We are back from our vacation, and though this is late, it still might be helpful to someone so I'll share how our party went. It was our first
MNSSHP, we were there on October 1, and it was a sold out party and you could tell.
This was my original plan:
3:30p - Arrive at MK
3:45-4:00p - Enter MK, head to Fire Station to collect SotMK card then walk down bypass for first trick or treating
4:00-4:30p - Head to our 'it's a small world' FP+ (FP time is 3:15-4:15)
4:30-5:15p - Big Thunder Mountain FP+ (FP time 4:20-5:20)
5:15-6:00p - Haunted Mansion FP+ (FP time 5:25-6:00)
6:00-6:45p - Find something to eat for dinner, probably at Pecos Bill's
7:00p - See the Cadaver Dans in Frontierland
7:20p - Get a party treat at Sleepy Hollow and carry to Hub to eat and get a spot for Hocus Pocus
7:40-8:10p - Hocus Pocus Show
8:30p - Be back in Frontierland to catch the Costume Promenade and start staking out a spot for the parade
9:10-9:40p - Headless Horseman and Boo To You Parade
9:40p - Stake out a fireworks spot in the Hub and take turns (2 or 3 at a time) going to ride Pirates or get treats
10:45p - Walk up to HM to see Carlotta & Renata
11:00p - 12:00a - Ride some rides and do some trick-or-treating
And this is how it panned out:
3:40 - Arrived at MK to a fairly long line waiting to get in. They held us inside bag check but before the tapstiles until after 4:00. I took a picture of my DD while we were stuck waiting and it's timestamped 4:02. That was a frustrating start, especially with the sun blasting down on us as we waited.
4:05-ish - finally made it inside the park and headed straight to the fire station for our SotMK cards. There was no line there. Then we headed over to the bypass and got a family photo. It was so hot we all promptly shed parts of our costumes after that! We got our trick-or-treat bags and first treats, and exited the bypass. We missed our first FP for small world and then Big Thunder was down so we didn't do that either.
4:40 - Since we had time to kill we took my daughter over to meet Ariel since she was dressed as Ursula. Waited about 15-20 minutes. Sorry, the party was so hectic for us and I was trying to take it all in so I didn't take notes, but I think my memory is in line with my photo time stamps! Ariel was super fun and awesome interacting with my DD as Ursula. One of our favorite M&Gs from the entire trip.
5:05 - After meeting Ariel we walked over to BTMR to see if it was back up, but it wasn't. We hung out in that area for a little bit waiting for our HM FP window to open up and we rode that. That was a great ride to kick off the party with, set the mood for all of us.
6:00 - 7:00 - Ate dinner at Pecos Bill's, just chilled out for a while. Waited for a family member who lives in Orlando to meet up with us. We took our time here, as we had a kind of frustrating start with not getting to do our first two rides and we could already tell it was going to be a very crowded evening. Note: We tried to mobile order for Pecos just after 6 and it wouldn't go through. We figured it was because you can't mobile order once the park is officially "closed"? Later we got a message that it DID go through, after we had already ordered and paid in the regular line. If this happens to anyone and you panic (just a little) like we did, if you just ignore it and never confirm the order Disney will cancel it automatically after a period of time.
7:05 - Walked up the street just a bit and watched the Cadaver Dans for a bit. They are even more hilarious as the Cadaver Dans and I'm so glad that we made this a priority, as the Dapper Dans are one of my favorite things to see at WDW. While they were performing we took turns going into the Mercantile to get some Party merch. My husband got the magic band and I got the Hocus Pocus pin set I wanted.
7:32 - We were in place to see the 7:40 Hocus Pocus show. We got a spot at the fence around the Partners statue, on the left side facing the Castle, and at the back of it. Having the fence in front of us was fantastic, thanks to everyone who gave us that tip here! I was able to let my daughter stand in front of me and support her so she could see without having to pick her up. Saved my back!! We had a great view too.
8:02 - The Hocus Pocus show ended exactly on time and we decided to take my DD to the Tea Cups as that's one of her favorites. It was a ridiculous wait (for the Tea Cups, anyway). We probably waited about 20-25 minutes, which isn't bad, but our last Party experience at
MVMCP had us riding the Tea Cups over and over with zero wait, so it was a bit of a shock! The lights and different music were cool to experience but probably not worth a 20-25 minute wait. I have a photo of us on the ride from 8:32 pm.
After the Tea Cups we decided to try to find a parade spot. It felt like we were just holding spots all night, which was not the funnest, but also the show, parade, and fireworks were our priorities, so it comes with the territory. We saw an open front row spot as we walked by in Liberty Square and zipped into it. After we sat there for about 10-15 minutes, we realized it was an open spot because we were in the disability section. We started to get up to move, fretting a bit about how much time we wasted and how we'd have trouble finding another spot now, and the nice ladies next to us told us to just sit back down and not worry about it. They were lovely and offered my daughter to sit in front of them so she could see the parade perfectly. My husband and I stayed back so as not to block anyone's view who was actually supposed to be there. It was a moment of Disney kindness that really relieved a lot of stress for us in that moment. Thank you, nice ladies!
After the parade we tried to get back to the Hub and the other half of my family, who had split off to ride Mine Train, but they were on the Tomorrowland side and there were so many people we simply couldn't get to them. We walked as far into the Hub as we could before we hit a wall of people and just stayed where we were to see the fireworks (we were roughly at 10 o'clock if the Hub were a clock and the Castle were 12, right on the trolley tracks). It was like sardines in there but we did have a great view of the projections and Jack. We had planned to tag team waiting here to go get treats but there was no way we could get out of our spot and in again. It was absolutely crammed. I hate to think what would happen if there were some kind of emergency with so many people crowded together.
After fireworks my extended family texted us that they were just going to leave. I saw no point in joining the mass exodus only to wait and wait for a bus back to AKL, so we headed to Pirates instead. We walked right on. My DD was a trooper, as she was falling asleep by this point. After Pirates we debated trying to do something else, as it seemed the park had cleared a lot, but we didn't want to get stuck in anther mass of people during/after the second parade, plus my daughter was definitely done for the night, so we decided to just head home. I have a photo of the train station from outside the park at 11:06 pm. The wait for the bus was short, thank goodness. We timed it well.
Overall, we did have a lot of fun, but we will not do another Party until reports start coming in that it is actually a limited ticket event again and not a "limited ticket event" like it seems to be lately. We didn't get a single special party treat because the lines were so long (although we weren't too bothered by this as we were stuffed from Pecos Bill's!). We only did one photopass photo. We did sprinkle in some trick-or-treating for my daughter as we passed by the treat trails but I didn't note the times of any of them so I didn't mention them above. None of them took overly long. We rode two rides, one of them with FP before the party even started. My husband and I just kept looking at each other and saying we had NEVER seen crowds like this in all of our years of going to Disney. Ever. We didn't know our party was sold out until later, but you really could tell. We did get to do most of our priorities; thankfully (thanks to this board!) we had a plan in place because otherwise we would have just be flummoxed by the crowds, I think.
If you are going to a sold out party, have a plan, make sure your priorities are few, and go with the flow and you'll still have a good time.