To Do or Not to Do... 1st timers for MNSSHP

[DisneyJColeMom]

Was planning on our first special Disney event of any kind, on our first big Disney trip for our 7 year old son’s birthday. He loves Nightmare Before Christmas. Wanted to buy tickets for Tuesday night September 22, 2020. My brother in law who is also planning a Disney trip for same dates for my nephew’s 10 year birthday was thinking of joining us, he’s never been to MNSSHP either. I almost talked him out of it because I started reading so many bad reviews of overcrowding. Then in a discussion here someone told me it was a must & don’t miss it. He’s laughing at me changing my mind every other day... what do you guys think?? Spend the money or don’t? For him it would be more then us, we are family of 3, he is family of 5. Our kids are age 6, 7, 10, & 18.

 

[nkereina]

Worth is relative. For a boy who loves Nightmare Before Christmas, it will be his only opportunity to meet Jack & Sally. My niece and nephew loved the party for this reason. That said, Jack & Sally are the most popular meet at the party so you do need to line up well in advance and be prepared to wait - its a commitment. I would be prepared to split up from your brother and his family, unless they want to meet Jack & Sally too.

Its difficult to say what crowds will be like this year with everything going on. The last couple years, it seems they have increased attendance but the party has also grown more popular. There's no telling what it will look like this year.

As two adults, DH and I pass on the parties now but we have done MNSSHP twice and are glad we did it. Its a cute event and if you have kids that will be into the shows and characters, its likely worthwhile. If its a budget buster for you, don't fret about missing it. Its not a must do, IMO.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Was planning on our first special Disney event of any kind, on our first big Disney trip for our 7 year old son’s birthday. He loves Nightmare Before Christmas. Wanted to buy tickets for Tuesday night September 22, 2020. My brother in law who is also planning a Disney trip for same dates for my nephew’s 10 year birthday was thinking of joining us, he’s never been to MNSSHP either. I almost talked him out of it because I started reading so many bad reviews of overcrowding. Then in a discussion here someone told me it was a must & don’t miss it. He’s laughing at me changing my mind every other day... what do you guys think?? Spend the money or don’t? For him it would be more then us, we are family of 3, he is family of 5. Our kids are age 6, 7, 10, & 18.

I think a lot of people complain about it because just like with anything Disney, you have to have a realistic plan. And I think a lot of people try to do shows and rides and characters expecting to be able to do everything.

I say if you have the money and realistic expectations on what to one can do with the party, go for it. But as mentioned above, if it's a budget buster then it's not must do.

 

[Haley R]

I saw you commented on an old post of mine but I thought I’d answer here instead.

Like others have mentioned, it really depends on you and your situation. Some people could take their kids, get candy, watch the parade, and say they had the best night ever. While someone else might have the same exact experience and say it was horrible. Having realistic expectations is a big part of making the night fun.

I would pick 2-3 main things you want to do and the rest can be spur of the moment type stuff. Wait to get candy until later in the night because the lines are typically shorter. When we do MNSSHP we barely ride any rides because we’d rather watch the parade, fireworks, and get candy which can take a decent amount of time up

 

[TLSnell1981]

HalloWishes was my favorite part of MMSSHP. Not sure when we will return since it has been "retired". The characters were great but the lines... not so much.

We visited DL last year and the addition of The Nightmare Before Christmas to the Haunted Mansion was awesome. Also loved Oogie Boogie Bash.

 

[Lilylogan]

I think it's more fun with just adults/staying until midnight. If you think you can stay the whole party with the ages of your kids then I would maybe do it. But when we went with our 2 year old we left by like 9:30 so Id say it wasn't worth it. For your family of 5 it's going to be what? $600 ish? It's a lot for a couple hours IMO....

 

[DisneyJColeMom]

How are the wait times for the rides? On a crowded night?

 

[DisneyJColeMom]

Ok so, just to remind myself why I had changed my mind, i searched reviews of 2019 Mnsshp. I found a looooong thread on a different website of just bad review after bad review, not a single positive one. Its annoying to me bc i did really wanna do this party, but after reading that much negative feedback it almost seems silly to ignore it... I feel like im looking for someone to say youre gonna love it lol. I think i would love, for my preference if i heard Id be able to ride the rides without ridiculous waits. I was trying to look at it as more time at magic kingdom, and if we catch some of the party stuff like parade or fireworks thatd be nice. I dont see us camping out for 2 hours, or standing in hour long lines to meet characters... Do the rides let up at any point? I love that feeling when its late and you can jump on a ride more than once. Does anyone think Disney will hear all this negative feedback & change the situation? Apparently it used to be a lot of fun bc they limited tickets.

 

[Disneylover99]

Ok so, just to remind myself why I had changed my mind, i searched reviews of 2019 Mnsshp. I found a looooong thread on a different website of just bad review after bad review, not a single positive one. Its annoying to me bc i did really wanna do this party, but after reading that much negative feedback it almost seems silly to ignore it... I feel like im looking for someone to say youre gonna love it lol. I think i would love, for my preference if i heard Id be able to ride the rides without ridiculous waits. I was trying to look at it as more time at magic kingdom, and if we catch some of the party stuff like parade or fireworks thatd be nice. I dont see us camping out for 2 hours, or standing in hour long lines to meet characters... Do the rides let up at any point? I love that feeling when its late and you can jump on a ride more than once. Does anyone think Disney will hear all this negative feedback & change the situation? Apparently it used to be a lot of fun bc they limited tickets.

I love it! But it’s crowded. Most rides are not walk ons, especially since in recent years they’ve started to add some Halloween overlays to rides. I think the overlays are meant to lure people on rides and maybe try to thin out the crowds walking around.

 

[Ksquared]

We've done this as well as the Christmas party and the Villans After Hours this past August. We have loved all of these parties all for different reasons. I will say we typically don't wait in line for characters. We love going on the rides with lesser waits and for the Halloween event, we did wait for the parade as the headless horseman is pretty cool. If cost is not any issue, then I'd say go, you will have fun and you will enjoy it. Just don't think you can do every single thing because it's almost impossible. Decide to hit the rides your family love the most and either the parade/fireworks/trick or treat etc. I remember the year we went it was the last night of the party and I thoughts the crowds that night were manageable and we were able to do everything our family wanted.

 

[Tinkerbellmom43]

I think as others have stated, it depends on what you want to accomplish. Last year they sold an unlimited party pass which added to the crowds. I went this past Sept. after not having gone in many years. I still loved it but it was definitely busier than I remember. I attended expecting it to be busy and still did most everything on my list. I went with the idea of only doing party exclusive entertainment, treats and a few rides. The candy lines were long but they moved. The parade was awesome! I watched both times (it's my favorite ) Character lines were a little long so the only ones I waited for were Lotso and Jack and Sally. If you've never done it and don't mind spending extra I would say try it. Definitely check the entertainment schedule etc. and make a loose plan.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

If you want rides, do a Disney After Hours if you can. But as I type that, I suspect that Halloween parties kill the MK DAH in Sept and Oct.
You also can take lots of rides at Early Morning Magic in Fantasyland, which puts you in excellent position to RD other rides like Space Mountain.
For me, the huge lines for characters were a huge disappointment. It might be realistic to go in knowing that waiting to meet Jack will eat up half the party time, but that makes me realistic that my vacation dollar can be spent in better ways.
The reasons to do the party would be if the older kids would really enjoy getting to go to the park in costume and could stay until midnight. Think of the other things $800 could get your two families. There are so many "enchanted extras" now.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

We really enjoyed it, despite a seasonal downpour. We did all the rides with overlays a few times and lots of others, met a few characters and enjoyed people watching and the parade and fireworks. We queued up for treats once, but that seems a waste of time to me.

 

[nkereina]

How are the wait times for the rides? On a crowded night?

Ok so, just to remind myself why I had changed my mind, i searched reviews of 2019 Mnsshp. I found a looooong thread on a different website of just bad review after bad review, not a single positive one. Its annoying to me bc i did really wanna do this party, but after reading that much negative feedback it almost seems silly to ignore it... I feel like im looking for someone to say youre gonna love it lol. I think i would love, for my preference if i heard Id be able to ride the rides without ridiculous waits. I was trying to look at it as more time at magic kingdom, and if we catch some of the party stuff like parade or fireworks thatd be nice. I dont see us camping out for 2 hours, or standing in hour long lines to meet characters... Do the rides let up at any point? I love that feeling when its late and you can jump on a ride more than once. Does anyone think Disney will hear all this negative feedback & change the situation? Apparently it used to be a lot of fun bc they limited tickets.

If you're going to attend MNSSHP, your focus should be on party-specific activities rather than rides. MNSSHP is no longer noted for short wait times for the rides, so IMO, its a waste to go to the party and wait in line for the rides. You're losing out on time to do the party-only things you've paid to be there for. Its been a few years since we have been, but even the last time we went, we found ride wait times were no shorter than they were during the day with regular park hours. I agree with PP that if your main goal is for shorter ride waits, try to do an After Hours or Early Morning Magic event instead. I even recommend eating dinner before you go to the party so that you're not wasting party time for that.

As PPs have mentioned, its still very possible to have a great time at the Halloween party if you go into it managing expectations. It all depends on what's important to you.

 

[Lswilmot@aol.com]

If you've never done a special event at Disney World, this is the one to do. We love it! We generally don't go to a park on party night, but go to the party around 4:00pm (they let those with party tix in at 4:00). We then start doing rides as we pass by them, and make plans of what to do and when for the party. We hit the treat stations as we pass them, ditto for the photo ops and also the rides. We are generally there until closing and always know we will return next year.!

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

How are the wait times for the rides? On a crowded night?

It all depends on timing. I did MVMCP on two sold out nights. Space Mountain's time could reach up to an hour wait (I waited about half an hour). I found out really quickly not to try to go there right after fireworks .

Other rides fluctuate throughout the night as well.

As someone else mentioned, I focused on party only items but I do go on a couple of rides that had party overlays.

 

[Wild4Walt]

For my husband and I, we felt it had value. We were there early to mid September, so about a week before you're planning on being there. Loved, Loved, Loved the parade and we thought that and the fireworks were worth the price of admission to start with. It did rain the night we were there so the parade was shortened and no headless horseman but the fireworks were normal since the rain had stopped by that time. We enjoyed that many of the rides had very low wait times ( 10-15 min waits ). The lines for candy were very short and we got a TON of it. The only downside was how long all the lines were for photos. It didn't matter what character we were going for, it was looonnngggg.

 

[Rory607]

We did our first party last year and enjoyed it. I’d heard last years’ parties were crowded compared to years past, but we had nothing to compare it to. Rides aren’t walk-on, but nothing we wanted to do had too long of a line. The kids loved the parade. And my oldest was absolutely awed by the fireworks.

We slept in that morning, swam, then headed to the park in the afternoon. The kids lasted a long time. Not until close, but late. So for us it was a fun new experience that we found worth it. But if it’s going to really eat into the budget I wouldn’t worry about skipping it.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

We didn't think it was worth it. Our experience was similar to a regular day at the Magic Kingdom, and we had to pay a lot extra to do it. The shows and parades were so crowded we couldn't see anything. It's too hot in August to wear good costumes. My kids had trouble staying up late. I love Halloween, but it didn't feel that exciting.

 

[jacobzking]

Consider booking a trip to Disneyland instead. They convert the Haunted Mansion to a Nightmare Before Christmas ride thats pretty cool. If you guys have never been to either Disney Park, Disneyland (depending on where you live) is cheaper, easier to get around and less overwhelming. Me personally, I prefer Disneyland to Disney World (and I've been to both several times). You miss out on Animal Kingdom and Epcot, but otherwise you get all of the more popular rides (Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, some cool rides from 1955, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Toon Town, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, etc...). If you have any questions, feel free to text me: 469-348-3171. I'd gladly share the pros and conns of both parks. FWIW I'm doing MNSSHP in Florida this year, but only because we went to Disneyland twice last year. Oh, and I personally feel Disneyland does a MUCH better job decorating for Halloween.