And When Did You Last See Your Father? - Day 3 (T-Rex and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party)

[Guest]

We are a family of three - me (April), DH (R.C.) and DS (Poot - who turned 10 on this holiday!). We visited Orlando and Sanibel Island, travelling from Gatwick on BA.

DH has his own business and could only join us for part of the holiday (hence the title of this trippie!). He’s not really a theme park sort of chap, but he enjoys it down on the Gulf Coast.


For our week on Sanibel we were joined by my DM (Judybat) and her husband (Hans).


Trippie Index Here

Day 2 (POFQ, Disney Springs, Earl of Sandwich, PINS!) Here




Halloween Party Day! The Best Day!


Despite the above...one bad thing did happen this day - I somehow managed to delete the only photos I had of BOTH of us in costume (including our photo with the Seven Dwarfs! ). After this day, I took at least one selfie of the two/three of us on my phone every day, just in case. Here is a snap of Poot and I from the morning we went to breakfast at 1900 Park Fare - he is wearing his Hatter costume, and I have on my giant Wonderland bow:

I will try to keep this post on point (Stop laughing!) - my goal is to try and be useful to others planning to do the things we did.

BUT...we had such a fantastic time at the Halloween party - DS says that this was the best day of the holiday - it’s hard not to try and describe EVERYTHING…


So, with that being said, here we go!


And thanks to Dibbers axxxl and Lee2112 for their Halloween cosmetics (eye primer) advice!


Also...I forgot to post this photo on Day 1 - these were our magic bands for our POFQ stay. Mine says “Cheshire”, Poot’s says “Hatter”. Can you guess our costumes for the Halloween party? Poot picked the costumes…

OK (really this time) - Here we go!


It was Sunday. We got an Uber to early Mass at Mary, Queen of the Universe (it’s on Vineland, near the Premium Outlets). This was my first experience with Uber (I’m so middle-aged...is my first Uber to take me home from a nightclub? Nope, it’s to take me to church! ) - it was so easy.

Our driver was lovely (the fare was $7 to get there) - and in fact he parked up and we all went in and sat together. The shrine is big, pretty (on the inside), and very American (if that makes sense...).

Our driver was called John, and he wouldn’t take any money to drop us back at Disney. I did give him a Lion bar that I had in my handbag.

After we came back from Mass, we again had cereal/yogurt/fruit in the room and then went down to the pool for a swim. Because Poot is an only child, I always hope there will be other kids his age at the pool - but today all the other kids seemed to be tinies or teens.


Poot invented a new stroke today - “The Dynamo”. I don’t think Michael Phelps has anything to worry about, because The Dynamo looked to me like...an octopus being electrocuted.

Before lunch, Poot asked if he could go and pin trade at Riverside, so we walked there (I had no idea it was such a short walk - it took *maybe* eight minutes).

What a pretty resort, I can see why so many Dibbers love it!

No luck with the pins, but we saw this handsome fellow down at the boat dock.

We grabbed the boat to Disney Springs from here - and indeed here is where we saw the captain count twenty-five guests on, leaving the remaining seats free for ten or so guests from the queue at POFQ.

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We have a Landry’s card (it’s a prerequisite for being on the Dibb, right?) and, because my birthday is in October - we had our $25 credit to use. I let Poot choose between Rainforest or T-Rex; he picked T-Rex.

It was now around 1:00 PM - it was Sunday, too, so the queue was LONG. With our Landry’s card (we didn’t book) we were seated in *about* five minutes. We were seated right next to this little lady and her calf:

I’ve been to T-Rex twice before - but both times we sat in the Ice Cave, so I was unprepared for the sheer number of people walking straight up to our table and taking flash pictures right over my head…

I was disappointed that my go-to meal here (chicken-fried steak) was no longer on the menu - so I asked the waitress for her recommendation. She suggested the “Mastodon Stuffed Chicken” ($20):

This was: marinated chicken breast stuffed with artichoke hearts and creamy spinach, topped with sun-dried tomatoes and lemon butter. It was meant to be served with red skinned mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.


Poot knows I’m not big on mash, so he asked me if I would ask for waffle fries (for him!) instead. I’m a good mother; I did.


Poot had the kids’ lasagna ($9), which was a smaller portion of this, and came with a drink:

I drank the soda that came with Poot’s meal (as he only drinks water). Our waitress did put his tap water in the cute little T-Rex cup for him, which I appreciated.


My meal was REALLY rich. Despite being quite hungry, I couldn’t make much of a dent in it. I sometimes forget just how HEAVY the food at these sorts of places can be, especially at lunch. I did eat all the veg, though (and we took the chicken back to POFQ).

Poot ate all of his meal, and some of the waffle fries that I had ordered for him.


While we were dining, we received a visit from Joel, the restaurant manager. I do appreciate this benefit of the Landry’s card - I was able to voice my disappointment at the lack of chicken-fried steak - lol.

Joel was a lovely chap - from Antigua - and very eager to tell me how much he wished that Antigua and Barbuda was still a British colony.


Antigua and Barbuda:

A shame my (English) husband wasn’t there to hear a West Indian waxing nostalgic about the old colonial days...He eats that sort of thing up.

Now I know my accent is damaged after so many years living abroad...but I am half Irish and half Norwegian.


Ah, well - Joel meant well, I’m sure.

Moving on...we paid the bill - It was around $5 ($30 or so minus the $25 birthday credit). I tipped the waitress 20% (of the original cost, obviously); she was friendly but not smarmy (my favourite sort of waitress).



After lunch, we went right to the depot and got the bus back to POFQ. I was really hoping that both Poot and I could sleep for an hour or so before we had to get ready for the party. And we did. Yay!



continues in next post (the party post!)

[Guest]

continued from previous post



For my Cheshire Cat costume, I wore a purple wig (with pink cat’s ears on top) a pink frock, purple tights and pink shoes. I looked nothing at all like this:

Poot looked like this:

I was going to do crazy eye makeup on Poot as well (more like the Johnny Depp Mad Hatter), but it was SO HOT that we decided to skip it. He’s not used to wearing makeup (um, obviously ) and I worried that he might sweat and rub it in his eyes.


When we got down to the bus stop we saw that the next Magic Kingdom bus wasn’t going to come for thirty minutes, so we hopped on the next Epcot bus (a two minute wait) and grabbed the monorail back to MK. HOW MUCH do I love the little bus timetables at the hotel bus stops?

It was getting pretty exciting even at the Epcot monorail station - there were lots of families in costumes waiting to board. We shared our coach with a family dressed up like the Toy Story characters - all except the teenaged son, who was grudgingly pulling on a Darth Vader hoody...


I had wanted to be at MK right at 4:00 PM to maximise our time in the park - but our nap had put us a little behind schedule. We ended up going in around 5:00 PM.

Poot LOVES playing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom; when we popped over to the Firehouse to get some cards he was delighted to see they were already handing out the special Halloween Party spell card.

This year’s card featured Officer Clawhauser from Zootopia/Zootropolis:

After collecting our map/schedule and “treat bags” we had a little wander around - the park was CRAZY BUSY. I did grab a photo of Poot with a seasonal, um...post.

The map/schedule:

Queues at almost all the attractions were bonkers, but we went for a toodle around Tomorrowland on the Peoplemover.

I knew that if we wanted to meet Jack and Sally, or the Seven Dwarfs we would probably have to hop in one of those queues a goodly while before the party officially started. So I checked with Poot...and he said, “I don’t care about meeting characters tonight.”


Now I had made a promise to myself that this night would be for Poot - and we would do all the things he wanted to do. If you read my pre-trippie you know that MNSSHP was the one thing Poot asked to do in Florida. So despite wanting to say, “I am NOT going to miss our only chance to meet Jack and Sally!”, I said, “OK”.


Not us:

Us:

Yep. When the parted started we...went trick-or-treating. Poot was in ecstasy. We live in a small village - there’s definitely no trick-or-treating! - and he was SO happy to be doing something that until now he’d only read about in books.


We did the Frontierland treat stations - and when we came out past Splash Mountain we could see that the Frontierland portion of the parade route was already HEAVING with people. Cue panic (from me, obviously ). It was only 7:15 (and the parade didn't start 'til 8:30)!

I was counting on Frontierland filling up for the parade much later - I really didn't know if Poot could stay awake for the later parade. But the situation was what it was...

SO...we walked along until we found a little spot with room for two people. We were sat in between two families from New Jersey and in front of a large, boisterous group of young people from Argentina.

I almost called this trippie "Ratting Out Argentina" - you'll see why in a bit.

It was still REALLY hot (especially in our wig/top hat), so I sat Poot down and told him to stay there while I walked down to Pecos Bill's and got some iced water. This was the first time I've ever asked for free iced water in Florida - but they had cups already poured and ready to go. Thank you, Dibbers!

When I got back to our little spot, Poot asked me the time - and he was pretty disappointed that we were going to have to "waste trick-or-treating time" (his words, folks ) sitting for an hour and waiting for the parade. This is the rotten thing about travelling on one's own or as a lone parent of a small-ish child. There's nobody to hold parade spots!

So Poot and I talked about whether or not he would want to see the parade from the "front row" - and he said he definitely did (Whew! Me, too!). We started playing I Spy and Poot fiddled about with his INCREDIBLY ugly light-up Oogie Boogie-on-a-string thing.

I had bought the horrible thing from the (American) Disney Store website back in 2015 (for about $5) and had it sent to my mother in Minnesota. She passed it on to me in Boston last March. I think it was about $15 in the park - they were still selling them. SO ugly - but Poot loved it.

Well, unbeknownst to me, one of the ladies working crowd control had overheard our conversation about waiting for the parade. Her name was Hailey, she was from Kentucky - and she made Poot a very happy chappy that night. He's nine, folks. Stop that.

Hailey offered to take Poot around to all the nearby trick-or-treat stops and then bring him back to me. What?!


Me: No, I'm sure you have work to do. But thank you.

Her: Making our guests happy IS my work. Let me take him.

Me: Um, OK...snuffle... thank you...snuffle...


I did stop in at Guest Services on our next day in the Magic Kingdom to write up a commendation for her. I hope her boss got it!

While Poot was trick-or-treating with "Miss Hailey" I got chatting to the lady sitting next to me, and she clued me in to the fact that our Argentinian neighbours might be up to no good...it had been noted that none of them had party wristbands. Were they Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party-Crashers?!

Well, this was quite a little tempest in a teapot among the English-speakers in our little corner of Frontierland.


Me: Well, did anybody ASK them if they have party tickets?

New Jersey: They say they don't speak English.

Me, to the Argentinians: Tienen ustedes boletos por la fiesta?

The Argentinians: Hehehe...


Hmm...



OK, moral dilemma time. Do we rat them out?

continues in next post

[macchu picchu]

What a lovely person to take Poot trick and treating!

[Guest]

continued from previous post


Sorry to have broken this up into multiple posts. We live in the country and have mercurial (grr...) broadband, and it has been hiccupping all day.

OK, so did we rat them out?


Well, our TWO tickets cost more than $200. I wasn't best pleased at the thought that the ten or twelve people behind us were adding to the massive crowd but hadn't paid to be there.


I ratted them out.


I wandered down the route a little way and asked a CM if they wanted to know if there were folks without wristbands sitting along the parade route. If he had said "no", I would have left it alone. But he said, "Yes! Please!".

So I gave him directions to our little area and what came next was quite funny to watch. He told me to go back and sit down (Poot was back by this point) and leave it up to him.

After a few minutes he came walking along the route, casual as you like - he stopped near us and starting talking to people "at random".

"Having fun? Excited for the parade?"

He just walked along until he came to our Latin friends - he asked them if they were excited for the parade. They nodded, and he asked to see their wristbands.

"Sorry, no English."

Then he asked in Spanish - it was priceless. And away he took them. To where I do not know!

What I DO know is that a few minutes later, he reappeared - with two big boxes of popcorn for Poot and me.

I don't actually like plain, salted popcorn - so I gave mine to New Jersey's kids. But Poot enjoyed his.

I'm still not sure about all this - I've never grassed anybody out in all my life - but when they LAUGHED at me, I just saw red. So many of the people at the party that night (us included) had saved up for the party, and it wasn't cheap...


What would you have done? As stupid as it probably sounds, I still feel kind of sick about it all.



OK...on to happier topics!


This was our first ever Halloween Party - and since I never watch videos of things on the Dibb/YouTube in advance - it was our very first experience of the "Boo To You" parade.

Wow! What a parade - we just loved it. My photos are mostly RUBBISH, but I will put in a few.

Loved the song, too..."Boo To You, and You and You and You and You and You - Happy Halloween!"


The Headless Horseman (Really! ) :

The sign:

Parade:

Poot:

I tried to take a picture of his face WATCHING the parade, but he's old enough now that every time I tried to snap him - he'd turn to look at me.

My favourite performers in the parade were definitely the gravediggers - here's a better photo of them. Loved the sparks!

To back up a little bit, here's what I knew when we walked into MK for the party:


Fewer people watch the second parade (but I didn’t know if Poot would be able to last until the second parade).

Poot wanted to see the Hocus Pocus show (we watched this film for the first time two nights before we left for Florida).

We both wanted to see Hallowishes.

Poot wanted to go to every trick-or-treat stop in the park.

I REALLY wanted to get a photo with either Jack and Sally or the Seven Dwarfs.


As I know I have mentioned, I am a fretter. Our party night was sold out; MK was HEAVING with people. SO...I decided to ask all of Poot’s pin-trading partners about how we could watch everything from places where Poot could SEE(considering the fact that I can't put him on my shoulders!) and see what they said.


Most gave non-committal answers, but one young lady (Thank you, Danielle) told us this:


If you want to watch the first parade, see the show and the fireworks - with kids - you should watch the parade from Frontierland, then as soon as it finishes FOLLOW it up the street, into the hub and try to get as close to the stage as you can for Hocus Pocus (some people will be leaving the area after the parade and spaces will open up).

Then after Hocus Pocus finishes, STAY THERE and watch the projection show and Hallowishes.


I hope the above makes sense - it didn't really to me until I'd done it!


Danielle's plan worked great (though I won’t lie, I found the maneuvering for space a little bit stressful). Here's what we did:

As the parade finished we (and ten thousand others, it seemed) turned left and followed it up the street, over the bridge and into the hub. People were indeed leaving the area and we found a little spot not too terribly far back from the stage for Hocus Pocus. We sat down next to an English family and waited.

If you were Dibbers, Hello! The mother of the family manages a Co-op (I think in Scarborough...The North confuses me ) and she has two blond, well-spoken sons.


Something peculiar (to me) happened about ten minutes before show-time. A CM came out and made an announcement to those of us gathered in front of the castle.


Her: When the show begins, you may sit (yes, please! thought I) or you may stand. But you MAY NOT tell your fellow guests whether to sit or stand.


Hmm...what?!


All was made clear as soon as she walked away, when a goodly few people started chanting "Sit Down! Sit Down!".

Oh, I SO got my hopes up! Could it be that we would all get to watch Hocus Pocus sitting down?


Nope. A few people at the front didn't want to sit (and hey, they'd gotten there first) so nobody could sit who wanted to see. Oh, well.

Now there was a man in front of the family from Scarborough who at this point climbed up and stood on his full-size cooler (making him seven feet tall, easily) - and one of the little Northern boys said, "Now, you're not going to block the view of all us wee lads, are you?". The man got down, it was quite a moment.


I was SO glad we had watched Hocus Pocus before we left England - it really made the show so much more enjoyable, because we got all the little references (Amok, Amok, Amok...).

The show was loud, and very Disney - a sort of singing Villains Variety Show - there was Dr. Facilier (my favourite tonight, he sang "The Other Side"), Oogie Boogie, Cruella de Vil - and more.

Our view looked like this:

Poot could see, that's all I cared about.


When the show was over, again people left - and we were able to move forward - right to the front. Yay!

Now, I know that a lot of people don't like to watch the projection show and the fireworks from that close to the castle - but if you are with kids, it's a pretty fab spot.


We had a little wait again, but the time passed quickly enough. Poot began to eat his candy, and we got talking to some lovely ladies from Saginaw, Michigan (just like in the song!). They gave Poot all their Skittles, so he thought they were especially lovely.

I lived in Saint Paul for more than twenty years, so it was pretty cool to see the costume of the man sitting next to us. He was head-to-toe "Purple Rain"-era Prince. Loved it! He was with his little daughter, so cute!

Soon enough the projection show started - I had to grab this snap:

I really like all the projection shows - the transitions especially. I think this is the sort of thing that Disney does better than anyone else.

Hallowishes next! I am beating myself up for not visiting the Emporium and seeing if they had the soundtrack for sale - I think I liked this more than Wishes...(shh, don't tell... ).

I don't have shedloads of photos of the fireworks - I really just wanted to take them in.

When the fireworks finished, lots of folks headed out, but our night was about to get BETTER.

Poot's priority was doing all the trick-or-treat stops, and even though we hadn't gotten to meet Jack and Sally (or the Dwarfs) I felt we had accomplished a lot, having seen the parade, Hocus Pocus, the castle show and Hallowishes.

So I just followed Poot around - he had already nearly filled his bag; I gave him mine to carry. We hit Tomorrowland - no queue to meet Lotso - so I talked Poot into a quick snap.

We decided that our costumes demanded a ride on the teacups, so after crossing into Fantasyland we did this:

Oh, you can see Poot's hideous Oogie Boogie thing in that photo. Yuk.

When we reached the Silly Sideshow trick-or-treat station, I noticed the Seven Dwarfs Meet and Greet seemed to be pretty quiet. YES!

We waited about 25 minutes to meet the Dwarfs - they were great. Grumpy "stole" Poot's top hat, and hijinks ensued.

At the end of the M&G, we were each given a plastic mine-train popcorn bucket - they had more candy in them.

We walked all the way around through Liberty Square and Adventureland - I loved the trick-or-treat station INSIDE the Tiki Room.

As we walked past Crystal Palace, we could hear the midnight showing of Hocus Pocus coming to its conclusion - we walked out of the park tired but happy.

Our popcorn buckets were the envy of many as we waited for the bus to POFQ. I, personally, wasn't looking forward to getting them back to England - they would take up space in my cases better suited to American health and beauty products......but Poot can never leave a "gift" behind, bless him.

We waited about fifteen minutes for the bus and were back in our room around 1:00 AM. Then (of course) all the "loot" had to be sorted and analysed.

There must have been ten pounds of candy. It was insane.

Sleepy-time...zzzz...


Day 4 (Beaches and Cream and HALLOWEEN!) here

[Guest]

Originally Posted by macchu picchu

What a lovely person to take Poot trick and treating!

See more...

Yes, she was just the sweetest girl. I hope her boss got my note!

Thanks for commenting.

[mick]

A fantastic evening👻👻👻

Joan

[annedawso]

YOU GRASS.
Only joking honestly, I would definitely have reported them. Probably a lot sooner than you. Never nice to do and I know it has upset you but you would have been more annoyed with yourself if you hadn't.
Loving your trip report.

[Dissie]

What a great party night you had I love MNSSHP. I would have grassed too and wouldn't feel guilty We have to save really hard to do these extras so why should others not have to. Looking forward to your next instalment

[sheluk]

What a successful night! And I would he grassed, only fair in my book but no doubt I would have felt semi guilty for it too

Thanks for sharing x

[Floridaagogo]

Totally would have grassed .you pay extortionate money to be there .they didn't .wouldnt even enter my head to try and do this ! Love that u gave the uber driver a lion bar 😆😆