Halloween party nights' wait times...

[Hisgirl]

I've done the MNSSHP three times now and honestly, the awesome shows and parade (and getting to dress up) are all great, but we never ride the rides.

Every time, we find long lines and since we can't make a FP, we end up walking past, looking for a line shorter than half an hour.

We went this year on Sept 28th. We walked in the gates around 6:30 and for the next 90 minutes, walked around the park, enjoying all the costumes, but we walked past every single ride we wanted to ride because they all had at least a 30 minute wait. Even things like Winnie the Pooh. 30 minutes and more.

Has anyone found this to be true other party nights? I wonder why they wouldn't allow FP? I've never felt the park felt like it was a low crowd. In fact, the party night crowd was much higher than any park we experienced during the week.

I would like to see them allow FP+ on the party nights so we don't spend so much time in lines. We finally DID stand in line at Pirates and man it was so hot and sweaty until we got into the building.

We had heard there would be pirate interaction but that was truly a joke. Two CMs in costume, and it was really lame.

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

You can get in to MK on party nights at 4pm and make 2 FPs (from 4-5 and 5-6) for the pre-party time. We did it for MNSSHP last year and I managed to snag 7DMT and PP during our MVMCP pre-party time this year.

I can't comment on the ride wait times because we went to MNSSHP the day the parks reopened after Irma and crowds were very low. But in our experience, the character lines were significantly longer than the ride lines.

 

[dachsie]

On Sept 25 we walked on all rides except 7DMT which was only 25 mins

 

[Disneylover99]

I've done the MNSSHP three times now and honestly, the awesome shows and parade (and getting to dress up) are all great, but we never ride the rides.

Every time, we find long lines and since we can't make a FP, we end up walking past, looking for a line shorter than half an hour.

We went this year on Sept 28th. We walked in the gates around 6:30 and for the next 90 minutes, walked around the park, enjoying all the costumes, but we walked past every single ride we wanted to ride because they all had at least a 30 minute wait. Even things like Winnie the Pooh. 30 minutes and more.

Has anyone found this to be true other party nights? I wonder why they wouldn't allow FP? I've never felt the park felt like it was a low crowd. In fact, the party night crowd was much higher than any park we experienced during the week.

I would like to see them allow FP+ on the party nights so we don't spend so much time in lines. We finally DID stand in line at Pirates and man it was so hot and sweaty until we got into the building.

We had heard there would be pirate interaction but that was truly a joke. Two CMs in costume, and it was really lame.

Most of the Friday night parties have seen longer lines for rides, but it can be hit and miss. Much depends on attendance, weather and if rides are going down.

We went to two parties this year. One with ride lines and one without.

 

[indoshakespeare]

on 9/3, all rides were walk on except 7DMT and Speedway

 

[rstamm]

We do the Party stuff I know others go for characters not really sure why people would do rides you could come in at opening or earlier and do rides.

We will be there Halloween week and do 2 party's.

We'll get to the park around 11am and do attractions but when the party gets started it we'll do both parades, Fireworks, Trick or Treating and 3 Hocus Pocus shows.
Maybe Big Thunder once and TTA a couple of times.

So much party stuff to do don't care about attractions at all.

 

[RedStars]

I go for the rides and shows; I don't really care about meeting characters. I've been stalking wait times for the past few parties (we go on 21st) and it seems to be short-ish wait times with a few exceptions (PP, 7DMT, etc).

We also scheduled 3 FPs: 330-430 (we will arrive prior to 4 to lineup so we can make it to Buzz by 425), 430-530, 530-6. And we'll use pre-party time to ride some of the rides.

 

[Delirium]

It's been several years since we've been to a party, and I understand that they have gotten more crowded over that time. But, after trying it multiple times, our favorite way of attacking the party is:

• It otherwise being a non=park day. Relax at the resort, arriving at the park between 4:30 and 5:00. plan to stay until midnight.
• Don't dress up. Costumes inevitably become uncomfortable after a few hours, and the 'fun' aspect of dressing up wears off.
• Watch the parade (2nd one) and fireworks. They are special.
• Study in advance all of the other special show offerings. Know which ones you want to see and what times you want to see them. They can be unnecessary time hogs with poor planning.
• Avoid characters unless the wait is visibly short. Yes, that means you won't get to see Jake/Sally & the Dwarves. But, the lines for them are simply too long to justify when you factor in the cost of the party.
• Avoid trick or treating at all cost. Babysitting a bag of second rate candy while trying to go on rides is not fun. And, that does not even factor in that some of the candy lines take a while to get through. If you have your heart set on candy, get it towards the end of the party. We would not even do that any longer, as we found it to be easily the least enjoyable part of the party.
• Ride as many rides as possible. We usually did a Tuesday or Thursday party and found lines for even the most major attractions to be short.

 

[ktlm]

We were there September 30 and Oct. 5. Sept 30 was great - everything was walk on or 5 minutes except for 7DMT. The temperature was perfect and it was not crowded. October 5 was hot and crowded with a lot of lines of 20 minutes or more. I heard Thurs.Oct 4 was sold out and was likewise hot and crowded with longer lines.

 

[VAtink]

We were there on September 18th, and found the rides to be walk-on pre-party. However, once the party started the lines jumped up to 15-20 minute waits, which was odd compared to previous years. This was a strange year though, the previous few years we've found 20-30 minute waits for rides before the party, but once the party started they were walk-on! This was also by far the most crowded I've seen a party, and frankly the most crowded I've seen MK in September!

 

[gharter]

I've done the MNSSHP three times now and honestly, the awesome shows and parade (and getting to dress up) are all great, but we never ride the rides.

Every time, we find long lines and since we can't make a FP, we end up walking past, looking for a line shorter than half an hour.

We went this year on Sept 28th. We walked in the gates around 6:30 and for the next 90 minutes, walked around the park, enjoying all the costumes, but we walked past every single ride we wanted to ride because they all had at least a 30 minute wait. Even things like Winnie the Pooh. 30 minutes and more.

Has anyone found this to be true other party nights? I wonder why they wouldn't allow FP? I've never felt the park felt like it was a low crowd. In fact, the party night crowd was much higher than any park we experienced during the week.

I would like to see them allow FP+ on the party nights so we don't spend so much time in lines. We finally DID stand in line at Pirates and man it was so hot and sweaty until we got into the building.

We had heard there would be pirate interaction but that was truly a joke. Two CMs in costume, and it was really lame.

We did this last year and had a similar experience. We went in with the expectation of very short ride waits.
Loved the parade, stage show and fireworks. That made it worth it.
Ride time waits were as bad as during the day and meet adn greet wait times were all over 30 minutes.
Was much more crowded than I expected for a hard ticket extra.

 

[fairestoneofall]

We were there September 30. We arrived at 4 pm with FPs for Space Mountain and the Jungle Cruise. We watched the first parade, watched the fireworks, and ToT at multiple locations. We did not visit any character other than a brief visit to the Disney Junior dance party.

We walked onto every single ride except Peter Pan (about 15-20 minute wait) and Buzz (which we did before the party officially started). We were even able to ride 7DMT with no wait by going immediately following the fireworks.

They allowed DH and DS to ride twice in a row at Big Thunder and Tomorrowland Speedway.

The attractions we accomplished between 4 pm and 12 am are as follows (in order): Space Mountain (FP), Peoplemover, Buzz, Jungle Cruise (FP), Magic Carpets, Pirates, Splash, Big Thunder (3x), Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Parade #1, Small World, Hallowishes, 7DMT, Pooh, Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway (2x), Space Mountain.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

3:10- 4:10, 4:10 - 5:10 and 5:10- 6:00. Space Mountain was our first and I figured I'd have a power hike to make it on time but they let us in a few minutes before 4.

 

[okilydokily]

Was this posted wait times or actual wait times. It's possible they are making the lines seem longer since it can change so quickly during the parties. It's been a few years since I went to a party, but they were often pretty short.

 

[fairestoneofall]

Was this posted wait times or actual wait times. It's possible they are making the lines seem longer since it can change so quickly during the parties. It's been a few years since I went to a party, but they were often pretty short.

For us, most of the posted wait time were 10-15 minutes. Peter Pan was posted 20-25 (I can't remember exactly). 7DMT was posted as 30, but we went right after the fireworks (and walked right on). That line was already picking back up when we were exiting the ride.