Twenty Four Pounds of Candy
Or, How I had a wonderful Halloween.

Due to an amazingly wonderful turn of events, I got to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on Halloween Night itself. For those of you who don't know what it is, MNSSHP is a Halloween-themed special event that takes place in the Magic Kingdom certain nights in October. It's a seperate ticket from the normal day at the park and the park closes early, undergoes a transformation and re-opens exclusively to party guests. Halloween night sells out every year and always in advance. I can't go into details but thanks to a friend who had advance tickets but was unable to attend, two tickets to the party on the 31st showed up in my mailbox last week. So Love and I borrowed our friend Rand's car and headed out on Monday to Walt Disney World.


All of Main Street is lit up in beautiful, vibrant colors
(QuickTime movies. Right-Click, Save As: video #1 6megs / video #2 7megs)

The party officially runs from 7pm-midnight but they let party ticket holders in at 4pm. The park closes for the day to normal guests at 6pm. We arrived around 4:30pm and had a couple hours before the party to ride some rides and just spend some time in the park. Everyone - adults included - are encouraged to dress up in costume. I found a beautiful dress at Ross and paired it with my angel wings. Love dressed up as John from Carousel of Progress (circa 1920).


Here we are in front of a Halloween-themed Cinderella's carriage.

Almost everyone was dressed up in one way or another. A lot of people opted to go in Disney costume - villians, princesses and a ton of Tinkerbells - some opted to go as witches or other standard Halloween costumes. And a handful were truly unique. Take the Knight Who Says Ni!


Click to see a larger size. He said he needed to start charging for pictures - everyone wanted one!

They have a special parade called, "Boo to you!" (QuickTime Movie. Right-Click, Save As. Headless Horseman: 4megs) This year, they also had a special fireworks show called, "Happy HalloWishes - Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out To Socialize." It was narrated by the Ghost Host from the Haunted Mansion ride and featured all kinds of villians, villian theme songs and, just like the normal Wishes, amazingly timed music, lighting, castle effects and fireworks. It was a ton of fun. (QuickTime Movie. Right-Click, Save As. Oogie Boogie Segment: 25megs)

The other fun aspect is the trick-or-treating. All around the park they have candy stations set up. When you first come in, they give you an orange bag for candy. And throughout the night, you can hit the candy station as much as you want.


Early into the evening, I'm showing off some of my candy as we stop to eat.

The thing is, the last night of the party is Halloween. And by 11pm, they still had tons of candy. One area by the Jungle Cruise ride had the "Adventure Friends Treat Trek" with multiple stops all in one area. We hit all the other stops except that one earlier in the night (most several times) because the line had been long all evening. By around 11:30pm though, there wasn't any line and they had massive amounts of candy to give out. They would take whatever you had - purse, backpack, shopping bag, etc. - that could hold candy and fill it to overflowing. They even started handing out additional bags to people. Anything to get rid of the candy. I saw one lady with a clear backpack full to the brim. We had a large shopping bag to hold my wings when on a ride and they filled it with candy. We got home and weighed it and it was literally TWENTY-FOUR POUNDS worth of candy. And not the cheap shit either. We're talking Butterfinger, M&M's, Skittles, Taffy, assorted chocolates, Crunch, etc.


Here's an idea of how much we got. This is after we gave an entire orange bag full (like the one in the pic) away to Rand as a thanks for lending us his car.

Poor Love was exhausted. He got up at 6am, went in and worked until 1pm. We drove out to Orlando and arrived around 4:30pm. We left Disney around 12:30am and got home a little after 2am. He then had to get up for work at 6am again. He dozed a little on the drive home (I drove back) but still. That's not a lot of sleep. Especially not after walking around the park all night too.

The dress quickly became uncomfortable (it's got boning in it and it laces up like a corset in the back) and the wings meant I had to take them on and off all night because I couldn't fit on any rides while wearing them, but it was still a great time. I cheated and wore sneakers and I'm so glad I did. Apparently, everyone had the same idea because I saw every costume imaginable in sneakers or sandles. Love and I joked next year we're going to go as something softer and more comfortable - like pillows. It was worth it though. I felt beautiful all night and had such a great time it was worth the discomfort of wearing a formal gown for twelve hours!

But oh! It was so much fun. I had the absolute best time. I never get to do anything for Halloween (honestly, I think it's been about seven years since we did a single thing) and it's my favorite holiday. So it was wonderful to not only be out for the night, but be at the Happiest Place on Earth. Dressed up, trick-or-treating, watching fireworks and having a wonderful time. I couldn't have asked for a better night.

More photos (larger images too) and videos are found here: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party: October 31, 2005.

~ change comes to :: miss m :: at 11/02/2005 06:06:00 PM ~ ~