MNSSHP but don't care about the 'party'

[melle]

We are going on a cruise and the day after we get off the boat thought we would go to Magic Kingdom. i noticed its a Mickey halloween party that day so my understanding is they would kick us out by 7 right?
but if we wait and just buy tickets to the party we can go in at 4 and stay till midnight correct? and we don't really care about the party/meeting characters. So how will the lines for the rides work for us- will they be shorter at all compared to normal days?
And i heard we get in at 4 and after 7 you can't get fast passes- can i get a couple fast passes for between 4-7 and if so how do i go about getting those?

 

[Traveliz]

Yes you have all of that correctly. The lines for rides will generally be short waits/walk ons. The major exception last year was the Mine Train which still had a pretty long line at 11:30 at night (we waited thirty minutes then) but it was new too so that may have a slight effect on that.

Liz

 

[melle]

could i somehow get a fast pass for the Mine Train ride for before 7 pm?

 

[scrapquitler]

We generally skip most of the party stuff (but like the parade and the fireworks, a bit of trick or treat and maybe 1 character meet and greet) and ride the rides. Our experience is that the ride lines are generally quite a bit shorter than during normal park times, especially later in the evening. Someone mentioned 7 Dwarves not being shorter, and that wouldn't surprise me since it's still 'new'.

I would suggest that if you go, be there at 4 to maximize your time in the park, and don't skip the parade (the second one had smaller crowds both times we were at the party). Also the Haunted Mansion CMs wear special makeup.

 

[Mikie]

We are going on a cruise and the day after we get off the boat thought we would go to Magic Kingdom. i noticed its a Mickey halloween party that day so my understanding is they would kick us out by 7 right?
but if we wait and just buy tickets to the party we can go in at 4 and stay till midnight correct? and we don't really care about the party/meeting characters. So how will the lines for the rides work for us- will they be shorter at all compared to normal days?
And i heard we get in at 4 and after 7 you can't get fast passes- can i get a couple fast passes for between 4-7 and if so how do i go about getting those?

If you buy party tickets and link them to your MyDisney Experience account, then you will be able to select Fastpasses 60days prior to your date (if you're staying onsite) or 30 days prior (if you're offsite). I'm pretty sure The computer would let you pick FPs for any time that day, because it just knows you have *a* ticket. It would be up to you to make sure you only choose FP times between 4-7 because your party ticket won't get you in before 4pm.

This thread has fabulous FP info :http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

 

[georgina]

In Dec for the Christmas party we had FP (using our linked party ticket) for 3:30-4:30, 4:30-5:30, and 5:35-6:35. They let us in about 3:45.

 

[amomma23]

We did the exact same thing with a cruise and MVMCP this past December. We took Disney transport back to the Poly after debarkation, napped in the room for a bit, had a late lunch/early dinner, and headed to the party about 3:30. They let us in about 3:45 and we had Anna/Elsa FP for 4:00ish, 7DMT at 5:00ish, and Jingle Cruise at 6:00ish. It worked perfectly. We skipped all of the party stuff except for some free cookies and the 2nd parade. We stayed till about 12:30 so basically had a whole park day for a lot less $$ than 1-day MK tix.

 

[saskdw]

We are going on a cruise and the day after we get off the boat thought we would go to Magic Kingdom. i noticed its a Mickey halloween party that day so my understanding is they would kick us out by 7 right?
but if we wait and just buy tickets to the party we can go in at 4 and stay till midnight correct? and we don't really care about the party/meeting characters. So how will the lines for the rides work for us- will they be shorter at all compared to normal days?
And i heard we get in at 4 and after 7 you can't get fast passes- can i get a couple fast passes for between 4-7 and if so how do i go about getting those?

We've never been to MSSHP, but we've been to MVMCP numerous times. We also don't care about the "party". We go because most of the people cram themselves onto Main Street all night and the rides are all walk on. We can ride everything we want multiple times. Because we aren't rope drop people this is the only time the lines are like that for us in December. The exception was 7DMT, there was still 30 min waits for that.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Lines are shorter, AND it is cheaper to buy a MNSSHP ticket than to buy a regular park ticket. I think it is a great way to visit the park. You might want to check out the Boo to You Parade, though. It is pretty spectacular. We also got Fatpasses last year from 4-7, but we could not get Anna and Elsa or SDMT. On party days, you have both regular park guests and Halloween party guests going after those 4-7 fastpasses, so they are a bit hard to come by. We did Fastpasses for Splash Mountain and BTMR and Enchanted Tales with Belle.

We rode SDMT with no wait at the party, but we went on it just as Hallowishes was starting and the ride had been shut down for a few minutes. We happened to get there just as they were re-opening it.

 

[melle]

In Dec for the Christmas party we had FP (using our linked party ticket) for 3:30-4:30, 4:30-5:30, and 5:35-6:35. They let us in about 3:45.

How do you know what time they will let you in? we will have to park our car, so should we plan on getting to the parking at like 3:30ish?

Lines are shorter, AND it is cheaper to buy a MNSSHP ticket than to buy a regular park ticket. I think it is a great way to visit the park. You might want to check out the Boo to You Parade, though. It is pretty spectacular. We also got Fatpasses last year from 4-7, but we could not get Anna and Elsa or SDMT. On party days, you have both regular park guests and Halloween party guests going after those 4-7 fastpasses, so they are a bit hard to come by. We did Fastpasses for Splash Mountain and BTMR and Enchanted Tales with Belle.

We rode SDMT with no wait at the party, but we went on it just as Hallowishes was starting and the ride had been shut down for a few minutes. We happened to get there just as they were re-opening it.

yep that was my thinking- we were going to just do two days at Universal Studios and not hit DWorld at all, but when i saw the party tickets are cheaper I thought why not throw in a day there too. I am hoping to get the 7D mine ride since that is one ride they don't have at Disneyland (we go there about every year)

 

[georgina]

How do you know what time they will let you in? we will have to park our car, so should we plan on getting to the parking at like 3:30ish?

It depends on what time your first FP is. Since it takes a while to get from the parking to the MK, maybe even 3:15-3:20. There will be people lined up to get into the party by 3:30, I would expect. We got a lot done in that first 3 hours, more than just the 3 FP rides.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

How do you know what time they will let you in? we will have to park our car, so should we plan on getting to the parking at like 3:30ish?



yep that was my thinking- we were going to just do two days at Universal Studios and not hit DWorld at all, but when i saw the party tickets are cheaper I thought why not throw in a day there too. I am hoping to get the 7D mine ride since that is one ride they don't have at Disneyland (we go there about every year)

SDMT is a fun ride, especially if you time it right to hit the fireworks. It is short, but it is definitely something to be experienced. While there are several rides with the same or similar names at MK as at Disneyland, you should check them out, too. They are a bit different. Don't miss HM on Halloween.

I would plan to park by 3:15. You never know when you might run into crowds, and the parking lot is a long way from the park. We like to get in line by 3:30 to enter the park, though we are early birds. It is not necessary.

We love the Halloween party. It is our favorite time to be at MK. Have a great time!

 

[TXTransplant]

We did a Universal trip last Nov and did the exact same thing on a MVMCP day. I just couldn't justify $100 per person tickets when we couldn't be in the park all day, so doing the party worked well for us. We got to MK around 3 and had to wait outside. We weren't let in the park until just before 4. We had FPs from 330-430, 430-530, and 530-630. The were for SDMT, Jungle Cruise, and I think Splash. The park was pretty crowded between 4 and 7; everything had a long wait time (if the signs are to be believed), so we had to pick and choose what we did, if we didn't want to stand in a long line. Before 7, I think all we did besides our FPs was the Little Mermaid ride and The Tiki Birds, but we also stopped to eat. But by 7, the park had really cleared out. We rode Splash several more times with no wait (we even got to ride again without having to get out of the log), BTMRR (several times), HM, PoTC, and IaSW. PoTC had the longest wait of anything we rode. We could have ridden more but decided to find a spot for the fireworks and parade. I intended to stay until midnight but was exhausted by the time the parade finished. We did not do any character greets. Overall it worked out great for us, since we would not have been able to make full use of a regular one-day ticket.

 

[purple figment]

How do you know what time they will let you in? we will have to park our car, so should we plan on getting to the parking at like 3:30ish?

Officially the party starts at 7 PM, but in past years they have been letting party goers in at 4 PM, although there is no official announcement of the earlier entrance time. Sometimes the turnstiles are enabled even a little earlier (e.g. 3:45). The only way we know about the 4 PM entry is when party goers post after the first party of the season, but based on past history I don't see it changing.

If you want to be among the first to enter you will probably want to get to the MK parking lot earlier than 3:30 to allow time for the parking lot tram, monorail or ferry ride and bag check.

 

[saskdw]

Officially the party starts at 7 PM, but in past years they have been letting party goers in at 4 PM, although there is no official announcement of the earlier entrance time. Sometimes the turnstiles are enabled even a little earlier (e.g. 3:45). The only way we know about the 4 PM entry is when party goers post after the first party of the season, but based on past history I don't see it changing.

If you want to be among the first to enter you will probably want to get to the MK parking lot earlier than 3:30 to allow time for the parking lot tram, monorail or ferry ride and bag check.

They have to do it this way. Could you imagine ALL of the party goers trying to enter right at 7pm while ALL they day guests are being ushered out? The entrance way to MK is crowded enough from 4pm-7pm on party days, there's no way this could all happen at one time.