Magic Kingdom

Well, it wasn’t actually supposed to be a sleepover, but that’s what happens when you take 8, 10, and 12 year olds to an overnight commercial shoot!

On a whim, I signed the girls up on a local casting website. I didn’t think much of it, but then availability requests started rolling. An availability request doesn’t mean you’ve booked a job, it just means you may meet the requirements they’re looking for, so if you are available for that shoot, they ask you to send certain information in. We had submitted for a few things, but never got chosen, until last year.

We were already planning a weekend away in Orlando, so when we got chosen to be a part of Disney’s 50th Anniversary commercial, we figured it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity! Patrick had no interest in it, so the girls and I carefully selected some outfits and made our trek to a parking lot outside of the parks at 8 p.m.

Our night started in a parking lot, where everyone who was there for the shoot was to be seen by wardrobe, and would be taken by bus to Magic Kingdom. We were given a style guide to look at when choosing our clothes, and I’ll be honest, it was definitely not what I’d typically wear to a theme park. But, we followed the guidelines and looked very country club chic for our night at Disney (except Molly, who went full on Minnie Mouse mode…for a bit at least). The stylist was lovely and complimented our choice of outfits, so I guess we chose well!

When it was time, everyone was loaded on a bus and taken to the back entrance of Magic Kingdom. There were a lot of us! Many families, some people on their own, some friend groups, some couples. Many of them seemed like pros who had done this many times. We had no clue what to expect!

We were taken to our holding area for the night, a restaurant in Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland Terrace was our home for the evening, while they were setting up the shoots. We found a spot to put our things down and waited to be called. Before we headed out to begin the night, the costumer decided that Molly and another little girl should be dressed like princesses. So, Molly got a Belle costume, purse, and stuffed animal to hold for the night.

We weren’t allowed to take photos during the shoot. But we started on Main Street and to our surprise, we got to see the 50th anniversary fireworks show before anyone else! The first part of the night was getting our reactions. After running the show through twice, they switched to just lighting cues to mimic the show. The girls very quickly got tired of reacting to basically nothing and by about 2 am, were starting to get grumpy.

Luckily, they decided to break and serve us breakfast around this time. Molly and Maddy decided they were too tired to eat and napped, while Regina and I grabbed food for everyone. It wasn’t long before Regina was zonked out, too.

Molly asleep in full Belle costume will forever be one of my favorite photos!

The girls were able to get a couple of hours of sleep in while they took volunteers for some smaller shoots. Around 6, I woke the girls up and we headed out to Main Street again, but this time closer to the castle. We got to watch the sunrise over Cinderella’s Castle, an experience we’ll never get again. That perked the girls up a bit! Molly happily dragged her sisters along racing in front of the castle, acting like it was their first time seeing it.

For this shoot, there was a “main” family with their daughter as the lead in the commercial and the rest of us were just background actors. We had no idea what to expect in the final product, or when it would actually come out. While we were definitely questioning our decision at about 2 in the morning, overall, it was a great experience and an amazing memory to share. Not many people can say they got to spend the night in Magic Kingdom, see the 50th-anniversary fireworks before anyone else, and watch the sunrise over Cinderella’s Castle.

We found the commercial on YouTube, but it also frequently airs on tv. We’ve especially noticed it during football games. We were pleasantly surprised to see a good shot of Maddy and Regina in front of the castle (which happened during one of Molly’s many bathroom breaks). And at the very end, you can see Maddy, Regina, and me watching the castle show (I had held Molly for about 2 hours during this part of the shoot, but they apparently only used the footage of when she was in front of me standing). Molly looked the cutest of us all and didn’t even make it in!

Here’s the YouTube link to the commercial. Look closely at the still image and you can clearly see Regina, Maddy, and me!

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!