MK Crowd Size on Party Nights

[SarahMynah]

We will be at WDW at the end of September/beginning of Oct. We aren't planning to attend MNSSHP but I'm curious to know if the party affects crowd size at the Magic Kingdom during the day. Do more people avoid the park because of the shorter hours, is it a regular crowd size and then people just hop to another park, or are crowd sizes higher because the party draws more people who attend during the day too?

 

[sharonabe]

We will be at WDW at the end of September/beginning of Oct. We aren't planning to attend MNSSHP but I'm curious to know if the party affects crowd size at the Magic Kingdom during the day. Do more people avoid the park because of the shorter hours, is it a regular crowd size and then people just hop to another park, or are crowd sizes higher because the party draws more people who attend during the day too?

Crowds on party days are lighter since most people don't want to "waste" a day with shorter hours.

 

[gap2368]

It gets very crowded around 4 pm when they let party guest in. Before this it is less crowded

 

[gharter]

We did MNSSHP last year and did MK all day and the party that night. It was not too bad during the day. It definitely got crowded after 4 pm.
I've read about how the park is quiet with the parties and so many rides are walk on. That was not our experience. Maybe we picked an unusually busy night, but 7DMT was 45 minutes, BTMRR was 30 minutes, Haunted Mansion was 30 minutes. Many character meet and greets were 45-60 minutes. Jack and Sally (which is always popular) was over 2 hours. We had a lot of fun. The parade, stage show and fireworks were worth the price of the ticket. From what I had read, i was expecting much shorter lines for rides than what we encountered. Could have been luck of the draw of the day we went. We were there mid October on a Thursday night.

 

[whiporee]

We did MNSSHP last year and did MK all day and the party that night. It was not too bad during the day. It definitely got crowded after 4 pm.
I've read about how the park is quiet with the parties and so many rides are walk on. ... From what I had read, i was expecting much shorter lines for rides than what we encountered. Could have been luck of the draw of the day we went. We were there mid October on a Thursday night.

I don’t think that’s been the case for a few years. The parties are well attended — I think the crowd guess is about 35000 — and it’s more about the atmosphere than walk-ons. The non-headliners may have minimal waits but the big ones still do.