole night really, certainly the crowds were far more manageable, and walking around was not as squishy, but there was still long lines and more people then I remembered from past parties. After Peter Pan I went over to Haunted Mansion which was posted as a ten minute wait, so being a Halloween night I found it fitting to ride. I popped back to the front of the park to get a picture by the Pumpkin, but they were shutting the photo’s down for a while so I got some in front of the castle instead:
I then had a FP for Cinderella and Rapunzel. Cinderella was wonderful! She even insisted on getting a photo standing on both sides, and told me to watch out for people trying to talk to me on one side, then the other, and that I might have to walk twice as much during the evening, to which I told her true, but I also get to have twice the fun! Rapunzel also seemed impressed and asked if I could make her a matching dress.
I then went back to the Hub for Move it Shake it Dance it Play it. You have no idea how much I wish I had filmed the floats and character’s as they were coming into the hub, it was so great to watch so many of the performers dorking out over my costume just the same as I did when the costume was finished! Though I did find the dress particularly difficult to dance in for it was to tight near my ankles to allow much movement other than walking! Then I walked back to the pumpkin for a photo:
There was still an hour left until official start time of the party, so I went over to Tomorrowland and rode the peoplemover so I could spend some time looking at all the costumes around! Then I went to the laugh floor again for some…well...laughs! I’d already felt like I’d done so much more in the 3 hours I’d been the park than I had on the whole night of the first party!
At 15 minutes till the start of party time I went over to adventureland, I had really wanted to meet Jane, Tarzan and Terk last party so that was my first priority tonight! Except I wasn’t sure where they were going to be, they changed locations mid-way through last party. So I hung around and at 7pm they walked straight past me on their way out (Tarzan stopped to small me in passing), I followed them and found their line. This time thankfully it was moving! And in about 5 minutes I was at the front. When I came up to them Tarzan promptly exclaimed ‘Tarzan smell you before’. Despite having really wanted to meet them, I had no idea what to say! (This is unusual for me around characters too!) I found Tarzan strangely intimidating!
I hit up a few trick or treat stations so I could have some candy to eat during the parade. I tried to investigate the dance party, but only kids were dancing really, any adults who were in it were just trying to get selfies with the characters, so I left it, went over to Peco Bills were I carefully transported my tray of food over to the opposite side to sit and wait for the parade (this time only about 40 minutes before parade start and there was still plenty of spots around). I do warn you, fellow solo travellers, not to move from your parade spot even for a second. There wasn’t too many people around yet so I thought it would be ok to leave my bag (without valuables I should add) sitting in my spot while I took a measly 3 or 4 steps over to the bin to dispose of my tray, which was taking up space next to me and would make room if removed. Not more than a second from when I had gotten up, did a family appear out of nowhere and try to sit on top of my bag, luckily the person next me was paying attention and told them someone was sitting there already at the same time I swopped back to my spot to inform them of the same. Considering this was the worst the night got for me personally, it was a vast improvement from Tuesday!
The projection on Country Bear Jamboree
The parade was more fun this time, probably because I got more interaction this time, but I did find all the performers and characters seemed more energetic (or not, if they were a zombie) this time. Peter Pan seemed puzzled by my costume, Dale or Chip (didn’t have time to check the nose/teeth) came over and tried to cut me in half with invisible scissors, Aladdin came over and told me i looked like Iargo (spelling?) and the step sisters screamed at me, again.
Post parade I wondered through adventureland slowly then (once the parade has passed the hub) over to Fantasyland, were I met Hatter and Alice again, followed by Ariel:
I considered squishing into a last minute spot on MS or the Hub to see the fireworks, but had particularly wanted to meet Cruella De Ville, and thought during fireworks would be my best bet. I could see some of the fireworks from the line so that was good! I’m glad I made the decision to meet her, she was fabulous! She told me to go show off to all the princesses how much better than them I looked
Here she asked me to use my feather to fan her
In the next 45 minutes I: walked down the Candy Trail between The barnstormer and tomorrowland, which was a great was to get lots of candy fast! Walked over to Liberty Square via Fantasyland, did a treat station there, met the old hag (with zero wait):
Meet Tiana, again with Zero wait, she spent lots of time talking with me because no body else was in the building!:
Did the candy trail in the Tiki room and treat station near the jungle cruise, then walked down MS (with FAR more ease than the first night!), where I did one last meet with Aurora, who also dorked out over my costume, to my delight! She wanted me to do a half blue half pink costume of her for next year (though I think that already exists), unfortunately the photos from the meet and greet seemed to have disappeared, and last off meet Tinkerbell:
So in the last 45 minutes alone I was at the party I managed to do more candy trails and meet and greets then I did at the first party! I would LOVED to have stayed on until the end of the night, however I needed to get up at 4am the next morning, and I’m not an ‘all-nighter’ kind of person, so needed to obtain some level of sleep.
I have to say the best part of the party this night, however, was how many people I got into conversations with because of my costume, it was great, particularly as a solo traveller, to stop and talk with so many people in one night! And I’m so glad my costume was well received, lots of work went into it and I’ll probably have no where else to wear it for another year! (Certainty very few people here in Australia will understand it!) So dress up for the party everyone, be creative! Turns out, it’s a great way to make some new friends and have some interesting chats!