Disney Vacation Club Moonlight Magic review

On Friday, February 24, 2017 a good friend gifted Jordyn and me with admission to the Disney Vacation Club Moonlight Magic event at the Magic Kingdom.  We were able to meet 20 characters in 12 meet and greets in the 3 hour party including some really rare ones!  Here’s our photos and story from the night.

We began by lining up 1.5 hours before the party began.  Guests using only the Moonlight Magic admission were allowed to enter at 8:00pm and the party officially began at 10:00pm sharp.  Last year they offered one line in Storybook Circus for Darkwing and Launchpad.  In 2017 they split the lines for the characters meeting at Casey Jr.

One side would be the line for Clarice and the other side would be the line for Darkwing Duck (who was filling in for Ludwig von Drake).  Clarice was our number one meet and greet because I told Jordyn 13 years ago that we’d get to meet her in Hollywood Studios, but never saw her again in Walt Disney World.  Both Clarice and Jordyn were extremely excited for the meet.

I joined in the fun.

The line for Darkwing Duck was quite long.  Some were saying 1.5 hours, but it was more like 45 minutes and the line was much shorter as the party was concluding.  No word on if Ludwig von Drake will actually make it out for the March 3 party.

I am the terror that flaps in the night!

Jordyn was really excited to finally meet Darkwing Duck as well.  She talked of how my nephew Danny would be thrilled to meet Darkwing.  I’ve met him a couple of times, so I let Jordyn have all the interaction time as to not slow down the line.

We chose to skip meeting Max near the Barnstormer as we have seen him many times and he wasn’t in a special costume.  We chose to move on to Chicken Little and Abby Mallard who were meeting at the entrance to Storybook Circus.  The line may have appeared long, but it only took about 15 minutes.

We talked about how my son Nathan loved Chicken Little when he was a tiny tot.  He had the plush and jumped for joy when he saw them in Hollywood Studios many moons ago.  I told her he’d be that excited if Dash ever became a meet and greet as well.

We then moved to Tomorrowland to meet the Bowler Hat Guy.  Meet the Robinsons is such a great movie and many haven’t seen it.  A couple of people in line didn’t even know who they were waiting to meet.

He’s just a big kid who wanted to play baseball.

It was fun watching him interact with the guests and even cartoon stalked one family which had us all in stitches.  I told him to watch out for Doris, she may not have the best plans for him.  We waited about 15 minutes, which included a quick break for him to check on his T-Rex.

From there we moved to Adventureland to meet Terk and Timon.  The line was crazy short.  I asked for a photo of them and they took turns rather than meeting together.  Not sure why, but we went with it.  By the way, Terk is a girl.  Many people refer to her as a him.

Timon is super rare these days in Walt Disney World, so it was fun getting to visit with him.  He and Terk were hilarious as they fought for camera time.

I told Timon he has the best show in all of the Disney parks and Terk became sad.  We lamented the loss of the terrific Tarzan Rocks show.  I told her she should boot out the fish from her theater.

We expected to find a long line for Dr. Facilier at the Liberty Square Riverboat dock, but only waited about 15-20 minutes.  He had specific sets and we were the last in the set that occurred before the fireworks.

The Shadowman is always a lot of fun.  We told him we met Bowler Hat Guy.  He looked a bit confused.  I told him “Hes’s your friend on the other side…of the park.”  

We then made our way to meet the Pinocchio crew.  Our friend was in line, so we joined up with him to meet them.

I don’t know why, but Gideon looked a little sad.  Foulfellow and Gideon each had their canes.

As we were taking the photo, the fireworks spectacular began behind us.  It was a unique show that included many fun, popular songs.  It was a bit of a change from seeing Wishes and they fired a ton of pyro into the air.  We watched the show from Fantasyland.

Goofy was in Frontierland wearing his Cowboy costume with no wait.

Goofy is my favorite Disney classic character and he doesn’t appear in this costume any longer in the park, so it was great seeing him in something other than Barnstormer at an event.

Country Bears Wendell and Big Al were in Frontierland in front of their attraction.  Late in the evening the line was a whopping 4 people!

I demonstrated my terrific singing voice and asked for a tryout for the attraction.  I had the scruffy beard going on, but the guys felt the vocal work needs a little improvement.

We saw Abu and Genie late in the party with a moderate wait.  They were pretty popular through the night with a wait in the 25-30 minute range.

I would have loved to see Genie in his tourist costume, but no complaints from me on seeing these fun characters together.

Reports throughout the night had the Ariel/Eric and Belle/Beast meet and greet at 1 to 2 hours throughout the night.   I recommend going to visit them right before the party ends and accepting whatever wait you get.

Don’t you love Eric’s improved costume?  It’s our first meet with him since he upgraded.  Ariel was lovely as always.

It’s very rare to meet Belle and Beast together these days, so this was a real treat.  Beast greets at Be Our Guest for Dinner and Belle in France, so they rarely meet together.

Belle is such a wonderful Princess and great example for young ladies that you can dream and be intelligent as well.  She is Jordyn’s favorite Princess as she loves reading.

Throughout the night we grabbed snacks like cookies, chips, chicken nuggets and sodas which were included with the event.  I was told that the hot dogs at Casey’s Corner were free as well.

No one knows how to do events like Disney Vacation Club!  These are always well organized and feature great rare meet and greets.  If we had wanted to ride any attractions, there was no line for them.

If you have any questions, let me know!