Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialize

Last Friday, October 12th, Christina, Kacie, and I all had off so we joined Christina's co-worker Amy to watch Pitch Perfect. We've been wanting to see this movie since the previews were out months ago.  The AMC theatre at Downtown Disney has a cast discount and I was able to use my family's movie rewards card. For those of you who don't know, Pitch Perfect centers around a collegiate glee club competition. The movie is much more than just singing and dancing, which by the way was phenomenal. The character development was excellent as well as the acting. This was definitely one of the best films I've seen in a long time! I highly recommend it. My friends and I left the theater with a music high and were singing songs from the film while strolling around Downtown Disney, feeling like a girl glee club group. 

Our friend Ellen joined us after the movie and we planned to go on Characters in Flight, the hot air balloon at Downtown Disney which just reopened. Unfortunately, it was too "windy." Coming from Chicago, it seemed a bit pathetic for them to be calling it a windy day when there was only a small breeze off an on. But, safety first so no hot air balloon for us. I often see the bright red and yellow balloon floating in the air and get jealous of the spectacular view one must have from there. 

Speaking of wind, the weather here in Florida is very weird. It's still incredibly warm. It was in the high 80s today and very sunny. It still feels so much like summer that it's hard to believe it's the end of October already. However, I can tell that Florida's "fall" is coming because the evenings and mornings have a slight chill to them which is refreshing after working outside in the hot sun wearing my costume. I do miss the Midwest fall with beautiful leaves in shades of reds, oranges, and yellows and walking along paths of dried up leaves crinkling under my feet. I miss going to the apple orchard for cider and donuts and taking a hay ride at the pumpkin patch. Although the Magic Kingdom is full of fall decorations, Epcot sadly doesn't have any. From August until about the end of September it would rain every day (seriously, I could count on one hand the number of days it did not rain) for about an hour, usually sometime between 3pm and 5pm. Unlike Chicago when it would be rainy and gloomy all day long, it would be beautiful outside then the rain clouds would roll in, downpour, and then back to sunshine. Being hurricane season, we did have several hours of downpour  one day while the hurricane passed over Florida to the Gulf Coast. Thankfully, the rain has let up considerably in October. 

Back to our day at Downtown Disney. The five of us strolled around going in and out of shops (World of Disney, Ghiradeli, TrenD) and took pictures with the Mickey shaped pumpkin decorations. Of course we took a group picture with the "everyone smile!" dragon. We decided to get some food at Earl of Sandwich, known for their delicious hot sandwiches. I tried their famous fresh lemonade. 

That evening, Christina, Colleen, and I went to the Polynesian resort to watch Hallowishes from the beach. We walked in through the front door and were given leis after we performed a little hula dance. 















Then we got a dole whip to eat while sitting with our feet in the sand. Watching Wishes from the Polynesian was a must do on my bucket list and this was really special because since Mickey's not-so Scary Halloween Party was going on that night, we got to see the Halloween version of the show. The soundtrack is played from speakers around the beach so we were able to watch the fireworks in tune to the villain inspired music. The finale was incredible because many big bright fireworks were set off on both sides of the castle, lighting up the lagoon. 









Spectacular evening to a fun filled day!