2011 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

My family and I have recently returned from our yearly trip to Walt Disney World. I have to say that September-October is still my favorite time of year to travel to Disney. I love the ambiance that Food & Wine bring as well as all of the fall decorations.

From the moment you enter Walt Disney World you are reminded that the fall celebrations have begun. And if you are lucky enough to visit more than once between September and December you will be fully immersed in all holiday spirits. The fall décor though is just so darn cute!

I will talk a bit more about my entire trip as the weeks progress but for now we are going to focus on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! This party is by far my favorite celebration on Walt Disney World property. Disney does the best job of creating a spookfree Halloween environment that people of all ages can enjoy. This is my family’s 5th time at the party so I consider us old professionals.

I will start off by saying that this year was not as crowded as I am accustom to. We usually go the last week of October so it was very nice to see lower crowds. In addition, last week the temperatures were amazing! No humidity and about 80 during the day and 70 at night….perfect! We are used to sweating our butts off…lol.

The party offers so much from 2 parade times, multiple times for the villains mix and mingle, several stations for trick-o-treating, a number of dance parties and several places to meet and greet with characters. There is just way too much to do within the time allowed. For those of you that are not familiar, you can use your party ticket to enter the park as early as 4:00 PM, even though the party does not start until 7:00. This year is the first year we were ready to go at 4:00 and made sure to enter early enough to get a bit to eat and create a plan of action.

When you first enter the turn-style you will notice a cast member handing out bags for your candy. These bags are always decorated with Disney marketing but it is fine by me. This year the bags had Lion King on the front of them…..very cute and sturdy. I was really impressed by the type of candy that they gave out this year; lemon heads, twix, laffy-taffy,Goofy suckers. Previous years it has been generic candy.

 

After reviewing the map we decided that this year we would go to the later parade time which is 10:30. We thought that this would allow us ample amount of time to do some of the other things that we wanted to do. Man, were we wrong! I felt like we only did just a few things and before we knew it we had to go find a good space to sit and watch the parade. (I will discuss this place and good parade edict later in the week.) Now before you say…come on, you entered the park at 4:00. We sure did but by the time we ate and got a map and a few other things it was already almost 7:00, plus you can do anything that has to do with MNSSHP until 7:00.

The Boo-To You Parade is just phenomenal! I highly recommend seeing it at least once in a lifetime. The music and the characters are just like nothing else….one thing is for sure, you will be singing that darn song for a very long time. :0) The very best part of the parade is just before it begins when the headless horseman makes his quick appearance. Just stellar!

From there you have to be sure to walk the park to meet some characters that are rarely around. This year, we did not focus too much on that but I did get to meet Captain Jack…whoo hoo! If you have little ones that like music and they like to dance you will not want to miss the dance parties…they are so much fun! Characters adorn the stage in their Halloween costumes and they sing and dance to fun top 40-style music.

By the time the 10:30 parade was over we did a few extra attractions the night was over. I was so sad because I actually felt like I did not do enough this year. We tried a whole new approach and it did not work as we had planned. The good news is, we are always going back. Did we have fun at the party? Yes…it was a blast! Would I do things in the order I did them ever again, no way! Now I might be way off when I say this but next time we go we may pick and chose the things that we will do at the party….I was almost thinking of skipping the parade but hitting everything else as we have done the parade 5 times already and it is always the same. Again, I LOVE the parade but I want to see other things as well.

 

I would highly recommend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party to everyone that visits Disney while it is in session….you will not be sorry!

See ya real soon!!

Kelly