MNSSHP on arrival day

[barbara ann]

Looking for feedback on what may be a crazy idea. I am heading to WDW in October with a friend who hasn't been in years. We will be arriving around noon from a 2 1/2 hour flight as we live on the east coast (so no time zone changes). Although there should be a total of 6 MNSSHP while we are there (going by past years) I am toying with the thought of doing the party on arrival day and doing a later start on the following day. We will be there Oct 20 - 30 and will be staying at CBR. We are older "kids" (ages 55 - 62) and will probably concentrate on special activities, parade and fireworks with no trick or treating and few rides that night. Am I crazy to think that might be a fun way to start a vacation?
FYI - I'm usually traveling with grandkids and do a first night of DTD or Chef Mickey but no kids this time.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I'm not sure why it wouldn't be...? Especially on the first day...the party starts at 7 so know what you want to do, see and who you would like to meet if you do characters as well.

It's an amazing experience

 

[minniemous]

I actually think that is a good idea and might do the same on our October trip. It is a short trip (we are also about the same distance traveling from CT. little short of 3 hours) and you we will have fresh feet.

I think that is really a good idea of how to do the party..because we never go to a park on our first day and and I know we will never end up taking it the easy the night of a party so this way may just be perfect!

 

[cammie810]

We do this every time! We live in FL about 3 hours away so we usually try to arrive by noon. Have lunch at the Grand Floridian Café, check in and relax for a few minutes, then head over to the party by 5 or 6 at the very latest!! The great thing about the fastpass system is that you can plan for a later start the next day. We just did this in Dec. Went to the Xmas party on arrival day/night. The next day we got to Animal Kingdom around 1130 and still managed to do everything!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

My only concern is that something could go wrong with your flights and you will not arrive on time. MNSSHP tickets are expensive, so I would be wary of making that kind of investment when my arrival time is not under my control.

 

[alievans719]

That's exactly what I have planned for my trip at the end of October. I think in regards to flights(which is a concern for me as well), I'm going to try to get a pretty early one so if there is issue, there's at least a decent cushion for delay of flights.

 

[Dreamport]

My only concern is that something could go wrong with your flights and you will not arrive on time. MNSSHP tickets are expensive, so I would be wary of making that kind of investment when my arrival time is not under my control.

This is exactly what I was going to advise. Our 2.5 hour flight from PA was delayed twice by 7 hours total for non-weather-related reasons back in Sept 2013. We were just glad we had scheduled our MNSSHP tickets for later in the trip and didn't spend our non-refundable tickets for nothing. To the OP, it does sound like a really fun way to kick off the trip as long as you're willing to take the chance. (To be fair, we know ours was not a usual happening and most times flights will arrive on time.)

 

[Disneylover99]

My only concern is that something could go wrong with your flights and you will not arrive on time. MNSSHP tickets are expensive, so I would be wary of making that kind of investment when my arrival time is not under my control.

This is always a concern of mine as well.

That being said, we arrived at Orlando Airport around 11:30 am, got to our resort, swam, and then got our costumes on for MNSSHP. It worked out great!

Just don't forget to pack your costumes in your carry on bags if you are using magical express and letting them deliver your luggage. And remember you can enter the park as early as 4pm with your tickets.

 

[Hopefully]

Looking for feedback on what may be a crazy idea. I am heading to WDW in October with a friend who hasn't been in years. We will be arriving around noon from a 2 1/2 hour flight as we live on the east coast (so no time zone changes). Although there should be a total of 6 MNSSHP while we are there (going by past years) I am toying with the thought of doing the party on arrival day and doing a later start on the following day. We will be there Oct 20 - 30 and will be staying at CBR. We are older "kids" (ages 55 - 62) and will probably concentrate on special activities, parade and fireworks with no trick or treating and few rides that night. Am I crazy to think that might be a fun way to start a vacation?
FYI - I'm usually traveling with grandkids and do a first night of DTD or Chef Mickey but no kids this time.

I wouldn't do it, especially on a 10 night trip. Travel day is tiring. I don't think you will get the full enjoyment out of the party

My only concern is that something could go wrong with your flights and you will not arrive on time. MNSSHP tickets are expensive, so I would be wary of making that kind of investment when my arrival time is not under my control.

Flights are totally out of your control. I would never buy a non refundable ticket that expensive on travel day.

That's exactly what I have planned for my trip at the end of October. I think in regards to flights(which is a concern for me as well), I'm going to try to get a pretty early one so if there is issue, there's at least a decent cushion for delay of flights.

We travel from the east coast too. In order to have an "early" arrival the flight is at the crack of dawn. In order to make it to the airport, park, check bags and clear security we are up well before dawn. It makes for too long a day

 

[GatorMama]

This will be our fourth MNSSHP and it turns out I'm way older than my numerical age. We cannot plan to do anything that day (besides eat and rest) and it's miserable to plan much for the day following the party too because that is a very intense 8 straight, full hours of park time. And then our kids wake up at 6:30 despite being out til midnight.

 

[avic77]

If you have kids Do not do a party on arrival night... First year we went my 5 year old slept through the entire party.
I will do a party our arrival day this year...sort of. We will drive on Sat stay off site one night and move to onsite Sunday morning. After check in, picking up groceries, and a relaxing time at the pool we will go the the party.
Party night is a long night I do suggest having a very restful morning if you wanna stick it out for the entire party.

 

[barbara ann]

Thanks for all of your thoughts. Glad I have a few months to mull over the final decision. A lot may depend on what time flight we end up with.

 

[eyehartdisney]

I actually had that flight delay happen a few trips ago. I showed up at eight, and I was super bummed. Told a cast member about it, and she gave me a handful (Literally. Like 20ish?) of fastpasses for the next day. It was beyond awesome.

 

[ellie05]

That is usually our strategy for parties. We get there around the same time then we take a nap for a few hours and head out for the night. We usually are able to do RD the next morning as long as the parks are opening at 9 or so.

 

[georgina]

We did it for the Christmas Party in December - flight arrived around 11:30, had plenty of time to get to the resort, check in, unpack, have lunch, book a bounceback reservation, and get to the parks to enter at 3:45 and use our 3 FP before 7. We had a rental car which sped things up. No kids, just 2 adults ages 52 and 60. We have no problems being up and active from 6 AM until midnight.

 

[mummabear]

That's what we are doing because we have no choice, we arrive technically on the 30th but land at about 11.55, so we will be going to the MNSSHP on the 31st.

 

[Terra Nova guy]

I would not recommend it. I did that on Oct. 19, 2014, our arrival day. We arrived at POR around 11:00am. I had been hoping that our room would magically be ready early, so we could get settled, maybe relax for a couple hours, then get on our costumes and head to the party. Unfortunately, our room was not ready, so we went to the park with the intention of coming back around 3:00pm to get costumes. We waited for the email saying our room was ready, but it still had not come by 4:00pm. So we just headed back to the resort then and found out the room was ready, but the email was never sent. After getting into the room, eating supper and getting costumes, plus just missing the MK bus as it drove away, we didn't get to the party until after 8:00pm. I was really disappointed to get there so late and we just ran around trying to "play catch up" all night. I think there are too many unknown variables that can affect your plans on arrival day. I will do it mid-stay next time.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We usually wake up very early, like 3:30am in order to get to the airport, fly to Orlando, and get to our resort via ME by 11am. We're usually tired that day and like to take a nap. It takes us another day to get truly relaxed. I wouldn't go to the party until the third night at least. I also would never again go on a Friday night. They sell out sooner than other nights and seem very crowded.

 

[disneyworlddreaming]

Looking for feedback on what may be a crazy idea. I am heading to WDW in October with a friend who hasn't been in years. We will be arriving around noon from a 2 1/2 hour flight as we live on the east coast (so no time zone changes). Although there should be a total of 6 MNSSHP while we are there (going by past years) I am toying with the thought of doing the party on arrival day and doing a later start on the following day. We will be there Oct 20 - 30 and will be staying at CBR. We are older "kids" (ages 55 - 62) and will probably concentrate on special activities, parade and fireworks with no trick or treating and few rides that night. Am I crazy to think that might be a fun way to start a vacation? FYI - I'm usually traveling with grandkids and do a first night of DTD or Chef Mickey but no kids this time.

We just recently did this AFTER a 24 hour drive! lol. We arrived on Oct. 30th at about 12, thankfully room was ready, checked in, showered, ate, got dressed in costumes and were at MK by 3:30. Got in at just before 4 and enjoyed the day! Was it extremely exhausting? Yes. But fun!!! Our trip included our 3 kids (7, 5 & 2) dde33

 

[ktlm]

If you were driving, absolutely I would do it. However, I would not do it if you are flying unless you don't mind losing the ticket costs if something goes wrong. In 2012, we were supposed to be at MCO around noon. We wound up not getting there until after 7:00 and that was after throwing a fit and them switching our airline. It was not weather, it was the fact that our plane had a part that needed to be replaced and they were going to DRIVE it in from over 3 hours away before starting repairs. Our flight was scheduled to have a 7 hour delay. They told us their other flights for the rest of the day were full and we could not switch. They would not move people to other airlines because it was listed as a delay not a cancellation. They were planning on getting us to our connection city with our 7 hour original flight delay and then very possibly having us spend the night there and get to wdw the next day as they would not book us a new connection until our flight delay end time was confirmed and were not sure they could get us there that night. . After I begged , we ultimately got on a flight on a different airline 3 or 4 hours after we were originally scheduled to leave. We kept an eye on our original flight and it actually did not leave until 9 hours after the original time. We missed our evening ADR. We always spend our day at the parks before MNSSHP, so The fact it is a travel day wouldn't bother us. If it isn't sold out, maybe you can get tickets when you get there. I don't know if they still sell online the day of the party, but if they do you could even get on your smart phone and book them as the plane is loading and it looks like you will get there in time.