Category — q. Reviews

MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY 2016

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (“MNSSHP”) is a special, separately ticketed party that happens on certain nights every September, October and some years even early November at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

At the party you will find un-crowded rides, a special parade (shown twice, at 8.30 and 11.15p), special fireworks at 10.15p, a Hocus Pocus show, trick-or-treating, a dance party…and a ton of guests in costumes!

I had a chance to see it again in early September 2016, and the scoop follows!

(See this for more on logistics–Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates, ticket prices, etc.)

NOT MUCH NEW FOR 2016 AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

The 2016 party pretty much follows the 2015 version, continuing the changes we saw last year. The most important of those was that the parades and fireworks are more spread out, and later.

This isn’t really thinning crowds in front of the Castle, mainly because the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular (photo above, and also at the top of the page), with its showtimes my date of 9.15p, 10.40p and midnight, is packing them in. (Later 2016 party dates will add a fourth show at 7.45 or 8p.) There’s more on this show later in this review.

The best approach to the Party remains the same–see rides until the fireworks and watch the second parade rather than the first–but, because of the 9.15 Hocus Pocus, it may be hard to get to the hub after riding rides to see the 10p Celebrate the Magic and 10.15p HalloWishes from there.

Frankly, much as it pains me to suggest this, the hub congestion is not worth seeing Celebrate the Magic. And while HalloWishes, like all Magic Kingdom fireworks shows, is best seen from between the Castle and the Main Street railroad station, it does work really well from elsewhere in the park, because of things that happen in the finale that I’m not gonna spoil here.

So do rides until ten, find a good nearby fireworks spot, then see the characters and go trick or treating, see the 11.15p parade, and see the midnight Hocus Pocus show. A late night, but one that avoids the congestion around the Castle hub and Main Street.

COSTUMES AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

Costumes are not required, and not everyone wear them. But even after the increased security that began in December 2015, they are still allowed at the party.

Above is the official Disney lingo (click it to enlarge it)–this came with my ticket, and as you can tell, no design professional saw this letter.

The most common costumes I saw in my September 2016 visit to MNSSHP were, as usual, princess costumes and pirate costumes, and after that Star Wars costumes. Lots of Princess Leia hair!

And this group in Tomorrowland proved a Disney princess theme was not required!

THE PARADE, FIREWORKS, DANCE PARTY, HOCUS POCUS SHOW AND TRICK-OR-TREATS AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

Besides most rides being open to short (or shorter) waits, MNSSHP has a special set of Halloween-themed activities (see above–click them to enlarge it).

For example, the parade–Mickey’s Boo-to-You Parade–is seen only at MNSSHP.

It begins with a surprise–pay attention when the Cast members start to rope of the crosswalks (dampness on the streets may eliminate this first surprise).

It then shifts to with ducks and mice…

…then some pirates…

…more pirates…

…but then shortly shifts to my favorite part, Haunted-Mansion themed dancing gravediggers and ghouls.

More ghouls.

The gravedigger dance.

Soon comes candy…

…then the parade goes back to scary, ending with Disney villains!

There’s two showings of the parade, at 8.30p and 11.15p, with spectacular Halloween-themed fireworks between at 10.15p.

While the fireworks are best seen from in front of the Castle with the Main Street train station behind you, this will lead you into a wildly crowded section of the park.

Because of their spectacular finale the fireworks can be seen from elsewhere in the park–you’ll miss a little but gain a lot of comfort from avoiding the mobs in front of the Castle.

The Liberty Square and Cosmic Rays dance parties left last year, but there’s still an outdoor Monsters-themed dance party at the thingy between Astro-Orbiter and Space Mountain.

The Hocus Pocus show is quite popular.  The three sisters from the movie return…

…and call on hordes of Disney villains to help them stay.

The show includes strong songs and dances, the fun characters, and some spectacular effects. Those familiar with the movie need not get close to the stage (thought it can’t hurt), but if you haven’t seen it, the characters of the three sisters are much more apparent if you are closer to the stage.  This is pretty easy at the midnight show, not so easy at the earlier shows.

Character meet-n-greets are all over the place–with both common and unusual characters…

…and there’s also a ton of trick or treat locations, marked by lighted columns…both of which raise an issue.

STRATEGY AND RIDES AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

All the major rides are open, and many minor rides as well. Most have very short waits–e.g. 10 minutes for Space Mountain. In our visit, only Peter Pan and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had annoying waits.

The trick-or-treat spots and character greetings, on the other hand, have pretty long lines.

So the best approach is to skip the character greetings and trick-or-treats–or delay them until after the fireworks–and spend the first part of the evening on rides.

Do rides until just before the 10.15p fireworks show and watch it.

Some families will be worn out by now.  If yours has energy left, keep going with with more rides, or trick-or-treating or character meets! Then see the second (11.15p) parade and the midnight Hocus Pocus show.

I struggle with whether or not this party is worth the money for first-time family visitors who may never return.

It’s quite expensive–more than $200, and even over $300 on some dates for a family of four.  And it’s just a five hour show (7p to midnight)–though Disney unofficially lets you in starting at 4p.

Yet the fireworks are the best Disney World offers, the parade is a hoot, the rides have short lines…and the costumes are fun!

My overall take is that for first-timers this time and money is better spent elsewhere, but that’s a really close call, and for sure I’d recommend it to returning visitors!

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This morning I published my updated review of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, based on my stay—my sixth here—in mid-July.

The updated review begins here, and includes all-new room pictures, better pictures of the new Oasis Pool, a new photo tour of a Bungalow, updated restaurant reviews from The easy Guide’s 2017 edition, and more.

I also re-ordered the flow of material as I have been lately with my updated reviews, so that the overview of accommodations now comes before the photo tour of a standard room. Which makes sense, I think!!

Here’s the topics covered in the review, in their new order:

• Summary and Overview of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Accommodations at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Photo Tour of a Standard Room at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Amenities at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Dining at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• The Pools at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• The Disney Vacation Club at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Photo Tour of a Studio at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Photo Tour of a Bungalow at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort

This visit was my first in a Club room at the Poly, and also my first in a Magic Kingdom view room there. While you’ll see photos related to both in the updated review, I didn’t not write in much detail about either.

Rather, I’ll be doing a separate post on club rooms later (it’ll be similar to Tom Bricker’s post, based on my room, here), and will do a post on theme park view rooms (an image shot from my balcony is above) in September, after my stay in a Grand Floridian theme park view room on my next visit.

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Polynesian Resort, click here.)

The Bungalows at the Polynesian Village are part of the Disney Vacation Club offerings at the Poly, but are also open to non-DVC members to book either via rented points, or for cash like any other Disney World room.

A lot of points, or a lot of cash. In 2020, they are $3,000-$5,250 a night…

Needless, perhaps, to say at those prices, the photo tour below is the only one on this site that’s not of a room that I paid for and stayed in. Rather, in a recent stay at the Polynesian, I was offered a tour of a Bungalow, and the photos are from that tour.

The Bungalows are stand-alone buildings built on pilings in the Seven Seas Lagoon just offshore of the Polynesian beaches.

The entry is from a common boardwalk.

The entry deck includes a bench.

You enter into a narrow hallway, with bedrooms and baths on either side. This reserves the views towards the Magic Kingdom for the common living areas at the other end–although the master bedroom does have a windowed door aimed at Magic Kingdom as well.

One side has the master bedroom, with a king bed…

…desk, dresser, and closet…

…and a large private full bath with separate tub and shower.

A fully-windowed door from this space leads to the back deck and a couple of charming hanging deck chairs, facing the Magic Kingdom.  This view is from the deck towards the door.

Across the hall is the smaller queen bedroom. Note the window seat on the left of the image.

This bedroom also has a fold down bed that measures around 6′ by 30″.

A bath for the folks sleeping here and for the three people the living room will sleep is also on this side, accessed from the main hall.

A closer view of this bath…

…and of the nearby washer/dryer combo.

The end of the interior is a great room with a kitchen and dining table on one side…

…and a living room that’ll seat 5–with more chairs available from the dining table–on the other.

You can see a fold down bed of the same proportions as that in the queen bedroom.  The couch also folds out to sleep two more.

More shots of the dining/living area:

Outside is another deck, this one on the Magic Kingdom side of the Bungalow.

It includes lounge chairs and a table for four…

…and also this unheated small pool, big enough for a couple of adults to cool off, or several kids.

The side view from this deck.

These rooms are an interesting and cool way to put as many as eight people into two bedrooms and a large living/dining/kitchen space at the Polynesian.  But for the life of me I can’t imagine spending $3,000 to $5,720 a night on them.

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S POLYNESIAN VILLAGE RESORT

• Summary and overview of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Theming and Accommodations at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Photo Tour of a Standard Room at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Amenities at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Dining at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• The Pools at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• The Disney Vacation Club at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Photo Tour of a Studio at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Photo Tour of a Bungalow at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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As part of its new late night program, in May 2016 Disney World began running Kilimanjaro Safaris, which used to close before sunset, until park close.

While known informally as “Sunset Kilimanjaro Safaris,” the ride does not have a different name during the evening hours than daylight, so if, for example, you want to book a FastPass+ for it, you need to know what time you want to see it.

Lights have been added to the Safari area, some subtle, some not so much, so you can now enjoy this ride in daylight, during twilight, and during full dark.

Many have recommended riding the Safari during “sunset.”  Sunset, of course, is a moment in time, so I imagine they mean during early twilight.

The image above is from the beginning of early twilight. If you do go during early twilight, you will see largely the same things you will see during full daylight.

If you go after twilight, during full dark, you will see very different behaviors, most of which you will not be able to photograph…

For most people, the full dark behaviors will be less interesting than daylight behaviors, so my advice would be that if you will be seeing Kilimanjaro Safaris just once, see it during the day or in early twilight.  If you have time in your schedule to see it twice, and enjoy animals, then see it the second time during full dark.

Full dark begins 80-90 minutes after sunset. Sunset times in Orlando are on this page–links at its bottom take you to all the different months. Full dark begins at the end of astronomical twilight.

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The Tree of Life has been the symbol of Disney’s Animal Kingdom since it opened.

As part of the Animal Kingdom’s recent move to late hours and an after dark program, a set of projections have been added to the Tree to add new interest to it in the evening.

Called Tree of Life Awakenings, there are four distinct brief shows, featuring

• A playing deer and a watching hawk
• A hummingbird and flowers
• A red fox in winter
• Images from Bambi, Dinosaur, Tarzan, Finding Nemo, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, and other Animal-Kingdom related movies

The start of each show is signaled by music. Between shows, what appears to be the “regular” Tree of Life appears–but not really, so watch closely.

Here’s some images from my visit to the shows:

I found the shows and the interludes between them to be oddly compelling.

While not worth a special trip, those who are in the Animal Kingdom after dark anyway should check them out.  You may find them as fun as I did!

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JUNGLE BOOK: ALIVE WITH MAGIC

The evening show Jungle Book: Alive With Magic opened as a temporary (one hopes) replacement for the delayed Rivers of Light show in May 2016.

There’s no word on when Rivers of Light will open, nor on how the transition from Jungle Book to Rivers of Light will happen.

As I write this, it is scheduled for 9 and 10.30p every night between now and Labor Day, and then is not on the schedules afterward.

However, since Disney’s evening show calendars lately have played the role of sophisticated display front-ends  to databases with no data, I am not ready to say that the show will in fact end in early September–although there are rumors to that effect.

The show takes place in the waters in front of Expedition Everest in the Asia section of the park.  New construction has turned the banks of the waterfront into an amphitheater.

There is not much rise between the seat levels of the amphitheater, but since there are only about 5 inches on average between eye level and top of forehead (yes I looked it up) it actually takes less rise than many think to give a clear view to successive rows.

The setting designed for Rivers of Light includes three off-shore stages and three on-shore stages.

For Jungle Book, singers are delivered by raft to the middle one of the three off-shore stages…

…and dancers populate each of the three closer on-shore stages.

Basically, the singers and dancers take the audience through the story and songs of the Jungle Book, accompanied by simple projections on water screens–note above Ballou on the left-most screen, and Akela in the center.

The Jungle Book: Alive With Magic has been the most savaged major attraction opened at Disney World that I can recall. While I think the reaction has been a bit unfair–and Josh tells me that the projections are much improved since it first opened, when many of these negative reactions were first published–it remains true that even positive reactions are a bit muted.

Frankly, the show suffers terribly in comparison to the don’t-miss evening shows (Wishes, Fantasmic, and IllumiNations) at the other parks, and people who bring expectations based on those three will be quite disappointed–at least until Florida’s approach to legalized marijuana profoundly changes.

In particular, it is not worth profoundly bending your day or your visit to assure that you can see it.

That said, the setting is gorgeous, the show is OK, and the Animal Kingdom is lovely at night.  So if you can fit an evening visit to the Animal Kingdom into your plans, you should, and then you might as well check out this show. With expectations sufficiently low, you might well be pleasantly surprised.

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