Halloween, Haunted Mansion Holiday and Happy Birthday! - day 4 Disneyland & Mickey's Halloween Party

[nanasamboy]

Halloween, Haunted Mansion Holiday and Happy Birthday! - day 3 Disneyland & Walk in Walt's Footsteps

I woke up at 4 am again, wide awake

I checked Facebook, Instagram and did various exciting tasks like editing our Ocado order for when we got home.

At 6 am, I heard a big rumbly noise. It sounded like thunder, but I thought it must have been some big wheely bins or something. Then 30 seconds later, I could hear torrential rain I snuck out of bed to take a photo. It was absolutely chucking it down and more thunder and lightning was to follow. ≈≈≈! One thunderclap was so loud that a bunch of car alarms started going off. I checked the weather forecast and it said heavy rain at 8 am, but dry from 11 onwards. I really hoped the rain would stop before then. I didn't fancy another soggy day at Disneyland

Sparkly orange lipstick

Sparkly pumpkin Mickey earrings

Pumpkin Mickey halloween feets!

It fizzled out by the time we were up and ready to leave, around 8 am. We had breakfast booked at Ariel’s Grotto in California Adventure, so headed there. California Adventure wasn’t open until 9 am, but as Disneyland was already open, we nipped in quick to see if any of the halloween costumed characters were out. They weren’t, but I spotted Pluto and ran over. He was being ushered back inside as it was drizzling, but he stopped to take a photo with me

Let’s just pretend I’m not flashing my bra…

Made sure I got a picture of this sign!

G’s accidental picture of my legs

We also made the most of it being quiet and took the opportunity to get our photo taken in front of the Mickey pumpkin on Main Street.







We made our way over to DCA. We were allowed in early, along with others who had headed to various holding points. I went up to a cast member, to ask where Ariel’s Grotto was. He let us through the crowds and pointed us in the right direction. We went by Cars Land, so thinking I was a genius, I ran on ahead to try and get fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers. Even though we were due to spend the day in Disneyland, I hoped I’d be able to get an early FP so we could ride straight after breakfast before heading next door. When I got there, the CMs told me the booths wouldn’t open until 9 am. Duh, I should have known that… That was a waste of time! So I raced back to G and we scurried over to Paradise Pier. I got so excited, as Mickey’s fun wheel and the whole pier area were so beautiful!





We arrived at Ariel’s Grotto with plenty of time to spare and had a short wait before being called. I took a few pictures to pass the time. When we were called, we were led down a staircase where Ariel was waiting at the bottom. G stood back and let me do the meeting and greeting and we posed for the photographer. Ariel was really cute and was amazed at how I’d “decorated [my] human legs”

Ariel buzzer

I flipped my fins over to where our server was waiting. We were seated off to the side and were brought a plate of fruit and a basket of cakes. As I couldn’t eat the cake, G let me have the pick of the fruit Our server brought us some coffee and menus. The chef came straight out to see me and said he could make me a vegetable hash and some waffles. I said that sounded great and was suddenly really hungry. G ordered the frittata.









The food was served really quickly and we got stuck in. We were both halfway through eating, when some music started playing and a dude in pantaloons, tights and a velvet hat came out and welcomed everyone to the celebration breakfast. He talked about how people were there celebrating birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. And then he started to sing! It was amazing and I totally got overwhelmed and started to cry. Gareth made fun of me, as usual haha. Once he’d done his lap of the dining room and finished his song, he stood in the back corner of the room and a pretty version of Beauty and the Beast played. The host introduced Belle, who came from the opposite corner of the room and they did a little dance together. It was SO magical! Belle then started her round of the room. We were quite far away from where she started her cycle, so I anxiously watched her route around the room. We’d already been there about half an hour and had almost finished our breakfast. So I took my sweet time drinking my coffee and asked for another. Belle did a lap of the outside of the room first, so it didn’t take too long for her to get to us. Before she did though, the host welcomed Rapunzel and did another adorable little dance. Yay! Rapunzel! Belle was really lovely and wished me happy birthday (yay birthday buttons!)

Putting my hand up cos “it’s my birthday”

Pretty ceiling

Obviously saying something really surprising!

Rapunzel was absolutely adorable and made G get up out of his seat for a photo. She was so lovely After she left, our server came over with a little plate with a pile of giant strawberries with a candle in and sang happy birthday! I was so excited and shouted “strawberries on fire!” haha. We all laughed at how ridiculous it was and the server said he knew I couldn’t eat the cake they had there and didn’t want me to miss out. How lovely of him I was so full from all the food, but felt I needed to eat them as it was such a nice gesture. So I ate a few of the biggest ones so it didn’t look like I’d not eaten many. I tried to get Gareth to eat some, but he was about to burst. Next up was Cinderella, who was lovely too

[nanasamboy]

Continued

Last was Tiana who was cute, but the tiniest bit disinterested. She had the accent nailed though and her dress was AMAZING. (Looking at my autograph book this morning, she definitely was disinterested! Her autograph looks NOTHING like it’s supposed to! Grrrr!) Our server brought us some buttons and we settled the bill. We gave the full 20% as he was such a great server and gave us a great experience. I definitely have to eat here whenever we make it back! I know Alice would love it too

Giant strawberry!

The loos were lovely

Photopass blinker extraordinaire! But it’s a nice picture!

We slowly made our way out of California Adventure, as we were so full. Near the gates though, I saw Oswald! EEEEEK! Oswald was a must meet for me and I asked G could I go see him today, as I didn’t want to risk not meeting him tomorrow. The queue wasn’t really very long, but was full of kids who blatently didn’t know who he was The cast member with him even told everyone “This is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, he was Walt’s first character… etc etc”. It made me laugh as all the kids shuffled up to stand next to him and then sloped off once their parents had taken their photo. No enthusiasm or interaction whatsoever! G stood to one side with my bags to take photos for me. When it was my turn, I ran up and squealed OSWAALLLLLDDDD! and told him how excited I was to see him. He got really excited and gave me a huge hug and signed my autograph book. We had lots of hugs and then he gestured for G to come over too. He wanted to give him a big hug as well and luckily the photopass photographer was snapping away He spent ages with us and we had more hugs to say goodbye. I was so happy, I practically skipped away!











I took a few pictures of the pumpkins on the entrance as we headed into Disneyland. By this time, we didn’t have that long until it was time to check in for our Happiest Haunts tour. So we spent some time wandering the shops and taking some photos. I popped into the pin store as I wanted to buy a halloween party pin for my pinboard. I picked out a cute one and had a look what other pins were on sale. Once I’d paid for it, we headed over to the main store and I bought a cute little vampire Mickey plush. There were no Minnie witches though, so I was super sad. I made a point of looking out for her on the rest of the trip.

So cute!

It was soon time to check in for our tour, so we headed back to the same spot as yesterday. We had the absolute cutest tour guide ever but as I took no notes whatsoever (and it’s now a month on, at the time of writing!), I can’t remember her name. But she was really lovely. She came and introduced herself, gave us our headsets and we waited for the rest of our party. We got chatting to two ladies on the table next to us (again, no notes and I can’t remember their names!) who were absolutely bonkers, but brilliant. They were both in their 50s or 60s I’d say and were two friends travelling together. They were like chalk and cheese - one was really tall with blonde hair and the other was short, with brown hair. Very different in personality too. They asked had we visited Disneyland Paris and asked us lots of questions and we talked about how tall blonde had recently visited Aulani and I told her how jealous I was. They were so much fun







I also spotted an incredibly adorable tour-mate in the shape of a teeny tiny chihuahua! One of the tour guests had a tiny black and tan chihuahua in a pink dog stroller and she was wearing a little ‘service dog’ vest. I wondered what good a chihuahua would be as a service dog, because it was seriously one of the tiniest dogs I’ve ever seen, but thought perhaps he was an alert dog as there’s no need to have a bigger dog for that purpose. I really wanted to take a photo, but I didn’t want the couple to clock me. I know I could have asked, but they were so cool and I didn’t want to be a dork. The dog was called Leota and had lots of buttons on her stroller, including a ‘my first visit’ button. Awww

When it was time to leave, we started from the same position as the day before. The guide gave us the normal beginning spiel about the volume of the headsets and pace of the tour and we started off outside Walt’s apartment. We went to Great Moments with Mr Lincoln, learned about the windows on main street, then went to Adventureland to talk about animatronics. Another CM came to meet us near Aladdin’s oasis and brought a very special guest with him - Ophelia, one of the original singing flowers from The Enchanted Tiki Room. She was beautiful! We learned all about the animatronics and had the opportunity to pictures of, and with, Ophelia. At this point, we had a short break and we were all given Mickey sugar cookies as a snack. Even though I needed the loo, I had the genius idea of running over to Indiana Jones to see if they had any fastpasses available. As luck would have it, there were tickets available from 2 pm and our tour ended at 1 - perfect! So I grabbed two and scurried back to wait with everyone else. There were a few stragglers and I was a bit miffed cos I could have nipped to the loo on the way back from getting the fastpasses, by the time they all arrived.

I got excited by there being lemons!

Ophelia

[nanasamboy]

Continued

From there, we took a slow amble over to rivers of america and we listened to some more history about the Haunted Mansion while we gazed at it across the lake. We walked around New Orleans Square and then on to the front of the manor and discussed the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. We were taken to a shady spot nearby, listened to the final portion of the tour and were then all given fastpasses for the mansion and our amazing Madam Leota key pins.

Madam Leota’s home! I’d never have noticed this without the tour!

We said our thank yous and goodbyes and as we were near the mansion, we figured now was a good a time as any to use our fastpass. I hoped I’d enjoy it a bit more the second time, now the initial reluctance/excitement/nervousness was over and done with. I didn’t enjoy it any more, I guess, but I was happy to have another look at all the details and see Hatty again.

The tour was really enjoyable, even though I did know most of the history behind the mansion anyway. It was just really special to hear everything while surrounded by Disney magic and history. It was $85 each, which I thought was really reasonable considering it included the pin and a cookie too.

After we rode, we made our way towards Adventureland. We walked past New Orleans Square and I saw an enormous queue. At first I thought it was a queue for the beignet and chowder stall, but then realised it must be to meet Jack Skellington! I dragged G over there like an excited kid. I HAD to meet Jack on this trip! I’d met him in Disneyland Paris (and cried!) a few years ago, but Jack at halloweentime was special When we joined the queue, a CM came up and told us it would be a 45 minute wait. G gave me a “really?!” look and I gave him one back that said “erm yes. Don’t be stupid” haha The CMs also went up to everyone joining the queue to tell them they’d definitely see Jack, but that Sally wasn’t guaranteed. Booo! After a minute or so, one of the other CMs came up and gushed that she loved my Mickey pumpkin socks We chatted a little bit and she was really cool. As we moved around in the queue, she kept following us to chat. She was really enthusiastic and obviously loved working in Disneyland and was absolutely living for working with Jack at halloween. It was a boring queue other than the awesome CM though, as it was just a bunch of people shoved into a small space outside the shops. After about 25-30 minutes, we heard a bit of commotion and saw Jack and Sally leaving the meet and greet area and heading to a door just opposite. Bum. I kept everything crossed that Sally would come back out. But a few minutes later, Jack came back on his own

The couple in front of us had a teeny little baby asleep in a buggy. As we got closer to the front of the queue, they woke the baby up and I spotted it was dressed as Jack Skellington. I almost died and everyone in the queue collectively went ‘awwwww!’. Sooo cute! I got really excited as I could hear Jack interacting with the other guests. We were called forward the same time as the couple in front, so we got to ooh and aww as Jack interacted with baby Jack. The couple also had some friends with them, who went up for a photo as well. Jack asked how they knew each other and they said they were newlyweds. Jack asked what brought them together, what told them they were simply meant to be and they replied “Jesus”. I stifled a snigger (no offence intended, it’s just such an American response!) and Jack cackled and said something hilarious about meeting him once, but I can’t remember exactly what he said. It was very dry and witty though and I started to get nervous as he was obviously a very good Jack and it was nearly our turn! Eeek!

When the other couples left, Jack motioned us forward for hugs. He signed my autograph book and asked where we were from. When we said Wales, he got very excited and asked us to teach him some Welsh. We taught him “bore da” (good morning) and “prynhawn da” (good afternoon) and he did a pretty good job repeating He asked if we were excited for Christmas and asked what we had on our lists and I said “a vampire teddy!”. He cackled and said “nooo, it’s scary teddy! And vampire ducky!”. I apologised for my foolishness and he laughed and said it was ok, as we were both teaching each other new things. We took a bunch of photos and then he wished us a horrible day and we were on our way. He was such a wonderful Jack and it was a brilliant interaction. I felt like he spent a lot of time with us and really got into chatting with us. Probably why the queue was 45 minutes! I wasn’t as disappointed about not seeing Sally, anymore. It would have been cool, but Jack more than made up for it

haha this looks like a posed stock photo! “Oh Jack, you’re so funny!”

We had a lunch reservation at Carnation Cafe on Main Street at 2.30. By this point it was nearing 2 pm and G said we should make our way to Main Street. I said we may as well go ride Indiana Jones to make sure we got to use our fast pass, as I didn’t want to go home without riding it. We scurried over and I promised G we’d make our reservation, as Disneyland is so small and quick to get around. I well and truly broke that promise haha. Oops!

We headed to Adventureland and entered the fast pass queue for Indiana. I think the stand-by queue was around 40 or 50 minutes. We walked straight through the outdoor queue portion, but didn’t get very far inside when we hit a line of people. I figured we wouldn’t be much longer, but we queued about 20 minutes :/ G was getting a bit narky at me as we’d now hit our check-in time for dinner. We couldn’t do anything about it, but it’s so friggin’ annoying when the fastpass queue takes forever. By about 25 past, we boarded our jeep and we were off. Holy crap, that ride is GOOD! It’s bumpy as all heck, but so fast and exciting. There was so much to take in, that I wanted to ride it again immediately. But we really had to get a wriggle on and jogged our way through the exit and to Main Street. It was about 20 to 3. We apologised profusely and explained we were stuck in a fastpass queue and the host was really nice and said it was fine, not to worry and she’d get us seated straight away. Phew!

I’m a head on a spike. Obvz.

Carnation Cafe was really small inside, I was surprised. Although there was some seating outside as well. It wasn’t particularly busy either - I put it down to the fact that the parade was due to start at 3, so everyone was outside. I’d booked Carnation Cafe, as there was a vegan burger on the menu. Yay! It’s nice to be able to order something off the menu as is, without needing to be a pain in the butt and ask for a special menu.







We both ordered the vegan burger and pomegranate lemonade. I asked our server if the burger came with pickles, as I was hankering for pickles and wanted to ask for extra. He said no, but he could bring me pickles to go with it if I wanted. I was a happy Sam Our food came really quickly and as we were starving, we wolfed it down. It was really good and was tempted to ask for another one, but decided I’d better not. Half way through munching, we had a server change over. The girl now serving asked if we wanted refills and we said yes please. She asked if I liked Sprite and I said yes, curious. She said one of her favourite drinks was to have half Sprite, half pomegranate lemonade. I said I’d try it and off she went. In the two minutes she was gone, another server came up with another two lemonades. So when the girl returned, she looked really confused. But I told her I’d prioritise her special drink It was ok, but nothing special - I prefered the lemonade on its own. But I now felt I had to drink all the drinks, so had 3 big glasses of pop in about 10 minutes. It was coming up to 3 o’clock, so we quickly settled the bill and headed outside to see if we could get a spot for the parade. We did! Hurrah! There was enough room for us to stand behind a bin and there was nobody standing in front of it - we had a perfect, clear view. I started to get excited, as I love a Disney parade. Just after 3, there was an announcement to say that the parade was cancelled. Grahhhhh! We’d missed it the day before and this was my only chance, as there is only one main parade a day in Disneyland (or at least it was when we were there). We guessed it would probably rain if the parade was being cancelled. We’d been lucky that the rain had held off up until this point, at least.







The original plan was to go back to the hotel after lunch, to get ready for the halloween party. The party started at 6, but you could enter in costume from 4 pm onwards. Although, saying that, we’d seen plenty of people in full costume all day so not sure what was going on there…
But earlier in the day, we’d spotted a sign near Toon Town saying that it would close early but would be available for early trick or treating for party goers only. So we decided to hotfoot it over to Toon Town for a look around before it closed, as I wanted to try and ride Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. It started to spit as we headed over there, so we hurriedly tried to take some photos before it got worse. We took shelter in one of the buildings, but as it hadn’t eased off after a few minutes, we decided to make a run for one of the shops. Roger Rabbit had quite a big queue, so we didn’t bother. I made the most of hiding in the shop by buying a few bits and bobs. Shame, haha. I had a general browse, then made my way over to the tsumtsums. There was a kid there with their parents, looking at the tsums. They were asking questions about the various characters, but the parents didn’t know. So I chipped in and answered. The parents said they were impressed with my knowledge of tsums and tsum collections, and I explained I read the Disney Parks Blog a lot, so knew what was what. I picked up a Sorcerer Mickey and Princess Minnie for myself from the Fantasyland collection and as it was 3 for $15 dollars, I grabbed a Beast too, as he was ridiculously cute. I wasn’t bothered about getting any of the others in the set. I originally said I wasn’t going to collect any tsums at all, but have slowly amassed a little collection. I don’t really feel the need to have full collections though, one or two of my favourites suits me (and my wallet!) just fine

Look at that sky

Spooooooooky!

After I’d paid for my new treasures, we decided to brave the rain and walk back. As we were changing to come back out anyway, we didn’t mind getting wet so much. It had eased off a little bit, so it was just drizzly. As we wandered by the Matterhorn, I said to G we should ride as we might not get another chance. We joined the single rider queue, in the hope it would be quicker. After about 5-10 minutes in the queue, we could see the CMs fussing. Something was up. They asked people to leave the cars they had just loaded and started taking carts off the tracks. It was absolutely fascinating to watch, as the tracks moved about and they had to manually push the carts around. Eventually, they sorted the problem out and started loading people again. We ended up waiting a lot longer than I wanted to, but it was worth it The seats all had massive puddles on by the time we had our turn rubbish! The ride was so amazing! It was super fast, it took me by surprise as it doesn’t look that fast when you see people whizz outside the mountain. It’s rattly and my wrists hurt from holding on to the little handles. I also needed a wee as we’d waited so long and the jiggling and rattling is not pleasant on a full bladder! It was so much fun though and I absolutely loved it, laughing and cheering the whole way around. After that excitement, I ran to the loo before going back home.

When we got back to the hotel, I made the mistake of sitting down. I didn’t want to get up again, I was so tired! But the thought of the halloween party spurred me on! G had a little lie down and chatted to his friends on his phone, while I took off my makeup and reapplied more subtle colours, put my Anna dress on and did my hair. I was so excited in my dress We were in the hotel for about 30 minutes before we headed back. I felt a bit of a ninny walking along the busy road dressed in a floofy princess dress, as nobody else seemed to be dressed up! But as soon as we got to Disneyland, I didn’t feel as daft. We enjoyed looking at everyone’s costumes while we waited for the bag check and a super cool couple decked out like gothic victorian ghosts kept smiling at me. They either really appreciated my efforts or thought I was clearly a bit special haha. A few little girls squealed to their mums “mommy, look it’s Anna!” which made me smile and I gave them little waves. I was Anna in an alternative universe, where she’d rebelled a bit in her younger years, got a lot of tattoos and dyed her hair black haha Other than that, I thought I had a pretty faithful recreation of the Anna coronation outfit (In a sale on the Disneystore website, I’d seen the Anna dress in a size 12-13 reduced to £15. I absolutely had to buy it in a vain attempt to squash into it and I succeeded! It was totally too tight, but who cares for one night and £15!?)

[nanasamboy]

Continued

Once we were in through the gates, we grabbed a couple of trick or treat bags from a stand near the railway station. The bags were a little disappointing, as they were covered with a huge advert for the anniversary edition bluray of Beauty and the Beast. It wasn’t until we opened the bags out that we could see the sides said “trick or treat!”, but they weren’t very festive I got G to take a few pictures of me in front of the steps to the railway station and I took advantage of the gloomy afternoon and took a few pictures of the shop windows on main street as they didn’t have sunlight reflecting off them.















We decided to head to Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy first, as we’d not managed to ride yet and that was one I definitely wanted to do. It hit six as we headed over there and we saw CMs starting to herd people out of the park. Everywhere we walked, we had to lift our arms up to show the halloween party wristbands. The queue was listed as 25 minutes, so this was as good a time as any. I figured it would only get busier as the night went on. It was getting dark by this point and there were ghostly projections on the outside of the building, complete with spooky noises that kept making me jump. The queue area was odd - most of it was outside on a weird area that looked like a helipad. I enjoyed the queue though, as there were some really amazing costumes. Some people didn’t bother at all, or just had tshirts on that said “I’m really a mermaid. This is my human costume”. Some people went all out and we saw lots of couples and group costumes



The ride was really fun. I didn’t really notice too many ghostie bits though, just one or two at the beginning and end. I did notice how incredibly smooth it is compared to WDW though! It didn’t feel like my bones were getting jangled! It had been over 3 years since riding Space Mountain, but I thought I remembered a quite sudden, big drop in WDW and there didn’t seem to be one here. Very fast, but pretty gentle. I liked it, WDW is a bit rough for my liking. We had a voucher for a free print out of a ride photo, so we used it here. It was a pretty rubbish picture, but it was free and how often are you going to get a photo of you on a rollercoaster dressed as Princess Anna?!

On the way out, we noticed a huge queue for the trick or treat station. As it was moving really quickly, I said we’d join it so we could get some sweets. You can’t go to a halloween party and not trick or treat! We got to the end of the queue and walked the long line that snaked towards the Star Wars Launch Bay. We got our candy (2-3 pieces each) and then followed the line. It was being funnelled through the Launch Bay, which I thought was weird. But guessed it was to avoid people spilling out of the area and causing a people jam. But as we got to the entrance, there was another trick or treat stand! Result! And then we followed everyone else to another stand and another stand and another stand! There were 5 in all and it was cool walking through a relatively empty Launch Bay. Feeling satisfied at finally doing some trick or treating, I suggested we head back to Main Street for the villain meet and greets at Villains Square. It was walking down Main Street that we were first really taken my the halloween party atmosphere. It was amazing! Everything was lit up and there were projections on the buildings that played in time with the music. The songs were incredibly catchy, but as it turned out, they only had about 10 of them and they got old, really fast! Still, I loved it











When we arrived at Villains square, G took the bag and found a bench to sit down on while I went to go join a queue. The Queen of Hearts and the Evil Queen were both out, so went for the QoH first as her line was shorter. After about 5 minutes, a CM walked the line and announced the queen had business to attend to, but to stay put as Cruella would be right out. Yay! I was pleased as Cruella is harder to meet! As she came out, she snarled at kids and shouted boo to people as they walked past. She was wonderful I bloody love the villains!

The queue didn’t take too long and it was soon my turn. Cruella was delightfully mean to everyone, including me. She took one look at me, looked disgusted and said “urgh, it’s you! Shouldn’t you be off stuffing your face with chocolate somewhere?!” Then she asked if I had a sister and did I find it hard being second in line for the throne. I winked and run my finger across my throat and she lit up and cackled haha. She signed my autograph, took some photos and acted terribly put out by it all. She shouted “go!” at me when she was done, and she’d barked a variety of different dismissals to the people in front of me too. It must be so much fun being a villain!







Once I’d scanned my photopass card, I went over to the next queue where the Evil Queen had been replaced by Maleficent. My favourite! Yay, this was working out well! The queue was huge and just as I joined the back, a CM came and said that they weren’t letting anyone else join the queue as the villains would need to go and get ready for the parade. But that she’d be back at around 10.45 pm. I was disappointed, but I saw that Mickey and Minnie were out in their halloween finery. So ran over to G and asked if he minded if I went off again. He was happy sitting down, so off I ran. As I joined the queue though, I realised there wasn’t a photopass photographer. Why not?! It’s halloween Mickey and Minnie at their halloween party! Grah! So ran back to G, dumped the photopass card and autograph book and grabbed the camera.



There weren’t many people extra in the queue in that time, at least! The cast members walking up and down the line said to make sure your flash was ready on the camera, so I had a play around. Some weird setting had somehow been applied, which suppressed the flash. Ack! Luckily the queue was long enough that I could sort it out. As the camera had a touch screen, I kept accidentally knocking it while walking around the park and all sorts of crazy settings kept getting switched on and off. G had played with it earlier in the day, but I’d had no idea what he’d done! I was panicking a little, as I didn’t want to miss this photo opportunity! So I tapped and pressed and switched anything and everything and took about 100 pictures of my feet, trying to get it to some kind of auto setting. Luckily, I managed to get an alright setting sorted by the time it was my turn. Mickey and Minnie both gave me big cuddles and I told them they both looked amazing and I got kisses and they gestured that they liked my dress too We posed for a photo and I waved them bye as I went back to find Gareth.











He’d found a spot on the pavement, ready for the parade to start at 9 pm. He’d overheard someone say that it would be about 9.15 or 9.20 by the time the parade got to us, as we were right at the end of the route. Doh! So we took it in turns to go visit the trick or treat trail in the centre of the square, while we waited. I sat and happily sang along to the halloween songs, which included Bump in the Night by that British pop band everyone forgot about, Allstars. Although a quick look on Google just told me it was on the Scooby Doo soundtrack, so maybe that’s how it got as far as America. The music also included Night on the Bald Mountain from Fantasia, which is one of my favourite pieces of music. I was absolutely in my element!



I got really excited when we heard the parade approaching, and we stood up so we could see better. I tried to film the parade on my camera, but as it was really dark it wasn’t really clear. And I wasn’t about to be that jerk who puts the flash light on. The parade was really cool! My favourite float was the Mayor of Halloweentown in his little car, driving around. I smiled so hard as well, when I saw the ghostly ballroom dancers and the Hitchhiking Ghosts from the Haunted Mansion. One of the coolest bits was the gravediggers - they all had real shovels which they slammed on the floor in time to the music (a la Stomp) and dragged them in circles, creating sparks and an awful noise. It was so cool! (Although I did panic and worry about the state of the roads on Main Street!)





Once the parade was finished, we hit the trick or treat trail again and then headed to Rivers of America (via Adventureland for a dole whip float!), as I really wanted to see the Cadaver Dans perform! I hadn’t managed to see the Dapper Dans so far on this trip, but the Cadaver Dans were on my must see list We waited a little while before they came out at 9.40 pm. There weren’t many people waiting along the riverfront, despite the park still being heaving. There was another trick or treat trail nearby, so the majority of the traffic seemed to be heading for sweeties. Pffft! According to someone nearby, Disneyland had repurposed one of the Tom Sawyer rafts for the performance. I love how Disney reuses stuff! Smoke was pumped across the water and the Dans emerged from the fog on the opposite side of the river, from behind the paddle boat. They were too far away to see clearly, but you could hear. I tried to film a little bit, but again it was too dark for my camera to deal with. They sang lots of spooky halloween songs, including Grim Grinning Ghosts, which made me smile so hugely. They were really great and I was sad they weren’t getting much applause, as hardly anyone was stopping to listen to them. Once they’d gone by and were almost towards the other side of the river, we decided to join the masses and go through the trick or treat trail, as we could still hear the performance. This trail was sponsored by Peeps and we were handed lots of bright green chicks. Appetising!

Spoooooooky!

We decided to call it a night and try and see Maleficent on the way out. It was super late, we were both exhausted and wanted bed. I pouted all the way back towards the exit though, as I never wanted this magical night of halloween-ness to end! There was just too much halloween goodness to squash into one evening and we really could have done with two party nights. But y’know, expensive! That and they are spaced out by a few days for some reason. You think they’d run them every night, the week leading up to halloween!





I joined the rather lengthy queue for Maleficent, while G went and found a bench to sit on. As the second parade had already finished by now, people were leaving in throngs. So even though the queue was terribly long, I had plenty of awesome costumes to enjoy looking at while people watching I ended up waiting around 50 minutes before it was my turn. The park was already closed then, although people were still leaving from the back of the park. Maleficent was cool as heck and I babbled how excited I was to meet her, while she looked at me with disdain haha. We had a very brief chat (although I can’t remember about what - boo!) before she signed my autograph book and took a photo. They were obviously trying to get through the remaining people in the queue so poor Maleficent could go put her evil feet up.

The photopass blinker strikes again!

Pleased that I’d managed to meet my favourite villain, I found Gareth and we slowly shuffled out of the park and back to the hotel. The walk back was so hard, as we were so tired. G crawled into bed as soon as we got in and was asleep seconds later. I had to take my giant dress off, remove all my Anna accessories and make up before I could get into bed I fell asleep pretty quickly for a change and kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t be waking up at 4 am again!

California Adventure tomorrow!

[vics18]

Aw birthday strawberries on fire, how sweet!

Naughty Tiana doodling on your book. As I said on IG, someone must not have been paying attention in Princess school that day!

The tour looks so good. We've done Keys to the Kingdom at WDW and I'd love to do one at DL one day. All the history gives me chills (nerd )

You look so cute in your Anna dress, and what a barg!

Wow Cadaver Dans! I've never heard of them before, they look so cool.

Another action packed day! Looking forward to more

[nanasamboy]

Originally Posted by vics18

Aw birthday strawberries on fire, how sweet!

Naughty Tiana doodling on your book. As I said on IG, someone must not have been paying attention in Princess school that day!

The tour looks so good. We've done Keys to the Kingdom at WDW and I'd love to do one at DL one day. All the history gives me chills (nerd )

You look so cute in your Anna dress, and what a barg!

Wow Cadaver Dans! I've never heard of them before, they look so cool.

Another action packed day! Looking forward to more

See more...

They were really yummy too!

Yeah, she really wasn't! I'd love to go to princess school, although I'm such it's much less fun than it sounds

The tour really is! And it's limited time only for halloween. Walk in Walt's Footsteps is all year though Both worth the money and the time!

Aww thank you I shall definitely be trying to squish into more small children clothes haha. The Cadaver Dans are wonderful - have a look on youtube

Thanks for reading x

[Disney Wishing]

Wow, busy but amazing sounding day. The Halloween party looks so much fun.

[nanasamboy]

Originally Posted by Disney Wishing

Wow, busy but amazing sounding day. The Halloween party looks so much fun.

See more...

It really was! I can't wait to go to a halloween party again!

Thanks for reading

[slow.jo]

Love Pluto with the brolly! And your photo pass (or whatever they call it) pictures are amazing.

So nice how well you were catered for at breakfast

It’s so cool that you met Oswald! And your meet with Jack Skellington was so great!

You look great as Anna I did see ADULT princess dresses in Asda, I was so surprised!

What a great evening you had!

TFS

Jo xx

[nanasamboy]

Originally Posted by slow.jo

Love Pluto with the brolly! And your photo pass (or whatever they call it) pictures are amazing.

So nice how well you were catered for at breakfast

It’s so cool that you met Oswald! And your meet with Jack Skellington was so great!

You look great as Anna I did see ADULT princess dresses in Asda, I was so surprised!

What a great evening you had!

TFS

Jo xx

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Thanks I'm glad we got some good ones!

It's just another reason WDW and DL are my favourite places on earth! I get fed SO well there. DLP on the other hand, I've been told they wont be able to feed me. So I've got a small suitcase full of ready meals and snacks for our trip. Stupid France!

Aww thanks I spotted the Anna and Elsa adult dresses a few weeks after I got this one. I am tempted to get an Elsa one too... Mainly to dress my blonde mum up in

Thanks for reading x