So, just about 7 pm, we head into Magic Kingdom. As our special tickets are scanned at the turnstile, they give us each a bright orange wristband. This says that we are supposed to be there. They are handing out trick or treat bags as we walk up to the train station overpass.
The square just on the other side of the train station isn't too packed, and there is fog and scary Halloween music playing. We start into the park, and the kids are beyond excitement.
The treck up main street was a bit like fish swimming upstream. There was a mass exodus of the day park visitors. The Halloween party is a special event / "hard ticket" event, which means that the regular admisssion ticket is not good for the night of the party. Magic Kingdom was closing down earlier than their normal evening hours, just for the party.
Once we squeezed our way up main street, past all of the people exiting, our wrist bands were checked again and we were ushered into Tomorrowland. There, we rode Buzz Lightyear, Stitch (were we were in line with another pirate, really nice guy in a great costume), Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and I TRIED to get Zachary to ride on space mountain, but that didn't happen. Oh well, I think I can next time. Kiki rode space mountain while I took the kids through the trick or treat line just outside of the Carousel of Progress (which wasn't open for this). The line there for candy was the longest I saw all night.
It rained a little harder than comfortable for ignoring the drops, and we spent a little bit of time standing under the Transit Authority overpass. I had forgotten the ponchos at the room, but to be honest, I HATE being damp and hot under as plastic poncho. I'd rather just get wet, and then allow my clothes to BREATH as they are drying off. I kept repeating the mantra, we won't melt...let's march on. But secretly, I wasn't enjoying the rain. LOL
From Tomorrowland, we headed over to Mickey's Toon Town, which is right next to Tomorrowland. We got the kids on Goofy's Barnstormer and they loved it. Philip I think more so than Zachary, and Zachary was the one who was less afraid to try it. Philip laughed and laughed through the entire ride, saying "I'm crazy for doing this. I'm nuts. I can't believe I'm riding this." But he laughed and laughed the entire time. The line was just non-existent for the ride, and we tried to get them to go again, but they were ready to move on.
The next stop was a trick or treat station inside a ship (is that Donald's ship? I can't remember). The water spouts weren't going on it, which was a good thing. We were wet enough. Then, a CM (Cast Member) standing in front of Mickey's tent informed us that Mickey was in and available. The line there was probably the longeset line we stood in all night. It wasn't bad at all, but it took a good 15 minutes to get finished with that, if not a bit longer. Mickey was dressed up like a scarecrow, and the kids were ready with their autograph books.
After Toontown, we headed to the Haunted Mansion. On the way there, we were stopped by CM's who had major walkways blocked off. It was time for Hallowishes. This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen, and we were NOT in an ideal spot. We were stuck behind the castle, and a big part of the show happens in front of the castle. It is designed to best be viewed from in front of the castle with all of the fireworks going off at the castle and behind it. But from our vantage point we were between where the fireworks were blasted off from - kind of in the middle of if. Actually, some were shot off of the roof of the buildings we were standing right next to (such as Peter Pan's Flight). The show went on for a LONG time, and there fireworks were just amazing. I wish I was at a place where I could have used my little tripod and taken a few pictures, but my vantage point wasn't that great (as far as pictures went), and I was standing in a crowd, all looking up.
Once the fireworks were done, we continued on to the Haunted Mansion. Again, there was no line. We walked right up, and into the stretching room for the pre-ride 'show'. The kids had been really excited about this ride, having seen it many many MANY times on their Disneyland Fun Sing-A-Long video tape. But, in the end, it was just a bit too scary for them. They rode, and were gracious about it, but said that they did NOT want to go again. It is still one of my favorite rides. Wait, what am I saying? I say that about a LOT of rides. Over half of the rides at Disney are considered "one of my favorite rides". Don't make me pick. ;)
The line for the party picture in front of the Haunted Mansion was pretty long and we decided not to wait. I'm sorry now that I didn't because I've seen how some came out and it was a great picture. We headed to Main Street.
Kiki had plans to meet up with a couple of people at Casey's (hot dog stand on Main Street) for the 2nd parade of the evening. Zachary was hungry, and Philip said he was, but decided against eating. I took Zachary and Philip to get something to eat and drink, and we sat at a table just outside Casey's while Kiki searched out the people she was meeting. While Zachary was eating, the Headless Horseman came riding up the parade route. I'd heard about this, and it was an amazing sight. The horse was HUGE, and the costume was great. He was moving fast, though I heard not as fast as normal because of the wet pavement. I was actually surprised to see him at all since I'd heard he doesn't ride when it has rained.
The group Kiki had met up with had a spot staked out for the parade right on the street, and allowed Zachary and Philip to sit on the curb and watch with them. I thougth that was really great (since we waited to last minute to mosey up - but I wanted them to eat something first). The parade was really good. LOTS of villians. Most of my pictures did not come out great. I still need to learn the proper settings for my camera for night 'movement' shots. Most of the pictures show lots of swirls where there had been people. But Kiki did get some good shots with her camera (and she had a better vantage point than me). I did get a couple that showed mainstreet, all dark and set up for the parade. It looked really cool, and only a little erie.
The kids were getting tired and we had plans to head back to Magic Kingdom early Saturday morning. So we headed back to the hotel room. On the bus, I ran into Evelyn, the lady from work who was there to work the tradeshow with me. She was with her oldest daughter and her grandson. We talked the whole way back to the resort, and only a little bit about work, mostly about what they had done earlier in the week at the parks.
The kids were REALLY tired at this point, and unwound rather fast. I, on the other hand, was having a hard time unwinding.
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