We were at the 9/1 party. It was a pretty rough go of it.
We got there a bit later than we wanted to and missed our Tinkerbell fastpass, saw Cinderella, Tiana, Elena and Rapunzel with fastpass. I lined up around 3:50 for Jack and Sally while spouse and kid got wrist bands.
I was 3 or 4 groups back for Jack and Sally, but, first group was a large one with multiple poses and photos. It started raining while we were getting our photos done. We just did one family pose as CM's were already announcing that Jack and Sally may have to go in. I'm not sure if they kept meeting or not, but, I saw a family after us get a turn. Since it was raining, we decided to go ahead and ride haunted mansion. While we were in there, my Tinkerbell wings were stolen out of the stroller.
We've had annual passes for 4 years now and I've left things in my stroller so many times and never had an issue. The Tinkerbell wings were in a bag on the back of my stroller, they were stuck in deep, but, you could see them. Really couldn't believe someone would do that.
So, we didn't have to meet Tinkerbell anymore.
We hung around Haunted Mansion for a little while, but, photopass photographer still wasn't there, so we moved on. We went to Sleepy Hollow and got the Jack dessert. We just did a wander around the park also picking up Haunted Mansion desserts at Liberty Market, Aloha Aisle and Storybook, Auntie Gravity was out of them later, so we missed the 4th. We did the trick or treat line over by Splash a couple times and then went through Adventureland. Got in the Moana line, was quoted 2.5 hours, but it was only an hour before we were 2 families away, then she went inside because of lightening and it was just drenching rain. So, spouse and I took turns holding the place in the pouring rain and walking kid through the TOT in Tiki Room and Jungle Cruise. Moana came back out about an hour later. Shortly after this the night just dissolved into utter chaos. We waited awhile for the first parade, then gave up and walked back to try to meet characters, but, then heard the parade was on after all, so, left the 7 dwarfs line only to make it out when the parade was already over. Got back to the 7 dwarfs line because cast member said they would probably not start the fireworks until after the 2nd parade now. Then, of course, we'd waited another 45 minutes when they finally did set off the fireworks with a 5 minute or so warning. Left the line again to watch fireworks out in front of Dumbo. Hopped in the line for Cruella and met her with little wait, but, kid had to go to the bathroom and we were like 2nd in line when she showed up, so, photo is just me. Since we missed the first parade, we started waiting for the second parade, but, spouse gave up and left. Parade finally showed up around midnight. We didn't know they would actually do the Hocus Pocus show, we walked back into the park in hopes of finding a late TOT line as despite repeated TOT trips CM's were still pretty light on the candy when we went through, were hoping to do a bit better than one bag of candy. But, lines were closed and we made it back there and discovered the show was going on, only caught a small bit of it though.
Kid and I walked back towards the entrance and got as many magic shots as we could, got the dancers, poison apple, headless horseman and the one by the pumpkins. We walked by Haunted Mansion's exit several times during the night but never saw a photopass person. Went to Ariel's Grotto a couple times, never a photopass photographer. Were told they couldn't do the shot in the rain.
On the bright side, spouse and kid just loved it. They didn't know what they missed, so they thought it was just the best thing ever other than spouse missing both parades and having a poor view of the fireworks.
I don't think I will bother buying tickets ahead again. We will wait and buy day of the party. If it's sold out, I won't worry about it.
Had really wanted to meet Tarzan and Jane too, but, anytime we walked by they were in because of rain. We made it to Lotso, but, as soon as we got in the line he went inside due to lightning.
We spent a lot of time getting into character lines and then watching them shut the line down due to the weather. Felt like a lot of time got wasted.
On the other hand, we were lucky in that we got to actually meet Jack and Sally and we weren't stuck on the monorail like a lot of people were.
