Halloween with Mickey

We have been fortunate enough to make a few trips to Walt Disney World during the fall season. I think if I had to pick a favorite time to go to Walt Disney World, it would probably be October but I might be a bit biased since I think we've been there more times in October than during any other month.

Our wedding anniversary just happens to be in October, so we've been lucky enough to make a few adult-only trips out to Walt Disney World to celebrate. One of the coolest experiences during October is Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. This is a ticketed event meaning that you have to purchase an additional ticket to go to this party...you can't just be there with a regular ticket or annual pass and be able to stay for the extra fun. The tickets do entitle you to spend the evening at the Magic Kingdom which is something that is rare during October since the parks tend to close early during that time of year. Experiencing the Magic Kingdom at night is a whole new experience.


Walt Disney World does not discriminate about who can experience the fun at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party, so for those adults who miss being able to trick-or-treat without getting some really odd looks, this is the place for you! You don't even have to have a costume....just bring your treat bag and line up with everybody else at the designated areas and the kind Magic Kingdom Cast Members will gladly deposit some sugary goodness into the bag for you to enjoy.

The special Halloween parade is also fun to watch. There's just something about seeing some living dead characters that look like they are right out of the Haunted Mansion in a parade and seeing the villains get more than their fair share of parade time as well. Even the fireworks spectacular in the evening is particularly entertaining.


In addition to trick-or-treating, there are many other events throughout the park during the course of the evening, like special dance parties where there are usual surprise guest characters out on the dance floor! If you and your kids can hang out late at night, you also have the added bonus of very light crowds as it gets later in the evening and you can ride many rides over and over with little to no wait.

Mickey's Halloween event is something that you should definitely try to experience at least once!

What makes you a Disneyholic?

How do you know you are addicted to Disney? When you find yourself sitting on a curb outside of a tire shop, waiting for your tires on your vehicle to be replaced, and you spot this sight across the parking lot. All you can think about is the tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Solo driving to Disney, Pop Century Resort and Star Wars Weekend Fun - PART 2

Ok, so as I mentioned in Part 1, we left EPCOT and headed to the airport to pick up my husband AKA Nicolas' daddy as he was flying into town to join us on the trip. It was a quick drive to the airport, we waited in the cell phone lot until he called (which was crazy crowded and his flight was late) and then picked him up and came back to our hotel room.


We then headed back to EPCOT for a little while that evening. Since Frank also had a season pass there was no extra cost there. We enjoyed a little more of the park, I think we even had dinner there but I can't recall for sure, then headed back to the hotel.


That night Nicolas wanted to experience the much larger Hippy Dippy Pool at our resort. This time Frank and I joined him. This pool was much louder and crazier than the pool closer to our room. It was packed solid even close to 9pm that night. Nicolas still had a great time there.

The next morning was our planned day of the Stars Wars Weekend event at Hollywood Studios. We could not wait to surprise Nicolas with this. We drove to the park and took the tram to the front entrance, while I carefully made sure Nicolas could NOT see the Stormtroopers that I knew from reading would be atop the front gates. When we walked up and he saw the large poster advertising the Star Wars Weekend he finally really GOT it and he was so excited. Not long after that he spotted the Stormtroopers and he was even more thrilled. It was so cool to walk down the street in the park and see them perched high above. While this day did involve hitting some of the main rides at Hollywood Studios, for the most part it was all about Nicolas and the Star Wars events there.

We did ride Toy Story Mania with him for the first time and he LOVED that. I think we got at least two rides out of it that day. There were many long lines for photos and autographs with Star Wars Characters, there was lots of stopping in the streets to greet Stormtroopers and other Star Wars Characters and even though I'm not a big Star Wars fan I couldn't help but enjoy it. Nicolas got photos with Darth Vader and Chewbacca among others, we browsed the large Star Wars Merchandise shop and we secured a great spot early to watch the Star Wars Parade.

It was definitely hot but it was a great day overall. Dinner that night was at the 50s Prime Time Cafe which was another fun event that even Nicolas got into. We really could not have asked for a better trip for him.

We did head back to our hotel earlier in the evening than I would have liked, but with the heat I knew everybody just needed a break. There was more pool time for a little bit and dessert from the food court - Tie-Dyed CHEESECAKE! The next morning we would pack ourselves back into the car and make the 9+ hour drive back to my parents house.

I have to say if you have any friends and family that are even REMOTELY Star Wars fans, attending just one day of the Star Wars Weekends events at Walt Disney World would be totally worth it. I'd love to try to go back someday myself and take some of our friends and family!

Solo driving to Disney, Pop Century Resort and Star Wars Weekend Fun - PART 1

Back in June of 2008 I completed my very first somewhat solo drive to Walt Disney World with my then 8-year-old son Nicolas. I have never done a trip report from that experience, but I'll try to summarize it here now.

After a few years of struggling through elementary school, Nicolas was on par for a very good school year as a 2nd grader. We (ok mostly me with my husband's blessing) decided to reward him and what better way to reward a child who is a Star Wars fan than with a trip to Walt Disney World for Star Wars Weekend!

I began the trip by driving to my parents' home in North Carolina, about an 8-hour drive from our home in Maryland. It was me and the three kids as my husband had to work and could not afford the time off. I spent a day or two there with them, then I left the two youngest kids with my parents and packed my oldest son into the car for what I would only tell him was a surprise.

He refused to get into the car.

Nicolas was not up for another long car ride (shouldn't have mentioned that) and he didn't want to leave. I refused to give in and tell him where we were going other than it was a special surprise. I finally forced him into the car with much protest...and called up my husband in TEARS about the whole thing.

Not the best way to start out a fun trip.

At some point I mentioned to Nicolas that our final destination was somewhere in Florida and gave him a map to help navigate. This helped a little bit and eventually he was in a little bit better spirits. About 6 hours or so later or so we crossed into Florida...and not too long later we were in a torrential downpour which lasted a good 45 minutes! I have driven in some hard rain in my life...for quick spurts but this was CRAZY! We trudged onward determined to get to our destination though.

When we arrived in the Kissimmee area and pulled into a gas station nearby Nicolas noticed the Walt Disney World front gates. I had been hopeful that he would not notice the big billboards advertising Star Wars Weekends but as I recall he did at one point mention something about seeing Star Wars stuff on signs but I passed it off. After filling up the tank we crossed into the Walt Disney World Resort area and Nicolas' excitement was obvious! He could not BELIEVE we were at Walt Disney World! Nine hours or so after hitting the road we pulled into the driveway for the Pop Century Resort and entered the building for check-in and Nicolas was over-the-moon thrilled and thanking me a million times!

He still had no idea what else was in store for him...he was in Walt Disney World and that was enough for him. He had mom all to himself (rare in our house of five) and we would get to do some fun stuff together. We checked into our room in the 50s section and he saw the bowling pin pool and LOVED it. He couldn't wait to try it out later.

After settling into the room I called a friend of mine from high school...she lives in the area but I hadn't seen her since my 1990 high school graduation. We met her and her daughter, who is just a little younger than Nicolas, for dinner at Downtown Disney. She introduced us to the Wolfgang Puck Express restaurant...and it was GREAT! Nicolas and her daughter got along well and we had a chance to catch up which was such fun. It was like we had never lost touch at all and she's now become somebody I talk to quite regularly and see more often too.

That evening I let Nicolas have some time in the pool at the resort, which he loved. It was so nice that I didn't have to get into the pool, but could just watch him safely from the side as he enjoyed an evening swim.

The next day was our solo Epcot adventure. I had a season pass and bought a 2-day ticket for Nicolas for our trip. One day for Epcot and one day for Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekend. It was such fun exploring Epcot with just Nicolas and spending time doing many things we had never done before, such as Innoventions. We even got in line for the special Disney Visa character photo which I had never done before...and it was so cool to have a photo with so many characters at once!

As dinnertime approached, I informed Nicolas we had another trip to make...but this one was much shorter. We drove out to the airport to pick up my husband so Nicolas would now get to spend time with both Mommy and Daddy at Walt Disney World!

(coming up next...Star Wars Weekend fun!)

Blog Revival

So as I am starting to plan out our NEXT Disney trip in June of 2011 I have decided to try to breathe some new life into this old blog. When we last left here, I was updating you on our May 2009 trip...which was just FAB-U-LOUS. We returned from that trip and went back seven months later for another trip, also great. I think it's probably about time I update that and then just try to post more regularly here since it's the one thing I LOVE to talk about...Disney!

I promise to not take another long leave of absence. I'm going to be back very soon to post all about our December trip next!

May 2009 Trip - UPDATED 9/1/10 and COMPLETE NOW!

Time for our long overdue MAY 2009 DISNEY TRIP REPORT just in case you are still interested. During our trip we introduced the family to two new resorts...well new to them at least. We stayed one night at the Beach Club Resort (2 connecting rooms) and then the next day we checked into the ALL NEW Kidani Village Villas in a 2BR unit for the week. The weather in Florida was HOT HOT HOT...especially for May! To our shock, we did not experience ONE SINGLE FLORIDA RAINSTORM during our nine days there. UNBELIEVABLE!

Will we stick to the schedule I've laid out for us? Will my MIL use the wheelchair we have rented for her or will we end up convincing her to rent a power operated scooter instead? Stay tuned!

PRE-TRIP REPORT - AKA All about US!

Ok, so below you will see the PLAN for each day followed by WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!

Day 1 - Arrive at airport, pick up rental minivan, drive to Beach Club Resort for check-in. Our DVC room has never EVER been ready before 4pm but we have 2 different regular rooms this time so maybe we'll get lucky. Since we arrive around lunchtime, I'm thinking of hitting Beaches and Cream for lunch...how I'd LOVE to try a kitchen sink! Then we'll hang out at the pool for the rest of the day, have dinner that evening at Spoodles around 7pm, then if we are up for it maybe we can hit EPCOT in the evening, even if only to catch Illuminations.

What actually happened:
DAY ONE: Today's the DAY! Here we GO! (AKA We love AirTran!!)
DAY ONE Cont'd: ARRIVAL AT BEACH CLUB RESORT

Day 2: The Original Plan
Early morning checkout of our room, see if our rental stroller is ready for pickup. It's early entry for Hollywood Studios so we'll hop the boat over there and hit Toy Story Mania at rope drop. Lunch that day is at the Brown Derby. We'll catch the 3pm Block Party Bash because the kids want to see it even though DH does not enjoy parades. We'll also try to get in line for photos with the Cars characters as my youngest LOVES them (anyone know if you still have to line up a good 30 minutes for that?) We'll leave around 4pm, boat back to Beach Club, drive over to Animal Kingdom to check into Kidani Villas. Boma for dinner that night.

What Actually Happened:
Day 2: Hollywood Studios 1st Time Riders
Day 2: What a VIEW! Kidani does NOT DISAPPOINT!

Day 3 - The Original Plan
Leave hotel bright and early for breakfast at Chef Mickey's and spend the morning at the Magic Kingdom, hopefully getting there close to opening and heading to Tom Sawyer's Island first thing. Spend most of the morning there, back to the hotel for a light lunch and rest if we need it. If we can withstand, we can stay all day and go right from there to the CA Grill for dinner if we don't feel a need to clean up first. After dinner, catch Wishes from the CA Grill. If we are up for it, MK is open until 1am so we could head there for a little bit.

What Actually Happened:
Day 3: The Chef Mickey's Tradition
Day 3 Cont'd: Hello Dole Whip - Ice Cream is NOT lunch?!
Day 3 Cont'd: That is one TASTY bird...tastes just like...BEEF?


Day 4 - The Original Plan
If we aren't out too late the previous night, we can plan to hit Animal Kingdom by 8am for EMH and do the Safari first thing. Ride all we want to do here, catch Flights of Wonder and maybe Nemo; kids to the playground there if they are up for it (we never miss it). Back to the room in the early afternoon for some pool time and cleanup before dinner that evening at the Kona Cafe. Catch monorail over to MK after dinner for 9pm viewing of Spectromagic.

What Actually Happened:
Day 4 - Where they learn a HARD lesson about listening to MOM!
Day 4 Cont'd - ADRs...just a guideline right? HA!HA!

Day 5 - The Original Plan
Drive to the TTC, park and monorail over to the Poly to hit Capt Cooks and get some Tonga Toast for breakfast! I just didn't want to schedule another Kona Cafe meal for the sake of saving time. Monorail over to EPCOT afterwards and spend some time there, try the Kim Possible Mission with the kids. Leave EPCOT and back to the hotel for rest and cleanup before our dinner at 1900 Park Fare that night. I'm still worried about this one. Never done it for dinner, but reading increasingly bad reviews about it. Maybe some mini-golf this evening?

What Actually Happened:
Day 5: When Lady Tremain speaks, CHILDREN LISTEN


Day 6 - The Original Plan
Weather permitting, this will be a water park day for all. We'll spend most of the day at the water park, return to the hotel for rest, and then dinner that night at Captain's Grill. We'll drive over to the Y&BC or Boardwalk. After dinner, either walk around Boardwalk or head to EPCOT. Mini-golf if we haven't squeezed it in yet.

What Actually Happened:
Day 6: Surfin' and Adventures in All-U-Can-Eat Lobster


Day 7 - The Original Plan
Alternate water park day if the previous day was not a good one. Otherwise, return to Hollywood Studios or maybe Magic Kingdom for the morning. If choice is MK, we'll do another early entry day there and do Tom Sawyer's Island if we didn't do it before. Sometime late afternoon we'll head over to EPCOT and remain there until dinner at Tutto Italia.

What Actually Happened:
Day 7: So THAT'S why they call it SPLASH! Mountain!
Day 7 Cont'd: Yes we are the PERFECT parental examples OBVIOUSLY!


Day 8 - The Original Plan
Our last full day. Our stroller will be returned this morning. We have our choice of parks or shopping or whatever we want to do with this day. This is the day I have Garden Grill for dinner. We'll see if that sticks.

What Actually Happened:

Friday May 8, 2009: This was our designated “3P” day – park, pool and pizza! After some discussion, the best plan of action was to head to the Magic Kingdom since I had already promised Noah a ride on the Rocket Ships and that is such a low-throughput ride we’d have to get there early to not have to wait forever.

We drove to the TTC and then took a boat to the MK. We arrived just after the park opening and headed directly to those RocketShips which had a 10-minute wait, so the five of us got in line while the in-laws lagged behind and ended up doing the Stitch attraction since they had never done it before (only back when it was the Alien version) and knew that it was not something the kids would likely tolerate.

Once off the Rocketships, we headed to Buzz Lightyear, as this was the next repeat ride requested by the kids. That was another quick ride. The kids really wanted to do the Laugh Factory again so we hit that too. They were all hoping to be called on for it, and Nicolas even tried to sit in the same row as before but we forced him a few rows up from that one (center aisle, on the end, about 8 rows up). Noah kept asking before we went into the ride 'where do we live mommy' just hoping they would call on him this time too. They ended up calling on a lady 3 rows in front of us (probably our same row from the previous time) and then highlighted the man behind her and even the people behind our row, even though the kids, especially Noah,kept raising their hands to be called on.

Once the show was over, we decided to hit Haunted Mansion again at the kids’ request, then circled back to Adventureland. We were going to ride Pirates and the Jungle Cruise but Noelle had another major meltdown so I sat down with her as the rest of the gang went on Pirates. When they were finished, we joined them and got in line for Jungle Cruise…about a 20 minute wait…and I got Dibs and some snacks to share in line, which helped everybody. Noelle and I also had a chance, while the rest were in Pirates, to do a bit of shopping…that always helps too!

After Jungle Cruise, the in-laws wanted to stop for a Dole Whip again (we got them hooked on that!) and I got the kids some ice cream bars to eat as well. Then we walked out of the park, stopping to do some shopping on Main Street at the Emporium and we even caught some of the Street Party as it went down Main Street towards the castle. We caught the monorail back to the TTC and drove back to our hotel.

In the room, we changed into swimsuits and we all hit the pool and stayed there for several hours. Noah finally ventured onto the big slide, though he insisted on wearing a free vest to do so. He would put it on with his sister’s help whenever he wanted to ride the slide, then would take it off to play in the rest of the pool. Noelle and I played another game of Bingo but didn’t win. Even my FIL loved the big slide…it was a huge hit and I have to say we love the Kidani pool if only for the extra fun slide. We relaxed by the pool, Frank and I split a turkey sandwich from the bar there and had a few drinks. When the kids were hungry, I returned to the room to retrieve some Uncrustables and some yogurt for them from our refrigerator.

Around 5pm or so we finally headed back to the room to get cleaned up and start packing our stuff. Frank and I ran out to find a pizza place while Nicolas worked on some more homework. We easily located Giadonis on 192 and ordered an appetizer platter and 2 pizzas…well we thought we ordered 2 pizzas but when the order came up about 15 minutes later and we found only one pizza, we realized we had to order the cheese one for the kids again and wait. The $18 appetizer sample was HUGE with calamari, chicken fingers, mozz sticks, fried zucchini and fried mushrooms….it could have been a meal for all of us. The thin pizza was very good as well. We were back to the room about 6:30pm to finish dinner. Then I finished packing myself and the kids and around 8:30pm we headed over to Jambo House to do the Night Vision view of the animals, something we had promised Nicolas he’d see. The bugs were biting out there so we did it quickly and then returned back to our room to retire.

Day 9 - The Original Plan
Our last official day. Check out of our villa, drive to either EPCOT or Hollywood Studios since both parks make for an easy and quick exit. Leave park by 3pm at latest, drive to airport for flight back home!

What actually happened:
Saturday May 9, 2009 - Our last day…always a sad time for us. We were up early and ate some leftovers for breakfast, cleaned out the last of our food, returned the wheelchair and then hit Hollywood Studios. We were there around 8:30am, which was well before the 9am opening for the “regular” folks so we had to show our keys to enter the park for early entry.

We sent the boys to Toy Story Mania to check on Fastpasses for all of us, but the return time was after 2pm and we didn’t plan to be there that long. The girls then hit Tower of Terror while the boys were there and as we came out Noah finally got his Tower of Terror tshirt in the store there. Then the men and Nicolas hit Rock N Roller Coaster while the girls (and Noah) headed over to Animation. Unfortunately, it did not open until 10am but there was a showing of Playhouse Disney and as there was no line I asked Noah if he wanted to go to see it. He said yes, so I took him into that while MIL waited with Noelle outside Animation. The show ended after about 20 minutes and when we came out it looked like everybody was inside Animation but instead of going into the show first we entered the gift shop and headed to the studio bypassing the show and Noah did some interactive stuff there as we waited for the rest of the gang.

The kids had wanted photos with Bolt and the Hamster but we learned they would not be out for another 30 minutes or more and there was already a line forming, so we bypassed that and headed out of the park instead. We drove over to EPCOT.

First for EPCOT was Spaceship Earth (AKA The Big Ball) so the 20 minute wait for that went quickly. When we got ouf of that, we thought about hitting Soarin' but return Fastpass times for that, at just after noon, were up to 4:30pm so that wasn’t happening. We had some lunch then headed to Finding Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. During the show they called on a girl in a purple 'shell' with a butterfly on it and brown fur and it ended up being Noelle! She asked him "What do turtles eat?" And was quite happy that she got to talk to the turtle. At this point Noah is the only one who has not had an interactive experience at Walt Disney World and so far two out three kids have had the chance to talk to Crush there...pretty amazing considering he generally only talks to about 4 or 5 kids MAYBE per show and we've only seen it two or three times! Hopefully he’ll get his turn soon enough.

After that, we just walked through Mousegear and did some shopping, after Noelle stopped for her photo with Chip and Dale. We left the park around 2:45pm, arrived at the airport around 3:30pm and checkin wasn’t as smooth as possible due to some kind of accounting glitch on our account that took a while for them to clear up. The security line was HUGE as well, and once again the alarms were set off for MIL’s hip so she was ushered into a back room to be wanded and Frank stayed with his dad while I took the kids off to the gate. We stopped at Burger King on the way to the gate for for some dinner, since I knew they would not get food on the flight, and as I’m in line waiting with the three kids for chicken tenders that I paid for to be cooked Frank is constantly calling me to find out where I am, they are seating us, they may give up our seats, etc. I finally get there about 25 minutes prior to our flight time, we don’t’ get upgraded to Business Class, Frank is in a mood because I was so late and did not get him food (or food for myself because I didn’t want to have to wait longer) but the flight went well and we arrived in Baltimore on time. We then waited nearly 30 minutes for the luggage, so long that I took the kids on the shuttle to get the car and everybody else stayed behind to get the luggage we checked…including the carseats. We were home by about 8:30pm and then put the kids to bed as Frank headed to Subway to get us dinner and we chilled at home with a movie to wind down.

Four More Weeks

In just four weeks, my husband and I will depart for an adults-only trip to Walt Disney World. This is the second time we've done this and we are both looking forward to it. We will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary while there and enjoying the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT once again.

This will be our first stay at the Beach Club Villas and I'm really looking forward to all that resort has to offer, and especially checking out their very cool pool. The ability to walk over to EPCOT at any time is a big plus there, as we definitely plan to spend more time at that park than the other parks. We've stayed in a two bedroom villa at the Boardwalk and loved it so we are also hoping to be able to walk over to experience more of the Boardwalk as well this time around.

I can't believe I never updated my trip back in June, so I'll do that in my next post. Let me just say that it was a GREAT trip and if you have a Star Wars fan in your family you should definitely make plans to visit Hollywood Studios during one of their Star Wars weekends. We did spend most of our time in lines for autographs and photo ops but that was all my 8-year-old Star Wars fan wanted to do. We also got the chance to check out Toy Story Mania, riding it twice and LOVING it. What a cool addition to the park.