Halloween 2012

[Csaks]

Hey guys and gals,

I was wondering about a few things and thought I'd ask some questions. It looks like we are headed down for the Halloween season again this year. Two days at Universal and HHN and 10 days at Disney's French Quarter. Now wifey wants us to dress up as pirates and reverse the roles to boot. This should be interesting, she never goes half a$$ed, starting to wonder what I'm in for.

Anyway, we don't want to spend the money for MNSSHP because we didn't think it was worth the money they asked for the last time we did it. Can we just go Downtown and walk around on the 31st or is there something better to do?

What is the average temperatures around the end of Oct? It would be uncomfortable as hell if it was too hot. In Oct '10 it was so frigging hot it wasn't funny but the locals said it was unusual.

 

[realfam]

Halloween in WDW, sounds like alot of fun.....

MNSSHP is my favourite (done it 4 times now). ; It has the best parade, by far the best fireworks, and trick or treating for all ages. ; Not sure how much the party is for 2012. probably around $60, but if you are only doing one day at the park its a fantastic value. ; You can get in the gates at 4pm and after 7pm when they kick everyone out, there are next to no lines for the rides. ; So you can do more rides in a matter of a few hours than you could do in a full day. ; We usually watch the parade twice!!!
I know there is usually a lot of people that dress up for the MNSSHP, not sure how many dress up in DTD.
Another option is Universal has there Halloween Horror night party as well. ; I don't know much about it except its a little more geared to the teen/adult.
If you are there in October I would highly recommend doing the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. ; Again one of our favourite events. ; The temperatures in October are normally pretty hot, but we have experienced cool temps in the 60's as well, so you need to go prepared with warmer clothes just in case. ; Three years ago we had several days of temps in the 80's/90's and then it drop down into the 50's, we were not prepared for that and had to buy the entire family jackets (although we all got matching WDW jackets which makes it easy to ID us).

 

[Csaks]

We were there in 2010 for Halloween, Realfam. That has now become our favourite time of year. Food and Wine and the Eat to the Beat concert series. Halloween Haunt at Universal is just amazing, so we are going to try and repeat our last trip which we enjoyed more than any other.
We are driving down, so packing extra clothes is no problem. Didn't need them last time, near record high's and humidity for the first week and near normal for the second. This time we are staying on-site at Universal for two days, doing the HP breakfast again and hoping the ride isn't broke for 3/4's of the day. Also we are going to HH and you are not allowed to wear costumes at their parks. Getting the Stay and Scream package again, it is a good value, you get enterance to Universal Studio's during the day and then you get put in a holding area as they empty the park, then when that is done the let you lose on some of the Haunted Houses. You can get about 4 of them done before they open the gates to the general public. If you have ever been to Wonderlands version, it's like watching a kids play compared to the broadway version. Same idea but way better.

Then we switch to Disney for the last 10 days at POFQ. We did the MNSSHP last time but it didn't seem like it was all that great. It is geared for kids and they allow costumes but is it worth the extra coin? We didn't dress up last time and saw a bunch of great costumes but didn't feel it was worth it. I think we were spoiled by HH but they are for two different crowds. If Amy really wants to dress up I guess we will have to bite the bullet and pay for the party, we'll take the costumes with us and just play it by ear.

Food and Wine is my favourite part I think. We used two meal credits on another meal and the night we didn't have plans we went to Epcot and wondered World Showcase eating from every kiosk we were interested in. I got a tip from somewhere for this. You use your snack credits for dishes. Get one dish per kiosk, share it and later go back and repeat your favourites or the one you were not too sure about. At the time I read it and actually did it I was skeptical it would be enough. Well by the time you are done, you are stuffed, it worked perfect. Throw it the Eat to the Beat and it is a perfect night. Billy Ocean may be old now but he sure does love performing. I forgot how many songs of his I knew.

Hands down this is my favourite time of year. Can't wait till October.