By Lucy Wolfe of Travel Time Travel
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Magic Kingdom
hosts two notable extra parties: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
Both are separate ticketed events requiring specific tickets, and the
park closes to day guests to turn into party time!
I’m going to
focus on the Halloween party, fondly referred to as MNSSHP, since the
spooktacular event begins this month, although most of the strategies work for
the Christmas party. Plus, it is my very
favorite thing to do in all of Disney World, and that is saying a lot!
Some pros of the party:
·
Although the party is from 7-10 PM, you can
enter Magic Kingdom with a party ticket at 4 PM
·
You are given cute little treat bags and a cool
map so you can find the various events and trick or treat trails. There are trick or treat trails throughout the
park, although I am not one to stand in line for candy…I simply tell my
young-ins that if they don’t have enough candy by the end of the night I’ll buy
them a bag (I’ve never had to)
The park atmosphere is spooky with cool but not
terrifying music
·
The Boo-to-You parade runs twice a night, led by
the Headless Horseman (I dare you to try to get a picture!) and features seldom
seen Villains and the awesome Haunted Mansion grave diggers and dancers.
·
*A Villains show and meet and greet at the castle
stage
·
*The most amazing fireworks Disney offers,
Hallowishes. The music is available on
the events CD available for sale at Magic Kingdom (you should hear my family in
the car jamming out to Hallowishes, sometimes during inappropriate months like
April!)
·
*Even adults can dress up which is a big no-no
any other time at Disney
· *
The characters are in costume!
*Some new things this year:
·
Jack Skellington and Sally from “The Nightmare
Before Christmas” will be making appearances on Main Street
·
Phineas and Ferb will lead the Creepa Crew
·
Mike and Sulley will host the Monstrous
Scream-O-Ween Ball
·
There are sure to be other surprises with the
roll out of the new Fantasyland section this year
Some negatives:
·
Very hard to get good dining reservations. Ideally, between 4-5 PM is perfect, you don’t
want to be eating during the party, why waste party time on that? Plan months ahead if you want to eat in Magic
Kingdom, or at places around it like 'Ohana or Chef Mickey’s or 1900 Park
Fare. If you can’t find anything, try
places like Kona Café and the Grand Floridian Café, close by, good food at a
reasonable price, and easier to get into.
Reservations cannot be before 4 PM, and if you aren’t going to the
party, your reservation CANNOT be 7 PM or after.
·
If the park is sold out, you’ll feel it. You need to have a good plan of attack. On the reverse, if it isn’t that full, it is
completely magical and you’ll walk on ride after ride.
·
If you want Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique or Pirates
League for your children, you must plan super duper early for it.
Some Attack Strategies:
·
Disneystore.com has some cool Halloween stuff;
you can order ahead of time and come to the party prepared. The stores inside the park of course have
wonderfully Halloween-ish merchandise but it comes at a premium!
·
*While the BBB is for children 3-12, Pirate
League has no age limit..why not make the whole family swashbucklers? Please note, PL doesn’t always have later
hours on party nights and normally closes at 4, so this might be an option only
good if you have day park tickets as well.
BBB has later appointments (have to call for these, cannot be booked
online, 407-WDW-DINE…a trick for this one is to do one or two appointments at a
time…if you have an agent trying for 5 people you won’t get it). If you are desperate to get your little
princess into full princess mode before a party and you can’t get her in at
Magic Kingdom, try Downtown Disney (new Sofia the First package exclusive to
that location!) or try Ivy Trellis salon at the Grand Floridian (407-WDW-SPAS),
they can do flower girl hair and makeup, throw on a princess dress and Voila,
you’ve got yourself a princessified little girl.
·
* *To go to the first parade, to get a good spot
you need to sit at least an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of time (for the
second, you can usually do an hour).
Usually my advice is to avoid Main Street for a parade, but not with the
parties…find a spot to the right of the hub facing the castle. The parade floats will come towards you, and
you’ll get fantastic pictures of them with the castle behind. Bring ponchos or a beach towel, spread it
out, and send another adult off with the kids while you save the spot…if your
kids are like mine, they’ll drive you nuts sitting there for an hour.
·
If your kids are stuck sitting with you, invest
in a bag of glow bracelets and let them walk around the hub passing them out to
other little kids
·
I go to the first parade even though the wait is
a little longer and then watch the fireworks, catching a Villains show at some
point…after, there is still 2 hours of fun left. If you go to the later parade, it feels like
the night is instantly over.
·
The dance parties can be a blast, one of my
fondest memories is of my youngest when she was 3 boogying with Donald dressed
as a pumpkin.
·
We have a tradition of doing Cinderella’s Royal
Table before the parties; they usually do things like eyeball desserts. Start your own tradition!
·
During a parade, the lines are much shorter or
nonexistent for rides.
·
After Hallowishes, stay put…listen to the ending
music even though that isn’t my favorite song…wait for the ending, there is a
little something from the Haunted Mansion.
·
Plan on using Photopass. There are awesome photo ops all over the
park, including wonderful shots of the castle, and the hearse and a ghostly
surprise in front of the Haunted Mansion.
Your own camera, unless you are a photography genius, won’t work with
half of the shots.
·
Get a waffle bowl ice cream from the ice cream
shop and enjoy while waiting for the fireworks to begin! Fireworks are partially 360 degrees, so enjoy
them all around you!
You may wonder if the extra price of the party is worth it, and the
answer is almost always a resounding “Yes!”
It is not too scary for the little ones (hence the “Not So Scary”
portion of the title” and you’ll find your favorite characters dolled up in
adorable costumes. Hands down, the
parade and fireworks are the best Disney has to offer in my opinion. If the party is sold out, quarters can be a
little tight, but if you
1) enter early and eat early
2) plan in advance the
events you want to catch
3)plan out your parade and fireworks strategy
4)
make a list of rides you want to try to do, you’ll have a spooktacularly
magical time!
