Arrrgh. glawgirl's post is bringing up bad memories.
Just to add some detail to my previous post.
Our PS experience was also less than magical. We had PS for around 4:45 at the Crystal Palace. They seated us in a busy area right near the buffet. There were 6 of us (4 adults, 2 kids, one in a highchair) at a round table that I felt was designed for 4 diners. And the lack of attention we got from our server was such that we had a stack of empty plates nearly a foot high in the middle of the table at one point.
The characters seemed to be all grouped together. For 45 minutes we sat there with my son asking "why won't Pooh come over and see me", which was a first in our character dining experiences. We had all finished our meals and were just killing time before the first character came by. Once the first arrived, they all followed quickly behind and we got out of there.
None of that necessarily relates to the party itself, but I thought I'd share since glawgirl had another bad dining experience.
As for
MVMCP, we attended the last Tuesday party in Decmeber '04 and didn't expect HUGE crowds. And, as expected, the crowds were not unreasonable. We knew to get our photos right away, so that only took us about 30 minutes. The photos came out very nice and we got a bunch of copies sent to us in the mail.
The most striking thing I remember about the party were the lines for the parade. They say to wait for the later parade if you can (which I think is around 9:45pm), but that's not really an option when you have an 18 month-old.
Anyway, a full NINETY MINUTES before the parade, the curbside crowds were two and three deep all the way along main street and the castle courtyard. Sorry...nothing magical about sitting by the curb for 1 1/2 hours trying to entertain two kiddies with the light chaser vendors coming by every few seconds.
We ended up grabbing a spot near Splash Mountain about 20-30 minutes before the parade started. I decided early there was no way I would follow the lemmings and sit on a curb for 2 hours. If we hadn't found the spot we did, we likely would have skipped the parade altogether.
We only did one or two rides (Buzz and maybe something else). It was in the 50s, so there was no interest in Splash Mtn or any of the other outdoor rides. We did get a lot of character photos, which was nice. They had the characters out everywhere, and rarely were the lines long.
Some will probably say that I'm too hung up on the price / value and not appreciating the "magic." Perhaps that's true. But if I'd have felt MORE "magic", the price wouldn't have been an issue. As it was, we paid nearly $200 for the tickets, and it didn't feel much different than a typical day at the Magic Kingdom.
I should note that we are Annual Passholders. One of the nice benefits of MVMCP is that you can get into the park after 4pm with just the MVMCP ticket. For folks using MYW passes, it's much easier to justify the cost by shortening your MYW pass by a day, and finding something else to occupy your self on the day of the party until 4pm. In our case, we already had our AP admission for the day, and still paid an extra $200 on top for the MVMCP tickets.
In all honesty, the party was something that we had to experience first-hand in order to pass judgement. I don't necessarily regret going...but we won't be rushing back again in the future.
I agree with every word posted here. 
