Author: Brent Abell

Writer of all things dark and evil.

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party 2024

On By Brent AbellIn Brent's Crossroads, Magic Kingdom, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Travel, Traveling Writer, Walt Disney WorldLeave a comment

Welcome to the Crossroads! Today, I want to give my final thoughts about Walt Disney World’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (check out the details here). The event is a ticketed party after the Magic Kingdom closes down. The night features trick-or-treating, a special fireworks show, and a villain stage show. Disney also has exclusive food, drink, and merchandise available to purchase.

Now, how was it for the cost?

The tickets range from $119 to $199 per ticket, depending on which date you attend. This event isn’t every day, so you have to plan when you want to party with the mouse. You can get into the Magic Kingdom a few hours before the party begins to ride the rides and grab a bite to eat. Once guests without a wristband have left the park after regular hours, the party gets going.

When the spooky lights come on, the fun begins. While kids can dress up and get candy from designated locations, there are plenty of other things for everyone to enjoy. Some rides have special overlays or lighting to give them a Halloween feel, and lightning effects are projected on Cinderella’s Castle. The vibe is enjoyable and festive. The highlight is seeing the Haunted Mansion portion of Mickey’s Boo-to-You Halloween Parade and riding the attraction multiple times. By the way, I am a huge Haunted Mansion fan.

The lines for the rides are almost all walk-on since the park capacity is significantly reduced during the party hours. Once the first parade and fireworks end, the crowd gets even smaller. The Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular stage show is done multiple times. Wait until the end of the night and see the last show right at the end of the party. This allows you more time to ride rides and pick up some treats or merch.

Overall, it is worth the money to do this extra-cost event. Being able to get right on most rides without waiting almost makes the cost worth it. We’ve heard you get a ton of candy in the past, but it seemed like we didn’t get much this year. They also have special dietary treats, and I didn’t get much of it when I cashed in my tokens for them. I should’ve stuck with the regular candy instead of trying to be good. We’ve also been to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and I feel it is a better party for the money. I’ll have to compare them again after attending this year’s Very Merry.

Thanks again for visiting! I will bring home some goodies from Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party to have as giveaways for subscribing here or following my TikTok over @brent.abell. Everyone subscribed here, following on TikTok, or subscribing to the new YouTube channel will be entered when it launches next week. You can get an entry for each one you subscribe to.

In closing, I want to give a shout-out to my Disney trip guy, Bobby Linn, at Pixie Travel. He does fantastic work helping you plan your trip, and best of all, it is a free service. Be sure to contact Bobby at bobbyl@pixietravelco.com to get your dream vacation rolling.

See you out at the Crossroads,

Brent

Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights 2024

On By Brent AbellIn Halloween Horror Nights, HHN House Reviews, Scare Zone Reviews, Travel, Traveling Writer, Universal Studios Orlando1 Comment

Good afternoon! Welcome back to Brent’s Crossroads, and thanks for coming along on the journey. This fall, I hit both Walt Disney World’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights 33. I will discuss Mickey’s Not So Scary next week, but now it’s time for the real scares.

Besides traveling and being a Disney Adult, I am also a dark fiction writer and a huge horror genre fan. Attending Halloween Horror Nights is something I’ve dreamed of experiencing. I was not disappointed. The event spans the main park area and features ten houses, five scare zones, a live stage show, and lots of food and drinks created for the festivities. The houses and scare zones are a mix of original concepts and IP (intellectual property) themes. Lastly, it wouldn’t be a huge even like this without plenty of exclusive merchandise. Now, I want to run through the houses and scare zones with how I ranked them. The placement is NOT a slight against the team members or scare actors- they were all fantastic and worked their asses off to scare the crap out of everybody. The ranking is based on concept and if the design worked or not.

And now, the rankings…

10) The Museum: Deadly Exhibits- The theme of this house was that an ancient cursed artifact has gone on display in a museum and causes all the employees and exhibits to rot and mutate. I wasn’t big on the theme or the way the sets looked. This appeared to be the one with the least budget amount.

9) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodline- Great set pieces, but a lackluster story. I’m not sure if the right amount of scare actors were on duty when we went through, because I questioned why the house protagonist is the one jumping out at me all the time. I expected more from a battle between Van Helsing’s daughter and the Bride of Frankenstein versus Dracula’s daughter. This should’ve been a homerun, but fell short.

8) Major Sweet’s Candy Factory- This house was based on a previous scare zone. The house had some annoying PA announcements you were forced to loudly listen to before you entered the door, and the story didn’t do anything for me. Kids on a school fieldtrip eat the candy and turn into little murderous brats who kill the adults. The brutal kill scenes were very good, but the story felt boring.

7) Goblin’s Feast- Tour a goblin kitchen and home where human is on the menu. The house had some nice set pieces, but didn’t strike as anything special.

6) Triplets of Terror- Follow the triplets as they murder people while they celebrate a birthday. The house isn’t bad, but when you get to the middle you ‘step’ into a true-crime podcast, it loses the story flow. I would’ve preferred the house stay focused on the killing spree and not the publicity the murders brought about.

5) A Quiet Place- Great sets with amazing props for the monsters, but the only thing that jumps out at you are the survivors jump scaring you to be quiet while they make a ton of noise to alert the creatures. I also wish it had something to tie to A Quiet Place: Day One.

4) Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America- This house was based on Latin American legendary monsters. The sets were great, and scenes nice and gory. I got jump scared good in this one.

3) Slaughter Sinema 2- This house was a trip through horror movies being shown at the Carey Drive-In. The movie themes and sets were top-notch with some very graphic scenes. I also have to give props to the designers for the shark animatronic and walking through the dude’s split in half body.

2) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire- This house surprised me. I fully expected to hate this house since I wasn’t a fan of the movie, but I loved it. It wasn’t a scary house, but the sets and effects were all great fun. Slimer and Ecto-1 won the house for me.

1) Insidious: The Further- I was very excited for this house when it was announced, and it didn’t disappoint. I love the film series, and being able to explore the Further made for a really fantastic house. The rooms were creepy and moody with the best scare actor placement in the whole park. The Black Bride was played perfectly by the actors and scared the hell out of people. This was also voted the best house for 2024, and it earned it.

Now for the Scare Zones…

5) Demon Queens- Walked through and didn’t even notice.

4) Duality of Fear- Like the zone above.

3) Swamp of the Undead- This one tried. You could tell the Scare Zones seemed mailed-in this year with all the money going into Epic Universe. Great sets, and the zombies looked good shambling around in the fog.

2) Enter the Blumhouse- This zone was based on Blumhouse films such as The Black Phone, Megan, Freaky, and The Purge. Nice idea, but it was essentially a photo-op area. Most of the main characters were on stages you couldn’t get on, and they didn’t come down. The only actors milling around the zone were Purge actors.

1) Torture Faire- A fine faire based on death and torment. Great sets and great actor interaction around the zone.

Overall, I loved HHN, and I want to go back every year now. The experience is worth it, and I highly recommend going at least once if you love horror. For more travel shenanigans follow me over on TikTok @brent.abell and follow here! Subscribe or like!

Well, back to working on the next book and planning for the next trip!

Later,

Brent

Snacks From Around the Globe

On By Brent AbellIn food reviews, international snacks, Travel, Traveling WriterLeave a comment

Hey travelers, welcome back to the Crossroads! This is where everyone can share their travel experiences and hang out. One thing I love to do when traveling to different countries is to check out the snacks. I look for candy bars, chips, or anything else I can’t find in the USA.

The picture is from my latest overseas trip. I toured Rome, Naples, Sicily, Athens, and Kusadasi in Turkey. While other tourists went to shops looking for shirts, hats, and shot glasses, I scoured the area for mini-marts and convenience stores. I was stoked to find new Ruffles, Doritos, KitKats, and Oreo flavors on my hunts.

My purpose in showing these here is to do reviews and tastings on the TikTok channel and this site. The upcoming YouTube channel will also showcase these reviews and have videos from different trips and events. I haven’t dived in on any goodies yet, but I did try the KFC chips in London last year, and they are phenomenal.

Thanks for coming by, and I hope to see you out at the Crossroads,

Brent

Welcome to the Crossroads

On By Brent AbellIn Halloween Horror Nights, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Travel, Traveling Writer, Universal Studios Orlando, Walt Disney WorldLeave a comment

I want to welcome you to Brent’s Crossroads. If you know me, you know I am an author who loves to travel and share my experiences. The purpose of this new site is to separate my writing work from my travels. I am also a huge Disney adult, and I have plenty to say and share concerning that as well.

The picture above is from this year’s Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nights. During the same weekend, I also attended Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. To kick this site off, I will have an article on both experiences in the next few days.

If you like traveling or like someone with a warped sense of humor about traveling, this is the place for you. I will talk about my trips, explore the sights, and review the local snacks I bring back from foreign lands on this site. Soon, there will be an accompanying YouTube channel, Facebook page, and other media sites for you to join in the fun with.

This is a work in progress, so please don’t mind the dust and sounds of the hammering. I want to give you a place to learn about other places to visit, what they offer, and what the food is like. Feel free to kick your feet up, grab a drink, and converse. This is your page, too, and you can always share your tales with everyone, but please be respectful.

You can find my author website at www.brentabell.com. If you feel so inclined, you can also join the TikTok page for videos about my travels and other musings about writing and the horror genre at @brent.abell.

Welcome again to the Crossroads, and I hope we can have fun traveling around together!

Brent