We were in no hurry this morning so hada bit of a lie in while watching the local news and weather and chuckling at the pharmaceutical adverts with all their dire warnings of death and disbelief at how horrible the political adverts in the Gillam/De Santos Campaign are.
When the kids got up we decided to go for breakfast, Denny's was first choice as a family favourite. We started with coffee and juice, I had to ask for the french vanilla creamer when I saw our server gave some to another table - I thought maybe they'd stopped it but I think the server assumed we wouldn't want it and had only given us plain half and half.
The kids both had the chocolate chip pancakes with bacon and sausage.
Scott had a Super Slam, which was on offer at $5.99, I think, he also got pancakes, bargain!
I had the Ultimate Omelette and an English muffin.
We all enjoyed our breakfast here, we always do.
We settled up the bill and headed off looking for glow sticks for Mickeys Not So Scarey Halloween Party tonight.
Dollar Tree had what we needed, but the selection was not as good as last year and the kids were a little disappointed they couldn't get the glow glasses they had before. I picked up a small bottle of tide and we got a couple of larger candy bags too as the ones at MNSSHP are quite small.
Next stop was Walmart.
I had been full of good intentions before coming away that I'd make us costumes and I'd had lots of good ideas but work and family life got in the way and I didn't manage, in fact I didn't even manage to locate our matching T-shirt's from last year due to lack of time! I did find 3 out of 4 so we are looking for an orange T-shirt for Abbie to complete the set.
Once we got in we saw some Jack Skellington T-shirt's we preferred so got them instead. I also picked up a few other bits and pieces like a bottle of the night time sleep aid gels that help me get over jet lag last year. Mission accomplished we headed back to a Grande Villas to get a couple of hours by the pool.
It was lovely to just sit and relax for a while. The weather was lovely again but our time here was all too short as before long we had to head up and get ready.
It didn't take to long and we were on our way to the Contemporary for lunch at The Wave.
Our reservation was 1.50pm so we were almost the last table to be seated and our server was lovely, he told us all of tables were heading to the party.
I had the soup, turkey sandwich and salad. It was seafood chowder so I gave this to Scott. Sadly there was no alternative soup and I don't like seafood. The sandwich and salad were good though.
Scott had the Rueben Sandwich. He said this was good too.
Daniel had the kids burger.
Abbie had the grilled cheese sandwich. They both ate it, but it was just ok. Scott had a beer and the rest of us had Diet Coke. We had no room for dessert and were saving room for candy!
We paid the bill and headed off to have a look in the resort shops.
Abbie was quite sold on these ears but didn't want to part with her cash so we left them. We did pick up a nice collar and lead for Frank Dog though. It was about 3pm now so we headed for the monorail. It was pretty busy and we didn't manage to get on the first one.
We did make the next one though and were outside our favourite place around 3.45pm.
I had bought our party tickets from Attraction Tickets Direct and linked them to Our old Magic Bands, but I wasn't sure if that would work or if we'd need the plastic tickets. I was happy when we got through the tapstiles no bother with our Magic Bands. There was a bit of a hold up getting through as you also needed a wrist band.
Properly tagged and back in my happy place at last!
I'd managed to get us 3 fast passes to use before the party, first up was Space Mountain. It was really busy, but we didn't have to wait long.
Scott isn't loving this is he? Well not as much as Mr Incredible behind him!
Next we headed to a Big Thunder Mountain.
When we got off we had a quick look at the wait time for Splash Mountain, it was 50 minutes, too long for us so instead we jumped on the Railroad and rode round to Fantasy Land. Abbie couldn't resist getting wet as usual.
We went on Dumbo next, it was almost a walk-on.
Next we had a walk round the Big Top, the kids fancied these Lotsos but again wouldn't part with the cash.
We noticed the line had formed for the 7 dwarves, it was only 5.30pm and the cast members told us the line was already 90 minutes! Daniel and I waited about 40 minutes last year, we won't be waiting this year! We decided we would go to Gaston's for a Le Fous Brew. I was surprised to get a seat inside.
Someone got brain freeze!
Despite that we all agreed Le Fous Brew beats butter beer hands down. Our last fastpass was for the Jungle Cruise so we wandered over there next.
It was funny and thrilling as ever to see the backside of water and when we got off it was just after 6pm and they were starting to get ready for the party with the normal park guests leaving. We walked round to Splash Mountain and the queue looked awful - however as there were no fast passes now it moved continually and we were on in around 15 minutes. There was a family trying to get on who didn't have party bands, they were pretty upset when they were refused. I felt a bit sorry for them.
I think Daniel is acting scared here.
Daniel is the only one who remembered the thumbs up this time.
Last year we didn't manage the Haunted Mansion as it went tech then the lines were too long so we decided to head there now. It was all lit up and looking very spooky.
It was 7pm now and the trick or treat stations were open so we hit the one near the Hall of Presidents, this was our longest line of the night. Candy obtained we walked round to the Haunted Mansion. There was some dramatic screaming in the pre show. I think the spooky atmosphere got to someone. When we got off it was getting dark and Carlotta was in the garden holding court.
There were some other ghosts you could have a photo with and lots of photopass magic shots but we didn't hang about as I wasn't coughing up for photopass this time as it's meant to be a cheapie.
We had a magical boat ride on it's a Small World, I love this, everyone else tolerates it. Daniel and I got our names on the screen at the end. Don't know why it ignored Scott and Abbie this time. The line for Peter Pan was ridiculous so we skipped that and headed for the tea cups which had a special overlay. It appeared to be different lighting and music. We had a drink while we waited, we'd brought some water and Diet Coke with us in a backpack.
Scott did his best to make us all feel sick.
All the Alice in Wonderland characters were out but we didn't want to stop and wait. We decided to head round to the hub as the Sanderson sisters were due on stage soon. We got a fairly good spot. Scott and I could see but Abbie complained she couldn't. This was because a few families lifted smaller kids onto shoulders or had iPads in the air filming. Not much we could do, neither of us could lift our Abs!
Great show, I really enjoyed it, we really should watch the film again.
Now I'm not sure it what we did next was genius or daft. As we were right on the hub, we backed up a bit and turned round, ta da! Perfect viewing location for the parade but we'd have to wait a bit and the parade starts in Frontier Land so it turned out to be a long wait than we thought.
When ever I looked down small children magically appeared squeezing into the small space we had. I missed having the double buggy to lean on and give a few boundaries! Never mind the kids seemed to be ok with getting squished as at least they could rest their legs. The headless horseman came round first.
Then the parade got underway.
I couldn't get Oogie Boogie in focus! The parade was brilliant, my favourite bit was the grave diggers making sparks with their spades.
After the parade we stretched our legs a bit. Scott and I were tired from standing for so long, but there was more standing on the agenda as Hallowishes was due to start. We couldn't decide where to go for this and it was very busy. We ended up just to the left of the hub and the view was ok but some of it was obscured by trees. We saw it last year so just stayed where we were. If we hadn't seen it before I'd have looked for somewhere better. It was lovely, Disney fireworks have ruined every other firework display for us as they are never as good. Apologies for not having any photos, I just wanted to watch them rather than try to get pics.
So now all that was left was to get as much candy as we could and that's what we did! Because we'd left the trick or treating till later the lines were short so we hit some of the stations twice. We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean and saw the live actors. We all decided we didn't like the new Red Lady scene and preferred it as it was. Daniel was desperate to ride Space Mountain as it also had an overlay- turns out it was pounding music and complete darkness. I wasn't keen on that, it's bad enough when you can just about see and predict when you'll be thrown about, but pitch dark you've no idea, no likey.
We also managed a go on Buzz Lightyear and Abbie had a dance with Sully, Mike and Boo.
Our feet were aching and I made everyone ride the Peoplemover for a sitdown, by the time we got off the trick or treat stations were closing and it was time leave. We walked along to the Contemporary, jumped in the car and headed home. Both kids were asleep before we were even on the main road.
It was only a short drive to Grande Villas and we all went straight to bed, shattered after another busy day!
This was our candy haul, we managed to bring it all home surprisingly!