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

[MATTERHORN]

I do not think this is correct. I believe you can only have 3 pre-selected FPs per day, period (excluding club level paid extras).

Her day tickets will be her normal ones, they won't or shouldn't be linked at all to the MNSSHP tickets. That said, she would have to leave, and then re-enter with the hard party ticket to do this.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Besides Jack & Sally, who I feel like it seems very hard to meet, Im not planning on waiting on any character lines. I dont think Ill wait on Jack & Sallys line either. I would like to try to get a view of him starting the fireworks

That is good, because if you have dinner at 4, you would be very late to the character lines and they'd be huge!

That is a lot for one day, too bad you couldn't add a day to beginning or end of trip! If money is no object and you aren't worried about getting the most out of your day, then do it and have a blast! I will say I refuse to wait in lines for any candy before 10 pm. The lines are so long, and later there is almost no one in any of them!

 

[ktlm]

So heres the thing. I dont really have another day. My Florida trip also involves different family members joining us for different occasions that theyve pre-planned, for instance Animal Kingdom for my nephew’s birthday. I kinda came to accept that Im not getting the most bang for my buck when it comes to Magic Kingdom. My thinking was, supposedly Magic Kingdom is quieter during the day on party days? So we’ll go in the morning, hopefully use some fast passes, try not to go crazy waiting on any lines bc we’ll have the nighttime as an opportunity as well. We’re staying at WL, so maybe take the boat back over at one point to shower & refresh, change to our Halloween outfits, and come back. My only concern is we have a 4:00 Be Our Guest dinner reservation I dont really wanna cancel. But Id love to use those 3 extra fast passes before 7! Hmmmm

We always go to a park on party day. It really depends on your family's energy level. My family is pretty high energy- especially when it comes to Disney days. We are open to close types. For MVMCP we have been known to get to MK at opening and then stay until midnight. For MNSSHP we usually do what you are thinking. We spend the morning in the park, and then at some point in the afternoon we go back to the resort to refresh and change into costumes. Being at WL will make that easy for you. MK is usually quieter on party days-- it picks up at 4:00 p.m. when the party-goers start flooding into the park. If you have a 4:00 p.m. BOG, I would think you would want to get back over to the park by around 3:00 because it gets very crowded to get back over on the boat etc as it gets close to 4:00 when they start letting party guests in, and you need to be in the gates and to the ADR by 4:00 so you don't want to have to try to get through a crowd to get there. We have gone in that early in full costume with no issues as it is a party day. If you don't plan on using a day ticket-- it will be hard for you to make that 4:00 p.m. ADR with just a party ticket.--- you would need to be at the gates pretty early to be at the front of the party crowd when they start letting people in at 4:00- and then you will still be pretty late by the time you get in and get the wristband on and get all the way back to BOG which is deep in the park. would think you would wind up being at least 10 or 15 minutes late. If you are already in the park on a day ticket, with your ADR at 4:00, unless one of the in park distribution areas starts passing out wristbands early (which does sometimes happen), you may have to get your party wristbands after your meal. At your son's age, my DD was still more into the characters than anything else at MK. A 4:00 ADR, might make it difficult to hit the most popular character lines. For us, MNSSHP is not about riding rides, it is about the special characters, the parade, dance party and shows. That is what makes it worth the price for us. If that is your only MK day with a 7 year old, I definitely would make it an all day event. Just one party evening wouldn't be enough MK time for us at all. I wouldn't count on the lines for rides being shorter on a party night- sometimes they are and sometimes they are not. Plus, on a regular night you can still use FP-- we find things sometimes open up at night for FP at MK-- we have gone from ride to ride just by seeing what was available and taking it by FP. On a party night, there are only the stand-by lines. The party has a really fun atmosphere all through the park!

 

[DisneyJColeMom]

Looking for an opinion on this... On my checkout day, I did not intend to do a Disney Park. Our Disney days are planned pretty full with not a lot of hotel time. I intended to check out that day & make our way to Universal for the last 3 nights of our trip. We will be staying onsite & will have the room keys as our Universal express passes. I got the Buy 2 days get 2 days free promo. This portion of the trip will be much more laid back bc of the express passes & 3 days to do the 2 parks. Do you think I should sacrifice the 1st US/IOA day, the checking out of Disney day, to do Magic Kingdom instead? So then the day of MNSSHP, we would go for 4:00. No park during the day and have a little hotel time? Is it silly to give up a freebie day for that? Just reminding I have 4 park magic ticket, so one Disney park per day, and contemplating whether or not to do MNSSHP.

 

[Disneylover99]

Looking for an opinion on this... On my checkout day, I did not intend to do a Disney Park. Our Disney days are planned pretty full with not a lot of hotel time. I intended to check out that day & make our way to Universal for the last 3 nights of our trip. We will be staying onsite & will have the room keys as our Universal express passes. I got the Buy 2 days get 2 days free promo. This portion of the trip will be much more laid back bc of the express passes & 3 days to do the 2 parks. Do you think I should sacrifice the 1st US/IOA day, the checking out of Disney day, to do Magic Kingdom instead? So then the day of MNSSHP, we would go for 4:00. No park during the day and have a little hotel time? Is it silly to give up a freebie day for that? Just reminding I have 4 park magic ticket, so one Disney park per day, and contemplating whether or not to do MNSSHP.

It’s up to you of course, but I’d rather just head over to a Universal park and then relax at the hotel for the evening. I wouldn’t enjoy spending a late night at MNSSHP only to have to drive to your Universal hotel after the party. You’ll be tired the next day. You’re spending good money to stay at an express pass hotel, you might as well enjoy it.

 

[DisneyJColeMom]

Im realizing that my question is kind of confusing lol. So the original question from this post was, should I do Magic kingdom & MNSSHP on the same day, which is the 3rd day of my trip. If I dont do the party, that day was still my magic kingdom day. Some people here suggested i try to move my magic kingdom day, bc its a lot to do in 1 day. So this was the opinion im looking for, is if i should move my regular magic kingdom day to checkout day. So then that original day, I would do the party starting at 4:00, and have some time at my Disney resort during the day. But Id be sacrificing a freebie universal day, the first day at the universal hotel.

 

[cobright]

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've been to MNSSHP at least once a year back to 2012, usually end of August through October. and the lines have gotten longer. A few years really spiked and have on occasion provoked some harsh reviews. But even at the worst, I can't recall waiting in line longer than 20 minutes for any ride. If you're able to stay until it closes most everything ends up nearly walk-on after the last parade.

We're character hunters and did wait about an hour for Moana in 2018 and 45 minutes in 2019, but half of that was just from being in line a half hour before the party started. My wife is a Jack and Sally fan and we've visited them a few times now without ever more than a half hour wait. The first time we met Jack and Sally we walked right up at about 11:00 this would be back in 2016 maybe. They are a heck of a lot of fun.

Besides Jack & Sally, who I feel like it seems very hard to meet, Im not planning on waiting on any character lines. I dont think Ill wait on Jack & Sallys line either. I would like to try to get a view of him starting the fireworks

Again, just just wait until after the second parade. come to that, a lot of the lines thin out significantly during the parades and fireworks shows.

Also worth noting, park attendance prior to the party is traditionally much less than normal. Which makes sense because your park ticket gets you a lot fewer hours of park so many people choose to go somewhere else that day.

Aren’t you paying extra for MNSSHP tho? I’m pretty much paying admission twice for that day.

There are no FPs available during the party hours.

 

[jcdeberry]

As previous poster said, we also went to the park on a party day. We have only been to MNSSHP once and we loved it. It was the best part of our trip (even for my DH who can be a bit of a curmudgeon). Instead of costumes we "Disney-bounded" as Pooh characters because we went the first week in September of 2018 which was hotter than the sun! This was a Friday party and we had park tickets that day so we slept late and enjoyed the resort until a 1:00 lunch at Crystal Place (in our Pooh-like clothes). After lunch we did everything in Tomorrowland (we had FPs at Space and Buzz ) and got our wristbands, etc.. around 5:30 in that area. While my husband took the kids to the Speedway, I stood in line for Elvis Stitch starting at 6:00. By the time my family came back, it was almost time to meet stitch at 6:45. I knew we didn't want to stand in line for characters all night, so I let my kids each choose one character they wanted to see. My son chose Elvis Stitch and my daughter chose the Gravediggers. After Stitch, we started our party fun. We got candy when we happened upon a place throughout the night (they move quickly) and rode some rides. I thought rides were not crowded at all. We waited 30 min for SDMT and that was the only wait all night. We also rode Teacups and HM. We stopped to take magic shots at HM and watch the ghost lady out front as well as see the Gravediggers (which didn't take long). That part was a lot of fun! While my Dh and DD found us a spot in Frontierland for the first parade, I took my son to Splash and BTMRR (walk-on) and grabbed some more candy. The parade was awesome! Afterwards, we rode BTMRR again and got a snack. We found a last minute spot for the fireworks (there was no bad spot). After that, I wanted to do more but my family was tired and didn't want to stay for Hocus Pocus. So, we packed it up and left; however, we definitely thought it was worth it even though we left at 10:30. We thought the ride lines were low and as long as you have a reasonable plan, you will have fun. I think our one mistake was getting candy too soon. For one, we had to carry it around and it started getting heavy. For another, it was so hot that it melted a little! I told you-hotter than the sun! Hope you and your family enjoy!

 

[npmg]

We went last summer, one of the first dates. We had two 14 year old boys with us. We had a great time, but as someone else pointed out, it all depends on what you want to do. We didn't care so much for the show or character meet and greets (although we did get to interact with a few), we went for the low wait times on the rides. We got there a little before 4 and walked right on Pirates and Thunder Mountain. It was fun seeing the overlay on Space Mountain. During the parade was the absolute best time to hit rides! If you're into the treats - it was worth it just for the candy. We took tons home and I was still eating it a month later!

 

[MomOTwins]

We like that the parties offer shorter wait times on rides. The character lines and crowds at the parades/fireworks are so ridiculous though--we just avoid those. For us it is worth it because we do short stays so the ticket price is roughly the same as an extra day on our multi-day ticket, so it makes sense to just do the party instead of a park that day. If we had a longer stay and could visit MK multiple times without the party, I'd just skip the party since you'll have done all the rides via fastpass over several days.