Thursday, November 25, 2010

It's a holiday post!

But not the one you think.  Yes, I know today is Thanksgiving here in the US, but I have to wait for the turkey to finish cooking.  So ... while we wait ... let's talk about Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Or, in the lexicon of my fellow Disneyphiles ... MNSSHP.

This year was our first outing to MNSSHP.  I'd heard wonderful things about it, and was really excited about going.  At first, I balked at the extra admission price.  But then I realized that the price of admission was a small price to pay for the possibility of very low lines.  I figured that it was worth a try.

I cannot express how happy I am with that decision. 

My daughter and I arrived right after the 4:00 PM "cutoff".  We had a very short wait in line for admission, and we walked into a magical park.  Cast members were everywhere ... they asked to see our admission ticket, and gave us a wristband.  These wristbands were wonderful - because I personally witnessed some guests being denied entrance to a ride queue and being "gently ushered" toward the gate later in the evening.

Upon admission to the Magic Kingdom, we snapped a photo on Main Street USA.  We were given a special MNSSHP PhotoPass card to use that day - because it allowed us a discount and access to some stock Halloween photos.  This is a very good thing, in consideration of the fact that my fabulous little Fujifilm "point and shoot" didn't capture very good photos of some of the key moments.

After getting our photos taken, we quickly headed back toward Adventureland and Frontierland.  Our goal for the night was to ride The Mountains as many times as possible.  In fact, we had discussed our "game plan", and had bets on how many times we could just walk on to each of Maddie's favorite rides.  It turns out we ran the Splash / Thunder Mountain circuit four times back-to-back before we got bored with the rides.  Isn't that funny ... we bored of two of Maddie's most favorite rides on the planet!

After our ride-a-palooza on the two Mountains, we decided to pop in to Pecos Bill's for a quick bite.  I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the burgers we received.  And oh, the toppings bar was a very welcome surprise.  The fries were the same fries as are found throughout the parks, but the burgers were much tastier.

During the first "Boo To You" parade, we took the train around to the Toontown stop.  We disembarked, and made a beeline toward Maddie's other favorite ride ... Space Mountain.  We rode it twice in a row and then went to stake out our spot on Main Street USA for the HalloWishes fireworks.






Simply amazing.  I think that Disney really does fireworks "right", and this show was absolutely no exception.  Ordinarily, I"d say that you can get a better view of fireworks to the side of the castle - but I highly suggest actually staying in "the hub" for these.  You are immersed in the magic, as they explode all around you.

After our fireworks experience, we then ran quickly to the front of the stage.  One of the biggest perks of MNSSHP is the rare appearance of the Villains.  My daughter just LOVES Maleficent (or, as she says, Falefficent).  Of course, we giddily waited to snap a photo with her:





After this, her night was nearly complete - but wait!  There's more!

The Boo-To-You parade is wonderful.  In my opinion, it's second only to SpectroMagic.  Every float was amazing, there were rarely seen characters on board, and the song (heard by clicking here) is so catchy that it'll be in your head for MONTHS after the party. And the best part?  The last float, with Goofy.  It blows bubbles!

All in all, I give MNSSHP two thumbs up.  It was a great time, the lines were super short, and we got to see some things that we never see in the parks during regular hours.  In my opinion, it's worth the extra money.

1 comment:

  1. Being a Floridian, and getting to travel to Disney a little more often than those out of state...when we have done the MNSSHP or MVMCP, we didn't even "pay extra", we saved money by making that extra special even out MK time...so we didn't need a full price ticket for MK. I love these events because you can pretty much do in one night what might take you an entire day (plus, depending on crowds) to do most any other time. Gotta love that!

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