DAY 5 – This is Halloween and I am the Pumpkin King

Sorry I took so long to finish my trip reports...

Thursday October 25 – Magic Kingdom and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Day!!!!! I haven’t done the Halloween party in a few years, and my father had never been there for it ever, so I figured, WHY NOT… Tickets cost over $200 total, no DVC discount this close tom Halloween, but no bother…

Day started out with breakfast at my favorite spot, KONA CAFE!!! We hopped on the Magic Kingdom bus, then hoofed it over to the monorails… We then took the monorail over to Polynesian, arriving with more than enough time to spare for our ADR… I checked in, and not even 5 minutes later we were seated, well before our ADR time… I had the Tonga Toast, as usual… My father has Macadamia Nut pancakes… Kona Café is my one must do breakfast during every trip…

We finished eating and hopped the monorail back to MK… Long lines to get in but not much wait at all… Soon, we were walking through the tunnel and onto Main Street…
Our first stop was Guest Services… I wanted to double check my Halloween tickets were active... Looking at the app, they didn’t appear to be assigned or activated, but the woman at the counter assured me they were… She also told me to make sure to work my way back to Town Square and the side alley entrance to the party because they were giving out big bags full of candy there… So we took note to make sure to be at the side alley entrance later in the day…

We walked down Main Street, taking in the site of the Castle… I still get chills every time I see it up close and in person… We took our pictures and moved on to Tomorrowland… I had a FP for Buzz Lightyear, but it wasn’t time yet… So first thing we did was Monsters Inc Laugh Floor.. I haven’t seen this attraction in a while… I quickly remembered why… Cute, but never a must do for me… Next was Carousel of Progress, which is always a must do… But we experienced something funny this time… After the first scene, two people stood up and walked out, right before the first scene was over.. Turns out, that prevented the theater from moving to the next theater, so we got to see that scene a second time… After Carousel, we rode another guilty pleasure of mine, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover… I find this ride nice and relaxing, and cooling on a hot, crowded day… Finally, out FP time for Buzz arrived, so we were off to fight Zurg and become Space Rangers… I don’t remember our scores, but I don’t think we achieved Space Ranger status… We skipped Space Mountain because of me.. In April, after I rode it, I legit had a headache… That ride is not smooth at all, and it jerks ya left and right and it does tend to make my back sore…

We moved on to Fantasyland, and shockingly, the wait times weren’t too bad… We waited 15 minutes for Winnie the Pooh, walked onto Little Mermaid, and FP’d 7 Dwarf’s Mine Train… I will admit, 7D has grown on my and has become a must do and a favorite of mine… Heck, my father loved it too… We agreed, 7D is 100 times better than Slinky Dog…

We worked our way over to the other side of Fantasyland… Mickey’s Philharmagic was a 10 minute wait… I love Philharmagic, but it is time for it to be shut down and revamped… New scenes are a must now, let’s get this refreshed!!! We took a look at the posted wait time for Peter Pan... 90 minutes? No thank you!!! I had a FP for a little later so instead, we walked on to Small World... Posted wait time of 5 minutes, and it was more like 0 minutes…

We left Fantasyland, entering Liberty Square… Went right to Haunted Mansion, and despite a bit of a wait, we made it to our Doombuggy… Next up was Hall of Presidents… Now, I saw Hall back in April and something about it, I don’t know, didn’t feel right… I couldn’t put my finger on it… Something with the movie… I understand they wanted the movie to be more about the office and not a rehash of American history, and truthfully, the movies always felt that way… But something about this one just bugs me… It’s probably the narrator… Very monotone… But, anyway, back to this trip… My father thought this version of HoP was just OK, and he agreed with me, the Trump AA looks like they took a Trump wig and placed it on Hillary’s head…

We skipped Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain for the time being, and we went to ride Pirates of the Caribbean… Still love this ride despite them making the red head a pirate… I think that scene change was fine… True, it isn’t the classic scene it once was, and yea we don’t get to hear WE WANTS THE RED HEAD anymore, but times change, things change, and this changed… Everything else on the ride looked fantastic…

After Pirates, we went over to Tortuga Tavern to get our Halloween party wrist bands… They also handed us our trick or treat bag and a bag filled with candy… Nice start!!! Jungle Cruise was next, and I felt this to be a yawn… Our skipper seemed to rush through her script… The joke timing was off… Despite being a classic, the ride is make or break with the skipper… I had great skippers in the past, but this trip, she was off her game…

Dinner time came… ADR for Skipper Canteen… My second time eating here, my father’s first… We ordered the same dinner, the Chicken, but I got the sauce he didn’t.. Our Skipper waitress was awesome.. Friendly, funny, played her part well… Wish I had her as our Skipper for the ride… She even took time to sit with us while we waited for the food to come out, talking about where we were from, about the Halloween party… She really made the time here excellent!

It was now time for our Peter Pan FP… We were making our way back to Main Street anyway, so we hopped on to Peter Pan’s Flight… Classic that is NOT worth 90 minute wait time… I also took note, after the ride, of the queue for Small World… Long stand by line, and a post wait time of 50 minutes.. Glad I rode it earlier!!!

OK, so we wind up back on Main Street, crowds were starting to leave the park… I stopped by the Firehouse to get more Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom cards, along with the Orange Bird MNSSHP exclusive card… We then headed over to the alley way they were directing all the Halloween party guests to… They had the alley way themed for Halloween, kind of… So we took some pictures, then we made sure to trick or treat at the first and only open spot… And sure enough, we got a nice sized bag full of candy…

The Cast Members were directing everyone toward Tomorrowland making that walkway crowded… Not a problem as we squeezed by everyone… Once inside Tomorrowland, we took another shot with Carousel of Progress… This time no stops… We had a clean rotation…

The Halloween party was gearing up to start, and with that we cut through Main Street and over to Frontierland… We rode Splash Mountain with no wait… And then jumped on Big Thunder Mountain with minimal wait… The line was longer at the treat or treat station that the queue for the ride... So, we skipped trick or treating there and walked around over to Adventureland again…

There we took in Pirates of the Caribbean again, this time with Gunpowder Pete on the prowl… We were given warning to look out for him inside the attraction, first by a jailed pirate and 2^nd by a pirate at load… And it was easy to find him… He was in the same spot all Halloween season long lol… He also interacted with me because I was wearing my Batman shirt and he made a comment… Now, was this a good addition?? No… I like the idea, and I will give them a pass since this was the first time they did this, but I think it can be much better and plussed if they plan to do this in the future… Oh and we trick or treated in Tortuga Tavern after Pirates…

We walked back to Frontierland and trick or treated by Tom Sawyer Island… We got squeezable apple sauce… No candy to our disappointment… However, when we took a break and sat at the tables by the Tangled bathrooms, I tried the apple sauce… And I liked it… Wasn’t bad at all…
Our plan was to catch the fireworks and the last parade of the night… But we all know plans don’t always work… I wanted to ride Haunted Mansion again, but nope, not with a line down and out into Liberty Square… Instead we rode 7D once again… then went back to Main Street…

We got our spot by the castle for the Hocus Pocus show, which was, well, just OK, nothing special… But I wasn’t expecting it to be… If I am going to compare it with the Frozen castle show for Christmas, lighting the castle with Ana and Elsa is much better…

After Hocus Pocus, we made our way up Main Street to get our spot for the parade.. We found a good spot even though we were only 15 minutes from parade start… But then again, it was 30 minutes before it came to Main Street… Parade hasn’t changed much… A few things here and there… nothing drastic though… We stayed where we were and just stood in the street for the fireworks… These fireworks haven’t changed at all… Maybe been shortened a bit… But still enjoyable…

After the fireworks, I asked my father if he wanted to do anything more… He said no, so the Halloween party was done… We decided to leave instead of staying any later… We had a fun full day at MK… And in case you were wondering, yes, my father LOVED the Halloween party…

Day 6 – Do we relax, or do we join the Rebellion????? Coming up

Sounds like a great Halloween day.

What a long, but fun, Magic Kingdom day!!

We have had the experience of having to repeat a room in the Carousel of Progress because someone got up and walked out - and it happened twice in two different rooms on same ride!!!