It was pretty crowded when we went last year also. I thought they only sold a set amount of tickets so the park wasn't as busy as during regular park hours. Did they do away with setting a limit? It was our first after hours party.
Too bad your people weren't ready for the shot.. My son hates getting his glasses wet.. Oops
The info I have, and it's about as reliable as pretty much anything you get, is that it used to be 20,000 tickets per night and that now it is 50,000. Given my experiences during both alleged periods, I would believe it.
In any case, I used to go to the hard-ticket parties mainly to get on the rides with little wait and low crowd levels: that is no longer a factor.
Here is our shoulder to shoulder MVMCP. Taken the Friday before Thanksgiving 2012. We are used to the crowd because we always go Thursday before Thanksgiving thru the Saturday after. Just thought it would be a little less with the limited(?) amount of tickets sold. Loved the experience anyway.