Month: July 2005

It may seem odd to post information and memories of this event now, when it is only July, but you will find it useful when I regale you with my MNSSHP stories.

The main reason for posting this now is because the tickets are on sale now!   Halloween night is ALWAYS a sell out, and you will find many other nights, especially the weekends, sell out as well.  This is what is known as a hard ticket event at Disney World.  The party takes place at the Magic Kingdom on select nights in October.  Even if you have park hopper tickets, season passes, annual passes, multi-day park tickets, you will need to purchase a ticket for this event.  No other ticket or pass will get you in except the Halloween party pass.  The event runs about $37 for adults (which in Disney terms is anyone over 9 years old), and about $30 for children between 3 and 9.  If you wait until the day of the event and purchase at the gate, the price goes up to $42 for adults and $35 for children.  Remember, some nights do sell out so this may not even be an option for you.

The Magic Kingdom closes early on the days of the party and is transformed into a not too spooky but definitely Halloweeny fantasy land.  As you arrive at the Magic Kingdom, you will be given a trick or treat bag so you can collect the many goodies that await you, but the goodies here are not just in the form of sugary delicious treats. 

One of the best events during the party, and it is so good it happens twice during the evening, is the Boo To You parade.  If you show up about 10 minutes early in front of the Liberty Bell, you can hear Mr. Knickerbocker retell the story of the Headless Horseman.  By the time the story has been told, the Headless Horseman rides down the parade route, basically clearing the way for dozens of Halloween themed floats and characters, all of whom are wearing their Halloween costumes. 

During the evening, you can take a Halloween riverboat ride, where you will be treated to story tellers telling Halloween favorites, strolling musicians, and again a character or two in Halloween costume.  This is a run ride and nothing like what you experience at other times at the park.

There are mask making stations for the children, face painting, fortune tellers, and a complimentary family photo of your little ghouls dressed for the event.  And do dress for the event – you will not be out of place, as grown ups and children alike dress for the festivities. 

Instead of Tinkerbell ringing in the fireworks, a Halloween edition of Fantasy in the Sky is introduced by a witch on her broomstick.  You will also find Halloween storytellers at various points throughout the park.

There are conflicting reports on Halloween candy during the party.  We have been every year for the past 10 years, and we have never walked away feeling we didn’t get enough candy.  Towards the end of the evening, most of the treat stations are literally putting fistfulls of candy into your bag.  At last year’s party, we had our 3 year old in a stroller (which they provided for free the night of the party!), and while in line for our photo, Disney castmembers were taking turns trying to get as many pieces of candy into the stroller as they could from varying distances.  Some of the candy is not “awesome” candy – we did get  a number of jaw breakers last year – but there is always chocolate and other good candies.  You will find in Toontown, the treat stations are all very close together and you can collect not only quite a bit of candy, but quite a few character photos, as many of the characters are out and about.

Oh, and one more thing – if you can, as soon as you have your tickets in hand, call and get Advanced Dining Reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern.  I will tell you all about the restaurant in another post, but it is one of our favorites, and if you make your ADR just before the party starts or early in the evening, you can step right out of the restaurant after having an all you can eat meal surrounded by Disney characters in Halloween costumes, and get an awesome spot for the parade and the Headless Horseman. 

Most of the attractions are open during this event.  It’s a definite must for our family.

There is no place on earth I am more fond of than Disney World.  I have a lot of happy memories there.  My first trip, with my dad, my sister Bean, and my grandmother was one of the best vacations ever.  We stayed at the Contemporary Hotel in a garden wing and did things like the Luau, stayed up to watch the fireworks, ate dinner late in the evening like “grown ups”. 

My first real vacation with Jim was to Disney World, about a year before we got married.  We were young, thin, and excited enough to make the trip from South Jersey to Orlando in about 16 hours.  We honeymooned in Orlando, and had a few romantic days at Walt Disney World.

We have gone at Christmas time, enjoying Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party and the “snowflakes” falling on our nose and eyelashes as we wandered down Main Street.  We try to go at Halloween every year for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party, something we have enjoyed since our oldest daughter was just a little girl.  For the first time, we even went at Easter last year. 

It is my goal to stay at every Disney World resort hotel, and in recent years, after staying many times with my in-laws, and usually at a Marriott owned hotel, we have begun making my dream come true.  We have enjoyed visits to the Pop Century resort, Caribbean Beach resort, All Star Movies, and especially memorable stays at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, where we enjoyed a savanna view room and the Contemporary, where we had a tower room over looking Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom, and I had an incredibly magical experience.  I am currently trying to finagle a stay at another of the hotels for one or two nights in the early stages of our next trip.  Maybe Port Orleans?

Another goal – much harder to accomplish – is eating my way around the world.  We have enjoyed so many wonderful meals – and some not so wonderful – and there are so many more meals to be had!   We have hardly scratched the surface in terms of the culinary delights that abound at Walt Disney World.

In just a few weeks, we will be headed down to Disney World again.  This is the first time we are going without Annual Passes, which we will not purchase because we have a daughter starting high school, where she will be unable to take as many vacations as we have in the past.  I’m so sad by this, I can’t tell you.  Convincing my husband to take a trip to Disney World has always been a matter of just saying “But we already have the passes, it will only cost a few dollars for a hotel…”   I don’t know what it will take now. 

Over the next few blog postings, I am hoping to share my tips and my experiences at the most magical place on earth.  I will talk about my favorite restaurants, my most magical moments, and some hidden treasures that you might normally overlook.  I am looking forward to reminiscing 🙂

Okay, long trip to go to the zoo, and I wish Jim had been able to spend at least SOME time with us.  He spent his whole time at the convention center for the gaming convention, and didn’t make it back to the hotel until late in the evening.  That left me pretty tired, having to deal with all three kids in an unfamiliar area for three days.

The Columbus Zoo was awesome!   I absolutely loved it.  The weather was perfect, at about 80 degrees and sunny, and there were lots of shady trees to help keep it cool even in the sunshine.  The zoo is broken into areas like “Australia”, “North America”, “Pachyderms”, etc. and the environments of the areas where we visited seemed very natural.  Admission was much cheaper than the Philadelphia Zoo, where we usually go, and it was $9 for adults to get in, $5 for kids 2-11, and free under 2.  Once inside, there were things you could do that required additional tokens, which were sold for $1 each, but everything we did was only $1 – like the boat ride, the carousel, and the nectar to feed the Lorikeets.

We missed some of the zoo, so I really think if we get to go again, we will plan to be there as the gates open at 9 AM.  We went right to see pachderms, since Eilis wanted to see them, and as a result, missed the whole North America section.  There are two sections being renovated as well – including the Gateway to Asia, which looks like it will be nice when it’s finished. 

Included within the zoo is the aquarium.  Not huge, like the Baltimore Aquarium, this was just the right size for the family.with smaller kids.  They had some beautiful, colorful fish, manatees, sea turtles, and some nice displays.  Again, not extensive, but a nice taste of an aquarium. 

We ate lunch there, and we didn’t see too many tables outside, but we were lucky to find one shaded in a nice area outside of the food court.  The lines were a little long at the food court, but I got through okay.  I can’t comment too much on the fare – we had the basic hot dogs and chicken nuggets with fries.  Not much can go wrong with that!  

On the way out, they gave us $5 off a visit to the Six Flags Wyandot Lake park right next door.  It seemed like it had a lot of water rides, something Eilis is too little for yet, I think.  Maybe on a return trip.

We stayed at the Springhill Suites in Gahanna, Ohio.  I like Springhill because you do have more room to stretch out than in a regular hotel room.  I was VERY impressed with the breakfast.  They advertised it as a continental breakfast, so you figure you will get bagels and muffins and doughnuts.  This buffet though had make your own waffles, and for the low-carbers, there was sausage patties and eggs each morning.  Bad thing – no cold water to drink, although for $1.25, you could buy a bottle in their “market”. 

The housekeeping left something to be desired.  I ended up coming back each evening having to wash the dishes in the sink – with no dish soap.  But they never replaced our drinking glasses.  They also insisted on only giving us 3 towels for a room full of 5 people.  That sucked.  I hate when they skimp on towels.

Again, overall, a nice trip, but I would have rather had even a few more hours with Jim.  The kids would have loved it if he had gone swimming with them.