Would you go to Halloween Party in this situation?

[rsleleux]

TIA for everyone who offers advice! I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go to Halloween Party? I've never been to this special event! I am a WDW vet that goes there every year and I have been to WDW at Halloween time but did not attend the party because my son was too scared of fireworks and loud noises at the time. Well, now he's 6 and he is fearless!

We went to Disneyland in May and we had 3 day parkhoppers but since we missed out on the Matterhorn and CARSLAND, we are going back in October! We will be in DLR on Thursday and Friday Oct 19th. Originally I was going to get 2 day park hoppers and go to both parks both days like we did last time but there is a Halloween party scheduled on Fri Oct 19th. We had planned to go to Carthary Circle for dinner on the Friday while the party was going on and then we figured we will essentially spend the same amount of money if we drop to base tickets and get the Halloween Party tickets since Carthary Circle is a dinner on the pricey side! What would you pick?

Here's my question: Should I get a 2 day base ticket and go to DCA on both Thurs and Fri and attend the party on Fri night at DL, just show up the 3 hours earlier instead of 2 day park hoppers with dinner at Carthary?

 

[skiingfast]

I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go to Halloween Party? I've never been to this special event!

Yes.

Here's my question: Should I get a 2 day base ticket and go to DCA on both Thurs and Fri and attend the party on Fri night at DL, just show up the 3 hours earlier instead of 2 day park hoppers with dinner at Carthary?

This sounds fine, except for one thing. Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain get special layovers. They get huge lines during the party and big lines during the season. It's so much nicer to ride these during the season outside of the party hours, because it's not something you want to miss.

 

[Eeee-va]

You should be able to ride Haunted Mansion Holiday and Space Mountain during or before the party (barring ride breakdowns). But the lines will not be short (I think we waited 30 minutes for each).

Do you like dressing up in costumes? If so, I'd DEFINITELY do the Halloween party, whether you spend 1.5 days in DCA, or spring for the hoppers so you can still visit Disneyland both days. The party is pretty much the only opportunity for an adult to dress in costume at the park. (There are unofficial events like "Bat Day" where adults come in dressed in full Goth clothing that could be perceived as a costume, but that's it.)

I think JUST visiting Disneyland for the party might leave you wanting, but it's not cheap to upgrade to a hopper, either. So it's kind of a tough call on that front. That said, you COULD do DCA on Day 1 and then decide whether to do DL or DCA on party day.

If you're not interested in dressing up in costume, I personally would choose the hoppers over the party. The Halloween party atmosphere is neat, but that's really a LOT of money to upgrade to see some neat stuff, get some candy, see a good fireworks show and a small parade (nothing like WDW's as I understand), and maybe do some special meet-and-greets. If ALL those things strongly appeal to you but you don't like dressing up in costume, maybe it's worth it. If only a couple things actually appeal to you, then I wouldn't do it. Don't bet on all ride lines being shorter during the party...some lines are good, but there is no Fastpass so some lines are very long. I recall Big Thunder Mountain's line extending out of the queue area during our party in 2009.

DCA will be very busy on Friday after Disneyland closes. If you want to see World of Color, I believe you can do Carthay Circle Dining and get a dessert or appetizer for each of you, plus an entree for each of you, and get a World of Color FP. I'm not sure where that area is but I believe it's the best spot available. You'd still need to get there early, but if you were already planning to eat there and had any interest in seeing WoC, then spending a little more (with dessert/appetizer) might be worth it on a busy night.

Have a great trip!

 

[rsleleux]

Thanks for your responses, this was very helpful and I'm still uncertain but I'm more clear on how it works since I did assume the lines would be not as long during the party!

I did think DCA would get very packed once the party started and I wanted to avoid that! When we went in May, we were at DL on a friday Fantasmic night and the day was great but at night there was an insane amount of people! I have never seen that many people at WDW! My husband would definitely like to avoid that and that was one reason we thought to avoid DCA on the Friday party night.

We did see WOC in May with the preferred viewing from Ariel's Grotto and it was AMAZING! We wanted to eat at Carthary Circle only because it was a new place to try out. WE didn't plan on seeing WOC again.

We probably wouldn't dress up for the party, maybe my son, but that is not really why we wanted to go. I do want to see the layovers at HM and SM. I think the parade would be cute but now I'm starting to think the Parkhoppers are the way to go?

Since they do not do FPs during party, what happens if we went to DL the 3 hours before party starts?

Which park will have less people on the Halloween Party Friday night, DCA or DL?

Are there any restaurants in DTD or in the hotels that would have viewing of the fireworks? We had dinner at California Grill in WDW on Halloween night and had a perfect viewing of the fireworks and they piped in the music! It was great!

 

[Eeee-va]

To be fair, some people DO report that lines are shorter during the party. That was absolutely not my experience, but my previous visit to Disneyland had been during a time when it wasn't crowded (oddly, the weekend World of Color first opened). If you're used to, say, high summer crowds, you may be more pleased with the lines. My brother hadn't been in ages and he thought the whole party was great, even though he didn't dress up, didn't go out of his way to see the fireworks, didn't see the parade, etc. He had no expectations.

I had gone in expecting light crowds, and it turned out to be more crowded and busier than most weekdays I've visited.

In any case, hoping for a walk-on for a thrill ride (except Splash Mountain, which gets deserted at night) is probably not a reasonable expectation, at least in my limited experience. In fact, without Fastpasses, our actual wait time for many of the big rides was longer than it would have during regular park hours with a FP.

We DID get a FP for BTMRR about 4:30 and used it before the party started.

 

[rsleleux]

We are not used to high crowds at all! When we go to WDW it is usually in Feb and/or Oct and we never wait more than 20 mins for a ride. You will not catch me there in the summertime waiting 120 mins for a ride!

I'm not really expecting to walk up to a ride and get on but I am hopeful that it if we are there for 4pm we would at least get to ride SM, POTC, HM, Matterhorn and Star Tours since it is my son's favorite and for me to be able to ride Indy single rider since I missed out in May. Of course, we would want to see the parade and the characters! We will be going to WDW in Feb so if we can skip out on BTMRR and Splash its no big deal.

Having said that, maybe it is better to get a parkhopper and go to DL before DCA opens to get FP to SM and again on the next day do the same for HM? Our main purpose for going is to experience Carsland so I do know that we will be spending the majority of those 2 days at DCA since it is not something we can get at WDW. If the friday night at DCA is too packed, my husband will want to leave then to fight crowds, that is where the idea of a sit down dinner came into play maybe during WOC.

One way to look at it is that it is alot of money for the party but if our alternative is to go to DCA and spend alot of money on dinner and experience the mobs of people, I'd rather go to the party. Boy, can you tell I'm really confused!

 

[Eeee-va]

I'm not really expecting to walk up to a ride and get on but I am hopeful that it if we are there for 4pm we would at least get to ride SM, POTC, HM and Star tours since it is my son's favorite and for me to be able to ride Indy single rider since I missed out in May. Of course, we would want to see the parade and the characters! We will be going to WDW in Feb so if we can skip out on BTMRR and Splash its no big deal.

If you have your sights set on such a limited number of things, I think you will be OK. If you pretend that each item (counting characters as an "item") will take 1 hour, you could do them all and have time left over! Really, most the things shouldn't take an hour. Some things, like Indy Single Rider, will take much less than an hour. (If you can stay til the end of the party, you can get in line just before the park closes and they'll still let you ride whatever you're in line for.)

Character meets can easily take 30 minutes+ (I've heard stories of an hour???), so I'd try to prioritize the ones you MUST see. With your little one, you might look into the dance parties with characters.

Here's what we did for our trip. I was mistaken! I went in 2010. And we had some other problems during the trip as well, with different people wanting to do different things and one person with mobility problems...all that coupled with the unexpected crowds was kind of disappointing to me.

But even with those problems and absolutely abysmal planning, we managed 10 rides, shows, and meet-and-greets (11 if you count Big Thunder Ranch as an attraction). Not all of those were headliners, but with any sort of planning, you should be able to do all the rides you listed, and a meet-and-greet or two. With good planning, you should be able to do much better than we did. I did not plan because I'd expected a near-empty park that we could just wander and do whatever struck our fancy. We wasted a lot of time just wandering or shuffling through very slow trick-or-treat lines.

Anyway, here's what we did for our Friday night party around the same time you are going (minus some of the trick-or-treating walks):

• About 4:30 - entered park (I don't remember why we didn't enter right at 4 sharp)
• Got a locker
• Just before 5 - Visited Big Thunder Ranch and saw all the pumpkins/decor - recommended!
• Got a Fastpass for BTMRR at some point (return time: 5:50 - 6:50; party started at 7)
• Got in line for It's a Small World before 5:30
• Rode It's a Small World (took about 30 minutes and long story short, could have ridden Gadget's Go-Coaster but didn't)
• Rode BTMRR using FP
• At this point it was getting close to party time Disneyland was getting VERY crowded
• 6:52 - Rode PotC to escape crowds
• Got caught in trick-or-treat line upon exiting ride
• Went back to lockers/admired decor
• 8 PM - mistakenly expected food lines would be short (they were not at ALL, at least not where we went). Ate at Bengal Barbecue
• Did more trick-or-treating
• About 8:30 - got in line for HM; we were out by 9:10, maybe earlier
• Saw fireworks (and this was very messy--we got to Main Street too late, because I'd trusted the assurances I'd read here that the fireworks wouldn't be crowded, you didn't need to get there early, etc…we had to fight the crowds just to get to Main Street!)
• Got in line to meet Jack Sparrow about 10
• Met Jack Sparrow just after 10:30
• Rushed to parade (near It's a Small World) and saw it about 10:45
• Went to Space Mountain (got in line just after 11 and were out by 11:30)
• Rode Buzz Lightyear (no wait and got my best score ever by a lot--420,100)
• Got in line for Peter Pan Flight a few minutes before midnight…and to our surprise, happened across the rest of our party! So that was a good end to the night. Rode it about 15 minutes later.

Like I said, if you strategize you could do much better than that, and on paper, the above list isn't too awful. It's just not what I'd hoped for!

 

[Stitch35]

My experience has been the parties are great. Short lines for some things, longer lines for others. The whole atmosphere is amazing! Plus, its an experience not everyone can have. We found party days to be pretty light crosswise until about 5pm. You should be able to do the rides you mentioned without too much problem if you arrive right at 4. There may be one or two you will have to do during the party.

A Friday night in DCA with a Halloween party in DL is insane!! Last year we literally got ran over by TSMM. It was like one of those pictures you see on new years eve when they close the parks. Some one pushed my stroller, which threw my DS3 (who unbuckled his belt, unknown to me) out and 3 ppl stepped on him before I could pick him up. If I had the choice to go to the party instead, I would definitely do that!!

 

[rsleleux]

Wow Eeee-va! Thanks for being so helpful!! I truly appreciate it!

 

[rsleleux]

My experience has been the parties are great. Short lines for some things, longer lines for others. The whole atmosphere is amazing! Plus, its an experience not everyone can have. We found party days to be pretty light crosswise until about 5pm. You should be able to do the rides you mentioned without too much problem if you arrive right at 4. There may be one or two you will have to do during the party.

A Friday night in DCA with a Halloween party in DL is insane!! Last year we literally got ran over by TSMM. It was like one of those pictures you see on new years eve when they close the parks. Some one pushed my stroller, which threw my DS3 (who unbuckled his belt, unknown to me) out and 3 ppl stepped on him before I could pick him up. If I had the choice to go to the party instead, I would definitely do that!!

Oh Wow! I don't think I would be happy at all in that situation! Thanks for advice! I'm back to going to the party!

 

[rsleleux]

Okay here's another thing! The very next day is a Saturday and we are going to Knotts Berry Farms, which opens up at 10:30 so shouldn't be too early of a morning but I doubt we would be able to stay out until 12am.

We probably wont have time for a nap but we are used to opening and closing the parks but we are dead tired at 10pm, we could probably keep it up until 11pm at best! If we go to the Party, we will have gone to DCA that day which will open at 10 but we will probably be there around 9:15am to get FPs for RS.

Is taking a nap a necessity? I can see where it might be for my husband since we are staying at the FFI and the dreaded walk at the end of the night is awful!!

We may do some trick or treating but not too much. I definitely want to visit the Ranch and see the pumpkins and really only getting those few rides that we missed out on our last visit: Indy(SR), my husband can take my son to Star Tours while I am riding Indy, POTC, HM, SM and Matterhorn are the only rides we must do but Parade, character meet and greet, Ranch and Fireworks! any extra rides are great but that is my checklist.

 

[rsleleux]

[*]8 PM - mistakenly expected food lines would be short (they were not at ALL, at least not where we went). Ate at Bengal Barbecue

[*]Saw fireworks (and this was very messy--we got to Main Street too late, because I'd trusted the assurances I'd read here that the fireworks wouldn't be crowded, you didn't need to get there early, etc…we had to fight the crowds just to get to Main Street!)
[*]Got in line to meet Jack Sparrow about 10
[*]Met Jack Sparrow just after 10:30
[*]Rushed to [B]parade (near It's a Small World) and saw it about 10:45[/B]
[*]Went to Space Mountain (got in line just after 11 and were out by 11:30)


Like I said, if you strategize you could do much better than that, and on paper, the above list isn't too awful. It's just not what I'd hoped for!

I think you did well! Much more than I expected! We were thinking of eating at the Ranch to save time but that may not actually save time? Is the parade typically at 10:45? or do they have 2 parades?

 

[skiingfast]

I think you did well! Much more than I expected! We were thinking of eating at the Ranch to save time but that may not actually save time? Is the parade typically at 10:45? or do they have 2 parades?

There is a parade before and after the fireworks.

The parade after the fireworks is less crowded. The problem is the fireworks are crowded from people who watched the first parade and kept thier spots.

 

[isisisme]

My recommendation for anyone going to the party is to eat dinner early. A couple of years ago, we lost track of time and thought food places would be open late, they were not and got stuck getting something not very exciting outside the park (I think quiznos and since it was closing in like 10 mins, they made our sandwiches pretty skimpy and messy). Last year we made dinner reservations for Cafe Orleans for just before the party started, so when we got done eating, the party was going. We were full for the party and got a pretzel for a post party snack if needed.

 

[Eeee-va]

EDIT: wrote this before I saw isisisme's post...mine is speculation but it sounds like it was accurate. LOL

I'm not sure what you mean by eating at the Ranch? If you mean the barbecue, that's probably not open for the party, I don't think...actually, if I recall correctly, food options are somewhat limited during the whole party, which would explain the surprisingly long lines I experienced. I'm not sure, but it MIGHT be best to eat shortly before the party starts...I imagine the day guests will be leaving Disneyland and the party guests will be figuring to party. I would guess eating any time before the actual party hours is probably best.

Honestly, if I had a way to do it and were running the show, I think I'd just bring something in and sit down and eat it when I got hungry.

I'm not a nap person but I don't have a small child in my party. I'd skip the nap if you think you can, but better to have a nap than a miserable child (or adult). Alternatives to napping include seeing Aladdin (nice air-conditioned break), finding a nice place to eat lunch and rest for a while, etc.

A lot of groups think like you and leave around 11, which is part of why we were able to do so much more from 11 - 12 than we could during earlier party hours. But you should be just fine leaving early, as long as you have a good plan.

Are you going to do all the big rides at Knotts? If not, I'd probably not worry SO much about getting to Knotts at opening but just take it easy that day. I don't know though; Knotts has never been a priority for me.

 

[rsleleux]

I'm not sure what you mean by eating at the Ranch? If you mean the barbecue, that's probably not open for the party, I don't think...actually, if I recall correctly, food options are somewhat limited during the whole party, which would explain the surprisingly long lines I experienced.

That is what I was planning...BBQ, OK I will find another option. What if we ate in DL before the party starts like 5:30? Will places be open then?