I’ve been to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party three times but all three were on girl’s trips with my friends. We did Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party last year for the first time with the kids (I’ve gone a few times prior just Zach and I) and only took the older two, we didn’t think Tess would be old enough to handle the late night. I’ve always recommend to people NOT to do the parties with little ones. They are late nights and that’s a LOT on a small child.
So. I totally broke my own rule on this trip haha
When we got matched with Mama E we had to change up Britt’s Disney Birthday and moved it to early October. It just made sense to go to the Halloween Party. Since we don’t have any October birthdays it’s unlikely that we’ll go to the party again and it was a great opportunity to go and to make Britt more excited about having to change her bday! So we decided to go for it and to take Tess and just basically toss all my recommendations about little ones being too young out the window 😉
On party days I do HARDCORE recommend a super chill morning (we did Cape May) and an EARLY nap time. We got ready to go at 2:30ish so we could have plenty of time to get to the park!
It worked out well to do the party this year too because we’d already decided our family Halloween costumes and they were SUPER easy and comfortable for the park! Last year Britt mentioned doing Frozen costumes and I was like it was kinda far after the Frozen craze ya know? Give it a few more years and then it’d be a throwback costume but it’s just too soon yet also too far to really do Frozen right now 😉 When she mentioned Moana and all the kids were excited about it I was like SURE because at least right now Moana is the big craze! Yes I knew we’d see 1,000 Moana’s at Magic Kingdom but it was really such a perfect costume for the event that it worked out perfectly 🙂
Hair Clip: Claire’s
Pua was my favorite! I already had everything (I cut out felt for the shirt) except the mask which I got from Etsy here!
She’s so hardcore about her Pua sounds 😉
It’s Maui Time!
Maui hook (Ali Express…be warned it sings a Moana song rather than any sort of Maui sounds haha)
Zach was thrilled about being Hei-Hei
We put this chicken mask (Ali Express) on top of a red hat and glued big eye balls on it
And chicken socks (Ali Express) made the look!
I tried to get him to wear a feather tutu but he wouldn’t go that far 😉
I was Moana’s Grandmother…I knew the trend for moms was to be Te Fiti and I just didn’t want to go sexy with it. I’m not into a sexy mom look…like it’s a KID holiday, keep it KID friendly!
Whoop whoop!
Monorail ride into the park!
The party is technically from 7 pm until midnight. However, party ticket holders are allowed in the park at 4 PM. When I went on the girls’ trip we got there at 3:30 and had to wait for 30 min to get in because they really stuck to that 4 pm time slot. I thought the park was pretty dead when I went with the girls but it was even LESS crowded with our family time. Maybe that’s why they let us in early? We were through the gates and into the park by 3:30 which was AWESOME!
When planning for the party (Christmas one too!) you are allowed to book fast passes from 4-6:30. Since we have park tickets linked to our account the system let me book fast passes for 3:30 which worked out awesome because we were able to have 3 fast passes before the party started! The time period from 4-7 is SUPER crowded because you have all the party people AND all the regular ticket guests. It’s a fabulous time to have fast passes scheduled or to ride things that aren’t as popular (Hello Tiki Room).
Coloring books for the win while we waited!
My main mission was to get one really great family photo and we knocked it out right when we entered the park. It was PERFECT!!!
After the photos the boys made their mad dash to use their fast passes. They had one for Space Mountain AND one for Thunder Mountain (using mine and Britt’s bracelets). Us girls took our time and got some waters, went potty, then hit up our beloved Tiki Room!
We had time to kill after Tiki Room while waiting on the boys. Our original plan was to ride Pirates as a family as soon as they got done with their FP stuff but the weather for the night was BAD. It was supposed to be nonstop rain literally the entire night. We kept saying “Rain or Shine It’s Maui Time!” We totally expected full on rain and totally planned for it and just told the kids that we’d make the best of it and have a BLAST even if it downpoured.
Since it wasn’t yet raining I told Zach to meet us at magic carpets. The girls and I rode it then we hopped back in line to ride with the boys. It’s an outdoor ride that I thought we should knock out before the bad weather came!
Love this girl!
Magic Carpets is our fav ride together 🙂
He loves getting the camel to spit water on me and you can tell by the water on my lens that I def got spit on!
The rain started coming down as we were riding!
It rained from the time we were on the Magic Carpets to the short walk to Pirates and THAT WAS IT. THE ENTIRE NIGHT!!! I cannot get over how lucky we got with the rain! It was legit 90% chance of thunderstorms and we only had that one little section of rain and the kids even liked running in it!
We had a fastness this time for Pirates. After the LONG wait last time I wanted to get Zach in and out as fast as I could haha!
Pirate faces
Had to get another picture of the wench while I still can 😉
I love the new addition to the ride of a photo spot!!!
We had a fast passes for Jungle Cruise which I always think is a good fast pass option. The line feels VERY long and the fast pass is just great to walk on up and hop on.
The ROUGH thing about the parities is the lack of meal options. We ran into that issue on our girls trip so I was mindful to go eat plenty early but even going early there were still very few restaurant options available! So. Frustrating. I don’t get why they don’t have more LEGIT food offered on party nights?!?! It makes no sense to me!
We had packed dinner for the kids and Zach was happy with a burger and I was able to run to get my favorite (pretzel and coke icee!)
I guess Tess fell while playing while Britt and I were gone getting my pretzel. She cried and, of course, the cast members doted on her and gave the kids all Mickey Straws 😉
We planned an afternoon/evening at MK for later in the trip so I divided up everything we wanted to do and tried to knock out a good bit of things during the party. Afternoons at MK are always slammed and the party is a GREAT time to do rides that are typically crowded. BUT you also want to make sure to experience the special party experiences as well and not spend your whole party time on rides. It’s a juggling act!
Britt and I LOVE character meetings. If it was just her and I at the party we’d probably spend 90% of the night in line to meet all the characters. But that’s not what the rest of our family is into so my main goals for the party night were: fireworks, parade, candy, Monsters Dance Party, candy corn ice cream.
I didn’t care for the kids to watch the Hocus Pocus show and I knew they’d LOVE all the candy spots. I focused on those priorities for the night and fit in rides that I could too!
We have to ride the horses!
And try to remove the sword from the stone (one day I’d like to watch the stage show at the sword!)
Little Mermaid
CANDY!!!
It’s A Small World has gone from Zach’s least favorite ride to one of his favorites now that Tess LOVES to sit with him. She was ALL about her Daddy on this Disney trip. It made me a bit jealous because I’m used to her being allllll about meeeee but Zach soaked it all up and I’m so glad she gave him that special attention!
So cool to see the clock on the hour! I don’t think I’ve ever been at the ride at the right time to see it!
I was a little nervous to see how Tess would do with Haunted Mansion. She liked it before but now she’s a little older and it’s common at this age to be more fearful. There was a little girl in line with us who was FREAKING OUT. Which I just don’t understand. If your kid can’t handle the ride, why make them ride it? I’ve always been big about that!
Tess did SO well. I thought the other girl being upset might upset her too but it didn’t and she still really liked the “spooky ride”
Bad pic but I wanted to show a great hidden mickey! At the part of the dancing ghosts look at the long dining table and you can see three plates arranged in a Mickey!
I’m SO glad I had the girl’s trip prior to the family one because we had a GREAT parade spot and just decided to copy that spot with the family. It’s in liberty square across from the Christmas shop (or beside it works too). It’s very well lit which helps the little ones not be fearful and it’s towards the start of the parade line so it’s over quicker too. It was a great spot to sit and Zach didn’t mind just sitting and holding our seats. I took the kids to potty and to get more candy and just walk a bit before having to sit and wait.
A fun fact that I recently read about at Disney is that the brown trail in Liberty Square is representative of the sewage people used to throw into the streets. If you follow the “poop road” you actually end up at the bathrooms 😉 Horrible pic but it shows the end of the poop road!
Zach does NOT like parades. It’s just not his thing. I actually LOVE them but we don’t do them often because I prefer to make sure we are ALL having fun and they do take up a hung chunk of park time because you have to find a good spot and sit and wait and then it’s super crowded when it’s over. But it was a top priority for me on the party night and Zach was super sweet and easy going about it.
And y’all.
HE LOVED IT. He said it was the best parade EVER and we didn’t even get to see the headless horseman (I assume the high chance of rain kept him away). It’s really an awesome parade and if you do MNSSHP it’s a MUST! It was a full moon that night which only added to the fun, spooky vibe!
I just LOVED watching Tess and her excitement about the whole thing and seeing all her favorite characters. She got the most excited about Wreck it Ralph!
Kye is def at that point where stuff like parades just isn’t as cool to him anymore. He still liked it but there wasn’t that sweet innocence of excitement anymore.
But everyone agrees that the shovels and zombies are super cool 😉
We planned to watch the earlier parade and then see the fireworks and leave after those ended. We followed the parade route and hopped on Buzz!
Of course Zach got the high score
Galactic Hero.
We defeated Zurg!!!
We always love the Incredibles Dance Party and for the Halloween Party they switch it up and it’s Monsters Inc characters. I was really excited for the kids to experience dancing with Mike, Sully, and even Boo!
It was pretty disappointing though. Dang 🙁 I don’t know if it’s been a permanent change or we just got unlucky but the characters did NOT mingle AT ALL with the crowd. No dancing with people. No fun. It was more like watching the characters dance from afar than actually a true DANCE PARTY WITH the characters. We haven’t done the Incredibles Party since April so maybe they changed that too? Or maybe just because it was dark and late the Monsters didn’t interact?
When we decided to go to the Halloween Party I started pumping the kids UP for the Candy Corn Icecream!
It was HILARIOUS because we told the cast member we just wanted a little bit for each kid and to put it in a cup for them. They hooked the kids UP. It was INSANE!
Daddy don’t do candy corn 😉
I tried the candy corn sundae! It was good but I do prefer the cone version!
We took the ice cream to try to watch the fireworks and it was an epic mess. We didn’t get NEARLY enough napkins to handle the mess. A super sweet cast member saw us in our struggle and ran and brought us a TON of napkins. I swear Disney is the BEST!
With it being TIME for fireworks we just decided to scoot over in Tomorrowland and watch the fireworks from there. It was an AWESOME spot. We were against the purple wall (if you come out of Monsters Inc turn left).
While I wouldn’t want to sit there for every fireworks experience because it was a little too far to truly experience the magic of the music and experience but it was wonderful distance to avoid crowds and we had a perfect view! Plus we could all eat our treats and just enjoy!
She loved it!
We left the park after the fireworks…it was around 10:30ish and probably a little later by the time we all went potty and such. It was for sure the perfect time to head out. All three kids were great at staying up and had a BLAST! I don’t think we’d feel comfortable pushing it till midnight and really we got a full 7 hours of park time!
Love the sleepy monorail snuggles!
10:53 PM and this barely 3 year old wanted to WALK and was DANCING as she did it through the parking lot. She was SO silly and cracking me UP.
I get super silly when I’m tired and I love that Tess is that way too because it makes her extra fun haha
By the time we got to the car she wanted to sleep on my hand 😉
We def did great with all the candy! The bags were hard to keep up with so we ended up with LOTS of bags!
Still awake by the time we got to the room, after 11!
I guess I can officially say IF you have the type of kid who can handle a late night and still be in a good mood then GO FOR IT with the parties 😉
I do think Tess has been our most flexible, easy going child. Britt couldn’t have done this at this age and Kye might have been able to but being a first born I wouldn’t have dared to try it!
We had an absolute BLAST and it was a great way to start our trip!
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