My conference was at one of the big Orlando hotels near the convention center, but I booked us into a different hotel for the pleasure part of the trip. So when we left the Animal Kingdom we headed to our new hotel. The selling points were 1. pretty cheap and 2. fantastic water park.
The plan on Friday was to spend the early part of the day enjoying the water park, then head over to the Magic Kingdom for the late afternoon and evening. We hit up a nearby Starbucks for breakfast and a Publix for some snacks and meals to carry us through the next couple of days. Then it was pool time!
B started out with some small water slides but eventually ended up trying, and loving, this giant one! She even got me to do a couple.
After lunch, we had a nap, since we knew we'd be up really, really late at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I was so relieved that B actually fell asleep! Our goal was to arrive at the Magic Kingdom at 4:00, which is when they start letting folks into the park on the Halloween Party tickets, and we managed to pull this off. We packed our costumes for later but stuck with shorts and tees for the afternoon.
We used TouringPlans again, with great success.
Our first stop was Aladdin's Magic Carpets:
Then the Jungle Cruise:
Then Buzz Lightyear, which B LOVED this time (she had been too scared to go when she was five).
Then the Magic Teacups.
Even the street sweepers are in on the Disney magic!
We had a lovely ride on the carousel...
...Then headed back down Main Street to pull our costumes out of the locker. It took B awhile to settle on her costume this year. She knew that she wanted to do something from Star Wars, then decided she wanted to be Padme Amidala—but that still leaves a LOT of options! We finally caved and showed her Episode 1 (we'd been pretending it didn't exist) and eventually she settled on the handmaiden battle outfit from the end of the movie.
I would just like to note that I am NOT CRAFTY. At ALL. But in August, off we went to Joanne Fabrics, where a very nice clerk helped us find a pattern that we could modify. B and I combed the shelves for the right fabrics and gold braid, and over the following few weeks I managed to piece together this costume for her. Then my mom showed up the day before we left and helped with the final touches!
We also augmented her hair with a giant skein of brown yarn!
I also found a vest pattern that I modified to make this Rey outfit from the end of The Force Awakens. Since I worked on B's outfit first, Mom was pretty much responsible for putting this one together at the last possible minute!
We were very pleased with how it all came out, though! And B was SO happy when one of the Disney cast members recognized her outfit.
The castle was lit up with special colors for the Halloween Party.
We got briefly stuck on the Peter Pan ride, which was kind of fun because it gave us more time to look around!
They have a bunch of special treats available during the Halloween Party. This one is frozen strawberry lemonade with gummy worms in it.
Dumbo!!!!
The lines for the rides are basically nonexistent during the Halloween Party so we just went over and over again on B's favorites. She did do a little trick or treating at the various stations set up around the park, but I have to say that she got "candied out" pretty quickly.
Then there were special Halloween fireworks.
She enjoyed them.
We tried a ride on the speedway, and B discovered that driving is a lot harder than it looks.
We also took a couple of rides on the elevated railroad in Tomorrowland, which gave B a quick look inside Space Mountain. She has no interest in roller coasters, so that's the closest we got.
Then more teacups...
More It's A Small World...
We ended the night with the Boo To You Parade, and snapped this final photo on our way out.
All in all, a big success! I don't think I prefer the Halloween Party to our "regular" day in Magic Kingdom a few years ago (and we really missed my cousin Rebekah, who was with us last time), but it sure was nice to be there at a time when the lines are so incredibly short. We definitely packed in tons of rides and were able to go over and over again on B's favorites.
