The Yorktown Owens: Halloween

Disney World at Halloween Pictorial Part Seven: Downtown Disney

This is the end of the Disney photos. Thanks for checking them out!

Look over yonder behind the Mickey topiary. It's Basin, my favorite Disney World shop.

I'm pretty sure this one is my mom's favorite.

All in all, it was a great time. If everything goes well, we are headed back for #4 in four years, this time at Christmas again (I love Halloween, but I am a teacher...I was pushing it to go at Halloween this year).

If you are thinking about going to Disney World and it's a stretch to make the trip, here's our advice. Plan it out two years in advance, unless your kids are really little, then think, really think about the age that they would enjoy it the most. If you know you have the means to go back again, don't hesitate to take little kids, but if it's a once in a lifetime trip, make sure your kids will get the most out of it. Disney costs a lot--I mean a lot, of money, but it's a blast.

Arthur's best advice on what's fun at Disney: "Figment the dragon." (Figment at Journey into Imagination, EPCOT)

Justin's best advice: "If you are going to spend the day at EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival, have more than four dollars on you. Because there is a lot of nice-looking food there which you can not eat if you only have four dollars."

Justin got burned on that one.

Check out the rest of our vacation:

Part 1: Flight and check-in

Part 2: Hollywood Studios

Part 3: Magic Kingdom

Part 4: EPCOT

Part 5: Islands of Adventure

Part 6: Animal Kingdom

Disney World at Halloween Part Six: Animal Kingdom

Cousin Noah on the Triceratops Twirl

See more of our Disney Halloween vacay:

Part 1: Flight and check-in

Part 2: Hollywood Studios

Part 3: Magic Kingdom

Part 4: EPCOT

Part 5: Islands of Adventure

Disney World at Halloween Pictorial Part Four: EPCOT

Unlike everyone else, who seem to prefer Hollywood, EPCOT is my favorite park. I remember visiting when I was a little girl in 1984 when it was practically brand new, which I find hard to believe when we ride through the outdated but kitchalicious Spaceship Earth.

As a mom, I really appreciate the abundance of characters for little ones to meet and greet on the way in.

It's too bad I lost our autograph book on Halloween (I shouldn't have been using it for freewriting). Arthur will appreciate it more next year, anyway.

I was thrilled beyond words to witness the Captain Eo revival firsthand and finally share it with my hubs. This 3D Michael Jackson wonder, complete with George Lucas Star Wars rejects, is a can't-miss.

Seriously. This stuff is golden. Makes me want to thrust my hips.

Innoventions is a cool place for little ones to play with hands-on learning activities. Arthur is counting money in these pics.

Can't resist taking a photo of the fiber-optic ground, which is much cooler in person.

This thing at Journey into Imagination is too awesome for words. The boys are conducting music and images with their hands.

See more of our Disney Halloween vacay:

Part 1: Flight and check-in

Part 2: Hollywood Studios

Part 3: Magic Kingdom

Part 5: Islands of Adventure

Part 6: Animal Kingdom

Disney World at Halloween Pictorial Part Five: Islands of Adventure

Going to Disney World almost four months pregnant has its challenges, as was brutally apparent on our trip to Universal's Islands of Adventure. I was so excited to finally experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

We ate at Three Broomsticks. I was a little disappointed to see that the menu was much more limited than the one I'd seen advertised online (a more current one is here) and the service was pretty abhorrent. "You can tell this isn't Disney," someone in our party remarked. But it was good food. I enjoyed the shepherd's pie with a "pumpkin juice." Moments later, however, I found myself retching in the bathroom pictured to the left, above, which happened to have piped in Moaning Myrtle. Borderline hyperemesis in 90 degree heat is bad enough at a theme park, but the Moaning Myrtle was the nail in the coffin.

I really enjoyed this store window. You can't tell from the pic, but they sold white chocolate "sugar skulls"--really, really cute ones. I wanted to take one with me so badly, but I knew they wouldn't survive the 90 degree afternoon in my backpack and wasn't about to trek back here after a full day at the park. Next time, perhaps.

I am incredibly jealous that Justin got to ride the cutting-age Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which he declared to be the coolest ride he'd ever seen, apologizing emphatically for having enjoyed such an incredible thing without me. When I asked my companions what that meant, it seems the ride was beyond description...from what I gather it's some kind of cross between a roller coaster and a badass cinematic 360 degree dark ride. I suppose I will find out in December!

This is Suess Landing. As we were in the company of two two-year-olds, we spent an awful lot of time here.

Arthur particularly enjoyed this ride, the High in the Sky Trolley Train Ride.

This was one of the few prego-approved rides I got to enjoy. It's kind of the Dumbo-style ride, but you control the up and down movement and there are large fish that spit on you.