Experiencing Special Events Solo?

BlueSeashell

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 24, 2019
Have any of you ever been to one of the hard ticketed evening events (After Hours, Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas) by yourself? I am currently planning my first solo trip, and I'm not sure if the cost for the special events is worth it. If you have gone alone to one of the special events:

What did you like or not like about it?
How did the experience compare to going solo to the park during the normal day hours?
Do you have any advice or tips for getting the most out of the experience?

Thank you!
 
I have never done this, but I would definitely do a DAK AH event by myself. I picture riding FoP like 10x in a row and finishing up with several go-rounds on NRJ, then staring at the Tree of Life until they kick me out of the park.
 
Haven't done the events solo, but went to the Halloween party once with 2 in tow, once with just my young daughter, and MK after hours once with my husband.

The MK after hours was the least crowded experience, and we got on many rides quickly, repeatedly and it was just so much fun feeling like a kid in the park practically empty.
 
I haven't done one alone yet, but I am going next month solo and have a ticket to the Christmas party. I don't really care about the special party stuff (parade, snow, characters etc...) but it will be such a short trip that I NEED the extra MK time! I am just going to enjoy hopefully low ride wait times, the fireworks and all my normal MK stuff.
 


I've done the After Hours, DVC and Mickey's Not-So-Scary events by myself several times each. Now I love the Halloween season and making my own costumes but I discovered that the Halloween event wasn't for me (I don't really like candy but I did enjoy the parade and characters). I enjoy it better just going to the parks during the Halloween season dressed up which is fine for me. I do prefer the After Hours events especially the special characters and at least to me the crowds seems to have less people than your normal park visit. The best tip I can provide is that usually these special events allow Annual Pass holders to get their wristbands early if they are in the parks so you don't have to line up outside with the masses. Good luck.
 
I attended MK Early Morning Magic and AK After Hours solo in May. Both on the same day, actually, with a nap and an Epcot Garden Rocks dining package w/6:45pm concert sandwiched in between. My trip was only 3 nights/2.5 days so the special events helped maximize my park time.

Things I liked:

- Short waits, experienced lots of top-tier rides in a short time. At MK I did most rides in old Fantasyland except IASW, plus 7DMT four times, then knocked off a a few attractions at rope drop before breakfast, with three fastpasses after. By noon I was able to make same-day fastpasses, which is pretty easy when you are solo. At AK, I was able to do ITTBAB, Everest, Dinosaur, Navi River x 2 and FOP x 2 in two hours, including spending a fair bit of time wandering around enjoying the atmosphere.

- I didn’t feel uncomfortable being there solo - I was too busy enjoying rides to think much about it. :) Other people were also too busy enjoying themselves to notice me. If anything, this was even better than during regular hours.

- Pandora at night, was able to wander without crowds to my hearts content. :love:

Things I didn’t like:

- The wait for the bus after AH. By bad luck, I waited an hour which was a long time to be by myself with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

- The breakfast at Cosmic Ray‘s was fairly awful, but at least it filled my belly. And there was coffee.

- Can’t think of anything else, lol.

Tips:

- Don’t skip the afternoon nap. All that running around will wear you out!

- Do whatever you feel like, as many times as you want, and enjoy it! :thumbsup2
 
I attended MNSSHP solo and will do a DAH at MK or DHS if offered during my next solo trip.

There was nothing I didn’t like. I wore a special Disney trick or treat t-shirt, had my picture taken with some characters, trick or treated for the first time since I was a kid, rode several rides, watched the fireworks, and enjoyed the parade.

My only tip isn’t specific to solo travelers, but I suggest researching what experiences will be available during the event and planning accordingly.
 


I went to the Halloween party solo on the 1st. It was much easier to navigate good spots for all the special entertainment. Otherwise I didn’t think much was different from going with friends.

I will say I also went to Horror Nights by myself and there were tons of people doing that solo. It was super easy to talk and make friends with people.
 
Have any of you ever been to one of the hard ticketed evening events (After Hours, Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas) by yourself? I am currently planning my first solo trip, and I'm not sure if the cost for the special events is worth it. If you have gone alone to one of the special events:

What did you like or not like about it?
How did the experience compare to going solo to the park during the normal day hours?
Do you have any advice or tips for getting the most out of the experience?

Thank you!
I've done several events solo, including MNSSHP, and I loved them all. The Halloween party was amazing solo, I could decide at a moments notice what I wanted to do, change my plans based on how crowds were in certain areas, just really move easier throughout the party. It's a lot easier to move in crowds alone in an event with crowds, and I got a ton of stuff done (and it was easy to find a front row spot for the second parade on main street). Now, I wasn't a huge fan of AK after hours, that wasn't really my thing, it's super dark and everything is so spread out that's open that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, but that's the only time I really didn't enjoy myself as much as I hoped to and it still didn't ruin going to events solo for me. I also love the EMM ticketed events alone, I can get a ton done in that time and they're just a lot of fun solo. I just really enjoy going to them, especially the parties, solo because I don't have to do stuff I don't want to do (I don't care if I see the stage shows) so it really helps me focus in on just doing what I want to do rather than tailoring my experience to what others I'm with want to do. The skies the limit, just do what interests you, don't worry about what others are aiming to do just because it's the "it" thing to do, if you don't want to you don't have to.
 
I went to MNSSHP in 2017 solo and it was lots of fun. If I wanted to trick-or-treat, I did that. If I wanted to sit on a curb and stake out a good spot for the evening show, even though it was really early, I could do that. I would definitely recommend doing it if you’re interested, don’t worry about being solo.
 
Have any of you ever been to one of the hard ticketed evening events (After Hours, Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas) by yourself? I am currently planning my first solo trip, and I'm not sure if the cost for the special events is worth it. If you have gone alone to one of the special events:

What did you like or not like about it?
How did the experience compare to going solo to the park during the normal day hours?
Do you have any advice or tips for getting the most out of the experience?

Thank you!

I did Villains AH solo in August and loved it. I don’t see it being any different than anything else solo tbh.
 
I've done MNSSHP solo and I've got a reservation to do AK AH solo on my upcoming trip.

For the Halloween party --
--I liked that I could move quickly and do whatever I liked with the time--the party flies by really fast. I also liked that it was such a friendly, festive atmosphere; both times I've gone (one solo and one with another adult) I got tons of compliments on my costume. I really like the Halloween party-specific entertainment (best parade) and I felt like there was tons to keep me busy throughout the entire evening.
--What I like less about the parties is that anymore they sell so many tickets that the lines for rides are pretty long and will eat up party time. If you go to a party, it's best if you go in expecting to take advantage of the party-specific offerings; don't expect the regular attractions to be walk-ons.
--Compared to going solo during a regular park day, I found it to be an environment where other guests acknowledged me more frequently, but in positive ways (see compliments on costume, above). I also found it to be more hectic since there's so much to do in a limited time.
 
Thank you everyone for the replies! It sounds like going solo to a party or AH has a lot of benefits! Now I'm actually considering doing primarily evening events during my trip. I'm a night owl anyway, and I could spend the days checking out some of the cool resorts or Disney Springs. I wish they offered discounts on these tickets the way they do for multi-day tickets!


The wait for the bus after AH. By bad luck, I waited an hour which was a long time to be by myself with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

Thank you for bringing this up, because I hadn't even thought about travel afterwards, late at night! Was the wait because of long lines or because the buses were running less often?

I picture riding FoP like 10x in a row and finishing up with several go-rounds on NRJ, then staring at the Tree of Life until they kick me out of the park.
At AK, I was able to do ITTBAB, Everest, Dinosaur, Navi River x 2 and FOP x 2 in two hours, including spending a fair bit of time wandering around enjoying the atmosphere.

That sounds perfect! Last time I was at AK the line for FoP never dropped below a 3hr wait.

It was much easier to navigate good spots for all the special entertainment.
It's a lot easier to move in crowds alone in an event with crowds, and I got a ton of stuff done (and it was easy to find a front row spot for the second parade on main street).

Good point!

Now, I wasn't a huge fan of AK after hours, that wasn't really my thing, it's super dark and everything is so spread out that's open that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, but that's the only time I really didn't enjoy myself as much as I hoped to and it still didn't ruin going to events solo for me.

Is there anything you wish you would have done that might make it more fun? I can picture what you're saying because it looks like the rides that are open are spread out around the park with lots of closed shows/attractions in between. Did you end up going back and forth a lot?

What I like less about the parties is that anymore they sell so many tickets that the lines for rides are pretty long and will eat up party time. If you go to a party, it's best if you go in expecting to take advantage of the party-specific offerings; don't expect the regular attractions to be walk-ons.
That's a good point. I might consider doing both a party and another day at MK for rides. I'd be interested in hearing after your upcoming trip about how ride availability compares between AK AH and MNSSHP.
 
Thank you for bringing this up, because I hadn't even thought about travel afterwards, late at night! Was the wait because of long lines or because the buses were running less often?

The buses were not running as frequently as during regular hours, and I had the extremely bad luck just missing a bus to my resort (GF). I could see it pulling out of the stop as I was walking around the turn, but I was still too far away to run for it. So I knew I was in for a wait! That was around 11:00 pm, and AH lasted until 12:00. There weren’t many people at the bus stops, but it felt safe enough because there was a CM close by monitoring the lines. I probably could have said something to him, but since it was just me waiting at the MK resorts stop for at least half the time, I didn’t want to trouble him. The line started filling up closer to the end of AH, and that’s when the bus came. Good news is that I was first one on, lol!
 
Is there anything you wish you would have done that might make it more fun? I can picture what you're saying because it looks like the rides that are open are spread out around the park with lots of closed shows/attractions in between. Did you end up going back and forth a lot?
I actually stayed in pandora and rode those rides for a while, but since I had already been on FOP many times before at that point it lost its luster after about an hour (I still love it, but after about 3 times on the ride I was ready for something else, and I'm not the biggest Navi river fan, once is enough). The walk to Everest was not fun for me at all, I only saw two other people the whole way over there and one of them kept trying to scare me, they were big college age-ish guys and I wasn't appreciative. When you're a female alone in a pretty dark park that's just not fun, but even if it weren't for them I still wouldn't have liked it that much just because it's so spread out and dark, I felt like I wasted half my time walking. At the end I just realized there wasn't enough there for me personally to justify doing it again, I'm not sure anything besides having more attractions would fix that.
 
I am glad to see your post. I am traveling solo November 2019 and considering MVMCP. I booked my trip last minute, so I am staying in a hotel off site, so I'm not sure about getting around. Would it be doable to do MVMCP and then uber back to my hotel?
 
I am glad to see your post. I am traveling solo November 2019 and considering MVMCP. I booked my trip last minute, so I am staying in a hotel off site, so I'm not sure about getting around. Would it be doable to do MVMCP and then uber back to my hotel?

You can take an Uber or Lyft but not from MK directly. You will either need to take the monorail or ferry over to the Transportaiton & Ticket Center (i.e. parking lot) or walk over to the Contemporary and catch your ride from there. I'd probably recommend the latter as it will avoid some traffic.
 
You can take an Uber or Lyft but not from MK directly. You will either need to take the monorail or ferry over to the Transportaiton & Ticket Center (i.e. parking lot) or walk over to the Contemporary and catch your ride from there. I'd probably recommend the latter as it will avoid some traffic.
Thanks BrianL! I purchased my ticket for MVMCP!!!!
 

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