Halloween Night


It was really just the way I thought it would be. Hot days reaching into the upper 90, cooling off in the evening in the hours before the park closed. Monday and Tuesday they open the park an hour early for the hotel guests, so bleary eyed and staggering, we made out way into the park early Monday morning so that we could do the big rides without having the customary wait.

We took Ike and the Older Boy on just about every ride we could take them on. Some of the rides there even had special cars outfitted to allow Ike’s wheelchair, so that we wouldn’t have to transfer him, although Ike’s still light enough that we are able to carry him on without too much trouble.

Since it was Halloween and all the hotels gave out candy. We dressed up the boys in some makeshift costumes we had remembered to bring and took them from Guest Services to Parking to the hotel’s café and bar, to the front desk. At another Disneyland hotel they had some games laid out for the kids to play, but the lines were too long and our boys didn’t want to wait. Both boys had a bag for candy, and Ike was generous enough to combine his bag with his older brothers, so in the end the Older Boy wound up with twice as many goodies.

The most shocking think about Halloween is how Disney doesn’t charge for it. For a company that charges 4 bucks for a large water bottle, I really had half-expected them to make you sign up and pay 20 bucks for the privilege of trick or treating their fine hotels, but it was all gratuity. And though there was an abundance of nasty candy corn, there was also M&M’s, Sweet Tarts, Tootsie Pops and Snickers Bars.

After trick or treating we headed into the park for the last hour or so of the night. Halloween night inside the park was a quiet affair. We wound virtually alone up over by Splash Mountain where Sweetie and I took turns watching the kids as the other one went on the ride. Across the path from Splash Mountain is the Winnie The Pooh ride which Ike likes so we made sure to go on that one a few times as well.

Eventually all the doors start closing up, and they funnel you in towards Main Street before kicking you out. On the way out it looked like a miniature princess parade, as just about every girl you saw under the age of five was decked out in some sort of glittering taffeta concoction, either that of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

The best moment of the night was when the Older Boy saw a boy who was most likely no older than four, dressed up in a Peter Pan outfit. “Look Mom!, it’s Peter Pan!” he shouted, and this little kid was just beaming—Walking two steps behind his parents with a grin a mile wide.

After the left the park, we headed back to the hotel café for a little dinner. Ike was agreeable to the whole sitting around a table thing this trip and since the Older Boy had only just discovered Club sandwiches, that’s how we finished off the night.

Since the park opened an hour early Tuesday morning as well, we thought we should try to get there at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning as well. yeah, we were pretty tired, but we had all next week to catch up on our sleep. This just might be the last trip down here for a while and we were gonna make the best of it.

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