As with most people when they holiday in Orlando one of the first things we did was visit The Magic Kingdom. As we finished the day there the park started to get ready for the evening event of Mickey’s Halloween, we tried to get tickets for that evening but unfortunately they had sold out. However we were able to purchase tickets for the same event next weekend.
As we were driving out of the park we observed people coming in with nearly all the kids in Fancy dress, and surprisingly quite a few adults as well. Needless to say over the next week we made sure we got the kids a fancy dress costume. We finally got Little Princess for the eldest, Queen of Hearts for my other daughter and Frankenstein for my 2 year old son.
When the day come we made sure we had a relaxing day to make sure the kids were not too tired to enjoy the evening, this included trying to get them to have an afternoon nap (which we achieved limited success).
We headed off to Disney around 7.00ish with kids all dressed up, after we parked we got the boat across to the park. As we witnessed the previous on the boat every kid was dressed up and most of the adults.
As soon as we got in the park we queued up to collect our pre-ordered stroller. If you have young children it is recommended to pre-order one as you will want to stay to the very end in order to get the most out of this special evening. Even my eldest daughter who was 6 at the time made use of the double stroller.
As soon as you start walking around the park you start to realise how much more the Americans celebrate Halloween compared to the English. There was pumpkins hanging from every lampposts and helpers on every corner with the kids queuing up to play trick or treat by the end of the night all my kids had a full bag of candy.
Due to the number of guests being limited by the ticket allocation there was no need to use fast pass on the major rides. We made our way to the popular splash mountain and walked straight onto the ride without any queuing whatsoever, and this was true all over the park.
Another advantage of the smaller crowds was that we didn’t have such a problem finding our space for the parade. Whilst the parade was up to the usual Disney high standard due to it having a Halloween theme at time it did not bother my children who were aged 2-6.
After the parade we decided to have a final visit to some rides and souvenir shops. In one shop my youngest daughter received a hug and goodnight from Goofy, a moment of the holiday she will not forget.
We finally left the park around midnight after one of the great evenings of the holiday and it certainly left the impression with me that will make me look up for any Disney theme evenings when I’m out in Orlando.