scooterca42
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2013
- Messages
- 9
excellent - and very clear. Thank you. I would suppose access to the virtual queue will be provided once I have entered the park.
"Official" 2023 Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party - Let's Get Spooky!
- Thread starter monique5
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erionm
DIS Legend
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- Dec 6, 2008
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- 24,958
CoasterGT24
Mouseketeer
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- Aug 21, 2023
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- 119
That's correct. Tapping in only applies to the 1 PM boarding group drop.
pangyal
#TeamSven
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2014
- Messages
- 5,528
Well, with only a handful of parties to go, I think that my tidbits might be too little too late, but here goes anyway 
. Maybe they can help people who are formulating strategies next year!
I did an August party with my family and came down again now for a solo trip to be able to wear a fun costume in the cooler weather. I was dressed as Emily, the Corpse Bride. My big missions were Jack and Sally, Dwarves, Stitch, and Magic Shots, since all of the above are what my family refuses to spend time doing when we are all here together.
i had already rope-dropped MK and gotten a ton of rides done, so rides were not a priority for me.
I had no issues getting through the gate with my costume and makeup on at 3:30. I have an AP, so I bypassed the craziness at the entrance and headed to Tomorrowland. I was maybe 20th in line at 3:35. They began handing out the wristbands at 3:50. I got mine at 4pm on the dot and hightailed it to the J&S location, where the CM was already holding a 120-minute sign at 4:02pm. I decided to take my chances (also, my wig was killing me in the heat) and since they actually started meeting at 4pm instead of 4:30, I was out of there by 4:35. I wandered around a little, and wasted some time deciding what to do next. Ultimately, I headed to Storybook Circus and, at about 5:10pm, was about 25th in line for the Dwarves. The line never really seemed long, though, and they began meeting at 6pm on the dot. Since it’s just a quick photo-op, this went very quickly and I was out by 6:15 or so. At that point, a CM held a 60-minute sign outside, so it really wasn’t bad at all.
Next, I headed to Space Mountain (posted 50 minute wait) hoping that the overlay was active. I waited a total of 20 minutes, and at 6:45pm, the overlay was in full swing. I got a Tron VQ while in line for Dwarves, but at 7:10, the line stretched almost to the entrance sign, so I decided to skip it and do Buzz instead (5 minutes).
I had no issues ordering dinner at Pecos Bills at 7pm, and there was hardly any line at any of the registers.
I did the Liberty Square magic shots next, and stocked up on the allergy candy so that I wouldn’t have to come back later. They also had cute little foam craft kits that they were handing out alongside the candy.
I checked on the Lantern photo at HM as well as the HM line and decided to bypass both and save them for after the second parade, which is what we had done in August with success. Both lines were quite long.
I wandered back to the Hub to watch the stage show, but due to technical difficulties, they not only started late but launched into a severely truncated version of the show, so I moved on. The next stop was the Mr. Toad’s cutout frame photo- these turn out much better than I thought they would! The lighting is really good inside the box frames. I did the Lock, Shock &Barrel magic shot on the bridge and then saw that Stitch had a 20-minute sign up, so I headed inside and waited seven minutes.
I had the dessert party booked again, so after Stitch, I checked in, met a lovely ex-CM with an adorable toddler, and appreciated being able to park myself on a seat for a little while.
After the dessert party, I headed into Fantasyland and saw that Pooh was a walk-on, so I jumped on that. Peter Pan showed in the app as 5 minutes, yet the line was already outside- clearly, they had not updated it.
After Pooh, I headed to my favourite secret parade spot, which was thankfully still open. This was 25 minutes before the parade. No, I won’t tell you where it is- ha ha ha.
Once the parade started, I was excited to receive an incredible amount of attention for my getup. Gaston proposed while the Stepsisters came over and stuck their tongues out at me. Oogie left his spot to come and give me a hug. Even the Bride rolled over to me and interacted with me. It was worth the heat and torture of the makeup and the costume for sure!
Once the parade ended, I zoomed to HM, which was (as I had hoped) a walk-on. After the ride, I was able to wait five minutes for the lantern photo, instead of 35 as it had been earlier. At this point, it was 11:45, the HM live performers were gone, and I just wanted to get my magic shots and go to bed. A superhero Photopass CM on Main Street told me that she would basically just do every single one for me, so I was able to get them all except for the cauldron, which I hit with no wait while the midnight stage show was underway.
If anyone wants exact timing points for planning purposes, let me know! My photos are all time-stamped. I hope this helps, since I had a lot of questions about how to accomplish all of my goals that weren’t really answered this year since I had a very specific set of goals
.
. Maybe they can help people who are formulating strategies next year!I did an August party with my family and came down again now for a solo trip to be able to wear a fun costume in the cooler weather. I was dressed as Emily, the Corpse Bride. My big missions were Jack and Sally, Dwarves, Stitch, and Magic Shots, since all of the above are what my family refuses to spend time doing when we are all here together.
i had already rope-dropped MK and gotten a ton of rides done, so rides were not a priority for me.
I had no issues getting through the gate with my costume and makeup on at 3:30. I have an AP, so I bypassed the craziness at the entrance and headed to Tomorrowland. I was maybe 20th in line at 3:35. They began handing out the wristbands at 3:50. I got mine at 4pm on the dot and hightailed it to the J&S location, where the CM was already holding a 120-minute sign at 4:02pm. I decided to take my chances (also, my wig was killing me in the heat) and since they actually started meeting at 4pm instead of 4:30, I was out of there by 4:35. I wandered around a little, and wasted some time deciding what to do next. Ultimately, I headed to Storybook Circus and, at about 5:10pm, was about 25th in line for the Dwarves. The line never really seemed long, though, and they began meeting at 6pm on the dot. Since it’s just a quick photo-op, this went very quickly and I was out by 6:15 or so. At that point, a CM held a 60-minute sign outside, so it really wasn’t bad at all.
Next, I headed to Space Mountain (posted 50 minute wait) hoping that the overlay was active. I waited a total of 20 minutes, and at 6:45pm, the overlay was in full swing. I got a Tron VQ while in line for Dwarves, but at 7:10, the line stretched almost to the entrance sign, so I decided to skip it and do Buzz instead (5 minutes).
I had no issues ordering dinner at Pecos Bills at 7pm, and there was hardly any line at any of the registers.
I did the Liberty Square magic shots next, and stocked up on the allergy candy so that I wouldn’t have to come back later. They also had cute little foam craft kits that they were handing out alongside the candy.
I checked on the Lantern photo at HM as well as the HM line and decided to bypass both and save them for after the second parade, which is what we had done in August with success. Both lines were quite long.
I wandered back to the Hub to watch the stage show, but due to technical difficulties, they not only started late but launched into a severely truncated version of the show, so I moved on. The next stop was the Mr. Toad’s cutout frame photo- these turn out much better than I thought they would! The lighting is really good inside the box frames. I did the Lock, Shock &Barrel magic shot on the bridge and then saw that Stitch had a 20-minute sign up, so I headed inside and waited seven minutes.
I had the dessert party booked again, so after Stitch, I checked in, met a lovely ex-CM with an adorable toddler, and appreciated being able to park myself on a seat for a little while.
After the dessert party, I headed into Fantasyland and saw that Pooh was a walk-on, so I jumped on that. Peter Pan showed in the app as 5 minutes, yet the line was already outside- clearly, they had not updated it.
After Pooh, I headed to my favourite secret parade spot, which was thankfully still open. This was 25 minutes before the parade. No, I won’t tell you where it is- ha ha ha.
Once the parade started, I was excited to receive an incredible amount of attention for my getup. Gaston proposed while the Stepsisters came over and stuck their tongues out at me. Oogie left his spot to come and give me a hug. Even the Bride rolled over to me and interacted with me. It was worth the heat and torture of the makeup and the costume for sure!
Once the parade ended, I zoomed to HM, which was (as I had hoped) a walk-on. After the ride, I was able to wait five minutes for the lantern photo, instead of 35 as it had been earlier. At this point, it was 11:45, the HM live performers were gone, and I just wanted to get my magic shots and go to bed. A superhero Photopass CM on Main Street told me that she would basically just do every single one for me, so I was able to get them all except for the cauldron, which I hit with no wait while the midnight stage show was underway.
If anyone wants exact timing points for planning purposes, let me know! My photos are all time-stamped. I hope this helps, since I had a lot of questions about how to accomplish all of my goals that weren’t really answered this year since I had a very specific set of goals
.
bookbabe626
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2006
- Messages
- 1,951
I’m going to post this here and in the OBB thread, to add to the reviews and comparisons for next year’s partygoers.
DH and I attended the October 3rd OBB and the October 10th MNSSHP. Two 50+ adults, no kids. No costumes, just Halloween tees since we were travelling carryons only. We’ve attended both parties before, OBB in 2022 and MNSSHP pretty much yearly since the beginning.
Overall, for us, MNSSHP gets the win. I don’t think we’ll bother with OBB again. I‘ll break it down by activity so people can see my rationale since priorities vary.
Atmosphere: Both coasts do a good job with decorations, although we wish OBB was at DL rather than DCA.
Crowds: no appreciable difference other than the fact that MK has more crowd-eaters than DCA. Crowds were heaviest in Avengers Campus and Tomorrowland, probably due to the newer/better rides in those areas
Food: MHSSHP has way better regular food options, especially for sitdown dining during the mix-in time. DCA sitdown dining sucks, IMO, and even the fast food options are limited. Party-exclusive treats were better at OBB, MNSSHP has some really odd choices, although the corn milkshake was much better than expected.
Characters: OBB blows MNSSHP out of the water. If you’re in it for the characters, head to the west coast. More characters, and way better interactions. (Note, DH and I like to see characters from a distance, but we aren’t character M&G people, so this wasn’t important to us personally.)
Parade: Boo to You at MNSSHP is the best parade out there, IMO. I’ll watch it twice in a night. And the headless horseman actually trots down the parade route at MNSSHP, whereas he ambled along at a slow walk for OBB. Frightfully Fun is okay, and they’ve got some well-designed floats, but it’s very short and underwhelming compared to Boo.
Nighttime show: meh, they both suck, we aren’t projections fans. Come on, Disney, shell out for a full-priced fireworks show please, at least for party nights.
Stage shows: the Sanderson Sisters show at MNSSHP is awesome, although I wish they’d update it at some point. OBB doesn’t have anything to compare. Both coasts have some decent dance parties for the little ones.
Villains Grove at OBB: cool, I guess, and MNSSHP doesn’t have anything like it, but really it’s lights and fog effects and some ambient music. Worth seeing once, but IMO not worth waiting in a line for
Rides: MK has more rides in general than DCA, so that does spread the lines out a bit better, waits were great for us at both parties for the things we wanted to ride
Treats: OBB totally sucks for treats in our opinion, especially if you are a non-costumed adult with no kids. I actually had a few CMs put half their handful of treats back into the bin when they saw we didn’t have kids with us. Most CMs at OBB gave out one item, maybe two, and three quarters of the stations had goldfish, carrots or apples instead of chocolate. And a lot of stations were empty when we hit them, you could go through to see the character but half the CMs along the trail didn’t have anything to hand out (waiting for a restock). At MNSSHP, we did fewer trails and got way more treats. CMs were giving full scoops to everyone, even adults, and sometimes joking and being friendly got you a second scoop, especially towards the end of the night.
I really want to love OBB, I really do, but doing the two parties almost back to back really helped solidify that I’m a MNSSHP girl, especially when you add the ease of buying tickets for it into the decision-making process. OBB is okay, and if you are all about the characters it’s a better choice, but if you don’t care about the characters then don’t get caught up in the OBB ticket sales chaos. It’s not worth the aggravation.
Note: if you are local to one park or the other, and NOT planning a Halloween-focussed vacation to one coast or the other, go to whichever party is more convenient and that you can get tickets to. They’re both good value, at least as far as Disney pricing goes. I just wouldn’t make a special trip to the west coast for OBB, I’d head to WDW and do MNSSHP instead if you are looking to plan a Halloween vacation.
DH and I attended the October 3rd OBB and the October 10th MNSSHP. Two 50+ adults, no kids. No costumes, just Halloween tees since we were travelling carryons only. We’ve attended both parties before, OBB in 2022 and MNSSHP pretty much yearly since the beginning.
Overall, for us, MNSSHP gets the win. I don’t think we’ll bother with OBB again. I‘ll break it down by activity so people can see my rationale since priorities vary.
Atmosphere: Both coasts do a good job with decorations, although we wish OBB was at DL rather than DCA.
Crowds: no appreciable difference other than the fact that MK has more crowd-eaters than DCA. Crowds were heaviest in Avengers Campus and Tomorrowland, probably due to the newer/better rides in those areas
Food: MHSSHP has way better regular food options, especially for sitdown dining during the mix-in time. DCA sitdown dining sucks, IMO, and even the fast food options are limited. Party-exclusive treats were better at OBB, MNSSHP has some really odd choices, although the corn milkshake was much better than expected.
Characters: OBB blows MNSSHP out of the water. If you’re in it for the characters, head to the west coast. More characters, and way better interactions. (Note, DH and I like to see characters from a distance, but we aren’t character M&G people, so this wasn’t important to us personally.)
Parade: Boo to You at MNSSHP is the best parade out there, IMO. I’ll watch it twice in a night. And the headless horseman actually trots down the parade route at MNSSHP, whereas he ambled along at a slow walk for OBB. Frightfully Fun is okay, and they’ve got some well-designed floats, but it’s very short and underwhelming compared to Boo.
Nighttime show: meh, they both suck, we aren’t projections fans. Come on, Disney, shell out for a full-priced fireworks show please, at least for party nights.
Stage shows: the Sanderson Sisters show at MNSSHP is awesome, although I wish they’d update it at some point. OBB doesn’t have anything to compare. Both coasts have some decent dance parties for the little ones.
Villains Grove at OBB: cool, I guess, and MNSSHP doesn’t have anything like it, but really it’s lights and fog effects and some ambient music. Worth seeing once, but IMO not worth waiting in a line for
Rides: MK has more rides in general than DCA, so that does spread the lines out a bit better, waits were great for us at both parties for the things we wanted to ride
Treats: OBB totally sucks for treats in our opinion, especially if you are a non-costumed adult with no kids. I actually had a few CMs put half their handful of treats back into the bin when they saw we didn’t have kids with us. Most CMs at OBB gave out one item, maybe two, and three quarters of the stations had goldfish, carrots or apples instead of chocolate. And a lot of stations were empty when we hit them, you could go through to see the character but half the CMs along the trail didn’t have anything to hand out (waiting for a restock). At MNSSHP, we did fewer trails and got way more treats. CMs were giving full scoops to everyone, even adults, and sometimes joking and being friendly got you a second scoop, especially towards the end of the night.
I really want to love OBB, I really do, but doing the two parties almost back to back really helped solidify that I’m a MNSSHP girl, especially when you add the ease of buying tickets for it into the decision-making process. OBB is okay, and if you are all about the characters it’s a better choice, but if you don’t care about the characters then don’t get caught up in the OBB ticket sales chaos. It’s not worth the aggravation.
Note: if you are local to one park or the other, and NOT planning a Halloween-focussed vacation to one coast or the other, go to whichever party is more convenient and that you can get tickets to. They’re both good value, at least as far as Disney pricing goes. I just wouldn’t make a special trip to the west coast for OBB, I’d head to WDW and do MNSSHP instead if you are looking to plan a Halloween vacation.
If you’re not in the park I think the VQ is very unlikely I’m pretty sure you have to have been scanned into MK at some point that day and have a party ticket to get in.
- Joined
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mum22girlz
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2008
- Messages
- 470
They did not when I was there on 10/15.
pangyal
#TeamSven
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- Jul 26, 2014
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- 5,528
They usually start around 4:30. At my party last week, they actually started meeting right at four, but that was an anomaly for sure.
ninafeliz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2001
- Messages
- 3,220
I remember someone posted a trick they used to loosen their MNSSHP wristbands after they had gotten too tight using nail Clippers jammed into the black plastic part of the band and included a photo - but I can’t find that for the life of me in this thread and search isn’t helping. Can anyone point me in the right direction to that post or if it was you who did it let me know how? I would like to loosen a band but not cut it off .
Three cats
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2008
- Messages
- 1,511
Apologies if this has been asked a bunch of times as I have not kept up with this thread.
For those that have attended the party, does it seem they have lowered the attendance with the higher prices? Or is it still packed with just higher ticket prices?
For those that have attended the party, does it seem they have lowered the attendance with the higher prices? Or is it still packed with just higher ticket prices?
sadiecatie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2022
- Messages
- 657
If you mean the higher prices for the later parties, I would assume the number of tickets is the same, but have no data to back that up. As far as day vs party crowds, I think it definitely felt less crowded. Low waits for all rides; didn’t feel crowded in walkways; of course there will be crowds for the entertainment, but that still didn’t feel too bad to me. Of course YMMV, but we had a great time and would do it again (this was our first special ticketed event).
UnderTheSea7
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2023
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- 15
Don’t know about the skull brownie specifically but a warning that a lot of the specialty treats finish at 5.30 so make sure to head over and grab them first. we didn’t and missed out.
SkyGuy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2021
- Messages
- 2,130
The party doesn’t officially start until 7:00, so the treats wouldn’t be finished at 5:30. More than likely, you were too early, as the park closes at 6:00 to regular guests, so they don’t have party-specific treats for sale that early. I got the specialty chicken wings and a (cardboard) special burger around 10:30-11:00pm. Friends had party-specific items at Cosmic Rays around 7:00-7:30pm.
UnderTheSea7
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2023
- Messages
- 15
I’m not talking about MNSSHP party specific food but general MK Halloween food.
I went to Liberty Square Market to get the Halloween whooping pie around 5.45pm (after buying the Mexican skull brownie outside Haunted Mansion) and it was closed - they close at 5.30pm on MNSSHP nights. Columbia Harbor House was also closed by then (and turned into a treat station) so I couldn’t get the Haunted Mansion milkshake either.
There aren’t actually that many MNSSHP party specific treats so I’m saying if you want Halloween food generally and you’re only in MK for that one day make sure to go before 5.30pm.
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