When Mr. Strange and I took a short Carnival cruise ten years ago, we had seen a Disney cruise ship at one of the ports, and I said, “One day, we will go on that.” When LS was born, I started planning out when a good age would be to take her on a cruise and settled on sometime between 5 and 9. Then when I started looking into itineraries, I fell in love with the idea of visiting the Baths at Virgin Gorda, which was an oft offered excursion on Eastern Caribbean cruises. I then started meticulously trying to figure out when the Eastern Caribbean itinerary would fall in line with LS’s fall break from school. When the fall 2025 cruises were opened for booking in 2024, the school year calendar hadn’t yet been announced, but I had a good hunch of when it would be, so I went ahead and booked. And, yes, it aligned!

After we took our Disney trip earlier this year, LS became obsessed with Space Mountain. I had booked our flights for the cruise to fly in a day early (so we wouldn’t be stressed about missing the boat if our flight was late) and I discovered that the day we would fly into Orlando also aligned with one of the dates of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. So I got tickets to that and booked a night at the Contemporary, but I didn’t tell her.

Our flight was early, on time, and uneventful. We grabbed a Lyft at the airport, and LS soon realized we were heading onto Disney property. But she didn’t ask why. We were dropped off at the resort, stored our luggage, and then headed up to Chef Mickey’s for a dining reservation.

Unlike our trip earlier in the year, this time LS was overjoyed and excited to see all of the characters! (She liked meeting them last time but was very nervous beforehand every time.) We ate a ton of food and got pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald.

Like magic, as soon as we were finishing up, I got the notification that our room was ready. We headed over to the Garden wing, found our room, and had our luggage brought up. Then I told LS that we needed to get our costumes on because we were going to a Halloween party.

She still didn’t ask any questions and we quickly got ready and were on our way to Magic Kingdom by around 3:30pm. She got excited as we walked by Space Mountain, but still didn’t ask anything. We got in line for the party and were soon let in.

She did realize as we were in line that we were at or near Magic Kingdom, but she just said, “We are so close to Magic Kingdom. I wish we could go there and ride Space Mountain.”

So when we finally entered the park and she saw the castle, she realized that was exactly where we were! She was so surprised and happy!

We headed straight for Tomorrowland. She wanted to ride the PeopleMover first, and for some reason, its line was fairly long, but we went ahead and queued for it and rode it twice without getting off since it was sprinkling after our first go-round (Disney tip: they will typically let you keep riding PeopleMover for as long as you want).

After that we rode AstroOrbiters, which had been closed when we were there earlier in the year. Then she and Mr. Strange rode the Tomorrowland Speedway, while I grabbed a Stitch mummy popcorn bucket.

The Space Mountain line had been about an hour wait previously but it had dropped to 30 minutes by this point, so we rode it next. LS was thrilled! I told her later, after the party officially started, we would ride it again because it would be different.

It was getting close to the official party time by this point, so we headed into Fantasyland and rode the carousel. After we got off, the trick or treat station at Mickey’s Philharmonic had opened up a bit early, so we got our first bit of candy before continuing on. LS wanted to go on It’s a Small World next, which was a walk-on. However, right before the end of the ride, it stopped! We joked that we’d spend the whole Halloween party being stuck on the ride. It took about ten minutes to get it going again, and it will take me ten years to get the song out of my head.

We continued on and arrived at Haunted Mansion next. I loved the way it was lit up! The sign said it was a 40 minute wait, but it was actually closer to 15-20 minutes. There was a photographer here taking Magic Shots, so we got in line for that after riding and probably waited longer for that than the actual ride. However, our costumes were Haunted Mansion themed (Sally Slater, a Hitchhiking Ghost, and a black cat from the cemetery), so it was worth it!

We then did some more trick or treating in Liberty Square and Frontierland and caught the parade before heading into Adventureland. LS rode the Magic Carpets with Mr. Strange twice, then went through the Swiss Family Treehouse (which continues to be a favorite). We grabbed some hot dogs at Casey’s Corner and found a somewhat obstructed site for fireworks viewing.

After fireworks, we headed back into Tomorrowland to go on Space Mountain again. There was a flood of people and we thought the wait might be fairly long, but a Cast Member sent us through the Lightning Lane, for whatever reason, and we were very grateful as we basically got to walk on! It is amazing how different the ride feels with NO lights because there aren’t that many to begin with, but I wouldn’t even put my hands up and I definitely got thrown around more, not being able to anticipate any of the moves!

We rode AstroOrbiter one more time since we were there. It was getting late, so we asked LS if there was anything else she wanted to do. Ride Haunted Mansion again! So we did. A bit of a longer wait this time, but the duo in the graveyard gave me a shout out as I walked by! Afterwards, LS and I stopped for a lantern photo since there was ZERO wait, which I have never seen, and then we happened across Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters right before closing, so I stepped in for a quick chat and some photos with them before heading back to the resort.