"Official" 2018 Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party - A Spooktacular Celebration!

[scrappinginontario]

@scrappinginontario when is your FP day? You're planning on trying to secure just on your party ticket and have no plans to attend any parks during your short visit, correct?

60 days from my arrival date is this coming Wed. 60 days from my party date is this coming Friday. I’m going to check both dates to see if FPs are open for me to book in my party day. Thinking the answer will be no but will be up at 7am just in case.

 

[Abbey1]

Can someone please explain to me what the WDW policy is regarding FP booking for the two hours before the Halloween party exactly. I’ve read a lot of posts about people having their last day of FPs removed when they booked FPs for their party date, but are these people who were visiting a park earlier in the day (therefore booking 6 passes for the day when the limit is 3) or were their passes canceled merely because one isn’t allowed to book a FP using a Halloween ticket?

Thanks!

 

[PAGA2003]

Can someone please explain to me what the WDW policy is regarding FP booking for the two hours before the Halloween party exactly. I’ve read a lot of posts about people having their last day of FPs removed when they booked FPs for their party date, but are these people who were visiting a park earlier in the day (therefore booking 6 passes for the day when the limit is 3) or were their passes canceled merely because one isn’t allowed to book a FP using a Halloween ticket?

Thanks!

We are only going to the Halloween party and will not be visiting the parks at all otherwise. I just booked my FPs at 7:00 this morning with no issue! I was able to fully maximize our time by booking a 3:30-4:30, 4:30-5:30 and 5:30-6:30 (this one shows up as only 5:30-6:00 since FP will cut off then).

 

[samsteele]

or were their passes canceled merely because one isn’t allowed to book a FP using a Halloween ticket?

This is exactly what has us confused right now. For a number of years, I could book 3 FP between 4-6pm on my MNSSHP ticket & it did not impact any FPs booked on my park days. I could clearly book 3 FP through my party ticket. Then last year, while I could still book those 3 FP on the day of my party, MDE clawed back my 3 FP for the last day of my vacation advising that I had booked more FP than my max 10 park days. Many of us are watching & waiting to see what happens to guests at the first party who just have that party ticket.

With the new Halloween ride overlays that were announced last week, I'm not sure that I'm going to bother booking the 4-6pm FPs on my party day & give up my last park day FPs. I want to enjoy the new overlays and doubt they will be 'turned on' before official party start time at 7pm. Again, many of us are in limbo waiting to see if the new overlays will be on before 7pm. I doubt it but since this is the first year that they will roll out the Halloween overlays, will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

 

[anomamatt]

Regarding party ticket FPs: if you don't have extra days of tickets (e.g., like an AP) and don't want to risk losing your last day of FPs, the best solution is to put the party ticket on it's own profile. At 30 days you can book Fps for the party night on the ticket. And at least last year if you did it this way, you didn't get your last day of FPs clipped off. To use the party admission, get a RFID card from guest services and use that to enter (and at the FP tapstiles).

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Can someone please explain to me what the WDW policy is regarding FP booking for the two hours before the Halloween party exactly. I’ve read a lot of posts about people having their last day of FPs removed when they booked FPs for their party date, but are these people who were visiting a park earlier in the day (therefore booking 6 passes for the day when the limit is 3) or were their passes canceled merely because one isn’t allowed to book a FP using a Halloween ticket?

Thanks!

There really isn't an official policy (that's part of the problem). Traditionally party tickets have acted like any other ticket media in Disney's system and do allow you to book FPs, although to my knowledge this has never been an advertised feature by Disney. I've always viewed it as likely an oversight in their ticket software which they just let continue for several years.

Last year - a year which we saw a variety of other MDX FP programming tweaks for various reasons - we started seeing these reports of the "insufficient ticket" warnings and last day FPs potentially cancelled. It is hard to establish the pattern of just who/how/what exact circumstances trigger this result.

A clarification, one cannot have 6 FPs in a day under the same MDX account. If you have a regular park ticket and have FPs booked during the day, and you have a party ticket for that night - and your park tickets and party tickets are all linked to your MDX account - you can't book 3 "additional" FPs under the party ticket.

When you read about the FP warnings, it's people who don't otherwise have a regular park ticket and aren't going to a park that party day. Example, a guest has a 6 day stay....they have a 5 day park ticket and 1 MNSSSHP ticket... 5 park days and a separate party day. They book 6 days worth of FPs - that 'can' trigger the problem.

Hope that all makes sense!

 

[scrappinginontario]

We are only going to the Halloween party and will not be visiting the parks at all otherwise. I just booked my FPs at 7:00 this morning with no issue! I was able to fully maximize our time by booking a 3:30-4:30, 4:30-5:30 and 5:30-6:30 (this one shows up as only 5:30-6:00 since FP will cut off then).

Are you staying on Disney property? If so, were you able to book them 60 days before your arrival date or 60 days before your party date?

I am in a similar situation in that the only ‘tickets’ we’ll have are MNSSHP tickets as I’ll be buying water park annual passes for us when we arrive. We are not going to the parks aside from the party.

Just a heads up to keep an eye on your party FPs and look for emails from Disney as at least one other person has reported being able to book pre-party FPs earlier this week only to have Disney remove them overnight that night due to insufficient park tickets.

Thanks for sharing your experience here.

 

[PAGA2003]

Are you staying on Disney property? If so, were you able to book them 60 days before your arrival date or 60 days before your party date?

I am in a similar situation in that the only ‘tickets’ we’ll have are MNSSHP tickets as I’ll be buying water park annual passes for us when we arrive. We are not going to the parks aside from the party.

Just a heads up to keep an eye on your party FPs and look for emails from Disney as at least one other person has reported being able to book pre-party FPs earlier this week only to have Disney remove them overnight that night due to insufficient park tickets.

Thanks for sharing your experience here.

Yes, it was 60 days from our arrival date so you shouldn't have any problem there We booked two attractions that are not open during the party and now they are already showing no more FP for the whole day! I assume many people must be using the same strategy.

I believe I saw the post you are referring to but I think they also were going into the parks on their visit just not on party day. Hoping that is the difference and our FPs will stay secure. I'll be sure to update if I get any notifications otherwise!

 

[KdKyA]

So I have a question. We have only one day of regular park tickets which we will use the day before our party day. Then we have the party tickets. We won't be going to any parks that day other than the party. Will we have any issues with the FP being taken away for the day before the party or the party itself? Thanks

 

[bethbuchall]

Can someone please explain to me what the WDW policy is regarding FP booking for the two hours before the Halloween party exactly. I’ve read a lot of posts about people having their last day of FPs removed when they booked FPs for their party date, but are these people who were visiting a park earlier in the day (therefore booking 6 passes for the day when the limit is 3) or were their passes canceled merely because one isn’t allowed to book a FP using a Halloween ticket?

Thanks!

The problem is that they don’t seem to have a clear policy. I watched the issue last year, and it affected people differently even though they were all doing the same thing. Some people had their last day’s FastPasses removed without warning, some received an email warning that they had too many days booked, some had no issues at all. Some people could call and get the FastPasses back; others were told that you couldn’t use a party ticket for FastPasses. It didn’t affect me because I was using a regular hopper ticket on party day and had enough days. The system does already know that each person can have a maximum of 3 per day, so it isn’t possible to book 3 on the regular ticket and 3 on a party ticket on the same profile to begin with. But the system is allowing people to book all days of the regular ticket plus the party ticket to begin with and then pulling FastPasses from some people.

 

[bethbuchall]

So I have a question. We have only one day of regular park tickets which we will use the day before our party day. Then we have the party tickets. We won't be going to any parks that day other than the party. Will we have any issues with the FP being taken away for the day before the party or the party itself? Thanks

It seemed that the last day of FastPasses was the one removed, so I THINK if they take any from you it would be the party ones. But anything seems possible with Disney.

 

[Sailormoon2]

So let me get this straight, you booked 5 days of FP's on your park tickets AND 3 additional FP's on your party ticket, so 6x3 =18 FP's are sitting in your MDE account? You know WDW has a 3 Fastpass limit per day correct?

You cannot have 6 FP's scheduled for the same day.

I just want to clarify that I never had more than 3 booked on any day. I am not gong to the parks on my Party day. I am in Disney on property for 10 days, but only have a 5-day Hopper. So I booked passes for 5 different days of my trip first. Then I went back and added 2 FPs on my party night.

After seeing a post from @scrappinginontario about potentially losing my last day of FPs (which included my only FOP) I went back into the system and cancelled the FPs I had booked on the Party Night.

As a result of that I did not receive the email warning as per the quotes below VVV

The system accepted the FP+ and I left it alone. This morning I woke to an email saying that I had more FP+reservations than park tickets. I would either have to buy another's days worth of tickets or lose my last day of FP+ reservations

last day of FPs removed when they booked FPs for their party date, but are these people who were visiting a park earlier in the day (therefore booking 6 passes for the day when the limit is 3)

So to test this theory, I went back in MDE today and booked 1 new FP on my party night, so I will wait and see if I get the cautionary email saying that I am "over my limit".

 

[PAGA2003]

Oh there is one thing I just thought I would mention for those of us with only party tickets. Another thing that makes me think we will not have a problem with our FPs is that when you go to book them the only day you can book is the day you have the party booked. Every other day of our resort stay is not even available to select (the dates are grey). It would seem to me that the system knows we are booking FP on a party ticket but who knows right...I could be making a bad assumption!

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

Can someone please explain to me what the WDW policy is regarding FP booking for the two hours before the Halloween party exactly. I’ve read a lot of posts about people having their last day of FPs removed when they booked FPs for their party date, but are these people who were visiting a park earlier in the day (therefore booking 6 passes for the day when the limit is 3) or were their passes canceled merely because one isn’t allowed to book a FP using a Halloween ticket?

Thanks!

The system will not allow you to book 6 FPs in one day, so that is not the issue. The issue is people with let's say a 5 day park hopper and a party ticket books 6 days of FPs. Reports last year were that the last day of FPs (whether or not it was their party day) were cancelled. The first report of this for this year has already happened. I made FPs for the party, but I am an annual passholder and therefore can make up to 7 days of FPs at a time. I haven't seen an official policy about FPs for a party ticket. But it seems to me that Disney is going with the policy of, there are no FPs for the party, therefore FPs cannot be made on a party ticket. If your party is the last park day, I would say, try to make them, as those would be the one cancelled. However, if your party is in the middle of your trip, Personally, I would not risk it.

 

[FoxC63]

60 days from my arrival date is this coming Wed. 60 days from my party date is this coming Friday. I’m going to check both dates to see if FPs are open for me to book in my party day. Thinking the answer will be no but will be up at 7am just in case.

Good luck and fingers crossed!

 

[FoxC63]

I just want to clarify

Thank you so much for clearing things up for me. I really hate that this is happening... again!

You have one option at this point for securing FP's, create phantoms. See: [URL="https://www.disboards.com/threads/mvmcp-and-scheduling-fp-4-6pm.3633529/page-12#post-58490319"]Post #235[/URL]

 

[Sailormoon2]

Thank you so much for clearing things up for me. I really hate that this is happening... again!

I know right? Why can't Disney just get this sorted??

 

[gerryrobinson]

My take on FP+ for the MNSSHP for what it's worth.

Disney's stance is that officially, there are no FPs allowed during the MNSSHP. The party officially starts at 7pm. Disney's intent is to not offer FPs for those who have party tickets.

The fact that they allow guests to enter the park unofficially at 4pm is a courtesy which they do not need to do. Entering the park using a MNSSHP ticket would therefore not qualify someone to book fastpasses during this 3 hour "grace" period in my opinion. If they didn't allow us to enter until 7, then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

It is up to each individual to decide whether or not they wish to try and capitalize on a potential "loophole" in the system.

I for one am in the same situation as FoxC63 in that we intend to be in MK for the morning of the party using a regular park ticket. Will use our three FPs for the day in the morning, book a fourth for between 4-6, head back to resort for break and change into costumes, then return for around 5 - 530 to use our 4th FP on our park ticket. Then get wristbands for the party.

Final thought....I imagine the busiest time of the day will be between 4-6pm when regular guests are finishing their day and party goers are starting their day. Any further thoughts are welcome.

 

[AWilliams]

I just received a call regarding the parade viewing. I had not contacted Disney about this, so it does look like they are calling everyone. The guy did say he had to read me the script - I was only his second call today. I’m pretty sure he said first parade viewing, so I guess we will have to see how that works out.

 

[CvilleDiane]

I just received a call regarding the parade viewing. I had not contacted Disney about this, so it does look like they are calling everyone. The guy did say he had to read me the script - I was only his second call today. I’m pretty sure he said first parade viewing, so I guess we will have to see how that works out.

That's great! Did he say when you'd get more information? They didn't have details yet when they called me, but said I'd hear back at some point.