Oversold parties . Thoughts on trying again

[Llama mama]

Did After Hours Villians and it was fantastic! Wonderfully empty park with walk on rides. Did Mickeys Christmas Party last year and it was jammed packed . No rides were walk on and lines for cookies and drinks were huge. Not impressed with that party way too crowded. Halloween is my birthday and thinking of giving it one more shot . Mid October Halloween party Friday night. Are the big parties always that packed?

 

[vinotinto]

Did After Hours Villians and it was fantastic! Wonderfully empty park with walk on rides. Did Mickeys Christmas Party last year and it was jammed packed . No rides were walk on and lines for cookies and drinks were huge. Not impressed with that party way too crowded. Halloween is my birthday and thinking of giving it one more shot . Mid October Halloween party Friday night. Are the big parties always that packed?

Yes.

 

[inspectorgadget]

Did After Hours Villians and it was fantastic! Wonderfully empty park with walk on rides. Did Mickeys Christmas Party last year and it was jammed packed . No rides were walk on and lines for cookies and drinks were huge. Not impressed with that party way too crowded. Halloween is my birthday and thinking of giving it one more shot . Mid October Halloween party Friday night. Are the big parties always that packed?

My family attends one Halloween party just about every year. Yes, it can be very crowded but the rides really are walk ons or the wait is very low.it seems as if most people do characters meets and trick or treat, so the attraction lines aren't that bad.

 

[pangyal]

My family attends one Halloween party just about every year. Yes, it can be very crowded but the rides really are walk ons or the wait is very low.it seems as if most people do characters meets and trick or treat, so the attraction lines aren't that bad.

I would like to clarify that walk-on and very low-wait ride times should not be expected anymore with the number of tickets they are selling to these events now. If your party ends up being one of these unicorns, that is obviously wonderful, but I wouldn’t want people who have never done the party expecting to be able to walk on anything other than maybe the Peoplemover. The average wait time for most of the big rides will still be at least a half hour, give or take maybe ten minutes.

 

[Roybrown]

I agree with the crowds during the Christmas night. I went in early November last year on a Friday night and it was very crowded. And the crowds lasted until midnight. The rides weren't too bad, though. Maybe 20 minutes maximum for the regular rides. Didn't do Peter Pan or Dwarves.

 

[Roybrown]

None of the rides we went on were walk on. And that was the deal even as it got later in the night. Small World was pretty quick, but that's it.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I would like to clarify that walk-on and very low-wait ride times should not be expected anymore with the number of tickets they are selling to these events now. If your party ends up being one of these unicorns, that is obviously wonderful, but I wouldn’t want people who have never done the party expecting to be able to walk on anything other than maybe the Peoplemover. The average wait time for most of the big rides will still be at least a half hour, give or take maybe ten minutes.

I guess it depends when the party is. We always attend in late September and we have never had long waits. Seems like people are walking around,, meeting characters, watching parade, watching hocus pocus and trick or treating. There is so much to do at the Halloween parties.

 

[jscunningham699]

I'm considering doing the Halloween party on September 2 when we are there. Any idea how the crowds might be for the Halloween party that early in the season?

 

[KyleAfterAWhile]

Most attractions do not have long waits. You will get them for the Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan's Flight, occasionally Buzz and Pirates.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We went to the first MNSSHP in 2017 (light crowds, short lines) and the second one last year which was jam packed. IMHO, MNSSHP is great if you are going for the special events - we love the parade and the fireworks. I would not spend the money if my main goal was to ride rides. I would stick to an After Hours event for that.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Did After Hours Villians and it was fantastic! Wonderfully empty park with walk on rides. Did Mickeys Christmas Party last year and it was jammed packed . No rides were walk on and lines for cookies and drinks were huge. Not impressed with that party way too crowded. Halloween is my birthday and thinking of giving it one more shot . Mid October Halloween party Friday night. Are the big parties always that packed?

We did Thursday 10/11 last year and just felt, defeated. Rides were still 20-30 minute waits which eats up a lot of time. Meet and greets were untouchable. Hub was so nuts for the stage show that we didn’t even stay for the fireworks. We were able to get the pumpkin waffle sundae from sleepy hollow which was a highlight but yeah, lines lines and more lines.

 

[Brett Wyman]

I feel like MNSSHP and MVMCP are not the best ways to ride a lot of rides. Go for the festivities, music, parades, food, characters, and atmosphere. Save the rides for EMM, DAH, or similar.

 

[bocaj1431]

I just booked tickets for H2O glow and MK after hours for AUG. Everything I had read about the after hours events said they were great and very minimal waits. I hope that is the case because that is the only reason we booked them.
Are you all pretty much talking about the MNSSHP AND MVMCP?

 

[hereforthechurros]

I just booked tickets for H2O glow and MK after hours for AUG. Everything I had read about the after hours events said they were great and very minimal waits. I hope that is the case because that is the only reason we booked them.
Are you all pretty much talking about the MNSSHP AND MVMCP?

After hours is great, far superior in my opinion. Empty park and no lines feels so magical

 

[Wild4Walt]

We did MNSSHP the 2nd week of September last year. Crowd level was low-ish. Walked onto Pirates and Haunted Mansion. Candy lines weren't too long at most. What had huge wait times was getting photo ops with the characters. Parade viewing was easy. It did rain on and off during the evening hours after the party started which seemed to clear out the park after the parade.

 

[RolloTomasi]

While there are bigger crowds at the parties just based on the fact that more tickets are available for purchase, it really does depend on which party you choose. In December 2017 we went to MVMCP on a non-sellout, and it felt like wall to wall people all night. Last year we went to the first Christmas party, which was a sellout, and most rides were maybe ten minute waits all night but the Hub was packed packed packed. Tuesdays tend to be better than Fridays. Sometimes the crowd will be more geared towards meet and greets. Unfortunately, you don’t know for sure until you show up.

I love the parties because I love the atmosphere of the park when they’re going on. If you’re most concerned about rides, DAH is a much safer bet.

 

[rangerxenos]

Did After Hours Villians and it was fantastic! Wonderfully empty park with walk on rides. Did Mickeys Christmas Party last year and it was jammed packed . No rides were walk on and lines for cookies and drinks were huge. Not impressed with that party way too crowded. Halloween is my birthday and thinking of giving it one more shot . Mid October Halloween party Friday night. Are the big parties always that packed?

Friday night will probably be very busy. We went on a Thursday night party last year and I was pleasantly surprised, I didn't think the crowds were bad at all. I think it was October 24th, so it wasn't too far from Halloween.

 

[Alana20]

After hours is great, far superior in my opinion. Empty park and no lines feels so magical

Agreed - just did Villains after hours last week and it was great. Slightly longer than a non themed after hours but nothing over 15 minutes all night.

 

[bocaj1431]

After hours is great, far superior in my opinion. Empty park and no lines feels so magical

That is what we are hoping for. Glad to hear that was your experience!

I have a son with Autism and we visit all the parks except MK. MK just got to be so difficult maneuvering through the crowds and sometimes dealing with rude people that he just couldn’t handle it. Not sure why that park seems to be much more difficult to walk through but we are so looking forward to finally being able to go back to MK.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Yep. We did mvmcp on a Tuesday in Nov in 2017. Never again. We did all the research and had a general plan. Met Moana, saw the parade and fireworks, maybe 2 rides. It was a mob scene. Eggnog line moved fast but was about 200 people deep.

For the price tag, it just wasn’t worth it for us.

I’m honestly a party hater at this point because they schedule them 4 days/ week, so good luck seeing happily ever after on one of the non party days in a literal sea of humanity.

Think I need to re-think the time of year we go.

I sound like such a Scrooge!

Bah!