DLR Life Report Update (9/5/14) | We Moved to Disneyland!! Now What…?

Chapter 157
Fireworks! Parades! Duffy!


Mickey and Minnie were meeting along Big Thunder Trail, and we thought about waiting to meet them, but then we found out their line was over an hour. Instead, we just lurked nearby and tried to snap some pictures in between families.

One reason we certainly didn’t have time to wait for our favorite mice was because it was already time to begin camping out for the Halloween Screams fireworks show. We were about 30 minutes early and managed to grab prime spots in the hub, right in front of the castle.

Tracy and I were a little offended that one of the cast members had given us carrots on a treat trail, so we sneakily slipped them into someone else’s bag. Just candy for us, please!

The wait for fireworks felt like it took a while, mostly because it was getting a little chilly, but they started before too long. Right at the beginning of the show, the Jack Skellington balloon inflated and our pal Zero flew overhead!!

Honestly, they could have stopped the show right there and we still would have felt like we got our money’s worth. Luckily, however, it kept going into some pretty fantastic fireworks (which my camera, as usual, did a terrible job capturing).

At the end of the show, Zero made another appearance to cap off one of our favorite shows we’ve seen at Disneyland!

Right after the fireworks, we decided to walk through the Pixie Hollow Treat Trail. Our bags were literally overflowing with candy at this point, but we were mostly just interested to see what Pixie Hollow was like. We’ve never been through there before because the lines to meet Tinker Bell and her friends are always so absurdly long.

We’d been eating candy all night without having almost any water, so we were parched. Tomorrowland was the nearest logical spot to hit up, and we made a beeline for the Tomorrowland Terrace to get water cups. While we sat for a few minutes and refreshed ourselves, the Monsters University Dance Party started on the concert stage.

We actually hadn’t seen Monsters University yet at that point in time, but we still got the gist.

Mike and Sulley had quite the dance routine.

We weren’t really interested in staying here for too long, so we made our way back out of Tomorrowland after finishing our waters. We hadn’t even been down Main Street since the party got fully underway, so there were plenty of sights we hadn’t seen yet. I’m a big fan of the special lighting and projections.

Making it back to Town Square, it just looked so festive with the Mickey pumpkin and the giant ghosts.

We got a cast member to take our picture in front of the pumpkin, but I’d forgotten to turn the flash on, so it didn’t turn out great.

Here’s that ghost we’d admired from afar.

And here’s Tracy’s meet-and-greet with him.

With so much going on at the party, we’d forgotten about the villains meeting in front of Main Street Station, and by this time, they were getting ready to go away. In fact, their lines were already closed. We still sniped a few pictures of them as they got ready to leave, though.

It was almost time for the second showing of Mickey’s Costume Party Cavalcade (that’s the parade, in case the cryptic name didn’t make it obvious). We decided to grab spots on Main Street because there was still plenty of open curb space.

They were still doing kooky, spooky things with the lights on Main Street while we sat and waited.

Before long, the music changed and the first floats began to make their way out of Town Square.

This parade certainly isn’t anything to write home about—especially compared to everything I’ve heard about the Boo to You Parade in WDW—but it was still fun!

We had awesome views of the few floats and all the performers.

Just a pumpkin wheeling by.

Dancing pirates!

And another pumpkin.

I feel like the princesses must be really bitter about having to walk and dance instead of riding aboard their chic float in Soundsational.

And another pumpkin. You sensing a theme here?

The most thrilling moment for us was when Duffy came riding down the street on the back of a tricycle.

The parade was almost over when the car full of VIP guests came through.

But of course, EVERYONE knows that the proper penultimate section of any good parade is several bears dancing in tutus.

 The final float was quite elaborate and featured the Fab Five.

I couldn’t get a good, clear picture of Pluto and Goofy in their costumes.

And (obviously?) Miss Piggy was on the back of the float.

After the parade had passed, we decided to chase Duffy to try to get some better pictures as he came around the hub.

And I got some better photos of the final float.

The parade ending was also the indicator that the party was ending. We headed back down to Town Square to see the villains bidding us farewell.

I kept trying to get pictures of the fun Mickey’s Halloween Party logo that was projected on the sidewalk, but people kept walking through it.

On the whole, here are my thoughts about the party. We both left gabbing about how great a time it was, so our impression was mostly positive. Yes, it’s extremely crowded no matter when you go, but as long as you anticipate that fact, I think there are ways to work around the crowds. We figured out how to see almost everything we were interested in—including the fireworks, parade, and Cadaver Dans—and we successfully met several characters. I wish there could have been a way for certain character lines to be shorter so that we could have done more meet-and-greets without having to wait for hours on end, but I’m sure that’s just not really an option.

We were also very happy with the trick-or-treating, and we ended up with SO MUCH CANDY.

Comparing the cost of the party to everything we got to experience, I’d say it was worth it. In fact, we’re already planning to go again this year.

I’m sure that when we finally make it out to WDW for the Halloween Party someday, we’ll still be blown away by how much better it is than Disneyland’s, but for now, we’re happy with the party we’ve got.

Continued in Next Post

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About Wandering Mouseketeers

We are Taylor and Tracy — husband and wife from Boulder, CO — and we love all things Disney, as well as general travel. This website was originally created to showcase our Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line trip reports, but we've also got an entire series of blog posts about what it was like to live for a year and a half in Orange County, CA. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading about our various adventures. All of our Disney trip reports have lots of pictures and details that you can use to plan your next vacation!

4 Comments

  1. Lauren

    So now that you’ve lived by Disneyland, is it living in Orlando next? Hehe. As an Orlando resident and Disney obsessed person, I highly recommend it. Unless you can’t take the heat and humidity. But being a WDW passholder is the greatest thing in the world and MUCH cheaper than Disneyland’s annual pass. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party is great and the Boo to You parade is AMAZING. I highly recommend it. Currently planning on costume for next month already. Love the blog!

    • wanderingmouseketeers

      You hit the nail on the head by asking about the heat and humidity. Those are the top reasons why we haven’t really considered moving down to the Orlando area. For NOW, we’re content where we are (back in CO), but I think we would certainly consider at least a stint in Florida at some point in our lives. It sounds like it must be awesome being a WDW local. We REALLY want to make it to MNSSHP someday. Hope you have a blast attending next month! Thanks for reading 🙂

  2. Chris

    So this is gonna sound crazy but is Duffy doing a meet and greet as well or is he just in the parade? I heard he wasn’t greeting anymore at Cali Adventure and I’m actually going to the Halloween Party soon so that’d be awesome if he was there instead!

    • wanderingmouseketeers

      So I’m not sure about the parade because we don’t go to the party this year until the 20th. I DID see someone’s picture, though, of meeting him in his Halloween costume at the party, so apparently that’s one of the character meet-and-greets.

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