Halloween Party always that busy? (Fri Oct 22nd)

[pdampier]

It was our first trip to Disneyland - We flew down from Seattle last Sunday and spent a week in the parks with our two kids (3 and 5) - We didn't intend to go to the Halloween party but our 5 year old had done great all week so we decided at 4pm on Friday to buy the Halloween Party tickets.

But boy did it get insanely busy by 7pm (we went over to DCA to see the Electronica intro at 6pm) - Our first mistake was to try to get an early dinner in DL and the Stage Door. Took 40 mins inline there to get dinner. After that the park was so crowded it seemed like one long line to get candy for the kids.

The lines were so long we never got a chance to finish a "section" before it was time to head back for the parade or the fireworks which were again crazy packed/crowded in Main Street/Central hub...

Not sure if we just spoiled earlier this week due to the weather (Rain/clouds/cool temps etc) or if that level of crowding is more "normal" for the park?

It felt like anyone entering the park for the Halloween Party had an either/or decision to make - ride the rides or join the lines for trick/treating....

 

[disneymum58]

I actually really regretted spending the money for the MHP on Friday October 22. The lineups for everything were long. We waited in huge lines for characters, candy and rides. It was a great atmosphere though.
The park was insanely busy today too. Not even the clouds and threat of rain kept people away. We went back early to go swimming.
We are loving our renovated room at the DLH. We are overlooking Downtown Disney on the 8th floor and are planning watching fireworks from the room, then earlier to bed tonight. Magic Morning tomorrow!

 

[jory29]

We were there last year in October around the same time, I think it was the 19th, and swore that we will NEVER - EVER - go to DL resort any time in October, it was GRIDLOCK and very scary, and IMO, NOT safe to be in the parks during those times, should something happen where they need to evacuate the parks.

 

[KBelle5]

What would you say the average wait time for rides were? They were practically nonexistent on the 19th, but I think that was due to rain and the fact it was a Tuesday.

I'm going again on the 29th, so I'm expecting it to be much busier, considering its a Friday and really close to Halloween, but I would like to hit some candy, characters and attractions. I'm all about planning, so I'll have our "itinerary" all set up by Friday, lol.

 

[pdampier]

I don't think the wait times were long at all but getting to/from the rides due to the lines for candy and/or the general crowding made it very hard to get around the park.

One of the reasons we elected to buy tickets at the last minute was hearing they limited the number of tickets sold to reduce the crowd issues but - wow - that didn't seem to be the case. Or if it was then they were still selling way to many tickets.

We were there from 7pm to 10.30pm but in that time only managed to:

1. Get dinner at Stage Door (40 mins inline, 10 to eat)
2. Get inline and complete part of the stations (4 or so) on the Rivers of the America's Trick or Treat loop
3. Watch Halloween Cavalcade
4. More trick or treating up near thunder railroad
5. Picture with Woody @ Thunder Ranch
6. Fireworks
7. Walk over to Tomorrowland Terrace so our 5 year old could meet Buzz

and that was it there was no time for rides due to the difficulty of getting around.

 

[cmcdaniel]

We were also there last night. I was extremely disappointed. We have been to WDW's MNSSHP for the last 3 years. I left as if this was unorganized and too crowded.

We went back today. We have one more day of the parks. We have decided to go on Monday. If Monday is anything like today, we may never come back to DLR.

 

[pdampier]

We had a fantastic time during the week (Mon AM through Fri PM) - I was cursing the weather at the time but now look at it as a blessing if its usually that packed (or more) during weekends etc @DLR....

 

[Albort]

22nd of oct is a bit special.

The tues MHT was rained out so Disney gave a lot of extra tickets for them for the 22nd of Oct... thats why it was crowded...

 

[Tink91]

That sucks, hopefully Monday will be better for you!!

 

[silence]

22nd of oct is a bit special.

The tues MHT was rained out so Disney gave a lot of extra tickets for them for the 22nd of Oct... thats why it was crowded...

Interesting. I was there Tuesday and know nothing of them giving out tickets for Friday since we missed out on so many things.

 

[ConnieB]

Interesting. I was there Tuesday and know nothing of them giving out tickets for Friday since we missed out on so many things.

If it's done the same as WDW, then you have to SPECIFICALLY ASK at Guest Services for a "raincheck" or compensation of some kind (if you are leaving before the next event). In other words, they don't walk down Main Street handing out tickets for the next event. And asking a CM on the streets doesn't do it either, because they simply give you the line "the characters/trick or treat stations will move inside, the fireworks and parade may be delayed or cancelled, but there are still lots of things to do".

In other words, complaining to Guest Services is the way to get tickets for a new date. And you have to do it early in the evening, in other words, you can't have fun until 10pm and then decide you want to come back again, lol.

Again, this is how it happened at WDW....we were leaving because the rain wasn't stopping and in the struggle to get through the tunnels to the exit we struck up a conversation with a family that was also leaving, but they had their new tickets in hand....so we doubled back in and got ours too. But we had already asked two CMs and one manager type about rainchecks for a different night and were told the essence of the line I quoted above by the CMs and the manager said flat out "only if we close the park". When we got to Guest Services we simply said that we had heard that they were giving out tickets to the following night because of the rain, and they simply asked us for our wristbands back (probably so we didn't double dip and stay for the rainy night too). So it wasn't that they were giving out new tickets to really grumpy types, because I hadn't even complained yet, lol...just said "friend told me I could get".

I do understand why they don't announce this, can you imagine if the tens of thousands of people at Tuesday's party now have tickets to the almost sold out Friday party? Not exactly a fair way of doing it, but I'm not sure of another way they could.

Another thought...Friday's and Saturday's may also just be busier than weekdays because Disneyland has a huge local population that regularly attend Disney. WDW doesn't seem to have the locals coming in quite as much (or maybe it's because with 4 parks it's easier to mask crowds).

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

My friend was at the party on Tuesday the 19th. She said it started pouring rain around 3pm (when they were going to enter the parks with their party tickets), but the rain stopped soon after and it was dry the rest of the night. And she said all rides were walk-ons. She did not mention candy wait times though. Maybe the Ts parties are less crowded than the Fs??? After hearing her talk about it, it really makes me want to go next year.

 

[pdampier]

If they did give out extra tickets for those who were rained out on Tue (I doubt they did since the rain stopped around 5pm) it doesn't explain why they were then selling more tickets still at 5pm on the Friday. Shouldn't they have stopped those sales?

 

[toocherie]

22nd of oct is a bit special.

The tues MHT was rained out so Disney gave a lot of extra tickets for them for the 22nd of Oct... thats why it was crowded...

If they did give out extra tickets for those who were rained out on Tue (I doubt they did since the rain stopped around 5pm) it doesn't explain why they were then selling more tickets still at 5pm on the Friday. Shouldn't they have stopped those sales?

Agree with you pdampier: one of the 'benefits' of going to the parties is that there is allegedly a limit on the number of people allowed. I would be really mad if Disney gave out extra tickets for the Fri. party--the tickets all say "rain or shine" or something similar. And then to sell even more tickets? Unacceptable. We all take a chance on the weather--it might be cold, hot, rainy or whatever. I went on Oct. 15 and while the lines for candy were long they moved fast, the ride lines weren't that long. The people I was with really didn't want to watch the cavalcade or the fireworks (something I'm hoping to remedy on the 29th when I go with a different group!)

 

[Eeee-va]

I found Friday, October 15 to be quite busy too, though it doesn't sound like it was nearly as busy as your trip. Posted wait time for Space Mountain was about 30 minutes, we waited around 20 for Haunted Mansion Holiday, and something like 30 for Jack Sparrow. The Trick or Treat lines were slow for much of the night too, though I'm not sure they were quite as long as yours. Some depended on which direction you traveled; they were super-long headed one way but manageable heading the other.

Sorry about your crowds! If they gave out/sold even 5,000 extra tickets for the party on 10/22, versus 10/15, then it would have increased the crowd levels astronomically.

Or it could've been the full moon, I suppose. Hope you had some fun anyway!

 

[Woodduck]

We also were there on Tuesday 10/19 for the Halloween Party and not many people there, many people dressed up as ghosts, got about 30 pounds of candy and many character photos. Wish we would have known that they would have exchanged the tickets for Friday, since the weather was not the greatest and we didn't get back to Main St for the parade or fireworks. We bit the bullet and bought tickets for Friday nights party and it was busy. We only did two candy lines and watch the fireworks and then the parade and called it a night. We had a great spot for the fireworks at the end of the hub by the castle. When we bought the tickets for Friday night we got two passes for any ride to go through the exit for the next open spot on the ride.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

We just got back from 4 days at DL. The Halloween party was a disappointment, but we managed to have a lot of fun anyway.

We had 4:00 ressies at Cafe Orleans. It was fun to sit and people watch. The service was HORRIBLE. Our sodas were flat and we asked for replacements. Never got any. She said the machine was downstairs and when they fixed it they would send new drinks. We eventually got so thristy we grabbed a server with a pitcher of lemonade and asked for some. The food came all at once and was lukewarm, at best.

Next, we headed to Indy to use our fastpasses. My daughter left her lanyard in our jeep, so we waited for the Jeep to return with the next group of people. The lanyard was gone (probably in the pockets of the riders). My daughter was in hysterics and we tried to calm her down with a quick and expensive trip to a shop.

When the party started the lines for the candy were a mile long. I told my kids that we would have to wait and not waste our time in TOT lines. The rides were walk-on for the most part. The trouble was getting to them. The walkways were total grindlock from the TOT stations. The character lines were terrible, so we just gave up and didn't try for pictures.

We made our way to the area around Splash mountain and found the TOT lines were empty. My kids made several round trips and soon had heaping bags of candy. We had to check a suitcase filled with TOT candy alone....47 POUNDS!

We skipped the parade, but headed to the fireworks. We were amazed at how many people were leaving before the fireworks. Many left afterwards, so we headed to Tomorrowland. No lines and we exhaunted ourselves there and headed to Fantasyland until Midnight. The last two hours were a complete blast!

I think the locals left early for the most part.

My main complaint was the party crashers. Way too many people without wristbands Friday night. We lost count of the dozens of people we noticed in the first hour or so. They only checked ours once, as we headed to Matterhorn.

That is my biggest complaint.

 

[Woodduck]

We must have been check for wrist bands 15-20 times Friday night. We were not in costume except by orange pumpkin tee shirt.

 

[KBelle5]

It did start pouring like crazy on the 19th, but let up around 5:30/6ish, if I remember correctly, and didn't rain again after that. The Cavalcade and fireworks both went, just the Cavalcade was delayed slightly, and lines for attractions were practically non-existent. Candy lines were quick at first, got longer as the night went on, then slowed down again for the last hour or so. Character lines were quick in the beginning, then maybe 15 minutes at most near the end (we didn't do characters from about 7-10, although Jack/Peter Pan looked maybe 25 minutes at most throughout that time period).

If it had kept raining, my group would have sucked it up and stayed, and probably not even thought of complaining, considering they all are CMs or past CMs. It's not in our nature to complain about wet conditions and short lines, lol.

I still can't see CH having to give out a ton of tickets for Friday night, because it did stop raining close to the official start time, so it doesn't make that much sense to me that people would have left mas exodus before the official start time, even with the rain. Did that sentence even make sense, lol?

 

[Sherry E]

It's so interesting to hear the different perspectives of this MHP! Some folks have said the lines for everything but the candy were not bad at all. Even the character lines were supposedly not bad. Some folks have said they didn't notice a problem with non-wristband people. Some folks have said they didn't think it was really that crowded. I wonder if the circumstances just changed from night to night and it was different? Everyone seems to agree that they got tons of candy at the end of the night!!

Chances are, I probably would have thought it was too crowded for my liking. I hate it when it's so gridlocked that it's tough to get from Point A to Point B.

When I was at the TOTP 2 years ago, I thought the lines for characters were extremely long, and I didn't really find the rides for lines to be that short, either. They all seemed just as long as they would be in the daytime. TSMM had its usual long line. But the treat stops did not have long lines (and it was good candy) - well a few of them had longer lines than we wanted to deal with, but most of them did not have them on our night.

It sounds like the tides have turned in the last two years!!