MNSSHP or extra day in park??

[robfamily]

I am trying to decide if we should do an extra day in the park with hopper (since we have fd) or the MNSSHP. We have been to parks on 3 trips. We love the rides and shows, fireworks/parades. The kids 7 and 9 are no longer interested in character greets. To keep within budget we could either add a 3rd park day with hopper or go to MNSSHP. My kids are night owls and would be able to stay in the park from 4-12am. They would much rather sleep in and about 8 hours is the 7 yo max time in the park. My kids love halloween, but again aren't into character greets. They would love the shows and fireworks, but we would be giving up a park day for it.
So questions I have are:
Are all rides available during the party?
Are wait times less during the party?
How time consuming is the trick or treating (are there long lines)?
Any advice on whether or not the party would be a good fit for our family?
Our possible dates for the party would be 10/2, 10/4 or 10/6.

 

[basketlacey]

If your kids love the parades and fireworks, I'd do MNSSHP. We LOVED it and that was on a rainy night where we weren't even sure if the fireworks and parade were going to go off. Once they did, they were fabulous. I can't wait to go again.

We were there in bad weather so many rides were down but I'm pretty sure it was more weather related than party related. Candy lines were non-existent. It took more time to walk through the trail than waiting in line. We got tons of candy. We only did the Mickey and Minnie character greet because my crew would prefer not to wait in lines for characters.

 

[GarrettJD]

Based on what you've said it sounds like the party would be a perfect fit for you. For the most part, all the major rides are open during the party, and even the sold out parties tend to have very short waits for all the attractions, with the exception of Peter Pan and 7DMT, but even those have a shorter wait than during the day. And if you don't have interest in character meets you're avoiding the longest lines at the party.

Trick or treating lines tend to start out long and diminish as the party goes on. We like to wait until the last hour (11:00 pm to midnight) to trick or treat, as you'll be able to normally walk right through the line without stopping.

So sleeping in, rides from 4:00 pm-9:30 pm, the fireworks at 9:30, second parade from Frontierland at 10:15 pm , then trick-or-treating sounds like a perfect night to me.