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Old 22 Apr 19, 03:45 PM  
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berniegroves
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Team Groves are Florida Bound! October 2017 Day 8

Day 8:
Friday 13th October
Villa day, Chilli’s then MK for MNSSHP

I was really looking forward to today as we were going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this evening. We didn't really know what to expect as it would be a first for us, but I was really excited to give it a try.

As we knew it would be a late night we were going to have a really relaxed morning. The kids played with some of their new toys and they made use of the cinema room set up in the garage. They loved it in there but the ceiling fan made me nervous as it wobbled!

Then a lot of time was spent in the pool as you would expect. The usual chaos took place with lots of jumping and splashing. We really did enjoy having total privacy in our pool area and not being at all overlooked.




Late morning we had some snacks to eat at the villa, with the kids having crackers, apple slices, salami and cheese. The plan was then to go for a very late lunch/very early dinner before we headed to Magic Kingdom. Then we would be able to just have snacks in the evening rather than having to stop for a whole meal.

So at 2pm we left the villa and went to Chilli's in Champions Gate for food.
I am afraid I have no idea what everyone ate, a variety of sandwiches, burgers and wraps.



Grayson clearly had corn on the cob with his meal and he obviously enjoyed it a lot!




I know we had both the Chocolate Molton Lava cake and the Salted Caramel Molton Lava Cake. Both of which were great.




**I will always be disappointed that they no longer do the White Chocolate Molton Lava Cake! It was my favourite pudding of all time and it still makes me sad its no longer!**

Lunch was a lot of fun and we were all suitably full and ready for a night of exploring the Halloween party. We paid and finished up here at about 3.15pm.


We got to the Magic Kingdom carpark at about 3.40pm and walked over to the Ticket and Transportation Centre. I then took the kids to the bathroom to get them changed into their Halloween Party outfits.
Miley was wearing a Jessie dress that I had made with a cowgirl hat and Grayson was Buzz, he had white shorts, a buzz lightyear pyjama top (! ) and some wings that strapped on over his top.
I know I am biased but I think they looked adorable!


Once they were ready we took the monorail over to the park, at the tapstiles they were giving out Halloween wristbands to everyone with party tickets. The kids loved this and felt very special! The cast members were great and very enthusiastic and bubbly which added to the atmosphere. It was great to be surrounded by so many amazing costumes, some people had really gone all out.
We were walking into the park at 4.15pm.

When we entered the park we saw that they had opened up the road that runs parallel to Main Street and it was only accessible to party guests. We went that way and were handed our candy collection bags and then a little further up we were given our first pack of candy which the kids were both giddy about!





We had a fastpass booked for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at 4.30, but Miley now changed her mind and said she didn't want to do it. So we gave our magic bands to Sarah and Phil (this meant Phil was walking around with a Marie the Cat magic band) so that they could go on with Simon and Grayson. Miley and I instead waited in the hub area and watched the castle show from a slight distance so that we were in the shade a little bit and so that the others could find us easily when they were done.





It was really nice to take a break with just me and Miley and to just enjoy the atmosphere. This was one of the moments from the holiday that I really remember and I loved watching her take it all in.

The others were back at 5pm and they had all enjoyed the ride. No pictures from the ride this year unfortunately.

At this point we went separate ways as we had a fastpass for the Haunted Mansion at 5.30pm and wanted to meet Buzz as well and Phil and Sarah had one for something else (I want to say BTMRR - but I might be wrong).
But we did take a minute to have a group photo done in front of the castle.


We split up for now and we walked around to where Buzz would be meeting. This wait felt like it took quite a while but I think it was simply because it kept raining on and off and the meet was out in the open. I think in reality we waited about 15 minutes before he was out and only another 5 or 10 minutes until we were at the front of the line.

This was a wonderful meet and greet. Buzz has never let us down and the interactions have always been amazing and today was no different. Because Grayson and Miley were dressed up as Buzz and Jessie he made a huge fuss, as did the cast members with him. It was so lovely.




He kept kissing Miley's hands which she found hilarious and giving Grayson massive hugs.





It was one of those truly magical Disney moments that will stay with us as parents forever.

The kids came away with massive smiles and so much happy energy. It was fab.

On the walk around to the Haunted Mansion we stopped and I took some photos of the kids and Simon infront of a fairly quite Castle.



We got round to Haunted Mansion at 5.40.

Miley did not like the idea of this ride and was not budging so Simon sat outside with her whilst I took Grayson on.

Anyway we got on the ride and it was all good. Grayson loves this ride just like he loves every ride he does.
We love the hitchhiking ghosts at the end. It was nice to get a chance to do something with just Grayson as he is such a daddy’s boy that I don’t usually get a look in!

When we came off Grayson wanted another go, so he and Simon went and used the other two fastpasses we had booked.
If anything, Grayson enjoyed it even more the second time around!
Miley enjoyed sitting and watching all the people in their costumes walking by. The girl is a people watcher.

We met Phil and Sarah outside the Haunted Mansion at 6pm and had a chat about what everyone wanted to do. I knew we had certain things to try and get done but I was conscious of the fact that I didn't want to dictate things to Phil and Sarah. But they assured us that they were happy to go with the flow.

One character we had to meet was Moana, she was a firm favourite for us at the time and we knew she was only there for the Halloween party. So we walked around to find the queue for her. We accepted that this would probably be our longest wait of the evening and we joined the queue at 6.10.
Whilst we were waiting the kids ran around in the splash fountains by Aladdins flying carpets.
We waited about 10 minutes for Moana to appear and then the queue started to move forward slowly.
We were one group from the front when the castmember announced that Moana would be taking a break soon (I think they said to go and check on hei-hei) and that she would be back in 15 minutes.
We were praying we would make it before she left as even though 15 minutes isn't long, it feels like it is in the florida heat with two very excited kids.

Luckily when we were the next group Moana said she would see us, it was 6.29pm at this point and she was supposed to be finished up by 6.30pm, so she did run a few minutes over. She signed the kids books and talked to them about the party and if they were having fun.

She was very good as Miley didn't really say anything to her and Grayson was just jumping up and down with excitement so she talked to them about Hei-hei and Pua and it was all very sweet.
I was really pleased that we had managed to get this done as I knew it was the one the kids wanted to do.

We saw a lot of Moana themed costumes throughout the night and I must say one of the hei-hei ones I saw made us laugh out loud as it was just so good. I didn't take a photo as that felt a bit rude!

After we had met Moana the kids ran around in the water for another ten minutes or so, just relishing the fact that they were in Disney World and that they would be getting lots of free candy!





They also rode Aladdins Flying Carpets with Simon and Phil whilst Sarah and I waited in the shade with a dole whip. 🙂


...continued below...
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Old 22 Apr 19, 04:06 PM  
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berniegroves
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... continued from above...

So it was now 7pm and the Halloween Party was officially starting! Exciting!

I didn't make any notes of where or when we collected candy, we were having far too much fun for me to stop and make notes. So I will say now that we collected candy at every given opportunity. Mainly because the kids were finding it all so exciting! Trick or Treat Disney style!

Luckily this hasn't ruined our normal Halloween in the UK for them, they still find that just as exciting!

So we collected a LOT of candy through the night. The bags were seriously heavy by the end. The castmembers weren't just giving one piece of candy, they would give out handfuls of the stuff!
I had read before that the candy stations could get busy and sometimes had queues, but we didn't experience that at all. Each one we just walked right up to it with no waiting at all.
So at this point in the evening we walked over to Tomorrowland to take part in the Monsters Inc dance party with Mike and Sully.
I think the kids were slightly overwhelmed by this! Monsters Inc was the first movie Miley ever really watched and so I think she was a little in awe.




This was a fun little event, but with just the two characters there some of the people got a bit pushy. I think it would be better if there were a couple of other characters there to take the pressure off.
The kids had a little dance but the draw of collecting more candy was too strong so we didn’t stay long.

After collecting more candy we headed for the Tomorrowland Speedway.
I loved how much quieter it was than usual, Grayson was able to run around without getting in anyone’s way. He was running back and forth with his arms out pretending he was flying like Buzz Lightyear.
What can I say, the boy likes to commit to his character!


Simon and Phil took the two kids onto the speedway whilst Sarah and I watched. I’m not a fan of this ride, but the kids both love it! And the men seem to quite enjoy it too!

We had a fastpass for the Barnstormer at 8pm so we walked around to Storybook Circus.
We had a look around the shop and both of the kids got a light up necklace each. Grayson got the pumpkins and Miley got jack skellington.

We made our way to the barnstormer and were on within a few minutes. And off again a few seconds later!

I loved seeing the park all lit up and Storybook Circus was so pretty!



Next up was the Teacups, Sarah, Miley and I all went in one cup and Simon, Grayson and Phil in another. As per usual this was a massive hit with the kids. My stomach isn’t as strong as it used to be and I always feel a bit queasy when we get off.



As we came off I saw another dibber and her family get on. But I was too shy to hang around to say hello, it felt like I’d be a bit of a stalker!

At this point we checked MDE and it showed the 7 dwarves mine train as a 20 minute wait! I wanted to hot foot it over there but Simon told the kids we could do the speedway again and then go to the mine train!
Can you guess what happens?



So we did Speedway again at 8.35. By the time we came of 5 minutes later the queue for the mine train had jumped up to 45 minutes again, which was too long for the kids. Sigh! One day I will get to have a go on that ride!

We walked through to Fantasyland, again I was loving all of the lights! Magic kingdom is so so much prettier at night, it creates such a beautiful atmosphere!
At 9pm we did the carousel in the dark which was very pretty and we all loved it.



After this we walked down to Main Street to try and find somewhere to watch the parade.
We walked through the emporium right down to the very end and exited through the door on the bottom right hand side. This brought us out into a small section of path that had been roped off. It was right next to where the parade finishes and currently was totally empty. It was about 9.20 by now.
The weather was a bit drizzly and so nobody seemed to know if the parade would take place or not. But we waited it out. Grayson had fallen asleep in his stroller and Simon was carrying Miley on his shoulders (it’s okay as there was nobody behind us; or anywhere near us in actual fact).
Finally at 9.40 the parade appeared. Yay!


Now we love the festival of fantasy parade a lot and after watching the boo to you parade it’s still our favourite. But this Halloween parade was a lot of fun.




Some of the floats and dances were really clever, I loved the one where the men were dragging the spades along the concrete to create sparks! This effect was amazing.



The floats were all fab and it was great seeing some of our favourite characters like wreck it Ralph and vanellope.





I also really enjoyed seeing the ghosts from the haunted mansion as well. The effects are amazing and it was fab to see in the parade. So well done.



Seeing all the villans was a nice change, Miley wasn’t so keen on this. But I enjoyed it. I believe one of the villan floats must have broken down at some point as a few villans walked past us when they should have been on a float. Cruella de-vil was one of them and she really was such a good character as she went past.

Being right at the end of the parade seemed like a good choice as the characters all interacted with us right as they left the parade route.




The parade finished up at 10pm and we had all really enjoyed it and I was glad we had stayed.

We stopped to watch the fireworks but they freaked Miley out so Simon took her in the emporium with a sleeping Grayson. Next time we will take eat defenders so that she can enjoy the fireworks too.
Me, Sarah and Phil watched the Hallowishes. It was a lovely show and I was glad to see it but would have preferred Simon and Miley also got to see it.
After they’d finished I met the others in the shop and we had a little browse as it was nice and quiet. Miley spent a little of her spending money on a Mi key mouse emoji toy.

We then called it a day and decided to head out before the masses. Phil and Sarah stayed in the park to enjoy the short ride times.
We were back in the car and heading home to the villa by 11.20pm.
Grayson was still asleep and even Miley fell asleep in the car which she never usually does.


The kids barely even woke up whilst we got the changed and put them to bed. They really aren’t used to late nights.
Simon and I both went to bed straight after as it had been a fun but tiring evening.

***thoughts on MNSSHP***
This is the first time we’ve attended MNSSHP and I wouldn’t even tell Simon how much the tickets cost because I wanted to forget myself!

We went into it with open minds on the day.

The kids obviously enjoyed it, what’s not to like when you are little!
But I can say whole heartedly that Simon and I both loved it as well.
We had the absolute best night.

We loved seeing everyone’s costumes and it was so much fun to see how much effort people had made. The entire atmosphere was completely different than on a normal day.
The candy stations were really well organised and were spread really well through the park and this was obviously one of the favourite things for the kids to do.
We meet a lot of characters as a family and we enjoyed seeing characters around the park that we wouldn’t normally see and also seeing the usual characters in Halloween outfits.

The park was quieter than it had been on our daytime visits and so the queues were much shorter for the rides, so we didn’t really have to wait for anything.

The extra entertainment put on for Halloween was lots of fun, the dance party with Mike and Sully was a hit with the kids and the Boo to You parade and Hallowishes were both fantastic.

Everyone seemed happier and to be having lots of fun and so it was just a really great experience all round. I told Simon how much it cost when we were leaving at the end of the night and he didn’t blanch at all which surprised me. He even mentioned potentially trying to go a second time on another night!

I know not everyone loves it and I guess it depends on what you go in expecting. But we had a really great night and so much fun. So for us it was worth it and we all have really positive memories from that night.
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Old 24 May 19, 09:32 PM  
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Lisa29
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Seems like you had an amazing time at the Halloween party. I’d love be to go back but it’s just so expensive now.x
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