Boo to you and a Happy Halloween Season!!

It's time for the first of many Halloween updates over the next two months. This year we're starting off with the always fun Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. 

​Enjoy, and Boo to you and you and you and you ... Happy Halloween!

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!

Time for a quick update from Walt Disney World where some great Halloween merchandise is now available. Just in time for the first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that is this week. Yes, this week. 

Written by Renée Girard

With the first a Halloween party just a few days away (!!), all of the merchandise is beginning to appear in stores today.

I’m so excited for two and a half months of Halloween!

Does anyone care that this opened today?

Some of the Farewell IllumiNations merchandise is already on sale. $10 for the cup? Yes please!

A couple of weekends ago we made our first trip to Disneyland since 2014. We were very excited (obviously) to visit our old stomping grounds (we were AP's from 1998-2012) and of course to try out the new attractions. 
​We also decided to use the all new MaxPass to get the most out of our day. Read on to see how it went. We have lots of pics and videos to share. 

First let's take a look at Star Wars Land ... 

Soon we'll only see the backs of buildings 

We first headed into Disneyland. We wanted to spend our morning in Fantasyland and it's always fun to do a whole bunch of rides in a row when the park is slow in the morning. 

We also set up our MaxPass and while we were walking to Fantasyland and got to get FastPasses for Space Mountain. 

Hey Walt, long time no see ... 

We skipped Peter Pan because, well, that line is just crazy and headed first to my favorite Fantasyland ride ... Mr Toad. 

Video of this classic!! 

Snow White's Scary Abrupt Ending Adventure's 

Snow White has her Adventure ... Pinnochio has a Journey 

Oooh, Matterhorn 

Some fun on Ghost Galaxy ... one of the cool things about MaxPass is the free photos 

While in line for Space Mtn we got some fastpasses for Star Tours, and then for Buzz ... Maxpass was working great so far. 

After getting FastPasses for Haunted Mansion Holiday, it was time for a happy cruise 

Headed to New Orleans Square, we had to check out the new stuff 

Star Wars Land ... we'll see it in 2029 or something. Honestly, even though we are Southern California Locals I'm placing bets that we visit Star Wars Land in FL before we visit it here. 

Love the changes to the RR 

While waiting for our HMH fastpasses, we took a Pooh 

And grabbed some Splash Mtn fastpasses ... we got soaked. 

While I personally think they should keep the regular Mansion open through Halloween (haven't done the normal mansion since 2011 because all our visits have come during Holidays) I can't deny how fun this is. 

LOVE the updates to the Railroad 

While on the Railroad the parks got crazy busy ... seriously, between 11 and 1145 fastpasses for Soarin' went from 1:00pm to 9:00pm, Guardians fastpasses sold out (due to Monsters after dark) and the parks just seemed a lot busier. 

Mermaids!!! 

The longest line of the day ... we didn't wait for it. 

This is the AP problem in a nutshell ... 

The Halloween decorations in CarsLand are AMAZING!! 

I have to admit, this ride is growing on me 

Love these posters ... wish they sold them

As close as we'd get to riding this ... sigh. 

So, unknown to us, they cut off FastPasses for Guardians because Monsters After Dark was set to begin at 5:00. They closed Guardians at 4. Yes, their brand new ride, closed for an hour. 

We tried to get Fastpasses for Monsters after dark at 3:00 when those were available ... which broke the MaxPass/FastPass system because so was everybody else. 

I'm not sure if they've fixed this since (apparently everything was fine last Saturday), but the system was down for hours, which kind of messed us up fore the rest of the day. 

What they SHOULD have done was made FastPasses available for both all day. And people could pick one or the other. For us, as infrequent visitors we would have picked Guardians in a second. While I have to believe most AP's would have picked Monsters After Dark. By trying to "reset" FastPasses at 3:00 for this one ride, it messed up EVERYBODY. Both MaxPass and FastPass users. 

We did totally love the decorations at DCA 

Hi Mickey!! 

Hi Heady!! (No, Headley) 

So we left DCA without being able to ride Guardians or Soarin' Over The World. We had planned on just doing Single Rider on Soarin', but they don't offer it anymore for some reason.

We'll catch them in 3 more years I guess. 

Because it was snack time we figured we'd enjoy a dole whip in the quiet courtyard of the Tiki Room ... boy, we missed the news of the huge queue in there now. No more quiet courtyard. :( 

Pure Disney Magic 

Luckily the FP system came up so we got to get some FP's for Indy and Big Thunder ... 

Side Note: We had totally forgotten they had made the updates to Indy ... loved them!! 

We always love the Halloween Tree 

LOVE they still do the swing dancing on Saturday Night!! 

Jungle Cruise at night is the best!! 

After Jungle Cruise and Pirates we exited just in time to catch the fireworks. We didn't know they did projections on the river now, they are awesome and we enjoyed it more than in front of the castle (less stress too). 

We enjoyed a perfect unexpected family moment thus there are no pictures. Sorry. =) 

So how did the MaxPass work for us? Watch the video below to find out. 

We had a truly memorable day at Disneyland. We all agreed that we miss visiting Disneyland more often ... we don't miss the oppressive crowds however. 

Because we are planning on making a few trips to FL over the next 18 months we may spring for the Premiere Pass next year to squeeze in a few DL visits, but we'll see. 

Hope you all enjoyed our trip report and all of the videos!!