Having just taken advantage of this for NSSHP, I wonder if anyone can explain how the ticket checking works. Let me explain what happened, and why I'm wondering...
My party of 9 had Park Hopper passes, already used earlier that day at another park, upon arriving at the Magic Kingdom around 3:30pm. There were a lot of guests standing behind the ropes waiting to enter, presumably because they had not purchased admission for that day and were waiting for 4pm. To the right of this eager crowd was a way into the park, but only for
DVC members.
First question (that I didn't think to ask the Cast Members at the time): Wait, shouldn't there have been a way for guests holding Park Hopper or Annual Pass admission to enter at that time even if they weren't DVC members? They told us we had to wait -- that only DVC members could go in.
I didn't have my physical card, but I was able to show that I was a DVC member by opening the Disney app on my phone to display my DVC member number. They let all 9 of us in, and the line of about 20 Cast Members standing at the ready with wrist bands for the Halloween Party quickly attached them to our wrists.
Second question: What if we hadn't paid the extra $95 per person for the party; would they even have noticed? We were entitled to enter the park at that time regardless, and it was a same-day Park-Hopping re-entry. I don't remember whether the Mickey head at the virtual turnstile glowed green or blue or purple. Maybe it was purple, and that's how they knew to give us the wrist bands?
It was a fun evening, not so scary at all.
- M