I haven't seen or read one thing that discourages me from being totally excited about this!!! It looks amazing in every way! I'm sure later parties with heavier attendance will be a bit different, but just want to say ktml, if you are following this thread, THANKS for peer-pressuring me into this!!
If I didn't already have tickets in my pocket, I'd be calling today. For a villains fan like myself, this is pretty much a dream come true!
I'm still here reading every word!
You are welcome! I'm really excited about it too! I'm still not 100% on it as I want to see some more reports for the next few parties and see if they change anything, if the parade area gets more crowded, and make sure the villians stay the same, but I'm betting that we are going to keep it! I'm really glad I booked it so we have the option.
If we weren't going to
MNSSHP a second night, I probably wouldn't keep it as we aren't doing the 2nd seating. I think for those doing only one party and the early seating, the event is only for a really strong villians fan who cares more about that than anything else, because you really aren't going to enjoy much of the party. I consider it more as paying $165 a ticket for the Soiree ( and the parade benefits etc.), as by the time you do all that, you are really not going to have much time at all to do any of the other party stuff. You might catch a character or 2 before hitting the parade area if you are lucky, but if it is an hour, then by the time you get out, the characters are gone and the party is close to winding up. Now if you did the late seating, it would be great because you could enjoy almost all the party before the soiree, but for DD, 8, since we almost always do a full park day on party day, she is going to be done at midnight and I don't think she would get the full enjoyment if we started a party at 11:45.
For us, we usually do 2 parties (whether it is MNSSHP or
MVMCP), as since DD is character crazy we find that it is pretty much impossible to see all the characters and do all the entertainment and other things in one party. We usually spend one party focusing on starting at one of the most popular characters (pre-party wait), then on the parades and shows(including the mingle), and maybe another popular character and anything else we can fit in between or before the party ends which often isn't much- and then we spend another party picking up the remainder of the characters, enjoying the atmosphere, etc. For us, we have spent an hour in line to meet the princes more than once as they were a DD priority, and we have also had to do two villians mix and mingles to catch who we wanted with the time that entailed- so basically we are just replacing that time with the soiree. Since the princes aren't there to meet anyway, we aren't losing anything. We are spending that time getting the meets that we did after the mix and mingle with the stepmother and stepsisters added without having to stand in line, in a fun setting, and with some music and food added in. That sounds great to me! For us, the price is steep, but we usually splurge some at WDW or DL anyway, and this one looks worth it.
For those who don't get why people are upset about the characters, I would just say that while they may not seem important to you, there are guests out there who do the party solely for the characters, and for whom the characters are the primary important thing at WDW. It may seem silly to some of you, but spending over $60 to spend your time riding rides that you could ride during the day just because the lines might be shorter, will seem silly to those people. We could care less about trick or treating at the party- we can do that at home on Halloween. All we get is a bunch of candy we don't need, and don't want to cart the weight back with us on the plane. Different people just have different likes and priorities. DD is a character nut. If we only went to one party, I wouldn't even get to see the parade or shows because we would spend the entire night going from character to character and nothing else and she would call it a great night. I can remember one regular day that we spent the entire day at MK in line for characters (and we did CRT and BBB), and I think we did 1 ride, 2 tops the entire day. DH and I were exhausted and sick of lines- DD was bouncing around yelling that it was "THE BEST DAY EVER". If DD were 5 or 6, I would be really sad that none of the princes, not even Flynn or Naveen were there because those were always a HUGE deal to her at parties when she was little. Also, it would be one thing if they just took the mingle away- but to actually officially announce that the Queen and Maleficent (who is hugely popular this year with her movie) were meeting and then to change their minds and pull them away, just rightly set people off. Also, I think the big issue here is not that there were changes, but rather that several characters were taken away without others being added. Yes, the villians dance party was added, but most of the characters there were already meetable somewhere at the party. So really what you have is several characters being taken away, with no new characters taking their place.
Has anyone tried for a refund yet? Based on the original announcement for the beginning ticket sales said Villains MIX & MINGLE?
I do not know anyone who did it based on the "mingle" part, but I do know a family who bought tickets solely because their DD is Maleficent crazy and they wanted to meet her. They called and threw a fit because of the official announcement that she would be meeting in Fairytale Hall which was subsequently withdrawn. They were given a refund. I'm not even sure that they bought tickets after the announcement, because there was discussion of how to position themselves to get near her at the mingle prior to that announcement- but it is possible they didn't actually buy tickets until after the announcement. In any event, they were refunded because Disney said she was meetable and then she was not.
I can put that towards an art piece at DTD gallery next week instead.
Party time, baby!! Woooo! 
I will call you whatever you want for a MNSSHP band!
