Mickey's Very Merry - Anyone else disappointed??

[jwfla422]

For so many years I have read such wonderful things about MVMCP and have heard it was a "don't miss" from several friends and read so many FABULOUS things about it. I have wanted to take my dd for 16 yrs to this but always declined because it was a splurge and I was nervous about committing to paying for it and not being able to go for some reason. FINALLY after reading about how the waits are never longer than 15 minutes (even on sell out dates) for the rides and many of the character greets were walk ups or minimal waits and how wonderful the castle show is and the parade, etc. etc...we went for it!

Maybe we expected too much?? Just trying to figure out what the $100+ pp gets you other than the parade, a holiday castle show & too many cups of moderately warm chocolate (as non of it was actually hot & it was a cold night) and tons of sugary cookies (that gave us the ultimate sugar hangover the next day).

Yes there were many character meets if you wanted to wait in a line of 25-30+ people--we got onto the Speedway quickly but by 8:00 the waits on many of the popular rides were 30+ minutes?? Maybe that doesn't seem like a lot to many on a given MK day but you are limited on time here folks and when I read in past years the longest wait was 10-15 minutes that's quite a difference!

We basically felt like we walked in circles all night looking for something different and extraordinary or a "walk-on" ride while "dodging" tons of people like we would on a regular park day...the highlight of the night was actually being able to see the parade and not having to save a spot for an hour (which would only be obstructed by some rude person pushing their way in front of us once the parade began)--we actually could see the parade up close with no pushing and shoving and it was a wonderful parade, but for $100, no just didn't make up for it.

Just wondering if anyone else has been disappointed by this event? We were so excited about going and were so excited once we got there but were SO let down & disappointed by the end of the night which even hungover into the next day. Are we the only ones who feel this way?

 

[Disneytam]

My family did it on this trip and though we were glad we did it I don't think we will do it again.The lines were pretty short for most rides and that was what we went for. I had read that lines for characters were always long and we had no interest in them but it was nice to be front row for the parade without a long wait.

 

[AngiTN]

Sounds like you maybe read some less than recent reviews? Not sure.
I have never seen it with no waits for the characters. The parties include rare characters and they've always had long lines. Excessively long. Any reports otherwise were really less than honest.
Rides, well, they are usually much shorter than during operating hours but not as short as 15 min max. Not for the most popular rides that see 60+ waits during the day. Again, any reports that showed otherwise were either less than honest or really old.
The nice thing that changed this year, maybe you missed it, the cookies and drinks varied by location. It wasn't all hot cocoa (which is not ever hot, no one wants to be burned so it's not hot) and sugar cookies.
We are odd in that we do think the parade is worth it almost all by itself. It's the most special thing Disney does.

 

[holden]

We went once and don't feel the need to do it again.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Yes, I had the same feeling when we went 2 years ago, but I would go again under certain circumstances. For instance, if we were going down for a weekend trip and the cost of the MVMCP ticket on top of a 1 or 2-day ticket would basically be the same (or perhaps less) than buying a 2- or 3-day multi-ticket, I would do it. If I were a FL resident without an annual pass or an offsite visitor that was touring multiple theme parks in Orlando, I would probably consider the party as opposed to a regular day ticket as it's actually a little cheaper. Like you, we weren't interested in the character meet and greets or the special party events. We did love the parade and the fireworks, but then my DS got tired and we left early. I"m sure for people who really love the special characters and events that are only offered at the party, though, this event is definitely worth it to them!

 

[cnkkohout]

Went 2 years ago...won't go again. We had been in the past and it was fabulous. They oversell they event now and it's not special or worth the extra money.

 

[Jennasis]

We did the party a few years ago and while it was "nice", we enjoy the Halloween party WAY more. Though at the prices they're charging now, we won't be doing ANY party until they add something fresh/new/major.

 

[rwdavis2]

Went on the first Friday it was held in 2012 and it was packed. Got to do the shows, parade, and fireworks and not much else. We went on a Tuesday (11/15) this year and lines were short and had better viewing locations for all the other events. We don't do character meets. Liked it much better this year.

 

[alliecat523]

We went last year and we're eh about it. After doing the Halloween party it felt like a letdown. Our ride waits were very minimal but character waits were long. Beyond that, it wasn't much to write home about.

 

[Madonna3]

I have never done this party myself, but I am scheduled to do it this year for the first time on 12/22. I've read this event is now sold out and I am *very* nervous as to what is in store for us.

However, I had a Disney newbie ask me my advice and I actually recommended that instead of paying for a full day of park time with a toddler that they do the MVMCP instead because lines and crowds were guaranteed to be shorter and smaller.

Well, I should have kept my mouth shut because these first timers came back horribly disappointed and I felt awful. The little girl didn't get to see Minnie because the wait was over 30 minutes and the baby didn't have the patience to wait that long. Ride times were 30-45 minute waits, and again, toddler with no patience was in tow, and while they did say they got to see the parade and enjoyed it, that's as about all they got to enjoy. Now, one side of the coin says, "great time to teach your kid patience", but the other side of the coin feels bad for telling these people that they should do this party over a regular park day with fastpass+.

So no, you're not alone in your disappointment.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I was not disappointed when we went, but I had lower expectations. I was looking for 8 hours in the Magic Kingdom during a trip that was otherwise spent entirely at Universal. We didn't do any characters, and it was chilly enough that hot cocoa was welcome. We just wanted a "taste" of MK on our trip, so we did our favorite rides and enjoyed the fireworks (well, I enjoyed the fireworks...DD isn't a big fan).

 

[Missyrose]

Just wondering if anyone else has been disappointed by this event? We were so excited about going and were so excited once we got there but were SO let down & disappointed by the end of the night which even hungover into the next day. Are we the only ones who feel this way?

I'm guessing you may have read some older threads about the party. There have been a slew of character cutbacks in recent years that many, if not all, have sizable waits. Disney also seemingly has sold more tickets in recent years, so there are more people in the park than before. All of this adds up to waits for almost everything at the party.

We did two MVMCPs a couple of years ago and have no urge to go back. Everything was very pretty and we had a blast, but we just like the Halloween party better.

 

[kaybird]

We are doing this for the first time on Sunday. Flying in at noon, so thought it would be a good day to experience something new. Hope my expectations are reasonable, looking forward to the parade, treats and fireworks.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We enjoyed the party, but we weren't there for rides and only wanted to do one character meet. I doubt we'd do it again, but I think it's worth doing once.

 

[jwfla422]

It is possible that some of the reviews I read were old, but it was on site that really discussed this years' party (2016) as well as the last few recent years and made comparisons on "sold out" nights vs. nights that weren't and claimed the sold out nights had no longer than 15 min waits. I agree-I think they are letting more people in this year as I always remember years ago not being able to purchase the same day because it ALWAYS sold out before the day of the event-I purchased our tix the morning of the event this year

I was on here for feedback of this sort but only found "planning" info which is somewhat helpful but if I would have known the waits were so long we would have skipped it. However that all being said for those that mentioned "if" this is your only visit for just the "day" and you were paying a regular park entrance fee for the day this would be the way to go.

But for anyone already paying for park hoppers or for AP holders (like us) this is an additional expense so it should be worth it (sorry a parade is not worth $200 to me but to others it might be. If you are going over the next week just be warned it will be busy BUT not as busy as a typical MK day during this time of the year. If you go without expectations then you should be ok. Maybe our expectations were too high (walk-on's for attractions or at least minimal waits and a few people in line for character greets?..c'mon what was I thinking it's Disney World!!

I didn't want to be the "BAA-HUMBUG" by no means but as ticket prices rise each year we just try to watch our budget but I finally said this is the year to splurge and quite frankly I would have rather have splurged on a fine dining experience or something like that which would have been a little more enjoyable for us. Thanks for the replies, guess I should have asked about this a week ago on these boards as the DISBOARDS really are the best source for all WDW info).

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

We went to 2 parties, 11/29 and 12/8. We had a plan and did really well the first party with characters but we had bad luck with the treats as we went later in the night and they were all serving the snickerdoodles (which were really bad,stale and didn't taste at all like a snickerdoodle) or the little snowman sugar cookies(which were ok but nothing great). We went to all the treat locations both nights and never found the chocolate peppermint cookies which we might have liked and only found the ginger ones one night(they were pretty good compared to the others)
So the treats were definitely not worth the hype. We loved the parade and fireworks and the new stage show, although the texting Christmas song not my style.

We might have given the party a solid rating(despite the lacking treats) except our second night. We had used Josh and Kenny websites and so my DH went to line up for Scrooge using the map and both websites said the Casey Jr Train. Well there was some confusion on where in that area. The first 2 CM's said they weren't sure he even met in the area. The next CM told DH and some other groups to line up by the camels. Ok, several other CM's confirmed this is where to line up for Scrooge McDuck.
We join him in line and wait and at 7 out comes a Photopass person who is motioning to people who are at the end of the line who walked up maybe 30-15 minutes ago. My DH and at least 10 other groups had been there since 5. So the group kindly mentions that this is the start of the line. This is where it all goes downhill. There seems to be an issue as no the line is supposed to start over there. A manager is called in and she is of very little help. She keeps stating that she is sorry the CM's informed us wrong but offers no solution other than to get in the other line which looks to be over an hour and a half long. One of the ladies suggest that we just move the 11 groups that had been there so long to the front of the new line and go from there. This manager seems to not really understand the situation, I nicely try to explain that we had waited 2 hours and therefore expecting us to waste more time waiting is not a solution. My sister had 2 little ones and my Kindergartner who hadn't eaten yet as we expected to meet Scrooge then grab some food to go as she was watching the first parade in Frontierland.
Some of the groups were getting really angry so I noticed a security guy come over. My sister happened to notice one of the groups got let in by some families at the front so we went over there and finally got through Scrooge by 7:40, I think. My biggest issue was the lack of care by a manager no less.
Either move the few groups to the front or give us a time to come back when we will be put to the front or something. We were told wrong by several CM's so it was on Disney to make it right as it was their employees. I did mention that if the lines for Nick/Judy, Sandy Claws and 7 Dwarfs could be so well done starting at 4 no less than I would expect they need to do the same for Scrooge as he is popular as well. In the end for the cost of the tickets the Disney magic was missing and we really didn't feel like there was any customer service from the manager.

This trip had quite a few problems so even though I had planned to book a Bounceback we didn't because I honestly am not sure about going back next year. We had some good times but the problems were too many for the cost. My DH plans on writing a letter to Disney in the hopes that others won't have our same problems. We had met some very nice first time families who were very frustrated and said they would not come back. Disney needs to really turn things around as I think their customer service has slipped to an all time low at least that is what we experienced, sadly.

 

[AngiTN]

But for anyone already paying for park hoppers or for AP holders (like us) this is an additional expense so it should be worth it (sorry a parade is not worth $200 to me but to others it might be. If you are going over the next week just be warned it will be busy BUT not as busy as a typical MK day during this time of the year. If you go without expectations then you should be ok. Maybe our expectations were too high (walk-on's for attractions or at least minimal waits and a few people in line for character greets?..c'mon what was I thinking it's Disney World!!

I didn't want to be the "BAA-HUMBUG" by no means but as ticket prices rise each year we just try to watch our budget but I finally said this is the year to splurge and quite frankly I would have rather have splurged on a fine dining experience or something like that which would have been a little more enjoyable for us. Thanks for the replies, guess I should have asked about this a week ago on these boards as the DISBOARDS really are the best source for all WDW info).

Yes, if you expected to walk on all attractions and have few people in line for characters your expectations where way too high. Other than saying the waits were lower than in the day time, anyone who reports no lines anywhere is pulling your leg. At least since 2011, when we took DGD to her first party. I can't say about before then. We've found the crowds from 2011 till this year (we went Thanksgiving weekend) to be the same also. I know they have increased tickets sold but it wasn't increased this year, it's been a while.

 

[georgina]

We are doing this for the first time on Sunday. Flying in at noon, so thought it would be a good day to experience something new. Hope my expectations are reasonable, looking forward to the parade, treats and fireworks.

We (DH and I) did that a couple of years ago, flew in on a Thursday mid-December and went to the party that night. Based on that year's reviews, I knew Jack as Sandy Claus was coming out early (like 6:00) so we lined up for him first. Character lines were long, I have no idea how this year's party is for characters though. We did some rides, lined up for the 7 dwarfs (about 45 min wait), had dinner, saw the parade and fireworks, enjoyed the atmosphere. I had 3 FP for the 4:00-7:00 time period and our expectations weren't extremely high but I think we did Pirates and the Jingle cruise on the way out of the party. We enjoyed the evening.

 

[Disney_traveler]

From my experience, the wait times of 20-30 minutes IS a much lower wait than it is during the regular day time. In all the years I've been to Disney (from 2003 on) I don't ever recall a lot of rides having less than a 30 minute wait during the regular day.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

I just did this with a friend 12/4 and it was fun. It was a short trip so one party night compared to a park ticket wasn't much different and we wanted to see the party. I would say last year we did MNSSHP twice and loved it, MVMCP was cute but I don't need to go back. With the higher cost of party tickets now I don't know if I'll do MNSSHP again.
We did find decent waits on the rides, BTMRR was a walk on for us then they started letting people stay on (this was around fireworks time). Jingle Cruise and PoTC had maybe a 5-10 minute waits. Practically no wait for IaSW, HM, or the small stuff in Fantasyland. 7DMT had 30 minutes posted but we had FP'd it before the party so we didn't wait for it.
We skipped characters this year as we waited over an hour to meet Jack Sparrow at the Halloween party last year. I have never heard the special characters are easy to meet at parties. I've read the standard characters have shorter waits than usually, but we've not tried to meet them.
We never made it to the Hot Cocoa. We only stopped at the Egg Nog and Molasses cookie stop :-/ Overall not impressed with the "special" offerings of the MVMCP.