HELP! 1st time for MNSSHP,...NEED A PLAN!

[Holly&Joesmommy]

Help, ... 4 days to go and I need a plan! I am o.c. about having park plans,..but I've never been to MNSSHP and I haven't read anything about a plan/stratagy for it.

Here is the deal, we (12 of us) will be arriving Fri, so we did not buy day passes to MK, just tks to the party. 3 of the 12 have NEVER been to MK!!! SO I FEEL THE PRESSURE to show them all I can. I can not stand the in the middle of Main st. trying to figure out what to do, or where to go next,... so PLEASE can some compassionate soul help me out with a plan??? Any suggestions will help. I think I did read that we should TOT at the end of the night to save some time....?
PS we have all ages, 5,9,16,16,21, 30+ - 60+ Thanks in Advance

 

[karrit2000]

If this is a serious post TOT is not at MK. So save it for another day. In my experience, The crowds thin out the later the hour gets. SInce we are nearing the actual date of halloween the parties do tend to be more crowded. But from what I've been reading this year it has been quite crowded mucot of the parties. You need to see the fireworks. It is less crowded for the second/late showing of the parade. You can get into the park after 4PM with your party ticket. Make sure you have your dinner over with before 7pm when the party officially starts to get the most out of the party events. The trick or treating has its slow times & heavy times. Much more crowded in Toontown. The treat walks are good because there are multiple stops for candy & photo-ops. There is always one that starts near the Toontown train station & ends in tomorrowland. Last year there was also one near the jungle cruise. There are lots of villians out. As for the rides HM is a must do since it is halloween & there is a ghost out on the lawn that interacts with the guests. If you are going to be giong back to the park later in your trip don't stress over getting on all the rides. Do what you can on the regular rides before the party starts except for HM. There are a couple of dance parties for the kids if they like that. Someone has has posted links to the Party Map which shows what is open, where the treat stations are & lists the times for the fireworks & parades & dance parties. It also shows where all the treat stations are. Once the party begins don't try going back & forth across the park. Work your way around the park and you will save yourself a lot of stress. Just make sure you end up in position at the right time for the fireworks & parade. The parade follows the regular parade route so there are plenty if good spots along the way especially if you do the later one. Don't make the rides your main focus during the party.

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

ok, thanks so much for your info.
We will not be able to go to the park another day this trip b/c we leave sat for our Eastern cruise, so I did want to try to get in the rides. We are not so concerned about the dance party, and well eat before we go,..resies at Wispering Canyon Cafe'.
I think I am worried that there will be so much going on that we will loose focus easily.
Again with the OC thing!
I do remember seeing a map on here, with some info, thanks for that reminder, so I will search that out and try to work up a plan w/it. We will have a chance to TOT on the ship, our DIS group is SUPER and they have organized our very own TOT plus the ship has one too,...so I think we will not focus on that,...just gotta break it to the kids.

 

[marthachick]

Don't miss the Headless Horseman's ride a few minutes before the parades. It is sooooo cool! DS still talks about it a year later & he's 15!

 

[MariDisney]

When you said TOT I assumed you were talking about Tower of Terror...but if you're going to do it on the ship, it's not that! So, after strainging my brain, I give up...what is TOT?

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

When you said TOT I assumed you were talking about Tower of Terror...but if you're going to do it on the ship, it's not that! So, after strainging my brain, I give up...what is TOT?

Trick or treat....TOT
sorry I forgot about the TOT abrv.

 

[javaonline]

$6.95 buys you access to touring plans dot com for one year and it has 3 different touring plans for MNSSHP on it.

When we went to MNSSHP on 10/06, we didnt need a plan...most all of the rides were walk ons. But we had the plans just in case.

 

[shades]

We just went last Friday night to the MNSSHP and it was more crowded than I expected based on previous posts I'd read. However, most rides were 10min wait or less. I think the advice given by another poster about not focusing on the rides and paying more attention to the special Halloween activities is very good. I'm still kicking myself because we focused on rides and missed EVERYTHING Halloween! We never stop for parades and of all parades, this is the one to see, IMHO. Simply because there are characters & floats that are special to MNSSHP.

We did not do any trick or treating just because the candy was nothing special - garden variety Halloween candy. Although, I've read that the characters are trick or treating, too - so, this may be something to do for those with little ones. The trick or treat lines were longer than we cared to deal with - especially when we were able to literally walk-on Space Mountain

We arrived at the park at about 7pm and there was a massive crowd heading for the exits. So, I recommend arriving at least by 6pm to avoid the non-party crowd departure. Mainstreet was pretty crowded - but, very cool to look at. Lots of special lighting and neat decorations.

So, if your party wants to ride the rides - this is the time to do it because the lines will be very short compared to regular nights at the MK. For those who are going specifically for the Halloween party, follow the schedule on the times guide so you don't miss out on the cool stuff. I really want to go again - just so I can see all of the stuff I missed while we were running from ride to ride.

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

good advice thanks!

 

[mtemm]

absolutely do not miss the parade or the fireworks. they were outstanding. the villains mix and mingle, too, although we did miss that (cancelled due to a light rain, and we left before another one). there are lots of trick or treating stations, but if there are lines, I personally wouldn't waste too much time doing that. my daughter loved the dance party in fantasyland. make sure to do the haunted mansion that night...the cm's there are great, and its such a perfect ride for the night. all rides we did were walkons, but if they aren't, make sure you aren't doing them instead of the parade/fireworks/special shows, unless you won't be back to the mk at all.

have fun! hope it isn't too crowded. we went last monday and it was perfect, crowd wise. I've heard fridays tend to be busier, and the closer to halloween the busier as well.

eta, you can get in with just your mnsshp tix at 4pm, so go a bit early if possible.

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

Thanks mtemm for the tips. We do plan of seeing the parade.
Wondering about the fireworks show??? do we really need to stake out a place for that,..or can it be seen from where ever in the park? our 5 yr old saw some of the video here on the DIS and I think it may be too much...??? ALso, anyone done the villians mix & match...? how was it?