Halloween Event

[Gophers]

never been to the Halloween event at DL. Is there a link for all the information?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

This was last year's superthread about Halloween Time and Mickey's Halloween Party (MHP): Mickey's Halloween Party and Halloween Time Superthread 2018!!. The first page has the basic information about Halloween Time and the parties. The last few pages have trip reports from the parties and photos. Rumor has MHP moving to DCA this year because of SWGE, but there has been no official word on that yet.

 

[Gophers]

This was last year's superthread about Halloween Time and Mickey's Halloween Party (MHP): Mickey's Halloween Party and Halloween Time Superthread 2018!!. The first page has the basic information about Halloween Time and the parties. The last few pages have trip reports from the parties and photos. Rumor has MHP moving to DCA this year because of SWGE, but there has been no official word on that yet.

Thanks a bunch! We are going to go this year and this will give a good idea on how we will play our night

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you plan to go to one of the parties, keep in mind that you will not be able to do/see everything in one party. You do need to prioritize what you want to do/see.

 

[tink89]

If you plan to go to one of the parties, keep in mind that you will not be able to do/see everything in one party. You do need to prioritize what you want to do/see.

What do you mean by you can't see everything? What festive or add on things where there to see last year? We are going this year and have not started planning yet. I'm going to look at last years thread.

 

[cruisehopeful]

What do you mean by you can't see everything? What festive or add on things where there to see last year? We are going this year and have not started planning yet. I'm going to look at last years thread.

There isn't enough time for everything. You have to prioritize. If you are doing the rides at a different time, you can skip those. Rides can have very short lines during the party and it's a good time for rides, but then we run out of time for other stuff. I went to a couple parties one year and didn't see the Halloween version of the Dapper Dans because we were in other parts of the park during those times.

Trick or treat trails can take a long time. At the end of the night, the lines are much quicker for those. I think I've been 5 parties and have never gone on all of the trails. I don't do character meets, so that saves a lot of time, but when we went for my daughter's birthday one year, we waited in line for 45 minutes for a picture with Jack and Sally. If we did all the character meets, that would have taken up at least half of the party time or even longer.

Lines for everything other than rides will be very long until the last hour or so of the party.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

We did a late September trip, and even without doing the actual party nights we still got to experience quite a lot of Halloween magic. Highly recommend to do the 'normal' stuff during the day, to check out the special Halloween facades and decorative touches, and often the characters can be in costume too. We got to see a few extra villians around the park during the day, as well as Mickey/Minnie/Donald/Goofy/Pluto in halloween costumes. Take advantage of those opportunities as much as you can, and then if you do opt in for the actual party events, you can skip any characters you already met during the day. One thing I hadn't really planned for, but didn't have too much negative impact, was that the non-party park (in our case DCA) was much more crowded than it had been before, as everyone else had the same general idea I did. Not sure why I didn't realize all the other non-party people would move over at the same time we did, but there was a definite crowd surge. I think you will have a blast!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Thanks a bunch! We are going to go this year and this will give a good idea on how we will play our night

Pay close attention to all the wisdom and experience in that thread. I know it's long (!), but there is a lot of hard won experience in the advice and suggestions given there. Ignore it at your own peril. We have posters every year who come back to say that they had a great time because of all the tips and advice they got from the MHP superthread. And we have posters every year who ignored all the advice and come back to post their rants and complaints about what a waste the party was for them. How the party goes for you is totally up to you! (NB the MHP reports from 10/12/18 -- it poured unexpectedly that night, and the party was a hit or a miss depending on what you were able to make of your night.)

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... We got to see a few extra villians around the park during the day, as well as Mickey/Minnie/Donald/Goofy/Pluto in halloween costumes. Take advantage of those opportunities as much as you can, and then if you do opt in for the actual party events, you can skip any characters you already met during the day. One thing I hadn't really planned for, but didn't have too much negative impact, was that the non-party park (in our case DCA) was much more crowded than it had been before, as everyone else had the same general idea I did. Not sure why I didn't realize all the other non-party people would move over at the same time we did, but there was a definite crowd surge. I think you will have a blast!

The character tip works for some and not others -- it depends on how dedicated you are to M&Gs. The characters at MHP have different costumes than the ones they wear during the regular daytime hours. So for hardcore M&G fans, the photos with the different costumes really matter! And the interaction during MHP can be really, really good! I wouldn't spend an entire party standing in lines for M&Gs, but it is worth doing a few early on if the lines are shorter. And the DCA crowd wave gets discussed every year in the superthread. Especially since Disney started decorating that park for Halloween and the party tickets became hoppers, the crowd surge has gotten more intense. It certainly helps to be prepared!

 

[midnight star]

For sure read the thread all the way through! I went to MHP for the first time in 2017. This was before having a pass, so I really wanted to make the best of that night. And the advice on there was great! Had a great time. I went again in 2018.

The key things I noticed from the 2018 party :
1. Like everyone said, you can't get through everything. From rides, to special character Meet and Greets, to candy trails...there's really so much to do, and you have short time. Read the thread to determine what you are really interested in.
2. Merchandise: people who went late in the season were expecting to purchase Halloween merchandise, even though many posts prior mentioned that it is usually sold out by late September/early October (often to resellers, sadly). It sucks, but that's the way it is. So be open to purchasing items on the shopdisney site if you really want something.
3. Weather: I went on the day when it stormed. What I think saved me, was that I started early before the rain came and already got things done, and I just went with the flow. It was a little chaotic, but once I got over the shock of the storm, I just kept continuing the activities.
4. Tickets sell out somewhat fast, so once they go on sale, and you know your days, buy your tickets! Also, read the terms of service on them, as they are very very strict about reselling, and refunds (as in, they don't allow it).

 

[theluckyrabbit]

...
4. Tickets sell out somewhat fast, so once they go on sale, and you know your days, buy your tickets! Also, read the terms of service on them, as they are very very strict about reselling, and refunds (as in, they don't allow it).

Hear, hear! It can't be repeated enough: when it comes to MHP tickets, be as sure as you can be BEFORE you purchase! Disney is NOT responsible for buyer carelessness (wrong date, wrong number of people, wrong party -- yes, it happens -- people buy tickets for WDW and try to enter MHP, etc.) and will NOT refund you for your mistake. Buy early because MHP sells out every year by mid-September, but be careful and double check before you hit "purchase"!

 

[Gophers]

If you plan to go to one of the parties, keep in mind that you will not be able to do/see everything in one party. You do need to prioritize what you want to do/see.

This would be our first time doing the Halloween event at DL. With MNSSHP at WDW we had to do two parties to do everything so I would agree with you on this.

 

[Gophers]

Pay close attention to all the wisdom and experience in that thread. I know it's long (!), but there is a lot of hard won experience in the advice and suggestions given there. Ignore it at your own peril. We have posters every year who come back to say that they had a great time because of all the tips and advice they got from the MHP superthread. And we have posters every year who ignored all the advice and come back to post their rants and complaints about what a waste the party was for them. How the party goes for you is totally up to you! (NB the MHP reports from 10/12/18 -- it poured unexpectedly that night, and the party was a hit or a miss depending on what you were able to make of your night.)

Since this would be our first time going to DLs Halloween event I will definitely be reading all the info I can. We loved the Halloween events at WDW so we are really excited about doing two parties. We are big character m&g people so that can take up a lot of time. I also wanted to see how things would be setup with the two parks so the thread should help out a lot.

 

[Gophers]

Weather

This was an issue with our trip to WDW last year. We went to two parties and had rain on both days . Missed the Hocus Pocus Show both parties.

 

[DWillowBay]

Any guesses on when tickets will become available this year? Do you think last year's June release will be repeated this year? ...or...like WDW, do you think that they will try to gauge the crowds and release tickets even earlier due to GE?