MNSSHP - Actually Worth It?

[jloucks]

We did it a few years ago, no regrets. Worth every penny and would do again.

When we attended, while the park was not jammed packed, it was far from empty. For perspective, when the parade started, there were zero front row spots to watch the parade. To get ours, we had to plop down about 15 minutes early.

 

[thomas998]

For our family it is a yearly tradition to do a Disney Halloween party at one of the parks... but the prices have gone up over the years and the number of tickets they seem to sell also appears to have increased. 10 year ago a sold out event still wasn't terrible crowd wise... this past year we did a non-sold out party and it was more crowded that previous sold out parties, so don't expect it to be a low crowd event unless you go to one of the earlier ones and get lucky. In years past ride were almost always a walk on but last year I don't think I recall any walk on rides and rides like the mine train were still over an hour wait... So much for a low crowd event.

Give the high price now, we no longer go to the parks prior the party on the day of the event, they let you in at 4 pm so why waste a normal ticket for the first half of the day... just relax at the pool and sleep late that day.

Frankly I would suggest you pull up a youtube video of the halloween parade, the fireworks and the event show. They haven't really changed much over the past couple of years and I doubt they will be any different this year either. If you like them then by all means go see them for real as they are better live than on youtube... but if you don't think they seem your cup of tea then skip the event. If you want a more adult Halloween experience you might try Universal's Halloween Horror Nights it might is clearly targeted to older folks.

As one poster mentioned skipping the candy stations, I would probably agree with that as well... It takes precious time you could use doing other things.

You don't have to wear a costume, and if you do just wear a cool one because the heat will punish you if you wear anything hot.

In fact the more I think about it the more I'm inclined not to recommend it... If it weren't a tradition for our family and last year was the first time we had done it I wouldn't be going back to see it again because it really wasn't that special. The reality is you'll get the Halloween decorations whether you are there for the party or not, the best part of it the whole event is the parade, and it has kind of declined over the years. grave diggers used to generate a lot of sparks with their shovels but it is beginning to look like they never replace the shovels because they seem to have fewer and fewer sparks each year... So honestly, check out the youtube videos if you really think what you see is great then do it otherwise skip it and save your money.

 

[James J]

I'll be there for the last week and a bit of October, and we're going to get tickets for it. We've never been to any of the special events before so we're pretty excited to see what this is like.

 

[thomas998]

I'll be there for the last week and a bit of October, and we're going to get tickets for it. We've never been to any of the special events before so we're pretty excited to see what this is like.

To minimize the crowds shoot for a Sunday or Tuesday as they tend to be the least crowded days. Fridays are usually the most crowded with the exception of October 31 which will certainly be sold out and very crowded.

 

[James J]

To minimize the crowds shoot for a Sunday or Tuesday as they tend to be the least crowded days. Fridays are usually the most crowded with the exception of October 31 which will certainly be sold out and very crowded.

Good to know, thanks! Tuesday 23rd looks like being an MK day on our tentative plan so we'll likely aim to do the party that night too in that case.

 

[crawale]

Hey there!

Is MNSSHP actually worth an extra $100 or so just to stay in the park past 6pm? We're an adults-only party and the extra activities seem pretty focussed on kids, we're also from the UK so Halloween isn't something we usually celebrate.

We've never been in October before and I'm interested in experiencing this new aspect of WDW that we've never done before, but....$100 each?

The Park will be so crowded you will barely be able to move. Tickets seem to be sold to max capacity. We went last year with a 6 and 5 year old and they were miserable. Definitely not worth it.

 

[Kristamouse]

I will be sore Thumb and say not really. For
Me it is about value, we went for years and saw the tickets prices rise with no additions. At one time the ticket prices were like $45.00 or so bucks, that was worth it! We did NOT use a park day ticket, swam and napped and showed up at MK at 4:00 in costume. Also the crowds got so heavy as the years went by that the perk of shorter lines during MNSSHP was gone. The last year there was a pushing arguement over seating by LTT for the Boo to You Parade and it felt packed. Sure you get candy and see some cool things but at $100 per person, nope.
Will happily head to another park or just eat out in Orlando at a nice restaurant and go to bed early Ready for the next day

 

[Donal Duck]

The Park will be so crowded you will barely be able to move. Tickets seem to be sold to max capacity. We went last year with a 6 and 5 year old and they were miserable. Definitely not worth it.

What day of the week did you go ?

 

[Nsaudra]

We love all the after hour events, there is limited tickets sold you really get to enjoy the park. There are no lines or really short lines for the rides I think it's worth it

 

[Whippet Mom]

Hey there!

Is MNSSHP actually worth an extra $100 or so just to stay in the park past 6pm? We're an adults-only party and the extra activities seem pretty focussed on kids, we're also from the UK so Halloween isn't something we usually celebrate.

We've never been in October before and I'm interested in experiencing this new aspect of WDW that we've never done before, but....$100 each?

We did it once, It was fun but would not spend the money to go again. Rather spend the extra on a backstage tour or even a trip over to Sea World

 

[Tk0021]

It depends what you are looking to do. We went last year and we didn’t think it was worth it. It rained for a couple hours, but even without the rain we didn’t like it. it was packed. If you want to meet characters it is not the most efficient way to do so with the long lines, but if you want to ride rides it could be great. If you really want to go and you can I would recommend not going on a weekend.

 

[spock8113]

Done it three times and it is good, but it's getting more and more expensive to a point where I would seriously reconsider.
If you do go, the best viewing area in my opinion is in front of the castle on the Tomorrowland side.
The lighting is good and the view is good because the parade circles around in front making much better use of your
16:9 screen, and I was shooting 4:3 at the time

 

[danyoung56]

Now to choose a costume...

You can of course dress up as much as you want. But don't feel obligated to. There are many people (me included!) who don't like to dress up for Halloween, so you'll be in good company if you just go in your regular park storming clothes.

 

[crawale]

What day of the week did you go ?

It was mid week.

 

[thomas998]

I will be sore Thumb and say not really. For
Me it is about value, we went for years and saw the tickets prices rise with no additions. At one time the ticket prices were like $45.00 or so bucks, that was worth it! We did NOT use a park day ticket, swam and napped and showed up at MK at 4:00 in costume. Also the crowds got so heavy as the years went by that the perk of shorter lines during MNSSHP was gone. The last year there was a pushing arguement over seating by LTT for the Boo to You Parade and it felt packed. Sure you get candy and see some cool things but at $100 per person, nope.
Will happily head to another park or just eat out in Orlando at a nice restaurant and go to bed early Ready for the next day

Of course you can bring the net cost down a little bit if your willing to buy a bunch of party only pins and resell then on ebay. Last year I noticed a guy buying all the pen sets he could, he didn't look old enough to have that many kids so I asked him why he was buy so many. He said he was going to resell them. When I looked on ebay it became pretty clear that if you are willing to invest a bit of money into those overpriced pins you can make some money reselling them. Not a risk free plan, as I suspect you could get stuck with some... but the amount of money people are willing to pay for those pin sets when they sell out is still fairly high vs the actual cost.

 

[ELG13]

Thanks for all the replies!

We're going in late october so the crowds have the potential to be nightmarish but we're going to give it a chance anyway! Now to choose a costume...

We've gone in October and it was fine. It was a weekday though which is usually your best bet.