Spending Halloween '14 at WDW!

[jeeptruck]

Welcome! As I am getting excited for my upcoming September Disney World trip I thought I would share my last Halloween trip (but not my last to WDW)! I know this is super late but I need something to pass the time before my trip! This trip was mainly to experience Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party but it had the added bonus of also being during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Introductions!

My name is Leigh (jeeptruck) and I am on the left. I am an officer in the Coast Guard. During this trip I was stationed on a ship out of Key West, Florida. Now I am a graduate student at the University of Michigan (GO BLUE!) but thanks to the wonders of being in the military I get to keep my coveted Florida Resident status! My girlfriend Brooke (not on the DIS) is on the right. She works for AT&T and after meeting me has begun to love Disney just as much as me! She is still in Key West right now for work so she too has Florida Resident status. We both have the Florida Resident Seasonal Pass which is perfect for us. The blackout days are exactly when I don't want to be in the parks due to crowds and the no free parking is fine since we stay on site. Also if I ever wanted to go for Christmas or some other blackout date I have some of the reaaaaaaaaalllllly old never expire passes from the '90s with a day or two left on them!

Resort:

We camped in a tent site at Fort Wilderness. I will post pictures of the site in the first part of the trip report! If you like to camp and want to save some money I HIGHLY recommend Fort Wilderness. For example I just booked 8/31/15-9/5/15 for $42 a night or $236 after taxes! We have all the necessary equipment for "glamping" and requested to be next to a comfort station so if you realllllly want to stay on site for EMH and transportation, but don't want to spend serious dough (like me!) this is the way to go!

Watch out for:

On this trip we had dressed up as Wreck It Ralph and Fix It Felix Jr. as seen above so be on the look out for awesome MNSSHP pics! Seriously this is an easy costume and we got SO many compliments! Every CM we saw said it was the best costume of the night!

Also we had an eventful evening at California Grill but Disney being Disney they made it right with a special treat which I will show you all!


Stay Tuned!​

 

[jeeptruck]

Table Of Contents

1. Intro!
2. Day 1, Part 1 - Setting up camp!
3. Day 1, Part 2 - EPCOT!
4. Day 2, Part 1! I <3 Low Crowds
5. Day 2, Part 2 - All about the costumes!

​

 

[jeeptruck]

Day 1, Part 1!
Wednesday 10/29/14

We left early early Wednesday morning. To save one day of leave for me and since Brooke doesn't get off work until about 7:30 we thought the early morning trip would be best. The trip from Key West to WDW is about 6.5 hours. We left early with Brooke's Subaru packed to the gils with glamping gear and 2 bikes (a must for the fort!). The time stamp on this picture says we reached the arches at 10:56 am! Much better than planned since we had gone grocery shopping just outside of WDW.

We are home!

Once we were checked in at the fort (2000 loop, but I don't remember the the exact number) we started to set up camp. We got a few decorations so we would "fit in" at the fort. If you are ever in Disney around Halloween you HAVE to go check out the decorations at Fort Wilderness. People go all out and we felt pretty pathetic with our little pumpkin lights .

Tent all set up! It is a Big Agnes Wyoming 2. This is a great tent for bicycle touring..The tent part is actually pretty small and most of what you see is a vestibule for storage. This is great for keeping bikes out of the rain! We put up a rain fly over the picnic table. The table has a spooky halloween table cloth and a candy jar that says Poison . **Another great tip, there is trick-or-treating for all the campers at fort wilderness! Complete with pet costume and golf cart parades!**

Inside of the vestibule. The mini fridge is craigslist find. It looks meh but it is awesome! It was super cheap and I love it because it has a real freezer, not just one of those rinkydink cubbies that they call a freezer. To the right of that is a Bryer TriLite Wash Station/Stool Combo. This thing is awesome for camping. It is divided into 3rds. The first two hold water, the third is mesh. The idea is to wash, rinse, dry. There are flaps on the side to store cleaning items and when you are done it can convert to a stool for extra seating!

Close up of our picnic table!


Coming up...FOOD! As in F&W festival! We were pretty hungry by the time we were done setting up...

 

[jeeptruck]

Day 1, Part 2!
Wednesday 10/29/14

We rode our bikes to the bus stop at the front of Fort Wilderness. We locked them to the rack and headed on our way to EPCOT! We made it in the gates and to our first PhotoPass photographer by 1:59 (we had Memory Maker for this trip)! We planned for today to be an "easy day" since it was our arrival. Our first FastPass+ was for Test Track at 3:45. Since we had time to kill we planned to walk around finding PhotoPass photographers and seeing what the World Showcase had to offer!

(check out those October crowd levels! )

We found many more PhotoPass photographers but I won't bore you with pictures of just us!

After walking around we decided to wait to eat until after riding Test Track. We noticed the single rider line was super short so we got our first ride of the trip in solo before our FP.

(crazy how these pictures make it look like night time..this one was taken at 3:29!)

Once we got off it was perfect timing for our FP! So back in line we went.

After Test Track it was back to walking around the World Showcase before our 4:50 Mission: SPACE FP. I was bad and didn't take many pictures of the food...but I did manage this one of the Mongolian Beef in Steamed Bun with Chili Mayo from the China booth that I got after the ride.

After chowing down we rode Spaceship Earth with a 6:25 FP. That ride is always so fun to me! Did you know they use some animatronics from other rides and put them in there? You will see some Carousel of Progress cameos!

We snapped some PhotoPass pictures with the pretty night lights before IllumiNations.

After the picture session we walked back to watch IllumiNations. Once the show was over we walked back to the busses to head back to the Fort for bedtime. We were very tired by this point and fully planned on rope dropping MK the next day!

**EDIT** I forgot that we went and made s'mores at Chip 'N Dale's Campfire Sing-A-Long. This is a campfire event with a sing-a-long and Chip 'N Dale characters for kids (and adults!). After the sing-a-long they play a Disney movie and the campfire keeps going. If you forget your s'more equipment the store at Fort Wilderness does sell it when it is open . This is a fun Disney "secret" and you don't even have to be staying at FW to enjoy it!

I hope that wasn't too many pictures and that someone takes an interest to my TR!

 

[Bubbenstein]

Love the costumes! My family is doing F&W and MNSSHP for the first time this year so I'm looking forward to your trip report!

 

[jeeptruck]

Just realized some of the pictures are broken. I will fix when I get home!

 

[jeeptruck]

pictures should be fixed!...I feel like I am doing something wrong. No love for this TR!

 

[jeeptruck]

Day 2, Part 1!
Thursday 10/30/14

Today's plan is to rope drop MK, go back to the hotel in the afternoon, and to rest up for MNSSHP. Now I know what you must be thinking...Leigh you are going to rope drop ~and~ do a hard ticket event in the same park on the same day?! YES AND WE ARE GOING TO LOVE IT. When I am at Disney I want to do and experience it all! I can rest when I am dead . **PRO TIP** If you want to go to MNSSHP but are balking at the price...you coullllld buy a 1 day shorter Disney ticket. While the party starts at 7 and all non-ticket holding guests must leave, they will start letting ticket holders in for the party at 4! So a lot of people do the whole pool, DTD, resort hopping thing in the AM. In fact some people from my unit would buy tickets for MNSSHP or MVMCP as their only admission and go up for the weekend with their little ones.

After getting an excellent night sleep in our tent (not as hard as you might think!), we woke up in time to get ready to rope drop MK! My trip before this was RIGHT before 7DMT opened so the goal for today was to get on that stinkin' coaster! This trip was planned last minute so I wasn't able to score a FP.

We rode our bikes to the Fort Wilderness dock to take the Ferry to MK! We spent a little tooo long showering in the comfort station so we didn't make the first ferry over. I was a little nervous for getting on 7DMT...

On the Ferry at 7:30

Well as it turns out I didn't need to be nervous. We were lined up by 7:46 and the rope drop was light and the friendly CMs were telling everyone that 7DMT would be having a delayed opening...shoot!

Awesome decorations!

Well during the rope drop preparations I reorganized my touring plan.

Once the gates were opened we went straight to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin! I love this ride and Touring Plans said do it first..OKAY! We ended up doing this ride 2 times in a row.

After our two rides we went for SPACE MOUNTAIN! I really love Space Mountain..actually I really love everything.

Awesome Memory Maker background! Notice the empty seat..park was empty!

After this we headed over to go ride BTMRR!

Sorry lady in the foreground. I just wanted everyone to see this. This picture was taken at 9:41...Look at this crowd level.

After riding Big Thunder twice we went to go hit up Splash Mountain! Side note..we rode Splash so many times this trip. It was always walk on. It was slighhhtly chilly yet the getting wet factor was still pretty high. People just didn't seem interested. WOOHOO. This time we rode it twice in a row.

After splash we went to go see if 7DMT was open yet...

Just as we got there it opened! Hooray!

Use our pictures as a guide..we had nooo idea where the cameras were so our pictures are...interesting.

They also have these cool new videos with Memory Maker. I will see if this upload works...

After 7DMT we did Winnie the Pooh, It's A Small World, and Haunted Mansion. Then it was back to Space for a FP.

From there it was the Laugh Floor, PeopleMover, Stitch's Escape, and touring the Swiss Family Treehouse. Also as per tradition I immediately had a DOLE WHIP after the treehouse.

We spotted some PhotoPass photographers in Adventureland so decided to snap some pics!

After the impromptu photo session we used a FP Splash (which we didn't need) and the Jungle Cruise. Lastly we watched PilharMagic and headed towards the front of the park to go rest up and get ready for MNSSHP.

We didn't focus on any of the parades or shows during the day since we were doing the party later.

They really should sell these!

Up next..MNSSHP!!!

 

[Bubbenstein]

Love the Pascal magic shot! Definitely going to try and find this one for our next trip.

 

[jeeptruck]

Love the Pascal magic shot! Definitely going to try and find this one for our next trip.

I've seen it done on your head or shoulder too!

Any tips on making my TR more reader friendly? It's discouraging me from ever writing another since it's seems pretty unpopular haha!

 

[em36]

I am enjoying your trip report. I have a couple of questions for you. I am bringing my two daughters and a friend to WDW for 5 days in October. We have park hoppers/annual passes, and we also have tickets for MNSSHP. Are the crowd levels lower at the MK on party mornings? There are three parties during our trip, and I am wondering if we should plan our MK mornings on those days. Also, how were the Epcot crowds? We have never been to Disney World during Food and Wine, but I am looking forward to it. Thank you for sharing your trip and for your service in the Coast Guard.

 

[jeeptruck]

I am enjoying your trip report. I have a couple of questions for you. I am bringing my two daughters and a friend to WDW for 5 days in October. We have park hoppers/annual passes, and we also have tickets for MNSSHP. Are the crowd levels lower at the MK on party mornings? There are three parties during our trip, and I am wondering if we should plan our MK mornings on those days. Also, how were the Epcot crowds? We have never been to Disney World during Food and Wine, but I am looking forward to it. Thank you for sharing your trip and for your service in the Coast Guard.

If you see my picture in my last report post you can see how light it was at 9:41..that is nearly 2 hours after rope drop so pretty light! For us everything was walk on except 7DMT and Peter Pan. I have read that party days are ~generally~ less crowded because people going to the party without longer passes / park hoppers don't want to "waste" a day when they are using the MNSSHP ticket later. For us the morning of the party was really not crowded at all! We managed to do all those rides, get back to FW for a nap, get dressed in party attire, and back to MK before 6PM.

EPCOT was definitely the most "crowded" park but since there aren't that many rides its really not the big of a deal as long as you get FP and plan your rides out. Since it is such a large park it never felt jam packed like MK. There was plenty of space on the walk ways to not rub elbows. A lot of locals go to F&W and also drink around the world. I didn't have to wait in line too long for any of the food booths. If you want a TS meal I would make a reservation. But getting small plates at the booths is so much fun!

We don't mind doing single rider so we did that for the rides. This meant we didn't really have waits on rides except for Soarin'. I am not too crazy about Soarin' so I only have to do it once. If I don't get a FP for it I just do it first thing when I get there in the morning.

In general if you are used to going to WDW NOT during September / October then you will be amazed by the crowds. Yes the parks have gotten more crowded over the years but I still believe that the fall is a great time to go with manageable crowd levels.

 

[Bubbenstein]

I've seen it done on your head or shoulder too!

Any tips on making my TR more reader friendly? It's discouraging me from ever writing another since it's seems pretty unpopular haha!

I'm right there with you! Our current trip report is our first as well. Not quite receiving the interest as far as replies that we would have liked, but we're just enjoying compiling everything from the trip and knowing we'll have it to look back on and show our daughter.

For what it's worth, I think you're doing a great job so far.

 

[jeeptruck]

Day 2, Part 2!
Thursday 10/30/14

All right we are getting to the whole point of this trip....experiencing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for the first time!

I will start out with how we made our costumes! We both love Wreck It Ralph and definitely wanted a DIY costume that wasn't too expensive yet still got compliments. Believe me this costume gets compliments!

I was having a hard time finding an orange henley shirt for Ralph and had almost settled on just buying a t-shirt when I found the perfect solution. We were shopping at Sears for Brooke's boots and when I walked past the sales rack. On the rack was one short sleeved orange henley with a sewn in white undershirt! Now this shirt was HUGE on me but that was okay because it left plenty of room on the sleeves to rip them like Ralph's. To get the "Ralph" look I used darker orange paint for the big stripes and a green sharpie for the small stripes. I used green paint on the undershirt to make it look like "Ralph's". I bought a pair of cheap overalls on eBay and cut the ankles to look like they were ripped. I couldn't get myself to rip off one of the overall straps like on his so instead I just tucked it in which worked fine!

For Fix It Felix Jr. we bought a cheap blue work shirt, blue hat, and gloves on eBay and the "Felix" and "FF" decals from etsy. There are about a million of these on etsy and I looked at them all to pick the one that looked the most realistic to the movie. They said it was iron on but that didn't really work...gorilla glue to the rescue! The jeans she already owned, and as I said before we got the work boots from Sears during a sale. I already owned the tool belt from childhood. If I needed a belt I would have gotten it from this store called Dirt Cheap! This place is awesome and sells the most RANDOM items and building supplies that other stores have excess supply of. I saw tool belts there for $1. (side note: I was recently doing a project and got a gallon of stain for $2!! I love Dirt Cheap). For the hammer we got a plastic one on eBay (not easy to find!) and painted it gold. You CANNOT bring a real hammer in to the park. We walked through the gate and 2 minutes later someone ran over to us to come check..I think they must have gotten reprimanded for not checking when we walked in!

Ralph inspiration

Fix It Felix Jr. inspiration

Results!

Enough pictures for now I am getting tired and will share all about the party next post!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Enjoying your TR, my DD and I also do the same thing on party days. We do RD on our party days, the crowd levels are so nice on those days. We have been to MNSSHP and MVMCP and loved them both. My DD laughed at how much I loved being able to trick or treat in MK, I really felt like a kid again. Love your costumes! We have plans to go in October 2016 so we can do the party again. We also have a trip planned this September. My DD and I have been doing mother/daughter trips for the past 5 years together, we try to go every year. It is fun to see FW from your camping pics as well. We have eaten at Trails End and really loved it. Looks like you two were able to do many attractions! Enjoying all the pictures.

 

[em36]

Thank you so much for your response. We usually visit WDW in June, so the October crowds should seem really low. At least, that's what I'm hoping for.

Don't get discouraged about your trip report. It is very informative and I love all of the informative tips you are including!

 

[AllysonL]

I'm loving your TR! I just found it. I've thought about doing a past TR from our trip in December since I'm having serious WDW withdrawals.

But yea, keep it up! And I love your costumes! So awesome!

 

[jeeptruck]

I will resume this soon! Just built a new bike and have been messing around on that!

 

[mishy]

Great trip report. Love all the pictures. Hope you do another one for your upcoming trip.

Thank you for your service in the military.

Michele

 

[ThemeQueen]

I love all your ride photos, the facials are great! Awesome dedication to the costumes. Looking forward to reading more.