Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party

I'm calling this good - it's about 1am and it took a really long time to import the photos off of my camera.

Thursday night, we went to Mickey's Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom. The park stays open until midnight and there are special parades, shows, fireworks, trick or treating, and all the rides are open (except Space Mtn, which was closed for refurbishment). All the Disney characters dress up in costumes and the Haunted Mansion is specially lit and foggy. I have to say, the Haunted Mansion parade participants and cast members were the closest thing to being truly "scary" because of their spooky white makeup and propensity to lunge at unsuspecting people. They had people dressed as the dancing ghosts and creepy grave diggers.

I also loved that Nightmare before Christmas music was used several times throughout the night. Walking through Main Street, which was all lit up with jack-o-lanterns everywhere, to "This is Halloween" was pretty great. The music also featured in the great fireworks show.

The whole month leading up to our trip, weather.com was telling us that it was going to be rainy and pleasant in Orlando. Instead, it was 90 degrees and sunny (and muggy, Arizona people like our air utterly devoid of moisture). As a result, and because of packing concerns, Mike and I revised our costume choices. I have to give props to the people that went all out, despite the weather. The Disney-themed costumes were quite awesome, especially the ones where the entire family dressed up, not just the kids. I can't remember my parents ever doing that. Here is my favorite family - I snuck a picture of them while pretending to shoot the parade. Yes, the girls' skirts do say "Dee" and "Dum" on them.

Our costumes, though not nearly as cool, were still fun.

And nope, not even Captain Hammer could pull the sword from the stone.