Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
Oct 28th, 2001

My granddaughter and I attend MNSSHP the October after Sept 11th, and consequently, the parks weren't very crowed at all.

We started by booking the latest possible dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern before the park closed in preparation for the party - that way we would already be in the park when the event started rather than waiting in line to enter. We carried our costumes with us in a shopping bag. My granddaughter was going to be Cinderella and I was relegated to the role of Fairy Godmother. ........She always gets to be the pretty one. The year before last, I had to be the Wicked Witch of the West while she, of course, was Glenda. Oops sorry, that's another story entirely ;-)

All of the characters at Liberty Tree Tavern had their costumes on and were in devilish spirits, meaning they acted up more than usual. I guess they thought they wouldn't have to take responsibility for their actions since they were incognito. Goofy bounced several wadded napkins off my granddaughter's head who thought it was just the coolest that he was misbehaving. In fact, there was so much character interaction going on, my granddaughter's entire dinner went completely uneaten.

As soon as we finished dinner, we went to the restaurant bathroom to change into our costumes. Big mistake! This must be the smallest bathroom in all of WDW (just two stalls and what seemed like a 4' x 4' sink area). Since it was warm that night, we just slipped our costumes over our shorts, discarded the shopping bag, and returned to the dining room "metamorphosed" in full Halloween garb. A miniature Snow White at the next table "eyeballed" me intently for quite a few minutes. She was nobody's fool though. I overheard her telling her Mother, "She isn't really the Fairy Godmother because she doesn't have a wand." When I whipped out my glittery star-on-a-stick with ribbons and feathers dangling from it and chanted bibbity bobbity boo, her conviction instantly evaporated - if the wideness of one's eyes can be used as an indicator. :-)

We departed the restaurant a half hour before the party was designated to start, and the MK was completely transformed. The castle was an eerie purple color with ghost flying out of it's windows. And the normal park music had been replaced with howls, and groans, and creaks. The first thing we did was get our free photo taken before the lines started to form (we were actually first). Then my granddaughter did some trick-or-treating by locating all of the candy stations on our side of the park using the special Halloween map and schedule. We discovered that most of the MK shoppes had "goody" collection bags stashed behind the counters, which were conveniently ours for the asking.

The next thing on our agenda was the Haunted Mansion of course! On our way, we discovered Donald Duck's Pumpkin Patch behind the Christmas shop in Liberty Square. You could easily overlook this and it was quite animated and really cute. The "Mansion" was very spooky this night with all of the ghouls and goblins (and princesses, and princesses, and princesses) in the queue, and set exactly the right tone for the rest of our evening.

Afterwards, we lined up for a haunted cruise on the Liberty Bell. There was a gypsy storyteller on board, as well as Disney characters that danced with the children. And as we drifted off into the blackness, there were some strange goings on along the river banks I can tell you. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

By this time, people were beginning to line the street for the Halloween parade, and since we had decided to see the less crowded second parade, we headed for Fantasyland as not to get trapped by the "spook"tacular procession. The Princesses were out and about giving autographs. My granddaughter also took part in the Fantasyland Halloween parade which was lead by the Hunchback characters, and imitated the "Festival of Fools." All of the children formed a line and marched round proudly displaying their costumes and receiving even more candy. My little princess literally bristled with pride anytime a small child pointed to her and squeal, "Look it's Cinderella!"

While we enjoyed all of the festivities taking place at the back of the castle (including a chance to view Cinderella's glass coach), we later found out that had we been positioned in front of the castle, we would have witnessed a rather sinister replacement to Tinkerbell's nightly flight.

After a quick spin in the Teacups, we headed for Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain and Alien Encounter (we were trying to keep with the theme of the night). By now my Fairy Godmother wig and wand were in my backpack, and granddaughter had "lost" over 1/3 of her outfit and was looking as if she would turn back into a tattered "cinder" girl at any moment.

We grabbed a seat on a bench in front of the castle and didn't have long to wait before the Headless Horseman appeared out of the darkness, galloping down Main Street on a magnificent steed with his pumpkin (head) raised high in the air. It truly was a sight to behold and worth the price of admission for me. The Halloween parade followed, and again, it was great to see all of the characters in their costumes. We especially enjoyed the Disney villain floats.

After the parade, and with another hour of festivities remaining, alas, my little princess was fading fast. For us, the bewitching hour had arrived early, and it was time for this ghostly party to end. We drug our wretched bodies down a "shadowy" Main Street and onto a rather ordinary bus bound for the All Star Movies Resort. When next we saw her, the eerie realm of a kingdom haunted, had been magically transformed back into the familiar "happiest place on earth."

The events I've described in this report are about as much as one can reasonably expect to accomplish at one of these special park parties -- and possibly a bit more due to the lower crowds we encountered. But the park takes on a whole new look and mood, there's a lot more character interaction, and it truly is a "not so scary" way to celebrate the season with your children.