Last December, Sarah and I went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Walt Disney World. It was a special event after regular park hours, and we had a marvelous time. There were lots of special attractions and entertainment unavailable to regular park-goers, and since only a limited number of tickets were available, the park was far less busy than a typical day at Disney, and we were able to enjoy our favorite attractions without having to wait in epic lines.
We had such a wonderful time at Christmas that we knew we wanted to do Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party when autumn rolled around. As soon as they went on sale, we purchased our tickets and, on October 12th, we went to the party.
As at Christmas, Walt Disney World was transformed for the holiday. Bouquets of pumpkin balloons lined Main Street. Silhouettes of witches and bats raced across the faces of the buildings (the bats seemed to be wearing some familiar headwear reminiscent of a certain famous mouse). Even the usually magical castle seemed more ominous.
All throughout the park, there were Trick-or-Treating stations where we could load up on candy. Many of the guests dressed up for Halloween. Sarah and I didn't go quite that far, but we did wear our Mickey Mouse tweedly-bob head thingies.
We weren't as impressed with Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party as we were with Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Besides the park being more crowded for Halloween than it seemed to be at Christmas, the event didn't seem as special or unique.
There was no special Halloween show, just the same old "Cinderella's Surprise Celebration" show that plays daily at the Magic Kingdom. The fireworks were a rehash of the old "Fantasy in the Sky" display. And we were disappointed with the parade.
Granted, just moments before the parade was due to begin, the sky opened up and it began to thunderstorm. When the delayed parade finally began, it was a scaled down version of the usual Halloween parade.
Nonetheless, even though the parade began excitingly with classic Disney characters dressed for Halloween, the parade deteriorated into a commercial for Disney's latest DVD release, Home on the Range.
Click below to see video: Lower Quality Video (0.6mb) Higher Quality Video (3.7mb)	However, despite not meeting our expectations, we still had a fun time. Any time at Walt Disney World is good, and we still got to visit our favorite attractions. And we came home with more candy than we will ever be able to eat!
Click below to visit the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party website:
Posted: 10/21/04