Is the Halloween party worth it?

[Disneylover99]

Can't emphasize this point enough. Buy your kids some candy beforehand, point to the extremely long trick or treat lines, and go hop on rides instead. Halloween is our favorite time to be at Disney. The Halloween party used to be an excellent deal as you could find some days where the crowds were minimal. With price increases and more tickets being sold, it's not as great a value as it used to be. But, every Disney fan should do it at least once.

Everyone goes to the party for different reasons. Some of us go for the fun of trick or treating. Rides are the lowest priority for us. I can’t imagine telling people not to go on rides because we don’t do it.

Besides, the trick or treat lines are some of the fastest moving lines in DW.

 

[Pizzaman12]

Totally disagree…even lines that were VERY long moved VERY quickly. DH and I would even go through some lines twice, once to the left, once to the right, etc and were through in a matter of minutes.

I'm glad they moved quickly for you. That just wasn't our experience. The time during the party goes by quickly. Given the price for tickets, we've found our kids would rather be on rides, meeting characters they don't normally see or watching the parade.

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

I've been to the party several times and never found trick or treating to be a time killer. The lines go really fast, we would just do the ones we happen to walk by. That being said, when we went in 2016 it was really hot! After we did all that trick or treating I realized that all of our candy would melt in the car while we were at the park on the day we were flying out. So I left it at the condo as a treat for the cleaning people. Last year it was much cooler when I went and I was able to get the candy back. We aren't huge candy people but it's still fun.

 

[Pizzaman12]

Everyone goes to the party for different reasons. Some of us go for the fun of trick or treating. Rides are the lowest priority for us. I can’t imagine telling people not to go on rides because we don’t do it.

Besides, the trick or treat lines are some of the fastest moving lines in DW.

As you say, everyone has their own priorities. The OP asked for opinions on the Halloween party. We've been a handful of times and struggled with the amount of time spent waiting in trick or treat lines. We didn't go last year, so maybe this has changed. All previous years the lines were very long for us. I just don't see the value in spending hundreds of dollars for a special event and spending that time in long lines for candy. While we can get candy at home, we can't ride Seven Dwarfs or visit with Jack Skellington.

I respect that rides are the lowest priority for you. But, if none of us are going to offer our opinions other than to say "yes" or "no" to the OP's original question, we're not being much help in giving them an idea of how we viewed the event, right?

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I’m also in the crowd that trick or treating breezes by pretty quickly IMO.

The fireworks and Sanderson show is a must see if you’ve never seen it before before.

 

[verleniahall]

Dh and I pick a rare or hard to meet character, and we head to that area/line as soon as we are let in. We take turns using the bathroom, or whatnot, but we also don’t mind the wait.

 

[Pizzaman12]

Dh and I pick a rare or hard to meet character, and we head to that area/line as soon as we are let in. We take turns using the bathroom, or whatnot, but we also don’t mind the wait.

We learned this pretty quickly for Jack Skellington!

 

[Disneylover99]

As you say, everyone has their own priorities. The OP asked for opinions on the Halloween party. We've been a handful of times and struggled with the amount of time spent waiting in trick or treat lines. We didn't go last year, so maybe this has changed. All previous years the lines were very long for us. I just don't see the value in spending hundreds of dollars for a special event and spending that time in long lines for candy. While we can get candy at home, we can't ride Seven Dwarfs or visit with Jack Skellington.

I respect that rides are the lowest priority for you. But, if none of us are going to offer our opinions other than to say "yes" or "no" to the OP's original question, we're not being much help in giving them an idea of how we viewed the event, right?

I definitely think that everyone should offer their opinion. But when someone states, “Do NOT trick or treat” to a first timer, it doesn’t strike me as offering an opinion.

 

[Pizzaman12]

I definitely think that everyone should offer their opinion. But when someone states, “Do NOT trick or treat” to a first timer, it doesn’t strike me as offering an opinion.

Well, that is my opinion. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Certainly respect your opinion that you don't attend for the rides.

 

[StacyStrong]

Y'all find the weirdest things to argue about lol I swear

 

[Pizzaman12]

Y'all find the weirdest things to argue about lol I swear

Chuckle, it's Disney. So, they're really nice, respectful arguments.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

Ah.

Prob the busiest day. Makes sense.

Yep. Although my understanding is that the lines for the most in-demand characters are long at all times at all parties (but I've only been to one so just based on stuff I've read).

 

[buzzrelly]

Chuckle, it's Disney. So, they're really nice, respectful arguments.

And it's about candy, so I don't think anyone here is really arguing…we just ALL like to express our differing opinions

 

[DisneyFive]

We were looking for something new to do, and we're very glad we tried MNSSHP back in 2013. The parade is fantastic. The stage show is cool. The fireworks are amazing. We could care less about the candy or character meet and greets. The environment is fun.

I recommend to try it once. You'll never know unless you give it a shot.

Dan

 

[MacMama0930]

I haven’t done MNSSHP but I’ve done Disneyland’s Halloween Party the last 3 years and WILL be doing MNSSHP this year! I love the Halloween Party here in CA! And I believe they’re somewhat similar. The fireworks are incredible! And my kids loved trick or treating! The whole atmosphere of the park changes and it’s really cool. I’m even more excited about attending the MNSSHP this year because my kids always poop out super early at ours and we’ll have a 3 hour difference on our side this time! So I’m hoping my kids last longer.

“Worth it” is always so subjective. For me, I don’t tend to go into anything with high expectations. Some people put so much pressure on special events that they can never live up to the idea of what it should be in their head. I’m always pleasantly surprised.

There’s also disposable income/ available funds. Everyone’s dollar is worth something else to them. So if someone stretches their dollar to afford it, they’re more likely to have higher expectations and possible disappointment. If the $400 is merely chump change to someone, even if most of the party was a bust, they’d still likely come out of it thinking it was fun and “worth it”. See what I mean?

Ok, enough with all that rambling.

 

[EdmondD]

We went November 1 in 2017, our first time, and we loved it. Our son was 7.

Because you enter at 4, you can kind of consider it a substituted park day, which makes the ticket price slightly easier to swallow.

I would have a few goals - ours was to meet the two Jacks: Skellington (with Sally) and Sparrow. We went straight to the Jack/Sally line and the total wait time was probably close to two hours. Crazy, right? The longest I think I've waited for anything at WDW. But it was a GREAT interaction. Captain Jack was also amazing! These were experiences that, to me, are hard to quantify with either dollars or wait times.

Those two meets did, I must say, take up a lot of our time there. We missed on meeting the Seven Dwarfs and some other characters. We did not ride many rides, but did make it on HM and...maybe Mine Train? Don't recall exactly.

Many people love to trick-or-treat at this event and you may also want to trick-or-treat. These opinions are completely valid. However, when I've paid $300+ dollars for the evening for the three of us and rare characters and rides with minimal waits are to be had - and I can literally buy a giant bag of skittles or tootsie pops for like, $4 - I personally would not spend time trick-or-treating unless it's basically a walk-up-get-the-candy-and-walk-away thing.

The parade was really great! Again, because of time invested in other things we missed the first parade and thus stayed for the later one. This was way too late to keep our son up (fun fact: for no apparent reason he woke up at 5:45am that very morning - yay!) and was probably irresponsible of us. But I'm so glad we did it.

So yes, it's worth it.

 

[Skili9111]

I have taken my kids several times over the years, starting when they were quite small and now my DD is 22. We actually went to one of the first parties last August and I would say it was ok. It didn't rain, it POURED while we were there, but we are Floridians and it's not Disney's fault it rains so I'm not dinging them for that. The parade was pushed back but we did get to see it, and it is a really good one. Hocus pocus was cut short, but the fireworks did go on as scheduled. If you like fireworks, Hallowishes is amazing! Ride lines were long though; longer than I remembered them being in the past. It was disappointing but understandable since everyone wanted out of the rain. I guess I remember when we used to go-I know that the parties are more crowded now, but they have little to no decorations compared to what they had in the past. Will we go again? Probably not; I don't think it was a good value, but others might go for different activities than we did and it would be fine.
I will say that I went to Disneyland and DCA month later for Halloweentime and I was blown away by DCA. The Halloween décor and atmosphere was everywhere; I kept telling my husband " They did a million times better here for Halloween than WDW and its included in our park ticket!!" Cars Land was phenomenal, I was in awe. I don't know why WDW doesn't step up their game to match.

 

[twodogs]

I looked at the listing of open rides during the party, and BTMRR is not on the list. Is it closed during the party? I swear it was open this last year during MVMCP but I could be remembering that incorrectly.

Also we did DLR Halloween party last year. Jack and Sally were available to meet during the day, not just during the party. Is the same true at WDW?

 

[Wes1stTrip2016]

I looked at the listing of open rides during the party, and BTMRR is not on the list. Is it closed during the party? I swear it was open this last year during MVMCP but I could be remembering that incorrectly.

Also we did DLR Halloween party last hear. Jack and Sally were available to meet during the day, not just during the party. Is the same true at WDW?

I've emailed Disney and they have not confirmed that BTMRR is going to be in refurb BUT they also state it could be added to the list of events closer to the party. Please email them as well and state you would enjoy having it open at the party. More people that ask might increase the chance of them having it open.

 

[Delirium]

Do NOT trick or treat. Too time-consuming. Too chaotic, and there are so many more things to do at the party to spend your time on.

Since the presentation of this is causing some angst, let me go about it in a different way.

We personally found trick-or-treating to not be a good use of party time because:

• The lines were long. We would rather spend our time experiencing things we can't at home.
• Rude adults pushed my children out of the way more than once. If you thought lining up to watch the parade was bad....
• Babysitting the candy all night is not conducive to theme park touring. Who wants to worry about what will happen to the candy when you're riding Big Thunder?
• Kids want to eat candy they receive. Immediately. Crowds, hot costumes, theme park rides, and excessive candy are a recipe for something unpleasant.
• As a previous poster mentioned. Not only do you have to figure out what to do with the candy that night, you have to figure out what to do with it on departure day. We drive, but spend all day on our departure day in the park. Candy and a hot car do not mix.
• The party is a great time to ride rides while other guests focus on different things.
• The candy is generic. Face it, you're not getting full size Snickers bars from Disney.