Disney is a place for celebration, from celebrating being on vacation to holidays. Disney wants you to celebrate anything and everything, and make it a magical celebration. I personally love holidays, especially down in Disney. I’m not just talking about Halloween, Christmas, Fourth of July, or any of those. I’m talking about birthdays, 1st visits, and family reunions too! Disney is the perfect place to celebrate these things and the Cast Members love to join in, in your celebration.
If you’ve never been to Disney for a holiday it should be on your Disney Wish List. Disney goes all out for their holidays. They throw special parties, they have special parades, fireworks, and decorations. The best part for the Cast Members is that they get to play a part in all of that. The parks are transformed over night. Cast Members work extremely hard to have everything perfect so at rope drop the next morning you don’t even recognize it. The parks are drenched in festive décor. The shops will be filled with holiday theme merchandise.
Disney tends to celebrate holidays for more that just the actual day, they throw parties for a whole month! For Halloween they start throwing Halloween parties, called Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, at the end of September and it will run until the beginning of November. These parties are held in Magic Kingdom and although you need a special ticket, they are priced less than a full day ticket. This ticket gets you access to the park starting at 4pm when the party usually doesn’t start until 6pm. You get to ride all the rides you want to while the park slowly begins to empty of the non-party goers. Although some rides do close for the parties, the main attractions stay open. The rides and decorations are not the only things Disney pulls out for the party, they definitely pull out all the stops. Disney adds spooky lighting and music and the Cast Members get to show their spooky side as well. Disney Cast Members become part of the decor, just take a look at their costumes (Cast Members don’t wear uniforms) they are party themed. They also get extra spooky as the night goes on, especially by the Haunted Mansion. Even Mickey and Minnie have on their own costumes for the party. And did I mention you get to dress up in your Halloween costume? You get to go Trick or Treating in the park, how many people get to say that?
Halloween isn’t the only party, there’s also Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, where you can receive hot cocoa and cookies on the corners of Main Street. Similar to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, this party also requires a special ticket. The park is transformed into a winter wonderland. The castle sparkles and shines with a million lights encasing the whole castle. Themed music and lighting takes the park to a different level at night. At the end of the night on your way down Main Street it might even begin to snow! This party runs from the end of November to the beginning of January.
Like I said before, Disney isn’t just for celebrating holidays, Disney loves to celebrate anything and everything, especially diversity. Disney has an amazing celebration that runs from the end of September to the middle of November called The Food and Wine Festival. This is a celebration of food and drinks from around the world. To take part in the festival you have to have tickets into Epcot. Then you get to pick what you would like to try and pay for the small sample size plates as you go around the park. You get to learn about the different foods and cultures from around to world. Even the Food and Wine Festival has it’s own special merchandise. The Cast Members that serve you are from that country and are always more than willing to explain to you any questions you might have. They love to enlighten guests and talk about their culture.
Whether you are down at Disney celebrating something personal to you and your family, or joining in with Disney’s celebration of holidays, Disney is the place to go. Disney will not leave you craving more, and the special ticket is so worth the experience. Cast Member’s love when Disney throws these parties. They get to change their costume and go above and beyond. The joy on the guests’ faces during these special times is priceless as well. So if you’ve never celebrated anything at Disney make sure you put in on your Disney Wish List. And as always have some faith and trust, and let Disney proved the pixie dust!
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Jess was born and raised on Long Island, New York but once college began so did her adventures. She’s lived in Florida, Wisconsin, and now South Carolina. Her family is part of the Disney Vacation Club and has been visiting since she was a little girl, and continuously goes every year. Besides being a big Disney fan she has also been a Disney Cast Member working in Magic Kingdom, and she counts it as one of the most magical experiences. She worked with everyone’s favorite elephant Dumbo, Cinderella’s Carousel, and Mickey’s Philharmagic. Jess has also visited Disneyland, Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, and gone on two Disney Cruises. She has so many great memories from Disney besides running half marathons and 5ks, birthday parties, and family reunions. If asked where she would want to go it is almost always Disney, and when asked why, it is almost always because she can eat awesome gluten free food! And it doesn’t hurt that there is always faith, trust, and pixie dust with magic in the air!
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