Thurday October 9th 2025

The weather this week has been variable. It has been mostly overcast each day with a tendency to rain for a few minutes every hour or so. Not terrible weather, but it does discourage outside activities. I have allowed the weather to keep me from getting my exercise at the Disney parks each day this week until today.

It didn’t rain this morning. The hour by hour forecast for the afternoon showed a chance of rain it the afternoon and evening. Still, I decided to give it a try. My choice of parks for my exercise was the Magic Kingdom. It was only open to regular day guests until 6PM. The evening was dedicated to a separate admission Halloween party event. People with tickets to the party can get into the park at 4PM. Until that witching hour the park is not crowded on party days.

I arrived at the park around 2PM with a plan to stay until it got too crowded. The wait times were fairly short, but the crowds along main street were heavy. The daily parade had just finished. Getting to the end of main street involved a lot of browsing in the shops waiting for the crowd to thin. Eventually I got to tomorrow land, my usual starting place. I started with a ride on the People Mover. It was one of those rare rides with the lights on in Space Mountain. It is always interesting to see the ride’s actual track.

Second on my touring plan was a visit to the Carousel of Progress. This ride show has intrigued me since the first time I saw it at the New York Worlds Fair in the mid sixties. The ride has changed a lot since then, but I really don’t remember the New York version. It is rumored to be getting updated again when they add a Walt Disney Animatronic next year.

When I finished the Carousel of Progress it was after 4PM. The Halloween party guests were starting to arrive. In addition to the party wrist bands they wore, many were in costumes so it was easy to identify them. Their arrival also drove wait times up. It wasn’t looking like a fun two hours to come and then I noticed the black clouds on the horizon. The decision was made, I headed for the exit. The rain began as I arrived in the parking lot near my car. I didn’t gt too wet, but it rained as I battled traffic all the way home.