I was a little hesitant about the party because it started at 7 p.m. at E is normally in bed by 8 p.m. but, Grandma wanted to take her and what Grandma wants Grandma gets. Spoiler alert...we ended up having a ton of fun.
Living in Orlando and being an annual passholder was a big benefit for this event. A month out from the party, I got a couple of late afternoon Fast Passes. You can't get passes for the party, but you can get them for before 7 p.m.
We got to the park about 3:30 p.m. Unfortunately it was raining the day we went. It was never a downpoor, but just enough drizzle to be annoying at points. I wasn't sure if E would fit in her stroller in costume, so we changed her after we got to the park.
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| Look Daddy! |
After getting E dressed in her costume, we headed to the hub area to take some photos. It was nice to get some pictures of E with decent light and not a ton of people around.
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| My princess |
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| So much attitude |
Then we headed back to Fantasyland and hit one of E's favorite rides—the carousel.
Then it was time to visit Cinderella. Fast Pass made a huge difference here. When we got there, the standby time was 70 minutes, but since we had fastpasses, we only had to wait a couple of minutes for E to meet her princess.
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| Someone got a kiss from a princess |
We killed some time riding another of E's favorites—Small World and then it was time for dinner. My advice is if you are going with a little one, doing dinner early really helps with the party experience. Anyone with a toddler knows that they are much happier with a full belly. We ate about 5:30 and hit the window between the day guests leaving and the party guests not eating yet.
After dinner we took a spin on Buzz Lightyear and then headed to find a spot for the Hocus Pocus Show and Parade. Since the adult/kid ratio in our party was 3 to 1, we left Daddy to hold territory while Grandma and I took E trick-or-treating. The stations opened at 7 p.m. and E got through 5 or 6 before we headed back for the show. (She loved the trick-or-treating. Once she realized that people give you candy, she was super excited.)
About 7:45 p.m. we headed back to the castle stage. Unfortunately, it was raining just hard enough that the show didn't run. If the one song we saw was any indication, the show would have been pretty amazing.
Shortly after the show, it was parade time. I let E have a couple of her "trick-or-treats" while we were waiting and she enjoyed that. E was a little uneasy with the parts of the parade, but once it was over, she couldn't stop talking about it.
We asked E what she wanted to do after the parade and she said she wanted to trick-or-treat. We set her in the stroller and headed over to the next trick-or-treat station. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, my princess had fallen asleep with her glow wand in hand. I tried to see if she wanted to do more, but she was out, so we headed out of the park. It was a great night and I can't wait to go next year.
(The rain made taking photos after dark pretty much impossible.)
