Held throughout September and October, MNSSHP allows guests to visit the park in costume. Usually, only children are allowed to dress up. While there is an additional cost, I feel it is worth it. We got a discount this year because we are annual passholders! You an also get a discount by buying early. The tickets run around $60. That is pretty steep, so you have to make sure there is something at the party that appeals to you. Obviously, there is something that appeals to my group because we keep going to the parties.
Our party preparations begin well before the trip because we dress up. Last year, we started prepping in July. My mother is an amazing seamstress, so she ends up tasked with sewing all the costumes. Since we designed last year's costumes to be more functional, she didn't have to do much sewing this year. As sad as it sounds, we also had a great deal of our accessories already.** We had to get an extra hat, as my dad didn't have one, and the ladies needed boots. Otherwise, most pieces were already assembled.
The day of the party, you can get into the park in costume as early as four. Since I had picked up our tickets at the Magic Kingdom ticket booth area on Monday, we just had to get dressed and get there. For whatever reason, we have never made it to a party at four. It doesn't officially start until seven, so it's no big deal. It is annoying, however. Something always goes wrong, and it always takes longer to put on a costume than we think it will.
We had returned to the room around a quarter after two because it is good to take a break before tackling the party. By the time we roused my father and got everyone dressed, it was after four.
You always have to take pictures before you leave the room.
After that, costume pieces begin to go missing.
We strolled up to the bus stop by 4:22 and were on a bus by 4:30. One of the fun things is seeing the little kids when they notice your costumes. It's fun, especially when they like your costume.*** Mark made it a point to yell pirate stuff whenever he saw kids dressed up as pirates. He is ever the showman.
The bus stop is an excellent place to meet pirates!
By five, we were at the park. We had made it through the turnstiles and gotten our wristbands, as well as our trick or treat bags. There were no long waits to get those items, which was nice. The bags have images from current Disney releases. This year, they featured Wreck-It Ralph and Tinkerbell.****
Now, the real party festivities didn't begin until seven. This left us with about two hours to mess around before obtaining candy became the prime directive. We started out by riding Pirates of the Caribbean because that's what you do when dressed like a pirate. The wait was minimal.
Since we had a long night of pillaging planned, we decided to get some sustenance. Pecos Bills was the perfect choice, as it was close. Tortuga Tavern would have been better, but it was closed. Lame. Dinner was where we had our first snafu of the evening though. I left Mark with the table while the rest of us obtained food. I dropped off our food then went to get my parents, as they didn't know where we were sitting. In my absence, Mark managed to get chili on himself. We were already hot, and this just frustrated both of us. Once I cooled down and Mark realized his costume was still awesome, we were both okay. I don't think we had any other attitude issues.
To get into some air conditioning and because it is one of my favorite rides, we decided to experience the Haunted Mansion. Besides, if you're doing a Halloween party, the mansion is required to be one of your stops. After having a ton of fun, we exited around six thirty.
As we were walking through Fantasyland, we lingered around the entrance to the new Fantasyland. They were doing dress rehearsals throughout our trip, but we had heard that it could possibly be open during the party. We took turns going to the restroom and just kind of waited. A little before seven, someone who seemed important announced that if they did open up, it wouldn't be any time soon.
After her announcement, we decided to just join the Werther's candy line. It was maybe five til seven, and getting candy was about to become our driving force. When the party officially starts, they do an announcement by the ghost host over the loudspeakers. They also start checking you for wristbands everywhere. When you cross between lands, there is a line of castmembers. When you get candy, a castmember checks your wristband. The same happens at rides. If you don't have a wristband, you don't get any candy or fun.
If I don't say we were doing a specific ride, we were trick or treating. We occasionally took breaks from trick or treating to ride something or get a snack. My dad absolutely loves getting candy. I think it is because he didn't get to do that kind of thing as a kid. We focused on candy for over an hour before we changed things up.
This was after about an hour. As you can see,
they give you some good candy.
Around eight, we were circling back through Fantasyland when we discovered that they were letting people into new Fantasyland. Of course, we immediately headed in. They were running the new Little Mermaid ride. You could also visit Gaston's Tavern. We decided to ride first then get a snack at Gaston's Tavern. Of course, after our ride, we took some pictures.*****
This is outside the Little Mermaid ride.
You can see Eric's castle from another angle, as well.
The ride was okay. I expected a bit more. Disney has made a huge deal out of this expansion, so I wanted to be blown away by the ride. It was definitely neat, but it wasn't amazing. It didn't help that there were people taking flash photos throughout the entirety of the ride.******
Disney has done a great job with the theme throughout the area, which is to be expected. They do it better than anyone else. Belle's village is really convincing, and Gaston's Tavern is really neat. There is a fountain of Gaston out front, which is a great photo op.
Amazing!
This is exactly what I would have imagined.
The tavern itself offered some different items than the other quick service places. There was hummus, as well as a special drink.******* We just had beverages.
The barrel IS the cash register!
These are tired pirates. They weren't too tired
to protect their booty at all costs.
This was a much needed break. It was pretty warm, so wearing the multiple layers that comprised the pirate costumes was taxing. Furthermore, pirate hats are also very hot. On an unrelated side note, it was weird to see a girl in the same room charging her phone using Disney's electric. I'm sure it is probably socially acceptable now, but it rubbed me the wrong way. I might not have noticed if my dad didn't point it out.
Having re-fortified ourselves with drink, we continued on our pillaging spree, claiming even more candy. We seriously just kept circling the park, hitting all trick or treat lines. We didn't really have to wait, which was nice. We didn't catch the shows, the parade, or characters. If they didn't offer us candy, we didn't bother.
Finally, about a quarter after nine, we were passing Space Mountain, and I requested to ride. My love for this ride has recently resurfaced. After depositing all bags, hats, and swords with my dad, we entered the queue. We were on the ride in less than ten minutes. Frankly, waiting wasn't an issue for me. We were in the air conditioning.
When we re-emerged into Tomorrowland, we went to find my father. If he is waiting during daylight hours, he'll be somewhere in direct sunlight. Seeing as it was full dark, we just headed for a grouping of benches.
We found him. I'm pretty sure that was him
being incredulous when it was proposed that
maybe he helped lighten some of our
candy bags.
Around this time, Mark admitted defeat. In his defense, he was wearing lady boots. We had made it back around to Adventureland, when I asked Mark if he was okay. He admitted that he was finished. I really expected my dad to quit with Mark, but he didn't. The call of candy was too much! We sent Mark off to bed and continued our clock-wise journey around the park.
We paused at the Haunted Mansion to see the ghost lady who hangs out in the grassy area in front of the mansion. She interacts with guests and is pretty funny. We opted not to ride, as we already had. The fact that there was a line only made us feel better about that decision.
Isn't she pretty? Also, I want my house to look like that.
Think about how much it would freak out the
neighbor kids.
After even more trick or treating, we started to acknowledge our sleepiness.
He couldn't even pull the sword out of the stone.
We called it quits a quarter of an hour past eleven. We had each filled two bags of candy to the top. It was a pretty good haul.
We left the park and entered the bus line. Let's just say that it looked pretty intimidating. It took two buses to get us loaded. By half past, we were on a bus, heading back to the resort.
MNSSHP is a really fun event. It's worth the money to wear a costume in Disney. You get to trick or treat and be a kid again! The atmosphere is amazing, and this year, we had the bonus of seeing some of new Fantastyland. My only regret is that mom used make-up on me that was nigh impossible to get off. It was horrible, but that's the price you pay to look awesome!
*Henceforth, these will be referred to as MNSSHP because I am not typing that again. I could copy/paste it, but that sounds like a lot of work too.
**Mark likes to dress up. For Halloween this year, he dressed up at work on three different days, a different costume each day.
***My reaction to that might have to do with that darn clock I always hear ticking.
****I think Tink was on one side. It was a long night, and I didn't save them this year.
*****My mother had a new camera this year; I don't think she ever stopped taking pictures.
******You almost always encounter people that will take flash pictures throughout rides where you're not supposed to do so. I generally don't freak out about it since I've experienced most Disney rides numerous times. It was incredibly annoying in this instance. Frankly, they were outright rude.
*******I can only imagine it is their answer to Butterbeer. It's not as good, nor does it have the street cred.
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