MNSSHP or not to MNSSHP

[Guest]

Originally Posted by mummyroo1

We were planning on this this year as our Disney fix in a Universal only trip but the descriptions of crowd levels have me nervous. We have older children who love rides but the younger one still wants to meet the main Disney characters (Mickey and co) in their Halloween costumes. Our trip will probably be the 2nd or 3rd of the weekday August dates. If we concentrate on the rides for the first couple of hours and then hit the characters and trick or treating after the fireworks would that fit with the lower crowds. Should we try to watch the parade twice? is it that good or skip the first one and just watch the second? What time are the fireworks and second parade?
Or would I be better spending our money on one day to HS, we haven't seen Galaxy edge as it opened just after we left last year. We are doing a Disney trip next year so wont be too long to wait but it wont be late August so this will probably be our only chance ever of the MNSSHP

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I was there on a Tuesday at beginning of September. Hitting the rides first was definitely not a strategy that worked. It was what I did as to be honest I was mainly interested in rides. The queues were enormous, I certainly did more queuing in those two hours than I have ever done previously.

For rides an After Hours event would be better, but obviously you need to weigh up the possibly contrasting wants of your party.

[Derbydave4]

If you have never been or more interested in parades and character meets then I would still go but if your going mainly for the rides then I think the after hours events are a much better option

[Louck]

Originally Posted by mrslfc

Was thinking about booking this for Aug this year but after reading these comments might have a rethink!

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Originally Posted by mummyroo1

We were planning on this this year as our Disney fix in a Universal only trip but the descriptions of crowd levels have me nervous. We have older children who love rides but the younger one still wants to meet the main Disney characters (Mickey and co) in their Halloween costumes. Our trip will probably be the 2nd or 3rd of the weekday August dates. If we concentrate on the rides for the first couple of hours and then hit the characters and trick or treating after the fireworks would that fit with the lower crowds. Should we try to watch the parade twice? is it that good or skip the first one and just watch the second? What time are the fireworks and second parade?
Or would I be better spending our money on one day to HS, we haven't seen Galaxy edge as it opened just after we left last year. We are doing a Disney trip next year so wont be too long to wait but it wont be late August so this will probably be our only chance ever of the MNSSHP

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Maybe I was lucky but the comments about crowd levels are nothing like my experience.

We went on 11th October which was a Tuesday(just checked!) and it wasn’t anywhere near that bad.
I queued for an hour to get a picture with all the dwarfs while the rest of the family went on rides. The longest they queued was 10 mins. They came back in time to join me for the picture then we all went on every ride that I had missed plus every ride we wanted to go on. We missed splash mountain as DS was too chicken to come on with me! I think that’s the only one we missed though.
We hit most of the Trick or treat stands only missing some as we had two full bags at cast member insistence.
We caught 5 mins of the hocus pocus parade as we walked by but we weren’t bothered about seeing that.
We got pictures with all characters that were there that night, watched the fireworks show, watched the parade and joined the monsters inc dance party.

I don’t think we missed anything.

I’ve also just looked back on our photos. We watched the fireworks show right in front of the castle. That was the only time I noticed how busy it was. I remember feeling annoyed by the family who came and stood right in front of us (kids on and off shoulders, the others hitting random guests with light up things and general disregard for anyone around them).
We stayed till the very end but mostly milling about and looking in the shops.
We had a great time. We weren’t rushing about and didn’t feel it was busy at all if you discount my fireworks experience.

I would recommend getting a better spot than we had for the fireworks and ubering to the resort rather than waiting for the buses but other than that I would recommend MNSSHP to anyone.

We are going again this year. DS will be 12 by then and is already going on about it.
This year we aren’t bothered about the dwarf picture and DS is a little older so we will watch the parade and the fireworks show, see the characters and go on the rides. If the crowd levels have jumped drastically since 2016 then we’ll prioritise the rides we most want to do but I think we’ll be fine.

Personally, I don’t think you should let anyone put you off any experience. Everyone will have a different opinion even if they were at the same event.
If it’s your last chance to do it, do it! 😊

[Goldcoast]

I also think it's pot luck which date you choose. I saw photos from a later date end of August or early September (we went to the 2nd party) and it looked empty 🤷🏼

I don't know if I'm just being over sensitive but I not sure how I would have felt with the rest of your family jumping in to join in your photo 🤔 probably because we experience at Doc McStuffins character meet whereby the one person in front of us suddenly had a group of 5 plus children and parents join them who each had their own cameras which they all had to take photos in an ever increasing number of combinations. 🤐

[Louck]

Originally Posted by Goldcoast

I also think it's pot luck which date you choose. I saw photos from a later date end of August or early September (we went to the 2nd party) and it looked empty 🤷🏼

I don't know if I'm just being over sensitive but I not sure how I would have felt with the rest of your family jumping in to join in your photo 🤔 probably because we experience at Doc McStuffins character meet whereby the one person in front of us suddenly had a group of 5 plus children and parents join them who each had their own cameras which they all had to take photos in an ever increasing number of combinations. 🤐

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I agree re the photo, thankfully everyone around us was lovely, We were talking throughout the wait. DS was very restless and couldn’t/wouldn’t wait so my mum took him around the park. They were back and forth throughout the hour wait so was clear there were three of us.

[Gill H]

For MVMCP we always do the second parade. After the fireworks the park really empties so we prefer the second parade and later shows.