Character Greetings at Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party

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When we first started blogging, just a little over a year ago at this point, it was right around Halloween Time 2010 at the Disneyland Resort.  One of the things that we tried to do was jump right in feet-first and go for the gusto so to speak.  As such, one of the earliest posts we did highlighting the season was to attend the Happiest Haunts Tour with our friends at FindingMickey.com.  It was an awful lot of fun (you can go back and read it to see for yourselves), but what we didn't say was that when we decided to do the Tour, it was a choice between that and Mickey's Halloween Party.  Each and every year, the Disneyland Resort hosts the Halloween Party, where guests are able to go into Disneyland (only if you purchase a special ticket) and watch a special Halloween fireworks show, see a special Halloween parade, see special Disney Villains and characters in some great meet and greets, and go through various trick or treat stations around The Park and get all the candy your little heart can stand (figuratively and literally).  So this year, we knew it was going to be a must for us to attend Mickey's Party; under the guise of it being an official blog assignment of course!

Mark had been to The Party a time or two in the past with his niece while it was still being held at Disney California Adventure Park, but had never attended it since they moved it inside Disneyland Park last year, and Chad had never been period, so it was a new experience of sorts for both of us!  So over the next few days, leading up to Halloween, we're going to share some of our experience (and photos!) with you, our faithful readers.

We decided to go with our friends FindingMickey.com (again!) this year and attended Mickey's Party on the 21st, which was a Friday.  Of course, being the only weekend day when The Party is held, it was crazy crowded with loads of people, but we did manage to do everything we planned on doing.  Part of the problem (if you can really call it that) with Mickey's Halloween Party is that it's only 5 hours long (7pm until midnight), and with so much to see and do, choices have to be made!  We knew we wanted candy (who doesn't?!), and we knew we wanted to see Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade (parade) and Halloween Screams (fireworks), which left us deciding what characters we wanted to see and what attractions we wanted to ride; not to mention the amount of time it takes to navigate the crowds and move around Disneyland at night.  There was just no way to do everything, unfortunately.

So, looking over our choices we decided to make our way to two different character areas over the course of the night to try for some photos.  Everywhere else had characters that were out fairly frequently anyway, so we opted for some of the more "rarified" ones and decided to try our luck with the Phineas and Ferb Character Greeting (we love that show!), and Jack Skellington and Sally later in the evening in New Orleans Square.  We had originally wanted some pictures with some of the Disney Villains, but when we went by their area they were pretty standard ones you could see any of day of the week, so we were pretty much thwarted in that regard.  But as you can see, the ones we did want to get, we did!  And we're sharing those with you today.

Meeting Phineas and Ferb was just plain awesome.  These guys, of course, really know how to throw a party and if we've learned nothing else from them and their cartoon series, it's that summer shouldn't be wasted and childhood is for the enjoyment of it all!  Can't think of any better characters to have wanted to take our picture with, so score!  

But we got a bonus with this one! Our little calendar of events for the evening said nothing about Agent P, and yet there he was!  Awesomely cool to have our picture taken with possibly the greatest secret agent on the planet?  We think so!

Maybe the coolest (and certainly the funniest) part about the entire thing though was Mark's costume.  He decided to go to The Party as Agent P, and his costume was a hit with pretty much everyone who recognized him during the night.  Simple, yet hilarious!  The Cast Members loved it too, as is evidenced by the fact that they made both of our platypuses turn around and show off their tails.  Probably one of the funniest things we saw all night, and definitely something not everyone got to experience.  We love those special touches!

The picture we most wanted, though, and the one that Chad has coveted the most for such a long time was a shot with Jack Skellington and Sally.  Unfortunately, Sally was a no-show when we finally got over to the line around midnight on our way out of Disneyland, but the Cast Members did a really cool thing in leaving the line open a little past when The Park closed, so we were able to get our shot with Jack.  He was seriously cool to interact with, and even shook Chad's hand and told him he loved his choice of wardrobe.  Although Chad wasn't in costume, he was rocking a Jack T-Shirt, and a compliment from Jack made the whole thing worth it.  And we think that we got a great picture to boot!  It was also, we think, probably the only time we'll ever hear Marilyn Manson inside Disneyland, singing "This Is Halloween" as they spun the "Nightmare Revisited" CD for this particular Greeting.  Too cool!

So there you have it! Our Character Greetings experience from Mickey's Halloween Party.  We think we made some good choices with who we opted for, and we hope you enjoy looking just as much as we enjoyed having the pictures taken.

We'll be back with more fun from The Party over the next few days (featuring the fireworks, parades and more) so stay tuned!