Please help me piece together this 5 Day Parkhopper +Halloween Party jigsaw!

[wishusluck]

Ok, so a while ago I purchased 5 day parkhopper passes for our family.

We are two adults, two kids aged 8.5 and 10.5.

We will arrive in Anaheim on Sunday Sept 17, and will leave Anaheim about midday Saturday Sept 22, to drive to Sequoia NP.

On the Sunday we will be coming from a one night stay at Huntington Beach, so I had originally planned for us to check in at our Anaheim hotel in the late afternoon, then have a quiet evening, dinner, maybe Downtown Disney, then early to bed for our first day at Disneyland on Monday.

We would then do...
Tuesday - MM at Disneyland, parkhopping in the PM.
Wednesday - we were going to do Disneyland in the AM, then go to Outlets at Orange for the PM/ evening.
Thursday - we would do DCA/ Disneyland parkhopping,
and Friday was to be our big, final day where we could stay late and see the fireworks etc.


This week they announced the dates of Mickey's Halloween Parties and they fall on Wed 19th and Friday 21st.

So now our final day is kind of cut short. The crowds will arrive at DL from 4pm, and according to what I have read, the DCA crowds are terrible during MHP.

So I have been tossing and turning in bed each night, trying to figure out a way to work this. Our only option may be to purchase tickets to MHP on the Friday, but being from Australia this works out to be $$$!

I thought if we do buy party tickets we just could not use our parkhopper passes on the Friday, and arrive at DL at 4pm (when we are allowed in). But then that leaves us with an unused day, which would be the Sunday night, or the Saturday morning (which has MM).

What would you do? Buy MHP tickets and go to DL on the Sunday night when we arrive, when we may be tired and it could be busy? Or don't buy MHP tickets and have a shortened final day on the Friday?

Sorry, that was long! Just hoping someone could come up with a plan I may not have considered.

Thanks so much : )

 

[Geemo]

Ok, so a while ago I purchased 5 day parkhopper passes for our family.

We are two adults, two kids aged 8.5 and 10.5.

We will arrive in Anaheim on Sunday Sept 17, and will leave Anaheim about midday Saturday Sept 22, to drive to Sequoia NP.

On the Sunday we will be coming from a one night stay at Huntington Beach, so I had originally planned for us to check in at our Anaheim hotel in the late afternoon, then have a quiet evening, dinner, maybe Downtown Disney, then early to bed for our first day at Disneyland on Monday.

We would then do...
Tuesday - MM at Disneyland, parkhopping in the PM.
Wednesday - we were going to do Disneyland in the AM, then go to Outlets at Orange for the PM/ evening.
Thursday - we would do DCA/ Disneyland parkhopping,
and Friday was to be our big, final day where we could stay late and see the fireworks etc.


This week they announced the dates of Mickey's Halloween Parties and they fall on Wed 19th and Friday 21st.

So now our final day is kind of cut short. The crowds will arrive at DL from 4pm, and according to what I have read, the DCA crowds are terrible during MHP.

So I have been tossing and turning in bed each night, trying to figure out a way to work this. Our only option may be to purchase tickets to MHP on the Friday, but being from Australia this works out to be $$$!

I thought if we do buy party tickets we just could not use our parkhopper passes on the Friday, and arrive at DL at 4pm (when we are allowed in). But then that leaves us with an unused day, which would be the Sunday night, or the Saturday morning (which has MM).

What would you do? Buy MHP tickets and go to DL on the Sunday night when we arrive, when we may be tired and it could be busy? Or don't buy MHP tickets and have a shortened final day on the Friday?

Sorry, that was long! Just hoping someone could come up with a plan I may not have considered.

Thanks so much : )

I'd get a MHP ticket for Friday and enjoy the party.

If you arrive on Sunday and feel you have enough energy left for the parks, that's great go have fun.
If you're too exhausted from travel, you can use the Sat AM. Saturdays can be nice first thing in the morning. I expect it to begin to get busy late morning early afternoon when you were planning to leave to head north.

 

[agamble]

If you want to go to the party then buy the tickets and go. It should be fun. You could always go to the parks on Saturday morning if you want.

You could also do some switching around of things. Example: Stay in Anaheim your entire trip and go to the parks a full day on your first Saturday and take a day trip to the beach on Wednesday and then do your evening at outlets on Friday.

 

[figment_jii]

I'm always a fan of going into the parks on the first day, even if it's a relatively shortened time period because the start of the trip is when you usually have the most energy. Given it's a Sunday, this would also, potentially depending on schedule, give you a chance to see the weekend only entertainment (fireworks, F!). They probably won't be offerings either on the weekdays (WoC is usually nightly, it's not yet known what will be happening with PtN after Labor Day), so this might be the only chance you have to see them. That being said, if you get in and everyone is tired enough, then I would go with your original plan and go the parks on Saturday before you leave for a few hours.

In terms of MHP, it is pricey, so you'll need to decide whether it's worth it to you. Are you interested in the party exclusive offerings (parade, fireworks, trick-or-treating, character m&g)? If you're not, then I generally don't think it's worth it to splurge on the ticket. If you wanted to enjoy the MHP exclusive items, then I'd say it's worth it to go.

 

[wishusluck]

Thank you everyone so much for the great advice : )

After thinking some more, I have realised that it would not be a great idea for us to be at MHP until midnight on Friday 21st, and then try to do a MM on the Saturday, before driving to Sequioa NP in the afternoon. We probably wouldn't get to bed until 1am, then to be at the park at 7am we would have to be up well before 6am. I don't think this would make for a happy family!

So I guess if we go ahead with the MHP plan then we would have no choice but to make our first visit on the Sunday, after Huntington Beach.

More thinking to do....!