I know that lots of people think that WDW’s increasing trend to offer after hours, separately ticketed  parties is a blatant scam and not fair to those that have already purchases park passes. They see it as just one more way for Disney to price gouge, forcing people to shell out extra cash in order to stay in the Magic Kingdom until midnight. As much as I love to save money at WDW, this is just not something that I get upset about. In fact - Hey Disney Corporation, here’s my wallet! Empty it out, because I love these parties!

I’ve decided that one man’s scam is another’s dance party.

Lauren and I were at the May 2 Pirate and Princess Party, taking advantage of the low crowd levels that we usually find at the parties, having our usual great time, wearing the crowns,and posing for pictures with characters. As we passed the “It’s A Small World” building we started to hear the “thump, thump, thump” of the beat of what sounded like disco music. “What’s this?”, we asked each other, and headed off in its direction. And there it was, a dance floor beside Ariel’s Grotto, with a sign that said “Dance Party”. Little princesses (maybe a handful of pirates) were getting funky with the cast of Disney’s “Little Mermaid”.

Will Lauren ever get so old that she’ll be too embarrassed to dance with Little Mermaid characters? I certainly hope not! When she saw the little girls dancing around with Ariel and Flounder, I knew what she wanted to do, and I nodded my approval. We were at Disney - where else can you dance with animated sea life?  A very cute park employee joined her and she had a good old time. I was laughing so hard I’m lucky I got any pictures at all.

So, all of you who think the after hours parties are scams - did you know about the dance parties? I mean, seriously, did you?  If only it were an every day occurrence to turn a corner and find a dance party.  And come on, you have to agree that one with Ariel makes that 40 bucks a real bargain!

And all of you moms who were alarmed to see a 24 year old woman join your 4 year olds at the dance party - have a heart!  After a week of deadlines and late hours at work in New York, a little dance party was just what Lauren needed.