MNSSHP and AK After Hours Questions

dis1010

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 26, 2003
Messages
35
Hi all,

We're traveling with toddler twins next month (will be 20 months old) for 8 nights - split stay BLT/BCV. It's just us two parents and our girls. It's been a decade since we've been to WDW, as we live in California. Went to DL earlier this year and it was beyond magical.

Frankly, we're stressing out about our plans. We want to focus on things the girls might enjoy, but we also don't want to miss some of the "adult" attractions. We have FP+ for all the things we would want in terms of long wait rides (FOP, SDMT, FEA, SDD, Soarin, Test Track, ToT, etc...). But the more we look at our days, we see ourselves spending a lot of time rider swapping and focusing on the girls.

We had been planning two "date nights" during the trip to go to nicer restaurants. But I've been rethinking things. Instead of that, we are thinking of "throwing money at the problem" and trying out AKL After Hours and MNSSHP as our date nights in an effort to do the "adult" rides then. That would allow us to focus our daytime park time with the girls on things we can do with them.

My impression of AKL After Hours (this would be Sept. 9th) is that we could actually reasonably ride all the adult rides during that event. The complaint I see if that it's somewhat of a waste of money. We're willing to live with that part of things.

For MNSSHP, the impression I get is more mixed. Ideally, we would do Sept. 8th for this (as we'd be staying at BLT that night), but that's a Sunday, which is more crowded. We could also do Sept. 10th (Tues) or 12th (Thursday).

Are we going to be able to reasonably do things like SDMT, Space Mountain, BTMRR during MNSSHP? Or are we going to be sitting in long lines, making it a waste of money?

Some related questions:

1) If we do MNSSHP, are the dessert parties worth it?

2) Any sense of the likelihood these sell out? If so, how long in advance would we need to get tickets?

Thanks!
 
We did MNSSHP on a Friday night in October last year. We entered the park around 4 and managed to do the following:
  • Buzz Lightyear (FP)
  • BTMRR (FP)
  • Splash
  • Dinner at Pecos Bill
  • Pirates
  • Magic Carpets of Aladdin
  • Haunted Mansion
  • Peter Pan
  • Carousel
  • 7DMTR
  • Hallowishes
  • Sanderson Sisters show
  • Parade
  • Space Mountain
We also stopped to do some trick or treating and a few photo ops in between, but this is the bulk of what we did. The longest wait times were 7DMTR and Peter Pan. Both at around the 35-40 minute mark I think.

We were at AK earlier in the day and used our FPs there. We were able to pick up the Buzz & BTMRR ones as 4th and 5th FPs.
 
With the DAH events, the rides that are open will basically be walk on - the number of tickets sold to those events is highly limited.

With MNSSHP, the number of tickets sold is a lot more than it used to be. Few if any rides will be walk-on, but the waits were still a lot less than the parks during the day at peak times. You can enter the park earlier than the party time for both events (4pm for MNSSHP, 7pm for DAH) and book some fastpasses for the time frame leading up to the event. Once the events begin there are no fastpasses, but that might help you get in a few things on the front end. We've also timed certain rides specifically during parade/show times so that more of the crowd is doing something other than the rides, and that's worked pretty well.

Enjoy your trip!
 
I would not count on ride lines during MNSSHP to be terribly short. When we have gone, we have never seen 7DMT standby at less than 30 minutes. That being said, if your only goal is to ride rides and not really enjoy the rest of the party, you shouldn't have any trouble riding everything. Will you be going to a park earlier that day with your DD's with FP+? If so, after you are done in the parks with your DD's, you could certainly go on the MDE app to see what FP+ are available starting around 3:30 pm or so, so you could at least have a FP+ when you enter the park that afternoon. If you aren't going to a park earlier with the girls, you could make 3 FP+ between 3:15 - 6:00 pm and knock out some of the headliners at MK so you could enjoy more of the party offerings.
 

There just the 2 of you and your 2 toddler? Do you have someone to watch the kids for your date night?

AK After Hours is basically a paid way to ride FOP multiple times. You also get unlimited popcorn, Mickey ice cream bars and bottles of water or soda. I did the MK Villains one this June. I think After Hours at MK is a better deal than AK one. There’s way more rides open versus AK.
 
Last year DH and I did MNSSHP at the last minute. We added it on and went Friday night (in October) after we got off a cruise that morning. We got there just after 4 and did every single ride we wanted! The longest we waited was for Peter Pan & 7DMT and those were only about 20-25 minutes. It was completed worth it to us and we are taking our kids this year! We were able to see the Hocus Pocus stage show, second parade and HalloWishes, as well as do a good bit of trick or treating!
 
Anyone know if AK will continue to be Monday nights and MK will be Thursday nights in November?
 
My daughter and I will be there the same week as you! We're doing the DAHAK, we've done it in the past and loved it. We're hoping to have the same luck with walking on rides. I also booked the MNSSHP for that Friday. I booked 2 FP starting at 3:40 for 7D and PP just in case the lines were long during the party. We'll have both of those rides out of the way before it starts and then we can focus on the Party. We haven't done the Halloween Party in years so I'm hoping this plan works. Enjoy your trip!
 
Last edited:
Just wanted to say thank you for the thoughtful responses. We're going to do DAHAK for sure. Still up in the air on the Halloween Party. The more I read about it, the more I'm interested going just to experience the party :)
 
If cost is not an issue, then I say go ahead, splurge a little and do the DAHAK and the Halloween party. We've only done the Halloween party once, but we really enjoyed it. Knocked out allot of the rides and saw HalloWishes show. It was a fun evening. And I loved seeing lots of people dressed up. Just festive feeling while you are there.
 

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