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Hollywood Studios

Tonight was the Halloween Party, so we decided to sort of wing it in the morning. We ended up getting a late start, eating breakfast at the CBR food court, and heading to Hollywood Studios for a few things. Kyle and Suzanne headed up to the playground while I did the Tower of Terror. This was my first time and is likely my favorite ride now. It was excellent. I also picked up a FastPass for later to do it a second time. We met back up just in time to catch the Playhouse Disney show. This was a “must-do” as Kyle is a big fan of Handy Manny and Little Einsteins. (This is odd since we don’t get cable and, hence, don’t get the Disney Channel. We do get DVDs from the library sometimes.) I headed back to the Tower of Terror for another ride while Suzanne and Kyle headed back to the playground, where I met them after I was done. We didn’t see all of the park, but we felt we had seen enough to be done for the week.

Magic Kingdom – Halloween Party

After quick trip back to hotel (mostly to get Kyle’s costume), we caught another bus over to the Magic Kingdom. We were really excited about tonight as it was time for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We had heard very good things about this. Our first stop was to ride Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. (Kyle really likes these “Dumbo”-like rides. The flying fish Elmos at Sesame Place were also a hit.) We then happened on a good spot to watch the parade. We thought it was supposed to start in only 15 minutes, but it was more like 45 as we were in Fronteirland and it started on Main St. (This is the only parade I’ve ever seen at the MK that did so.) Next we headed over to the Crystal Palace for dinner. We were a bit concerned as people had been reporting waits of up to an hour even with reservations. It turned out that the wait was so short after check in that we didn’t even have time to sit on the porch after getting Kyle’s bag off his stroller. Dinner was excellent, one of the best of the trip. The server was incredibly friendly and the character interaction was really good. (Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet are here.) This was Kyle’s first character meal, so it was a bit special. Kyle loved marching in the parade. We even got to see a couple of characters twice.

After dinner, we happened on a Dance Party in front of the castle, which Kyle enjoyed. (It’s sort of like a stationary parade, with floats and characters even, and the audience can join in.) Afterward, we got our wristbands for the Halloween party. (The party is a specially ticketed event. Anyone without a ticket is asked to leave before it starts at 7:00.) Kyle got into his costume (a fireman, of course) and we headed off to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (Peoplemover) again. While heading there, Buzz was reporting a wait of only 10 mins, so we hit that first. Kyle wasn’t too excited about it, but we told him maybe there was a fire inside. (I think a cast member made this hint.) He ended up really enjoying it. After being done here, we hit the TTA as planned. It was then time for the party to start, so we headed over to Adventure land to start some character meetings and trick-or-treating. Kyle wasn’t real big on characters tonight, but we did meet Baloo, Jane and Terk (from Tarzan), Genie and Abu (from Aladdin), and Mickey in his costume. Genie and Abu were especially good, spending a good ten minutes playing around with Kyle. There were trick-or-treating stands set up throughout the park, so we hit a number of those. We could have gotten more candy during the evening, but it wasn’t a high priority. (We also knew we’d get more on actual Halloween in just over a week.) We ended up doing a bunch of rides during the evening including Aladdin’s Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, the carousel, Peter Pan (at Kyle’s insistent request — he probably saw the ride vehicles which look like boats), It’s a Small World, the Tea Cups, Dumbo, and the Speedway (also at Kyle’s insistent request). We weren’t too sure about Pirates, but decided to give it a try as the line was short. (We ended up literally walking onto a boat with no wait.) Kyle was a little unsure at first, especially where it’s really dark, but enjoyed it enough to request a second trip later in the week. Kyle feel asleep just before the parade, which was too bad as it was quite nice. (He even slept through the gravediggers group banging their shovels on the pavement.) After the parade, we headed over to Frontierland so I could ride Big Thunder Mountain, my last “must-do”. It was good, but after Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster and Expedition Everest, it seemed quite tame. That done, we headed out of the park and back to the hotel, getting there around midnight.

Links to photos

Animal Kingdom
Epcot
Hollywood Studios
Magic Kingdom
Caribbean Beach Resort & few other places