MNSSHP has two dates while we are there. we've never been to a party night but it seems fairly expensive for a short amount of time.
It's worth it to me personally because I really enjoy the party specific entertainment but I've only ever paid for 2 people tops, and this year's trip is another solo one. You can also get into the park starting at 4pm on just a party ticket and a lot of people like to take advantage of that perk.
Is the early entry really really important when the
UT crowd calendar is showing 4's and 5's?
First of all please do not pay attention to crowd calendars, they have not been useful or relevant since before covid, and are very arbitrary numbers that will not tell you anything about actual crowd levels on the ground. I have yet to hear a salient explanation for what makes a 5 a 5 a opposed to a 4 or a 6. I do know that mid August is typically when crowds begin to wane as kids down south go back to school. But crowds are also quite unpredictable at times, and being fixated on arbitrary numbers as opposed to planning for gangbusters crowds as a failproof is foolish to me. Plan for bad crowds and that way you're not caught off guard and can pivot easier when they're lower. The trip I just got back from hammered that home to me, even though it's something I've always practiced. I was very happy I did. (Memorial week is typically quite slow, and it wasn't at all this year. But I planned for the worst, as usual.)
With that in mind, EE is always really important. Even on "dead" days. Having an efficient EE not only saves you time at the start of the day, but that time savings can snowball through the entire rest of your day and leave you freer to wing it and do looser things later. As one example, on the trip we just ended last week, being near the front of the rope drop pack for EE at Epcot from the IG meant we were able to knock out Remy and Frozen with next to no waits (Frozen was about 15!). We'd already purchased Guardians as a SP so we were literally able to just chill all day eating and drinking as we wished. The key to this is standing at the actual park (security or tapstiles) at least 60 minutes prior. From the front entrance do Guardians and Frozen and you're set, just hit Remy near the end of the night.
From experience taking many trips at this time of year, you also really want to maximize your park time during the earliest part of the morning before the weather gets awful. That early morning time is critical, you do not want to be in outdoor queues later in the day for any length of time.
If we can only early entry for one park, which one?
All of them benefit immensely from it tbqh there isn't a single one where it isn't. AK it will straight up save you money because if you get there early enough for EE (60 minutes prior) it's absolutely possible to knock out FoP and Na'vi during EE so there's no reason to buy MP or even SP for FoP. I would have said MK is the park where EE is least useful, but you're going during party season when it opens earlier on party days. Those 7:30am EEs at MK during party season are crazy good and you can get a lot done. Rope dropping Mine Train and Pan means avoiding the cost of LLSP for the former and not needing to grab the latter as a second Tier 1 on MP, freeing you up to go after something like Jungle Cruise.
If I had to skip EE at one park though, it would probably be Epcot, if you're not averse to paying for Guardians SP and buying MP. During that time of year you should probably have no issues pulling Frozen as a same day Tier 1 after tapping in, as long as you tap into your first ride right at park open (Remy should be the one you prebook, it sells out the fastest and is much harder to pull same day from experience).
Is it really hard to take a midday break from DHS staying offsite?
Not especially. MK is really the only park that's annoying to do midday breaks at as an offsite guest because you have to mess with the TTC.
With a split stay how is booking the lightning lanes going to work with multipass?
Offsite guests can only prebook starting at 3 days from their first park day (if you have a date-based ticket, it goes off of that date), whereas resort guests can book starting at 7 days from check in of the first resort. So if you have a split stay between offsite and onsite you will have 2 windows, and you'll be at a slight disadvantage for the beginning of the SSR part of the trip because folks arriving earlier will have crack at those LLs before you do.
Do we just wait until we are at SSR to go to the parks? I was planning to enjoy the resort but...now I am rethinking it all! I like to get all my plans in a row for ADRs. Some of what we want at DS is already on OpenTable.
Personally, unless you're super tight on a budget, I would see if I could book one of the All-Stars for that first part of the stay instead of Flamingo Crossings. It would greatly simplify your LL purchases if nothing else, since true onsite split stays don't actually affect LL booking the way they do ADRs, you are able to book LLs for your entire trip up to 14 days starting at 7 days out from check in of your first Disney resort. As an example we just got back from a 10 day BWI/Poly split stay and I was able to book our entire trip's worth of LLs starting at 7 days from when we checked into BWI, our first resort. But staying on property the whole trip would also mean you don't have to make Sophie's choice about which EE.
