Eliot and I slept in on our first day as Mr. and Mrs. We were completely exhausted from the last few days. We told our friends and family that we would meet them at the parks after we got some sleep.
We knew that we were planning to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night, and we'd already bought the tickets. Therefore, we all decided that it was a good day to go to Animal Kingdom. BJ, Katie, Katie and Elissa decided that they'd go over earlier in the day so they could go on a few of the rides before we got there. Sara had some homework to work on, and Jeremy also decided that he wanted to sleep in.
After we were functioning, I met up with my brother and Sara for a quick lunch at Everything Pop before we decided to head over. I bought a Bride Ear Hat to match the Groom Ear Hat that the guys had gotten Eliot the night before our wedding. I also wore my Disney Bride shirt and we grabbed our "Just Married" buttons that I'd gotten off of eBay.
We also met up with some of my family members who were also heading over to Animal Kingdom. Kaitlin thought that Emery would enjoy looking at all of the animals. Once we arrived at the park, we took a few group photos before going to join the others. I sat with Jeremy, my Aunt Sherrie, Uncle Moe and Emery while the others went on Everest. We got some popsicles and Emery definitely enjoyed his.
Afterwards, BJ and Katie decided to go back to their hotel room to rest. Kaitlin, her parents and Emery all went to get his photo taken with the Winnie the Pooh characters. (He's also team Tigger!) And the rest of us met up with Anthony and Nico. After we took a few group photos with the Tree of Life, we decided that we'd go on Kilimanjaro Safaris together.
On the way over, we were stopped my Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. We ended up watching the whole thing since we were completely blocked from getting off of Discovery Island. In the meantime, my Aunt Sherrie texted me and they said that they'd meet us at Kilimanjaro Safaris.
We finally met up after the parade and stood in line. I was glad that it moved pretty quickly. (Eliot and I usually get FastPasses for the safari ride.) Emery was super excited when he realized that we were going on a ride. He LOVES rides of any type.
We had a blast on the ride. Emery was hilarious. Every time the driver would stop to look at an animal, he'd yell "ride!" He was more excited about the ride than the animals! Ha! But he did look at a few of the ones that were close to our truck.
Before we left the park, we also went on the jungle trek to see the tigers. Sara, Elissa and I all love tigers. I could stand there and watch them for hours. But we knew that we had to get back to Pop to get ready for the Halloween party.
After dinner, all of us going to the Halloween Party gathered together to head over to the Magic Kingdom. Since it required separate admission, only a small part of our group was going. The weather was looking pretty questionable, but we already bought the tickets and were prepared for rain. Our final group ended up being my parents, grandparents, Eliot, myself, Jeremy, Katie, BJ, Katie, Sara, Elissa, Nico and Anthony.
No one else in our group had been to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) before so Eliot and I knew that they were in for a treat. Nana and Papa were in their wheelchairs, so we gathered in the wheelchair only area so they would get a good view of the parade. We made sure that it was also a good location for the fireworks show. (Both the parade and fireworks are some of our favorites.)
We watched Mickey's Boo to You Parade that features sections of Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, Frontierland, the Disney Villains, and Goofy's Candy Company.
At the beginning of the parade, some Disney characters like Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Snow White, Alice, and friends from Winnie the Pooh all walk by to the main chorus of the parade.
Next comes the Pirate section that has Captain Hook, Smee and Tick Tock from Peter Pan. After that, there's another float with Jack Sparrow on top of it.
After that is my favorite part of the parade, the Haunted Mansion section. It starts with the man and his dog that are lost in the graveyard. Next are the gravediggers and I LOVE them. They dance with their shovels and they make sparks when they drag them on the ground. After them is Madame Leota's tombstone on a float, and then the ghost dancers. Finally, the hitchhiking ghosts make an appearance.
The Frontierland section is after the Haunted Mansion. There are dancing cowboy and cowgirls. This section always makes me want to square dance. (Not that I have any idea how to even do that!) Clarabelle follows them on a float. Then Chip and Dale, some of the Country Bears and Briar Rabbit all follow the float.
The Disney Villains have their own section. I always end up leaving the parade singing the music from this section. (It's good to be bad. It's good to bad... oh great now I'll be singing it all night!) It starts with a skeleton band. Cruella DeVil, Jafar and the Queen of Hearts all dance by after that. Dr. Facilier, Malificent and the Evil Queen all follow on a float. The hyenas from Lion King are after that.
Finally, Goofy's Candy Company has two floats at the end of the parade and Cast Members walk along the parade route handing out candy. "Trick or Treat! Trick or Treat! Give me something good to eat! Boo! Happy Halloween!"
We also watched HalloWishes, which of course is a Halloween themed version of the usual Magic Kingdom fireworks show Wishes. The entire HalloWishes performance is conducted by the "ghost host" of the Haunted Mansion. He invites everyone to scream along with their favorite Villain songs.
The fireworks are mostly oranges, purples and greens. At some points during the show, Jack o'Lanterns, ghosts or spooky eyes are projected onto the walls of Cinderella Castle.
The show is always a big hit with the crowd. Our group absolutely loved both the fireworks and the parade. My Papa really gets a kick out of all of the different performances that Disney puts on. And our Disney fan friends were very happy that they got to see these!
Before we ended the night, we absolutely had to go on the Haunted Mansion. It's always lit up really fun and with fog machines for MNSSHP, and I wanted everyone to see it. We made our way on to the ride and then lined up to take our pictures in front of the mansion afterwards.
Eliot and I had done this before in 2010, so we knew that they added one of the Hitchhiking ghosts to the horseless carriage. We took our normal photos and then we took ones where we're supposed to look scared. (Jeremy had left to run around the park to take pictures of the special Halloween costumed characters so he's not in these pictures.)
It was a great first day to be a Mrs. We had a ton of fun at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. And we got to spend time with some of our best friends at Disney! °o°
