And finally we got this beauty, the piece de resistance:
We were a bit worried that Disney would run out of these, but they had many bins full of them.
The party officially started at 9. Day guests without party tickets would be asked to leave starting at 8. We decided to get food out of the way so we wouldn't need to worry about it.
We decided to eat at Carnation Cafe. I don't have any pictures of food. I think I was very excited and just a touch cold. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.
But I did take a picture of our view during dinner.
We were all done eating a little after 7 and decided to walk around and scope things out.
This chair was set up in front of the Rivers of America.
We walked along the Frontierland trail and saw several character areas roped off. Since our number one goal was Don Karnage, who was meeting with Darkwing Duck over near the Mickey and the Magical Map theater. We already saw a line of about 40 groups formed, so we joined them at the back. As soon as we got in line, CMs came over and said lines weren't forming. Half of the line moved closed to the theater and stayed put, the rest of us were cut off and they put a rope up. It was very confusing. We decided that maybe we should just come back once they let people officially line up.
So we walked back along the Frontierland trail. I think it was around 7:45. We saw about ten people standing at the ropes for the Hunchback meet and greet, so we made a snap decision and decided to just get in line. It was a good thing we did, though the party didn't technically start until 9, Esmerelda and Phoebus ended up coming out at 8 and we were only a few groups back!
Based off our own experiences and twitter reports, I think that what happened is that for most of the meets, 2 out of 3 characters came out for the first set. Then when those two left, the other one came out. Then they rotated at random after that. So for the most part if there were 3 characters, you would usually only meet 1 unless you were there at the first meet. We also realized they were doing their patented, incredibly stupid rare character rotations. So for Goofy Movie characters, dad sweater Goofy was out for a set, then Max in his Powerline outfit came out and switched. Who knows why they couldn't just have two who met together. Disney is so dumb in those cases. I understand face characters, but fur characters should not have an issue. That is what Chip and Dale did, both met together, went for a break, 2 minutes later came back out. Anyway, you can imagine the uproar that caused at the Goofy meet and greet. No one wanted to meet Goofy, they all just stood there and stared at Goofy and waited for Max. We got to read about that one all night on Twitter.
Anyway...
Within minutes we had a great meet with Esmerelda and Phoebus. Look at that hair! Must have weighed about 10 pounds.
So it was 8:15, the party hadn't even officially started yet and we'd already met two very rare characters!!
Though at this point, I was very grateful for Photo Pass that was included with our party ticket. Somehow the CM managed to take 0 pictures with my phone. Luckily we had the Photo Pass to fall back on.
We decided to go back to Don Karnage/Darkwing. I found a CM there who very helpfully told us that they wouldn't even start to meet until after fireworks. Which...ugh. It makes sense, that area isn't safe during fireworks. But why put the characters back there in the first place?!
Two of our friends split off to do rides at this point. They were leaving late the next day and had a couple things they wanted to get done.
We headed to the Hercules characters. They were meeting inside the little Fantasyland theater. I guess they didn't start until official party start at 9. The line filled up all the inside benches, and we were a few groups back outside of the tent.
We entertained ourselves by looking at all the guests' 90s outfits. So much plaid. So many Mighty Ducks jerseys. So many Powerline t-shirts. I don't think Disney has any idea how popular The Goofy Movie is. Though they'll prob find out once Disney+ starts. I bet that will be one of the most popular items on there.
Finally a bit after 9 Hercules and Meg came out to many cheers from the waiting people. The line was moving slowly but surely. Meg ended up leaving around 9:15, which was a really short time that she was out there. Her hair looked super heavy too, and we wondered if that was part of it. We weren't too sad as we had met Meg during the WDW MK 24 hour hero and villain party. We were starting to get worried about Hercules though. We'd already met Hades too and really wanted to meet Herc.
We were getting pretty close and all of a sudden it was like the seas parted. There were a bunch of groups who were trying to wait for Hades and we got to pass by about 30ish people and we ended up being the second to last group to meet him. Sometimes things work out.
The fireworks started (9:25) as we were meeting with Herc. I excitedly realized that I was wearing a 'Zero' t-shirt so I made some stupid joke about zero to hero.
On our way out we saw Hades coming in.
We were in too much of a hurry though, because fireworks were happening!
We stood on the fringes of the crowd near the castle where we exited from Herc's line. The fireworks are fantastic. If I can make another demand, please go youtube 90s Nite
Disneyland fireworks. So great. They played all the Disney Afternoon theme songs, and they ended with A Goofy Movie's I2I, which everyone was singing along to.
We started to edge away as the fireworks were ending and led the surging fireworks crowd into Adventureland, where we quickly ducked into a line for the Tale Spin Baloo and Louie. The line about doubled behind us since we'd stayed just ahead of the fireworks crowd.
We only had to wait about 10-15 minutes before we got to meet Baloo!
Baloo made the loudest character kissy noises I have ever heard in my life. A+ Baloo!! Thought this was another case where I felt they could easily have Baloo and Louie meet together.
That's all for now!
The party was going pretty well so far. Esmerelda, Phoebus, Herc, and Baloo and we'd managed to see most of the fireworks!!