Chapter 2
To Goat or Not to Goat

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Tracy left work with plenty of time for us to get to Disneyland well before the party started. When we met back in the room, the two of us quickly started to get into costume.

Tracy had decided to dress as the Cheshire Cat using the tail we had bought on the last trip, an ear hat from eBay, and various other accessories.

After having fun with my Disneyland Cat costume at the last Halloween Party, I decided to stick with the theme of obscure park residents, so I dressed up as Pongo the goat from Big Thunder Ranch.

I used spirit gum to attach my horns and beard—which I knew I’d probably regret as the night wore on. For now, though, both of our costumes were in pretty great shape.

As we headed outside, we were both instantly sweating like pigs with our long-sleeved shirts. We knew from experience, though, that as soon as darkness fell we’d be very happy for our light layers.

It was more than an hour before the party would officially start, but we still went through the turnstiles for Special Event Tickets.

Since it was our first time actually going into the parks on this trip, I also had to take the obligatory pictures of all the pumpkins adorning the entrance.

I love how everyone really gets into it for the Halloween Parties. We were surrounded by people in costume even though we were still quite early.

I had to avoid smiling with teeth because I could already feel my horns starting to come loose and I couldn’t risk wrinkling my forehead more than necessary.

I love the cast member costumes for the parties.

As we passed the gates and got our wristbands, it was like being welcomed home—but it was also different because of the way the park transforms for the event.

Soundsational was about to start as we made it into Town Square, but the giant inflatable ghost had also already been set up. Just goes to show how Disney juxtaposes a regular operating day with the beginning of the party.

There are always so many great pumpkins, and I notice new ones all the time.

We were honestly trying to avoid the parade as we started down Main Street, but I still got a couple pictures as the Frozen pre-parade went by.

I love how the castle is framed by the two big pumpkins in the hub.

We had one destination in mind as we left the parade crowds behind us: we needed to make it back to Big Thunder Ranch so that I could take pictures with the goats while I was in my Pongo costume.

I had tweeted to @DisneylandToday earlier to check the hours for the Ranch and had been told that it would be open until 5:00pm. Here it was just after 4:00, however, and we saw a terrible sight as we reached the end of Big Thunder Trail.

They had closed the Ranch early, and I wouldn’t get to show off my costume to all our hoofed friends!! Forlornly, I took the above picture anyway…

 Since our plan had been foiled and the pre-party events weren’t set to start for almost another hour, we started to make our way back toward the front of the park. En route, we saw the scary giant bird that often lurks by the Adventureland entrance—but this time he was flapping his wings and looking very imposing.

Since there wasn’t a wait for the PhotoPass photographer by the castle, we thought now would be a good time to pose in our costumes, so we had him take a picture on our camera.

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