Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Tuesday 11th September 2018

Posted on March 14, 2019by Admin

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

One of our reasons for booking Walt Disney World in September is that we wanted to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP). It is an extra ticked event which is not included in normal admission that runs on selected days from late August to the end of October/start of November. It has special rare character meets, food offerings and shows, plus the opportunity to trick or treat around the park.

I did so much research into what day would be best as there were a couple of parties on while we were there and we opted for going on Tuesday 11th September. I found it a little difficult to find a run-down of what people could manage to get done during the party in terms of characters, shows etc. I quickly realised that the one common piece of advice was “you can’t do everything”, so we decided to make a bucketlist of things we wanted to do. Here’s what we came up with:

Me: meet Moana & Lotso, eat Maleficent cone & Hades nachos, watch the Boo To You Parade
My Sister: Meet Jack & Sally, eat the haunted mansion choux bun, trick or treat
My Mum: Space mountain & Teacup overlays, fill a rucksack full of sweets from trick or treating

The main issue we faced was that we wanted to meet two of the top tier characters Jack & Sally and Moana. I found an amazing video which I’m going to link as it provided the best advice strategy for character planning: Prince Charming Dev (he uploads great Disney content if you’re an avid Disney vlog watcher). Based off his advice and the other bits and pieces I read this is the plan we came up with:

Arrive at park at 3pm, head to where Jack & Sally meet and start to line up
Wait on Jack & Sally (start meeting 5pm) – grab food from Casey’s to eat whilst waiting
Send someone to pick up wristbands (from 16:00) and trick or treat packs
Head to Moana (starts meeting 5:45pm)
PotC Ride for overlay
Pecos Bill for food (Hades nachos)
Sleepy Hollow for push pop
Head to Haunted Mansion to do photos there
Watch Cadaver Dans?
Head to Fantasyland, trick or treating along the way
Check out Big Top Treats for souvenirs
Meet Daisy/Donald/Minnie time depending
Teacups for overlay
Space Mountain for overlay
Meet Lotso
Meet Elvis Stitch?
Maleficent Cone from Storybook Treats
Collect Special Sorcerers Card
Potentially watch first Boo to You Parade @ 21:15/rides/Meet Tarzan etc
21:45 get spot for fireworks Hallowishes fireworks @ 22:15
Watch the Hocus Pocus show @ 22:45
Get a spot for the Boo to You Parade @ 23:15
Explore Party & Trick or Treat
Candy corn Ice cream @ Aunty Gravity
Hocus Pocus Show @ midnight
Shopping & photos down main street and outside of park

I will tell you now this is not how our evening went. If you’ve read my previous September blog posts you’ll know that it was unbelievably warm during our visit and that we’d spent the morning in the heat trap that is Animal Kingdom. My sister made the decision that it was not worth meeting Jack and Sally given the heat so we could already scrap that from our list and decided we’d head to Magic Kingdom for just before 4pm. We picked up our maps and our special Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom card and then headed through the “sometimes backstage” entry to collect our trick or treat bags, this took us to around 4:45pm. Then (still to this day I have no idea why but..) we headed to Tomorrowland to ride the Peoplemover (I mean it’s the Peoplemover but still, limited time) and then we picked up the candy corn soft serve from Aunty Gravity’s Galactic Goodies. After we headed over to the Tikki Room as this is where Moana meets. I think we waited around an hour, from 5:15pm-6:15pm, to meet Moana and honestly it was so worth it. We saw so many cool costumes whilst waiting – we waited outside the Tikki Room until 5:30pm and then we were allowed to start queuing in the Tikki Room queue. Speaking of costumes, yes we did dress up. My mum made all of our costumes because she is amazing. I went as Meg from Hercules, my sister went as Belle and my mum as Sully from Monsters Inc.

MNSSHP1

By the time we had finished meeting Moana it was only 6:30pm and the party technically hadn’t even started yet (7pm official start). We decided we would do some trick or treating on our way round to Storybook Circus but we also made a quick pit stop at Storybook Treats to try the Maleficent Cone – it was delicious however it did melt extremely quickly. The official party merchandise (clothing, magicband, pins) can be found at Big Top Treats in Storybook Circus. After a peruse and a purchase (top which I frequently wear and commemorative pin) we decided not to meet Donald/Daisy etc at this time as their queues were a little long and they weren’t on our bucketlist and so we headed over to the Teacups to do that special ride overlay. We did comment at this stage that the party was a little busy as we did have to wait a while for the teacups – but we put this down to the fact that it had just started to rain. We made it onto the Teacups at 8pm and I wish I could share the video of my mum living her best life whilst on them but she wouldn’t honestly kill me and I still have blog posts to come! After the Teacups we decided we were in need of a snack so we headed over to Pecos Bill to grab the Hades nachos and worms in dirt along with some drinks to keep us hydrated. We happened to get lucky that there was an open spot on the curb outside of Pecos Bills 40 minutes before the first parade so we decided to camp out there, enjoy our snacks and watch the Boo To You parade. I was so buzzing to watch this parade and it did not disappoint – the gravediggers bit is even cooler in person! Back to the food – the Hades nachos were quite possibly the greatest snack that I ate at Disney World, however the worms in dirt, although cute I probably wouldn’t order them again, it just wasn’t anything overly special.

MNSSHP2

After Boo To You we headed back towards Liberty Square and stumbled across the Cadaver Dans. We watched them perform for a bit and then as we were walking made the decision we would skip trying to watch Hallowishes in front of the castle in favour of getting all three of the special photopass pictures at the Haunted Mansion (the head in a box, with the ghost horse and with the lantern). It’s true what they say – you really can’t do it all, but I’m so pleased we opted for the photos over watching the fireworks. After the photos my sister wanted to sit down for a bit so we headed over to Aloha Isle to pick up the Haunted Mansion choux bun for her to enjoy (I also picked up the headless horseman straw because yes I am a sucker for novelty items) and I headed over towards Skipper Canteen to see if Tarzan, Jane & Turk were still meeting. They were so I waited no more than 15 minutes then got to add three more characters to my “have met” list.

MNSSHP3

By this stage it was around 10:40pm so we headed over to Tomorrowland to do Space Mountain. There was a lot of speculation over the fact it wouldn’t really be any different because Space Mountain is already in the dark but let me tell you it was a different experience altogether. When they said in the pitch black they definitely meant it – you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face never mind the track in front of you! Definitely worth doing! After riding Space Mountain I dashed over to where Lotso meets to try and see him before he stops meeting at 11:30pm – I made it there around 11pm and I think I waited around 20 minutes to meet him. I must admit I didn’t notice that he smelled that strongly of strawberries but maybe I just wasn’t close enough. After meeting Lotso, we did some trick or treating in Monsters Inc laugh floor then wondered over to the hub area to watch the final Hocus Pocus show – we weren’t up close but we could see everything pretty well. The show itself was good and I can understand why it gets so much buzz but having seen it the once, in the future I’m not sure I’d prioritise it over something I’d never done before.

MNSSHP4

After the final show finished around 12:20am we wandered down main street, stopping to get our poison apple magic shot and to look in the shops on the way to the exits. Once we got out of the park there were three photopass photographers set up below the train station who were doing the special headless horseman shot. Despite being tired I convinced my mum and sister to do this one last thing by saying it would give time for the TTC crowds to quieten down. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 1:15am, tired but buzzing from our night at MNSSHP. We got changed, ready for bed then had a look at our trick or treating haul before getting some sleep ready for the next day of fun.

MNSSHP5

So what did we achieve?

Characters: Moana, Jane, Tarzan, Turk & Lotso

Rides: Teacups & Space Mountain

Shows: Boo To You Parade (early showing) & Hocus Pocus (midnight showing)

Photopass: At the MNSSHP pumpkin, in front of the castle in our costumes, 3x Haunted Mansion special shots, poison apple shot & headless horseman shot

Food: Candy corn soft serve, Maleficent cone, Hades Nachos, Worms in Dirt, Hitchhiking Ghosts choux bun & lots of candy from trick or treating

All in all I think our first MNSSHP can be classed as a success! So what did I learn from it all? Well basically people are correct in what they say – you really can’t do it all. If I’m honest I think you really need three nights at MNSSHP – one for character meets, one for shows, photos & trick or treating and one for rides, special food & taking in the atmosphere. My advice for those planning on their first trip to Mickey’s Not So Scary is to make a list of the top three things you want to do and just consider the rest to be a bonus. I hope my post has helped provide an insight into what you can achieve at MNSSHP and filled you with excitement for your visit – I know I can’t wait to do it all over again someday. Until next time…

Love Jana xox

PS: In case you’re wondering if it’s possible to meet Jack & Sally and Moana before the party starts it is. The family in front of us in the queue for Moana had just come from meeting Jack & Sally, the mum was buzzing about it as it’s the first time she had managed to meet them but yes she was there crazily early.

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