Halloween 2018 at Walt Disney World (Day 1 - Part 2 - BirthHallowCation 2018)

Sorry for my lack of hurrying back to finish up my Halloween trip recap! Let's carry on, shall we?

I arrived at the Magic Kingdom around noon on Halloween. It just wouldn't be a trip to WDW on Halloween without visiting my favorite happy haunts, would it?

I just LOVE the Halloween decor at Walt Disney World!!

After a quick detour to meet Mary Poppins, I was able to stop over and watch The Muppets: Great Moments in American History. I hoped to watch the show during my last visit to the MK but unfortunately a very heavy rainstorm moved in right as the show was starting. Luckily, I found a spot to sit on a covered porch in a rocking chair right by the Hall of Presidents to wait out the storm. Unluckily, so did a person who proceeded to talk my ear off for the hour we spent waiting out the storm.

My first time meeting Mary Poppins! She was quite excited that I'm planning to see the new movie about her continued adventures.

The Muppets: Great Moments in American History was pretty amusing, especially if you like the Muppets. Make sure you look out for Sam Eagle above the Hall of Presidents! 

I'm always glad when the Magic Kingdom adds in a bit of entertainment. I would love to see the Magic Kingdom add a large theater for a show (think like the Beauty and the Beast show at Hollywood Studios) but I doubt that is in any plans for any time soon! This is a cute show, it's not a huge time commitment, and they repeat it pretty frequently so it's easy to catch!

Around this time, I started noticing the park starting to fill up with people in costume who were presumably attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night. I had other plans but would've loved to have attended a Halloween Party. That said, I will never be as committed as the people who wear full face paint in Orlando humidity.

I wanted to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade but had a bit of time to spare so I went shopping. My birthday gift cards were burning a hole in my pocket!! I visited the emporium and luckily, there was some Halloween Party Merchandise available for purchase. So I snagged a Halloween Party t-shirt and a Halloween Party mug featuring the Sanderson Sisters (it was the 25th anniversary of Hocus Pocus, after all.) The last thing I needed was another t-shirt and mug but I couldn't pass them up (the 20% passholder discount helps). I'll have a photo in a future blog of all my swag from this trip!

My big purchase was the Jim Shore sculpture of the Hitchhiking Ghosts from the Haunted Mansion. I've wanted this for a while but it's way too expensive on the internet. Still pricey at WDW but much cheaper than what people are selling it for on Amazon or Ebay. It was a large box so I was happy to use the resort delivery service.

After making it rain (aka using all my gift cards) I found a good spot to watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade right by Liberty Tree Tavern.

Festival of Fantasy was amazing - the only bummer was that Maleficent wasn't back yet. Not pictured below is Ariel, who from her perch high atop a clamshell, mouthed, "Happy birthday!" to me! (She saw my birthday button.) 

Prince Charming

Always on the lookout for Jiminy Cricket!! 

I love this picture - looks like he's about to do a heel-click!

Daisy waved at me!! 

Pluto was pretty happy!

An 89 year old mouse - looks good for his age, doesn't he?

I relaxed for a while. Disney World has a never-ending supply of good people-watching! I had a fastpass for the Haunted Mansion and had to wait until it was time to ride. Normally I wouldn't get a FP+ for the Haunted Mansion, but it was Halloween and I wasn't going to miss my opportunity to visit Gracey's Mansion. 

The photographer didn't tell me to stick my thumb out. I could be the fourth Hitchhiking Ghost, though!

I made my way toward the exit of the Magic Kingdom but stopped on the way to get a couple of cool magic shots!

Who am I cooking up this poisoned apple for.....?

Oh shoot, these balloons are about to lift me off the ground!!!

Happy Halloween Magic Kingdom!!

As I left the Magic Kingdom mid-afternoon on Halloween day, I had no idea that it would be transformed overnight. When I entered the MK the next day, I would find that Christmas came to town!

I hopped back on the monorail to go back to Epcot where I'd parked my car. During that ride, I had a cute/uncomfortable interaction with a little boy. He was about a year and a half old and was waving and smiling at me. Naturally, I waved and smiled back. Then his parents made it weird. 

"OH look at him flirting!" the mom said.

(Under his breath) "Make sure she's rich first," the dad said. 

Middle-aged woman next to me, "He is just loving flirting."

"I don't mind this kind of flirting, he's a cutie. It's the unwanted, creepy flirting that I mind," I said.

Middle-aged woman pauses and says, "Our son... he's the creepy kind of flirter." 

ANYWAY. 

I got back to my car and headed over to check into our room at Pop Century. It was my first time staying at Pop and I really enjoyed it. The main building is set up basically exactly like the All-Star Resorts. The rooms are a similar size too. Pop has been renovated in the last year or so and has some really nice features.

Once I freshened up, I drove over to Disney Springs. I wanted to do a tiny bit of shopping, get some pictures taken, and have dinner at the Boathouse. At Disney Springs, where guest services is (right by the Marketplace Co-Op) there is now a photopass studio. It's really kind of cool and a nice feature of having access to all my photopass pictures. I had a little bit of a photoshoot. One backdrop is made to do "greenscreen" type pictures and the other is more of a traditional photo backdrop.

I was supposed to look scared in this picture but I was in the Haunted Mansion so I smiled!

Woo! Fireworks!!!

This was my favorite of the "green screen" pictures! 

It's like senior pictures all over! Except this time with a giant birthday button!

Trying to show off my long hair.

After my photoshoot, I headed toward the Boathouse. I've never eaten there before but really wanted to try it out as a "birthday dinner." For months, I'd been trying to get a reservation but it was showing that all reservations were taken. I'd heard from some good sources that there is usually bar seating. And when I arrived, I got a table right away. 

Another perk of the annual pass is discounts at some table service restaurants; I almost forgot to tell my server! I ordered three specialty raw oysters and the crab cake dinner. Delicious doesn't come close to describing this experience.

Just bring me all the seafood. One of everything, please.

Neat atmosphere! I didn't take a picture of it but there were people sitting in a car near me eating their dinner.

First time trying raw oysters! I got three different types (these were $3-$4 each). They came with a lemon wedge, relish, and sort of a cocktail sauce. They didn't need any accompaniments as they were perfectly briny and delicious.

This crab cake was amazing. It was around $25 and came with coleslaw. The crab cake was seriously huge (almost took up the whole plate) and had huge chunks of crab in it. I also had bread. 

I really enjoyed the Boathouse and would definitely go back. Any seafood lover would enjoy this place. 

Relaxing and digesting in front of the Boathouse.

So I had a great experience on Halloween and guess what, it's not even over yet! In the next blog, I'm going to share my experience of going out to Fort Wilderness for the first time to experience the Return to Sleepy Hollow event!!! 

Behind in Posts ALREADY!?!

Okay, so I have full intentions of recapping my DisneyBirthHallowCation... but I came back to work for about 2 weeks and then I went back to Disney for the week of Thanksgiving.

So, that's the delay!

For now, here's a pretty picture of Cinderella Castle!!

Halloween 2018 at Walt Disney World (Day 1 - BirthHallowCation2018)

Back during the summer, one of my friends, Erica, messaged me asking if I wanted to come to Disney World with her in November. She had registered for the Wine & Dine 10k and Half-Marathon and had already booked Pop-Century. I love spending the time around my birthday at WDW, even more, I love Halloween-time at WDW, and I was eager to check out Pop. Easy answer.

To maximize my birthday/Halloween-Disney fun, I drove from Virginia to Jacksonville on 10/30 so that I could get up bright and early on the 31st and have a relatively short drive to Walt Disney World. Also, back during the summer I looked into and booked the Return to Sleepy Hollow event for Halloween night at Fort Wilderness (a separate blog will be coming about this event).

Is there anything more magical than driving under this sign?

My first priority was to get over to Epcot. As an annual passholder, I could get a free cutting board if I visited the Food & Wine Festival four times during the course of the festival. So during this trip, I had to really think through when I could hop over to Epcot to make the most of that. I also wanted to get my cute Chef Mickey AP magnet!

Before heading to the festival center, I stopped in at Spaceship Earth because it's a classic and I know it's going to be down for a long refurbishment before long. 

Okay, but why are my eyes all black?

This is a frightening future!

Hi, my name is Amanda and Spaceship Earth thinks I have no soul! 

I visited the Festival Center for the first time ever and got in line for my magnet. When I came out of the line, I found that Hanson (the boy band extraordinaire from the 90s) was in front of an audience doing some kind of beer tasting or demonstration. I quickly recalled that they came out with a beer called MmmHops and it all made sense.

Hanson was also performing that day during Eat to the Beat!

Another reason to start my adventure in Epcot was the Food & Wine Festival! If you've never been, there are tons of extra booths set up around Epcot - some representing cuisines from different countries and some which just may focus on seafood or cheese, etc. The best thing about it is that while the dishes are smaller, tapas sized portions, you can try things for usually $5-$8 (with Disney dining plans, you may be able to use snack credits). There are also more alcoholic beverage offerings.

Lump Crab Cake from Coastal Eats: A+ 

Cheese Trio from The Cheese Studio (Profiterole topped with Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs Cheese and Orange-Apricot Jam, Smoked Salmon Pinwheel with Boursin Shallot and Chive Cheese and Everything Seasoning, Strawberry Macaron with Boursin Pepper Cheese): A++ I especially loved the macaron

Spanakopita from Greece: A

Bottle Art near The Cheese Studio

Mickey cooking up some goodies for the festival!

I was lucky to catch Daisy right as she was coming out for a meet and greet! The photopass photographer's equipment was malfunctioning so the cast member with him took our picture.

Before moving on from Epcot, I was able to snag a limited edition Halloween pin 

Some thoughts on Food & Wine - I really enjoy the opportunity to try the offerings they have. Also convenient, they sell Disney gift cards that come on a coiled bracelet so you can just hold your hand up for the cashier to scan! I appreciate all the wine/beer pairings but, for the most part, I tend not to spend money on alcohol at Walt Disney World. Sometimes I do, as you'll see later in the trip, but I'd prefer a nice meal or merchandise to alcohol. I think part of it is because if it's warm in Orlando (which, it usually is) I really don't find alcohol tempting!

Also, as a passholder, there is merchandise that is exclusive to passholders that is put out at different times during the festival. Unfortunately, when I got there, some of the things I'd been interested in were all sold out. Some of that probably caters a little more to the Florida passholders, which I understand. Finally, I did (spoiler alert) get to Epcot enough times in one trip to get my cutting board, but it was really kind of a process to think about how I was going to get to Epcot during 4 days of a 5-day trip.

The next blog will be all about my adventures in the Magic Kingdom on Halloween and checking into Pop Century!

Welcome Foolish Readers

I'm your Host, your Blog Host... muahahahaha!

First, allow me to welcome you to this space where I hope to share the joy I get from all things Disney! Thank you for joining me here! The Haunted Mansion is my all-time favorite ride at Disney and this blog will be themed accordingly. That said, it is not my intention to copy any preexisting blog title, description, etc. Any similarity to other blogs and sites is coincidental and probably a testament to how much we all love the Haunted Mansion!

The title of this blog, Experiencing Disney with Ghoulish Delight is definitely a clear reference to the Haunted Mansion. The URL starts with roomfor1000 - why? Because there are 999 happy haunts in residence at the Haunted Mansion; there is room for 1000. Any volunteers?

Kindly step all the way in please as I take you on a journey of some of my favorite aspects of Disney. My goal is to post one Disney-related blog per week. These blogs will likely include reviews, trip recaps, my thoughts about rumors or movies, hopes for the future of WDW, etc. Spoiler alert: there will probably be more than one post per week in the near future as I recap my most recent spooky visit to Walt Disney World! 

Right now, I'm a thirty-something who works in higher education and lives in Virginia. I fancy myself a writer (that's what I want to be when I grow up) and, like many, an amateur photographer. I have gotten some really cool long-exposure photos at Disney but I am still practicing. That said, I may try to learn how to watermark pictures as I add them to this blog. In 2018, I became an Annual Passholder at Walt Disney World for the first time ever (I still pinch myself each time I think about it!) and am doing all I can during this year to explore as much of the resort as possible (and get the most bang for my buck)! 

Here's what you won't get here: 

-Bashing of Walt Disney World or the cast members

-Reviews of the fanciest things at WDW 

-Information on Disney Vacation Club (DVC) or Club 33 (I'm not a member of either)

Despite what seems like frequent trips, I do work in higher education and my compensation is what it is. I am very fortunate to have put aside my tax return to fund this year of being a passholder and have been happy to receive gift cards from friends and family towards my trips. Unless there is a bank error in my favor, don't expect to see dining reviews from Victoria & Albert's, room pictures from the Grand Floridian, or all about my experiences with a VIP tour guide (can't afford DVC either). Also, to clarify, I have been to Universal. But that's not what this blog is about. 

What you will get here:

-Honest thoughts about my experiences at WDW through a realistic lens 

-Complaints about my feet hurting (and what I try to do to alleviate that pain)

-A plethora of pictures, both good and bad, taken by me, friends I go with, and photopass photographers
-Some tips that have worked for me

It's important to keep in mind that at present I am single and do not have children. So I won't be able to share a genuine perspective of what it's like to have any age of child at WDW. I am the aunt to three kids who really love visiting WDW so you may see me reference them now and then but most of this will be my experience visiting as a young-ish adult. 

It's pretty basic! I love visiting Walt Disney World and the magic I feel while on property. Is Disney a perfect company? No. Have they made some mistakes throughout their history? Of course. Is it expensive to visit? Yes. I recognize the privilege that I have every time I set foot on Disney property. All that said, for me, Disney is an escape and I look forward to sharing the joy and magic with all who visit this page.