I attended MNSSHP Sunday Sept 25. I'll share what we got done and my overall impressions and any tips in case that helps anyone else out.
We arrived at the MK around 3:30 and entered with our AP. The line at the party tap styles was very long and in direct heat. Once we entered we got in line for wristbands at the Chamber of Commerce. There were maybe 20 people ahead of us.
I attended with two others and we were all dressed in a group costume as Loki variants. I had a mishap with my Loki horns and ran next door to guest services to see what could be done. A lot of scotch tape and some staples later, we were hoping the band on my Loki horns would hold up, and surprisingly it held strong for the rest of the night.
Wristbands were handed out promptly at 4. Once we got ours we rushed over to the line for Jack and Sally, it was already very long and stretched out into the street. I am still unsure how that many people got ahead of us, as there weren't near that many ahead of us at Chamber of Commerce. I think the tap styles must have opened a bit early. We were soon funneled inside and settled down to wait. The line looked a lot longer than it was because people were still lined up in the same space to meet Mickey as day guests. The Jack and Sally line stretches down 3 long switch backs and the rest of the lines were for Mickey.
Jack and Sally started to meet at promptly 4:31. We had about an hour wait and we met them at 5:35. I didn't mine the hour wait, we were indoors in the air conditioning, we could sit for part of the wait and this was all bonus time as the party hadn't even started. Jack and Sally were excellent to meet, as usual. They are very chatty and fun.
They did not hand out candy bags or maps at the Chamber of Commerce, so our next stop was the bypass. They had bags for us there and maps, though we didn't take a map. As the Universal Studios AP commercials say 'I am the map'.
There were statues of the fab five in Halloween costumes that you could take pictures with. There were also some banners for MNSSHP if you wanted a pictures with those. We also got handed a pre-party half size Snickers bar.
Next stop for us was a Donald candy corn sipper at Sleepy Hollow refreshments. It was still not available to mobile order as of yesterday. We got to watch the fab five cavalcade go by as we waited.
It was around 6 at this time and we all got a corn dog so that we wouldn't waste valuable party time eating. This MNSSHP was a bit different than my usual party style. Usually I am all about the character meets and have very detailed and precise plans about which characters to meet and when. But this party didn't have any new characters, and not a lot that I hadn't met numerous times or that weren't available to meet any day. So I was a lot more relaxed than I typically am at these parties.
We were done eating around 6:30 and it started to sprinkle a bit. The weather radar had a bit of rain headed for us so we quickly ducked into IASW to wait out the rain. It was about a 5 minute wait and the rain was pretty much done when we were finished with the ride, so great timing!
It was about 5 minutes before party start. I wanted to check out Belle and Gaston's line but the Gaston's tavern area was empty. We checked out Belle's cottage and realized they were meeting there. We were second in line but were told Gaston wasn't available for that party, so I wonder if a lot of people who may have lined up ahead of us had bailed. Otherwise not sure how we were second in line right at party start. We decided to stay and had a nice meet with Belle.
We walked by and checked our Eric and Ariel's line but it was looking a bit long so we moved on. Our friend isn't as character obsessed as we are so we weren't planning to do any super long waits.
We checked out Space but the line was out the door so we skipped it for the moment and walked onto People mover. I always like to do the People mover during parties, it's a great way to check out costumes and watch the dance party. We also discovered the dramatic, creepy music and pitch darkness of Space, so we were determined to do that later.
We wanted to head to POTC, but on the way stopped at the old Stitch attraction and did the photo op inside. There was no wait and it was a CM taking pictures with your phone of a Mr Toad and Monsters Inc backdrop.
Got in line for POTC around 8, it was listed as a 25 minute wait but took more like 15. I don't think there would be much of a wait at all but the line gets backed up as people interact with the pirates in the queue. We saw two in the queue, and then two later in the bridge on the ride itself. They were pretty cool and amusing.
After POTC, one of our group headed to Starbucks (it was empty at this time of night) and the other 2 went and got our parade spot. We were very close to the start of the route across from Pecos Bill's. We got our spot at about 8:20. Not many people were waiting at that point, but it filled up rapidly around 8:30 for the 9:15 parade.
Headless Horseman stepped off at 9:09 and the parade started promptly. I think these were good seats, we were able to see everything as it started and we only had one row of people behind us. We sat while waiting for the parade and then stood, once standing there was space for the family behind us to also be in the front.
When the parade ended we bolted for Adventureland. The plan was to beat the parade to the front of the park and slip into Town Hall to meet Mickey with hopefully no wait. We walk pretty fast, but I was pretty astonished to see the parade already at the hub. I think it's because it's such a long parade. We ended up narrowly missing the beginning, so we were held at the rope across from guest services. Which was actually ok, we had front row spots to watch several of the floats again. They let us cross the road quickly after the pirate ship and we were able to get into town hall. We did end up having maybe a two minute wait for Mickey. Jack and Sally's line was also at the door to their area, so was prob down to 15-20 minutes. If anyone wants to meet Jack and Sally but can't/don't want to show up early, I think a valid strategy is to watch the parade next to Town Hall and duck inside as the last float is coming by.
It was now 9:50. I had hoped that if we saw the first parade, character lines would be much shorter during the second. That's why we decided to watch the first parade rather than the second, which can be much emptier and easier to find a spot to watch. We stopped at Starbucks for some waters and made the decision to head to Space to check the wait. Our friend was going to a second party later in the season so didn't care if we saw the fireworks, and to be honest I think Hallowishes was much better so I didn't mind missing these.
We got in line for Space and waited 10-15 minutes. It was pretty creepy with all the lights off, it was definitely an experience.
We did some trick or treating, and then saw a pretty short wait for the Tweedles. They did take their time with people, and we met them around 10:50. We then waited in a 10 minute line for Alice and the Mad Hatter.
I wanted to check character waits at Storybook Circus, and Goofy only had a few groups in line so we were meeting him by 11:12. We checked out the Dumbo circus tent where Donald, Daisy and Minnie were meeting and the line was very short. About a ten minute wait and we met all 3, they were meeting separately. They did a quick change out so that took a couple extra minutes.
We were out of there at 11:32 and got the two magic shots at the Circus area entrance with no wait. I think Eric and Ariel's line was capped at this time, so we did trick or treating and more magic shots with no wait. We then did two more magic shots near HM with a couple minute wait, and were walking into HM at 11:58. After that was finished we were able to walk up to the Hocus Pocus show and see the best part: I Put a Spell on You. After that we headed out. I feel it was a pretty successful night.
TIPS:
-candy: at the start of the party they were being very stingy. At the end they were shoving handfuls in your bags. We went through the Philharmagic spot (which was playing Sleepy Hollow again this year on their big screen) and the CMs filled our bags to the brim and tried to shove more in. People say this every year, but if you can make it to the end of the night there will be no waits and you'll get a ton of candy. I was pretty disappointed with the candy selection. We mostly got Snickers and I don't think anyone in our group particularly likes Snickers. If you do, you're going to have a great time.
-parade: The second parade my be emptier and easier to get a last minute spot, but we found that time during the second parade to be very valuable for short character waits. So if characters are important you may want to watch the first parade and meet characters during the second.
-stay hydrated. We had a relatively cool night, but dressing in a heavy coat, heavy cloak and chest piece armor, and a 3 piece suit maybe wasn't the best idea in FL in Sept. I think I may have actually had some heat exhaustions symptoms as we headed back to the car. I started to have a headache and felt nausea. If you start to get overheated take a break in Monster's Inc, they run the show continuously throughout the night and the only wait is the candy line wait to get in. Philharmagic also continuously plays Legend of Sleepy Hollow inside.
-costumes: let's face it, it's just more fun to attend these parties in costume. The CMs love it, other guests love it and so do the characters.
Anyone have any questions I might be able to help with? Going to end the post with some pics.
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