FWIW last year we planned a somewhat last minute trip for the second to last party (found an awesome deal staying in one of the good neighbor hotels and we were getting the Disney itch). It was our first party ever and we loved every minute of it. Even though it was a sold out party we thought the crowds were very manageable. We got in a little after 4 and had FP's for Big Thunder, Splash, and Jingle Cruise (probably could have done without JC). The time between when party guests could arrive and day guests could leave was a little hectic, but since we had FP's for that time it really wasn't bad to us. After our last FP we had about 15 minutes to the first stage show and managed to find a spot relatively close to the right side of the stage. After the show was over we went to Dumbo (no line) got our first cookies by Pete's Silly Sideshow, then saw the line for Minnie and Daisy only had 5 families in it and they were set to come out in 15 minutes so we waited for them while eating our cookies. I think the longest lines we stood in all night were for the princesses and they were about 20-25 minutes. We were heading to the pin shop in Fronteirland and stumbled onto the first parade starting. We were planning on watching the 2nd parade, but found a spot behind some people sitting so we decided to watch the first. Towards the end of the night we visited Belle and Ariel and Eric with no wait then rode Little Mermaid before the park closed. We went in with a plan of the things we wanted to do, but since we have little ones (son was 5 and daughter was 2 at the time) and our first party we played it by ear. We had such a great time that we decided to make it a yearly tradition. We're going again this year, 2nd to last party. We're DVC members now so it will be interesting seeing how the 2pm entry will play out, but I'm sure we'll still enjoy it just as much.