These early celebrations are some of the best times to hit up the parks and experience all the magic with their special holiday events, shows, characters, and fireworks. Additionally, Disney offers discounted tickets to these events if you go earlier in the season, rather than attempting to cram yourself into the park on October 31st or December 25th (Warning: Do NOT go to Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day. You will end up hating Christmas, Disney, and humanity for the rest of time.) So we decided to go on the 20th while tickets were cheaper and when they party was less crowded. I would like to thank my friend DorisAnne for letting me use some of the pictures she took as well.
Every year, Disney has an event they call Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party. Unlike Fright Fest at Six Flags or Halloween Horror Nights at Universal, this party provides no terrifying haunted houses, gory zombies, or anything even remotely scary. Instead of incredibly detailed scare zones and make-up, you get the opportunity to meet all kinds of characters, get lots of candy, and see special shows. For me, I was most excited about the Happy HalloWishes firework show. I'm definitely a sucker for fireworks and admittedly go to the parks a lot for the sole purpose of watching them.
The fireworks did not disappoint, either. The show featured a lot of music from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and the Haunted Mansion ride. Near the end of the show, the narrator invited everyone to "scream along" with the show as they kicked off the finale. Everyone screamed for about 3 seconds, but then went into complete awe as they busted out the perimeter fireworks. There are few things that are more awesome than being completely surrounded by fireworks shooting off in all directions. Needless to say, I got a little teary-eyed. The show was great; the fireworks the great; everything was great. It was well worth the cost. Sorry for not taking any pictures of the show, but I didn't want to miss anything while fiddling with a camera.
Before the fireworks started, they showed the castle-projection spectacular called "Celebrate the Magic." You may have seen me post a few scenes from this show on Facebook or Instagram. It's an awesome show with a lot of creative images and effects. Since the beginning of September, the show saw a few changes with new scenes from The Lion King and Jungle Book, but it also added a special villains portion. I kind of wish it focused more on the villains, but the show is still really cool.
Good 'ol Chernabog from Fantasia. He is kind of hard to see, but he's the large, back figure with yellow eyes. Maleficent in her dragon form also makes an appearance.
Are you reaaaady? Are you reaaady? Supposedly this is from Princess and the Frog, but I don't get what all the machinery is for. Voo Doo machines, maybe?
This scene only needs a two word introduction: BODY LANGUAGE!
In place of the nightly Electrical Parade, the park puts on a special Boo-to-You! parade. It features a lot of characters dressed up for a Halloween party and includes a lot of Disney villains as well. Additionally, there was a segment from the Haunted Mansion, compete with the gravekeeper and his dog, gravediggers, and hitchhiking ghosts. One of the coolest parts of the parade was the beginning. They had the headless horseman ride out and down the parade route to lead the way for the show. A lot of pictures we took didn't turn out all that great, so I guess you'll just have to see it in person some day ;)
There were a lot of really cool character meet-and-greets as well. In addition to normal characters dressed up in Halloween outfits, there were also exclusive characters that you could only meet at this event. The most popular characters by far were Jack Skellington and Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". We got in line to meet them at a good time and ended up only waiting about half an hour. When we got up there to meet them, Jack commented on our shirts. The week before, DorisAnne went to a special Friday the 13th event at Hollwood Studios where they had a whole bunch of Disney villains, special shows, and exclusive event merchandise.
Unfortunately, the event was completely out of control and the staff was totally unprepared for how many people showed up. My friend said there weren't any actual queues to meet characters so people were just throwing themselves at the characters, trying to snap a picture with them. I had wanted to go after work that day, but traffic was backed up 2 hours in every direction. So I said, "Nope. Going home. Watching some TV. Going to bed." Anyhow, back to the story: Upon seeing our shirts, Jack said, "Oh you went to the Friday the 13th event? Nice to see you made it out...alive." It was priceless. Jack and Sally also commented on DorisAnne's hair ribbon and said Sandy Claws must have given it to her. Overall, they were a lot of fun.
The Queen of Hearts also took it upon herself to snap a selfie.
The Not-So-Scary Halloween party may not give you the adrenaline rush of being chased by mummified, zombie werewolves in a disorienting, fog-ridden maze, but it certainly had a lot of magical, feel-good moments. I was glad to have experienced it, and I look forward to attending the party again next year. I can't wait to see what kind of festivities are in store for the Christmas season!
Bonus Picture Time:
No comments:
Post a Comment