MNSSHP Oct 11 NOT so great...long...anyone else have problems?

[graueMaus]

Well, I sort of agree with the poster.

The last party we went to was on 9/14/2007 which was a total washout (parade cancelled, fireworks delayed, power losses throughout the park all night) and we had more fun then than on this past Thursday's party (10/11/2012). In fact my wife and son decided to call it an early night.

I can name quantifiable things we missed like face painting, themed character meals at Liberty Tree Tavern, being told a store would be open until 10pm and it closed at 7pm, stinginess on candy (my kids hit every stop and only came out with a half a bag each and that was making a serious effort to get some more for them not to be disappointed) just to name a few.

However, it was an qualitative feel to the night that really missed the Disney magic. The posters hit on the head with the CM's, as there seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm and Disney spirit at the party. We have been to sold out parties before, but we never experienced the large crowds that we did on Thursday (perhaps the ticket sales for whatdefines sold out has changed). Also along the candy trails you used to encounter characters (and not just for meet and greets) and this seemed to be missing. Most of the trails had no characters and seemed lacking in theming. The dance party (at least the Stitch one) used to be held in Cosmic Rays with Stitch and other characters mixing and Dancing with the kids, now it was outside on a stage an we stopped by several times and saw no characters and little interaction with CM's that were leading the party.

There seemed to be little intimacy for the party gatherer, the focus seemed to be on more candy stops giving little amounts of candy, with no characters around. On some, it was left you can meet a character, right you can get candy. In the past parties we went to the characters were a part of the party interacting with the party goers throughout the park. I mean you had character meet and greet lines, but now it seems that is all there is.

I could go on but the bottom line the MNSSHP magic is gone for us and we will not spend the money tickets again.

 

[JaxJags08]

We were at the party on 10/11 and didn't have any problems. It was our first party, so we didn't really know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. We mostly stuck to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and all rides were operational for us. We even got to visit Enchanted Tales with Belle around 6pm!

Candy lines were short (we saw one that was semi-long, but just came back to it when it was shorter). We filled half of our bags just visiting 4 stops and a candy trail.

We left the party about 12:30am and saw big lines for the ferry and the monorail. So we just sat on a bench and happily ate candy until the lines died down. We got on the ferry around 12:50am, which sat at the dock until 1am. The CM's on the ferry remarked it was the last one of the night and we didn't see any other people in front of the MK at that point. We were back in our room at Pop by 1:45, mostly because we parked FAR away at the TTC and walked ourselves back to our car instead of using the tram.

 

[sexyravenfan]

We had a blast at the Oct 11th party! We rode Buzz and Space Mountain. We hit the candy stops around Frontierland/Adventureland at around 11 or so just after the 2nd parade with no waits. Haunted Mansion was great and we also got the magic shots.

 

[MADnNOLA]

I too had a GREAT time on October 11th! I was able to ride everything I wanted and walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed being in costume and had many pictures taken of me by other guest.

The fireworks were the best, and the parade was excellent! I am not sure where any disappointment came in for anyone. I noticed the candy lines seemed long, but they were moving very quickly. I was able to take several pictures - the magical ones and with many characters without the long lines.

My only regret was not obtaining a candy bag when I entered at 6pm. I thought I would return and get one later (I did not want to carry it around all night). After 8pm the bags were gone, and none of the candy stations had any. Lesson learned, but the candy was not the reason I went to the party.

I left at midnight, and was picked up by the bus around 12:15 for my quick ride back to AS Music.

I will definitely do this again!

On a note about the rides breaking down. I experienced this everyday, but it never lasted long. I was stopped on Splash Mountain for about 15 minutes on Thursday (day) and we received the generic FP for that delay. And then yesterday, TMR broke down, and we were walked off the ride. Again we received the generic FP for the inconvenience (but that will be a ride I won't forget!)

 

[Ccann]

We are going to our first MNSSHP later this month. I am going for the atmosphere more than the rides. But it will be nice to ride the rides that usually have the long lines during the day. But I am not going to flip if something doesn't go to plan even though I have planned and planned for months. It is exciting roll with the punches. I get that you paid x amount for the tickets but as I see it the rides are a bonus to the night, there are so many different things going on at the same time if somethings not working move on to the next. Chances are you will not be able to experience everything there is offered.

Some times I think traveling with a CM or anywhere with a experience person its not as great. Because they will continue to tell you everything that went wrong or what shouldn't have been done. Instead of living in the moment and enjoying this for what it is Now not what it was then or later!

As far as CM being grouchy maybe they had a really rude person before, it's not my place to guess what happened in their life's to make them grouchy but maybe I can make a difference in their life's by telling them thank you, or complimenting them on something. Or just for them to have a good day! Sometime little words go a long way.

The complaint department is a different issue, it would have been less hassle and probably made you feel better that she took your name and number, maybe tossing it later, but I get it most anyone ever wants is to think they are being heard.
I work in youth sports coaches want to be heard, I listen and tell them I will try to make changes but it's hard to accommodate everyone. usually they are happy just to vent later telling me thank you for listening.

 

[MoonFaerie]

We were at the party on the 11th (and the 8th and the 12th ) and we had a fantastic time. The only complaints we had were things out of Disney's control - the heat and rude people.

 

[gator girl]

Well, I sort of agree with the poster.

The last party we went to was on 9/14/2007 which was a total washout (parade cancelled, fireworks delayed, power losses throughout the park all night) and we had more fun then than on this past Thursday's party (10/11/2012). In fact my wife and son decided to call it an early night.

I can name quantifiable things we missed like face painting, themed character meals at Liberty Tree Tavern, being told a store would be open until 10pm and it closed at 7pm, stinginess on candy (my kids hit every stop and only came out with a half a bag each and that was making a serious effort to get some more for them not to be disappointed) just to name a few.

However, it was an qualitative feel to the night that really missed the Disney magic. The posters hit on the head with the CM's, as there seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm and Disney spirit at the party. We have been to sold out parties before, but we never experienced the large crowds that we did on Thursday (perhaps the ticket sales for whatdefines sold out has changed). Also along the candy trails you used to encounter characters (and not just for meet and greets) and this seemed to be missing. Most of the trails had no characters and seemed lacking in theming. The dance party (at least the Stitch one) used to be held in Cosmic Rays with Stitch and other characters mixing and Dancing with the kids, now it was outside on a stage an we stopped by several times and saw no characters and little interaction with CM's that were leading the party.

There seemed to be little intimacy for the party gatherer, the focus seemed to be on more candy stops giving little amounts of candy, with no characters around. On some, it was left you can meet a character, right you can get candy. In the past parties we went to the characters were a part of the party interacting with the party goers throughout the park. I mean you had character meet and greet lines, but now it seems that is all there is.

I could go on but the bottom line the MNSSHP magic is gone for us and we will not spend the money tickets again.

I'm sorry you were disappointed. Many, if not most, of the things you are talking about were eliminated YEARS ago. Character interactions throughout all the parks all year long have been trimmed, and the days of wandering around freely & mingling with roaming characters is almost gone. That's not specifically related to hard ticket parties. In fact, you probably see MORE roaming characters during parties than during the rest of the year. Disney has simply changed the way that they operate in that respect. The one left-for-character-right-for-candy line I saw at the party was for Buzz Lightyear, and if I'm not mistaken the people who went left to meet Buzz then exited past the candy barrels anyway. So they got both.

There were many characters meeting with formal lines, yes, but there were also characters roaming, if you knew where to look. I followed Gaston around the Hub for about 10 minutes until I could get his autograph. During that time period, he walked all over the Hub, posing and showing his muscles and talking to people.

Re: treat station theming: The vast majority of these lines are nothing more than a wide area of out-of-the-way sidewalk or little bit of ride queue in a normally-operating park that has to turn over into something else instantly when the party starts. What exactly would you suggest that they do to that one exterior row of Peter Pan queue between the 6:59pm day guests and the 7:00pm party guests to "theme" it, keeping in mind that it would need to be themed and dethemed and themed again each party night? The one "treat trail" I did was nicely decorated in Alice In Wonderland motif at several points along the trail.

I spent the last 30 minutes of the party on the 11th in Tomorrowland and saw 3 characters at the dance party throughout that time frame until they shut it down at midnight. The characters were down on the dance floor with the guests, twirling little kids around. Apparently if you saw "now it was outside on a stage an we stopped by several times and saw no characters and little interaction with CM's that were leading the party" our experiences were totally different on the same night.

I'm continually baffled by the focus on candy quantity (not just yours... I've seen this in numerous posts since the parties started). Do all of you hand out several heaping double-handfuls to every single kid who visits your house on Halloween? Then why is Disney's small handful to each person so completely unacceptable? I didn't get less than 4 or 5 pieces of candy from each treat station, and often more if the candy packages were small. Basically it was one handful that the CM grabbed out of the barrel. If your kids thought that half a bag each was not enough candy, they were free to circle back through the treat lines over & over until they were satisfied. You're not limited to one-and-done.

I guess I just walk around in a stupor or something, because all the CMs I interacted with ranged from perfectly pleasant to rah-rah-over-the-top enthusiasm. The CM manning the candy queue by Buzz was literally yelling "WOO HOO HALLOWEEEEEEEEN!! COME GET YOUR CANNNNNDY!!" and doing a little dance as we went by her. In fact, I remember thinking to myself that she needed to calm down.

Maybe I just don't expect enough out of a theme park visit....

 

[daraddg]

I agree that the transportation issue out of there is ridiculous, I can not believe they dont have express monorails going out of there. The last time we went was in 2009 and I remember being really impressed how efficient and quickly we got back to our car so kind of dreading that this year since we are going on Halloween night.But the rest doesnt really seem like reason to demand money back.Rides break down,it stinks but it sounds like it was just 1 ride, does the score on Buzz really make a difference? Do you win something?I have never been on it so maybe I am missing something about the importance of the score. As for shirts I am plus size and NEVER expect to find my size anywhere, on the rare occasions I do I consider it an Easter Egg of a find. I also have to agree with the other posters, the party ends at midnight so it's not fair getting upset the candy was shut down,the CM's would probably like to go home before the park opens bright and early the next day, you have 5 hours to get candy do they really need to work overtime for that? But you still should be allowed to complain and think the CM's should just hand out the comment cards.

On a slightly different note regarding plus size at Disney, they always had plus sizes at their website so I would buy shirts there before my trip since I can almost never find anything in the park,however since they re designed the site a week or two ago I noticed they got rid of plus sizes. I wrote to customer service and said I was really disappointed to see they no longer carried them, they emailed me a $10 gift card to use online for something else, I ended up putting toward 2 t shirts on sale (2 for $20) for my kids, still didnt solve my shirt problem but was still nice of them to do.It may be worth it to email them.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

I'm honestly shocked over the candy complaints... Both years I've gone, last year and this year, we've hit maybe 50% of the places and 1 candy trail, and last year we brought home 8 pounds of candy between two adults, and this year we brought home 14. And we weren't even really trying. Well, I was, I wanted those green apple Werthers Original things... God those are good.

 

[ConvenientTruth]

We went to the party that same night as the OP and experienced none of the problems they did. I will preference that we were in the park from about 2:30 on and did only a few rides after 7 P.M.

I was able to get plenty of candy throughout the park (I must admit we didn't focus on getting as much candy as we could, but did go through the lines as we came to them).

The CM's I encountered were all very pleasant, but I also engage them in conversation and joke with them when I can so I tend to get a better response from them then most.

The Characters we wanted to see (Jack Sparrow and Tarzan) were both fantastic in their interaction with my family.

Did Buzz Lightyear....scoring was normal...

The Parade was excellent....our view wasn't great, but that was mostly our fault for not planning ahead. Watched the Villains show right afterwards and had a great view (didn't even have to hold the kids to see) and my youngest got to get his picture with Captain Hook.

Leaving was no issue (then again we left at around 11:45)...got on a bus and made it back to the room with little issue.

Its always interesting to see people who go to the park on the same day or same night have too completely different experiences. I may have just been lucky and toured parts of the park at the right time, but as for disputing the charges on your Credit Card....will not happen. They provided you entrance into the park....the parade, shows and fireworks...Characters were available and a majority of the rides were open.

 

[tigger3311967]

For those of you who were at the party on the 4th, supposedly the party tickets were converted to a one day pass for all ticket holders since it was a wash out (for the most part). I was there on that day and I stayed a couple of hours just so I could justify spending the money. Some friends I were with went to guest services the next day to just ask about the night before and was told that the tickets had been converted or we could have used them for that night's party (we did not as we were leaving that day). Since they have an annual pass and did not get the one-day pass, they refunded his money. Not sure how they were going to tell everyone that but I kept my ticket and I'm going back next year and will see if it was indeed converted.

 

[mesaboy2]

For those of you who were at the party on the 4th, supposedly the party tickets were converted to a one day pass for all ticket holders since it was a wash out (for the most part). I was there on that day and I stayed a couple of hours just so I could justify spending the money. Some friends I were with went to guest services the next day to just ask about the night before and was told that the tickets had been converted or we could have used them for that night's party (we did not as we were leaving that day). Since they have an annual pass and did not get the one-day pass, they refunded his money. Not sure how they were going to tell everyone that but I kept my ticket and I'm going back next year and will see if it was indeed converted.

I certainly wouldn't wait a year to find out. Why not contact Disney now?

 

[maxiesmom]

Its always interesting to see people who go to the park on the same day or same night have too completely different experiences. I may have just been lucky and toured parts of the park at the right time, but as for disputing the charges on your Credit Card....will not happen. They provided you entrance into the park....the parade, shows and fireworks...Characters were available and a majority of the rides were open.

This is sounding more and more like Disney bus service threads. You can have posters who were at the same resort on the same dates, yet have totally different experiences with the bus service. One will claim it was awful, and the other will say it was great.

It must have to do with timing and with attitude. That is the only thing that makes sense.

 

[20yBWDW]

I'm guessing these complaints seem more legitimate in comparison to previous years, but to someone who has not been to Disney in 20 years and has never been to the MNSSHP, it's like hearing a kid complain that he only got 5 presents for Christmas instead of the 20 he got last year.

There is a certain irony in hearing that people who think not getting enough candy is complaint-worthy cannot muster compassion for the low-wage CM who have spent a long day working in customer service, and listening to people their parents' ages complain about not getting enough Halloween candy.

 

[annacali]

We were also there on the 11th. It was our first party and we had a wonderful time. We saw HallowWishes from Fantasyland and the 2nd parade. My two DDs loved the dance party with Woody and Jesse and Bullseye. We saw all the characters we set out to see including the seven drawfs, fairies, Tiana and Naveen and the Genie. We didn't do the Villans because the hub was always so crowded and I couldn't figure out how to get thru to meet any of them---plus my girls weren't that interested. We got all the photopass opportunities too--love the hitchhiking ghosts! My girls were thrilled with the trick or treating even though we don't actually eat the candy (one of them has food allergies) and they filled their bags with just one trail and a few of the stops along the way. There was candy at the exit too---tiny green peeps. We left immediately after watching the second parade from mainstreet and walked right on to a ferry. Had no wait for a tram, and were in our condo less than 30 min after leaving the park. This was a HUGE contrast to the night before when we left in the crush of people after Wishes with still no monorail---I felt like getting out of MNSSHP was a breeze compared to a regular night. Of note, of the 4 days we were at MK last week, the express monorail was only operating twice---one early morning and one early evening. All other times we were directed to the ferry---including both going to and leaving from MNSSHP. Oh, and we rode TMR 3 times in a row right after we got there at 5:00 or so, which was a big hit with my girls too! We had a great night and would definitely do it again.

 

[stindall]

I'm guessing these complaints seem more legitimate in comparison to previous years, but to someone who has not been to Disney in 20 years and has never been to the MNSSHP, it's like hearing a kid complain that he only got 5 presents for Christmas instead of the 20 he got last year.

There is a certain irony in hearing that people who think not getting enough candy is complaint-worthy cannot muster compassion for the low-wage CM who have spent a long day working in customer service, and listening to people their parents' ages complain about not getting enough Halloween candy.

I've been to the Halloween party and I've been in the last 3 years and I still think this is what the OP sounded like.

Not getting enough candy and a shirt being sold out in a size that they don't carry that much of ALL the time isn't really a reason to get your money back at all.

 

[graueMaus]

I'm sorry you were disappointed. Many, if not most, of the things you are talking about were eliminated YEARS ago. Character interactions throughout all the parks all year long have been trimmed, and the days of wandering around freely & mingling with roaming characters is almost gone. That's not specifically related to hard ticket parties. In fact, you probably see MORE roaming characters during parties than during the rest of the year. Disney has simply changed the way that they operate in that respect. The one left-for-character-right-for-candy line I saw at the party was for Buzz Lightyear, and if I'm not mistaken the people who went left to meet Buzz then exited past the candy barrels anyway. So they got both.

There were many characters meeting with formal lines, yes, but there were also characters roaming, if you knew where to look. I followed Gaston around the Hub for about 10 minutes until I could get his autograph. During that time period, he walked all over the Hub, posing and showing his muscles and talking to people.

Re: treat station theming: The vast majority of these lines are nothing more than a wide area of out-of-the-way sidewalk or little bit of ride queue in a normally-operating park that has to turn over into something else instantly when the party starts. What exactly would you suggest that they do to that one exterior row of Peter Pan queue between the 6:59pm day guests and the 7:00pm party guests to "theme" it, keeping in mind that it would need to be themed and dethemed and themed again each party night? The one "treat trail" I did was nicely decorated in Alice In Wonderland motif at several points along the trail.

I spent the last 30 minutes of the party on the 11th in Tomorrowland and saw 3 characters at the dance party throughout that time frame until they shut it down at midnight. The characters were down on the dance floor with the guests, twirling little kids around. Apparently if you saw "now it was outside on a stage an we stopped by several times and saw no characters and little interaction with CM's that were leading the party" our experiences were totally different on the same night.

I'm continually baffled by the focus on candy quantity (not just yours... I've seen this in numerous posts since the parties started). Do all of you hand out several heaping double-handfuls to every single kid who visits your house on Halloween? Then why is Disney's small handful to each person so completely unacceptable? I didn't get less than 4 or 5 pieces of candy from each treat station, and often more if the candy packages were small. Basically it was one handful that the CM grabbed out of the barrel. If your kids thought that half a bag each was not enough candy, they were free to circle back through the treat lines over & over until they were satisfied. You're not limited to one-and-done.

I guess I just walk around in a stupor or something, because all the CMs I interacted with ranged from perfectly pleasant to rah-rah-over-the-top enthusiasm. The CM manning the candy queue by Buzz was literally yelling "WOO HOO HALLOWEEEEEEEEN!! COME GET YOUR CANNNNNDY!!" and doing a little dance as we went by her. In fact, I remember thinking to myself that she needed to calm down.

Maybe I just don't expect enough out of a theme park visit....

Thanks for the comments and you are completely correct. We only had our experiences in the past to go on. And based upon that experience this is not the party of years ago that we expected. The new (to us) party just does not fit with the Disney magic we experienced previously (at almost half the cost). It may be pure magic for others, but to us it was just another night at the park with a parade, fireworks and some candy thrown in. Not that it was bad, just not what we had experienced previously.

This thread has thrown some light on questions that we had throughout the evening and appreciate all the discussion.

One question remains though, besides increased frequency of MNSSHP's have they increased the number of tickets sold per party?

 

[lugnut33]

As Disney continues to raise prices so do people's expectations of what they are getting for that money. I don't see Disney putting a stop to raising prices and people are going to keep raising their expectations whenever there is a price increase.

Therefore, if I were a castmember I would expect more rude people in the parks and I would expect more people to be upset by little things. If somebody pays a lot of money to enter the park and really want to ride Pirates, imagine how they feel when they show up and it's not working? While it doesn't justify them being a jerk, I can see how it happens.

It's like sports teams. They have raised prices through the roof and people expect them to field a winning team. When they don't field a winning team the fans will boo.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

I certainly wouldn't wait a year to find out. Why not contact Disney now?

I emailed with the complaint I had earlier and was offered a refund. I rejected it, saying that I just thought they needed a better plan in case of severe and dangerous weather like they had that night, and they said that they were told to just hand out refunds due to "numerous factors, not all of which were weather-related."

 

[mking624]

As Disney continues to raise prices so do people's expectations of what they are getting for that money. I don't see Disney putting a stop to raising prices and people are going to keep raising their expectations whenever there is a price increase.

Therefore, if I were a castmember I would expect more rude people in the parks and I would expect more people to be upset by little things. If somebody pays a lot of money to enter the park and really want to ride Pirates, imagine how they feel when they show up and it's not working? While it doesn't justify them being a jerk, I can see how it happens.

It's like sports teams. They have raised prices through the roof and people expect them to field a winning team. When they don't field a winning team the fans will boo.

The problem with this mentality is that it cannot ultimately work. Here is the problem: people have high expectations regardless if Disney raises prices or not...ok, that's fine, I am not saying you shouldn't expect quality. But they expect every ride to be operational 100% of the time because, as you put it, they paid prices that have been raised through the roof. They expect those rides to be in tip top shape without ever breaking down, without paint ever fading, without there being a speck of dust. How does the expectation remain logical without the rides shutting down? Now I realize there is a difference between a ride breaking down and a ride being closed for refurb and that you are not arguing against refurb closures. But the mentality is still there..."I paid x amount of money and I wanted to ride Pirates! Boo Disney!" No matter what ride is schedule to be closed for refurb, you will inevitably find someone just as upset as someone who experienced a ride breaking down. So you basically just have people who throw fits if the rides break down...but then throw fits because Disney closes the rides to make sure those issues don't continue happening. They want to have their cake and eat it too. It just doesn't work that way. The rides cannot operate 100% of the time. If we want to see rides operating as intended, that means they have to close sometimes...and that means someone, in the end, will not be able to ride it...which only leads to a different complaint thread..."Ugh, I can't believe it will be closed during my vacation!!" And I have seen plenty of those complaints. Disney gets the complaints when the rides break down and for when the ride is going through rehab to make sure it doesn't break down. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium.