HalloweenTime at DLR Superthread #5-- HALLOWEENTIME STARTS SEPT. 9!! SOLD OUT!!

[Minnie Sue Oz]

The weather site I've been looking at has now got rain/showers listed for our party night too which is Halloween night. It's been changing lots of late so I'm not too worried......yet!

In regards to the fireworks, we were in the park on a non party night a few years back and had sat and watched Fantasmic! We decided to stay put and watch what we could see of the fireworks from where we were. To our complete surprise, it was the Halloween fireworks! Apparently the fireworks for the party on the previous night had been canceled so they let them off the next night. We did ask a cast member and were told once they were loaded, they needed to be used when it is the next available safe time to do so!

 

[cali_crafter]

We were in the parks Wed-Friday (12th-14th). The party was fantastic - we opted to run around the park enjoying the lack of lines and went on a ton of rides instead of meeting characters and collecting candy. We hit a few trick or treat trails towards the end of the party when there were no lines - I didn't see a point in wasting our valuable park time standing in line for candy that I could get at Target! I'm so happy we did the party because the park was SO CROWDED otherwise. I looked at the historical crowds on Touring Plans today and the days we were there were 9s and 10s (on a 1-10 scale). The Columbus Day week is now as crowded as Christmas week for the busiest in the park according to the calendar. It was super unpleasant, shoulder to shoulder everywhere, and lines were horrendous. We ended up getting fast passes and just shopping in between those rides and only got in a few rides a day. We ate mostly in Downtown Disney just to escape the people for a bit. For those of us who only go to Disney every few years, it's pretty disappointing to not get to experience the magic part of Disney, it was just a frenzy!

We still managed to have fun, but I definitely will never do October again. But not to discourage those of you going in the next few weeks, it looks like historically Columbus Day week gets the worst of the crowds.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I'm going to be a bit of a downer but I have to say, I will never do the party again. We went on Friday the 14th. It was insanely packed. Ride lines in fantasy land were short but Haunted Mansion was down half the party, as was Ghost Galaxy. The worst part of that was, there was no way to tell that until you got over to the land because it simply wasn't safe to look down at your phone with all the people. The party was so crowded, I couldn't even begin to identify where one would get in line for the treat trails. The cadaver Dans were absolutely awesome. The headless horseman was super cool. The parade was fine. Nothing spectacular. I suspect the second parade would have been light enough that there would be no point in getting a BB reservation. I did like the fireworks. My perspective may be a bit off because we are AP holders and can spend the day in the park "for free" but, overall, I would consider this a much worse experience than a crowded regular park day. Others were saying the same thing the next day at the hotel, so it definitely wasn't just me. Just way too crowded. Just as crowded as the parks at a 9 or 10. Yes, ride lines, when they worked, were shorter, but not by much and that was because mass crowds were all trying to do the same non ride experiences. If I had it to do again, I would be there just in time for the fireworks and the second parade and stay till midnight rather than at the beginning of the party. That might help the crowd situation. It still wouldn't help with the broken rides. Seriously, during our trip at one point half the rides were down from being broken or for refurbishment.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I'm going to be a bit of a downer but I have to say, I will never do the party again. We went on Friday the 14th. It was insanely packed. Ride lines in fantasy land were short but Haunted Mansion was down half the party, as was Ghost Galaxy. The worst part of that was, there was no way to tell that until you got over to the land because it simply wasn't safe to look down at your phone with all the people. The party was so crowded, I couldn't even begin to identify where one would get in line for the treat trails. The cadaver Dans were absolutely awesome. The headless horseman was super cool. The parade was fine. Nothing spectacular. I suspect the second parade would have been light enough that there would be no point in getting a BB reservation. I did like the fireworks. My perspective may be a bit off because we are AP holders and can spend the day in the park "for free" but, overall, I would consider this a much worse experience than a crowded regular park day. Others were saying the same thing the next day at the hotel, so it definitely wasn't just me. Just way too crowded. Just as crowded as the parks at a 9 or 10. Yes, ride lines, when they worked, were shorter, but not by much and that was because mass crowds were all trying to do the same non ride experiences. If I had it to do again, I would be there just in time for the fireworks and the second parade and stay till midnight rather than at the beginning of the party. That might help the crowd situation. It still wouldn't help with the broken rides. Seriously, during our trip at one point half the rides were down from being broken or for refurbishment.

I haven't been to a Halloween party at DLR before, but have done the WDW one. I would agree most people all want to do the party-specific events and tend to stay near Main Street for most of the party because of that. I would think that the crowdedness is more of an issue this year than perhaps in previous years because of the routes that are closed for construction. If I'm thinking about this right, there's no real way to get from NOS/Critter Country/FL now without somehow going through the Hub (either going from Frontierland to theHub or Adventureland)..with the corridor that goes behind BTMRR to Fantasyland being closed, I'd imagine that's making traffic flow an issue when there are crowds.

 

[Canadian Harmony]

Today's my last day. I have been here since Wednesday. I did the parties on the 12th and 14th.

Wednesday was super busy but I had a plan and followed it for the most part. I did the meet and greet at ToonTown where I got my photo taken in front of the giant sign and met Daisy in her costume. She switched out with Donald. Mickey and Minnie switched out with Chip and Dale. Goofy switched with Pluto.

I didn't do any trick or treat trails til later in the evening.

I went to Fantasy Faire and met some princesses. They switch out too. Mulan and Pocahontas switched with Ariel and Snow (iirc), Rapunzel and Belle switched with Tiana and Cinderella. Each time you can only meet one group, so I would, then get in line for the next two. After the fireworks, the next four would come back out.

I met Jessie on Wednesday, Woody on Friday, both at the petrified tree.

Wednesday had Captain Jack but I missed him and got Hook, Peter, and Wendy. Smee was Friday night but I missed him.

Rides were awesome except HM. Both nights after the first parade BTMRR and Pirates, JC, and Indy were all walk ons!!

Friday I met Malificent out front of the main street station. Queen of Hearts was the other and switched with Cruella. Then I waked across the street and sat on a bench for the second parade.

Lots of fun!! More reviews once I've done my TR this week.

 

[Nevada Jen]

There are definitely huge traffic flow issues in general right now in Disneyland. Add to it that at least one of Indiana Jones, PotC and/or Haunted Mansion are basically always down (and down for hours) and whatever is working having huge lines and you end up with people walking over there who are not being absorbed into rides and are basically wandering there and back. Honestly, with so much being closed, I suspect they were working off "general" capacity numbers and were really well beyond what the fire marshall would have allowed considering the actual conditions with the closures. It was pretty shocking on Thursday through Saturday this past week. It didn't kill the vacation because we generally know exactly what we are doing and have a DAS pass and can come back another time but if this was my big vacation I had saved all year for, I would have been miserable!

ETA: interesting that two people could have two such completely different experiences!

 

[Canadian Harmony]

I found frontier land was ok but as soon as I walked by Pirates into NOS, it was a gong show trying to get past HM. Pirates had a line no less than two hours throughout the day every day. If you want HM you MUST pull a FP

 

[kiapepito]

I'm going to be a bit of a downer but I have to say, I will never do the party again. We went on Friday the 14th. It was insanely packed. Ride lines in fantasy land were short but Haunted Mansion was down half the party, as was Ghost Galaxy. The worst part of that was, there was no way to tell that until you got over to the land because it simply wasn't safe to look down at your phone with all the people. The party was so crowded, I couldn't even begin to identify where one would get in line for the treat trails. The cadaver Dans were absolutely awesome. The headless horseman was super cool. The parade was fine. Nothing spectacular. I suspect the second parade would have been light enough that there would be no point in getting a BB reservation. I did like the fireworks. My perspective may be a bit off because we are AP holders and can spend the day in the park "for free" but, overall, I would consider this a much worse experience than a crowded regular park day. Others were saying the same thing the next day at the hotel, so it definitely wasn't just me. Just way too crowded. Just as crowded as the parks at a 9 or 10. Yes, ride lines, when they worked, were shorter, but not by much and that was because mass crowds were all trying to do the same non ride experiences. If I had it to do again, I would be there just in time for the fireworks and the second parade and stay till midnight rather than at the beginning of the party. That might help the crowd situation. It still wouldn't help with the broken rides. Seriously, during our trip at one point half the rides were down from being broken or for refurbishment.

I would agree with you. We attended the 10/7 party and it was packed! I prefer to be all day in the parks as well. My 5 year old and I got stuck on Pinocchio for fifteen minutes before a CM came out to rescue us!

 

[Kindermouse]

I'm going to be a bit of a downer but I have to say, I will never do the party again. We went on Friday the 14th. It was insanely packed. Ride lines in fantasy land were short but Haunted Mansion was down half the party, as was Ghost Galaxy. The worst part of that was, there was no way to tell that until you got over to the land because it simply wasn't safe to look down at your phone with all the people. The party was so crowded, I couldn't even begin to identify where one would get in line for the treat trails. The cadaver Dans were absolutely awesome. The headless horseman was super cool. The parade was fine. Nothing spectacular. I suspect the second parade would have been light enough that there would be no point in getting a BB reservation. I did like the fireworks. My perspective may be a bit off because we are AP holders and can spend the day in the park "for free" but, overall, I would consider this a much worse experience than a crowded regular park day. Others were saying the same thing the next day at the hotel, so it definitely wasn't just me. Just way too crowded. Just as crowded as the parks at a 9 or 10. Yes, ride lines, when they worked, were shorter, but not by much and that was because mass crowds were all trying to do the same non ride experiences. If I had it to do again, I would be there just in time for the fireworks and the second parade and stay till midnight rather than at the beginning of the party. That might help the crowd situation. It still wouldn't help with the broken rides. Seriously, during our trip at one point half the rides were down from being broken or for refurbishment.

I am so sorry you had this crummy experience. It may be a one and done for you but If you do decide to go back may I suggest doing one of the earlier parties. I had a very different experience altogether but I was at a wednesday party and it was the first week of october and the parks in general were all that crowded the week I was there. You just swear off them but if you do ever change your mind and want to try again I would do a mid week park early in the season.

 

[bluefunnel]

Went to last night's party. Definitely seemed a lot more crowded than last year. We still had some fun and got a ton of candy. A lot of rides had pretty short lines, except for themed ones, and everything around the carousel closes shortly before the parade(the classic dark rides).

To add to it, we had great experiences with so many CMs throughout the park but particularly on main street.

Unfortunately, we had to leave a little early. My wife wasn't feeling well and I had serious unforseen issues with my costume (it was hot and I couldn't use my left hand or access my pockets the entire time). We're probably going to go costume free on Friday.

 

[Sandan77]

I'm going to be a bit of a downer but I have to say, I will never do the party again. We went on Friday the 14th. It was insanely packed. Ride lines in fantasy land were short but Haunted Mansion was down half the party, as was Ghost Galaxy. The worst part of that was, there was no way to tell that until you got over to the land because it simply wasn't safe to look down at your phone with all the people. The party was so crowded, I couldn't even begin to identify where one would get in line for the treat trails. The cadaver Dans were absolutely awesome. The headless horseman was super cool. The parade was fine. Nothing spectacular. I suspect the second parade would have been light enough that there would be no point in getting a BB reservation. I did like the fireworks. My perspective may be a bit off because we are AP holders and can spend the day in the park "for free" but, overall, I would consider this a much worse experience than a crowded regular park day. Others were saying the same thing the next day at the hotel, so it definitely wasn't just me. Just way too crowded. Just as crowded as the parks at a 9 or 10. Yes, ride lines, when they worked, were shorter, but not by much and that was because mass crowds were all trying to do the same non ride experiences. If I had it to do again, I would be there just in time for the fireworks and the second parade and stay till midnight rather than at the beginning of the party. That might help the crowd situation. It still wouldn't help with the broken rides. Seriously, during our trip at one point half the rides were down from being broken or for refurbishment.

I was here the Friday 14 Party - and thought it wasn't busy at all - we ticked off all the big rides , rode Indi twice in a row , everything was walk on. HM was down as a cast member was injured - but in good spirits as she was wheeled out on a stretcher.
Space Mountain went down yes but not for long - we waited 15 mins and it was back up.
Maybe we were just lucky and in the right places at the right time .
The treat trails were great - I will be back next year, - we loved it!!

 

[Mysteryincorp]

We went last night (Monday 17th). It was a bit crowded in the bottleneck spots but nothing too bad. We started in the back of the park and kind of worked forward. This worked great! Treat lines were short, moved quickly and we got tons of candy!! Rides were all walk on, even Ghost Galaxy (though we did go during the fireworks).
Parade got moved from 8:30 to 8:50 and that really screwed up our plans. People were camped out earlier than I expected but we manage to grab a curb seat for all 8 of us. Since we grabbed seats earlier I felt like we wasted a good half hour for the parade. It was really short but so well done. My daughter freaked out on one part of the parade and she is not a normally timid kid. Not sure what that was about, it was a little scary but she majorly freaked.
Decorations, ambiance and cast members were awesome. Scarecrows and the cadaver dans were amazing. I had so much fun and can't wait to go again next year. I really wish I had tickets for another night.....so much we didn't see and we stayed until 10:30!
im not sure if I was just in the right place at the right time but I thought the crowds were really low. Other than the bottle neck areas I felt free to walk slowly and stop and check things out. We literally walked on to Indiana Jones and that was very early on in the party, I think it was 7pm. Great night! Can't wait until next year!!

 

[Nevada Jen]

I seriously don't know how I hit everything so wrong. It wasn't a miserable time but not something I would pay extra for again. Might also be harder for us because we have a wheel chair. I suspect crowds make it a bit harder to navigate. We admittedly just gave up on space. Getting over there from main street took us half an hour. And the wheelchair line had at least 20 people in it ahead of us. So we would have had at least a 30 minute wait after the ride opened back up. I wanted to mention, I was also surprised by the lack of costumes. There were some really awesome ones but I would guess at least 50% of the people were not in costume.

 

[Niltiac]

I seriously don't know how I hit everything so wrong. It wasn't a miserable time but not something I would pay extra for again. Might also be harder for us because we have a wheel chair. I suspect crowds make it a bit harder to navigate. We admittedly just gave up on space. Getting over there from main street took us half an hour. And the wheelchair line had at least 20 people in it ahead of us. So we would have had at least a 30 minute wait after the ride opened back up. I wanted to mention, I was also surprised by the lack of costumes. There were some really awesome ones but I would guess at least 50% of the people were not in costume.

The wheelchair probably had a bit to with it. We had a wheelchair with us this year but not last year. This year felt less crowded than last year, but we definitely went on fewer rides and moved through crowds more slowly, which I attribute to the wheelchair. We didn't even try criss-crossing the park with the chair, just went to one land, finished it, and went on to another. We also watched the parade this year which we skipped last year, so that took ride time away, but it was a choice (and a good one - I love the new parade). But going at a slower pace, we were able to enjoy more decorations and ambiance, so I enjoyed both parties differently.

 

[Fire14]

I went to Oct. 12 Party. I thought it was crazy zoo entire night no matter where in park I was and I thought entire trip was overcrowded and crazy. We were there Oct. 12th- 17th. I loved HM, didn't care for Ghost galaxy ( thought it was over hyped for what I saw). Loved Cars land. I was extremely bummed over my entire trip. This was second trip, we went back in 2010 and DCA was a HUGE construction wall, Splash was down and I don't recall what was going on with BTMMR, this trip Splash was again closed and I never got to ride BTMMR. The halloween party was fun but I'm not sure I'd drop 80+ again.

 

[Kindermouse]

I went to Oct. 12 Party. I thought it was crazy zoo entire night no matter where in park I was and I thought entire trip was overcrowded and crazy. We were there Oct. 12th- 17th. I loved HM, didn't care for Ghost galaxy ( thought it was over hyped for what I saw). Loved Cars land. I was extremely bummed over my entire trip. This was second trip, we went back in 2010 and DCA was a HUGE construction wall, Splash was down and I don't recall what was going on with BTMMR, this trip Splash was again closed and I never got to ride BTMMR. The halloween party was fun but I'm not sure I'd drop 80+ again.

OMG I remember 2010 (and in 2007-2008 when there were other walls everywhere ugh DCA has too much construction issues)when the walls were every where and I felt like a mouse in maze strugglng to find the cheese there between the walls. ugh how sad that you have only been there during that mess and with the crazy crowds that were there last week.

 

[mich311e]

I don't recall what was going on with BTMMR

I think 2010 BTMMR was in it's big re-ferb.

 

[Fire14]

I think 2010 BTMMR was in it's big re-ferb.

could very well be. I just know a lot of thought and planning went into this trip (2016) and to get there and have nothing but madness and crowds, I about wanted to cry. I was/am upset with my hubs over this but I don't know going when I'd wanted to go originally would have solved issue.

 

[SeaPic]

I'm looking for suggestions on which treat trails to hit and which to skip.

Last year was our first time so we just did the ones we could figure out. I feel like we missed ones with more than just a line.

Thanks!

 

[tzeitel]

I'm looking for suggestions on which treat trails to hit and which to skip.

Last year was our first time so we just did the ones we could figure out. I feel like we missed ones with more than just a line.

Thanks!

I am on the same boat. We kinda just hit the trails we came upon, then I hear that some were better than others I do so much planning for the regular days but never have for the parties. This time I will (try to) be more aware. Have heard that the Golden Horseshoe has a good trail.