I'm just now recovering enough to rejoin the group! We were in the parks all last week (Oct. 10-14) and it was pretty much amazing! We spend the first 2 days (Mon and Tues) in DCA because my kids love everything about that park. The crowds were easy over there and we rode everything except Ariel's which was apparently down most of last week.
Wed. Oct. 12th we did our first Halloween Party and thought it was magical. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I was in heaven with just the atmosphere. The costumes, decorations and music was magical. We got to the parks right at 3pm and it was a total nightmare since that's when the Soundsational Parade is going on. Once you made it to Townsquare the crowds just stopped. It was shoulder to shoulder packed. But it only lasted until the end of the parade and then it opened up nicely. We spend an hour wondering around and riding Buzz Lightyear since it's my sons favorite ride. At 4:30 we lined up for the Toontown pre-party. We were in line #4 right in front of IASW. Once we got in the crowd was pretty tight but we did a treat trail and rode Gadget. The line for MM was about 45 minutes and I made my family wait in it. It was so long that it started as MM and then switched to Chip and Dale and then swithched BACK to MM 4 families in front of us!
The rest of the night we just wondered. We were able to get an entire large reusable shopping bag FILLED with candy (there are 4 of us). We had great seats for the 1st parade right at the Hub. We walked up right as it started and were about 3 people back. My kids loved it and I felt like it was kind of short but fun. The shadow men were my favorite! Afterwards we walked right out into the street for the fireworks. AMAZING! My daughter (8) was in awe. We rode several rides including SMGG. My son (6) thought it was a huge let down since there aren't very many ghosts.
I felt the crowds were wonderful and the flow was pretty easy on Wednesday. We didn't feel rushed or anything but we also knew we were coming back on Friday for another party so we didn't feel like we needed to hit every single thing the first night.
Thursday we were in the park all day and felt it was a wasted day. The crowds were insane and the lines were crazy long. We had breakfast at Minnie's for my birthday and that was FUN! We met 10 characters in a little over an hour. They were a hodgepodge group which made it even more fun for us! We met Fairy Godmother, Gepetto, Max, Rafiki, Chip, Dale, Penguin from Mary Poppins, Minnie, Perla the mouse from Cinderella and Tigger. Captain Hook, Eyore and Mary the mouse were there too we just didn't meet them! The crowds were so bad we ended up going back to our hotel for 4 hours to swim and relax in the afternoon.
Friday we headed in for a second Halloween party. Since we had done the pre-party, parade, fire works and treat trails on Wed we just focused on rides. The crowds were so small compared to Thursday that we felt relaxed. We rode 13 rides (including Haunted Mansion, Indy, BTMRR, and all the ones in Fantasy Land) easily. The only line we stood in was Peter Pan and that was less than 20 minutes. The area in front of HM was a complete **** show though. The flow between people coming out of the treat trail in front of the river, the HM line and the treat trail on the other side made for some serious confusion. But all in all it was magical and wonderful..
I'll post some pictures later but wanted to give my two cents. If we did it again we would honestly ONLY do Halloween parties and DCA. We wouldn't even bother coming to DL during the day because the crowds were too busy to accomplish anything.
It was a special Halloween sundae for $15.
