I went to the party on the 23rd-yep it was packed. But I was one of the dummies who camped out for fireworks for 3 hours-basically the sole reason I went to the party. But I did notice how packed it was moving from land to land after the fireworks. I stayed until midnight taking pictures and there were a good amount of people still in the parks when I left huddled on MS. I got stuck over by ROA when the Cadaver Dans came out at 10 between those crowds and the immense treat lines over there. But I was able to make my way back over to IASM to see the second parade.
I was hoping to only have to sit in a spot for about 2 hours for fireworks, just casually casing the area in front of the castle, hoping no one would put any blankets down too early, no such luck. A huge party of about 8 adults and 10 kids plopped down 4 blankets before I could even blink. Fortunately, they were very nice and let me squeeze in amongst them so I could set up to take pictures unobstructed. It was probably a good hour before anyone else sat behind them, so I think might have been an anomaly on how early peeps camp out-maybe. They had a good game plan and a ton of snacks, some would stay while others took the kids to the treat lines, I even held down their fort for a while when most of them decided to go get some ice cream right before the parade. All very cordial, I was actually surprised that no one tried to slip into a spot last minute up front. Those that did fill in behind them gave everyone plenty of space.
Friday the 26th was brutal at DCA when the party started at DL. I met my DD for dinner at Lamplight, we actually got a table upstairs in like 20 minutes to my surprise. They were busy though, we got our food before our drinks. The potato skins are legit as was the crab and tuna roll. At 7 pm, 90 minute standby for Indiecoaster and 140 for Guardians, yikes. And, wait for it, 45 minutes for Ariel. We walked around checking out the decorations, got a pumpkin churro, not that great, then headed over to the Grand to hit DTD around 9.
I'm curious, can you explain what do you mean by "they crowd controlled" you right into Frontierland?
I’m going to guess they roped off the area with the crossing by Tomorrowland and forced people to cross the hub. They were kind of doing this at the party I went to on the 26th but all we had to do was wait in that walkway 30 seconds after the parade passed and we were able to go under the rope and claim spots for fireworks.
Yes, we've found that for watching fireworks in front of the castle, it's best to watch the parade from near that area, too. The castle and Hub area fills so quickly after the parade, you really have to jump right in to get your spots before CMs cut off access up front.
My suggestion or at least what we did was to make sure we were in Tomorrowland before the parade started and we walked over to the cross point right as the parade was finishing passing and that allowed us to get spots right behind the rope of the crossing that is at that point in the hub. We then watched the second parade from town square with a curb spot we sat down at about 5 minutes before the Headless Horseman did his walk up Main Street. I also went to a Friday night party which I think that hour shift in time helps immensely with crowds etc.
Interesting. I didn't follow the parade this year, but in the previous year they allowed guests to follow the parade all the way from the Alice bathrooms area, past the castle, and down to Main Street without being forced to head to Frontierland.
That's because they didn't do a full on "parade" until a couple years ago. They referred to it as a "cavalcade" previously. The only year we went for Halloween was 2015 and they ran PTN during the party. I would have preferred a full on Halloween parade for sure!
Halloween merchandise goes on sale when Halloween Time starts, which this year was on Sept. 7th. Every year the pickings are slim by the time Oct. 31st rolls around. By that time, the holiday merchandise has been for sale for almost two months. That is why we tell posters in this thread to get what they want early, instead of waiting -- the chances that what they want will still be around by Halloween aren't great. Some things may still be around, but the size range won't be good or the color choices won't be great. Holiday Time starts the week after Halloween. The Halloween merchandise needs to be gone and the Christmas merchandise needs to be filing the shelves!
