interesting to hear others' thoughts. i have heard on more than 1 ocassion that MNSSHP was better themed (or at least very different from reg. park decorations), and therefore perhaps a better value.
i think the cost of
MVMCP is what gets me...i have always felt that i get such a GREAT deal when i spend money at Disney World (well, ok, perhaps i get a bit frantic at spending so much cash at the Poly!). there is SO much to do, and the attention to detail is amazing, and the CMs are wonderful. for this, however, i really felt like i wasted a huge chunk of money as the parks were already feeling so festive!
hope this helps others who will be attending other parties:
mistake #1: we got there early (5:30), but not early enough to beat the 6pm Wishes crowd, so Main Street was very crowded. my mil wanted to rent a
scooter, but there were none available, so we had to wait near the front until others returned their scooters for the day.
lesson learned: should have gotten there by 5ish and rented a scooter from outside the park
mistake #2: by the time we made it back to catch the 7pm show of Twas the Night Before Xmas (6:40 or so), it was standing room only (not good with 3 four yr. olds!)
lesson learned: should have gotten back there early enough to get a seat, as this is really the only theatre entertainment at the party...we KNEW this was going to be busy
mistake #3: we then we decided to grab a "quick" counter service meal...that took about 20 mins. in line, plus another 20 mins. to eat
lesson learned: should have stuck with my original plan to eat BEFORE we left the hotel, and eat later in the evening, but the kids slept late and we thought that the sleep was more important
we then decided to head back to liberty square to line up for the parade.
mistake #4: we passed up some of the other entertainment to make sure we got over in time for the parade (character greetings, dance party)
lesson learned: enjoy the entertainment that is in front of you
it was still 3 or 4 people deep in line for the parade, but i didn't worry about that, i knew the kids would see enough of it from the back to enjoy it. i stood in the 15min. long line to get cookies and cocoa while the rest of the group waited for the parade. (that worked out GREAT..once i got the treats, it kept the kids busy to eat the snickerdoodle cookies while waiting for the parade).as it turned out, we had an INCREDIBLE group of people around us who continued to work with the rest of the crowd to get our kids (and others) up in front--truly, truly a beautiful thing to witness the holiday spirit around us...the adults next to us would call out who was coming next to my kids, so they would know who to look for (my kids would get all excited, everyone would enjoy the kids' excitement, etc...it was a blast!)
......
after waiting to see Wishes after we walked into the park, waiting to get down main street, waiting to get food, waiting to see the parade, waiting for the parade crowd to clear out, my kids were NOT interested in waiting for any other shows, parades, or fireworks. they wanted to ride!
we ended up doing rides in adventureland (little to no wait on rides), which was nice, but i knew we were missing the rest of the christmas stuff. after we hit the rides, the kids were cold and tired. i thought they'd make it to at least after the second parade, but my dh pointed out that trying to get out of the park with 3 cranky preschoolers with the thousands of others that would be leaving after the second parade would NOT be a pleasant end to a nice evening.
we ended up leaving 10 mins. before the 2nd parade began.
mistake #5 we did not end up being on main street at any time while there was snow!
lesson learned: we should have asked when snow would be falling (or even lingering on the ground!) when we got in the park. we asked a CM on our way out, and he said it would be after the parade...
i post all of this not to be a Grinch, because we really did have a very nice (although very crowded) time! i wanted to let others know of our experience because i thought it would be SO special that it would be worth the extra $300 ($350?) we spent on MVMCP tickets. on that evening, with my family, it was not worth it.
had i done things differently, i think i would have been more pleased with the event. i think the biggest thing for me would have been to get there earlier, both to avoid the crowds leaving, but also to find seats to see the night before xmas show and the castle show while my kids were still willing to sit and wait. and of course, i would have spent more time on main street to see that snow!!
hope this helps someone else have a magical evening!!
