Written by Renée Girard

We’re still not cool enough to Universal Orlando’s HHN media night (don’t worry, we still love them and will visit this month!). But tonight we’ll continue the early Halloween celebration at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Good news everyone, Starbucks is open!

Space Mountain in complete darkness is so fun!!

I enjoy Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and it’s pretty cool that they made it a treat trail where you can also sit and watch their comedy acts.

I can’t believe it, you guys - Joffrey’s coffee is open too!! I gotta admit, their cold brew is delicious.

Elvis Stitch is meeting guests in the former Stitch’s Great Escape queue.

I’m still a huge fan of HalloWishes, but the Not So Spooky Spectacular fireworks are quite enjoyable too.

I don’t know if I’ll get to try all of the specialty treats, but as of right now, I definitely recommend the pumpkin cheesecake.

The Haunted Mansion is extra spooky on MNSSHP nights.

The Boo to You parade is still my favorite thing about the event. Love the addition of the bride, but I’m not so sure about the new Incredibles and Toy Story floats. But it’s all good, and that song will be stuck in your head all night!

Another successful evening of Not So Scary fun! Goodnight!

Event Dates

September: 13-15, 19-22, 26-29
October: 3-6, 10-13, 17-20, 24-27, 31
November: 1-3

If you want a bit more info about this years event, check out John's panel from Midsummer Scream

Early Entry Mazes

The line-up for Early Entry Mazes is kind of ridiculous, ridiculously awesome. 

Themed Nights

In addition to Fan Preview Night they are also doing 80's nights this year on Thursdays. Thursdays usually are pretty good days to go so we're not sure if this will change things. We'll definitely be checking out at least one of them. 

We used our strategy below on Sunday Night September 15th, a few notes: 

• We are still going to suggest doing Stranger Things first even though Ghostbusters is definitely the most popular maze through the first weekend
• If Stranger Things isn't a priority for you then we suggest going to the backlot as soon as it opens. You have a few options here
  • Creepshow opens first, and you can typically walk right on this (as we did last night)
  • Frakenstein vs Wolfman seems to get the longer line quicker so you can also go here first (as has been recommended by some scare-actors we know)
  • Ghostbusters does get a long wait. The wait time was posted at 125 minutes when we got in line. We waited about 30. 
  • So with that said, we'd suggest doing Frakenstein vs Wolfman first, then Ghostbusters then Creepshow before heading back to the Lower Lot
• Killer Klowns longest line of the night was right around 8pm. We think it was just simply due to crowd flow. We'd almost kind of recommend going back to the upper lot at this point and then coming back down for Klowns later in the night. It's a GREAT maze and the word is spreading that it's great. Which means it will be popular. 
• We really enjoyed having the Frequent Fear as it meant we didn't have to do EVERYTHING in one night. Definitely recommend if you can swing it. 

Maze Order

Stranger Things:
​There are two scenarios for this maze, one for Early Entry, one if you missed it. ​

Early Entry: As mentioned above, early entry will begin at 6:00pm. Stranger Things is one of the mazes available (we have heard that this can actually open at 6:15). If this is the case you should absolutely head here first. 

No Early Entry: If you do not get there in time for early entry but are there at opening check the wait time for Stranger Things. If it's 45 minutes or more, head to the Metro Set Mazes first. The line will be there all night. Better to wait in some shorter lines and come back and wait for Stranger Things later.

Front of the Line tip: If lines are short when you get to the lower lot (or if you are there for Early Entry) DO NOT use your Front of the Line Pass for Stranger Things. Go through once with the GP and use your FOTL pass later in the evening when it's busier.

Once you have walked through Stranger Things we suggest skipping Killer Klowns for now and heading to the Metro Set. 

Frankenstein vs Wolf Man:  We suggest to begin here, as the flow of the Metro Sets takes you in a natural progression. 
​
Ghostbusters: Frankenstein vs Wolf Man exists at the entrance to Ghostbusters. The time posted may be longer than what it actually is. If there are 3 full switch-backs full it's about a 30-40 minute wait. 

Creepshow: Finish here before doing the mini scare zone and heading back to the Lower Lot. This line moves pretty quick. 

Jurassic World: ​This is usually the part of the survival guide where we tell you to skip Jurassic Park (now World). But we're not heartless. We realize many of you will not have ridden Jurassic World yet. So this once, we're going to give you a pass. But seriously, do single rider, and only if you haven't ridden it yet. Because it's truly awesome. 

But even with that, we'd suggest coming back down to do it later in the evening, after you've finished all of the mazes. 

​Upper Lot: 

You are probably going to need to rest by now, feel free to stop by one of the eateries and get a snack, a meal, etc. Sit around the upper lot scare zone and watch the talent do their thing. 

If you've followed the strategy at this point you'll have four mazes (and Walking Dead) left and plenty of time to do them. 

House of 1000 Corpses: The last new maze is located near Waterworld. Many people will go here first when getting to the event, because it's the first thing they'll see. Don't make that mistake. Head over here last. 

Walking Dead: ​If there is no line or you don't visit the park much then go for it. 

Front of the Line tip: Same as Lower Lot and Backlot. If the lines are on the short side go through once with the GP and once using your Front of the Line. You always see different things on each walk-through. ​

Once you have completed all the mazes you can hang around the scare zones and watch the talent, check the wait board to see if there are any short maze or ride lines or if you have a Front of the Line Pass use up any trips you haven't already. 

Do some shopping, grab a t-shirt, hang out in the scare zones and drive home safely.  

Pro Tip: If you are at the event until it closes you may get to experience the amazing "Chainsaw Chase-Out". It's a great HHN tradition. ​

Alright, that'll do it for this years Survival Guide. We will be attending 2 nights over the first weekend (once with Front of the Line and once without) so we'll be updating this for sure early next week. 

We'll start off this update with a video we did of the ship. It's definitely not the most comprehensive tour of this ship we've seen (that one is linked in the video) but we wanted to show off some of what we enjoyed on the ship as first timers. 

In addition, I tried a few times to get a sunrise or sunset time-lapse on the GoPro but it never quite worked out. The last morning I was finally up early enough, but of course hadn't charged the GoPro.

If you're celebrating something make sure the cruise knows, I got a nice little gift card for the spa and for pictures for my birthday. I didn't use the spa one (not really my thing and never really found the time) but we did use the picture one. 

A little pre-Cabo fuel. =) 

After being at sea for over 36 hours it was actually kind of nice to see land

The famous arch

As you can see, we were quite happy on our vacation. =) 

​No I'm not ignoring my wife, I'm trying to not get too much sun. Trust me, you'll only sunburn your head once. =) 

Cabo was a Tender port (no, not Tinder) so we had to take a boat to shore. 

Hi Splendor!!

The ship is an older one, but she's got a lot of personality. Will be interesting to see what she looks like after her upcoming refurb. 

We did not eat here, but we of course had to get a pic. 

No matter what your political affiliation is, this is funny. I forgot to pick it up on the way back to the ship. 

Cabo was definitely the most "touristy" of our three ports. 

I love little things like this that are kind of out of the way. 

Just on the other side of the harbor area are more classic restaurants and the diamond store. =) 

Cabo Wabo

Policia 

Not once, in any of our three ports, did we ever feel unsafe or unwelcome. The people of Mexico are amazing. 

#Cabo 

We actually took a couple of really nice pics. I'm proud of us. =) 

After walking what seemed like 10 miles (it was about 2k) we arrived to the restaurant a friend recommended. Aaaand it was closed. 

But right next door was a beach club, and as you'll see below, we weren't suffering at all. 

We each had 4 tacos, chips and guacamole and 4 beers (each). Grand total with tip $40. 

I'm sure we could have found cheaper but we didn't care. It was amazing, the service was great and this would have cost us at least double that at home. We were very happy. 

After all that there was no way we were walking back (there's really not an easy path from the Cruise terminal to Medano Beach where we ate) so we took a water taxi back. 

It was $5 each. Again, we probably could have negotiated more than we did, but we were happy to support the economy. 

Of course, once we were on our driver asked if we wanted to see the arch. For another $20. We politely declined. 

After doing a bit of shopping it was back on the ship!!

We were actually back on the ship about 3 hours before disembark, and it was so nice and quiet. We sat by the pool and relaxed a bit. And took a nap. ​

We don't drink a lot of soda, but can't say no to Mexican Coke. 

It was 80's night that night, the show was amazing!!

​We had brought 80's stuff to wear for the glow party, but it wasn't until 11:15pm. And we were tired. Next time!! 

The next morning after a trip across the Gulf of California, we arrived in Mazatlan. It was absolutely gorgeous. 

We had booked an excursion this day, to an all-day resort with a pool and beach. 

Apparently Mazatlan is a newer cruise stop, this is your view at the shore. It gets better than this though. =) 

On the way to our resort we got to see some of the city. 

People waiting to pay their water bill. For real. 

As seen from the bus window

After about a 30 minute drive we arrived at our resort, the El Cid Marina. 

This resort actually had two options. An "all inclusive" option which included a buffet or an "open bar" option. We went with the open bar and got food on our own. 

This ended up working great for us as the buffet was on the beach side, and we stayed on the pool side all day. You'll see why. 

Lots of Iguana's wandering around. Be careful, they like chips. 

We drank a lot of cerveza and ordered some nachos and quesadilla from the menu. Total, $20. We also gave our server a nice tip as we drank free beer for 4+ hours. 

2 seconds after this shot was taken I was asked to not jump by the hotels staff. Ooops. 

The pool was amazing. It had underwater caves, waterfalls and we could even sit on the edge of the pool and enjoy our drinks. 

And a bonus, the bathrooms were not only immaculately clean, there was also AC in them. 

Definitely recommend this excursion if you're looking for a nice day to relax in Mazatlan. We've even talked about just coming down to stay at this resort for a week sometime. 

After a full day in the sun it was back on the bus and back to the ship. There is a nice little flea market outside the cruise terminal so we were able to do some more shopping. 

We got a 33oz bottle of Pure Vanilla Extract for $12. Don't even want to know how much that would cost here. 

Back on the ship we took a nap (again) and enjoyed another amazing dinner. 

We were back to bed a bit early as the next day we had another shore excursion in Puerto Vallarta. In hindsight I think we would have preferred to not have back-to-back excursions but it's hard to argue with the two that we did.

As Puerto Vallarta was our favorite as you'll see in our next update!! 

​Until next time ... 

Welcome to our newest page on Park Journey, the aptly named Cruise Journey!! 

If you're new to our site it should be pretty clear from the list of other pages on the site that we mostly talk about Theme Parks and everything to do with them. This includes new rides, Halloween events and more. 

But more than all of that, our mission for the past almost 6 years has been to have fun, and we've had a LOT of it. And it was in that spirit of fun that led my wife and I on our first Cruise aboard the Carnival Splendor and to the amazing Mexican Riviera (Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta). 

Needless to say we loved it, so much so we decided to create a new page on the site, and we've already started looking for our next cruise. 

So while this page may not be updated as much as some of our other pages will be, we hope that quality over quantity will be sufficient enough. 

On this page we'll also share Cruise news (we already share Disney Cruise info on our Industry News page, we'll do that here now) as much as we can. 

So if you're new here, enjoy. Check out some of the other pages. If you're one of our long-time followers, we hope you enjoy this new page of the site just as much as the others!!

Enjoy our first update below, the first of a few updates from our cruise last week. We'll also have a video walk-through of the ship later this week. - Gregg 

The good thing about having kids young, when you're in your early-mid 40's they can drop you off at the airport or cruise terminal and you don't have to pay to park (just a tank of gas). 

Seeing that we were boarding in Long Beach, we had to get some Dark Harbor construction pics

Heading into the terminal 

We're in and ready to go!! Love that they have a "too early" line. We were on the ship by about 11:45. 

The first of too many good meals!! 

After a nice quiet meal and exploring the Lido deck a bit, our room was ready about 1:30. And our luggage was waiting for us which was nice!! 

We had originally booked a portal room but had an upgrade offer not long after we paid off our cruise. So glad we upgraded.

The books I planned on finishing during our week at sea, I didn't. Although both are fantastic.

We spent most of the first day just hanging out, doing the safety drill of course (totally new experience for us), sitting by the pool and just adapting to our new home for the next week. 

We had originally made steakhouse reservations for our night in Cabo but we then heard that if you book the steakhouse on night 1 you get a free bottle of wine. Doesn't take much to convince us!!

And in hindsight, the absolute best way to start off our first night on our first cruise! 

It's funny, when we were planning what we were going to do on the ship it mostly consisted of sitting on the balcony or the pool and reading. And we did a LOT of that. 

But we also found ourselves increasingly joining in on the cruise fun due to the amazing Fun Squad! More on them in future updates. 

The amazing Leigh, our Cruise Director. 

We also decided to attend the night one show which gave some more information about the cruise and what we should expect!!

I then got picked to go up on stage and make an ass out of myself. But it was SO fun. And we won Entertainment VIP for the week which consisted of reserved seats for all of the shows. Which was amazing!! 

I will neither confirm or deny if there is video of this, and if that video will be posted in a future update. =)

After a full day we turned in rather early and had night 1 of the best 7 nights of sleep we've had in our lives. Rock-A-Bye-Gregg and Kristi! 

Day two we were up rather early, but instead of rushing off we took the option to have coffee delivered to our room. We sat on our balcony and enjoyed our coffee most mornings. It was magical. 

We also saw that very first morning that there was breakfast in one of the restaurants every day, the Gold Pearl. Apparently it was kind of a hidden secret as there wasn't a line here until Thursday morning. We ate at the buffet exactly once all week. And we had some of our best meals of the week during breakfast. 

And apparently we were so hungry we didn't take pics that first morning. Sorry. 

That first sea day was spent mostly by the pool, reading, having a couple of drinks and honestly, thoroughly enjoying being "disconnected" from the world. Even though D23 was going on, I didn't find myself wondering what was being announced at all. It was sublime. 

This was also the first of our formal nights, it's nice to get dolled up and we were very glad to see most of our fellow guests followed suit (pun intended). 

I had lobster 2 nights in a row. That was a new one for me. 

We turned in pretty early that night as we were to arrive in Cabo the next morning. We were looking forward to our first day in Mexico. But that will have to wait until the next update. Stay tuned!! 

We usually share related videos and updates whenever we have a new post, but since this is our first blog post on Cruise Journey we got nothin'.

​We did post a couple of water ride videos, that counts right? =)

​So for those of you who are new, some of our recent updates from elsewhere on the site. Be sure to like our social media channels and subscribe on YouTube!!

​If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

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