So glad you are feeling better!! Sounds like you got a LOT done at the party! Way more than I did!
Thank you.
Yes, I got a lot done. Truth to be told, way more than I expected. My original "must dos" had been Max (who no showed) and Daisy in Toontown - I met Daisy in this outfit, but the pictures were not taken with my camera and I never got them. Then Skeleton Chip and Dale, Mickey and Minnie, Sally Slater and Constance and SuperGoof, and hopefully see the second parade. I was pretty sure that would be okay, but my friends were worried about me because this seemed like a lot to them. Unfortunately by the time someone had rearranged work to go with me the tickets had sold out.
In the end I got Daisy, Horace and Clarabelle, Chip and Dale, Skeleton Mickey and Minnie, Sally Slater (twice), Constance, Terk, Jane, SuperGoof, Pluto, Dr. Facilier, Sailor Donald, Pirate Chip, Pirate Dale, Jack Sparrow, Hook and Smee and Hades. I saw both parades, and could have met Baloo and Louie too at the Jungle photo stop, but wanted to play safe and let people through so I could get Terk and Jane.
My evening:
Showed up at Toontown 1.5 hours early. Nothing was set up. Me and some Japanese lingered and played Pokemon Go waiting for CMs to set up the line system from 2 years ago. That never happened. Everyone ended squished against the gates and they did a really weird way of advancing us. By the time we were allowed in I had gone from 3rd in line to almost 100 people back. I wasn't happy at that point and thought my whole timing had collapsed before the party even started.
After being let in went to the gazebo line in the middle to get whoever was there - the area where Goofy/Max were meeting was obviously not ready for any meet. Turned out they didn't send out Mickey and Minnie first, but Donald and Daisy. Daisy was at the left line, so I squeezed out of the gazebo line and went there. By the time I had been through that line the Goofy/Max spot had a massive line, but no one there. I spoke to a CM who was really vague if anyone would show up besides Goofy, so I decided not to risk it and headed out to Fantasyland Theater. The Theater had a treat trail with a character photo opp at the end. This trail hadn't even opened yet, although it was considered part of the preparty. So I sat down for a moment and ended up being the first person to meet Horace and Clarabelle. Went through the trail again and the CMs allowed me to wait for Chip and Dale - I was costumed as Rescue Ranger Chip, that may have helped.
I arrived at Rancho de Zocalo for Mickey and Minnie about 15 minutes before the party actually started. I was very surprised that nothing had been set up there yet and the CMs actually refused to tell us where the line entry would be. That lead to several groups lingering around and quite a bit of pushing and shoving when another CM finally showed up and announced we would be "walked in." I got through pretty fast still and went off to French Market for the Mansion characters.
There I found a line of... one family of four. They hadn't cleared out the restaurant on time, so we had to wait for this stop to open as well. By the time it finally opened 5 groups were in line. I was shocked. The CMs seemed a bit desperate - told us that they only had one mention on Instagram before. CMs at several other character meets tried to push people to this meet too. It wasn't on the map, it wasn't on the schedule. I understand human error can happen, but that meet seemed cursed. Anyway, Sally (Tightrope Walker) was meeting first. Lovely to meet, great set up but - I can't believe I am saying this - I wish the lines had been longer. This was such a great and original meet and I can see this being one to go away soon if the numbers are not right. The CMs told me when Constance would be coming out and I figured I had enough time to try for Terk and Jane at the Jungle Meet.
When I arrived there about 20 groups were in line and Baloo and Louie were meeting. That's my one regret of the night - I decided to hang back and wait for Jane and Terk, when in hindsight I could have comfortably met those two as well. Jane was charming as last year and Terk decided to steal my parasol for fun.
Back to French Market and Constance was a walk up. I had been worried silly about this meet and had actually considered doing this before Mickey and Minnie (where the line was pretty out of control at that point). So this was kind of a shock. I really enjoyed meeting Constance too.
At the Pirates meet they did have one line to meet the Neverland Gang and Jack/Redd. That wasn't the best decision in my eyes to combine two slow moving meets into one. I gave up there in the end and went to Town Square - at that point only SuperGoof was left from my must dos and I figured if he wasn't out at that point I'd catch the parade and then catch him when they came out again.
When I arrived at Town Square it was a little more than half hour before parade.
Got Pluto with only 2 groups in line. Was told Goofy would be out in 10 minutes, still before the parade. While waiting for Goofy I caught Facilier, Sailor Donald and the Pirate Chipmunks roaming in quick succession. Town Square was set up just like in the good old days, with tons of characters roaming. That has always been heaven for me. Then met SuperGoof and still managed to get a spot in second row for parade behind some kids.
At that point I slightly regretted not going for Baloo and Louie andI decided I'd wing it back to Adventureland before fireworks. Made it there, but Jane and Terk were meeting. So I passed and went to French Market. The CMs seemed really surprised to have a repeat visit. Hey, you told me to "hurry back".
After some more photos with Sally Slater I checked out the Pirates stop. At that point the line was really dead, the fireworks were just finishing. I met Jack Sparrow and just hit the switch from Peter and Wendy to Hook and Smee, so I got to talk to Peter for a moment too. For some reason he mistook my costume for Nana.
On my way back Adventureland still had Terk and Jane and I went back to Town Square checking if maybe I could get some of the roaming villains. That was a bust though because I was solo and had no one to take photos for me. But I still had a fun time watching the Tremaine Sisters going after Gaston and Dale bravely trying to fight the Queen of Hearts.
After second parade they opened the Villains photostop again and no one lined up for the Hades side. I figured "why not" and got in line. That got me a good spot for the "kiss goodnight" too. Said Kiss Goodnight took quite a while longer than usual because no one came to clear path for the Villains.
I had a extremely successful night, but there were definitely some snafus I had not seen the years before - especially that Toontown Entry was madness and I was very surprised no one "rescued" the Villains either.