Updated: Feb Trip plans "It's a Bit Less Humid Today, Right?" - a September 2018 Trip Report

[Lesley Wake]

So I forgot to quote...

We had a similar journey with a hurricane causing us to arrive earlier! (Though it was Irma and we just got to Disney early so we wouldn't have to cancel our whole trip - we ended up just getting 2 nights at Pop before moving over to POFQ for our full stay.)

Love all the photos of Boardwalk Villas! I'm staying there in 2 months (!) and I can't wait! But I'll be transferring from anothe resort, so I'll need to keep in mind the luggage delay.

• Baked/unbaked: delicious, as cookie dough ice cream is This was Trevor's favorite.

• Dark Chocolate: so smooth, so rich....my favorite!

• Sweet cream and cookies: delicious

• Chocolate Fudge Brownie: also delicious

• Ooey Gooey Butter Cake: Not my favorite. For some reason the flavors just didn't work for me?

• Sally Sells Seashells: I liked the flavors here but the texture was slightly gritty. Trevor didn't care for it much.

These are all the flavors I would have gotten!

 

[Araminta18]

So I forgot to quote...

We had a similar journey with a hurricane causing us to arrive earlier! (Though it was Irma and we just got to Disney early so we wouldn't have to cancel our whole trip - we ended up just getting 2 nights at Pop before moving over to POFQ for our full stay.)

Love all the photos of Boardwalk Villas! I'm staying there in 2 months (!) and I can't wait! But I'll be transferring from anothe resort, so I'll need to keep in mind the luggage delay.


These are all the flavors I would have gotten!

I always forget to quote too. Ooh, no fun, and worse with Irma actually coming for Florida. that panic of "oh no I may have to cancel my trip" is the worst. Glad you still made it though!

That's exciting! You'll love Boardwalk Yea, I would plan on the transfer/Bell Services being slow; if they surprise you by being quick then awesome but at least you want be disappointed. It was one of the only things we didn't love about the resort.

You have to go to Ample Hills when you stay there--SOOOO good.

 

[PrincessP]

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report. I love all the details....right down to number of steps. I just did a solo trip last month and meant to bring my DD’s fitbit to track mine. Forgot! I had two park hopping park open to close days (short trip) and was so curious about steps.

Your weight loss for this trip is inspiring! That is hard work and focused effort for sure. It sounds like it definitely paid off.

I have never thought about staying at Boardwalk....my family and I have done MK resorts and AKL and offsite, but your view and review have convinced me to add it to my wishlist. I like the light, airy colors and feel of your pictures there. And that convenience to Epcot....can’t beat it.

Excited to read about the rest of your adventures.

 

[Araminta18]

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report. I love all the details....right down to number of steps. I just did a solo trip last month and meant to bring my DD’s fitbit to track mine. Forgot! I had two park hopping park open to close days (short trip) and was so curious about steps.

Your weight loss for this trip is inspiring! That is hard work and focused effort for sure. It sounds like it definitely paid off.

I have never thought about staying at Boardwalk....my family and I have done MK resorts and AKL and offsite, but your view and review have convinced me to add it to my wishlist. I like the light, airy colors and feel of your pictures there. And that convenience to Epcot....can’t beat it.

Excited to read about the rest of your adventures.

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it--I like reading about the random details in other trip reports so that's what I put in mine. Makes my posts pretty long....oh well! Bummer about forgetting your fitbit! I just use the counter on my phone (since I constantly have my phone on me), but I know it's not the most accurate.

Oh, I would definitely add it back in! It did feel really light and airy, and you can't beat the fun of the Boardwalk or the closeness to Epcot. Hope you get to stay there soon!

 

[feet1]

I am absolutely loving your TR! My husband and I are staying at the BWV in November celebrating our 20th anniversary! We've always wanted to stay here but with a family of 6 its just been out of our price range...so since it's just the two of us this trip it's doable. Plus we are only going for 5 days...I cannot wait and I'm getting more excited by reading your TR and seeing your pics!

 

[d-train]

Sure! We rented from a member on here and paid $1845. It was 123 points at $15 a point, or $230.62 a night. As a fun fact, we paid $243 for one night at French Quarter garden view—with a discount. The only real downside to renting points (aside from not controlling the reservation and having to trust the DVC member) is the lead time required to book it.

That's awesome! Thank you for sharing that - when I look at those rental websites, it seems cryptic the way they describe the prices. And you can't get a true cost without committing to the purchase ahead of time. How did it work renting points from someone on the Dis board? Thank you for sharing!!!

 

[andrewsmith02]

Wonderful start of your birthday trip report. I am waiting to read more about your trip. Also looking for wonderful photos!

Enjoy your trip... Hope by the end of this year we will also visit to this amazing place (If all going good...)

 

[Araminta18]

I am absolutely loving your TR! My husband and I are staying at the BWV in November celebrating our 20th anniversary! We've always wanted to stay here but with a family of 6 its just been out of our price range...so since it's just the two of us this trip it's doable. Plus we are only going for 5 days...I cannot wait and I'm getting more excited by reading your TR and seeing your pics!

Thank you! That's so exciting!!! You and your husband will love it. It's such a fun resort and that location can't be beat.

That's awesome! Thank you for sharing that - when I look at those rental websites, it seems cryptic the way they describe the prices. And you can't get a true cost without committing to the purchase ahead of time. How did it work renting points from someone on the Dis board? Thank you for sharing!!!

Yea, the process can be a bit weird, since you have to figure out how many points you will need and then figure out how much they are charging per point. Renting points from someone on here was super easy. I was a bit nervous, and initially wanted to go through one of the agencies, but we really wanted a Boardwalk view during Food and Wine, and I didn't want to take a chance that the agencies wouldn't have someone ready to book for me at 11 months out. Renting through a private owner gave me a slightly larger amount of control. I asked him for some references, which he was prompt about. He didn't use a contract, as per him the email thread sufficed, which made sense to me. He also asked for payment by check; he forwarded the confirmation email once the reservation was made and then I mailed him a personal check. Like I said, it involves a lot of trust on both sides, since he could have made the reservation and my check could have bounced, or he could have cashed my check and then canceled the reservation or whatever, but this time (and the great majority of the time) it works out. It was definitely worth it for us.

Wonderful start of your birthday trip report. I am waiting to read more about your trip. Also looking for wonderful photos!

Enjoy your trip... Hope by the end of this year we will also visit to this amazing place (If all going good...)

Thank you! I have lots more photos to share Hopefully your trip this year works out!

 

[Araminta18]

Sunday, September 16th:
MK before MNSSHP​

We slept in again, enjoying waking up the gentle, quiet sounds of the boat horns (and that's not sarcastic--they were distant and quiet and pleasant. ). We were debating about whether to bring our Halloween costumes and change, or just to wear them all day, and ended up deciding just to wear them, since they were light and then we didn't have to deal with the hassle of going all the way to the front of the park and finding a restroom and changing and everything. I think it turned out to be a good decision!

We split a pop tart to hold us over til breakfast, and headed down to the bus stop. I was checking on the app, but even so, at the bus stop at 8:30 there were no buses showing for the Magic Kingdom. We had a 9:10 breakfast ADR at the Crystal Palace, so we figured it would be best to grab an Uber to the Contemporary and then walk over to the Magic Kingdom.

This was our first bad experience with Uber. The driver was pleasant, but clearly didn't speak English very well, and got completely lost. You can tell, from the Uber map, the giant detour we took towards Fort Wilderness and back. It is a confusing area to drive through, but still. A 10 minute drive ended up taking 20 minutes (actually, we did the same thing Tuesday morning and it took 8 minutes.)

We arrived at the Contemporary at 9:01, and then walked (very quickly!) to the Magic Kingdom. We were a couple minutes late for our reservation--we checked in at 9:15. Being able to sit was kind of nice, cause we were *super sweaty* after having booked it to Crystal Palace. At least they had water out for guests! It was not less humid today, self-delusion notwithstanding.

We weren't seated til 9:27. As we were walking to our table they were doing the Friendship Parade, so that was fun to see. Then as the parade was done, we were seated and Tigger visited us immediately! It was a little weird, 'cause he took a picture with Trevor and then the other table that was also just seated tried to pull him away! So I awkwardly pulled him back to get a picture and have him sign the picture we brought.

We had a little bit of a gap between characters while we got our food, and then the rest of them came one right after the other. We were near their start point, and there was like 6 empty tables between us and the preceding table, so they came in pretty quick succession, which was nice. It was fun to meet them.

(Pooh liked Trevor's button--it was his Winnie the Pooh "there'sa rumbly in my tumbly" button )

This was also our first time eating at the Crystal Palace, and overall we enjoyed it. Not sure if we'll be back, as it is a bit expensive, but we loved the building itself, with all the glass. The food was decent--I got an omelet, and the cheesy potato casserole thing was also good (if a bit heavy for morning). We didn't end up eating a ton, and the service was really slow (or maybe it just felt that way? we waited a long time for our drinks), but we didn't regret doing it.

Once done, we left and headed to Adventureland and our Jungle Cruise fastpass. We got there at 10:45 (15 minutes before our window ended), and had a fantastic time. Our skipper was Skipper Quinn and she was on point--funny, energetic, just having a great time. I feel like the last few times I've done Jungle Cruise the skipper was just kind of bored, and so this was a refreshing change. I tweeted a #CastCompliment for her and just got the response yesterday that they printed it out for her--well deserved! We laughed a lot.

Afterwards we had an 11 am fastpass for Pirates, but it was down, so we had Anytime fastpasses instead. Our next fastpass wasn't until noon (Splash), so we decided to take advantage of proximity and do the Enchanted Tiki Room! We'd never done it, the line wasn't long, and hey, air conditioning! Nice break, silly show, though I can see how it would have been groundbreaking when it opened. After the Tiki Room we waited 5 minutes (basically one rotation) before getting on Aladdin's Magic Carpets. We totally tried to get the camel to spit on us.

Afterwards we wandered over to Splash Mountain and rode that to cool down.

In between I scored us a couple of Big Thunder Mountain fastpasses for immediate use so we rode that again.

We were still really hot so we decided to get a Dole Whip float! SO good. So very melty, but so good. I was really proud of myself for carrying it back to Trevor (he was near Pirates) without spilling any on my white dress.

Pirates was back up by then so we used our Anytime fastpasses and hopped on. This was our first experience with the ride photo! I agree that it is in a bit of a weird spot. And did they get rid of the falling water with the projection of Davy Jones on it? I do like the change to the auction scene though, however controversial that opinion may be. Also, we were *definitely* not prepared for the photo.

After Pirates, we were tired. We thought about going back to the room for a rest, but I wanted to see the Festival of Fantasy Parade, and Trevor was ok with staying for that, so we instead decided to head over to Tom Sawyer Island. We thought it might be a good shady place to explore or sit down for a bit, since exploring Tom Sawyer island is always on my list and so far we haven't made it. So we took the raft over, walked through the mill and found the old quick service restaurant and better than that, two empty rocking chairs! Score! We quickly sat down and just relaxed. I think we both dozed off--it was shady, and there was enough of a breeze that it wasn't too uncomfortable. One of the best decisions of the trip, hands down.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeepy Trevor

We dozed for about 45 minutes or so, and then at 1:30(ish), they announced the parade. I thought the parade was at 2, but we decided that was our cue to head back to Frontierland to catch the parade. It turned out to be a good decision: we picked a front row spot that was sort of shaded, and were able to sit down! This was at 1:45ish, and the parade started almost immediately. The crowds man, they were tiny. Walk up and get a front row spot to sit for the parade that is mostly shaded right at parade start? Awesome.

Our seat looking toward the start of the parade, and the view directly across from us.

We had a little bit of time til they got to us, but that was actually kind of nice so we could settle in and get excited. Once it got to us, we loved it! We got some fun interaction from being right at the rope and sitting down too. Anna pointed to us and made gestures indicating she loved our costumes (she even mimed part of the Bert's Jolly Holiday dance) and the Mad Hatter chatted with Trevor about his bow tie (also that actor has the voice *down* for the Mad Hatter. Sounded exactly like the movie!). And then at the end, Mickey also indicated he loved our costumes!

As soon as the parade passed us, we headed towards Liberty Square so we could cross behind the parade and head to Fantasyland, but we beat the parade. So we sat on the stone planters to wait out the parade. Mickey saw us and was like "wait! You moved?!" It was pretty fun to have that interaction with the characters, even as adults. That Disney Magic, in action.

After the parade passed, we continued into Fantasyland, for the last minute SEVEN DWARVES MINE TRAIN fastpass I scored while watching the parade! It started 2:45, so since we had a few minutes we stopped into Pinocchio Village Haus to get a Blue Raspberry slushie, 'cause hot. The line was a bit long, so that took a bit longer than planned, but no big deal. We enjoyed the a/c.

We then got in line for Seven Dwarves and had a grand ole time at the Diamond Mine.

Creepy Mine Train selfie and then I don't even know what I'm doing on the ride photo

From there we headed back to Liberty Square to watch the next Muppets Present: Great Moments in American History show. Unfortunately it turned out to be the one we'd already seen, so without any concrete plans, we headed down Main Street doing some shopping, getting some pictures, and playing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. We then headed back to Liberty Square to catch the next show of Muppets, which was indeed Paul Revere. Boom! Got them both. Super funny, highly recommend.

After the show, it as almost time for the main attraction: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! Coming in part 2 and 3

 

[Araminta18]

Sunday, September 16 part 2:
MNSSHP pre-parade activities​

We left off with watching the 3:30 show of Muppets Present Great Moments in American History. It was about 3:45, so we decided to head over to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor to get in line for our MNSSHP wristband. The line seemed pretty long when we got there, but only 'cause they hadn't started distributing them yet. Once wristband distribution started at 3:53, we were done (with bags in hand) at 3:58. We saw a fun group of Dapper Dans in line.

The plan was to then check into the dessert party. We booked right when it was released, so we were among those who had the parade viewing included. By checking in early, we wanted to see if we could just go right to the flagpole for the parade, rather than having to come early to the dessert party to check in again.

However, no one was at the check-in desk, despite the email saying someone would be there at 4. We waited (with another lady) until about 4:10, but there were no CMs anywhere around. So, we went down Main Street, took a couple pictures, got our MNSSHP Orange Bird Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards, and then went through the bypass. I'd stuck our candy bags in my big bag for the night, and so they gave us two more candy bags! Oops!

The lines for pictures at the front of the bypass seemed kind of long (like 8 groups or so), but deeper into the bypass they were much shorter, only 1 or 2 groups.

Trevor took my picture but didn't tell me I was standing in exactly the right spot to block Minnie! Oh well A CM was kind enough to take a picture of both of us and that turned out slightly better.

So we got in line for the photo with the MNSSHP bulb. The photopass CM here was a little brusque and told us no when we asked for a specific shot, but oh well. It was hot. I'd be brusque too.

After going through the bypass, we checked at the Terrace again and there was a CM there! So we got our dessert party lanyards, and confirmed that we could indeed go directly to the parade viewing at the flagpole when we were ready, rather than having to come back to the Terrace at 8:45pm.

That done, we were ready for dinner! We headed over to Skipper Canteen for our ADR. I'd loved this place when I went last year, so was eager for Trevor to try it. The skippers were funny and nice, but the lighting seemed oddly dark in the dining room? It didn't help that the table next to us was done with their meal and was loudly buzzed/drunk, yet kept ordering more drinks the entire hour and 15 minutes we were there. I guess they weren't disruptive enough to be cut off, but they were certainly unpleasant to sit by.

So the atmosphere wasn't super promising, sadly, but our waitress was nice, and the food was very yummy. I got the steak salad (again). Last time my complaint was too much salad, not enough steak. I had the same complaint this time, but the ratio was a bit better. And obviously I still liked it enough to order it again.

Trevor got the strip steak (Marinated New York Strip, Pico de Gallo Butter, Jasmine Rice, and Braised Black Beans with Applewood-smoked Bacon). He loved the beans with the bacon, and the pico de gallo butter. His steak was also surprisingly good--cooked well and tender. Yes, I stole a bite. Or two. Or three...don't judge me!

Then for dessert, we (really me though) got the Quick Sand!!!: Jasmine Rice Pudding, Mango Sauce, Lemon Curd, Hibiscus Meringue, and Pineapple. Storytime: I spent a year and a half in Brazil about 10 years ago, and it was (obviously) really hot. However, ice cream was expensive, so I was introduced to rice pudding. Easy to make, and then you stick it in the fridge and eat it cold, and it's a reasonably creamy, yummy substitute when you're craving ice cream. I loved it. So when I saw that Skipper Canteen had it on the menu, I definitely wanted to get it. It was so yummy--a big hit of nostalgia eating that dessert. Now I want some rice pudding...

After dinner (around 5:30ish), we didn't really have anything planned. We wandered around for a bit, and saw some trick or treat signs go up, but nothing was open. We didn't have any rides we wanted to do, so we just sat on the Jack Sparrow stage and people-watched. We ended up inadvertently starting that line! Some girls joined us around 6 and we had fun talking and just enjoying being there. It wasn't that crowded--the line for Pirates was posted at 10 minutes for most of that time and there was lots of empty space in the walkways. We saw several Russell/Kevin costumes and lots of t-shirt costumes (makes sense considering the heat), but also a lot of people with full costumes (must have been hot!). One girl was dressed like the tightrope walker and had her dog wearing an alligator costume.

By 6:40, there were only about 8 other people in line behind us to meet Jack Sparrow and I started getting antsy about my Tarzan and Jane meet. That was the one meet that I really wanted to do; we were over by Jack Sparrow 'cause Trevor likes watching him do meets and we were hoping he'd come out early. But since he hadn't, I left Trevor in line and went up to where Tarzan and Jane were going to meet. There was one family in line there, so I got in line behind them. At 7, Trevor bailed on Jack Sparrow and came up to meet me, since neither character had come out yet, and I was more interested in meeting Tarzan and Jane than he was about meeting Jack Sparrow, so he was ok to miss it. I did feel bad about that, but Trevor insisted he didn't care or mind, and wanted to be with me to meet Tarzan and Jane. He's a good guy.

Finally Tarzan and Jane (and Terk) came out. They didn't have a photographer with them, but the handlers were kind enough to take pictures using your phone, including a bunch of candid shots, so that was neat. All three characters signed the picture we brought, and we had a fun little chat about it. Not as awkward as I was fearing--the actors are on point with their improv skills and the pictures we brought gave us something to talk about.

We were done with the meet at 7:12, and so following our plan, headed over to ride the Haunted Mansion. There were once again no crowds on the walkways. As we were passing we caught the last half of the last song of the Cadaver Dans' set. That was cool! I wanted to hear them, but wasn't quite sure how to plan it in. So catching them by chance was great. The crowd listening to them wasn't large, so we got a good view for the 30 seconds or so we were listening.

When we got to Haunted Mansion (at 7:16 pm), the wait was posted at 25 minutes, but we figured this was what we wanted to do, and so bit the bullet. The wait was a lie. We entered the first pre-show room at 7:22. That's a 6 minute wait for those of you counting at home. I'll take it! We were off the ride at 7:37, and when we came out, Madame and Broome were on the lawn entertaining guests and the fog was being pumped around the mansion. Yay for Halloween atmosphere! This was what I wanted when hanging around the Haunted Mansion at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party.

We immediately got in line for the magic shot with the hearse (at 7:37). This turned out to be one of our longest waits of the night: we were done at 7:52. However, we were able to watch and hear Madame and Broome interacting with guests while waiting, and since that was something I wanted to do anyways, it worked. Madame left after a minute or two of us being in line, but that was ok 'cause Broome was super funny! He told jokes about people's costumes and about Batman's dog wearing a mask...we laughed a lot. Made the line go by pretty quickly. And then by the time it was our turn to take our shot, we got Madame in the background! Bonus!

Once done with that, we jumped in line for the lantern shot with the Haunted Mansion sign. We got in line at 7:52 and were done at 8:01. Another brusque photographer (or maybe the same? I'm bad with faces. maybe that was why she was brusque, cause people ignore her!) , but we got some fun shots.

This was the magic shot portion of the evening, in case you were in doubt! From there we went to get the Hatbox ghost magic shot. We got in line at 8:01 and were done by 8:04. I consider that a stroke of luck: since only one person can be in this shot at a time, if there's a family group in front of you, they each will take their own picture and it could take a long time. But we only had 2 people in front of us, so it went very quickly.

Then at 8:04 we got in line for the last shot of this set: the hitchhiking ghosts. I wish I'd remembered that they'd be facing the front so we could face front too, instead of side to side. Oh well. Still a fun shot. We were done at 8:11. Side note, there was a *grumpy* family in front of us that was not prepared for the heat or any kind of crowds, and hadn't made any kind of plan about what to do or see in advance, so they were yelling and negotiating about what to do and who to see. I feel bad for people who pay so much but are too tired or don't plan and just end up being miserable.

On the brighter side though, there were some AWESOME costumes. We saw a family dressed as the "goodbye" signs from Small World, and a whole group of Haunted Mansion ghosts. One lady was Maleficent, with a dress to the ground and a staff and awesome horns. We also saw a whole family doing Jolly Holiday Mary Poppins and Bert--their 3 kids were penguins! Super cute.

After the Magic Shots, if I'd been more on my game we would have tried to meet the Gravediggers but I didn't plan them in and completely forgot about wanting to meet them. So we headed over to ride Pirates. We got in line at 8:15. It was posted at 15 minutes, I think, and that was about accurate: we got on the boat at 8:28. Some of that was because the line slows down when you interact with the pirates in the line.

So this is my "i'm a horrible person" comment: the pirate in the cell tonight was in an awkwardly placed cell, where you could really only have one group interact with him at a time. We had a family with 3 children (ages 4 to 10) in front of us, and the kids stayed glued in front of the cell talking to him for about a full minute, which is quite a while when you're in a line that is theoretically moving. I'm glad the kids got a fun interaction with him (and it was pretty cute, one kid didn't have a shirt on so the pirate gave him a coin "to buy a shirt"), but because of the movement of the line and the people behind us, we ended up having to rush quickly past him, didn't even really get a picture. Parents with kids, your children are not the only ones here. Move them along in a timely fashion. A full minute, in this kind of a setting, is excessive. And I say this as the oldest of 7 kids who was constantly trying to make sure my siblings and I weren't getting in the way or causing problems when we went places. I also realize this is an unpopular opinion and only my perspective. I just wanted to have the opportunity to meet the pirate and didn't feel like I could, and maybe that's my own fault. Oh well.

Anyways, riding the ride was fun, though I agree with the comments that the experience is a little confusing--you're looking for the pirate and he's on the bridge and that's it? Still glad we got to ride though.

sorry it's blurry! It's the best shot we got.

(at least this time we were a bit better prepared for the picture!)

We were off the ride at 8:38, so we headed over to Casey's where I used mobile order to buy the Headless Horsemen straw ornament. Then we did some more magic shots on Main Street (specifically I wanted to get the Dancing Ghosts ) and headed to the flagpole for our reserved parade viewing.

(this was obviously from earlier in the night...forgot to post it)

Up next, the Boo to You parade and the rest of the party!

 

[Araminta18]

Sunday, September 16th part 3:
Boo to You Parade and the end of MNSSHP
​

We left off right as we were heading to the flagpole for the parade viewing. We got there at 8:50 and got a seat on the curb right at the front. There weren't very many people there in the area, but they were definitely checking lanyards to make sure you had parade viewing. There were maybe 15 people, including Trevor and I? It was nice and uncrowded. And I appreciated being able to run to the restroom and the firehouse (to pick up my normal pack of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards ) without having to worry about saving a spot or anything like that.

At that point there had been no rain, so the Headless Horseman trotted down Main Street right on schedule. That was neat to see! I really wanted to see him, and was worried about rain making it be canceled, but it all worked out.

After the horseman, we were entertained by the Zootopia Party Patrol and roaming photopass photographers taking pictures until the parade came.

The parade reached us at 9:36. This was our very first Boo to You parade and we LOVED it. That song is an earworm for sure, but how fun to see all the different characters, and the gravediggers and the dancing ghosts...Awesome. And being right at the flagpole made for some fun interactions: Flynn Rider liked Trevor's beard and after Donald Duck blew me a kiss, I blew one back that he reacted to like it had bowled him over. It was super cute.

After the parade, we met back up with a CM at the entrance to the bypass at 9:52 and they escorted us back to the Terrace. Since we hadn't reserved a table earlier we got to pick one now from what was left, but as a table of two, we got one right at the table, though it was pretty far off to the side of the castle (if you're facing the castle it was way off to the right). Perfect view though--I was very happy with it!

The food was ok. The special Halloween desserts were a bit of a bust, but we liked the cheeseburger spring rolls and the spinach dip, and the chocolate covered strawberries. I was excited to try the ooey gooey toffee pudding after reading/hearing all about it, but I was underwhelmed. Bummer. Mostly though, I enjoyed having a reserved seat and snacks for the fireworks. They also gave us a present of a nicely wrapped bag of about 20 ghiradelhi chocolates, so that was unexpected and nice.

The fireworks were delayed until 10:40 cause it had started raining, but the rain passed quickly. I enjoyed the extra time sitting down! Once they started though, we had a great time. Especially that 180 degree finale--wow!

After the fireworks, I booked it to Space Mountain, while Trevor went to Fantasyland to watch the Belle and Gaston character meet. He things Gaston is funny to watch. Space Mountain was posted at 10 minutes, but it was a walk on: I entered at 10:54 and was boarding at 10:59. The darkness was pretty cool, but was slightly ruined by some idiot *cough cough* fellow guest on the Peoplemover who had turned on the flashlight on their phone and was shining it all around. Also the rock soundtrack wasn't very intelligible--seemed pretty generic to me. Still, an interesting and different take on a classic ride. Although while exiting, I heard several groups talking who had no idea that there was something special about Space Mountain during the party or that the something special was the darkness. Didn't seem to be advertised too well. Which if it keeps lines low, I won't complain too much about!

After Space I texted Trevor and we met up to ride the teacups with it's overlay. That was also basically a walk on--we waited one cycle since they'd just started a cycle as we walked up. I think this was my favorite overlay with the crazy lights. I did get super dizzy though, since Trevor likes to spin it really fast and then we stagger away instead of walking.

Done with that, we decided to go ahead and meet Belle and Gaston since their line was short and we had done pretty much all we wanted to do at the party. There were maybe 5 groups ahead of us? Belle and Gaston had just taken their break, so I left Trevor in line and did the trick or treat trail at Ariel's Grotto three times in a row 'cause there was no line. The dad and daughter in front of me did the same thing.

I went back to Trevor and we switched: he did the Grotto trail once and then came back since he's not as greedy for candy as me. On his way back I noticed there was a photographer (with no line) at Gaston's fountain, so got a quick picture there too.

At that point Belle and Gaston returned so we got to meet them. We asked Belle to sign the picture we had of her and the Beast dancing, and Gaston basically heckled her as she was signing, which we found amusing. I like it when the characters can play off each other.

At that point it was 11:40, and the only thing left on our list was to get the Headless Horseman magic shot. Trevor was concerned they would stop doing it when the party ended at midnight, but I was pretty sure it would still be going for at least a little bit. Either way though we *booked* it back to the front of the park, stopping only to do a little trick or treating at the Cosmic Ray's trail (no line!) and the Monster's Inc trail (slight line, but there were two stops and at the second stop the CM was giving out HUGE handfuls of candy, so bonus!). We then ran SMACK into the end of the second parade. Oops, forgot about that!

We manuevered our way through the crowd and ended up close to the two pumpkin towers there by the train station so we got that magic shot at 11:53 pm, and then headed out to the front of the park for the Headless Horseman magic shot. We finished with that (and essentially the party) at 12:04.

Our bus luck wasn't too bad tonight: we got to the Boardwalk bus stop at 12:09, and there was a bus waiting. We were back at the Boardwalk at 12:26, not too bad! I can't remember if the bus stopped at another resort that night, but if it did it must have only been one or two others and they must have been quick stops.

Overall, we had a fantastic party. I was a bit worried after the reports of crowds on the MNSSHP thread, but it never felt crowded to us (well, except for pushing through the crowd at the end of the second parade) and we were able to do everything we wanted to do. The only downside was the crazy heat! We even got lots of compliments on our costumes, which was nice considering the amazing costumes of others that I saw! We would definitely do MNSSHP again.

Fun with Metrics!
Steps walked: 20,646 (8.2 miles)
Discount: $13.70
Rides (Tiffany): 11 (Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, Magic Carpets, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates [without the overlay], Tom Sawyer Island, Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Pirates [with the overlay], Space Mountain [with the overlay], and the teacups [with the overlay])
Rides (Trevor): 10 (everything I rode except for Space Mountain with the overlay)

 

[Daisy1940]

Wow, I am amazed at the awesome fast passes you were able to get as 4th, 5th, etc.! Looks like a great trip

 

[BaymaxForever]

We were at that party as well...I don’t think it was overly crowded either.

It loooks like you guys had fun and accomplished a lot. It funny how differently separate groups can spend their evening! I totally love the napping place...I’ll have to keep that in mind!

We started by knocking out Tomorrowland, grabbed dinner at Rays, hit up minetrain and then over to Frontierland where we knocked out a bunch of rides on BTMRR and splash before catching the show and last parade. I made my family wait 10-12 minutes for the tangled lantern shot, not bc I had planned on it, it just didn’t seem like the line was long. I do liked how the pics turned out, though!

 

[kclark9830]

Love all of your pictures! I think the magic shots are so fun.

And you're not a terrible person at all. I don't understand peopl who aren't considerate of others. Seriously.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

We did so much the same, I'm surprised we never bumped in to each other. We were at AK the same day and times (although while you were doing Everest before the storm, we were in the Nemo show) and we did MNSSHP the same might as well. Did you not see the Hocus Pocus show?? That was pretty amazing. I didn't think the party was crowded either but dear God the heat. I lived down there for 2.5 years and I still forget how that can zap you.

 

[SweetSerenity]

Glad you enjoyed the party! Love all the fun shots.

 

[Araminta18]

Wow, I am amazed at the awesome fast passes you were able to get as 4th, 5th, etc.! Looks like a great trip

We got really lucky! Though some of it is the ease of looking for a party of two, and the low crowds. Almost (almost) made the heat bearable!

We were at that party as well...I don’t think it was overly crowded either.

It loooks like you guys had fun and accomplished a lot. It funny how differently separate groups can spend their evening! I totally love the napping place...I’ll have to keep that in mind!

We started by knocking out Tomorrowland, grabbed dinner at Rays, hit up minetrain and then over to Frontierland where we knocked out a bunch of rides on BTMRR and splash before catching the show and last parade. I made my family wait 10-12 minutes for the tangled lantern shot, not bc I had planned on it, it just didn’t seem like the line was long. I do liked how the pics turned out, though!

Glad you had a good experience too! We did the lantern shot at Disney After Hours, but the line during the party may have been shorter, with you only waiting 10 minutes! It's a great shot though--definitely worth 10 minutes And yes, definitely keep the napping place in mind--it's pretty quiet, since not a lot of people make their way over there

Love all of your pictures! I think the magic shots are so fun.

And you're not a terrible person at all. I don't understand peopl who aren't considerate of others. Seriously.

Thanks! They really are--Disney does a great job with the magic shots!

Thank you for the reassurance--I totally get being excited about watching your kids have a fun interaction (and it was pretty cute), so I assume the parents just were focusing on that. But it was a bit of a bummer. Oh well

We did so much the same, I'm surprised we never bumped in to each other. We were at AK the same day and times (although while you were doing Everest before the storm, we were in the Nemo show) and we did MNSSHP the same might as well. Did you not see the Hocus Pocus show?? That was pretty amazing. I didn't think the party was crowded either but dear God the heat. I lived down there for 2.5 years and I still forget how that can zap you.

Wow! That is a lot of the same--maybe we did and just didn't know it?! No, DH and I have never really seen Hocus Pocus or cared all that much about it, so we didn't put it in our plans. And we were plenty busy that we didn't even think about trying to catch it. Have to add it to my list for next time!

Oh yea, that heat...wow. Ridiculous!

Glad you enjoyed the party! Love all the fun shots.

We really did! Definitely worth it (for us).

 

[Leopardchucks]

Just curious why the kid interacting with the pirate wasn't wearing a shirt? I mean, I understand it was super hot, but allowing your kid to take off his clothes at Disney World is kinda weird. lol

 

[Araminta18]

Just curious why the kid interacting with the pirate wasn't wearing a shirt? I mean, I understand it was super hot, but allowing your kid to take off his clothes at Disney World is kinda weird. lol

No idea! It was a bit weird! I assumed it was the heat as well, but who knows

 

[Dentam]

Looks like you guys had a great party! I went to MK and the party on Labor Day and loved it! It was also super uncrowded which helped. Had the same experience of being able to walk up right before the parade and get a front row seat. The Cadaver Dans were definitely a highlight of the party for me along with the parade! I didn't do any of the rides that had overlays though since I'd read they were all pretty underwhelming. I love all of your magic shots!