Day 10- Happy Halloween!!! In which pirates breaks down and DH is sick!

[ToffPrincess]

Day 10 Happy Halloween
In which Pirates breaks down on us and DH is sick!​

We wake up in the morning and it soon becomes apparent DH is not well. He spent the whole night in the bathroom with a bad stomach and now has a fever. Food poisoning or got a chill we don’t know but he can’t really get himself together. We have breakfast at the Crystal Palace so we go there. I have included DS & my fab Halloween day time outfits (which we changed out of the moment the heat arrived. Thank you generous basket under the CityMiniGT Stroller!)

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Breakfast at the Crystal Palace​

This is our second time eating here. First time around I was not at all impressed with the Characters interaction. I feel like if I am going to pay for an overpriced buffet or meal that offers Characters.. those characters really need to come around to the table and at least spend a minute or two there to sign the autograph books, take photos and give the kids a hug. Last time around DS was physically grabbed by the arm, twirled around for a photo and pushed back to sit so fast I was pretty disgusted. This time it was MUCH better. It took an hour to see 3 characters (we left without seeing Piglet because who needs to waste more than an hour 15 minutes on breakfast?!) but those characters were very warm to DS. The food was much better also and there seemed to be more choice this time. Our server was nice but slow and we had something like a 20 minute wait to get the bill. We asked 2x and asked even asked a second server before I got up with DS and stood by the door and called a manager. The bill arrived pretty fast after that but again.. Crystal Palace falls short in something. There are better Character experiences for your money.. yes it’s in the Magic Kingdom but I really can’t say I would say this is a must-have experience for your kids.

DH at this point leaves us to go back to the hotel where he spends all day in bed burning up and feeling terrible. It is VERY busy today. Probably because its Halloween. Good news is the queue times aren’t reflecting the crowds so we manage to go on quite a few rides.
Peter Pan
It’s A Small World
Tea-cups
Tomorrowland Speedway
Under The Sea
The Haunted Mansion
Carousel
Pirates of The Caribbean
Well almost Pirates. We queue for 15 minutes and get to the loading area and then stand there for 25 minutes where they keep trying to restart the ride. No go. So we get a free fastpass which we can spend anywhere (apart from Seven Dwarfs & Peter Pan) so we spend it on Aladdin’s Carpets. Good move as the hot weather has FINALLY arrived and I don’t fancy burning in any queue for 30 minutes.
After that we have lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern which is amazing as always. We had the nicest server of our trip here who really made our day. She was so overworked (I swear she waited the full room alone) but she still made time to be so kind and got DS an extra little mermaid cup to take home. Again we exited LTT just in time for the parade and our stroller yet again reserved us prime seats. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for our Halloween party!! DS was going to be a Pirate for Halloween.. I got him an AMAZING costume but after 20 minutes he started crying as he didn’t want to be a pirate forever so I changed him back into his day outfit. Bless him a bit like with the Epcot face-painting, he doesn’t get that it’s not a forever change!

Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party​

So we get to the park around 6.30 and check in and get our wrist bands. We are ushered in to a side entrance where we have the option to take photos and get our bags for trick or treating. Just at this point we get some treats and our bags are like 80% full of goodies which means DS clutches on to his for dear life. He finally understands the concept of Trick or Treat and was ecstatic.

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The park is so, so full of people in costume it’s hard to see the difference between this ticketed event and a normal lunch-time. None of the rides have shorter waiting times than usual which was a bit disappointing. For example Tomorrowland Speedway is normally 20minutes and it was 45 minutes. We did the Winnie The Pooh ride and queued for one trick or treat line which took forever but it was worth it to hear DS utter those magical words. He got so much candy his bag was full so there was no need to do more.
We decide to do Pirates to make it up to DS. Imagine our horror when we get on the ride and find the seats SOAKING wet. We should have known something was amiss when we saw that but we stupidly got on the ride. After 10 seconds it became apparent that the ride was tilting dangerously to the right (my side of course) and we were about 2cm from water coming into our boat. People started yelling and we all tried to move to the left which did make a difference but was hugely uncomfortable as everyone was piled on top of each other. NOONE on the ride staff noticed and we had to do the whole ride like that. Then we crashed into some empty boats in front of us and had to wait by the prisoners and the dog holding the keys for what seemed like forever. The man in front of us commented ‘I hope we weren’t the test ride!’ I think we may have been.
DH at this point is having a panic attack. He’s ill, now he is wet and he feels terrible. He decides to go back to the hotel. So DS, my uncle and I decided to try meet some characters before dinner. No go unfortunately as the queues were too long. So we go to the Be Our Guest castle where it takes us 20 minutes to be seated. Dinner is actually very nice (compared to breakfast which was not a nice experience) and our server is so nice and attentive. The food isn’t great but it’s good. Standard nice dinner. Beautiful setting. DS is in love with the inside of the castle.

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When we finish our food (just mains.. we are too full even for desert!) DS got to meet the beast who he thinks is Daddy. DH not particularly hairy and is blonde so not quite sure why since the first moment he saw the film he is convinced its him but.. all I care is that he thinks I’m Belle. At his age I thought my mother was Maleficent which tells you everything you need to know really. The Beast interacts so nicely with DS but the photographer is truly terrible. Too busy talking to someone and misses half their interaction. Luckily I got a few snaps myself.
We make it outside just before fireworks start but we decide to be smart and head for the monorail. We know that everyone with kids will leave after this and we don’t particularly want to stay for anything else. So we get back to the hotels while watching fireworks from the monorail window.. which is not bad either.

A very nice day and night but do I think it was worth paying for those tickets? Nope. Not with the amount of tickets they seem to sell. Disney is a money making machine but they seriously need to re-evaluate their maximum capacity in the parks and for events. Of course not everyone agrees but I would rather be told ‘sorry go to another park on that day MK is fully booked’ when planning my holiday, then spend 5 hours in a park and only be able to do my fastpasses.

All in all who cares what I think, DS got to say the words 'Trick Or Treat' and got a bag full of candy plus an extra one. Job done!!