MNSSHP 2015 - Be Prepared For Chaos

[BigMommaMouse]

We were at a sold out party last night. Had a blast! We arrived at 4 pm and did fp+ for Mickey, Tink and Buzz. Ate supper at Columbia Harbor House. If you want a fun spot to sit and enjoy the costumes, go upstairs and sit at a window on the overpass. So many creative costumes!

We never felt the crowds. We hit a ton of attractions (All Tomorrowland and Fantasyland except 7 Dwarves and princesses, all mountain). Walked on every one except Philharmagic... Just timed it bad... and Pan (10 min right at the end). Had great spot by Casey's for the fireworks and outside Liberty Tree for late parade then hit the final Hocus Pocus show and stood nearly front with very small crowds.

We did not do any of the unique characters as our kids were just uninterested. I honestly think this is where the crowds and stress comes from. I totally understand why people want to get to these, but that's where all the lines were. Just wanted to let those of you reading up on this know our experience.

Oh, and the candy. Hit every spot (some a few times). I jokingly told DW I wanted to get one-ticket price worth of candy... We tried our best:View attachment 129854

Love it!

 

[lisathomps]

We were at a sold out party last night. Had a blast! We arrived at 4 pm and did fp+ for Mickey, Tink and Buzz. Ate supper at Columbia Harbor House. If you want a fun spot to sit and enjoy the costumes, go upstairs and sit at a window on the overpass. So many creative costumes!

We never felt the crowds. We hit a ton of attractions (All Tomorrowland and Fantasyland except 7 Dwarves and princesses, all mountain). Walked on every one except Philharmagic... Just timed it bad... and Pan (10 min right at the end). Had great spot by Casey's for the fireworks and outside Liberty Tree for late parade then hit the final Hocus Pocus show and stood nearly front with very small crowds.

We did not do any of the unique characters as our kids were just uninterested. I honestly think this is where the crowds and stress comes from. I totally understand why people want to get to these, but that's where all the lines were. Just wanted to let those of you reading up on this know our experience.

Oh, and the candy. Hit every spot (some a few times). I jokingly told DW I wanted to get one-ticket price worth of candy... We tried our best:View attachment 129854

You guys are adorable! Glad you all had fun

 

[CandiceF]

We were at a sold out party last night. Had a blast! We arrived at 4 pm and did fp+ for Mickey, Tink and Buzz. Ate supper at Columbia Harbor House. If you want a fun spot to sit and enjoy the costumes, go upstairs and sit at a window on the overpass. So many creative costumes!

We never felt the crowds. We hit a ton of attractions (All Tomorrowland and Fantasyland except 7 Dwarves and princesses, all mountain). Walked on every one except Philharmagic... Just timed it bad... and Pan (10 min right at the end). Had great spot by Casey's for the fireworks and outside Liberty Tree for late parade then hit the final Hocus Pocus show and stood nearly front with very small crowds.

We did not do any of the unique characters as our kids were just uninterested. I honestly think this is where the crowds and stress comes from. I totally understand why people want to get to these, but that's where all the lines were. Just wanted to let those of you reading up on this know our experience.

Oh, and the candy. Hit every spot (some a few times). I jokingly told DW I wanted to get one-ticket price worth of candy... We tried our best:View attachment 129854

I will have to show the kiddos this picture after school to get ready for our Nov 1 party, great haul! My kids aren't that interested in meeting all the characters either.

 

[derryprenkert]

I will have to show the kiddos this picture after school to get ready for our Nov 1 party, great haul! My kids aren't that interested in meeting all the characters either.

Be sure to hit the Fantasyland to Frontierland Candy trail. Starts by the Fantasyland train station. So. Much. Candy.

 

[NedsTJ]

Be sure to hit the Fantasyland to Frontierland Candy trail. Starts by the Fantasyland train station. So. Much. Candy.

You mean the Fantasyland to Tomorrowland trail. It starts at the station, about 3-4 candy stations along the way.

 

[derryprenkert]

You mean the Fantasyland to Tomorrowland trail. It starts at the station, about 3-4 candy stations along the way.

Haha! Yup. That. I may or may not be drunk on candy...

 

[CandiceF]

Be sure to hit the Fantasyland to Frontierland Candy trail. Starts by the Fantasyland train station. So. Much. Candy.

Will do, thanks for the ideas! If the kids are going to miss Halloween for our trip at least they can trick or treat in warmer weather!

 

[ckb_nc]

Went Thursday the 15th - third year in a row. Was not sold out; saw the fireworks then had a front row seat for Hocus Pocus show and the second parade. Parade was great as usual. Rode a bunch of things that night. Still a family favorite.

 

[MplsGirl23]

We were at the party on the 15th as well and had a blast. It was our first party and that week was our first visit to WDW. We have two kids - DD 8 and DS 5. We arrived at 4pm. We didn't care about characters like most people, but I enjoyed reading about other's experiences before we went to the party, so I thought I'd add mine here.
We had FPs for 7 Dwarves, Big Thunder and Splash from 4-7, got a picture in front of the castle, and grabbed dinner at Casey's (hardly any line at all at 6:30).
The rest of the night we hit Haunted Mansion, Teacups, Speedway, Astro orbiter, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Buzz, Winnie the Pooh, Space 3 times, and one more ride on Big Thunder. We also stopped by the Monster's dance party, saw the fireworks, watched the second parade and did some trick or treating. We hit around 3 spots and each left with a completely full bag of candy. We watched a bit of the Hocus Pocus show on the way out at midnight. We LOVED our experience, it was the best night of our trip!

Right after the fireworks the 7 Dwarves line appeared really short- maybe 10 families in line?? I was really surprised by that. Maybe I didn't see correctly while we were hustling by?

 

[FeralCatRogue]

Finally getting around to posting about the 10/1 party. It was quite hot that night so my fun began in the wait for the bus since it was so hot outside i stayed in pop century near their magazine rack. I actually had cm's asking for pictures which was quite cool. We had no wait to get a seat on the bus there and though we couldn't enter early we were able to make our ADR at CRT fine though it was quite a walk around the construction. It was fun to get pics in costume with the princesses and everyone was quite nice. On the way I had someone rushing after me for a picture which upset a CM since she then posed her kids for it, I don't say no to kids asking for photos because they will not understand Disney's reasoning and I rather not upset them on a fun day. Because of the heat I was having issues with the makeup not staying on at all the high humidity and heat made my makeup never set so i had to reapply it multiple times during the party. I was able to get much of the merchandise I wanted except for the Hocus Pocus shirt and the stuff that wasn't released yet. We spent the early portion resting at Pecos Bills where had some great convos with people who were interested in the costume as well. It was sad to see their nachos gone because they were quite good. We were able to get awesome front row spots to the parade which I never have gotten to seen without obstruction. Afterwards we headed to behind the castle at the place that sells waffles. I was able to see the castle show unobstructed from there as well which though not a front view was awesome! We stayed there for the rest of the night and though we did not do any rides it was a nice night. I cannot wait until next year because I enjoyed it on Halloween more, even though it was crowded it was cooler on Halloween.

 

[LCoulter]

We went to the Sunday, October 18 party which ended up selling out sometime that day and had a great time. We flew in just for the party, for one night at AKL, my cousin who hasn’t been to Disney in over 20 years and myself who goes a couple times a year.

They starting letting us in just a few minutes before 4 and we headed to get our Sorcerer Card but they said the cards hadn’t been delivered yet and didn’t know when they would be getting them so we headed to our first fastpass ride, Pirates. We also had fastpasses for Thunder and Haunted Mansion. We got a lot done that evening, besides riding the three fastpass rides, Splash, Small World and at 6:30ish we got in line for 7 Dwarf’s Mine Train with posted time of 50 minutes but ended up only being about 20 minutes. We also fit in a quick service meal at Pinochio’s.

We saw the early parade from Hall of Presidents area then grabbed Sorcerer card from the card location nearby before heading to Main Street to wait for Hocus Pocus and fireworks. We ended up standing on the outer edges of the hub area which was a little further back then I would have liked but I didn’t want to be in the crowd so we made due. We thought the show was cute and the CM’s that played the sisters did a great job. Of course the parade and fireworks were fantastic as usual.

We didn’t visit any characters or trick or treat spots.

Toward end of evening, we rode Thunder two more times, Splash one more time and then followed the last parade toward the exit, cutting thru stores on Main Street to get as close to front of park as we could. Once we were able to get by the parade, we headed out of the park, catching the first AKL bus and was at our resort about 12:30am.

 

[Joe'sgirl]

Might be a super foolish question but what is the Sorcerer Card?

 

[FeralCatRogue]

It's minnie in her witch costume and is part of a game you can do around magic kingdom thats kinda like magic the gathering type.

 

[Texas Mickey]

The wife and I attended our first two MNSSHPs on the 12th and 13th. On the 12th we did the Dessert Party and it was great. We walked around from 5 until 8:15, hit a couple rides and shopped. Watched the parade from the flagpole. Great seats on the curb. Did a quick walk to the terrace and enjoyed the treats while we waited for Hallowishes. The view was awesome. Afterwards we walked onto Space Mountain, did some TOT filling our bags, walked onto Big thunder and a few smaller rides. Finished with 15 min wait for 7 Dwarves. On the 13th we went just to ride rides. It was much more crowded. We still had fun just watching everyone and hitting the rides we wanted. Much longer waits, especially for Space Mountain. I think there were other people that had the same game plan as us that made the waits so much longer the second night. We really enjoyed seeing everyone dressed up. The costumes some people and families wore were amazing. It was a great experience both nights and we are definitely looking forward to doing it again!

 

[weskbob]

Might be a super foolish question but what is the Sorcerer Card?

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is an interactive card game where you battle various Disney villains at kiosks throughout the park using various character and spell cards. (More info here.)

There is a special card each year that you can only get during MNSSHP.

 

[miracledaughter]

We went on Sept 20 and it was a lot busier than anticipated. Lines, even for the rides (especially Peter Pan's flight) were long. The magical time seemed to be between 4-6pm before the MNSSHP officially began. If I do this again, I'll wait until my kids are older.

 

[magicmomms]

We just got back- went to Oct 18 party and it was sold out. It looked very crowded from 4-7pm. I didn't get as much done during that time as I wanted too. The trick or treat lines were crazy long for a few pieces of candy all night, but ride lines were very short- some had no people in line at all. We could ride splash mountain over and over again without getting off. We skipped the first parade and just hit rides. It was hard to get to the rides because of the parade crowds (especially near splash mountain area & the Colonial part of MK). The parade was soooo crowded! Right before the fireworks the line to Elsa was 10 mins (FYI for anyone interested). I also felt like the lines for food were short and reasonable. We had a great time and found it a really good value for us. It wouldn't have been if we just trick or treated. Also, we didn't go to meet any of the big "halloween" special characters a lot of you like. It was my DD first trip so we were meeting the usual characters- Mickey and Tinkerbell (which had no waits!) and such. We went at 4 were let in right after the 3 O'clock parade was done and stayed until 10/30. The lines for Merida were always long and just a side note for those wanting to meet her- you needed to be lined up before she came out, or you wouldn't be let in- which was confusing. Inside counter service places were really quiet. We ate at Cosmic Rays and it was very nice and peaceful, a welcome break with a little one. Peter Pan was the longest wait of the night and it was 10 mins or so.

 

[aVASTGrl]

We were at a sold out party last night. Had a blast! We arrived at 4 pm and did fp+ for Mickey, Tink and Buzz. Ate supper at Columbia Harbor House. If you want a fun spot to sit and enjoy the costumes, go upstairs and sit at a window on the overpass. So many creative costumes!

We never felt the crowds. We hit a ton of attractions (All Tomorrowland and Fantasyland except 7 Dwarves and princesses, all mountain). Walked on every one except Philharmagic... Just timed it bad... and Pan (10 min right at the end). Had great spot by Casey's for the fireworks and outside Liberty Tree for late parade then hit the final Hocus Pocus show and stood nearly front with very small crowds.

We did not do any of the unique characters as our kids were just uninterested. I honestly think this is where the crowds and stress comes from. I totally understand why people want to get to these, but that's where all the lines were. Just wanted to let those of you reading up on this know our experience.

Oh, and the candy. Hit every spot (some a few times). I jokingly told DW I wanted to get one-ticket price worth of candy... We tried our best:View attachment 129854

Woahhh you guys cleaned up!! Good work.

 

[jhaig]

So what is everyone's take on the crowds for this year's parties in general? Has it been extra busy and has it been busy enough to prevent you from wanting to attend another hard ticket event like MNSSHP?

 

[Luvscrappin]

We will be at the party on 10/27..can't wait! This will be our second MNSSHP and we loved the first one! Hope our friends we are attending with love it as much as we did!