We love Halloween in the Murphy house (okay, really we just love holidays in general!). Regina begs us every year to get the decorations out earlier and earlier. This year, we decided to surprise the girls with some early Halloween fun at the happiest place on earth.

We discovered Magic Kingdom’s holiday parties a few years ago, and they are our favorite time to be in the park. We’ve done Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party a few times, but had only done the Halloween one once before. The girls were much smaller, and the night ended in us losing Regina for a few minutes (she stopped to dance while Patrick and Maddy were heading to a trick-or-treat spot and I was settling Molly in the stroller), which clearly put a damper on the end of the evening. But, we decided to try it again this year.

As you can see, the night started off a bit wet. Florida weather in September is a bit soggy! We were worried the night would be ruined, or at the very least the girls would be grumpy. But, they all happily put on their ponchos and were excited to receive their reusable trick-or-treat bags.

If you’ve never been to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party, check it out! It runs on select nights starting in August. We felt August was a touch too early, so we opted for the Friday night party on September 2. It ended up being a day off from school for the girls, which gave them plenty of time to perfect their Disney-bounding costumes. Maddy went as Dopey, Regina was Mickey, Molly was the Winter Soldier, I was Captain America, and daddy was Iron Man.

The party runs from 7pm to midnight. But, you can get into the park starting at 4. We recommend getting there right at 4 so you can catch some of the things that will be closed once the party starts. Certain attractions and shows aren’t open during the party because their locations are used as trick-or-treating spots. One of Molly’s biggest wishes on this trip was to visit the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. Somehow, we’ve never done that on any of our visits. So that was our first stop – and a good thing, too, because we didn’t realize it was one of the locations that closed for the party.

While waiting in line, we noticed signs advertised submitting a joke via text. Molly is our resident comedian (she keeps a book full of her jokes by her bed), so she submitted one. She was so excited to have her joke make it into the end of the show! I think it probably helped that it was Disney-themed – “What did Aladdin wear on casual Friday? His blue-Genies!”

Everyone was hungry and several of the rides were closed because of the weather, so we decided to grab an early dinner. Chicken fingers all around! Dumbo was open and there was no wait, so the girls happily rode it with only one other couple on it with us.

As we were walking onto Dumbo, daddy happened to notice that the 7 Dwarves Mine Train had just reopened and was a 10-minute wait. So, we ran there next. The last time we were at Magic Kingdom, we waited nearly two hours for this ride. And none of us thought it was worth that long of a wait. So, we were hopeful this time might impress us more.

Maddy Disney-bounded as Dopey, so she was excited to try this ride again. The wait time was the shortest we’ll probably ever see it, and the majority of the wait was simply walking through the queue. This is one of the best queues to wait in, once you get to the main building. Last time, the line started in front of the Ariel ride and wrapped all the way around! We all agreed that the ride was much better this time around – probably because we weren’t all grumpy from standing in a boring line for what seemed like forever!

Next, we hit up more trick-or-treat spots and rode Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid. The girls recently watched a YouTube video about the ride glitching, so they thought it was hilarious when the ride stopped multiple times.

We of course had to ride It’s a Small World (since it was the Halloween party, we discussed which part of the ride was the most likely to have the figures come to life and kill us all… Regina has a very active imagination!), and Peter Pan’s Flight. Peter Pan was one of the longest wait times of the night, so when we saw it was at only 15 minutes, we jumped on it. I don’t think we’ve ridden this one in many years, and I had forgotten what the queue looks like. I don’t know why people wait an hour for it, but it is a great ride!

At this point, it was starting to rain again and some of the outdoor rides were closed, so we headed back to Tomorrowland for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios is one of my favorite theme park rides, but this one is also fun. Patrick always beats us all by many many thousands of points!

There were two trick-or-treat spots in Tomorrowland, one at the Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor and one at Carousel of Progress. Patrick wanted to go on that one and was bummed it wasn’t open. We opted to go on the Tomorrowland People Mover – our first time riding it! The girls loved it, other than the part inside Space Mountain (it gets a bit loud!).

Next up was Molly’s wish for the whole night – Tomorrowland Speedway. Molly was so excited it opened after a break in the rain, and I can confirm she is a crazy driver!

At this point, it was starting to get late and everyone was a bit grumpy. Mama was the only smart one who wore sandals, so everyone else had wet socks! But Reg was adamant we were going on Pirates of the Caribbean, so we trekked over to that side of the park. We were hoping for a snack on the way, but it turns out that most of the snack carts are closed during the party. So, unless you want popcorn (which we had already gotten earlier), there aren’t a ton of options for quick snacks.

Regina had researched the Halloween party before and was excited that there were going to be real people in parts of the Pirates ride. She was right! If you go, look out for the cast members throughout the ride!

It was nearing 11, and our plan was to do the 11:15 parade and end the night with the 12:00 castle show. But the first parade was canceled due to weather and people had been staked out at their parade spots for what seemed like hours, so we knew it would be a zoo. After a bit of disagreement, we ultimately decided we should go ahead and make our way out of the park. Seven hours and a grumpy 8-year-old whose feet hurt because of her wet socks seemed like our cue to end the night.

All in all, this was one of my favorite trips we’ve taken to Magic Kingdom. It’s fun exploring it with the girls at different ages. They were all able to accomplish all the things on their lists, and we got SO much candy! We didn’t even hit up half of the treat spots, but they loaded us up! On the way out, every guest was given a 50th Anniversary print – a great keepsake!